Acorn & Mustard

  INTRODUCTION Nigeria has the most FinTech unicorns in Africa, with five out of the seven  African unicorns  being Nigerian companies, and two of three  Nigerian unicorns  for 2021, being FinTech companies. This is the direct result of many innovative founders who keep creating new approaches for improving financial inclusion and solving the existing problems in financial services. What is a FinTech company and what do these companies do? FinTech means financial technology, and it is used to describe any technology that is deployed to assist financial service providers by automating the use and delivery of financial services.   Originally , (i.e., some 20 years ago) it meant the backend technology deployed by established financial institutions. The definition has changed as FinTech services have become more consumer-oriented. FinTech now includes sectors and industries such as retail banking, investment banking,  education , fundraising, investment m...

  DIGITAL BANKING IN NIGERIA With the increased popularity of digital banks like Kuda, VBank, Sparkle etc., in Nigeria and the various fund-raising announcements, there has been a growing interest amongst FinTech Founders and investors to offer digital banking services. As a result, FinTech founders are majorly interested in knowing the type of legal entity that is best suited for a digital bank. Generally speaking, there is no specific licencing regime for digital banks in Nigeria. Consequently, potential founders must work with one of the existing financial licences. The most suitable types of entities for digital banking services are: Payment Service Banks:  The capital requirement for this licence is N5,000,000,000 (five billion naira). The holder of a Payment Service Bank licence is permitted to accept deposits from customers but cannot issue loans. Commercial Banks:  A commercial bank can be incorporated to proffer digital banking as a product offering; ALAT by Wema...