Browsing: FinTech

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 …

The banking sector in Tanzania has been experiencing a rather significant shift over the past few years.

According to the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) records, 40 registered banks operate in Tanzania, National Microfinance Bank (NMB) inclusively—which is now making a substantial investment in offering seamless banking services across Tanzania.

NMB Bank is one of the biggest banks in Tanzania, with over 13 years of operations in Tanzania. The bank’s ownership is split between the government via the Ministry of Finance, holding 31.8 per cent of the shares, public shareholders taking 21.6 per cent of shares of NMB, with foreign investors taking 3.3 per cent (directly or nominees)

Earlier in October, NMB Bank ushered a newly re-branded mobile platform and its app “Mobile Klik” to improve seamless access to financial services in Tanzania.

NMB Bank serves as robust retail and commercial bank, offering financial services to over 3.5 million customers served …

Tanzania’s smartphone’s network—Airtel Tanzania, has ushered a new mobile money service branded “Send With a withdraw fee”, emerging with a rather customized competitive advantage within the growing mobile money industry in Tanzania.

According to Tanzania Communications Authority (TCRA) June quarterly statistics, there are over 22.9 million mobile money accounts in Tanzania, responsible for around 260 million mobile money transactions.

Further, TCRA report shows that, there are over 43 million telcom subscribers, while Airtel Tanzania owns 26 per cent of the market share (over 11 million subscribers) and 18 per cent of the mobile money share.

The service which was launched on October 16, will enable Airtel Money customers in Tanzania, to send money to their counterparts differently compared to other networks, this time—all transactions will be executed with a built-in calculated sending fee, unequivocally offering a seamless service necessary for a mobile money take over, as elaborated by …

With the growth of online banking and online currencies in Africa, the industry of financial technology has seen a growth of over 60% in the past years. Following up a surprising growth, the industry also managed to raise over $320m USD at the same time.

Investment in African Fintechs nearly quadrupled in 2018 to $357m USD, with startups in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa accounting for the largest share, according to The Mobile Economy, Sub-Saharan Africa 2019 report from the GSM Association.

MTN announced in July that it had been granted a full Super Agent Licence in Nigeria for its Yello Digital Financial Services Limited subsidiary. This will enable the scale launch of MTN Nigeria’s Fintech strategy. Enabling it to convert its existing airtime agents, and recruit other small businesses, to distribute financial services. MTN’s group CEO Rob Shuter told Forbes correspondents earlier this year that “mobile will be at …

Even as mobile penetration continue to grow, the East Africa region is still sluggish in technology innovations especially in the insurance sector.

The region is considered as Africa’s Silicon Savannah with a high mobile penetration, home grown digital financial innovations like M-PESA that is now being exported in other countries and a fast growing tech start –up ecosystem.

Statistics indicate that about $63.6 billion is transacted in aggregate in a single year on mobile money platforms in the East African Community (EAC) countries. This corresponds to 46 percent of the total GDP of the EAC in the most recent statistics.

Mobile is a key factor in the region’s start-up ecosystem where many tech start-ups now use the technology as the primary platform to create solutions that address various socioeconomic challenges.

According to the GSM Association, a trade body that represents the interests of mobile network operators globally, over half of …

When Kenya’s Capital Markets Authority announced it will launch its regulations for a sandbox, industry players knew the regulator was going into uncharted waters, at least on the continent. Though this kind of concept has been tested and approved in other global markets, Kenya was taking the mantle in leading the continent in helping fintechs experiment and innovate in a controlled environment.

Fintechs have played a great role in providing access to finance for Africa but they have been hindered by lack of certainty with some failing to make it to the next year. However, they remain key to financial inclusivity in the continent that has long been left behind n this realm.

A regulatory sandbox is a framework set up by a financial sector regulator to allow small scale, live testing of innovations by private firms in a controlled environment under the regulator’s supervision. The concept, which was developed …