Author: Fintechnews Africa

Standard Chartered today announced the start of the second phase of its digital-only retail bank across Africa. In response to growing consumer demand for innovative banking services on the continent, the Bank will launch its digital solution in four key markets during the first quarter of 2019 starting in Uganda in January, followed by Tanzania in February, with Ghana and Kenya to follow. Following the successful launch of Standard Chartered’s first digital retail bank in Côte d’Ivoire last year, the second phase builds on the original CDI platform that onboards clients in under 15 minutes and provides 70 of the…

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Fintech and The Digital Banking Impact for Africa

The unique environment for financial services in Africa is fertile ground for innovative FinTech players who are not only disrupting but also building it from the scratch which is bringing Financial inclusions and attracting other investments across the continent. New technological advancements are the real game-changers for the banking and finance industry, especially in FinTech Start-ups. FinTech players and the incumbent banks have the potential to accelerate the digital transformation of financial services in Africa and to make financial services more efficient and accessible to under-served markets across the continent. FinTech players are playing a major role in shaping up…

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Peer to Peer (P2P) Lending Market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 51.5% from 2016 to 2022, to reach $460,312 million by 2022. With a decade’s experience handling mobile money solutions under their belt, a thoughtful and agile expansion strategy could put Orange Money in a good position to take advantage of this growth. The name Orange would not be too familiar to many Swiss, but many of us would probably be familiar with Salt telco—rebranded from the name Orange telco in the Switzerland and Liechtenstein regions respectively. In 2008, Orange Money was launched by the telco as a…

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Egypt’s A15 has just announced that they’re exiting UAE-based Tpay today, selling off its majority stake to Helios from Africa. Now collectively holding 24% of the stake, A15 along with the current executive team will continue to lead the implementation of Tpay’s expansion phase, with input from its new owners. Prior to the sale, A15 held a 76% stake in the company. Established in 2014, Tpay was an early player in the open mobile payment platforms in the region and, today, holds a huge slice of the direct central billing (DCB) space, with availability across 16 countries including the Middle East…

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n a first for Nigeria, customers of United Bank for Africa can now conduct their favorite banking activities in a secure and convenient manner, by communicating with their bank in a verified WhatsApp chat. This capability is made possible through Clickatell Transact’s Control platform integrated with the WhatsApp Business API. The Control platform for Chat Banking allows banks to roll out commonly used banking activities like checking balances, money transfer and purchasing digital products and services across popular communication channels like USSD and now WhatsApp. The platform offers flexibility, reliability, fraud and risk management for banks and a convenient on-demand…

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Egypt-Fintech-Ecosystem-2018

In Egypt, fintech is set to play a key role in providing basic financial services to the large pool of unbanked people, according to experts and industry observers. Egypt is the most populous nation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) with nearly 100 million people, 52% of which are below the age of 25. But only 14% of adults had a formal bank account as of 2014, accordingto the World Bank Global Findex database. Egypt’s young population, large pool of unbanked and high mobile penetration rate (more mobile subscriptions – 110 million – than its population) represent an opportunity…

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Fintech South Africa

Market demand for innovative products and services has been pushing fintech innovation in South Africa. In respond to the rapid development of fintech, the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) established a three-man fintech unit in January to monitor the impact of new technology developments on the traditional banking sector. The dedicated full-time team is reporting directly to deputy governor Francois Groepe. “Its primarily responsibilities are expected to include the facilitation of the development of appropriate policy frameworks for the SARB across the fintech domain,” Groepe explained. “Given the rapid developments in financial technology it is evident that we are potentially…

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Insurtechs enable insurance carriers to innovate much faster than they do today. Their innovative solutions dramatically improve the primary process of insurance carriers; they take away the frictions that customers experience when dealing with an insurance firm. We believe that connecting insurance executives with insurtech leaders will increase the relevancy of insurers. It will close the gap between what customers expect and insurers offer. New digital technologies also result in dropping market entry barriers and allow the emergence of new business models. This article features ten insurtechs that look beyond the current frictions and the current primary process. They understand…

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