Kenya | Safaricom loses petition to limit free mobile money transactions. In March 2020, the Central bank of Kenya(CBK) removed charges between mobile money wallets for amounts below Ksh1000(~$9) in an effort to promote electronic transactions during the pandemic. Safaricom filed and lost the petition to cap free peer-to-peer transactions at five. This was in a bid to limit incidences where individuals split high-value transactions to avoid transaction charges. Safaricom also asked the Central Bank of Kenya to lower the limit for free mobile money transactions from Ksh1000(~$9) to Ksh500(~$5) and the request was denied. Kenyan WallStreet |
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Africa | GSMA launches Mobile Money Interoperability test platform. Developed by GSMA’s Inclusive Technology Lab, the platform was designed to provide an open, secure environment for operators, financial providers and other stakeholders to test mobile money systems before deployment. Finextra |
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Global | Amex, Discover, Mastercard, and Visa take Click to Pay global. The four major card schemes have agreed on the global expansion of Click to Pay, a single virtual terminal for all card brands, having signed up 10,000 merchants in the US since its launch in 2019. PYMNTS |
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Zambia | Access Bank to acquire 100% stake in Cavmont Bank. Access Bank Plc has announced plans to acquire Cavmont Bank Limited, a Zambia-based financial institution through its Zambian subsidiary, Access Bank Zambia Limited. Pointblank News |
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Zambia | Microfinance startup, Lupiya raises $1million funding round. The Zambian fintech has raised a $1million funding round to help scale and expand its operations. The funding came from Enygma Ventures, a ZAR100million (~$6.8million) fund launched last year with a focus on investing in women entrepreneurs in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region. Disrupt Africa |
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South Africa | Franc raises $300,000 seed investment. South African fintech startup, Franc raised the funds as part of an ongoing seed funding round. The company plans on using the funds to grow its business operations. Disrupt Africa |
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Morocco | Moroccan fintech, OnePay raises over $400,000. The Casablanca-based fintech has raised over $400,000 (MAD 4 million) from MITC Capital’s Maroc Numeric Fund II. OnePay plans to use the investment to expand its team in Morocco and acquire more users. Disrupt Africa |
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