In a space of five years, Nigeria’s fintech companies have raised over $600 million in funding, attracting 25% ($122 million) of the $491.6 million raised by African tech startups in 2019 alone – second only to Kenya, which attracted $149 million.  The period under review is 2014- 2019. 

This information is contained in a recently published report by McKinsey titled “Harnessing Nigeria’s Fintech Potential.” The report highlighted the combination of youthful demographic, increasing smartphone penetration, and concerted efforts to driving financial inclusion as factors that interplay to produce conducive and thriving enabler or platform for the fintech firms in Nigeria. 

The report outlined some of the feedback against fintech companies ranging from poor user experience, underwhelming value-added from using some of the financial products, low returns on savings, and limited access to investment opportunities. 

The report also showed that Nigerian fintech companies are primarily focused on payments and consumer lending,  having allotted an aggregate of 39% on payments to consumers, SMEs, and corporate FSP, and an additional 25% to consumer lending. The breakdown is depicted below. 

Source: McKinsey report, 2020. 

On the driving factors behind the increasing choice of payment and consumer lending as an area of concentration by fintech companies, a part of the report read thus; 

“The factors driving growth in each of these segments vary. Payment-focused solutions have surged over the past two years, spurred in part, by the central bank’s financial inclusion drive and favorable regulatory policies, including revised Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements for lower-tier accounts and incentives, to accelerate development of agent networks across the country. Paga, OPay, Cellulant, and Interswitch’s QuickTeller compete with mobile banking applications and bank unstructured supplementary service data (USSD) channels to send and receive transactions and bill payments. 

“Fintech activity in lending is picking up, thanks to the fact that fintechs are able to leverage payment data to determine lending risk more easily, and utilize smartphones as a distribution channel. For example, fintech startups such as Carbon and Renmoney have successfully leveraged alternative credit-scoring algorithms, to provide instant, unsecured, short-term loans to individuals. A few fintechs, such as Migo, have also stepped up to offer unsecured working-capital loans to SMEs with minimal documentation. Banking fintech solutions have been fast followers here, with leading banks launching digital lending platforms like Quick Credit by GTBank and Quickbucks by Access Bank.” 

In general, access, convenience, and trust have all played key roles in the increasing use of fintech products. For example, in the last six months, 54% of consumers have reported increased usage of their fintech products 

Why this matters 

In line with the National Financial Inclusion goals of 2020, and owing to the fact that despite the remarkable progress recorded by traditional banking institutions, the vast majority of consumers are underserved.  Hence, the issue of accessibility especially in remote areas, affordability, and user experience have been a front-burner issue. 

The aforementioned issues have created an opening that fintechs have been quick to take advantage of, providing enhanced propositions across the value chain, to address major points in affordable payments, quick loans, and flexible savings and investments among others. 

Conclusion 

Fintech accounted for only 1.25% of retail banking revenues in 2019, signaling a room for development. Despite recording a growth of fintech investments in Nigeria to the tune of approximately $460 million in 2019, majority of these investments were from external investors. This was only a small fraction (1.27%) of the $36 billion invested in fintech globally. 

The report opined that full optimization of fintech companies in Nigeria can stimulate economic activity, by creating a multiplier effect, and can drive progress towards development goals. Economic impact will primarily come from expanding revenue pools and attracting foreign direct investment to the country. The sector can unlock a plethora of economic benefits by driving increased fintech productivity, capital, and labour hours through digitization of financial services.  

The spread of novel Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19) in Nigeria continues to record increases as the latest statistics provided by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control reveal Nigeria now has 58,198 confirmed cases.

On the 26th of September 2020, 136 new confirmed cases and 3 deaths were recorded in Nigeria, having carried out a total daily test of 7,968 samples across the country.

To date, 58,198 cases have been confirmed, 49,722 cases have been discharged and 1,106 deaths have been recorded in 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory. A total of 502,545  tests have been carried out as of September 26th, 2020 compared to 494,577 tests a day earlier.

COVID-19 Case Updates- 26th September 2020,

• Total Number of Cases – 58,198
• Total Number Discharged – 49,722
• Total Deaths – 1,106
• Total Tests Carried out – 502,545

According to the NCDC, the 136 new cases were reported from 16 states- Lagos (41), Ogun (27), Rivers (19), Abia (10), Oyo (6), Plateau (6), Bauchi (5), Ondo (5), Ekiti (4), Kaduna (4), Edo (3), Ebonyi (2), Bayelsa (1), Delta (1), Osun (1), Yobe (1).

Meanwhile, the latest numbers bring Lagos state total confirmed cases to 19,215, followed by Abuja (5,644), Plateau (3,379), Oyo (3,254), Edo (2,623), Kaduna (2,393), Rivers (2,324), Delta (1,802), Ogun (1,823), Kano (1,737), Ondo (1,625), Enugu (1,289), Ebonyi (1,040), Kwara (1,028), Abia (891), Gombe (864). Katsina (848), Osun (827),  Borno (741), and Bauchi (697).

