| Africa | JumiaPay records 71.8% growth in Q1 2020. JumiaPay, the payment processing arm of e-commerce giant Jumia, has seen a 71% increase in YoY transaction volumes processed in Q1 2020. According to the recently released earnings report, JumiaPay processed €35.5m (~$38.7m) in Q1 2020 compared to €20.7m (~$22.6m) in 2019. Also, the transaction volumes processed as a % of Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) in Q1 2020 increased by about 9 basis points from 9.7% in 2019 to 18.7% in 2020. Quartz Africa |
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| Nigeria | Voyance launches fraud database. Nigeria's Voyance, a data science startup, has launched Sigma, a shared database that contains details of fraudulent actors across different fintechs. Sigma will allow fintechs to submit anonymised fraud details which can be accessed by other fintechs to block fraudulent transactions. Disrupt Africa |
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| Global | Africa records a slight increase in fintech deal count in Q1 2020. CB Insights, the global research and analytics firm, has released their quarterly report on key fintech trends and investments for the first quarter of 2020. According to the report, VC-backed fintech activity dropped to $6.1B across 404 deals in Q1 2020, the worst Q1 since 2016 for fintech deals and the worst Q1 for funding since 2017. Africa was however the only continent to record an increase in the QoQ number of fintech-related deals as the number of deals increased to 9 in Q1 2020 from 8 in the previous quarter. CB Insights |
| | EDITOR'S NOTE | Here is a link to the full report. The analysis on value and volume of fintech deals on a per continent basis can be found on page 15. |
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| Twitter | Identify everybody and prosper. In this Twitter thread, Victor Asemota (@asemota) advocates for community identification systems in Nigeria as a key catalyst to scaling financial services and e-commerce in Nigeria. He further highlights identity inclusion efforts in India and the role it has had on scaling their economy. Victor Asemota on Twitter |
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| Twitter | How is COVID-19 affecting the finances of Kenyan citizens? Michael Kimani (@pesa_africa) outlines key takeaways from a survey of the financial behaviour of Kenyan citizens during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the survey, about half of the respondents borrowed money from family members and about 65% could not repay loans due to conflicting essential costs. Kioneki on Twitter |
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| Twitter | P2P Bitcoin transaction activity continues to soar in Africa. It appears the bitcoin flame in Kenya that we reported in Issue 53 is spreading across the entire continent. Matt Alhborg (@MattAhlborg) points out that peer-to-peer (P2P) bitcoin transfers continue to rise as observed on Paxful and LocalBitcoins, two major cryptocurrency exchanges. According to the chart, Sub-saharan Africa recorded about $13.1m in P2P transaction volume in the 2nd week of May, a 95.5% increase from the beginning of the year. Matt Ahlborg on Twitter |
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| Ghana | GhIPPS reverses fee waiver on mobile money transactions and the banks are not happy. The Ghana Interbank Payments and Settlements Systems (GhIPPS) has directed financial institutions to end the fee waivers granted to customers who use the GhIPSS Instant Pay (GIP), Mobile Money Interoperability (MMI) and ACH Direct Credit to perform transactions. The fees were initially waived to help ease the financial burden caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on citizens, but GhIPPS has reversed these waivers due to the inadequacy of the generated revenue from other channels (cheques and e-zwich) in offsetting the revenue loss on the affected channels. This reversal is set to take effect from May 23rd and has resulted in considerable pushback from the banks Mobile Money Africa |
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| DRC | CFC partners with Western Union on cross-border transfers. Compagnie Financière du Congo (CFC), a provider of aggregated financial services through its FlashMobile application and a network of agents, has partnered with Western Union to expand FlashMobile's international money transfers. The 'Flash my WU' feature will allow FlashMobile agents to transfer money through Western Union global retail agent network or directly to bank accounts outside DR Congo and the Republic of the Congo Ecofin Agency |
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| Africa | Innovate Ventures kicks off accelerator program with $30k funding opportunity. Innovate Ventures, a Somali-based technology fund and startup accelerator, has partnered with VC4A, Telesom, and Oxfam to launch a 12-week accelerator program focused on early-stage startups in Somalia. The program will conclude with a demo day that gives 3 participating startups the chance to receive up to $30k equity investments. Applications are open to June 30 and interested startups can apply here. Disrupt 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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