👨🏿‍🚀TechCabal Each day – PayPal’s listening to Africa

Nigeria’s bank-owned fintech subsidiaries have been trying to find their breakout second.

For Warranty Belief Holding Firm (GTCO)’s fintech arm, HabariPay, that second got here in H1 2025, the place it grew its revenue twelvefold to $2.70 million from $217,094 in H1 2022. 

It’s virtually the identical means that Stanbic IBTC’s Zest grew its earnings fourteenfold to $587,128 within the first half of 2025. However Zest continues to be working at a loss (the fintech misplaced $261,525 in H1 2025), and Entry Financial institution’s Hydrogen reported a revenue of $190,268 in Q1 2025. This makes HabariPay Nigeria’s most worthwhile bank-backed fintech.

What’s the expansion driver? The surge is powered by stronger service provider exercise and transaction volumes. Habari earns income from web commissions on service provider transactions and gross sales margins on invoice funds, resembling airtime merchandising and bulk SMS. Add in GTCO’s switching licence that enables it to course of transfers instantly, and what you get is a enterprise mannequin that scales shortly and retains extra of the transaction economics in-house.

Nonetheless, Habari’s development solely accounts for 0.89% of its father or mother firm’s H1 2025 revenue, which stands at $301.88 million, and the hole is wider exterior bank-backed fintechs. 

Habari continues to be a light-weight beside fintech giants like OPay, Flutterwave, Paystack, PalmPay, and Moniepoint. Estimates peg PalmPay’s 2023 income at $63.9 million and Moniepoint’s at $264.5 million.

Zoom out: HabariPay has proven that bank-backed fintechs can compete and develop quick with the best merchandise and licences. However can they hold tempo with unbiased giants that already dominate Nigeria’s funds financial system? Nicely, the race isn’t over.