Author: Akin Naphtal

The Bank of Zambia, the country’s central bank, has become the latest target for cyber-criminals after its IT systems and some applications were hacked recently, and resulted in disruption to operators within the financial services market. The incident has occurred amid warnings from the Zambia Information and Communications Technology Authority (ZICTA) about an increase in cybercrime, specifically targeting the country’s financial services market. The regulator has identified the increase in adoption and use of the internet as a contributing factor. Bank of Zambia Assistant Director in charge of communication Besnart Mwanza said the Bank experienced a partial disruption of its…

Egyptian startup Instabug, a mobile monitoring, crash and bug reporting solution for mobile teams, has raised US$46 million in Series B funding to add to its product and build what it says will be the first mobile observability and performance monitoring platform. Founded in 2016, Instabug helps developers better understand the performance of their mobile applications, and its impact on user experience. The company’s robust platform scales with any sized business, allowing independent developers and enterprises alike to seamlessly monitor, alert, prioritise and debug during critical phases of the application life cycle. Its US$46 million Series B round was led…

Kenyan fintech startup FlexPay has raised funding from the Cairo Angels Syndicate Fund as it looks to supercharge its growth and help more people avoid debt. FlexPay is an online and offline payment gateway that allows merchants to offer interest-free targeted savings to their customers in Africa. Through FlexPay, merchants give their customers the freedom to choose how and when to pay for high-value goods and services. Shoppers get to spread the cost over time, increasing flexibility and spending power. Merchants can choose to integrate FlexPay as a checkout option online, or offer offline in-store flexibility. The startup has now…

Ugandan startup Eversend, a digital-only finance platform providing cross-border money transfers among other services, is entering its “growth and expansion phase” in 2022 after achieving sustainability last year. Founded by Stone Atwine and Ronald Kasendwa in 2017 and launched to the public in 2019, Eversend is an all-in-one payments platform offering cross-border payments, virtual cards, currency exchange, and crypto buying and selling, focusing on Africa. In addition, the startup is building financial infrastructure for collections, payouts, currency exchange, and crypto through a web app and APIs. “We are the leading FX startup on the continent, and our crypto-fiat business offering…

The National Information Technology Development Agency’s  (NITDA) Computer Emergency Readiness and Response Team has warned ministries, departments, and agencies of rising cyberattacks in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This warning was made in a press statement distributed by NITDA’s spokesperson, Hadiza Umar. It read in part, “Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, cyberattacks on businesses and government organizations have grown, with the possibility of spillover cyberattacks against non-primary targets becoming far more frequent. There is a greater danger for countries doing business in or with these countries’ governments, as well as businesses or countries that apply sanctions or are believed…

Azentio Software, a Singapore-headquartered technology firm owned by funds advised by Apax Partners, announced today that BigPay, a Ghana-based global digital payment solutions company, has gone live with AmlockTM, Azentio’s Financial Crime Detection and Management Solution (FCDMS). AmlockTM will meet BigPay’s requirements for an effective transaction monitoring process, through an online workflow system. A unique feature of this workflow is the ability of the system to group or link together accounts belonging to a customer and investigate all transactions and the underlying alerts under a single case ID. The business challenges for BigPay arose on account of the different formats…

Halo Financial Services Limited, a fintech start-up that offers banking, investment, lending, and other financial services to formal and informal communities, has launched an innovative approach to help Nigerians manage and grow their money. Halo Financial Services Limited, a fintech start-up that offers banking, investment, lending, and other financial services to formal and informal communities, has launched an innovative approach to help Nigerians manage and grow their money. Speaking at a media round table the Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder, Chidimma Onyeokoro, disclosed that Halo enables communities to provide financial services to their members. Halo defines a community as any…

Nigerian fintech startup Bridgecard has raised a US$440,000 pre-seed funding round to expand its user base and build out its platform. Co-founded by Owumi Festus and Tunde Adewole, Bridgecard merges a user’s cards, bank accounts and fintech wallets into one card and an app, allowing users to perform online transactions, pay bills, and withdraw from any linked account. After a private beta where Bridgecard launched to 120 users and processed over US$70,000 transaction volume within two months, the startup recently launched publicly. It has now raised US$440,000 in pre-seed funding with the participation of the likes of ABV Fund, Ingressive…

Renewal of vehicle particulars, roadworthiness certificates and other vehicle existing documents can now be done with the launch of a platform called ‘Plate Detect’, which is expected to address vehicle documentation in Lagos and Nasarawa States. The ‘Plate Detect’, an innovation of Soft Alliance, is said to create convenience for getting vehicle particulars, and avoiding paying fines as well as getting embarrassed by policemen and various agencies when a car owner is found with incomplete particulars. This can now be seamlessly done with the aid of technology. Speaking on the initiative, product specialist, Saidat Adebule, said the platform was brought…

Safaricom has announced an increase in service revenue of Kshs 281.1-billion, a 12.3% increase from last year’s figure of Kshs 250.4-billion. According to its full financial year for the period 2021/2022 M-Pesa registered a 30.3% year-on-year growth to record Kshs 107.7-billion in revenue, accounting for 38.3% of the service revenue The company has advanced on its strategy is to ensure M-Pesa is accessible to its 30 million customers with the M-Pesa super app registering over 5 million downloads. Over 3 million businesses are also using M-Pesa payment channels in an addressable market of between five and six million merchants. Safaricom…