Browsing: Digital Payment

Nigeria Interswitch secured US$110 million

In Nigeria, where an estimated 38 million people, or 36% of adults, remain financially excluded, the government has set a target of 95% financial inclusion by 2024. 

While this may seem like an ambitious goal, that will require institutions to re-strategize initiatives and policies to accelerate the delivery of financial inclusion services, a lot of tech-backed firms are being developed in the West African country to help achieve this goal. 

Among them is Lagos-based FinTech unicorn Interswitch which seems to have heeded that call, leveraging its position as a market leader in digital payment services to bridge the massive financial inclusion gap and help bring as many people into the financial and economic fold as possible.…

Pyypl uses advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) for regulatory compliance, Anti Money Laundering (AML), and Counter-Terrorism Financing (CTF).

The platform also conducts real-time Politically Exposed Persons (PEP) and sanctions (both country and individual) screening against the latest and historical UNSC, USDT, FATF, OFAC, and EUCFSF records, as well as all local databases.

Fintech startups in Africa have continued to gain a lot of attention from investors who have been pouring billions of dollars to support the industry. …

A few weeks ago, I was positively surprised to see a sign in a sports shop in Karen, stating that they no longer accepted cash, only cards and mobile money.  Until that time, “no-cash” policies in shops was something I had only seen in the Scandinavian countries, and even there, it is still rare. Since the start of the pandemic, however, digital-only payment policies have proliferated in Kenya, and are starting to become commonplace.

Cash as a payment method has been in a slow, terminal decline in Kenya for many years, but it has managed to survive, until now.

Kenya has long been a forerunner in terms of digital payments in Africa. Even as far back as in the Moi era, many shops and supermarkets, most upscale restaurants, and virtually every hotel accepted Visa and Mastercard.  This was at a time when Ethiopia had one single bank branch in the …

The Bank of Tanzania (BoT) has aligned various approved policy measures necessary for rescuing the economy from gruesome effects of the Coronavirus (COVID-19), which has already demonstrated its impacts by destabilizing the tourism and aviation sector in Tanzania.

The bank announced the new move on Tuesday, through a statement.

As Tanzania still records nearly 500 confirmed cases and 16 deaths, the central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), which met on 8 May 2020, agreed on the measures to “safeguard the financial sector stability and continue facilitating the financial intermediation process” according to the central bank’s statement.

How local banks get saved

Tanzanian business shutdown and some worrying about their loan repayment schedules, the central bank has emerged with a rather customized solution to aid the banking and business community in that manner.

The bank has urged banks and other financial institutions to assess financial challenges faced by borrowers triggered …