| South Sudan | South Sudan has officially launched its first mobile money service. The mobile money service, M-Gurush, is a joint partnership between Trinity Technologies and Zain Company. Some of the services that will be available on M-Gurush include; cash in, cash out, bills payment, airtime purchases, cross-border remittances, and electircity payment options. Radio Tamazuj |
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| Zambia | Mobile money transfers in Zambia reach record $652.1 million in Q1 2019. This volume is the highest ever reached for a first quarter since 2012, and is more than twice the amount for Q1 2018 (~ $294 million). The statistics reflect the success of the Zambian government's financial inclusion strategy, specifically for the mobile money segment. The sector has become the second largest contributor for access to financial services after banks, with nearly 15% of adults using it. Ecofin Agency |
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| Kenya | Singaporean Fomo Pay partners with Kenya's Wapi Pay to provide payment solutions between Asia & Africa. The two companies look to allow easier, cheaper and faster payments and remittances between the two continents. Payments and remittances contribute to the import and export receipts for the country and are a major source of African countries' revenue. Kenya alone traded $3.5 Billion last year with Asia while the rest of Africa did about $204.2 Billion. Business Insider |
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| Nigeria | Nigeria's Hollaport Technologies has launched a mobile app to provide financial inclusion alongside messaging services. Users of the app can send and receive money to contacts on their phone. Other features include airtime top-up, payments for utilities, and a paycode system that enables recipients to withdraw cash from an ATM without a card or bank account. Telcompaper |
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| Ghana | Bank of Ghana urges mobile money operators to reduce their charges. Speaking at a stakeholders conference, Dr Maxwell Opoku-Afari, First Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) stressed that reducing mobile money charges would increase adoption of the product. Ghanaian Times |
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| Zimbabwe | Zimbabwean government wants to sell majority shares in telcom companies NetOne and TelOne for a minimum of $300 million. The Zimbabwean government says it expects to complete the sale by the end of the year. Companies that have previously shown interest in entering Zimbabwe's telecom market include South African mobile network operator MTN and telecommunications services provider Telkom. IT Web Africa |
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| Global | Visa acquires Payworks, makers of point of sale (POS) payment gateway software. Visa plans to integrate Payworks' processing software into its CyberSource digital payment platform, creating a fully white-labeled omnichannel payment management platform that spans in-store, in-app, or online purchases. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. ZDNet |
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Share a tip | Do you have an announcement, event, or job posting you'd like to share, or have you come across an interesting bit of African fintech news recently? Hit reply and let me know! I might be able to include it in next week's newsletter. |
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| Twitter | A new tax law in Cameroon requires telcos to pay 200F ($0.35) for each app a customer downloads on their network. Rebecca Enonchong () shares the new development in . this thread |
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| Twitter | How can mobile wallet/digital banking apps targeted at Africans differentiate themselves beyond the usual "buy airtime, pay bills, save, borrow" value proposition? Follow to see answers to Ope Adeoye's () question. @opeadeoye |
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| Tanzania | Safaricom’s sister firm Vodacom launches Fuliza overdraft service in Tanzania. The service, called Songesha, will allow Vodacom customers to complete their M-Pesa transactions when they have insufficient funds in their mobile money accounts. The service was originally launched in January 2019 by Safaricom in Kenya, and went on to rack up 4.2 million users within a month. Safaricom says the creation of Fuliza was informed by data which indicated that millions of transactions were cancelled every day due to insufficient funds. Business Daily |
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| Kenya | Kenya's Standard Chartered Bank plans to venture into the mobile loans segment. The top-tier lender, which until recently targeted corporates and high net-worth individuals, intends to enter the micro-lending space where a number of its peers already play in. The popularity of mobile loans in Kenya has been partly helped by suspension of unsecured personal loans by most commercial banks in 2016. Daily Nation |
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| Kenya | Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) pushes for lower mobile loan fees. The Central Bank of Kenya has stepped up talks with banks to lower the cost of mobile phone-based loans. The discussion is complicated because the pricing of some of the mobile phone-based loans includes a huge component of fees, which is outside regulatory control. Business Daily |
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| Kenya | Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) to brand lending apps with approval mark. Central Bank of Kenya is set to disassociate itself from digital lenders that are not affiliated to local commercial banks. Some of the products that will be getting the approval mark include M-shwari, Fuliza, KCB-Mpesa, Stawi for SMEs and any other online financial products offered by local commercial banks. The Star |
