The list highlights companies that are building new ways to pay, save, and manage money.
These African firms are not just growing fast. They are also helping people who have often been left out of the formal financial system.
Millions of people now use their platforms to send money, shop, save, and run small businesses.
Nigeria’s Opay is one of the biggest names on the list
The company has over 50 million registered users and more than 10 million people using its app daily. It processes around 100 million transactions every day and supports over 1 million merchants.
PalmPay, also from Nigeria, is another fast-growing platform
It has more than 35 million users and now processes about 15 million transactions daily. PalmPay says its success rate for payments is about 99.5 percent.
Interswitch, another Nigerian firm, made the list
Interswitch has played a key role in Africa’s digital payments journey for many years. It provides payment infrastructure, runs card networks, and powers millions of point-of-sale and online transactions across the country.
Its Verve cards are widely used in Nigeria and accepted in many other African markets, making Interswitch one of the most established names in the sector.
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It focuses on small business banking and payments and has grown fast.
It serves over 2 million businesses in Nigeria, offering them payment tools, credit, and expense management.
South Africa’s Yoco made the list for helping small businesses accept payments
Yoco focuses on helping small businesses accept card payments. Before Yoco, many of these merchants could only accept cash. Today, over 200,000 small businesses use Yoco card machines.
Yoco processes more than 2 billion US dollars in card payments every year through these merchants.
This shows how fintech tools can help small businesses grow and serve more customers.
Egypt’s Paymob and MyFawry also made the list.
They are two of the biggest names in North Africa’s fast-growing digital economy. MyFawry has millions of users and handles payments for services like utilities, schools, and shopping.
Paymob powers digital payments for thousands of merchants across Egypt and other markets, helping more small businesses move online and get paid faster.
Nigeria’s PiggyVest made the list for making saving easy for young Nigerians
It helps people save and invest their money. In 2024 alone, PiggyVest paid out over 835 billion naira to users and has now paid out more than 2 trillion naira since it launched. It has also grown its assets under management by over 70 percent in just one year.
This shows that more Africans are starting to use fintech platforms to plan for the future, not just make daily payments.
This recognition comes as Africa’s fintech sector keeps expanding even though funding has slowed globally.
In Nigeria alone, mobile money operators processed over 71 trillion naira in 2024, and digital payments across banks, POS machines, and other platforms reached more than 1 quadrillion naira.
The number of fintech companies in Africa has nearly tripled since 2020. Payments remain the strongest part of the sector, but wealth platforms like PiggyVest show how quickly new segments are emerging.
There are still challenges
Remittance fees remain high, currencies are unstable, and funding is harder to raise. But these companies have continued to grow by focusing on the everyday needs of people and small businesses.
Their appearance on CNBC’s list shows that African fintech is becoming more visible globally and is starting to be seen as part of the future of financial services.
