When Fintech Fails in Africa: The Story of WARI in Senegal

This research investigates factors behind WARI's collapse, a once-promising Senegalese FinTech company. Using a mixed-methods approach, we conducted interviews with executives and surveyed over 600 users across four cities. Results indicate that poor management is the primary failure factor, followed by significant conflict between founders and CEOs. Additional contributors included financial difficulties, strained stakeholder relations, and limited government support. The study makes several contributions: it employs a mixed-methodology approach to achieve a comprehensive understanding and explores resource-based theory, resource dependence theory, and failure rate theory as frameworks for explaining SME growth and failure. Notably, we identify founder-CEO conflict as a novel failure trigger. These insights can inform governments and financial authorities in developing effective support measures for SMEs, particularly in critical financial technology sectors.