Decode Fintech

Issue 75

Oct 12 - Oct 26, 2020

Hi there,

It has been quite an unprecedented couple of weeks for me, both as a young person living in Nigeria and also working at Paystack. I know we promised a return to regular programming but at the time of writing this newsletter, peaceful protesters lost their lives and I lost my words.

So here are some words I have been able to find back: I dedicate this issue to those who have lost their lives to police brutality and the insistently and consistently peaceful protesters who died advocating for their right to live. May their fight never be in vain.

To understand what is going on, you can read this NY Times piece by Nigerian author, Chimamanda Ngozi-Adichie.

As always, stay safe and wear a mask.

Tochukwu Ironsi,

Product Specialist, Paystack

Payments

Stripe agrees to acquire Paystack. The acquisition, which is still subject to pending closing conditions and other regulatory approvals, is intended to accelerate Stripe's international expansion. Paystack will also continue to operate independently and leverage shared resources to drive expansion and development of payment and commerce products within the continent. TechCrunch

Conversations

Twitter

The geopolitics of digital currency. In this Twitter thread, Michael Kimani (@pesa_africa) discusses the potential implications of the adoption of China's proposed digital currency in African countries.

Banking & Finance

Nigeria

Evolve Credit raises undisclosed pre-seed funding. Evolve Credit, a Nigerian lending marketplace has raised an undisclosed sum in a pre-seed funding round led by Ingressive Capital. The new funding should help with product development and hiring. Disrupt Africa

EDITOR'S NOTE

Nigeria's digital lending companies have long been criticized for giving out loans with vague terms and exploitative interest rates. A lending marketplace that aggregates loan information on other digital marketplaces might can potentially help with provide borrowers with more competitive interest rates and clearer loan terms.

Cryptocurrency

Ghana

Sendcash launches in Ghana. The product, which is owned by BuyCoins and was previously only available in Nigeria, will now allow customers to send bitcoin to Ghanaian banks and mobile money from anywhere in the world. Bitcoin KE

EDITOR'S NOTE

While crypto-based remittance applications have been touted as faster and cheaper alternatives to legacy players, most consumers still largely transact in their local currency. Relatively new applications like Sendcash are abstracting the crypto-fiat conversion step at the consumer end and hence expanding the adoption and use-cases for cryptocurrency.

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.