President Bola Tinubu has approves the start of the N100 billion Consumer Credit Scheme for Nigerians amid the escalating economic challenges in the country.

Ajuri Ngelale, the President’s spokesperson, revealed this in a statement on Wednesday.

He mentioned that interested Nigerians should visit the Nigerian Consumer Credit Corporation portal before May 15, 2024.

“Consumer credit is vital for modern economies, allowing citizens to access goods and services upfront, paying responsibly over time. It enables crucial purchases like homes, vehicles, education, and healthcare, essential for ongoing stability and the pursuit of aspirations.

“Through responsible repayment, individuals build credit histories unlocking more opportunities for a better life. Increased demand for goods and services also boosts local industry and job creation.

“The President believes every hardworking Nigerian should have access to social mobility, with consumer credit playing a key role in achieving this vision.

“The Nigerian Consumer Credit Corporation (CREDICORP) achieves its mandate by: Strengthening Nigeria’s credit reporting systems, ensuring every economically active citizen has a reliable credit score. This score becomes personal equity, facilitating access to consumer credit. Offering credit guarantees and wholesale lending to financial institutions committed to broadening consumer credit access. Promoting responsible consumer credit as a path to an improved quality of life, fostering a cultural shift towards growth and financial responsibility.

“In line with the President’s directive to expand consumer credit access, the Nigerian Consumer Credit Corporation (CREDICORP) has launched a portal for Nigerians to express interest in receiving consumer credit.

“This initiative, in partnership with financial institutions and cooperatives nationwide, aims to expand consumer credit availability.

“Working Nigerians interested in receiving consumer credit can visit www.credicorp.ng to express interest. The deadline is May 15, 2024.

“The scheme will be rolled out in phases, starting with civil service members and extending to the general public,” the statement concluded.

Recall that two months ago, presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga announced that the Federal Executive Council had approved the establishment of the Consumer Credit Scheme.

He mentioned that the President’s Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, would lead a committee including the Budget Minister, Attorney-General, and Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Finance to implement the scheme.

In March, the Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Zacch Adedeji, stated that the Nigerian government would unveil its proposed N100 billion consumer credit loan in a few days.

In today’s dynamic and tech-savvy world, the financial technology Fintech Companies in Nigeria sector has emerged as a driving force, transforming traditional banking and financial services. Nigeria, as a leading hub of innovation and entrepreneurship in Africa, boasts a vibrant fintech ecosystem with numerous companies spearheading groundbreaking initiatives. In this comprehensive guide, we delve into the top 20 fintech companies in Nigeria, showcasing their innovative solutions, visionary founders, and impactful contributions to the financial industry.

Top 20 Fintech Companies in Nigeria

1. Flutterwave: Pioneering Digital Payments

Founded by Iyinoluwa Aboyeji in 2016, Flutterwave has revolutionized digital payments in Nigeria and beyond. With a focus on seamless payment processing and financial infrastructure, Flutterwave empowers businesses and individuals to transact securely and efficiently.

2. Opay: Driving Digital Transformation

Opay, launched in 2018 by Opera Software and Opay team, is at the forefront of digital transformation, offering a wide range of services, including mobile payments, transportation, food delivery, and financial products.

3. Paystack: Streamlining Online Payments

Launched in 2015 by Shola Akinlade and Ezra Olubi, Paystack has become a household name in online payment solutions. Its user-friendly platform facilitates smooth transactions for e-commerce businesses, startups, and enterprises alike.

4. Interswitch: Driving Payment Innovation

As a leading player in the Nigerian fintech landscape, Interswitch, founded in 2002 by Mitchell Elegbe, offers a wide range of payment processing services, including card transactions, mobile payments, and e-commerce solutions.

5. Paylater (Now Carbon): Expanding Financial Inclusion

Paylater, rebranded as Carbon, was founded by Chijioke Dozie and Ngozi Dozie in 2016 to provide accessible and affordable financial services, including instant loans, bill payments, and investment opportunities.

