Abstract

Interswitch Group (Interswitch), an Africa-focused integrated digital payments and commerce company, was founded in December 2002 in Nigeria by Mitchell Elegbe after he felt the urgent need for a simple and affordable digital payment system in the country which was then a heavily cash dependent economy. Interswitch was launched as a transaction switching and electronic payments processing company that built and managed payment infrastructure and soon grew to deliver innovative payment products and transactional services throughout the African continent. Over the years, Interswitch grew through funding and partnerships. By mid-2020, Interswitch was present in Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, and Gambia and its services and payment tokens were being used in 25 African markets. However, it was facing increasing competition from FinTech startups in Nigeria and across Africa. Startups such as Flutterwave and TeamAPT had already entered some of Interswitch’s product territory. Amidst these developments, industry experts wondered whether Interswitch would be able to broaden access to financial services for Africans, driving greater financial inclusion across the continent. This case study on Nigeria’s Interswitch is ideal for graduate and postgraduate management courses in Entrepreneurship and Strategy and General Management with particular focus on FinTech, and Financial Services.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Analyze the path of an entrepreneur from idea generation to market development to scaling up
• Discuss the challenges of achieving financial inclusion at the bottom of the pyramid
• Analyze the conditions under which financial inclusioncan be achieved in under-developed countries
• Analyze how the regulatory framework of a country impacts the growth of digital payments
• Examine the challenges faced by first entrants like Interswitch working to create financial inclusion in Africa

Keywords

FinTech; Financial services; Emerging markets; Digital payment; Cash-less Economy; Entrepreneurship; Financial inclusion