Imo State has recorded 566 cases, Benue (481), Nasarawa (449), Bayelsa (398),  Jigawa (325), Ekiti (321), Akwa Ibom (288), Niger (259), Adamawa (237), Anambra (234), Sokoto (162), Taraba (95), Kebbi (93), Cross River (87), Zamfara (78), Yobe (76), while Kogi state has recorded 5 cases only.

READ ALSO: COVID-19: Western diplomats warn of disease explosion, poor handling by government

Lock Down and Curfew

In a move to combat the spread of the pandemic disease, President Muhammadu Buhari directed the cessation of all movements in Lagos and the FCT for an initial period of 14 days, which took effect from 11 pm on Monday, 30th March 2020.

The movement restriction, which was extended by another two-weeks period, has been partially put on hold with some businesses commencing operations from May 4. On April 27th, 2020, Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari declared an overnight curfew from 8 pm to 6 am across the country, as part of new measures to contain the spread of the COVID-19. This comes along with the phased and gradual easing of lockdown measures in FCT, Lagos, and Ogun States, which took effect from Saturday, 2nd May 2020, at 9 am.

On Monday, 29th June 2020 the federal government extended the second phase of the eased lockdown by 4 weeks and approved interstate movement outside curfew hours with effect from July 1, 2020. Also, on Monday 27th July 2020, the federal government extended the second phase of eased lockdown by an additional one week.

On Thursday, 6th August 2020 the federal government through the secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and Chairman of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 announced the extension of the second phase of eased lockdown by another four (4) weeks.

READ ALSO: Bill Gates says Trump’s WHO funding suspension is dangerous

With a blurred economic outlook in the corner and the ravaging COVID-19 onslaught hitting record highs, financial traders, including forex traders around the globe are repositioning for opportunities.

It should be noted that the currency market is by far the largest financial market in terms of liquidity, value, and turnover. It looks to be on the rise, as remote trading takes shape.

READ: Crude oil prices post more than 10% losses in 2 weeks

In 2016, the currency industry was valued at $1.934 quadrillion dollars, with forex trading turning over $5.1 trillion daily. In 2019, it was estimated to be worth a staggering $2.409 quadrillion dollars, with a daily turnover of $6.6 trillion.

According to the Bank for International Settlements, and buttressed by data from Bloomberg News, currency trading volume in the global foreign-exchange market has jumped to the highest-ever level at $6.6 trillion.

As the COVID-19 crisis continues to disrupt economic activities at unprecedented levels for traders and banks;  Nairametrics considers it pertinent to empower its readers on the best way to position, and take advantage of the volatility, as it is bound to trigger potential opportunities.

READ: U.S dollar drops lower, as U.S Federal Reserve plans on boosting inflation

Uche Paragon, Head of Education, CCI Trading Africa, in a recent interactive session, witnessed by Nairametrics, spoke on the critical steps a forex trader must take to become successful.

He said, “There are no universal rules in trading forex per se, what is really important is that you define the strategy, and the platform you use in trading,”

On strategy, He highlighted on traders sticking to a particular strategy, for example, focusing on a tested indicator on a currency pair in a given market, coupled with avoiding platforms exposed to high slippage and trading manipulation by certain forex brokers, especially most of the non-ECN brokers.

READ: DeFi crypto market value gains over 1000% from June

Also,Uche Paragon gave the importance of the use in Research trading tool, study techniques and how they can be implemented in your strategy. Study how the market behaves and learn how the trading industry works.

In a detailed explanatory note, Adegbotolu Kehinde Erastus, Research and Market Analyst, Scope Markets, gave detailed insights on the endless opportunities of the forex market saying;

“With Nigeria’s population presently standing at over 200 million, comprising of vibrant youths who are mostly unemployed, forex trading has become a legitimate way for them to earn money at their fingertips, and also it has become a way to earn passive income for the employed populace. Brokers now support their clients with lots of educational material on Forex trading

READ: S&P 500 futures suffer longest run of losses since February

“So, one doesn’t necessarily need to have an educational background about the financial markets, everything from the basics to the advanced, trading strategies are all available with the broker any client wishes to register with. One of the advantages of forex trading is that a trader can profit under any market condition.

“Even when the market is rising or falling with very good trading strategies, you can make very good profits, and because the financial market is available for 24 hours from Monday to Friday, with different market sessions, profitable trading opportunities do not cease. Even when COVID-19 put all commercial activities to a halt, the Forex market was still very active with traders making profits.”

Finally, it’s critical to observe that though currency trading often brings substantial profits, it is important to note that the leverage offered to forex traders, comes with a high risk of losing your capital.