6. PiggyVest: Promoting Savings and Investments

PiggyVest, launched in 2016 by Odunayo Eweniyi, Joshua Chibueze, and Somto Ifezue, offers innovative savings and investment products, encouraging individuals to cultivate a culture of financial discipline and wealth creation.

7. Renmoney: Simplifying Personal Finance

Renmoney, founded in 2012 by Oluwatobi Boshoro, specializes in providing convenient and accessible financial solutions, including loans, investments, and insurance products, tailored to the needs of individuals and small businesses.

8. TeamApt: Enhancing Payment Systems

TeamApt, established in 2015 by Tosin Eniolorunda, focuses on developing robust payment infrastructure and solutions for businesses, banks, and fintech companies, driving efficiency and innovation in the financial sector.

9. Lidya: Facilitating SME Lending

Lidya, founded by Ercin Eksin and Tunde Kehinde in 2016, offers digital lending services to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), leveraging data-driven insights and technology to provide quick and reliable financing solutions.

10. Wallets Africa: Revolutionizing Money Management

Wallets Africa, launched in 2018 by John Oke, is a digital wallet platform that enables users to manage their money, make payments, and access financial services seamlessly, fostering financial inclusion and empowerment.

11. FairMoney: Advancing Digital Credit

FairMoney, established in 2017 by Laurent le Moal and Nicolas Berthozat, leverages technology to provide instant digital loans to individuals, promoting financial inclusion and addressing short-term financing needs.

12. VoguePay: Enabling Secure Online Payments

VoguePay, founded by Michael Simeon in 2012, is a secure payment gateway that facilitates online transactions for businesses and individuals, ensuring reliability, convenience, and data security.

13. Remita: Simplifying Payment Processes

Developed by SystemSpecs in 2005, Remita is a versatile payment platform used by individuals, businesses, and government agencies for seamless fund transfers, bill payments, payroll processing, and revenue collection.

14. Farmcrowdy: Revolutionizing Agriculture Finance

Farmcrowdy, founded by Onyeka Akumah in 2016, is a pioneering agritech platform that connects farmers with investors, providing funding for agricultural projects and promoting sustainable farming practices.

15. Paga: Empowering Mobile Payments

Paga, established in 2009 by Tayo Oviosu, is a mobile payment platform that enables individuals and businesses to send, receive, and manage money conveniently through their mobile devices.

16. Cowrywise: Empowering Personal Finance Management

Cowrywise, founded by Razaq Ahmed and Edward Popoola in 2017, empowers individuals to take control of their personal finances through automated savings, investments, and wealth management tools. With a user-friendly interface and a focus on financial education, Cowrywise aims to promote a culture of financial literacy and responsible money management among its users.

17. Mines.io: Revolutionizing Credit Access

Mines.io, established in 2014 by Ekechi Nwokah and Kunle Olukotun, leverages artificial intelligence and data analytics to provide instant credit scoring and access to loans for underserved individuals and businesses, driving financial inclusion and economic empowerment.

18. Risevest: Facilitating Global Investments

Risevest, launched in 2018 by Eleanya Eke, Babafemi Lawal, and Ezra Olubi, enables individuals to invest in global markets and diversified portfolios easily, democratizing access to international investment opportunities.

19. TeamApt: Innovating Financial Technology

TeamApt, founded by Tosin Eniolorunda in 2015, continues to innovate in the fintech space, developing cutting-edge solutions for banks, financial institutions, and businesses to improve operational efficiency and customer experience.

20. Riby: Empowering Cooperative Societies

Riby, established in 2015 by Abraham Ojoh and Salami Abolore, provides digital tools and platforms for cooperative societies, enabling them to streamline operations, manage finances, and empower members through access to financial services.

These top 20 fintech companies in Nigeria represent the forefront of innovation and transformation in the financial industry, driving economic growth, financial inclusion, and technological advancement across the nation and beyond.

PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron took first place, ahead of far-right leader Marine Le Pen, in the first round of France’s presidential election on Sunday, but he is on course for a far closer second-round clash than five years ago.

While polling suggests Macron should retain the presidency in two weeks, first round results show the incumbent can’t rest on his laurels.

