| Egypt | Telecom Egypt and Banque Misr announce partnership to launch WE mobile wallet. The wallet service is designed to enable customers securely send, receive, and store money using a smartphone application. The mobile wallet’s subscribers will also enjoy a number of electronic payment facilities including peer-to-peer transfers and person-to-merchant transactions. Mubasher Info |
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| Kenya | Ex-Safaricom CEO Michael Joseph appointed as interim boss after Collymore’s death. Following the sad passing of Bob Collymore, Michael Joseph - a former Safaricom CEO - has made a comeback in an acting capacity. In a special meeting of the directors, the board picked the telecom’s former boss to lead in an interim capacity with immediate effect. CGTN Africa |
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| Kenya | Mobile subscriptions in Kenya have hit 51 million. According to the latest quarterly report by the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) there were 1.5 million new active subscriptions in Q1 of 2019. The quarter's sector report also shows a 1.4% increase in the number of active mobile money subscriptions of 32 million, up from 31.6 million. Techmoran |
| | EDITOR'S NOTE | See the full quarterly sector statistics report from the Communication Authority of Kenya here. |
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| Togo | Orabank Togo, a subsidiary of the Oragroup banking group, launches KEAZ, its multi-service digital banking platform. The KEAZ platform provides users with a simple, user-friendly experience, and consistent information across all channels. The customer will be able to start a transaction from a mobile phone and complete it either at an ATM, on the internet, or through a sub-agent. All Africa |
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| Liberia | Telecommunications company Lonestar Cell MTN launches university fees payment via mobile money. The new service was developed and launched in partnership with the University of Liberia and MWETANA, an online payment solutions company. The New Dawn |
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| Global | Naspers' PayU is pushing into Southeast Asia, acquires Red Dot Payment. Red Dot is 8 years old and offers services including a payment gateway, eCommerce storefronts, and online invoicing. The deal with PayU values the firm at $65 million. Naspers, which already specializes in developing markets in India, Latin America, Africa, and Eastern Europe, is now officially adding Southeast Asia to its line-up. PYMNTS |
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| Global | Orange Business Services, Genesis Analytics partner to deliver digital banking strategy in Middle East and Africa. The partnership aims to prepare financial institutions to launch new digital ecosystem banking services. They will do this by supporting the financial institution through their digital transformation journey, from strategic regulatory advice and building co-innovation sandboxes, to hosting banking solutions in the cloud. IT News Africa |
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| Zimbabwe | Zimbabwean banks dump Paynet, a subsidiary of Mauritian financial services provider Cambria, as they develop their own system. The new system to be known as Bank File Interchange System (BFIS) will be collaboratively funded by all Zimbabwean banks. The system will have the Bankers Association of Zimbabwe as its custodian and will ride on the ZimSwitch platform. The local system is expected to save the bankers a large sum while also saving on scarce foreign currency reserves. Zimbabwe Independent |
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| Nigeria | A Moody's report states that Nigerian banks face threats from Telcos with the implementation of Payment Service Banking. The Moody's report notes that most of the banks in the country will not be able to withstand this competition with the exception of Access Bank, United Bank for Africa (UBA), Guarantee Trust Bank (GTB), First Bank of Nigeria (FBN) and Zenith Bank. Sahara Reporters |
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| Nigeria | Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) sets a target of 64 new customers per month for Microfinance banks. The target followed a series of meetings between the CBN and Microfinance bank operators on the contributions of the sub sector towards the achievement of the nation’s goal of 80% financial inclusion by 2020. Vanguard |
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| Nigeria | The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said that Deposit Money Banks can now operate mobile money wallet services without prior approval. The CBN hopes that this will help deepen financial inclusion in line with its objectives to achieve the national financial inclusion target of 80% by 2020. Deposit Money Banks are, however, expected to notify the CBN before the commencement of these services and are required to operate within the regulations on mobile money operations. Punch |
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| Nigeria | Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said that banks in the country have successfully linked 38 million accounts with Bank Verification Numbers (BVN). BVN is a unique ID number issued to Bank customers at enrolment and linked to every account that the customer has in all Nigerian Banks. The CBN's goal is to expand the enrolment to 100 million over the next 5 years. The CBN also has a partnership with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) to enable integration between the databases of both institutions. Nigeria Communications Week |
| | EDITOR'S NOTE | See more information about BVN and the current count here |
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| Kenya | Central Bank of Kenya bans listing of loan defaulters in Credit Reference Bureaus before 6 months. CBK has issued a circular that will in effect align mobile loans to normal loans, meaning a customer will only be considered to have defaulted after six months. Standard Digital |
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| Nigeria | Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) sets new regulation to boost lending CBN has told banks to maintain a minimum loan-to-deposit ratio of 60% by September 2019. The regulator said in a circular dated July 3 that lenders who fall short of the target loan-to-deposit ratio would face higher cash reserve requirements. Nigeria Communications Week |
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