Browsing: FinTech

Fintech has the potential to revolutionize the African financial services landscape. Already mobile payments and microloan technologies are taking root rapidly across the continent.

The success of mobile money provider M-Pesa in many countries such as Egypt, Ghana, India, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, Romania, and Tanzania among others is an example of the potential of fintech on the continent. 

Read Also: Mobile money making Africa bankable

Financial Inclusion

In Africa access to traditional financial services is limited. Transaction costs with banks are usually very restrictive. This coupled with poor infrastructure, lack of employment and rural environments has created room for fintech innovators in financial services provision.  

62% of the African population remains un/underbanked. Mobile phones are relatively more accessible which has increased the reach of mobile money services. In sub-Saharan Africa mobile money transactions account for 10% of the region’s GDP against an average of 2% in other economies; this …

Africa’s Cashless Payment Revolution, According to World Bank data, more than two-thirds of Africa’s population has no access to the formal banking system. This is largely the direct result of challenges such as underdevelopment, financial illiteracy as well as a predominantly rural based population. 

These factors among others have led to a situation where banking is both inaccessible and overly expensive for the bulk of the population. Further, African economies are driven by an informally oriented economic climate; as a result, banking for many is not an option. 

This situation has prompted innovative approaches to avail financial services. Among the disruptions in financial services, there has been a rise of fintech to cater for payments outside of the banking system. Some of these include mobile money payment solutions and online payment/receipt platforms. 

Fintech Start Ups Attracting Investment 

This sector has become one of Africa’s fastest-growing in the digital …

A South African tech-based company FinChatBot has secured a funding round worth $1.6 million to drive expansion beyond South Africa. The fintech company is a provider of customer service AI bot technology in the financial services industry. Its bespoke technology connects with different operating systems and third-party systems allowing financial services firms smooth interaction with their customers. Their AI-based chat system operates independently of human interaction.

The company’s mission of guiding the customer experience will be supported by three funding partners. The participants in the funding round are: 

• Compass Venture Capital, an early-stage focused investor that is based in Mauritius. It looks for strong propositions set to disrupt traditional ways.
• South African, Kalon Venture Capital which focuses on tech-based solution providers mostly in South Africa. It promotes investments in top companies with disruptive technologies 
• Saviu Ventures an African-focused investment holding company from France which invests in established startups in both

Salesforce Ventures has announced a second impact investment fund amounting to $100 million dollars. Salesforce Ventures is the investment arm of Salesforce, a company involved in customer relationship management. The fund is the second to come from the company after an initial $50 million impact fund which was launched in 2017.

The funds are earmarked for supporting start-up companies mainly in the technology sphere and cloud-related services. Within this grouping, the focus on the fund is on companies showing a measurable impact on social arenas such as education. The funds also serve start-ups with an environmental impact.

Salesforce ventures drive to promote values of sustainability and social responsibility is expected to see it investing in companies that provide solutions to the challenges affecting the world. Acknowledging the unprecedented nature of the challenges impacting the world including COVID-19, climate change, and racial injustice, Salesforce Ventures said it will continue to invest …

 It is unfair to mention African development pillars without mentioning the agriculture sector which employs nearly half of the population of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).  

The sector has enormous benefits to the continent, where farmer-centred organizations such as AGRA (Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa) argue that nearly one-half of the young population is involved in the continent’s 60 million farms. 

It is with no doubt that African farms stand to be the next profitable food market suppliers of the world.  

“Out of total urban food sales of roughly US$200 to US$250 billion per year, over 80 per centcomes from domestic African suppliers,” according to AGRA. 

Nearly 23 per cent of SSA’s GDP comes from agriculture (McKinsey, 2019); the sector is responsible for providing decent income, growth and poverty reduction for SSA. 

The region’s food market was valued at $300 billion in 2017 and it could be …

The UK-based development finance institution and impact investor, CDC, invested $40 million dollars into Liquid Telecom. The deal is part of an equity arrangement initially structured in 2018 when the CDC made a $180 million dollar transaction. 

The investment will fund the expansion of Liquid Telecoms, Africa Data Centres with the aim of positioning the company as the top data center operation in Africa.

Data centers reduce costs for businesses by offering affordable data storage. In addition, the development of software as a service (Saas) applications will spur innovation and increased activities in start-ups as it allows for improved delivery of software such as office software, payroll processing, collaboration tools, and human resource management among others. 

Liquid Telecom is a communications solutions provider that offers independent fiber, data centers, and cloud technology. It operates across sub-Saharan Africa with a footprint in 13 countries. The company has built the largest fiber …

Africa appears to have narrowly escaped the level of devastation that COVID19 is wreaking in the global north with China as its entry.[1] As if the virus followed the global supply chain to destroy it.[2] The global supply chain links China to the global north before connecting to Africa[3] so by the time the virus got here African leaders shut the borders – that is the saving grace despite the doom’s day prophecies of Bill Gates.[4] Africa got it right this time around without the help of the western saviors which begs George Ayittey’s famous quote “Africa is poor because she is not free”.[5]

According to the IMF[6] and WorldBank[7], Africa would experience her first recession in 25 years, but it would not be as severe as the global north.[8] Her recovery in my view could be fast-tracked by four mega …

Africa’s largest e-commerce platform—Jumia has closed its operations in Tanzania.

According to Reuters, the company gave out the news of its exodus which noted: “We have to focus our resources on our other markets. It is more important now than ever to put our focus and resources where they can bring the best value and help us thrive,” the statement reads.

The company which as of today has its operations in twelve countries out of 54 in Africa, has been experiencing a rather stiff challenge which includes significant losses for the past two years.

According to Jumia’s financial report, the company’s operating loss increased from $ 46 million in the second quarter of 2018 to $ 73 million in the second quarter of 2019.

The company shut down in Tanzania comes after 10 days whereby the Cameroon market lost Jumia as well.

Jumia came in Tanzania five years ago …

The world is much more digitally interconnected, compared to the past three decades, and Tanzania has been busy to get its fair share of interconnectedness.

In 2013, there were about 23 million telecom subscribers in Tanzania, surprisingly at the moment, the number is almost close to double, as Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA), telecoms statistics show, over 43 million subscribers, with an 81 per cent penetration.

It is important to recognize the contribution of the telecoms sector in Tanzania, to the economy and to the promotion of innovative solutions to community problems. Tanzania’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) quarterly highlights, show that: information and communications sector recorded a 10.3 per cent growth, compared to 9.6 in the first quarter, thus—the growth is attributed to increasing in airtime used by mobile phone owners, and the expansion of Tanzania’s broadcasting and internet use landscape.

On the side of the context, Bank of …