The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) plans to issue payment licences to fintech startups soon, an important softening of an earlier stance that will open up East Africa’s largest payments market. Flutterwave and Chipper Cash are two fintech companies hoping to be granted those licences. CBK governor Kamau Thugge said the regulator is working around … Read more
Three days after it first announced its decision to exit Nigeria, Kimberly-Clark, the American multinational that manufactures Huggies diapers, has begun the process of shutting down its operations in Africa’s most populous country after laying off nearly 90% of its employees, one person with direct knowledge of the matter said. At a company-wide meeting last … Read more
Lending is a tough nut to crack, and Nigeria’s biggest banks, valued at trillions of naira, know this too well. Only 6.2% of Nigeria’s adult population had access to loans in 2019, a measure of how much banks avoid retail lending. Lending to small businesses is the same story; banks avoid it like a plague. … Read more
One month after obtaining a court order to recover $24 million lost to unauthorised POS transactions, Flutterwave suffered another security breach that allowed unknown persons to divert billions of naira to several bank accounts. The perpetrators illegally transferred ₦11 billion ($7 million) to several accounts in April 2024, one financial services insider with direct knowledge … Read more
Digital lending is notorious for teaching expensive lessons. While every lender will talk up their proprietary algorithms and foolproof loan decision systems, many loan books will show that few have hacked profitable lending. Yet, Credit Direct, a digital lender whose name may not draw a flicker of recognition from most people, reported ₦4bn ($2.6 billion) … Read more
Tanzania’s Central Bank will no longer allow unlicensed digital lenders to operate in the country and has told customers to look out for valid licenses before patronising loan companies. The Bank of Tanzania’s (BoT) new restrictions are believed to be linked to questionable lending practices like debt-shaming of defaulters, and high interest rates. ​​ The directive … Read more
Lesaka Technologies, the NASDAQ-listed fintech company with a market capitalisation of R4.5 billion ($242 million), is acquiring payment platform Adumo for R1.59 billion ($85 million) in cash and equity. The deal is scheduled to be completed in the third quarter of 2024 and will extend Lesaka’s payment footprint in the southern African region to five … Read more
Chipper Cash, a pan-African fintech startup, has resumed operations in the US after a two-month pause, and after a restructuring exercise that saw the company remove all US and UK roles, focusing its staff presence in Africa. Now, US-based customers can once again send money to friends and family in Chipper Cash’s African markets in … Read more
Cellulant, the pan-African payments startup valued at $133 million in 2022, has named new executives three months after the CEO and four other senior managers left the company. While Peter O’Toole, the company’s former CFO, remains acting CEO, Andy O’Sullivan, who co-founded Innovate Payments, is Cellulant’s new CTO. He replaces George Murage, who has now … Read more
Mastercard, the second-largest payment network in the world, has partnered with Mono, a Nigerian YC-backed open banking startup, to enable payments directly into bank accounts without cards or USSD codes. For Mono, this partnership is another leap forward in its race to profitability. “In 2023, we moved from negative to positive gross profit, and we … Read more