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

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

According to Disrupt Africa’s recent report, there are over 300 fintech start-ups active in the continent. I assume some of them are high-potential, fast-growing enterprises, while others are struggling for survival?

We have done the best we can to ensure that all the ventures featured are high-potential companies that have achieved some notable landmarks. There are, obviously, some key differences between some start-ups and others, especially when it comes to the levels of funding secured and the size of the team, and scope of growth that results from that.

The extent to which Africans are lacking access to formal financial services means there is an innate potential in fintech on the continent, as evidenced by the fact there are more than 300 companies working in the space. However, there is a danger of saturation, especially in segments such as payments and remittances, and we would hope to see some consolidation over the coming years as there is not room for so many individual companies to all scale and succeed.