Understanding South African Fintech Ecosystem : The facts, figures and insights.
THE LOGUE- An African –focused Fintech Newsletter | Vol 11 | Feb 20th 2023
Hello Fintechies.
You are welcome to another edition of your African-focused newsletter, we hope the week has started on a good note for you.
Since we are doing a deep dive focused on South Africa, we figured our African fun facts should come from that country as well. Fair enough? South Africa has a lot of interesting facts, we found it had to choose tbh, but we were astonished to learn that they are the largest producer of Macadamia nuts in the world.
Macadamia nuts are tree nuts that have a subtle, butter-like flavor and creamy texture. They are rich in nutrients, antioxidants, and beneficial plant compounds. They’re also linked to several benefits, including improved digestion, heart health, weight management, and blood sugar control.
So what is in today's update? We have 3 captivating sections for you in this newsletter. We'll start with the news highlights first, then share some updates from our School of Fintech and Learning resources, afterwards we move to the Deep dive on the SA Fintech Ecosystem. Shall we?
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The News Highlights.
The Fintech Ecosystem was brimming with activity last week, the activities on licensing had reduced but we have seen an increase in partnerships as well as some funding announcements. Let's look at some of the details.
#Partnerships: For this segment, we'll do a round up of Mastercard's activities on the continent in the last 8 weeks.
Copal: This project was to launch Egypt’s first family digital payment and expenses management mobile application. This will be an interesting one.
Cashplus: This project was launch the first international e-card starting from Morocco. This e-card, 100% digital, offers an alternate method for international online purchases
NowNow: This project with NowNow is to help SMEs reduce the risk of cyberattacks. They'll support SMEs with regular web application penetration tests to ensure that applications are not vulnerable to any cyber threats. It is currently available in Nigeria and Angola.
Visa has also been busy having announced an earlier $1Bn fund to support African Fintechs. Last week they partnered with MICT, Inc. (which acquired Tingo Mobile in 2022), for a pan-African strategic partnership. They aim to improve access to digital payments and financial services using the launch of the Tingo Visa card, the new TingoPay Super App, and the TingoPay business portal.
Also from Egypt, Orange has signed a partnership agreement with Fawry, the leading provider of e-payments solutions in Egypt, to enhance digital payment services and expand the features of the Orange Cash wallet.
#Acquisitions; So far, North Africa is winning in the acquisitions bloc, at the turn of the year we saw Underlie of Egypt acquired by Dubai's Fintech Galaxy. Last week Cross Switch
#Product Launch and Innovation: South Africa’s biggest bank by retail clients, Capitec, has introduced new services. These include Vouchers, LOTTO, and Apple pay amongst others. It also updated its banking fees for 2023 though digital transactions are stable and card + online purchases remain free.
From Nigeria, ValueJet a private Nigerian airline has partnered with a Fintech Kalabash to enable passengers to pay for flights in small, manageable instalments.
Looking for a TLDR; see our news highlight infographic below.
Our Learning Platforms and Resources.
Payments 360 provides a detailed and extensive induction into the world of payments and fintech. In this course, we break down the basics, regulations, systems, and Operations that make the Payments & Fintech ecosystem work.
After this course, you'll be able to
🏆Understand the business of the Fintech you work at including the systems, flow of money and who the important stakeholders are.
🏆Fintech is fast-paced, you need to be able to respond quickly to changes and even anticipate them when you see headlines in the news. This course gives you the knowledge to do that.
🏆Make your mark as a key member of your organization. How? You'll require less supervision to make things happen. Let's not get started with being head-hunted.
🏆Start your own thing! Yes, whilst this is not an Engineering course, you can bring your ideas to life because you know what the building blocks and partnerships to choose.
🏆Transform your Fintech career and command the attention of the stakeholders as you help spot new opportunities and navigate regulatory loopholes.
1. The next cohort for Payments360 : March 18th - April 15th, 2023. Register here. 2. To join the waitlist for the Fintech Engineering Bootcamp, click here.
Let us be part of your Fintech learning journey in 2023.
Sponsorship & Partnerships
Do you want your Fintech Products and platforms to reach a growing audience of professionals and decision makers in the African Fintech Space? Contact us to feature your Product or for sponsoring an edition. Whatsapp Chat - 07025254596
Do you want to catch up on Insightful Conversations on Practical Fintech?
Our YouTube Channel is loaded with sessions and short excerpts from our Fintech Open House sessions over the years. We've discussed
Credit and Lending Infrastructure in Nigeria
Unravelling Payment Rails
Demystifying Third Party Processing
Understanding Financial Inclusion segments and more.
This week we highlight an interesting episode from January 2023 edition Watch the 13 min cut here
Deep Dive: Understanding South African Fintech Ecosystem.
The first question to ask is if it is worthwhile understanding South Africa. We answer by asking why not? Let's take a look at some facts about SA.
They are the only African country that is a member part of the BRICS. The BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, and China & South Africa )are 5 large, fast-growing economies that would collectively dominate the global economy by 2050.
They are also part of the SADC. The Southern African Development Community was formed in 1980 with 15 members including Angola, Botswana, and Namibia. It has a SADC RTGS which allows banks within to settle payments between one another in real-time.
Africa’s leading banks and financial institutions such as Standard Bank Group, FirstRand, Absa Group, and Nedbank Group are all in South Africa.
SA has a population of about 58.8 million people of diverse origins, cultures, languages, and religions.
It has the highest number of internet penetration and smartphones on the continent.
With these few points of ours, we hope we have caught your attention but the gist is just starting. Get into a comfortable position and let's explore together.
Next up, we explore the Fintech Ecosystem in SA, the picture below is a cross-section of some Startups in SA.
Zooming in on the Fintech Startups. Here are some interesting facts that you need in your strategy folder if you are working in the Fintech ecosystem in Africa.
To jump into these details including the major Fintech categories and their drivers, the Regulators, regulations ,supporting bodies and upcoming trends in 2023, read more on our blog.
Want to catch up on the latest news in the ecosystem, this is your spot. Check out our learning materials at The PaymentLogue.
At The PaymentLogue, we are enabling a skilled Fintech ecosystem. If you'd like to make enquiries on our courses and events, reach out to us at info@thepaymentlogue.com
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