The dream of establishing smartphone “super apps” that can operate across Africa’s markets is galvanising Chinese investment into Nigeria.
Nigeria, with about 220mn people, is the continent’s most populous country and its biggest economy. So, when two Chinese-backed fintech companies hatched ambitions to build African versions of Chinese mobile payment giants Alipay or WeChat Pay, they decided to start in Lagos.
“[We are building] a very, very super app,” says Chika Nwosu, managing director of PalmPay, one of the Chinese-backed mobile payments start-ups. “Nigeria is the hub for business in Africa.” Also open for business in Ghana, PalmPay has seen its active users grow fivefold to 25mn over the past year and plans to expand to Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, Nwosu says.