Sycamore CEO Says Nigerian Fintechs Want Banking Licences

In Short

• Sycamore CEO Babatunde Akin-Moses says Nigerian fintech is moving from “growth at all costs” to sustainability.
• He says more fintechs want to become banks or holding companies to control infrastructure and funding.
• The pressure is coming from higher costs, FX swings, tighter regulation, and investor expectations.

What Happened

In an interview, the founder of Sycamore said Nigerian fintechs are increasingly trying to look and operate more like banks. His argument is that the market has matured, and the key competition has shifted from the “app layer” to the plumbing underneath.

By “app layer,” he means the user-facing mobile product where customers send money, borrow, or pay bills. By “infrastructure,” he means the harder parts, access to cheaper funding, liquidity management, risk controls, compliance systems, and the licences that allow firms to hold deposits and lend more directly.

Akin-Moses said the questions investors and operators ask have changed. Instead of only tracking transaction volume and user growth, they now focus on unit economics, like customer acquisition cost, and contribution margin, meaning how much profit a customer generates after direct costs.

He also pointed to risk management becoming central. Digital lenders and payment apps now have to actively manage credit risk, liquidity risk, fraud risk, regulatory risk, and FX risk, meaning the impact of currency swings on assets and liabilities.

Why It Matters

This framing helps explain why several Nigerian fintechs are pursuing bank licences, microfinance bank licences, or financial holding company structures. A licence can lower a fintech’s cost of capital, meaning it can access funding more cheaply than relying only on wholesale borrowing.

It also signals a broader reset across African fintech. As fundraising slows and regulators tighten oversight, companies that build resilient balance sheets, strong governance, and trusted brands may be better placed to survive downturns and expand across borders.