PaySika, a Cameroonian neobank that facilitates online and offline payments, was named the best fintech startup at the AfricArena Summit in Lagos, Nigeria.
The Nigerian summit, in partnership with the African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association, is the second leg of the AfricArena Tour 2025, following the Johannesburg Summit in March.
The summit included a pitch competition, in which PaySika competed against nine other start-ups in the fintech category.
Other fintechs in this category include PaySika, Pika Insights, REasy, Adashi, Liquify, loop, myStash, XChange Box Solutions, and Northwave Ltd.
PaySika's co-founder and CEO, Roger Nengwe, says the company is establishing Cameroon's first totally digital microfinance bank for consumers and SMEs in Central Africa.
“We aim to streamline the hardship in getting a bank account and bank card which takes a lot of time and paperwork to complete as only 25% of the average Cameroonian adult has a bank account while most online banking apps are unreliable,” he said.
Nengwe went on to elaborate, saying as a result when they first entered the market, they introducing a prepaid card in partnership with Visa which enables people to create an account from their home in 5 minutes.
Regarding regulation and compliance, Nengwe stated that the company has taken its time to ensure prompt Know-Your-Customer (KYC) practice through its onboarding process.
“We have decided at the very beginning not to do everything automatic by validating KYC for our users and talking about licenses, we are currently looking forward to having a license,” he stated.
He stated that PaySika intends to provide a wide range of financial services and products over the next five years, including lending and other banking products.
Christophe Viarnaud, CEO of AfricArena, lauded the winner, stating that the start-up has bold, scalable ideas that Africa requires to break down traditional barriers.
“PaySika’s win in a country of fintechs is no small achievement,” he added.
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