Nigeria’s financial technology (fintech) firms attracted an investment of $500million between 2015 and 2020 owing to improvement in the ecosystem.

Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele stated this at the bank’s 31st seminar for financial correspondents and business editors in Enugu.

In his keynote speech at the event themed ‘Trends in Nigerian Payments System: Regulating the Fintech Digital Playing Field’, Emefiele said the sector has recorded tremendous growth in the past few years and that the apex bank would continue to ensure timely regulatory intervention to protect consumers and the industry.

He said Nigeria’s demography and technology adoption favoured accelerated growth of fintech.

Adding that new working cultures and practices would facilitate growth in the coming years. “Studies have already shown that only one per cent of fintechs have been critically affected by COVID-19 and two per cent severely affected. By comparison, around 17 per cent of other high-growth companies fall into these categories.

It is therefore unsurprising that many fintechs have experienced a surge in demand as working practices and customer banking habits changed.

“As a country with one of the largest millennial population in the world, Nigeria remains primed to be an active playground for digital transformation and cannot afford to ignore,” he said.