Following the passage of the national startup Act in October 2022, the Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Piggy Vest, Ms. Odunayo Eweniyi, has disclosed that Nigeria’s fintech (digital) ecosystem is now worth about N9 billion in investment. Specifically, out of the N9 billion, Nigerian fintech firms were able to raise N2 billion in capital funding to strengthen the country’s startup industry to its present state.
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Eweniyi disclosed this to diutocoinnews, saying that there was a need for the country to take advantage of the fintech Act, because it essentially has the potential to address the four key areas of regulation, capital, talent, and infrastructure.
According to her, in 2018, digitally transformed enterprises globally accounted for $13.5 trillion in nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and this is forecasted to grow to over $50 trillion in the next couple of years. However, the Piggy Vest boss alluded to the fact that Nigeria’s share was less than 0.5 per cent. While speaking on how technology has facilitated implementation of economic goals and what more needed to be done from an advocacy point of view to improve technology across various sectors in Nigeria, Eweniyi said: “Sure. First of all, we need to update our mission statement. After the pandemic, there is no way of ending extreme poverty by 2030.
Also Read: The Means Nigeria Start-ups Used To Attract $1.2 Billion In 2022.
“But to speak specifically on your question, what role does technology play as I mentioned earlier to you, two things; scale and force multiplier. So as we think through poverty, what are the areas where we can achieve as much skill as possible? “Where we need to focus is the one on job creation, so with all the presentations that have been made here, my ears perked to how many jobs are being created in the fintech industry?” She added: “So one of the things we did is look at the Nigeria tech sector, the ICT sector to say what are the obstacles to creating jobs through ICT because it has passed and thankfully, I was going to start with a startup act. “Just to give you a wholesome, magical background, when the National Health Act was passed. It took 10 years to get it funded enough. So I hope it doesn’t take us 10 years to fund the Lagos State startup Act, because a lot of companies are relying on it.” She said: “The second is power generation because low power supply being received by tech industry players is really hampering their operations.
