Happy New Month! I just got back from the Africa Tech Summit in Kigali where I participated in a panel discussion on the future of fintech in Africa. I also had the pleasure of connecting with a lot of people in the fintech community from all over the continent. If you were also there and we missed the opportunity to connect, please feel free to reach out!
Bolaji Akande
Product Specialist, Paystack
Payments
Kenya
Safaricom sues East African Data Handlers over $198.8m M-Pesa loss. Kenya's Safaricom is suing East African Data Handlers for alleged financial losses amounting to KSh 20m (~$198.8m). After contracting the data management firm in 2016 to recruit merchants and process payments through their e-commerce platforms on M-Pesa, Safaricom has accused the company of failing to properly reconcile and remit received payments. Mobile Money Africa
Banking & Finance
Africa
Tolaram Group plans to launch digital bank in Africa. Singapore's Tolaram Group, makers of the popular Indomie Noodles, has disclosed plans to launch digital banks in some African countries later this year. The group currently owns PT Bank Amar Indonesia, an Indonesian financial institution that provides digital banking services, and plans to extend similar services across Africa. Financial Technology Africa
Conversations
Twitter
What happens when payments become as instant and cheap as online messaging? Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong), the CEO of Coinbase, highlights similarities between the history of messaging to the current progress of digital payments in this twitter thread.
Regulation
Kenya
Digital Lenders Association of Kenya (DLAK) calls on the Central Bank of Kenya to deepen guidelines on digital loans. DLAK has implored the Central Bank of Kenya and the Kenyan National Treasury to enforce stronger guidelines and policies, that protect customers from predatory lending and intrusion of privacy. This comes after DLAK launched their code of conduct that ensures members' customers have access to transparent information regarding pricing and lending practices. The Star
Fundraising
Nigeria
Aella Credit raises $10 million in debt financing. Aella Credit, a Nigerian-based digital lending company, has raised $10 million in debt financing from Singapore's HQ Financial Group to increase their product offering. This is the company's second capital raise following an initial funding round from investors that included Y-Combinator. Financial Technology Africa
Kenya
Wapi Pay raises seed capital from Future Hub. Wapi Pay, a Nairobi-based startup that facilitates digital payments between Africa and Asia, has raised seed capital from Future Hub. This makes Wapi Pay the first fintech based in Africa to receive funding from the Transsion Holdings-backed accelerator, and they plan to use this fund to expand into more African countries. Kenyan Wallstreet
Global
Brink's acquires 5% share in MoneyGram. The Brink’s Company, a global cash management and armoured logistics company, has invested $9m to acquire a 5% stake in the international money transfer service, MoneyGram. With this partnership, The Brink's Company hopes to leverage MoneyGram's global network of agents to extend their cash management services to more customers. PYMNTS
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.
