Author: Akin Naphtal

Nigerian startup Xend Finance has passed the 100,000 user mark, while announcing launches in Ghana and Kenya. Xend Finance, which in 2019 took part in the Google Launchpad Africa accelerator and the Binance Incubation Programme, has developed a platform that gives everyone access to the global money market so members can save and invest in stable currencies. The Xend Finance platform also allows users to create their own credit unions and cooperatives, eliminating traditional middle men, while earning up to 15 per cent annual percentage yield on their savings. The startup launched its platform publicly late in 2020 after raising…

MTN Nigeria has appointed Onyinye Ikenna-Emeka as General Manager for its Fixed Broadband Business. Onyinye is a business leader with over 23 years of experience in the telecommunications, logistics and education sectors. Her expertise includes sales, marketing and customer management, conceptualising go-to-market models and nurturing new products into mature revenue-generating engines. Before her appointment, she was at the Enterprise Business Division, MTN Nigeria, where she worked as the General Manager, Enterprise Marketing. In her previous position, she played a key role in the establishment of the Enterprise Business division, leading nationwide sales efforts and driving expansion into new markets. She…

As part of its Ambition 2025 strategy, MTN Group has announced the appointment of new CEOs for its operations in Cameroon, Rwanda and Uganda. As outlined in a statement released by the operator, MTN Rwanda CEO Mitwa Ng’ambi becomes CEO of MTN Cameroon, replacing Stephen Blewett, who is leaving the Group. According to MTN, Ng’ambi oversaw the listing of MTN Rwanda as well as the establishment of its Fintech subsidiary. “She was instrumental in strengthening the business’s stakeholder engagement and has also worked in MTN’s Benin and Zambian operations,” the company added. MTN South Africa Chief Consumer Officer Mapula Bodibe…

Nigeria-based mobility fintech startup Moove has raised US$20 million in funding from the UK government’s development finance institution (DFI) British International Investment (BII), formerly known as CDC Group. Founded in 2019 by British-born Nigerians Ladi Delano and Jide Odunsi, Moove is democratising vehicle ownership in Africa by providing revenue-based vehicle financing to mobility entrepreneurs. By embedding its alternative credit scoring technology onto ride-hailing, e-logistics and instant delivery platforms, Moove can use proprietary performance and revenue analytics to underwrite loans to drivers that have previously been excluded from financial services. Over three million rides have been completed in Moove-financed vehicles across…

South African fintech startup Nomanini has launched StockNow, a digital retailer solution that aims to bring affordable working capital to Africa’s informal retail markets. Founded in 2010, Nomanini has developed a platform that enables informal merchants and micro-entrepreneurs in emerging markets to distribute digital goods such as airtime and prepaid electricity. The startup, which also offers micro-loans to merchants and operates in markets such as Ghana and Mozambique, raised a US$4 million funding round led by Standard Bank, Africa’s largest bank, and completed by Goodwell Investments, an Amsterdam-based investment firm, in 2019. It also banked funding worth US$1.5 million in…

Egyptian fintech super app MNT-Halan has announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary Tasaheel has securitised around US$150 million of its loan book in the first issuance of a US$600 million programme with Commercial International Bank (CIB), Egypt’s largest private sector bank. Having begun life as a ride-hailing app for two- and three-wheeler vehicles back in 2018, MNT-Halan has morphed into a super app of sorts, and in the process become Egypt’s largest and fastest-growing lender to the unbanked. The startup’s proprietary fintech ecosystem connects customers, vendors and micro-enterprises through its consumer facing app, merchant app, distributed lending and payment processing software,…

Half of Namibia’s population does not have access to the internet due to lack of mobile phone network infrastructure – and where there is access, signals are poor. This is according to Peya Mushelenga, Minister at the Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (MICT). He urged the ICT industry to double up on efforts to roll out telecommunication towers across the country so that even people in rural areas can be connected to mobile communication – which falls is in line with the government’s broadband policy to provide at least 95% broadband coverage by 2024. By the end of this…

EcoCash pens deal to enable PayPal service in cash-strapped Zimbabwe Zimbabweans are now able to use PayPal’s Xoom for remittances after mobile money platform, EcoCash inked a partnership with global payment network Thunes to facilitate payments utilising the global remittance platform. EcoCash confirmed the new development this week and a spokesperson for the company said: “Leveraging our Hub partnership with Thunes, we are excited to add Xoom, a PayPal money transfer service, to our growing number of remittance partners to Zimbabwe.” PayPal’s availability in the Southern African country comes a week after World Remit terminated direct remittances into Zimbabwean bank…

Malian insurtech startup OKO has raised a US$500,000 seed extension round to help it expand to Ivory Coast and work towards a Series A. Founded in 2017, OKO develops affordable mobile-based crop insurance products to provide smallholder farmers with the financial security they need, regardless of unstable climate trends. The startup operates in Mali and Uganda and has so far brought insurance to more than 15,000 farmers. OKO saw an impressive 6x growth in the number of paying customers from 2020 to 2021 and is continuing to expand its reach in 2022, with new crops covered, and new partnerships signed…

The African Export-Import Bank has created a payment solution platform, Pan-African Payment and Settlement System, to facilitate instant cross-border payments in local African currencies. This is expected to save African traders about $5bn annually in currency convertibility. The announcement was contained in a statement by Mike Oghalu, the CEO, PAPPS, while speaking at the post-annual general meeting of the International Chamber for Commerce of Nigeria in Lagos. According to Oghalu, “Intra-Africa trade is by far the lowest intra-continental trade globally standing at 15-17per cent.” A statement by Oghalu explained that most of the cross-border payment transactions originating from African banks…