Experts talk about fintech growth and operations in Nigeria | The Guardian Nigeria News

During the virtual couch session at the recent Lagos Startup Week, industry leaders decided that access to financial services was a sign of development in Nigeria.

Hosted via Twitter Spaces by Benjamin Dada, Stitch’s Nigerian Country Manager, Dayo Ademola, Managing Director of Branch Nigeria, joined other FinTech industry leaders to discuss “What Future for FinTech in Africa?” ? »

Ademola said access to financial services has been a sign of development in underdeveloped countries while discussing the importance of financial services in society. Celestine Omim, CEO of Klump, agrees, adding that the rise of fintech has been encouraged by the expansion in the use of mobile phones and the cashless policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Olusola Amusan, co-founder of Vesti, added that the lack of access to financial institutions faced by a large portion of the Nigerian population presented an opportunity for fintech growth.

Nubi Kay, Startup Program Manager at Paystack, agreed that fintech is the backbone of commerce, saying 60-70% of tech startup funding goes to the fintech space, which has formed the bulk of startups and high value unicorns in Nigeria.

Speaking on the rise of the fintech space, Ademola posited that its growth can be attributed to huge gaps that need to be filled like the provision of credit and the ability to provide quick small loans without the burden associated with the traditional banking system. This gap, she said, is why Branch International exists in a country like Nigeria.

Yet this opportunity has also had its share of challenges. Underwriting and scoring are major lending issues in the Nigerian system, from small retail loans to larger individual and commercial loans. Basically, how do lenders determine who is worthy and what patterns can identify customers who are not in default.

Ademola explained how Branch solved this problem. “At Branch, we’ve built a really good model that’s getting better every day to score people. Since we don’t have an accessible national credit score that can inform your loan decision, we have to rely on other data points. We’ve spent a lot of time tweaking the model, so we can offer small loans to people, because it’s nearly impossible to get a loan anywhere else. We’re also good at predicting when people come to us. will reimburse.

Since its inception, Branch International has provided over six million loans to Nigerians while providing investment opportunities at their fingertips. The digital finance app offers services like small loans of up to ₦500,000 ($1,200) and long and short term investment opportunities with one of the highest returns on investment in the world. Nigeria.