In March 2021, Flutterwave, one of Nigeria’s Fintechs, raised a Series C funding of $170M, at a $1 billion valuation. Flutterwave became the second Fintech in Nigeria to reach a $1 billion valuation after Interswitch, which reached a $1billion valuation in 2019 when Visa acquired a 20% stake in the company.
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Open APIs: Why fintechs should also adopt common standards
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How Open banking can transform payments in Nigeria
A couple of years ago, every Nigerian household made the monthly trip to the bank or electricity provider company, cash in hand, with their bill slip and means of identification to pay their electric bills. It was a similar story for all other bills and payments people had to make. Payments improved after the CBN …
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Why Open Banking and what’s in it for banks in Nigeria?
With the many changes in the banking sector and the country as a whole, Open Banking seeks to bridge the gap between banks and fintechs with standardized API access; where all banks share the same data and API taxonomy. It is essential to note that there is currently a power imbalance between banks and fintechs. …
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Open banking: Implications for the non-banking finance industry
Two decades ago, if you wanted to deposit money, pay bills or access a range of financial services, the bank would have been the only place to turn to. But that has since changed with fintechs unbundling banking and offering many of these services as stand-alone offerings. Fintechs like PiggyVest, offer their customers the ability …
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Open Banking: 4 steps banks and fintechs can adopt in mitigating risks of data leakage
With millions of customers, banks and other fintechs hold a ton of customer data that they use to make all sorts of decisions. They collect identity cards, utility bills, signatures, and transaction records, which can create useful snapshots of customers when put together. While collecting this data is important, it creates an obligation. All that …
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Consumer Savings Application (An Open Banking Use Case)
by Adedeji Olowe and Khadija Abu Introduction Nigerians have increased the amount of money they save over the last 3 years. This, however, has not yet translated into a true savings culture for most Nigerians. Users and providers of financial savings products and services (banks, fintechs etc.) face several challenges which inhibit the ease of …
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Open Banking: Consumer Credit Application (Use Case)
by Ope Adeoye, Brendan Playford and Oge Okonkwo Introduction Nigeria has a huge credit gap, with lenders and borrowers facing a number of challenges which hinder the ease of providing and accessing credit. This credit gap has contributed to curbing financial inclusion and economic growth. Open banking can transform lending in Nigeria by improving access …
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Open Banking and competition in Nigeria’s banking ecosystem
by Adedeji Olowe and Oge Okonkwo Introduction The concept of Open Banking is emerging globally as the potential future of the banking industry. Open banking refers to how financial institutions and third-party providers (FinTechs, InsurTechs, Lifestyle service providers, Retail companies, Telcos, Energy companies etc.) leverage open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to share data in a …
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Open Banking is a panacea to integration risks
by Ayowole Popoola and Igboa Abumere Executive Summary The need to build a connected world has become very imperative. Almost every industry has been upturned by the advent of technology and the internet. From the logistics to the automotive sector, the integration of various devices and services to create an interactive world has made users …
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Rethinking access to credit in banking services
Introduction Banks, Fintechs, and other financial institutions have traditionally relied on internal customer and transactional data as well as credit scores/reports from credit bureaus for credit risk assessment. In developing these credit scores and reports, Nigerian credit bureaus have aggregated and leveraged data from financial institutions to conduct their risk assessment. However, the credit bureaus …
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