Afridigest Fintech Review: Afrigo-ing, going, gone...

Week 4 2023: January 22-28

The Afridigest Fintech Review is a weekly recap of what happened in African fintech.

Hello again, friends! Remember: this Fintech Review goes out on Sundays and the regular Week in Review goes out on Mondays.

On to the week’s highlights:

• Roughly half a million dollars was raised in a disclosed deal for a Nigerian digital bank, and two significant but undisclosed lending deals (outside of Nigeria) were also made public.

• The so-called ‘giant of Africa’ (Nigeria) launched Africa’s first government-led national domestic card scheme. 👀

• ~39% of all equity raised by Africa-focused startups in 2022 went to fintechs, according to Partech.

• Partnerships announcements are back in full force — five are featured below.

• Companies appearing in today’s Fintech Review: TradeLenda, LulaLend, Ezra, Afrigo, SquareMe, Touch and Pay, Jumia, mTek, Mama Money, ValU, Liberty Pay, & more.

• Executives appearing: Moniepoint’s Tosin Eniolorunda, Carbon’s Ngozi Dozie, Payday’s Favour Ori, Tala’s Stephen Ruhohi, Motisure’s Joel Macharia, Pineapple’s Sizwe Ndlovu, SosoCare’s Nonso Opurum, Busha’s Michael Adeyeri & Moyo Sodipo, Paga’s Tayo Oviosu, Launch Africa Venture’s Zach George, Montegray Capital’s Michael Jordaan, DAI Magister’s Victor Basta, Paxful’s Ray Youssef, RaliCap’s Kyane Kassiri, & more.

⭐ Not interested in fintech? No problem: visit the Notifications section of your Account Settings page and deselect the Fintech option. (And if you speak French, make sure to turn notifications on for Afridigest Français — it’ll be back from hiatus soon.)

[If you’re not a paying subscriber of Afridigest, you’ll only see a free preview of this Fintech Review. Remember to upgrade your subscription or start a trial to read it in full. Check out previous, non-paywalled versions here, here, and here. And fundraising deal links in this Fintech Review have been moved to the bottom, behind the paywall — more on that in tomorrow’s WIR.]

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Week 4 2023: January 22-28

💸 Fundraises

AFRICA

• 🇳🇬 TradeLenda, a Nigerian digital bank focused on supply chain SMEs, raised a $520K pre-seed.

• 🇿🇦 LulaLend, a South African digital lending platform targeting SMEs, raised an undisclosed amount.

• 🇰🇪 Ezra, an Emirati/Kenyan embedding lending & digital credit solutions provider, raised an undisclosed amount.

ADJACENT

• 🇩🇪 Senken, a German carbon credit trading & climate finance platform with operations in South Africa, raised $7.5M.

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💡 Executive Insights: Fixing the trust deficit is essential to fintech's future in Africa

🧐 Read Tosin’s full quote on our LinkedIn page and connect with him here.

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🚀 Partnerships & Product Launches

LAUNCHES

• The Central Bank of Nigeria, in conjunction with the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement Systems (NIBSS) & other stakeholders, launched Afrigo (the Nigerian national domestic card scheme) to rival Mastercard and Visa. It’s Africa’s first government-led domestic card scheme, and its promoters suggest that Nigeria/Nigerians will enjoy improved transaction security, data sovereignty, better pricing, interchange fee reduction, and more, while improving local competence in the cards & payments space. Insiders think it’s ultimately driven by Nigeria’s lack of foreign exchange reserves, however.

  Dr Joe Abah @DrJoeAbah

  Who can explain this ‘Afrigo Card’ thing to me, please? Why is the Central Bank getting involved in a payment card? How is ‘Afrigo’ different from other payment cards and bank cards? What is the effect of this on competition within the Fintech industry? #NaijaKnowledgeX