| Nigeria | San Francisco based African fintech startup, Chipper Cash, expands to Nigeria. The African no-fee, cross-border payment startup, Chipper Cash, has expanded to Nigeria. Chipper Cash will offer its P2P payment service and app in Nigeria in partnership with Paystack. Techcrunch |
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| Global | Stripe launches Stripe Capital to make instant loan offers to customers on its platform. Stripe launched Stripe Capital, a service for advancing cash to customers that in turn gets repaid out of their future sales made through Stripe’s payment platform. It's currently available to Stripe merchants and business customers of platforms and marketplaces that use Stripe Connect. Techcrunch |
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| Egypt | flyEgypt to partner with Amazon's online payment solution, PAYFORT. Online payment solution and Amazon subsidiary, PAYFORT, announced a partnership with flyEgypt to help flyers make payments using globally accepted credit and debit cards. IT News Africa |
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| Morocco | Morocco’s second-largest telecom operator, Inwi, launches mobile payments. This launch will enable Inwi users to send and receive money locally and internationally from their mobile phones, without visiting a bank. The North Africa Post |
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| Nigeria | Nigeria's Interswitch establishes N30 billion ($82 million) debt issuance to explore strategic options for its business. Interswitch, a fintech firm, has incorporated Interswitch Africa One Plc. to register a debt issuance programme with Nigeria's Securities and Exchange Commission(SEC) to explore strategic options for its business. This opens up the possibility of issuing debt securities to institutional investors and the general public. Fintech Africa |
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| Ghana | Ghana Post introduces mobile money payment for WAEC, school placements cards. Ghanaian postal service, Ghana Post, has announced the sale of WAEC result checker cards on its mobile money payment network. Mr. Ansah, Chief Commercial Officer of Ghana Post, also hinted that Ghana Post will soon launch a collections platform that enables individuals, institutions, and businesses access other financial services offered by the postal service. Fintech Africa |
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| Twitter | Wallets Africa launches business wallet accounts CEO of Wallets Africa, John Oke announced the new service which enables businesses to manage bulk payouts, expense payments and perform transfers via an API on this twitter thread |
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| Twitter | Chipper Cash has appointed former co-founder of Gokada, Abiodun Animashaun, as its Country Manager. Nairametrics Founder, Ugochukwu Obi-Chukwu , recently shared the news on twitter |
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| Global | SWIFT publishes new API standard for pre-authorisation of funds SWIFT, a global provider of secure financial messaging services, has published a new API standard for the pre-authorisation of funds, which allows payers' banks to earmark funds for purchase in advance, guaranteeing that future payments will be honoured. This is the second SWIFT Open Banking Extensions API standard, and the latest addition to a global library of APIs that SWIFT is building in collaboration with banks, merchants and fintechs. IT News Africa |
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| South Africa | African financial services provider, Nedbank, partners with Microsoft. The bank is set to migrate key components of its IT infrastructure to the Microsofts’ cloud services, making it the first bank in South Africa to run operations of this scale on the cloud. IT News Africa |
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| Nigeria | Polaris Bank unveils new mobile banking app, offers a 50% discount on charges. Polaris Bank has unveiled its new Polaris Mobile Banking App and is offering customers a 50% discount on all transfer fees for 30 days after registration on the app. Nigeria Communications Week |
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| Africa | CR2 and Network International partner to deliver mobile banking as a managed hosted service in Middle East & Africa. The managed hosted service enables banks to rapidly deploy their mobile banking services. The partnership will translate to low upfront costs and a significantly reduced need for IT support from prospective bank clients. Mobile Money Africa |
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| Nigeria | Access Bank partners Lagos State Government to launch a 10 billion NGN loan portfolio for women. The bank collaborated with the Lagos State Employment Trust Fund (LSETF) to launch the LSETF W Initiative aimed at economically empowering women-owned businesses (with at least 50% ownership share) that have been operating for 1-5 years in Lagos State. Nairametrics |
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| Global | Kenya’s MoDE acquired by Singapore’s DT One to bolster its global mobile top-up solutions. MoDE, Mobile Decisioning, a Kenyan firm, which provides airtime credit to mobile network operators in emerging nations, has been acquired by Singapore’s DT One. MoDE will become DT One's Airtime Credit Services division and full integration is expected to be completed in Q4 2019. Techmoran |
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| Nigeria | New CBN credit guidelines. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will introduce new credit guidelines for banks and their customers. These guidelines will help banks minimise their credit risks. The Sun |
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| South Africa | 3 South African fintech startups just scored R23 million in loans. Alphacode, a subsidiary of Rand Merchant Investment, announced that it has awarded just over $1.5 million in supplier development loans to three fintech startups, Zande Africa, Bright On Capital and Livestock Wealth. IT News Africa |
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| Global | Accion Venture Lab launches $23M inclusive fintech startup fund. The new fund was raised with capital contributions from a number of participants, including the Ford Foundation, Visa Inc. and Proparco — the development finance institution of the French government. The new Limited Partnership fund will consider startups from any geography, as long as they meet specific criteria. Techcrunch |
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| South Africa | SA’s Bulrush Agritech raises $16k angel funding round. Founded by husband and wife Sean and Kristi Rennie, South African startup Bulrush Agritech has raised ZAR250,000 (US$16,000) in angel investment to fund the continued development of its livestock management platform. Disrupt Africa |
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| Africa | PEG Africa raises $5m in debt funding from ElectriFI to continue West African expansion. The funding comes in the form of subordinated junior debt and will be used for growth in PEG’s existing markets, where the CEO, Hugh Whalan, said it had been almost doubling in size every year since 2015. Disrupt Africa |
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| South Africa | South African crypto-exchange cuts trade fees in half. Cryptocurrency exchange, AltCoinTrader, has announced that it plans to reduce all fees by more than 50%, indefinitely. This move is a result of the blockchain industry in South Africa ‘heating up’ over the course of 2019. IT News Africa |
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