The year 2019 has been quite defining for user adoption amongst new mobile and web applications in Nigeria. Here is a quick rundown of our top five successfully launched applications in 2019.
ORide
OPay has been operating in Nigeria since 2018 but launched its e-hailing app, ORide in June 2019. Opera founded OPay on the popularity of its internet search engines ranked No. 2 in usage in Africa, after Chrome, in the last four years. ORide provides fast transportation via motorbikes.
Just a short while after securing the approval of Nigeria’s Apex Bank, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), to commence international money transfer in Nigeria; the Nigeria-based fintech company, the main app, OPay has raised $120 million Series B funding from a group of Chinese investors. Participating in the round include existing investors Meituan-Dianping, Source Code Capital, IDG Capital, Sequoia China and GSR Ventures who funded the company’s $50 million raise in July.
Opay has a 4.3 rating on google playstore with over 1 million downloads. Other apps on the platform are OKash, Owealth and OBus (with suspended beta service), OFood, OTrike amongst others.
LG Alert
Local Government Alert (LG Alert) is a USSD based service launched by Budgit in November 2019. It allows anyone in Nigeria to access details of the Federal Government allocations to any Nigerian local government via a text message. By texting civichive (space) then local government to 34461, users can see the total amount disbursed to a specific local government in a specific month. This application encourages citizen participation and helps to hold the local government accountable for their monthly allocations.
Budgit, founded in 2011, is a civic organization that applies technology to intersect citizen engagement with institutional improvement, to facilitate societal change.
PalmPay
Africa-focused payment startup PalmPay was launched in Nigeria after raising a $40 million seed round led by Chinese mobile-phone maker Transsion. PalmPay had piloted its mobile fintech offering in Nigeria since July, before going live in November at a launch in Lagos.
According to the CEO of the company, Greg Reeves, Palmplay will leverage Trassion’s product line to acquire user adoption of the app. “On channel and access, we’re going to be pre-installed on all Tecno phones. You’re gonna find us in the Tecno stores and outlets. So we get an immediate channel and leg up in any market we operate in,” said Reeve. Palmpay has a 4.3 rating on google playstore with over 100,000 downloads.
ReQuid
ReQuid, is a web platform that provides investors (individuals & businesses) access to aggregated investment opportunities across Africa with particular focus on the Agric sector.
In the last couple of years there have been a few new entrants into the agrotech investment scene in Nigeria; companies like Farmcrowdy, Thrive Agric, Verdant Agritech, Porkmoney, to name a few. ReQuid, however, seeks to add more flexibility to the process by introducing features that allow sponsors to sell their stock and cash out before maturation. It also lowers the entry bar for investors to as low as N5,000 per unit.
ReQuid emerged first place in the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) first incubation programme, X-Kathon in October and second place in the Zenith bank Tech Hackathon, in November 2019.
MyGOtv
Multichoice Nigeria launched a new mobile app, MyGOtv, for its digital platform, GOtv in July 2019.
Born our of users’ and regulator’s request for improved 24-hour customer service, John Ugbe, Chief Executive Officer of MultiChoice Nigeria, said that “the platform will put the power of self-service back into the hands of the customers” and allow them to manage viewing preferences, clear error codes, check account balances, make payments, change packages and update their details anytime, anywhere. The app has a 4.1 rating on playstore with over 1 million downloads.
