"Why Nigerian companies topped Africa\u2019s fastest growing list in a difficult year"

" Why Nigerian companies topped Africa\u2019s fastest growing list in a difficult year \r\n When a scarcity of hard cash worsened an already tough economic situation in Nigeria in 2023, an unprecedented development occurred: e-payments soared and became the new norm in the country. A number of companies tapped into this ecosystem, a move that made them some of Africa\u2019s fastest growing firms, according to a report from the Financial Times. \r\n\r\n Conrad Onyango, bird story agency \r\n\r\nIn early 2023, when Nigeria began rolling out its newly designed currency notes, the country was hit by a cash crisis.\r\n\r\nThe reason? Nigeria\u2019s apex bank had put a cap on the maximum amount of hard cash that individuals and corporations could withdraw as part of wider efforts to tame money laundering.\r\n\r\nWhile this scarcity of hard cash worsened Nigeria\u2019s tough economic situation, an unprecedented development occurred: e-payments soared and became the new norm in the country.\r\n\r\nIn turn, Nigerian companies that rode on this development to help fix flow of money in the country - by leveraging digital technologies to digitise their key stakeholders across the value chain - begun winning big, with significant revenue growth to emerge among Africa\u2019s fastest-growing firms.\r\n\r\nThe West African economy ranks second overall with 25 companies after South Africa (42) in this year\u2019s Financial Times\u2019 annual Africa\u2019s Fastest Growing Companies rankings. Nigeria produced the continent\u2019s top-ranked country in the index and three - OmniRetail, Moniepoint and AFEX - in the top ten.\r\n\r\nOmniRetail was Africa\u2019s fastest-growing company in 2024. The company is an e-commerce platform that digitises the supply chain from distributors to retailers by embracing a retailer-first, asset-light approach. It saw its compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in revenue rise by 772.39% between 2019 and 2022.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe will continue to improve infrastructure for efficient product distribution, envisioning more product variety and efficient distribution to even more remote areas. As a company, we are on a journey to completely eliminate the inefficiencies of traditional trade by digitising the key stakeholders across the value chain\u201d said OmniRetail CEO Deepankar Rustagi.\r\n\r\nAccording to Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System, Nigeria\u2019s Electronic payments surged to US$413.87 billion in 2023, growing by more than 50% compared to 2022.\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\nAccording to the data, there has been a significant increase in the total value of point-of-sale (PoS) transactions, amounting to US$7.4 billion (N10.73 trillion) in 2023, a 27.85% increase from the US$5.78 billion (8.39 trillion naira) recorded in 2022.\r\n\r\nSince 2019 when it started operations, the OmniRetail has onboarded over 140,000 small retailers and listed more than 200 brands on its platform.\r\n\r\nFor the second year running, Moniepoint was listed as Africa's fastest-growing fintech\u00a0by both the Financial Times and Statista. The payment startup finished fourth on the Financial Times' global list, with its revenue growing by 332.3% to US$149 million.\r\n\r\nAccording to a statement on its website, Moniepoint said its efforts have helped to close Nigeria\u2019s financial inclusion gap citing number of Nigerians - mostly businesses in the informal sector - who did not have access to formal banking services have dropped from about 51% in 2018 to 36% in 2023.\r\n\r\n\u201cMore people have accounts, because we\u2019ve been able to leverage our strong distribution network. People no longer have to go to banking halls, the banking halls are going to them,\u201d said Moniepoint.\r\n\r\nAs of\u00a0February 22, 2023, the company said it had activated a new payment terminal every 30 seconds in Nigeria and introduced web payments with the introduction of virtual accounts. By close of 2023, the company reported disbursing over US$70 million in loans to thousands of small businesses.\r\n\r\nIn February 2024, Moniepoint partnered with Nigeria\u2019s Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) to digitize and formalize operations for over 2 million small and medium businesses across Nigeria.\r\n\r\n\u201cOur recent partnership with the CAC, for example, will ensure that 30 million businesses will become formalised in the next five years, giving them access to a full range of financial services and government assistance,\u201d said Moniepoint.\r\n\r\nCommodities brokerage firm, Africa Exchange finished fifth-best with revenues of US$415 million with a growth rate of 287.82%. The all-inclusive online trading platform has presence in 7 countries including home country Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda and Cote D'Ivoire, Dubai, USA, and Netherlands.\r\n\r\nKenya tied in third position with a big newcomer, Morocco, with 12 fastest growing companies each in the top 125 list. Morocco had just three last year.\r\n\r\nInternational Monetary Fund has forecast Nigeria\u2019s GDP to drop to US$253 billion in 2024 relegating the country to fourth largest economy - citing depreciation of the Naira as the main reason behind the economy's current decline.\r\n\r\nSouth Africa is poised to be Africa\u2019s largest economy with a GDP of US$373 billion, followed by Egypt with US$348 billion, and Algeria with US$267 billion.\r\n\r\nNigeria had maintained its title as \"Africa's largest economy,\" for a decade with a total GDP of US$477 billion following rebasing in 2013.\r\n\r\n bird story agency \r\n \r\n \r\n "

"Why Nigerian companies topped Africa\u2019s fastest growing list in a difficult year"

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