Three Ways Ghanaian Fintech Startups Can Be Efficient In The Ecosystem

Africa has recently become a spring bursting forth startups of many kinds. This has led to Africa-focused fintech startups being the center of attraction lately.

Fintech startups like Nigeria’s Flutterwave and Paystack, and Kenya’s M-Pesa have over the last months been basking in the limelight as they have consistently proven efficient within the ecosystem. Although Ghana can boast of a few fintech startups like Zeepay, Ozé, BezoMoney, etc, it cannot be confidently said that Ghanaian fintech startups have served half of the country’s population.

Yesterday, African Fintech Studio in collaboration with Yellow Card and EMTech anchored the Ghana Fintech Connect 2021. The two hosts brought together innovative minds and entrepreneurs to interact, lead conversations, and provide solutions that can position these startups to be efficient in the ecosystem. These were three measures mentioned to accelerate growth and position startups rightly when acted on.

1. Leveraging the local dialect: While fintech startups are on the rise, many people still don’t have access to financial services. Nearly every fintech product is designed to meet the needs of the individual who understands English and not the local man. According to The World Bank, 1.7 billion adults don’t have a bank account. However, two-thirds of them have a mobile phone, which enables the unbanked to access financial services. Fintech companies can accelerate higher than they are currently doing by incorporating the local dialects in their products. Not only will they communicate with locals more effectively, but they will also be more likely to overcome the cultural barriers that keep people from collaborating with banks in the first place.
2. Collection of data: Access to data will ensure that startups can identify significant problems that the local man can relate with early on and take action to solve them. It helps them identify short-term problems and discover the tools necessary to develop more accurate long-term theories to build coherent models to implement effective solutions.
3. Collaborating with other fintech startups: collaboration between startups should never be underestimated as it serves as a powerhouse to accelerate and increase sales for a company. It provides the opportunity to access low-cost funding through trusted collaborations. It provides the platform for both startups to access state-of-the-art technology and new markets as it provides access to hundreds of thousands of customers. Partnerships are critical to staying ahead in a crowded market: partnering with the best companies specializing in a niche area saves time and resources, improves product time to market, and helps to accelerate the business’ learning curve. An example of this is the collaboration between Zeepay and Zambia’s Mangwee.

About African Fintech Studio

African Fintech Startup is an enabler that brings together players in the Fintech ecosystem to learn, share, collaborate and grow with the possible support of funding to scale up. Africa Fintech Studio is positioned to become a pan-African Fintech powerhouse for highly scalable fintech ventures.