Le Pen will be able to count on voters from far-right TV-pundit-turned-politician Eric Zemmour, who called on his supporters to back her on April 24. Meanwhile, leftist firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon fared better than expected and brings a heavy dose of uncertainty to the mix as his voters are a diverse bunch. Many are likely to abstain in the second round, while others will divide up between the French president and Le Pen.

Here are five takeaways from the presidential election’s first round:

“Politics is war without bloodshed
while war is politics with bloodshed.”

France’s repeat of the 2017 runoff confirms Macron’s and Le Pen’s own political analysis: That the divide between the left and the right is no longer relevant in France and has been replaced by an opposition between a mainstream bloc that is pro-European and open to the outside world on one side, and nationalists on the other. Both candidates scored higher than five years ago, leaving the traditional right and left in an even more shambolic state than before. Macron went from 24 percent in 2017 in the first round to 27.6 percent Sunday and Le Pen went from 21.3 percent to 23.4 percent.

The gap between them is higher than last time around, showing that Macron has managed to drum up the most votes despite controversies in the campaign’s last mile, including over the state’s overuse of consulting firms. But the far-right bloc — Marine Le Pen, Eric Zemmour and nationalist Nicolas Dupont-Aignan combined — garnered than 30 percent of the total vote.

I describe the “fun” parts of Only Yesterday because they’re wonderful, but also to make a point about the origin story we’ve learned about the mood of the ’20s. Looking back at Allen’s work from the vantage point of 1986, historian David M. Kennedy argued that the biggest failing of the book was its lack of historical depth: “Rarely did Allen forge an explanatory chain whose links ran back more deeply into the past than 1917.” And indeed, Allen seemed to blame World War I for every ash-covered carpet and scarred dining table.

Allen is also really good at describing parties—or, at least, the ones the middle class and upper class attended. The historian wrote about how women taking up smoking had “strewed the dinner table with their ashes, snatched a puff between the acts, invaded the masculine sanctity of the club car, and forced department stores to place ornamental ash-trays between the chairs in their women’s shoe departments.” In what I think may be the best passage in the book, Allen described the way 1920s partygoers stepped all over every previous genteel convention:

Anyway, let’s get to that fun. A very joyful book to read about the decade is Frederick Lewis Allen’s Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920s, which Allen—a blueblood journalist and editor at Harper’s—published in 1931. The book chronicles all of the movement and motion that makes the decade sexy, and doesn’t seem to miss a fad.

The property, complete with a 30-seat screening room, a 100-seat amphitheater and a swimming pond with sandy beach and outdoor shower, was asking about $40 million, but J. Lo managed to make it hers for $28 million. As the Bronx native acquires a new home in California, she is trying to sell a gated compound.

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Perhaps by remembering the twenties merely as an enchanting series of novelties or the crude afterthought of a simpler past, we preserve the illusion of our own simple innocence,” mused historian Paula Fass in the introduction to her book The Damned and the Beautiful: American Youth in the 1920s.

Whether that means there will be a longer-term far-right alliance is an open question. Nicolas Bay and Gilbert Collard — two MEPs who left Le Pen’s party to join Zemmour — didn’t endorse a possible alliance with Le Pen, in case she wins the second round.

Zemmour, a 63-year-old TV pundit-turned-politician, was once tipped to come second behind Macron, back in October. But he plummeted spectacularly in the polls after suffering from a perceived lack of credibility as the Ukraine war started and former comments praising Russian President Vladimir Putin resurfaced. He scored a measly 7 percent. Despite their bitter and unrelenting fighting throughout the campaign, he swiftly endorsed Marine Le Pen.

“I have disagreements with Marine Le Pen,” Zemmour said at his concession speech Sunday, “but there is a man facing Marine Le Pen who has let in 2 million immigrants … who would therefore do worse if he were reelected — it is for this reason that I call on my voters to vote for Marine Le Pen.”

PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron took first place, ahead of far-right leader Marine Le Pen, in the first round of France’s presidential election on Sunday, but he is on course for a far closer second-round clash than five years ago.

While polling suggests Macron should retain the presidency in two weeks, first round results show the incumbent can’t rest on his laurels.

