Nigerian FinTech Tingo Announces $900M Merger With MICT

Nigerian agri-FinTech company Tingo is set to merge with Nasdaq-listed financial services provider MICT in a deal expected to generate $900 million in yearly revenue and help the companies expand across the African and Asian markets.

According to a Tuesday (May 10) news release, the two firms will create an integrated FinTech platform offering that combines the wealth management, share trading and insurance offering capabilities of MICT, with the Tingo FinTech and one-stop-shop marketplace capabilities.

Following the merger, Dozy Mmobuosi will become chief executive officer of MICT, which is expected to be renamed Tingo Inc., while the executive officers of Tingo will be appointed to similar positions within MICT. Darren Mercer, who had been CEO of MICT, will become the executive vice chairman and Pacific-Asia CEO.

Mmobuosi said that Tingo was impressed with MICT’s operations in China, and the company believes there’s is a huge audience there for its platform, including China’s estimated 200 to 400 million farming community members.

Read more: Mobile FinTech Products Offer Path to Financial Inclusion in Nigeria

In addition to its eCommerce platform, which generates about $4 billion in transactions a year, Tingo also offers a service where it leases smartphones to connect growers to things such as access inputs, credit and markets for their produce.

In an interview with PYMNTS earlier this year, Mmobuosi spoke about Tingo’s recent partnership with business solutions company ITScope Consulting to build a digital portal that lets small businesses communicate with each other and with partners, clients and customers.

“We’ll use our expertise and support our partners to build this whole ecosystem for SMEs,” Mmobuosi said. “The SMEs will be using the Tingo wallet, so we’re looking at onboarding 2.5 million SMEs for that, and everything they will use is basically the Tingo ecosystem that we have used for the farmers.”