Efforts aimed at creating seamless banking experience for the Nigerian market by a new fintech venture to connect banking app has received a boost from an American firm. The Lagos based fintech venture, Okra, which has within a year racked up a unique mix of accomplishments created a product that generates revenues from both payment startups and established financial institutions. To take its dream to the next level, Okra just raised $1 million in pre-seed funding from TLcom Capital — a $71 million Africa focused VC firm that rarely invests in early-stage companies or fintech. The startup is also poised to enter new markets and it’s hiring.
Founded in June 2019 by Nigerians Fara Ashiru Jituboh and David Peterside, Okra casts itself as a motherboard for the continent’s 21st century financial system. Speaking on the drive behind the firm, co-founder Ashiru Jituboh said that “we’re building a super-connector API that…allows individuals to connect their bank accounts directly to third party applications. And that’s their African bank accounts starting in the largest market in Africa, Nigeria.”
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As a sector, fintech has become the continent’s highest funded tech space, receiving the bulk of an estimated $2 billion in VC that went to African startups in 2019. Those ventures, and a number of the continent’s established banks, are in a race to build market share through financial inclusion. By several estimates — including The Global Findex Database — the continent is home to the largest percentage of the world’s unbanked population, with a sizable number of underbanked consumers and SMEs.
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With 54 countries, 1.2 billion people and thousands of relatively young startups, there are a lot of moving parts in Africa’s fintech space. Similar to U.S. Company Plaid, Okra is shaping a platform that connects accounts and financial data to banking apps into a revenue generating product.
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With Africa’s largest population of 200 million people, Nigeria serves as a major financial hub — but there seem to be a disconnect between fintech apps and banks, according to Okra’s Ashiru Jituboh. “Here in this market there’s no way to directly connect your bank account through an API or directly to an application,” she said. Okra offers several paid packages for those types of integrations and opens up the code to developers for its five product categories: authorization, balance, transactions, identity and accounts.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry