Lagos Deputy Governor: Fintechs Must Move Beyond Payments to Become Economic Infrastructure

Lagos State Deputy Governor has called on fintech companies to move beyond their traditional role in payments and evolve into critical economic infrastructure supporting businesses, government and citizens.

Speaking at a fintech-focused industry engagement in Lagos, the Deputy Governor said the rapid growth of financial technology presents an opportunity for the sector to play a broader role in Nigeria’s economic transformation.

According to the Deputy Governor, fintechs should increasingly focus on building infrastructure that enables businesses to access finance, improve productivity, participate in digital commerce and connect more efficiently with the formal economy.

The call comes as Nigeria’s fintech ecosystem continues to expand across digital payments, lending, wealth management, embedded finance and other technology-enabled financial services.

The Deputy Governor stressed that the next phase of growth should go beyond transaction volumes to address deeper economic needs, including access to capital, digital identity, data, financial inclusion and infrastructure for small and medium-sized businesses.

For Lagos, the evolution of fintech is particularly significant as the state remains Nigeria’s largest commercial and technology hub, with a growing concentration of startups, financial institutions, technology companies and digital businesses.

The remarks also highlight a broader shift in the fintech conversation: from payments as a product to financial technology as infrastructure.

As competition increases across Nigeria’s digital financial services market, industry players are expected to face growing pressure to demonstrate how their platforms contribute to productivity, business growth and wider economic development.

For fintechs, the message is increasingly clear: the next opportunity may not simply be processing more payments, but building the infrastructure that enables more of the economy to operate digitally.