On today's episode of the Techpoint Africa Podcast, our hosts, Bolu Abiodun and Chimgozirim Nwokoma, discuss African tech stories making the waves this week.
This week, news of an OPay glitch heat the airwaves as the fintech is said to be trying to recover ₦714 million received by customers during a system glitch.
Customers were able to spend monies not in their account and according to reports this was because this transactions were labelled "approved" when they should have been "pending".
Fraud cases have become quite prevalent with Nigerian fintechs in the last year with companies like Flutterwave reporting hacks.
Bolu believes there could be much more than meets the eye here.
Next, we go to Africa's remittance market.
Tanzania-born remittance startup, NALA, has raised $40 million equity in a landmark deal that TechCrunch ranked among Africa’s largest Series A rounds.
Benjamin Fernandes, founder and CEO of NALA, stated that the new investment, which comes after a $10 million seed in 2022, will go towards the company’s growth plans, primarily building Rafiki, its new B2B payment platform.
In Nigeria, neo-bank, Kuda, is making giant strides in the remiitance space. The company secured a payment license in Canada earlier this year and is set for a Q3 2024 launch of its multi-currency digital wallet in the country. This service targets the large African diaspora population in Canada.
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Remmitance is a big market, accounting for 7% of West African GDP in 2022. But questions like what technology can do make it cheaper are asked and answerd on this episode.
Last is the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and its tech hubs.
The UNDP with several African governments, and key players in the private sector, plans to raise $1 billion to build a series of technology hubs to enhance startup innovation across the continent.
The UN agency revealed that the first of 10 tech hubs, which will go on to make up part of the world’s largest initiative supporting Africa’s tech startups, will launch at UNDP’s innovation centre in Lagos, Nigeria, in a few days.
According to the UNDP, other tech hubs will launch around the continent later in 2024, including an agritech hub in Accra, Ghana; a healthtech hub in Kigali, Rwanda; and a minetech hub in Lusaka, Zambia.
Chimgozirim believes this is a good move that would be helpful in creating innovative fintech products on the cotinent.
You can catch up on the conversation on Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and anywhere you get your podcasts. You can also send your questions and observations to podcast@techpoint.africa or share your thoughts using the hashtag #TechpointAfricaPodcast.
