The FinTech Association of Nigeria (FintechNGR) has launched The Start-Up Marketplace, a platform designed to provide start-ups in the fintech ecosystem with free or heavily discounted services in funding, legal, infrastructure, cybersecurity, data privacy, business development, and a variety of other areas, to help them grow faster.
“The Start-Up Marketplace will aid in the development and deepening of Nigeria’s FinTech talent pool,” Ade Bajomo, President, FinTechNGR and Executive Director, Information Technology and Operations at Access Bank Plc, said at the association’s first conference of the year, dubbed “Fintech Outlook 2022.”
“The platform will also encourage research and development to elevate innovators and start-ups, foster a supportive regulatory environment to grow the industry, facilitate local investors’ participation in FinTech funding, and position local start-ups and innovators to build and develop durable and strategic intellectual properties,” says the company.
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According to Bajomo, the COVID-19 epidemic caused businesses around the world to have a difficult year. Despite this, he stated, start-ups in Africa’s most powerful countries have continued to flourish and demonstrate immense promise, becoming increasingly important in the new normal.
He explained that the rising investment in Fintech start-ups demonstrated how much the industry has piqued the interest of investors and Venture Capitalists, who saw the industry’s potential for growth and resilience.
Fintech Ecosystem In Africa
FinTechs dominated fundraising in Africa, according to him, accounting for about $3 billion of the roughly $5 billion raised by African digital start-ups in 2021. Nigerian start-ups raised $1.09 billion in the same year, accounting for 73.5 percent of the $1.37 billion raised by start-ups globally.
Daniel Awe, the Head of the Africa Fintech Foundry, recognized increased innovation as a key cause for the growing interest. “We’re already seeing FinTechs innovate in areas like greentech, digital insurance, blockchain, and financial inclusion, to name a few.” That said, we must continue to create strategic alliances with other ecosystem participants in order to develop game-changing innovative solutions and uncover new opportunities for growth, consumer pleasure, and improved business practices. The Foundry is contributing to this growth by launching businesses that can compete in a variety of industry verticals by offering new and enhanced digital products to end-users, allowing for the establishment of new markets.”
The virtual event also revealed trends and forecasts across FinTech verticals, including lending, payment, mobile money, banking, infrastructure, regulation, partnerships, skillsets, wealthtech, insurtech, cybersecurity, data privacy, open banking, decentralized finance, and other sectors.