African cryptocurrency platform Yellow Card Financial has raised US$40 million in Series B funding led by Polychain Capital. Other investors in the round included Valar Ventures, Third Prime Ventures, Sozo Ventures, Castle Island Ventures, Fabric Ventures, DG Daiwa Ventures, The Raba Partnership, and others. The platform, which was first launched in Nigeria in 2019, now serves 16 countries with its latest additions being Gabon, Senegal, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Since raising its US$15 million Series A in August 2021, the company has also launched a crypto cross-border transfer service and surpassed one million customers in March…

Brazilian payments company EBANX announced plans to expand its operations and payments solutions outside Latin America for the first time to Africa, with a focus on South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria. The three countries are said to account for 32 percent of Africa’s population, 51 percent of its GDP, and 73 percent of the startup accelerators active in the continent today. Founded in 2012, EBANX currently operates in 15 Latin American countries. It also serves as workflow management platform Pipefy’s payments partner in the African region. EBANX previously announced that it secured US$400 million in funding from Advent International and…

Flutterwave merchants can now process payments in eNaira, the Nigerian digital currency issued and distributed by the Central Bank of Nigeria. The self-service payment method is available to all Flutterwave merchants who want to collect Nigerian Naira (NGN) from customers who have the eNaira app. Merchants who use this payment method will be charged a 1.4% fee per transaction, capped at 2000 Naira for merchants in Nigeria. The company was granted a switching and processing license earlier this month and raised a US$250 million Series D in February with a valuation of over US$3 billion. According to Nigeria’s central bank…

African fintech companies have made significant inroads into the market over these past couple of years, with revenues reaching US$4 billion to US$6 billion in 2020 and average penetration levels of between 3 and 5% (excluding South Africa), an McKinsey analysis shows. That momentum is projected to continue on with fintech revenues expected to grow eight times their current value to reach US$30 billion by 2025. These estimates are provided that the sector overall reaches similar levels of those seen in Kenya, a country with one of the highest levels of fintech penetration in the world, and take into consideration…

Payments company Flutterwave has been granted a Switching and Processing License by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The switching and processing license allows Flutterwave to enable transactions between banks, fintechs and other financial institutions. The company can also process card transactions, participate in agency banking and offer various payment services without any intermediary. Prior to this license, Flutterwave operated with its Payment Solution Service Provider (PSSP) and International Money Transfer Operator (IMTO) licenses. Flutterwave stressed that the application and review process by the CBN was a tough and rigorous process that examined every aspect of Flutterwave’s business, including the…

Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) governor Godwin Emefiele says the second phase of the eNaira project has begun and is intended to drive financial inclusion by onboarding unbanked and underserved users leveraging offline channels. Nigerians will be able to open an eNaira wallet and conduct transactions by simply dialling *997 from their mobile phones under phase two. Furthermore, merchants and consumers with bank accounts will be able to use the NIBSS Instant Payment (NIP) to transfer and receive eNaira to any bank account. “The second phase of the project has begun and is intended to drive financial inclusion by onboarding…

Fintech Challenge offers early stage and mature start-ups the potential to partner with Ecobank across 33 African countries; Applications open until 16 September. Pan-African banking group, Ecobank Group, has launched the fifth edition of the Ecobank Fintech Challenge and encourages African Fintech entrepreneurs to enter the competition. Fintechs that are aligned with the Bank’s strategic objectives stand a chance to win an overall cash prize of US$50,000 for the top winner and the opportunity to partner and scale their solutions across Ecobank’s 33 African markets. Fintech companies and developers originating from any of Africa’s 54 countries, as well as global Africa-centered…

Following a successful pilot implementation, Bank of Ghana launched now its Regulatory and Innovation Sandbox developed in collaboration with EMTECH Solutions. This is in line with the Bank’s commitment to continuously evolve a conducive regulatory environment that fosters innovation, financial inclusion and financial stability. Over the past two years and during the pilot, the use of digital financial services among Ghanaians has recorded a remarkable increase on account of a raft of enabling policies introduced by the Bank and the Government of Ghana under the national digitalization agenda. At the same time, the restrictions imposed on the movement of persons…

Bizao, a fintech that facilitates payments for both local and international businesses operating in Africa, announces an €8 million series A funding to accelerate its geographical footprint across the continent and invest in the design of new lines of products and services. Launched in 2019, Bizao facilitates, in a transparent and secure manner, the processing of end-to-end payment flows to and from the main digital payment systems in Africa (airtime, mobile money wallets, credit card). Within 3 years, Bizao has expanded its operations in 10 African countries (Burkina-Faso, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal, Tunisia, Togo,…

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) announced an investment in mobile money provider Wave Mobile to spur financial inclusion and support economic growth in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire. The investment from IFC and other lenders will help Wave substantially grow its operations in Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal, deepen its product offering, and expand its customer base for mobile money accounts and quality payment services. IFC arranged a €90 million financing package, comprised of a €25 million loan from IFC’s own account, B Loans of a combined €41 million from Symbiotics, Blue Orchard, responsAbility, and Lendable, as well as parallel loans of €24 million from Finnfund and Norfund. In…

