The regulation gave banks room to set up licenced fintech subsidiaries and compete directly with independent players like Flutterwave, Paystack, Opay, and Moniepoint. “We aspire to become the leading end-to-end financial services provider for businesses and individuals in our country and region,” Basil Omiyi, the Group Chairman of Stanbic Holdings, said during the launch of Zest. Hydrogen’s after-tax profit hit ₦283 million ($190,111) in Q1, 2025, and HabariPay’s profit at ₦4.02 billion ($2.70 million) in H1, 2025, while Zest continues to struggle since declaring ₦1.21 billion ($812,844) as its loss after tax in 2023. In January, Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc disclosed it was injecting ₦4 billion ($2.69 million) in Zest to help the struggling fintech scale its infrastructure and payment network. Beyond enabling transfers, Zest is currently pitching itself as a payments partner for businesses, offering a single dashboard that integrates cards, bank transfers, mobile money, and QR codes.