How Africa is re-exploring Trade by barter + A new Unicorn in Malawi.
A tale of innovation, partnerships and growth | Vol 49| Nov 15th, 2023
Hiya, sorry this issue is a day late, I didn’t anticipate November would be this busy. 😩, but we move.. 💨
We are officially counting down to the end of the year and of course the Fintech freeze period. What is the Fintech freeze period?
In most parts of Africa, Fintechs record their highest transactions of the year in December.
December coincides with the End of the year for most companies, Christmas celebrations, and in some cases Salah celebrations.
To ensure minimal downtime and the highest success rates, Smart Fintechs freeze their systems, stop changes or any type of innovation.
So in the weeks leading up to the freeze period, you’ll notice a flurry of launches, updates , announcements, and related activity as anything as this is the last opportunity to make a mark in 2023.
This is what we’ll explore in this edition under these mini headlines:
The Biggest News from last week.
New Paytech rails
Grassroot Fintech Enablement
🦣 The Biggest News from last week
What was the biggest news from last week? a lot happened but we tried to select the most exciting and noteworthy. Let’s explore them together…
That dollars are in short supply across Key markets in Africa isn’t news, what is news is how governments are thinking out of the box.
What is the scenario? Egypt is currently unable to obtain Kenya’s tea, as it is held up in Mombasa port, due to a lack of US dollars for export payment, so Egypt and Kenya governments are exploring a Barter system for payments where Egypt is proposing a blank cheque for the exchange of goods produced within Egypt’s borders.
This isn’t so new as INSTEX is a barter system that enables European and Iranian companies to exchange goods and services without direct financial transactions
Egyptian FinTech MNT-Halan started this year by announcing a blinding $200M raise to achieve Unicorn status. Last week they secured another impressive $130 Million in Funding in the 4th Oversubscribed Bond Offering.
MNT-Halan, Moove, Lipa-later, and Peach Payments need to get together to teach the ecosystem their funding secrets.🙌🏽
Flutterwave entered their (honestly I’ve lost count at this point) ..umpteenth country. They recently announced an IMTO license to facilitate remittance in Malawi. Who else is in Malawi? Chipper Cash got a money transfer license in January whilst Malawi is also home to the asset finance Fintech, Yellow who raised $14M this year.
🚉New Paytech rails
Too many options have never been a bad thing, so new payment systems and networks are always a welcome idea.
Last week Paystack announced a new, much-needed integration to charge customers’ bank accounts directly, making it ideal for processing subscriptions to services like DStv, Tizeti, Netflix, or Spotify. They are offering this on the account rails in collabo with NIBBS.
From South Africa, Mukuru has partnered with the new Payfast Rails to bring a street-friendly Payment use case to South Africans. You know how there is a divide between the offline ( agency banking ) world and the online (e-commerce/social payments) world? So you can see something you want to buy online, but you just have cash?
Well with Mukuru, Merchants have a checkout option that gives you a code to pay at a Mukuru agent. This will be useful in Lagos abi?
Last, in this section, EMTECH is advancing its gospel of sandboxes, this time they have partnered with FinTechNGR to offer a CBN regulatory sandbox.
I can’t claim to understand this use case, if you have used it before I’d like to learn from you in the comments.
🦗Grassroot Fintech Enablement
I like how the focus isn’t only on the top dogs in the ecosystem, Investors and corporates have learned to focus on upcomers to look for raw talent and growth. Ecobank just concluded a Fintech program not long ago where Koree emerged as the winner.
Last week MTN MoMo Hackathon empowered 3 Nigerian innovators with N11m prize money. I loved the submission from Rova Pay which involved automated USSD, which eliminates the need for internet or manual dialling.
Visa also announced their selection of 23 African Startups, though most of them are well beyond their Startup years 😉 for their 1st fintech accelerator. Congrats to the winners, hoping for a more secure ecosystem fuelled by useful products.
The Waitlist is now Open - The School of Fintech 2024
Spending 10 years in Fintech before you understand the fine details of the ecosystem is so last decade! Yes, people have been winging it, leading to serious errors and loss 😔🥺
But it doesn’t need to be that way. If you are addicted to excellence, your opportunity to lead the pace of change in Fintech has arrived!🛬
Whether you're starting from square 1️⃣ or aiming to master the intricacies of Fintech Operations, Engineering, or Product Development, our school of Fintech courses are tailored to your aspirations.
So give your Fintech dreams for 2024 a head start! Join the Waitlist NOW🚀
Click here: Join the Waitlist 📌Don't just dream it; live it!
And that is all for this week’s newsletter. Have an awesome week!