2024: Another year Fintech did not become easy.

At least we have $100K Bitcoin

Looking back on 2024 to write a year in review for a publication is more difficult than it seems. We started the year making predictions on events in the ecosystem this year, but as I have learnt, making predictions is easier than writing a review in hindsight.

Let's now briefly compile some of the more interesting events and literature in the Nigerian and global financial services industries in 2024.

Source: Grok

Controlled Chaos

Olayemi Cardoso's first full year at the helm of the CBN shaped all market activities. We saw six rate hikes and the banks were asked to shore up their capital bases, effectively rendering any hopes of mainstream credit dead on arrival.

This had the second-order effect of more companies seeking capital in various alternative markets via CPs, private placements, and rights issues.

Our battle with the exchange rate continued, briefly achieving stability in the latter months of the year - but not without policy flip-flops. These included an unclear stance on cryptocurrency, the controversial detention of Binance executives, and repeated arrests of local crypto CEOs and BDCs by the EFCC and the Office of the N(Scratch that we don’t want to get arrested here)

The "ecosystem" rallied to save Brass from collapse, validating my long-held thesis of Paystack needing a neobank play. I wrote about this and other instances where financial services institutions in Nigeria violated customer trust.

Moniepoint became the newest Nigerian unicorn, teasing geographic and commercial bank expansions.

Trends and Transformations

Fraud and cybersecurity breaches continued to dominate the financial services landscape, prompting the CBN to issue multiple regulations targeting POS terminals, agency banking, and neobanks.

FX sourcing, cross-border remittances, and stable coin narratives became hot again - akin to airtime top-up services of the 2010s, as most businesses looked to FX and remittance as ways to create defensive moats, make lateral product expansions, drive volumes and derisk from Nigeria. Virtual cards were the natural casualty of this development - (Successfully predicted this)

Verve, Huawei, and DLocal were among the big winners who provided locally priced substitutes to the core infrastructure required to run financial services such as cards, cloud, and FX payments(Prediction here).

Flush with capital, banks finally undertook long-overdue core banking upgrades as their old systems buckled under large customer bases. These upgrades went as terribly as predicted, with some lasting over three months and leaving customers locked out. Neobanks and smaller banks were the biggest winners during this period, but I predict we'll be back here in 5–7 years, having learned nothing.

Policy, People, and Performance

Bosun Tijani marked his first year leading the Ministry of Communications. He is still on the hunt for builders to achieve his visions for the ministry and Nigeria. Mixed reviews of his performance were written across various publications such as this one.

A new insurance bill emerged that does little to spur innovation and real growth in the industry - It is sponsored by Tokunbo Abiru. - You can read a summary of the bill here and a critique of it here.

Ned Nwoko’s bill on foreign currency use in the land seems to have scaled the first reading in the Senate. (Editors note: Speaking candidly about the intellectual capacity of politicians has now become a crime in Nigeria)

Telco Tariffs are expected to increase in 2025 - here is hoping the price increase comes with better service and a new wave of customer-facing innovation in the industry.

Despite the market’s resistance, the CBN wants to continue its journey towards a cashless Nigeria but keeps trialling policies that often steer them away from this goal, such as the cybersecurity levy, cash scarcity, and new agency banking rules.

Looks like we may have an IPO on the way, as Tizeti announced plans to IPO on the NGX in 2025

Nigeria lost a Titan in Herbert Wigwe🕊️ this year. His legacy and bank continued his dream of inevitability with their multiple geographic expansions and successes.

Global Fintech

• India launched UPI in France,

• NuBank crossed 100 million customers milestone

• Revolut and Chime had stellar years, teasing IPO plans,

• Mercury debanked businesses with affiliations to high-risk countries such as Nigeria

• Flutterwave Send stopped working in Europe

• Alipay sponsored the Euros digitising the payment landscape in Germany in ways PayPal, Adyen, and SumUp could not, despite the head starts they had in the country

• Together, the Evolve Bank & Trust and Synapse collapse and data breaches had second-order effects across various third-party dependencies services, and companies (Nigerian ones included)

• Topics like “pay by bank” and real-time payments gained global traction—conversations where our own NiBSS could shine if they had better PR.

Crypto and AI

Solana meme coins were hot for most of the year and the Fed’s rate cuts (paired with Donald Trump’s election victory) pushed Bitcoin past $100,000 for the first time.

The U.S. crypto industry, meanwhile, grappled with being labelled “high risk,” sparking a fresh wave of tantrums over “debanking.”

Stripe acquired Bridge - justifying the long-held belief many insiders have had about Stablecoins and cross-border payments.

The first tangible benefits of the EU’s MiCA regulations are emerging, as European banks started experimenting with various other cryptocurrency use cases such as cross-border remittance, compliance, social proofs, and verification.

The world is having its AI moment, and we are still waiting for that killer financial services use case for AI to emerge.

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Thanks to everyone who has read, shared and given feedback on some of the things written here this year. The most viewed post here is the one that tells everyone to abandon the foolish journey of doing fintech.

Merry Christmas and See you in 2025.