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| Ghana | Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS) completes system upgrade to solve interoperability issues. In the past, some customers have complained of their inability to transfer money from MTN to other networks using the interoperability system. GhIPSS admitted to the challenges and has been working to rectify the issues. Ghana Web |
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| Nigeria | Only 59% of 122 million bank accounts in Nigeria are active. The latest data on the bank accounts in Nigeria released by the Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) has revealed that only 59% of the bank accounts in the country as at June 2019 are active. The decreasing percentage of active bank accounts in the Nigerian banking system has been consistent since December 2018 when the active percentage of total bank accounts dropped sharply from 66% in November to 60% in December. Nigerian Banker |
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| Ghana | Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS) completes system upgrade to solve interoperability issues. In the past, some customers have complained of their inability to transfer money from MTN to other networks using the interoperability system. GhIPSS admitted to the challenges and has been working to rectify the issues. Ghana Web |
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| Nigeria | Opera-founded startup OPay raises $50M for mobile finance in Nigeria. OPay, an Africa-focused mobile payments startup founded by Norwegian browser company Opera, has raised $50 million in funding. Lead investors include Sequoia China, IDG Capital and Source Code Capital. Opera also joined the round in the payments venture it created. OPay will use the capital primarily to grow its digital finance business in Nigeria. Techcrunch |
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| Egypt | Egyptian payments company Fawry to IPO within next few weeks. Fawry, the leading Egyptian electronic payments company, will go public by listing its shares on Egyptian Exchange. The company will reportedly list 455 of its shares on the Egyptian Exchange before Aug 8, raising between EGP 2 to 2.5 billion (~$ 120 to 150 million). Fawry was founded in 2008 and currently offers over 250 electronic payment services through its 100,000 service points across 300 cities in the country. Menabytes |
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| Zambia | Zambian asset finance firm Rent To Own (RTO) raises £1 million in seed capital. RTO provides high impact assets to rural entrepreneurs and smallholder farmers in Zambia. The company does this by offering an all-in-one package of un-collateralized financing, delivery, installation, and equipment training to its customers. The investment will be used primarily as working capital to double the company’s portfolio of rural Zambian entrepreneurs. Techmoran |
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| Nigeria | The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has reviewed its guidelines to banks on accessing Standing Deposit Facility (SDF). The remunerable SDF placement for banks is now capped at N2 billion. This means that Banks will not be remunerated for SDF placements above the stipulated maximum of N2 billion. This new guideline, coupled with the recent regulation is an attempt to get banks to give more loans to individuals and SMEs. Proshare |
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| Kenya | Kenyan regulators oppose Parliament's plan to split M-Pesa. Mobile and financial sector regulators have warned Parliament about its plan to split the popular money transfer service, M-Pesa, from telecoms giant Safaricom. Members of Parliament want the mobile money services arm of the company to be licensed as banks, while the telecommunications arm will be licensed to only offer voice, data and SMS services. Business Daily |
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| Kenya | Kenyan government shuts down SportPesa, 27 betting companies. The Kenyan government has directed mobile money service providers; Safaricom, Airtel and Telkom Kenya to withdraw pay bill numbers and SMS codes of 27 betting companies. Some of the affected betting companies include SportPesa, Betin, and Betway. The affected firms are said to have failed to prove that they were tax compliant as required by the Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB). The Kenyan Weekly |
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| Global | Banks, Governments show continued resistance to Facebook’s Libra. According to reports, many traditional banking institutions and governments have shown skepticism, silence, and resistance to Facebook’s proposed cryptocurrency Libra. Many cited the obvious regulatory issues involved with identification and money laundering, while others say they don’t like how Facebook introduced the coin. Some banks have plans for cryptocurrencies of their own and are solely focused on that. PYMNTS |
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| Global | Visa Invests In crypto storage innovator Anchorage. Visa co-led the funding round along with digital currency-focused venture capital firm Blockchain Capital. Anchorage’s offering provides an alternative to “cold storage,” where private keys are tucked away in offline locations that are hard to find, such as bank safety deposit boxes or inside of mountains. Anchorage was not well known until June 18, when its logo appeared on a slide unveiling the Libra Association. PYMNTS |
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