Nigeria’s fintech story has changed. A few years ago, the big question was whether Nigerians would trust digital payments enough to use them every day. Now, with billions of transactions movi
Nigeria’s fintech story has changed. A few years ago, the big question was whether Nigerians would trust digital payments enough to use them every day. Now, with billions of transactions moving through digital channels, the question is much bigger: what can fintech build on top of the system it has already created?
That question set the tone as Nigeria Fintech Week 2026 opened in Lagos on Tuesday, bringing together fintech founders, banks, regulators, government officials and international investors at the Wole Soyinka Centre for Culture and Creative Arts, formerly the National Theatre.
The event, organised by the Fintech Association of Nigeria (FintechNGR), is being held from September 22 to 23 under the theme “Legacy in Motion: Powering the Digital Renaissance.” And from the opening speeches, there was a clear message: Nigeria’s fintech industry has moved beyond payments. The next frontier revolves around infrastructure, AI, financial inclusion and taking Nigerian-built financial products across Africa and the world.
Dr Stanley Jacob, President of FintechNGR and Chief Host of the event, opened the conference by pointing to how much the industry has changed.
“People are no longer asking what fintech is; people are asking, ‘How do we make money from it?’ because we’ve seen all the things that are going on,” he said. But Jacob said fintech’s next challenge goes beyond building more payment apps.
He pointed to four areas that need attention: better digital infrastructure, responsible AI and scaling, closing the financial inclusion gap, and making it easier for fintech companies to operate across African borders.
Similar read: Remita moves beyond payments with launch of super fintech app at Nigeria Fintech Week
Nigeria’s payment infrastructure has already grown rapidly. Jacob said transactions on the NIBSS Instant Payment platform rose from about 1.5 billion in 2022 to nearly 11 billion in 2024. The question now is what happens after the payment. Those are some of the problems the industry now faces.
Segun Aina wants Nigerian fintech to think beyond NigeriaDr Segun Aina, President of the Africa Fintech Network and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of FintechNGR, took the conversation beyond Nigeria. He recalled that FintechNGR was established in 2017 when the country’s fintech industry was still fragmented. A year later, the Africa Fintech Network was launched in Lagos with fintech communities from about five African countries.
Today, Aina said the network covers more than 44 African countries. His point was simple: Nigerian fintech companies have a much bigger market to pursue than Nigeria alone.
“Nigeria is just a market of 240 million people, but Africa is a market of 1.4 billion people,” he said.
But expanding across Africa is not always easy. A fintech that wants to enter another country can face a completely different licensing system, compliance rules and approval process.
Aina said the Africa Fintech Network is working with organisations including Afreximbank and major fintech companies on a Fintech License Passporting Initiative. The aim is to create a framework that could make cross-border expansion easier for properly regulated fintech companies.
“The objective is not to weaken regulation,” he said. Aina also urged banks and fintech companies to work together rather than treat each other as competitors. “The future should therefore not be about banks versus fintechs; it should be about banks with fintechs, regulators with innovators, investors with entrepreneurs,” he said.
The Lagos State Government also used the event to highlight its own digital plans.
An official representing Deputy Governor Dr Kadri Obafemi Hamzat said the state is developing a digital services portal that brings more than 300 government services into one platform, covering areas such as permits, housing, education, public safety and payments.
The state is also working on an Innovation Bill for startups and technology businesses, as well as a framework for responsible AI adoption. The idea is to make digital transformation about more than private fintech companies. Government services also need to become easier for residents to access.
CBN identifies four “brakes” holding fintech backSpeaking on behalf of CBN Governor Olayemi Cardoso, Mr Abiodun Okunola said Nigeria’s fintech growth is being slowed by four issues: fragmentation, lack of trust, exclusion and fear of innovation.
He called for closer cooperation between fintechs, banks and regulators, while urging companies to build for people who are often left out of financial services. “Every payment may begin as a transaction, but it succeeds only when it ends in confidence,” he said.
Okunola also said regulation should protect users without unnecessarily hindering innovation. “Our task is not to remove discipline or abandon safeguards; it is to replace unnecessary friction with intelligent guardrails,” he said.
He pointed to AI, embedded finance, open banking and cross-border payments as areas that will require regulators to keep pace with the industry.
The U.S. Consul General in Lagos, Brandon Hudspeth, highlighted the growing commercial ties between both countries, saying Nigeria now has about 430 fintech firms. He pointed to Flutterwave, Paystack and Moove as examples of Nigerian companies that built products locally and expanded globally.
Hudspeth also said U.S. investors provided about 60% of venture capital equity funding into Nigeria’s wider tech ecosystem between 2015 and 2025, worth about $5 billion.
“The financial and tech solutions you’re engineering here in Lagos are not just solving challenges locally, but they’re building models across the entire world,” he said.
He added that the U.S. wants to deepen trade and investment with Nigeria, with technology and finance at the centre of that relationship.
The opening day made one thing clear: Nigeria has already built a fintech industry. The next challenge is deciding what it can become.
Also read: Nigeria Fintech Week 2026 Set to Bring Africa’s Fintech Ecosystem Together
