NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Thursday, June 18, 2015

The Payments Innovation Jury Report has revealed that CEOs and founders of 40 of the sector’s most prominent firms think Africa and Asia houses the FinTech capitals of the world.

Unlike a lot of the hype around FinTech which focuses solely on the US and Europe, the Payments Innovation Jury truly speaks for the whole world, with jurors coming from 23 countries across six continents.

In the report, Asia and Africa are recognised as the biggest hotbeds for digital payments, leading the way in particular in Mobile Money, with North America and Europe lagging far behind. The lesson for entrepreneurs in the west is that there are untapped opportunities for FinTech innovations that serve the whole world rather than just developed markets.

In the west, there are far too many FinTech products that just do not solve a real problem. Do we really need more retail loyalty apps? More ways to make point-of-sale payments?

In emerging economies, the very lack of banking and payments infrastructure, while presenting challenges, breeds an environment of enormous potential for technology-driven financial solutions.