Sudden Inrush into African Fintech Future: Chinese Investors

The African economy has witnessed a sudden inrush into her fintech future by the Chinese, years ago the continent seems to be lagging in technological development until recently. Prior to the advancement, African fintech, Chinese Investors having a foresight of the potentials Africa possesses quickly moved in to invest greatly in various countries across the continent.

African fintech, Chinese Investors along with their varous organizations investing in African fintech economy is a rare practice, until recently, the continent has witnessed huge investment in its fintech economy following the platforms established in Lagos, Nigeria.

The Nigerian Case: OPay and Agent Banking

In Nigeria precisely, the sudden inrush into African future has been so alarming, Opay system is one of the well-recognized Chinese owned and managed company, the Opay system enabled numerous features such as mobile banking, airtime top-up, mobile transportation, mobile food and lots more. There has been a massive rush in investment into the business economy.

In Lagos, the agent mobile banking system was rarely known due to poor financial enablement, the Chinese moved in having close observation of the challenges the country was facing quickly enabled the system by investing hugely. Given an enabling environment to mobile banking agents by providing all the required devices and training the willing agents also they invested hugely in the transportation system, creating a system that combats the traffic issues in Lagos at large.

• Agent mobile banking expansion in Lagos
• Consumer payment platforms such as OPay
• Foreign capital for early-stage fintech startups

The Chinese are playing a great role in Africa generally when it comes to foreign-investor scenarios, including financial support in the form of loans. The African fintech space is a hugely enabling environment for profit generation.

Over time, the level of investors on the continent recorded a low Chinese presence, so the recent inflow of Chinese capital stands as an indicator that the continent has great potential yet to be unleashed. Nigeria, being an enabling country, has given Chinese investors the opportunity to prove themselves by unleashing their business ideas in their desired sectors.