“Can an 80-year-old Nigerian commercial bank leverage its digital-native ALAT platform to remain a leading challenger in African embedded finance?”
Wema Bank was founded in 1945 as Agbonmagbe Bank and is one of Nigeria's longest-standing commercial banks. In 2017 it launched ALAT, positioned as Africa's first fully digital bank, transforming Wema from a legacy regional bank into a digital-first challenger. In 2025 it completed a ₦150B rights issue to meet the CBN's recapitalization threshold for national commercial banks, and has been expanding embedded services on ALAT — notably embedded insurance via Curacel and a proprietary payment gateway (ALATpay / Wema WebPay) for merchant collections.
Wema Bank discloses Wema Bank PLC (in-house) as its banking provider, according to the Embedded Finance Index 2026.
Wema Bank does not disclose a bank charter of its own; its banking services are provided through Wema Bank PLC (in-house).
Wema Bank processes payments through ALATpay (self-operated), Wema WebPay (self-operated) and NIBSS.
Wema Bank's cards are issued through Wema Bank PLC (in-house) on the Visa, Mastercard and Verve networks.
Wema Bank's lending and capital products are provided by Wema Bank PLC (in-house).
Wema Bank uses Wema Bank PLC (in-house) for FX and cross-border payouts.
Wema Bank's embedded insurance is provided by Curacel.
The Embedded Finance Index 2026 maps 7 layers in Wema Bank's stack: Payments / PSP (ALATpay (self-operated), Wema WebPay (self-operated) and NIBSS); Banking / BaaS (Wema Bank PLC (in-house)); Card issuing (Wema Bank PLC (in-house)); Card network (Visa, Mastercard and Verve); Lending (Wema Bank PLC (in-house), Female Support Loan (9% SME loan), Other SME Loans, Corporate banking credit facilities and 1 other); Insurance (Curacel); FX & payouts (Wema Bank PLC (in-house)).
Wema Bank was founded by Chief Mathew Adekoya Okupe and is founded in 1945, headquartered in 54 Marina, Lagos Island, Lagos State, Nigeria.
Wema Bank has raised ₦150B rights issue (2025) + ₦50B special placement in total (latest round: ₦150B Rights Issue (2025)).
Get a read on where your own stack stands against Wema Bank and the rest of its category — what they built versus bought, which providers they use, and where the gaps in your own strategy and competitive set actually are.