Africa’s Tech Opportunity: Building Trust as the Catalyst for Growth

This article is featured in Tech Cabal's opinion column

The African tech ecosystem is in the midst of transformation and a period of immense growth potential. While it presents unique challenges, the key to sustainable success lies in a powerful word - trust.  Business is often said to move at the speed of trust, and in this landscape, trust is not just a desirable attribute but the cornerstone of long-term viability. It is the lifeblood of relationships between organizations and their stakeholders, defining a company's ability to operate, lead, and thrive. With it, companies churn users less, and in an era “where everyone has a glass jaw,” can withstand crises better. Without it, credibility crumbles, and reputations falter. Conversely, trust provides the foundation for institutions to take informed risks, recover from setbacks, and build resilience over time. It underpins consumer confidence, attracts discerning investors, and determines whether nascent ventures thrive. In African economies that are sometimes froth with multiple taxation and inconsistent regulation, instead of waiting for the government to create an enabling environment that can accelerate trust in the economy, it’s incumbent on entrepreneurs to create little pockets of enabling environments within their firms and respective ecosystems to ignite trust and improve the relationships among their employees, investors, customers, and regulators. 

Consider this: a 2021 study by Klasha and TechCabal revealed a trust deficit between African businesses and consumers. Both parties harbor concerns about hidden charges, past negative experiences, online transaction security, return policies, product quality, delivery reliability, and inadequate consumer protection regulations. Among businesses, particularly SMEs, trust is often cultivated through relationships rather than transactions, highlighting the cultural importance of personal connections. These dynamics emphasize the critical need for African tech companies, especially as digital platforms, to prioritize trust-building as a core strategic imperative. Without trust, scale is limited.

The financial services sector offers additional insights into trust as a dynamic. According to McKinsey’s 2021 report on the African financial services landscape, 67% of banked customers expressed greater trust in traditional banks compared to fintech companies. Although this gap has narrowed over time, key segments - including digitally savvy, middle-aged, and affluent consumers - remain wary. Common pain points include subpar user experiences, inadequate value-added services (such as advisory or estate-planning support), inefficiencies like slow complaint resolution, cumbersome applications, and limited financial tracking tools. These issues underscore the urgency for fintech and digital-first companies to embed trust-enhancing mechanisms into their platforms from inception.

Paystack, a leading online payment provider, offers a compelling example of how trust can be cultivated and leveraged for growth. With its simple plug-and-play solution, Paystack enables merchants to start receiving payments within minutes of registration. Beyond this, it offers value-added services like invoicing, accounting integrations, and transaction dashboards, empowering SMEs to stay organized. Today, over 400,000 businesses rely on Paystack’s platform, a testament to the trust it has built through reliability, transparency, and customer-centric innovation.

Another portfolio company, Piggyvest, is renowned for weathering various risks triggered by rumors and false narratives on social media. In these incidents, watching the platform’s millions of users defend a product they have grown to trust and love is always a joy! When you deliberately build trust, you inadvertently cultivate die-hard brand advocates and boost your net promoter score (NPS), a measure of customer loyalty and satisfaction that can be a powerful indicator of trust in your brand. A high NPS indicates that customers are not only satisfied with your product or service but also trust your brand enough to recommend it to others, which is a strong testament to the trust you've built.

This essay presents a practical framework for building trust in the African tech ecosystem. It equips founders with actionable insights to navigate the complexities of scaling in this unique environment. By prioritizing trust at every stage, from design to execution, founders can position their ventures for sustainable growth and long-term success.

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Beyond the Hype: Building a Foundation of Trust

Trust is earned by saying what we will do, sharing why, and delivering what we said we would - transparently. (Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance).

According to a 2024 PwC report, 41% of executives acknowledge that a lack of investor trust puts the cost of capital at risk, while 38% highlight its impact on access to capital and market value. This underscores a crucial reality: building trust isn’t just about satisfying customers - it’s the cornerstone of broader successes, influencing everything from financial stability to long-term growth.

African founders can cultivate trust through four critical pillars: strong governance, robust financial processes, strategic branding, and exceptional sales and customer success.

1. Establishing Strong Governance: The Role of a Solid Board

Governance forms the foundation of a trusted organization. Strong governance provides the framework for accountability, strategic direction, and oversight, which are critical in inspiring confidence among stakeholders, especially in Africa’s complex regulatory environment. 

A robust governance structure is paramount. This goes beyond compliance; it's about establishing a culture of transparency, accountability, and ethical conduct. A competent and independent board of directors, with diverse expertise and a commitment to long-term value creation - WILL hold the executives accountable while helping to set the foundation for a trusted organization that adheres to best practices. Having a board with reputable personalities also helps score extra points as they can add the benefit of their credibility to boost the company's trust perception.

2. Strengthening the Finance Function: Building Financial Discipline

Financial management is the backbone of any trusted enterprise. It goes beyond merely keeping the books balanced; it’s about instilling confidence through transparency, forthrightness, and resilience. A company with a strong finance function can navigate uncertainty, attract investment, and reassure customers and partners of its stability.

The 2023 Wimbart Investors Report highlighted that financial reporting is the top KPI for investors when engaging with founders. This emphasis stems from concerns about financial stability, sustainability, and the growing need for transparency, accountability, and robust performance monitoring to manage risks effectively. Without such reporting, decision-making would lack critical insights, increasing the likelihood of missteps and making business success nearly unattainable.

