54% of Fintechs in Mauritius have achieved an average turnover up to MUR Rs 5-million and 63% employ around 10 people. Moreover, there is a 25% increase in demand for Fintech products and services, with a 15% faster response to market needs. However, there is a 23% increase in legal and compliance risks, 23% increase in price competition and 20% more information security and privacy threats.

This is according to the 2020 Mauritius FinTech Ecosystem Mapping survey, released by the Mauritius Africa FinTech Hub (MAFH), in conjunction with PwC.

The companies explain that the 2020 survey focused on the evolution of the Fintech ecosystem, challenges, attractiveness of Mauritius and the impact of COVID-19. It was extended to include banks, corporates, technology and academia. There were 140 respondents and 50% from the Fintech industry.

Diya Guttoo, Associate Director - Advisory at PwC said: “Fintechs are growing to a mature stage in Mauritius”, where most of them were serving the local B2B market.

Whilst COVID-19 is impacting businesses with lockdowns and physical barriers caused by social distancing measures between stakeholders in the Fintech ecosystem, it is also creating opportunities by accelerating the case for all things digital according to the MAFH.

The organisation celebrated its second anniversary on 23 October at the Caudan Arts Centre, Port Louis.

Chief Executive Officer of MAFH, Michal Szymanski said: “Today, we are celebrating our collaboration together in the digitalisation of the Mauritian economy, where we want to be the catalyst and facilitator. All stakeholders are crucial for Mauritius to become the Fintech island we want it to be.”

“We need a free flow of information and access to the correct information to move in the right direction, and along with the Economic Development Board (EDB), we are ready to address the reality. I believe that having open debates about challenges and possibilities only leads us to find solutions to be the leading Fintech hub,” he added.

Acting Chief Executive Officer of the EDB, Ken Poonoosamy, believes the ‘silver lining’ is the way that Fintech, digitalisation and the cloud offering had come to the forefront in COVID-19.

He underlined that the Regulatory Sandbox Licence regime, which is administered by the EDB, had led to approvals for crowdfunding platforms and blockchain systems, among others, and noted that the Africa FinTech Festival would be hosted in Mauritius in 2021 and that the EDB welcomed such initiatives.

MAFH said looking ahead, the survey results identified a need to focus on labs and incubators, data privacy and security, skilled labour force, regulatory environment and ease of obtaining permits and licenses.