| Nigeria | First Bank suspends international payments on Naira debit cards. First Bank, a leading Nigerian commercial bank, has canceled the usage of locally issued Naira debit cards for international payments. The bank cited challenging FX realities and joins other Nigerian banks who have either placed strong limits on international transactions or paused them altogether. Benjamin Dada |
| | EDITOR'S NOTE | With the worsening FX situation in Nigeria, we should expect even more banks to take a similar stance on international payments. These restrictions on international spending through Naira cards have driven more customers to fintechs and neobanks that offer higher-limit USD virtual cards.
Eventually, though, the decline in dollar inflows affects everyone, and these fintechs, which largely have Naira revenues, will have to consider the sustainability of the USD card programs being offered to customers. |
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| Ghana | Bamboo expands into Ghana. Bamboo, a digital brokerage firm in Nigeria that allows customers to buy and sell stocks, has expanded into Ghana. This comes after the fintech received a letter of no-objection from Ghana’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). TechCabal |
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| Africa | What is the Lifetime Value (LTV) of the average digital banking customer? Stephen Deng (@mrstephendeng) sparks an interesting conversation about accurately estimating the lifetime value ceiling of the average African neobank customer in this tweet |
| | EDITOR'S NOTE | This is a very interesting conversation with special relevance when determining the viability of existing models for scaling digital banking solutions in Africa. We’re curious what you readers think. If you check out the thread, reply to this email with your thoughts. |
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| Nigeria | Access Corporation receives final approval for new payments subsidiary. Access Corporation, the holding company for Access Bank, has received final approval from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for the launch of Hydrogen, a new payments subsidiary. Hydrogen will offer businesses, consumers, and other financial institutions switching and processing services and other payment solutions. Nairametrics |
| | EDITOR'S NOTE | As stated in a previous issue, this is more than just a shared fascination with food names and elements on the periodic table. Banks like GTBank and Access Bank, are looking to compete directly with fintech platforms for payment solutions, through newly set-up holding structures. If successful, we should expect other banks to attempt a similar strategy in the near future. |
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| Tanzania reverses taxes on mobile money transfers. The Tanzanian Ministry of Finance and Planning has announced the suspension of tax levies on mobile money transfers. This reversal will go into effect from October 1 and will include waivers on bank transfers and cash withdrawals up to Tsh30,000 (~$13). Forbes Africa |
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| Africa | Yellow Card raises $40 million Series B round. Yellow Card - an African crypto exchange - has raised $40 million in Series B funding. This round was led by Polychain Capital and will be used to drive growth and continue expansion. TechCabal |
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| Nigeria | Julaya completes $2 million in pre-Series A extension. Julaya, an Ivorian B2B payments startup, has extended its pre-Series A round by $5 million. The round was led by Speedinvest and will be used for recruitment and expansion into new countries. TechCrunch |
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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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