This first-of-its-kind report, co-authored by Charles Anijekwu and Jeremiah Ajayi, equips Nigerian fintechs with the data-driven strategies they need to acquire new customers, retain existing ones, and achieve long-term growth.

Key findings include:

• Paid advertising reigns supreme: The report reveals that paid advertising was the dominant channel for customer acquisition across key Nigerian fintech verticals in 2023.
• High acquisition costs: Sectors like Merchant Payments, Point-of-Sale (POS), Investment & Wealth Management, and Digital Lending witnessed substantial customer acquisition costs in 2023.
• Focus on efficiency: Fintech companies are prioritizing efficient marketing strategies. A noteworthy 50% of marketing budgets are allocated to the most effective channels for each specific vertical.
• Generative AI adoption on the rise: As the industry seeks new avenues for engagement, 29% of surveyed fintech companies have already adopted Generative AI for content creation, showcasing a willingness to explore innovative marketing tools.
• Increased reliance on owned media: The report predicts that organic channels, like social media and search engines, will become increasingly important for fintech marketing in 2024 and the coming years. This is one of 16 forecasts included in the report.

The report contextualizes these findings within the broader Nigerian fintech landscape. It acknowledges the “bull run” of 2020-2022, where abundant capital fueled aggressive customer acquisition strategies like celebrity endorsements and reality TV sponsorships. However, the funding winter of 2023 forced a shift towards leaner operations and tighter marketing budgets.

Explaining the motivation behind the report, Charles Anijekwu, co-author, states, “We wanted to understand the fintech marketing landscape better and identify the true drivers of growth.”  Co-author Jeremiah Ajayi adds, “There was a data gap on marketing trends within fintech, especially in key areas. We aimed to bridge this gap with the report and foster a data-driven culture within the industry.”

Charles Isidi, Head of Marketing and Communications at Africa Fintech Summit, emphasizes the report’s broader relevance. “Nigeria, Africa’s leading fintech hub, is a valuable case study for the continent,” he states. Home to giants like Flutterwave and Paystack, Nigeria boasts a thriving ecosystem that informs pan-African strategies.

AFTS’ “Nigeria Fintech Marketing Outlook 2024” encourages exploration, critical thinking, and opportunity identification. As Isidi concludes, “Unlocking Africa’s fintech potential hinges on building the right products and selling them the right way.” This report empowers businesses to achieve just that.

Download your free copy today and unlock the data-driven strategies needed to navigate the exciting opportunities that lie ahead!

The award was given at its last meeting in Washington DC, United States of America.  

Africa Fintech Summit is a global knowledge-sharing platform that connects innovators, regulators and entrepreneurs, facilitating conversations and partnerships that help them explore financial technology solutions to improve African individuals, economies and societies.

The summit holds twice a year in Washington D.C. and a selected African country and sees stakeholders from around the world assemble to chart a progressive course for fintech in Africa by mobilizing investments, hashing out enabling policies, and sharing growth strategies.

The Summit which was the seventh edition of the bi-annual event, also recognized TeamApt for Excellence in Digital Banking, PiggyVest- Excellence in Savings and InvestTech, Flutterwave-Excellence in Fintech Infrastructure, while Excellence in Blockchain Technology went to Appzone Group. Others are Excellence in Fintech investment – Future Africa, Excellence in Cryptocurrency – Paxful, Excellence in Ecosystem Research – Briter Bridges, Excellence in Cross-border Solutions – PAPSS, Excellence in Payments – Paystack, Excellence in InsurTech – Turaco, Excellence in Fintech and Lending – Payhippo, Excellence in Embedded Fintech – Cellulant and Excellence in TradeTech – AFEX.

Dr. Tomisin Fashina, Group Executive, Operations & Technology, Ecobank, who received the award on behalf of the bank, said the award is well deserved as it was attributable to the Pan African Bank’s unparalleled influence in Africa and its unwavering support and numerous initiatives aimed at fostering relationship with fintechs to jointly win in the marketing place, stressing that the bank have put structures and initiatives in place to collaborate and cooperate with fintechs to facilitate the bank’s vision of financial integration of Africa.

According to him, “As a bank, one of our strategic objectives is to bank 100 million Africans, across Africa. We won’t go out there with account opening documents to do this. We believe we can achieve that by collaborating and cooperating across board, and the fintechs come into that space. We came out with ‘Ecobank as a service’, this is at the heart of why we published our sandbox to encourage fintechs, big techs and any player that want to do business in Africa to ride on our platforms and help facilitate our vision of a financially integrated Africa. We see ourselves as a key player in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and we believe we are the ultimate bank to facilitate trade across Africa.”

Ecobank has many initiatives to support growth of fintechs on the continent. The Ecobank Fintech Challenge launched in 2017 identifies and partners with fintechs that are ready to scale, providing them with mentoring, networking, support, and opportunities to access Ecobank’s 33 African markets, as well as opportunities to integrate with existing Ecobank digital offerings.

This has recorded significant results and success stories since its inception.

Ecobank’s Pan-African Banking Sandbox allows partners and Fintechs across 33 African countries gain access to its application programming interface to develop innovative financial solutions. As an avenue for collaboration between Ecobank and fintechs to develop the fintech ecosystem in Africa, Ecobank’s sandbox is an era-defining game changer for Africa’s financial sector.

Africa Fintech Summit, since 2018, has held six times, and has supported: Over $20 million in capital raise efforts for African startups; The launch of strategic partnerships and new businesses; Policy guideline creation; The growth of local tech and startup ecosystems;  Knowledge sharing for African banking/fintech operators and regulators.