A sound treasury management system will help ensure that inflow and outflows are well matched and customer funds are not commingled with company overheads - a problem we see far too often that often leads to a bridge of customer trust.

As the adoption of digital financial platforms has risen, we have sadly also seen a spike in incidents of fraud and identity theft. Left unchecked, this erodes trust, and thus, a robust cyber security and fraud prevention framework must be integrated into the finance and treasury function across your digital platforms. 

3. Crafting a Strong Brand: The Power of Consistency and Storytelling

Founders must identify what makes their brand unique and communicate this clearly across all channels. A strong brand is more than just a logo or a tagline—it is the sum of every interaction and impression consumers have with a company. The title of Ben Horowitz's latest book comes to mind here: “What you do is who you are.” A compelling brand story that reflects the customer experience and resonates with an audience can transform skepticism into loyalty, especially in markets where trust is hard-won. 

A brand’s value proposition should align with the needs and aspirations of its target audience. Piggyvest is a​​ classic example of a company that has built a trusted brand and enjoyed great success based on this is Piggyvest. There is more on how the company has achieved this. 

The EFInA - Access to Financial Services in Nigeria report 2023 illustrates the correlation between effective storytelling, awareness, and communication with consumer trust in other formal (non-bank) products, such as fintech apps.

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4. Delivering Exceptional Sales and Customer Success: The Human Element

Sales and customer success are often the most direct interactions customers have with a brand, making them pivotal in building and maintaining trust. Exceptional customer experiences not only meet expectations but exceed them, turning satisfied customers into brand ambassadors.

The key to success in this area is personalization. Customers want to feel valued and understood, and businesses that tailor their interactions to individual needs can foster stronger relationships. Founders should invest in training their sales and customer success teams to handle customer queries with empathy and expertise. Technology can support these efforts by enabling data-driven insights that help anticipate customer needs and track satisfaction levels. This is especially crucial for virtual businesses that do not have a physical storefront. In these cases, the resolution speed can distinguish between a trusted brand and one that connotes risk. 

An ideal example of a company that embodies this is Fluna. Fluna’s commitment to understanding and addressing the unique needs of businesses across Africa has solidified its reputation. By offering tailored solutions and maintaining open lines of communication, the company has built lasting relationships with its clients. Their proactive communication, swift issue resolution, and culture of exceeding expectations have made the company a preferred partner for many of its customers today.

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The Story Behind Trust: How Do You Get 5.5 million Nigerians to Save on a Digital Platform?

In 2018, Odunayo Eweniyi, Somto Ifezue, and Joshua Chibueze set out to transform Nigeria's traditional saving model. Their bold vision resulted in the creation of PiggyVest, a platform that has since redefined financial discipline and inclusion for millions. Fast forward to 2024, PiggyVest boasts over 5.5 million users  - a remarkable leap from the 700 users it started with. The company has achieved an impressive 76% growth in Assets Under Management (AUM), surpassed ₦2 trillion in total payouts to users since inception, and now sees an average of ₦44,000 saved every second. This success has not gone unnoticed; in 2024, PiggyVest was recognized by CNBC as one of the Top 250 Fintechs globally.

All these achievements underscore one undeniable truth: trust has been the bedrock of PiggyVest's success. But how did the company build and sustain this trust?

When PiggyVest launched in April 2018, it had just 700 users by December. Among these, only 400 were active savers, collectively putting away ₦21 million. Despite these modest beginnings, PiggyVest's commitment to delivering on its promises set the stage for exponential growth.

One standout feature - the quarterly Free Withdrawal Days, proved pivotal in cultivating trust. This feature allowed users to withdraw their savings on designated days without penalties. When users experienced the reliability of this feature firsthand - receiving their funds and the promised interest - they naturally took to social media platforms, particularly X (formerly Twitter), to share their positive experiences. Early adopters became brand ambassadors, amplifying PiggyVest's reputation organically. Meanwhile, the PiggyVest team concentrated on refining user experiences, improving services, and leveraging data to develop features users genuinely needed. By the end of 2018, the user base had grown from 700 to 2,000, primarily driven by word-of-mouth and social proof.

By 2022, PiggyVest’s user base had exploded to over 4 million. In an interview, Odunayo Eweniyi reflected on this rapid growth and shared a simple yet profound insight: “First, we made our customer service excellent. We ensure that every word on our website, as a promise to users, is true.” This unwavering commitment to fulfilling promises cemented PiggyVest’s reputation as a trustworthy brand.

PiggyVest’s story exemplifies a core branding principle: a brand is ultimately a promise kept. Trust becomes tangible when promises are consistently fulfilled, sparking loyalty and advocacy that propel growth. For PiggyVest, trust was not merely a strategy; it became the foundation of a movement that revolutionized how Nigerians save and build wealth.

In closing, it is helpful to distill a simple definition of trust.  Predictability over time. If a company has come to provide subpar customer experiences, customers will “trust” the company. But they’ll trust it to offer subpar experiences since that’s what the company has done over time - with serious consequences. If you doubt this for a second, then the PwC Trust in Business Survey (2021), which reports that 71% of customers would buy less if a company loses their trust and 73% would spend significantly less if the same happens, should set you on the right path. 

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Kola Aina is the Founding Partner of Ventures Platform, an early-stage VC fund that invests in innovative startups across Africa.

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