| Africa | More financial institutions are reducing transaction fees due to COVID-19. WorldRemit, an international remittance company, has announced that their customers will pay a flat fee of Sh105.34 ($0.99) on all mobile money transactions in Kenya. Zimbabwe's EcoCash removed processing fees for transactions carried out by relief organizations. Ukheshe, a South African payment company, has also made their platform free for a 90-day period. |
|
|
| Global | Huawei to launch a consumer credit card. The Chinese technology company, Huawei, is set to launch its own consumer credit card. The company is partnering with UnionPay, a payment company in China to power the QR technology. There is no set launch date for when this product will be released. Financial Technology |
| | EDITOR'S NOTE | I'm very intrigued by this move from Huawei. I'm expecting a lot of pushback if they plan to launch in the United States due to claims that their infrastructure and technology enables state surveillance by the Chinese government. Are they trying to follow in the footsteps of Apple or Google? What do you think? |
|
|
| Global | Stripe raises $600M in Series G extension. The global payments company raised an additional $600m from a number of existing investors to continue investing in product development and further global expansion. This raise is an extension to the company’s Series G round, which was first confirmed in September 2019 with $250 million raise TechCrunch |
|
|
|
| South Africa | South Africa proposes guidelines to regulate cryptocurrency. A number of top South African financial regulators have published a position paper to establish a regulatory framework for cryptocurrency. It contains 30 recommendations that are in compliance with the standards set by the Financial Action Task Force, the global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog. Bitcoin News |
| |
|
|
| Twitter | BuyCoins launches Sendcash. BuyCoins, an African cryptocurrency exchange launched its remittance product, Sendcash which allows users to send up to $1,000 daily to any bank account using Bitcoin. One of BuyCoins' co-founders, Timi Ajiboye (@timigod), made the announcement on Twitter. |
|
|
|
| Uganda | Bank of Uganda issues guidelines on COVID-19. Uganda's Central bank has issued new guidelines to protect borrowers and lenders from the economic fallout of the global COVID-19 pandemic The guidelines, which took effect from 1st April 2020, applies to all financial institutions that are regulated by the Bank of Uganda. Kenyan Wall Street |
|
|
| Malawi | Banks in Malawi suspend interest & principal payment on loans. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, some commercial banks in Malawi have suspended interest and principal payments on loans for a period of three months, to cushion the negative economic impact on the citizens. Kenyan Wall Street |
|
|
|
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. |
|
Know someone who'd enjoy Decode Fintech? |
|
|
|
|
