| South Africa | Yoco acquires Nona Digital. Yoco, a South African payments company that builds tools and services to help small businesses accept card payments in-store and online, has acquired Cape Town-based software development agency, Nona Digital. The purpose of the acquisition is to leverage Nona’s technical expertise to accelerate Yoco’s product development. Disrupt Africa |
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| Nigeria | OnePipe and Fidelity Bank partner to launch PayGatePlus. Fidelity Bank, a commercial bank in Nigeria has entered a partnership with OnePipe, a Nigerian embedded finance company to launch PayGatePlus, an enhanced version of Fidelity Bank’s payment gateway PayGate. According to Ope Adeoye, CEO of OnePipe, the purpose of the partnership was to modernise PayGate by expanding the service offerings available. PayGatePlus will include services such as virtual accounts, BVN validation, and direct debit. Techmoran |
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| Africa | Should fintechs operate without a license? Following The Bank of Ghana’s recent move to suspend Dash , Ali Hussein Kassim shared his opinion on the practice of financial services providers operating without a license. Linkedin |
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| Nigeria | United Bank Africa (UBA) partners with Cellulant to extend payment services. UBA, a commercial bank with a footprint in 19 African countries, and Cellulant, a Pan-African payments company, have announced a partnership to extend the services of Cellulant’s payment gateway, Tingg, to customers and merchants in all 19 UBA markets. Nairametrics |
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| South Africa | TymeBank launches Tymehealth. TymeBank, a South African digital bank has collaborated with the National HealthCare Group to launch TymeHealth, a medical insurance product. This will provide TymeBank Customers with low-cost health insurance packages on the TymeBank mobile app. TechCentral |
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| Egypt | Three Egyptian banks set up $85m fintech fund. Banque Misr, National Bank of Egypt and, Banque du Caire have set up Nclude - a fintech fund with an initial investment of $85m focused on boosting fintech innovation and increasing financial inclusion in Egypt. The investment is managed by Global Ventures and will be led by Banque Misr with National Bank of Egypt and Banque du Caire acting as strategic investors. So far, Nclude has invested in four (4) companies: Khazna (a financial super app), Lucky (a consumer credit product), Mozare3 (an agritech platform) and Paymob (a digital lending product). Afrikan Heroes |
| | EDITOR'S NOTE | In issue 109, we reported a $63.6m fund by these banks to support local and international fintech startups looking to enter the Egyptian market. The continued investment of these legacy banks in the development of fintech in Egypt is very indicative of the importance placed on fintechs in the country. |
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| Nigeria | Federal Competition Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) driving regulation of digital lenders. Following customer complaints of unethical recovery practices by digital lenders in Nigeria, FCCPC - the apex Nigerian consumer protection agency - recently took some measures in a bid to protect consumers of digital lending products. In recent weeks, the FCCPC has raided and closed some digital lenders’ offices, closed some of their bank accounts, and also requested Google and Apple to remove these lending applications from their stores for violating the rights of their customers. Nairametrics |
| | EDITOR'S NOTE | Smartphone and internet penetration, innovation by fintechs, and economic factors have driven a demand for retail credit. CBN reported a 43% increase in consumer lending between 2019 and 2021, and much of this is attributed to the competitiveness between banks and fintechs. However, with the explosion of digital lenders, it has been hard for regulators to keep up and this has created room for unethical methods in loan recoveries. Lenders have been reported to disregard data privacy and engage in aggressive shaming and recollection practices. While it is important that customers have seamless access to credit, it is also necessary that digital lenders employ ethical methods for recovery and do not infringe on the rights of customers. |
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| Kenya | 4G Capital secures $18.5m Series C funding. 4G Capital, a Kenyan-based digital bank, has received $18.5 million in Series C capital from Lightrock, a private equity firm. The funds will be used by 4G Capital to expand its last-mile finance and enterprise solutions to SMEs in Kenya and Uganda. TechCrunch |
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| Nigeria | Klump raises $780k pre-seed funding. Klump, a Lagos-based Buy Now Pay Later payment platform, raised $780k pre-seed to enable it to launch its flagship product Pay with Klump. The round was led by Seedcamp, a London-based investment firm with participation from MAGIC Fund, Voltron Capital, Yellowwood, Kickoff Africa, Hoaq Capital, and others. Wee Tracker |
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| Côte d’Ivoire | Digitech raises $328k seed funding. The Ivorian insurtech startup raised $328k to design and commercialize Hyperion 2.0, a cloud-based reinsurance ERP solution that optimises operations between insurers and reinsurers. The funding round was led by BLOC Smart African Fund. WeeTracker |
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