The Fintech Founder's Playbook walks you from idea to live app: choosing your model and licence route, hiring the right developer, testing, security and launch. It comes with an online toolkit that does the planning maths for you.
Regulators have been tightening the screws on licences, KYC and lending. Every one of these was avoidable with the right decisions made early.
microfinance bank licences revoked in a single sweep, including banks linked to several fintechs. Reasons cited included minimum capital and having enough assets to meet liabilities.
The lesson: if you build on a partner's licence, their compliance is your risk. Modules 1 and 2 show what to check before you commit.
Source: BusinessDayfine reported against a major payment company over a new wallet-style product that its licence allegedly didn't cover.
The lesson: holding a customer's balance is a different licence from moving their payment. Module 1 explains exactly where that line sits.
Source: Techpoint Africaban on onboarding new customers, placed on several fintechs for not meeting KYC standards. No new users, no growth.
The lesson: design onboarding around KYC tiers from day one. Module 2 and the Compliance Tracker walk you through it.
Source: TechCabaldelisting of digital lenders, "without option or opportunity of reconsideration." Lenders that didn't register were declared to be operating illegally.
The lesson: if your app lends, registration comes before launch. Module 2 covers the current FCCPC lending rules.
Source: FCCPCThe playbook gives you these decisions in the right order, before you spend a naira on development.
You don't need to write code to build a successful fintech product. You need to make a handful of big decisions in the right order. These three mistakes sink the most projects:
A wallet balance counts as holding customer money, even if customers only buy airtime with it. That one detail changes your licence, your partners and your budget.
Code kept in the developer's own account, payments made upfront, no plan for double charges or failed transfers. The app that "almost works" costs the most.
Holding or moving customer money with no licence and no licensed partner behind you is how accounts get frozen and founders get personally exposed.
Read Modules 1 to 3 before you speak to any developer. Use Modules 4 to 8 as your guide while the build runs. Every module ends with a checklist.
Pick your model and decide whose licence you run on, with a simple decision flow.
CBN licence types and capital, KYC tiers, AML reporting, the data protection law and FCCPC lending rules.
Questions that expose weak developers, red flags, what your contract must say and a safe payment structure.
Why a payments app is really four products, what goes in version one, and how to choose providers.
What a healthy build looks like week by week, what to insist on, and the warning signs to act on.
Every money flow to test, daily reconciliation, and how to run a closed beta.
Protecting accounts and systems, fraud controls to have at launch, and a plan for the bad day.
Hosting, app store approval, monitoring, and growing without the system breaking.
Your purchase includes a login to ten interactive tools that follow the playbook. They calculate as you type, feed into each other, and save to your account so you can continue on any device. Print any tool to share with your developer, partner or lawyer.
POS agents, cooperatives, savings groups, schools, churches and merchants.
With a payments, wallet, savings or bill-payment idea.
Funding a fintech build back home and managing it from afar.
On a money app, without being technical yourself.
No. The playbook is written for founders and business owners who will hire developers, not write the code themselves. It tells you what to ask for, what good looks like, and what to check.
After payment you receive an email with your toolkit login and a temporary password. Log in, choose your own password, and download the playbook from your dashboard. The tools are ready to use straight away.
Check your spam or promotions folder first. If it still isn't there after 15 minutes, contact us using the details at the bottom of this page with your payment email, and we'll send your login.
No. It is practical guidance from building fintech products. Regulations change, so the playbook tells you to confirm every licensing and compliance requirement with the regulator and a qualified fintech lawyer before you launch.
The compliance module covers Nigerian regulators: the CBN, NFIU, NDPC and FCCPC. The hiring, planning, testing, security and launch modules apply to a payments product anywhere.
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