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,…

Egypt’s largest national banks – Banque Misr, National Bank of Egypt, and Banque du Caire – and Global Ventures, a leading MEA-focused venture capital firm – announce the launch of Nclude by Global Ventures, following approval by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE). This bold and unprecedented step is an implementation of the country’s strategic vision to support young innovators who will build the Egyptian Economy of the future, Nclude by Global Ventures will focus on accelerating Fintech Innovation and driving Financial Inclusion. The initial amount equivalent to $85 million investment in the Fund is led by Banque Misr as…

Over the past few years, Egypt’s fintech sector has grown at a rapid pace as the startup ecosystem thrives and investment surges. In its first industry report, Fintech Egypt, an initiative of the Central Bank of Egypt, delves into that growth, sharing key growth metrics and emerging trends. According to the inaugural Egypt Fintech: Landscape Report 2021, Egyptian fintech companies are increasingly catching the eye of the investors community, which poured a new record of US$159 million in 2021, up X4 from just US$37.1 million in 2020. The figure makes Egypt the fourth largest country in fintech investments in Africa…

Moove, a Nigeria and London based mobility fintech, which provides revenue-based financing to mobility entrepreneurs across Africa, has raised $105 million in an oversubscribed Series A2 round consisting of equity and debt. The round is led by existing investors, Speedinvest, Left Lane Capital and thelatest.ventures, with participation from new investors including AfricInvest, MUFG Innovation Partners, Latitude and Kreos Capital. Launched in 2020 by Ladi Delano and Jide Odunsi, Moove is democratizing vehicle ownership across Africa by providing mobility entrepreneurs access to revenue-based financing in markets with low access to credit. Using its alternative credit scoring technology, Moove provides vehicle financing…

World Mobile Group, a global mobile network combining renewable energy with blockchain technology, partners with COTI, creator of the DJED stablecoin and ADA Pay, which allows merchants to accept ADA for their goods and services. Through the partnership, COTI brings ADA Pay to retailers and merchants in Africa and integrates stablecoin DJED into the World Mobile Ecosystem. The World Bank pledged Universal Financial Access by 2020, but many are still left in the dark. In Africa, 95 million people don’t have access to banking services, severely stunting their ability to succeed financially. Without access to traditional banking services, such as…

In 2021, African fintech startups raised a new all-time high of US$2 billion, surpassing the previous record of US$773 million raised in 2018 by 159% and overshadowing 2020’s figure of US$230 million by a staggering X8, new data from Crunchbase show. 2021’s sum, which excludes funding raised by African born startups but which are now headquartered overseas (e.g. Flutterwave and Chipper Cash), is reflective of the global surge in fintech funding observed last year during which fintech companies raised a whopping US$132 billion, more than double the 2020 figure. In 2021, key markets remained Nigeria in the West, Kenya in…