‘There’s huge potential for FinTech in Nigeria’

The Managing Director and Co-Founder, KUDA Bank, Babs Ogundeyi, has said there are huge potentials for FinTech in emerging markets, particularly Nigeria, disclosing that through the adoption of technology the bank has grown its customers to about 4.6 million and approaching five million customers in three years.

Ogundeyi said since its emergence in 2019, it has invested hugely in Nigeria’s economic environment, as the country occupies a major position in the continent.

According to him, the company is focused on being a financial institution for all Africans, all over the world.  He stated: “Nigeria has a very important part to play on the African continent. There is huge potential, not just in the size of the population – the location, we have ports, we have resources, though things are especially difficult, but when it comes to investing in technology, investing in FinTech, Nigeria still carries a lot of weight in Africa. KUDA is part of that.

“Our focus is to be a financial institution for all Africans, all over the world.

We started from Nigeria, where we have, apart from being patriotic, domain experience. We understand people, we understand the terrain. It is a very important market in Africa. So it made sense for us to start from Nigeria. When we started in 2019, there weren’t as many foreign investors as we have today.

“Two things have happened, we have been part of the growth and belief in Nigeria and Africa. Our growth, I believe has sort of fueled not just our belief but also other technology companies as well. I would say we are part of that bracket and it has just kind of demonstrated the potential of leveraging technology.”

Ogundeyi likewise noted that KUDA has benefited from being daring and innovative, regardless of the challenges in the financial sector.

“Financial service is one of the hardest sectors, for many reasons, because it’s one of the oldest, it’s well regulated and quite competitive. But there is still room for a lot of improvement and that’s why there is an opportunity for KUDA.

“In spite of all the challenges, we were able to come into the market and offer something different. Customer adoption is good and people use our products. Really the ethos is all about simplicity, it is not like a certain magic wand or something that we’re doing. We just wanted to do something and build something that was very simple and easy to understand for the majority of people and continuously improve,” he added.