(Adds details, background) ABUJA, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Nigeria’s Wema Bank is seeking opportunities to acquire a fintech firm to boost its customer base and transactions or a merger with another commercial bank, Deputy Chief Executive Moruf Oseni said on Friday. Banks in Africa’s largest economy - a mainstay for equity and fixed income frontier market investors - are looking for ways to cope with slow growth and rising inflation, which cramped lending last year as the pandemic raged and spawned a series of restructurings. “Inorganic growth is one of the pillars of our growth. We are looking at all options,” Oseni told an analyst call. “No matter how efficient we are ... scale is key.” Wema Bank, which has been focusing on a digital-led strategy after it switched to a national bank from a regional one six years ago, said the transaction count on its platform grew 34.7% in the first half to 18.1 million. Financial technology firms, ranging from payment companies to ones processing transactions for customers, have disrupted brick and mortar banking in Africa’s most populous country, which has seen a slowdown in lending as it struggles to shake off the impact of a pandemic-induced recession. “An M&A is not off the table. It could be with another Nigerian bank, it could be with a fintech or it could be acquiring another fintech firm,” Oseni said. He said venture capital firms had poured cash into fintech companies, but Wema had also seen growth from supporting them in the settlement of transactions. The mid-tier lender is targeting pretax profit of 8.5 billion naira ($21 million) in 2021, up from 6.9 billion naira a year ago, after reaching 4 billion naira by in the first half. Wema plans to sell shares in September to existing shareholders worth 40 billion naira ($97 million) to boost its equity capital, once it obtains regulatory approval, it said. $1 = 411.00 naira Reporting by Chijioke Ohuocha Editing by Jason Neely and Mark Potter Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.