| Nigeria | Nigeria launches the fintech industry innovation sandbox. Financial Services Initiative (FSI), a non-profit organisation backed by the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), launched the first fintech industry innovation sandbox in Nigeria. It is a platform where fintech entrants can test their innovative ideas, using the application programming interfaces (APIs) of existing companies. Techpoint Africa |
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| Africa | Visa partners with MFS Africa to expand digital payments across Africa. MFS Africa, an African digital payments company, and Visa announced a partnership that connects mobile money users on the MFS platform, to a Visa virtual card which they can use for remittances and e-commerce transactions. MFS Africa will also integrate Visa Direct, Visa’s real-time push payments solution, to help these customers send and receive money and remittances directly through their mobile money wallets. Tearsheet |
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| North Africa | PAYFORT and DHL Express expand payment solutions in North Africa. The UAE-based payments company, PAYFORT, announced a new partnership with DHL Express, an international courier service. The partnership will allow DHL Express customers across North Africa, pay online for shipments in their local currencies via debit and credit cards. IT News Africa |
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| Nigeria | Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) continues to accept cash payments in spite of the government’s order. NIPOST has continued to accept cash transactions from customers in post offices across the nation, in spite of the Federal Government of Nigeria's directive to stop. Nairametrics |
| | EDITOR'S NOTE | Remember that we reported in Issue 30, that the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim, ordered that cash payments should be discontinued in NIPOST offices across the country. |
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| Global | Mastercard pilots digital identity technology. Mastercard has teamed up with Deakon University in Australia, to pilot a digital identity verification process for student registration and exams. The digital identity program is designed to instantly and securely authenticate a person's identity without the need for physical documentation. Financial Technology Africa |
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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 | How does USSD service work while roaming? Emmanuel Chebukati (@echebukati) sparked a discussion on how USSD works when customers use the roaming services, and the cost implications of USSD sessions to the telcos with this twitter post |
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| Twitter | BuyCoins Africa launches NGNT. BuyCoins co-founder, Timi Ajiboye(@timigod) announced the launch of the NGNT, an ERC-20 stablecoin in this twitter thread. |
| | EDITOR'S NOTE | ERC-20 is an official protocol for proposing improvements to the Ethereum (ETH) network. ERC stands for Ethereum Request for Comment, and 20 is the proposal identifier. This is a common standard for creating tokens on the Ethereum blockchain. |
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| Nigeria | What you need to know about the new BVN 2.0. Central Bank of Nigeria and the Bankers’ Committee has started the Bank Verification Number (BVN) classification (BVN 2.0) that improves access to financial services, for people in rural communities. Abiola Odutola of Nairametrics broke down everything we need to know about the new directive in this article. Nairametrics |
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| Africa | Chipper Cash raised $6M for Southern Africa expansion. African cross-border fintech startup, Chipper Cash, has raised a $6 million seed round led by Deciens Capital. Chipper Cash will use the capital to grow their team, and expand to new geographic areas. TechCrunch |
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| Kenya | Turaco raises $1.2 million seed funding to scale across Africa. Turaco, a Nairobi-based micro-insurtech startup, has raised $1.2 million in seed funding, to further expand its operations across Africa. TechMoran |
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| Ghana | Ghanaian startup Bit Sika raises funding from Microtraction. Bit Sika, the Ghanaian startup that uses blockchain technology to help users receive money, has secured an undisclosed sum of funding from VC firm Microtraction, to accelerate their growth. This is the second round of investment taken on by Bit Sika in 2019. The startup was one of four African blockchain startups that participated in the incubation programme organised by the global cryptocurrency exchange, Binance. Disrupt Africa |
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