British International Investment (BII), the UK government’s Development Finance Institution (DFI) formerly known as CDC Group, has unveiled its new name and made a US$20 million investment into Moove. Moove, a mobility fintech democratising access to vehicle ownership in Africa, provides a revenue-based vehicle financing and financial services to mobility entrepreneurs. The mobility fintech embeds its alternative credit scoring technology onto ride-hailing, e-logistics and instant delivery platforms, and using proprietary performance and revenue analytics to underwrite vehicle loans. Since its launch in 2020, Moove has rapidly expanded its operations within Nigeria and has entered into new African markets including Ghana,…

Temenos announced that Arab Tunisian Bank, a leading bank in Tunisia and part of the Arab Bank Group, one of the largest financial institutions in the Middle East, has gone live on Temenos open platform for composable banking. The initial phase of the transformation of its core banking systems for retail and corporate business lines with Temenos frees the bank from legacy constraints to accelerate product delivery and digital growth. ATB is a mid-sized universal bank serving retail, SME and corporate customers with a staff of 1300 and 134 branches across the country. On Temenos open platform, it aims to differentiate…

MoneyGram has partnered the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) with to initiate the roll out of  its crypto-to-cash service that is now available in key remittance markets, including Kenya, the U.S., Canada, and the Philippines for the first wave of users. According to MoneyGram, global cash-out functionality is expected to be available by the end of June 2022. Powered by the Stellar blockchain and Stellar-enabled digital wallets, MoneyGram’s retail agent network, and Circle’s USD Coin (USDC), a fully-reserved dollar digital currency, the service provides cash users access to cryptocurrency. Users of the Stellar-connected digital wallets Vibrant and LOBSTR, with more wallets…

Africa is emerging into one of the world’s fastest-growing cryptocurrency markets, driven by strong funding activity, favorable market conditions, and booming trading volumes, according to a new report by Swiss blockchain-focused investment firm CV VC. Released earlier this month, the African Blockchain Report 2021 provides an overview of the emerging blockchain sector on the continent, sharing key growth metrics and trends to look out for. According to the study, venture capital (VC) funding in the blockchain industry is surging this year, with startups in the sector raising US$91 million in Q1 2022 alone. The figure represents a 1,668% year-on-year (YoY)…

2021 was a blockbuster year for investment in African fintech startups, with a whopping US$1.6 billion invested across 153 deals. The figures represent two times the value of 2020 (US$800 million), and a 50% increase in transaction numbers, data from KPMG’s Pulse of Fintech H2 2021 report show. Booming funding activity on the continent in 2021 pushed valuations to new heights, turning at least three fintech startups with African origins into unicorns: Flutterwave, a payment services provider from Nigeria, closed two mega-rounds in 2021 and is now valued at US$3 billion; OPay, a mobile money provider from Nigeria, is worth…

Paymob, Egypt’s omni-channel merchant financial services platform, announced it has raised US$50 million in a Series B funding round led by Kora Capital, PayPal Ventures, and Clay Point. This Series B funding round brings Paymob’s total funding to over US$68.5 million. Other new participating investors included Helios Digital Ventures, British International Investment, and Nclude. Paymob’s existing investors including A15, FMO, and Global Ventures also participated in the round. The proceeds will be used to expand Paymob’s product range and break into new markets across the Middle East and Africa region. Paymob said that it plans to launch cards for its…

The highly anticipated second annual Finnovex East Africa Hybrid Summit is set to kick off this April 20-21, 2022. The summit’s organiser Exibex said that it is preparing to host a gathering of 350+ attendees to hear from 20+ industry visionaries. This 2-day summit is the 11th edition from the Finnovex Global Series which aims to shed light on front burner issues through a blend of fireside chats, panel discussions, and expert presentations. This summit will discuss the rapidly evolving financial services ecosystem, the role of fintech and telecoms, importance of financial inclusion and imperative need of regulatory framework for…

PwC’s 2022 Global CBDC Index and Stablecoin Overview has ranked Nigeria at the top of the retail leaderboard, recognizing the work done by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in developing and deploying the eNaira, a digital form of the domestic currency. Launched October 2021, the eNaira is the culmination of several years of research work by the central bank. The retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) is intended to usher in a monetary system that’s more inclusive, improve access to digital financial services, and enhance the efficiency of payments. The first CBDC to be deployed in Africa, the eNaira…

OpenWay, a digital banking and payment software provider, has announced two new implementation partners in East Africa — TechNote, along with iCon Transactions and Tracing Technologies (iT&TT). These new additions to OpenWay’s partner network will allow its clients to reduce time-to-market for innovative digital payments solutions in East Africa and beyond. TechNote and iT&TT were chosen as OpenWay implementation partners since they have already demonstrated high skills and commitment in assisting with deployments, turnkey testing and onsite support for activities with OpenWay clients in East Africa. Both companies bring many years of expertise in managing and delivering payment systems, including…

Lucky, Egypt’s leading app for credit products, offers and cashback rewards, announces its completion of a $25 million fund raise. The funding round, which claims to be Egypt’s largest Fintech Series A round so far, was led by Nclude by Global Ventures – the new Fintech fund recently announced by its lead investors Banque Misr, National Bank of Egypt and Banque du Caire – Egypt’s largest national banks – and Global Ventures, a leading MEA focused venture capital firm. Major investment also came from PayU, the Prosus-owned Fintech firm specialising in emerging markets; Endeavor Catalyst, Venture Souq, Oman Technology Fund,…