Afridigest Fintech Review: Nigeria's demonetization is driving payments digitization

Week 6 2023: February 5-11

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:

• Slow week for fintech deals — no pure fintech transactions were announced — but a couple of fintech-adjacent deals are highlighted below.

• Fintech news worth noting: Mobile money operators are benefiting from Nigeria’s demonetization drive. ARK Invest’s Big Ideas presentation has a great section on digital wallets. And a number of startups, including Flutterwave, received new licenses/regulatory approvals for geographic expansion or new lines of business.

• Companies appearing in today’s Fintech Review: Paychant, Lulalend, Mama Money, Nairagram, Codebase Technologies, Bamboo, Zeepay, Umba, & more.

• Executives appearing: Nala’s Benjamin Fernandes, Safaricom’s Esther Waititu, GTP’s Olaseni Alabede, Tala’s Shivani Siroya, Benjamin Dada, MFS Africa’s Gwera Kiwana, BBD’s Matthew Barnard, FTS Group’s Matteo Rizzi, Lendsqr’s Adedeji Olowe, Duplo’s Yele Oyekola, Pennee’s Emmanuella Mejero, Anchor’s Gerald Okonkwo, Remita’s Maro Elias, Rali Cap’s Kyane Kassiri, & more.

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Week 6 2023: February 5-11

💸 Fundraises

FINTECH-ISH

• [Cleantech] 🇿🇲 MPower, a Swiss/Zambian B2B2C clean energy platform providing solar hardware, software, and financing solutions, raised a ~$1.6M pre-series A round.

• [B2B E-commerce] 🇲🇦 Chari, a Moroccan B2B marketplace & fintech platform for the FMCG sector, raised $1M.

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💡 Executive Insights: Stay close to your customers

Pair with: Tanzanian fintech NALA raises $10M seed to build Revolut for Africa

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🚀 Partnerships & Product Launches

LAUNCHES

• Paychant, a Nigerian crypto payment gateway, launched a fiat-to-crypto on-and-off ramp solution for self-custodial wallets, dApps, DEX, and NFT platforms

• Sudo Africa, a Nigerian card issuing API platform, launched its Root by Sudo mobile app allowing users to create and manage virtual cards

• Lulalend, a South African digital lending platform, is launching SME digital banking platform Lula in partnership with Access Bank South Africa