| Ghana | Ghanaian Government to purchase 100% shares of Airtel for $25 Million. The telecom operators Airtel and Tigo are in advanced stages of discussions for the transfer of AirtelTigo shares to the government of Ghana. During the initial in 2017 merger between Airtel and Millicom to form AirtelTigo, the government had inserted a clause, that gave them the option to buy out stakes in AirtelTigo. Since the merger completed, AirtelTigo Ghana who was the second-largest telco in the country behind only MTN Ghana, has now also fallen behind Vodafone Ghana in terms of market share. This sale does not entirely come as a surprise as Airtel had mentioned in the past that it would explore other consolidation opportunities in markets where it is not among the top two players. Technext.ng |
| | EDITOR'S NOTE | With this purchase, the Ghanaian government could essentially be protecting various jobs in the telecom sector. However, the market leader, MTN, would be a little uneasy about this new development. Earlier in the year, the government had declared MTN Ghana a significant market power and basically laid out plans to disrupt MTN's dominance. All eyes will definitely be on any new regulation in the telecom industry going forward. |
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| Nigeria | Nigerian rental financing startup Kwaba secures funding. Kwaba, which helps low and middle-income earners to split their annual rent into convenient monthly installments, has raised a funding round from Ingressive Capital to help them scale. Kwaba plans to use the investment to expand their reach and give more people access to their platform, especially during these trying times. Disrupt Africa |
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| Africa | World Bank projects a 6% drop in remittances into Sub Sahara African (SSA) for 2021 due to COVID. In a recently released report, the World Bank projects that due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the amount of money migrant workers send home will decline globally by 14% in 2021, with the effect on SSA remittances at 6%. Although not great, this is a marginal improvement compared to 2020, with remittance into the SSA region projected to drop by 9%. Next Billion |
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| Global | Paypal reveals plans for further crypto adoption in 2021. Hot on the heels of a recent announcement that will allow some users to buy, and spend cryptocurrency on their platform, Paypal plans to really embrace cryptocurrency in 2021. CEO, Dan Schulman, says PayPal's bullishness on cryptocurrencies is based on early response to last month's crypto offering. The size of the waiting list for access to crypto which is currently available to 10% of PayPal customers, was two or three times more than what the company anticipated. In addition, next year's expansion will also enable customers to use Venmo, their popular peer-to-peer payment service to buy and shop with cryptocurrencies. Fortune |
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