Anyeonghaseyo,
The International Finance Corporation (IFC) became a minority shareholder in Safaricom Ethiopia in June 2023. It made a $157.4 million equity investment in the telco's parent consortium, The Global Partnership for Ethiopia. It also gave a $100 million loan to the telecom company.
Consequently, Safaricom's ownership in the Ethiopian subsidiary will decline to 51.7%, retaining control of the joint venture. Vodacom’s stake will also decrease from 6.2 per cent to 5.7 per cent.
Sumitomo Corporation, which currently owns a 27.2 per cent stake in Safaricom Ethiopia, and British International Investment (10.9 per cent) are two additional investors that will also see their stakes reduced.
Here's what I've got for you today:
- MTN South Africa to pay R1.9 billion before H2 2023
- Kenyans can now hold more money in their M-Pesa accounts
- d.light's $30m securitisation facility
MTN South Africa to pay R1.9 billion before the end of H2 2023
In its half-year financial performance, MTN Group disclosed that Mastercard will acquire a minority stake in its fintech business, MoMo.
MTN has not specified the size of its stake, but it said that once the companies complete due diligence, they will sign the investment agreements.
In additional MTN news, the MTN Group announced that its South African subsidiary would shortly pay the communications authority, Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), the outstanding amount of R1.9 billion for the spectrum it bought but couldn’t use.
MTN South Africa and a few other mobile operators, including Vodacom and Telkom, purchased frequencies in the “digital dividend” bands in the 2022 spectrum auction.
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MTN purchased 100 MHz in the spectrum auction: 40 MHz in the 2.6 GHz band, 40 MHz in the 3.5 GHz band, and 20 MHz in the 800 MHz.
Consequently, MTN South Africa said it would pay in the second half of 2023 to deploy more spectrum across the country.
Kenyans can now hold more money in their M-PESA accounts
Starting today, August 15, 2023, M-PESA customers get increased transaction limits.
This announcement is due to a revised mobile money transaction cap by the Central Bank of Kenya. It allows an increase in account and daily transaction limits to KSh 500,000 for all customers.
Safaricom CEO, Peter Ndegwa, says the increase in account limits is consistent with the company’s commitment to offering customers simple and reliable mobile money services.
He also states that as the share of cashless transactions keeps increasing, the higher account limits will offer customers, especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs), greater convenience.
Why is this important? One survey shows that about 9 in 10 SMEs use M-PESA. Besides, during the previous fiscal year, from March 2022 to March 2023, Lipa Na M-PESA processed KSh 1.625 trillion in transactions for more than 606,000 businesses.
In 2020, M-PESA launched several products and services, including the M-Pesa business app, USSD codes for merchants, and micro SME wallet, to empower and assist SMEs grow.
What’s more, M-PESA customers will benefit from an increase in the daily transaction limit from KSh 300,000 to KSh 500,000. Although Kenyans can now transact up to KSh 500,000 per day, the telco mentioned that the current per-transaction cap of KSh 150,000 would remain in place.
d.light's $30m securitisation facility
Kenyan-based solar solutions company, d.light, has secured a $30 million securitisation facility from the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank Group (TDB Group).
The company can purchase up to $125 million in receivable assets.
What is a securitisation facility? It is a financial arrangement that allows a company to raise capital by selling assets to a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), which then issues securities backed by those assets.
After that, investors buy the securities and receive the principal and interest payments of the underlying assets. The company can use the funds raised from the sale of its assets to finance new projects or pay off existing debt.
In this case, d.light will use the funds to increase the number of low-income individuals and households that can buy its solar-powered household goods in Tanzania.
Currently led by CEO, Nick Imudia, D.light was founded in 2007 by Sam Goldman and Ned Tozun.
The company provides products to low-income families and has sold close to 30 million products, including solar lanterns, solar home systems, TVs, radios, and smartphones.
In case you missed it
- Founders Factory Africa secures $144 million to address gender imbalance in the VC ecosystem
- After struggling to raise additional capital from investors, Kenyan eCommerce startup, MarketForce, is raising $1 million on crowdfunding platform, Capitalize
- This graduate of the University of Nigeria dumped agricultural engineering for software development. Now he's building an edtech with global ambitions
- Lifelong friends score $10,000 grant to create borderless pharmacies in Nigeria
What I'm reading and watching
- Amazon begins rolling out AI-generated review summaries
- Telegram rolls out its Stories feature to all users
- How Did Catholicism Start?
Opportunities
- Techpoint Africa's research and data arm, Intelpoint, is holding the Fintech Executive Mixer at Lekki Phase 1, Lagos on Thursday, August 17, 2023. To attend, register here.
- TechCircle is hiring a Venture Analyst. Apply here.
- Gen F, a three-month initiative sponsored by Founders Factory Africa, is open to idea-stage founders. Participants will receive a monthly stipend, an experimentation budget, and access to experts to help them test and launch their ideas. Apply here.
- MTN MoMo is hosting tech developers and innovators from 15 African countries, including Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Ghana, and Cameroon, to participate in its online application programming interface (API) hackathon. Apply before September 3, 2023, here.
- African Startups can now apply to join the first cohort of the Visa Africa Fintech Accelerator programme. Startups up to the Series A stage are encouraged to apply for the opportunity to acquire unrivaled expertise, beneficial industry connections, cutting-edge technology, and potential investment funding. Apply by August 25, 2023 here.
- If you are a software engineer, creative designer, product manager, design researcher, or a techie looking for an internship role, please, check out this website.
Have a terrific Tuesday!
