Fintech is booming, despite a weak economy. Can that last?

THE BUZZ about fintech in Lagos, the commercial capital of Nigeria, is so loud that even those without access to the internet cannot miss it. Flashing billboards advertising Kuda, a digital bank, loom over traffic jams, and signs for Paga, a mobile-payments company, adorn thousands of corner shops. Investment has been flowing in, too. In March Flutterwave, a digital-payments firm, raised $170m, making it Africa’s latest unicorn (ie, a startup valued at more than $1bn). Interswitch, a payments processor, acquired its horn in 2019 when it sold a 20% stake to Visa, a credit-card company. Last October Stripe, the most valuable private fintech in the West, snapped up Paystack, a Nigerian digital-payments company, for $200m.Whereas the three big successes enable online payments, a crop of newer fintechs offers products direct to consumers. FairMoney, which provides instant loans, recently raised $42m in a round led by Tiger Global Management, a New York hedge fund. PiggyVest helps people save; Bamboo lets Nigerians invest overseas, despite a scarcity of dollars in the country. People should be “very excited” about fintech in Africa, says Makhtar Diop, the head of the International Finance Corporation, the private-sector arm of the World Bank, which has pumped $200m into the sector.