Le Pen will be able to count on voters from far-right TV-pundit-turned-politician Eric Zemmour, who called on his supporters to back her on April 24. Meanwhile, leftist firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon fared better than expected and brings a heavy dose of uncertainty to the mix as his voters are a diverse bunch. Many are likely to abstain in the second round, while others will divide up between the French president and Le Pen.

“Politics is war without bloodshed
while war is politics with bloodshed.”

France’s repeat of the 2017 runoff confirms Macron’s and Le Pen’s own political analysis: That the divide between the left and the right is no longer relevant in France and has been replaced by an opposition between a mainstream bloc that is pro-European and open to the outside world on one side, and nationalists on the other. Both candidates scored higher than five years ago, leaving the traditional right and left in an even more shambolic state than before. Macron went from 24 percent in 2017 in the first round to 27.6 percent Sunday and Le Pen went from 21.3 percent to 23.4 percent.

The gap between them is higher than last time around, showing that Macron has managed to drum up the most votes despite controversies in the campaign’s last mile, including over the state’s overuse of consulting firms. But the far-right bloc — Marine Le Pen, Eric Zemmour and nationalist Nicolas Dupont-Aignan combined — garnered than 30 percent of the total vote.

I describe the “fun” parts of Only Yesterday because they’re wonderful, but also to make a point about the origin story we’ve learned about the mood of the ’20s. Looking back at Allen’s work from the vantage point of 1986, historian David M. Kennedy argued that the biggest failing of the book was its lack of historical depth: “Rarely did Allen forge an explanatory chain whose links ran back more deeply into the past than 1917.” And indeed, Allen seemed to blame World War I for every ash-covered carpet and scarred dining table.

Allen is also really good at describing parties—or, at least, the ones the middle class and upper class attended. The historian wrote about how women taking up smoking had “strewed the dinner table with their ashes, snatched a puff between the acts, invaded the masculine sanctity of the club car, and forced department stores to place ornamental ash-trays between the chairs in their women’s shoe departments.” In what I think may be the best passage in the book, Allen described the way 1920s partygoers stepped all over every previous genteel convention:

Anyway, let’s get to that fun. A very joyful book to read about the decade is Frederick Lewis Allen’s Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920s, which Allen—a blueblood journalist and editor at Harper’s—published in 1931. The book chronicles all of the movement and motion that makes the decade sexy, and doesn’t seem to miss a fad.

The property, complete with a 30-seat screening room, a 100-seat amphitheater and a swimming pond with sandy beach and outdoor shower, was asking about $40 million, but J. Lo managed to make it hers for $28 million. As the Bronx native acquires a new home in California, she is trying to sell a gated compound.

Popular in human interest:

• Parents Are Fed Up With Their Kids’ Expensive Berry Habits
• 15 Mother’s Day Gifts for the Burned-Out Mom in Your Life
• Really Though, What Jeans Are in Style Now?
• Don’t Fall for Fertility Fearmongering About Trans Men

Perhaps by remembering the twenties merely as an enchanting series of novelties or the crude afterthought of a simpler past, we preserve the illusion of our own simple innocence,” mused historian Paula Fass in the introduction to her book The Damned and the Beautiful: American Youth in the 1920s.

Whether that means there will be a longer-term far-right alliance is an open question. Nicolas Bay and Gilbert Collard — two MEPs who left Le Pen’s party to join Zemmour — didn’t endorse a possible alliance with Le Pen, in case she wins the second round.

Zemmour, a 63-year-old TV pundit-turned-politician, was once tipped to come second behind Macron, back in October. But he plummeted spectacularly in the polls after suffering from a perceived lack of credibility as the Ukraine war started and former comments praising Russian President Vladimir Putin resurfaced. He scored a measly 7 percent. Despite their bitter and unrelenting fighting throughout the campaign, he swiftly endorsed Marine Le Pen.

“I have disagreements with Marine Le Pen,” Zemmour said at his concession speech Sunday, “but there is a man facing Marine Le Pen who has let in 2 million immigrants … who would therefore do worse if he were reelected — it is for this reason that I call on my voters to vote for Marine Le Pen.”