Nigeria’s Apex bank made minor changes to the licensing regime for payment service banks. While there are some positive provisions, the policy leaves a lot to be desired given its goal for financial i…
Fintech
An emerging industry, fintech (financial technology) is the innovative use of technology (e.g the internet, smartphones, SMS, digital currencies, etc) to deliver financial services. Because it improves on them, fintech is often perceived to be in direct competition with traditional methods of delivering financial services
NCC: Nigerian banks, not customers, to pay for USSD sessions
Nigeria’s telecom regulator, NCC has ordered mobile network providers to agree with banks on a newly approved USSD charge. Though customers are excluded from paying, they might still end up bea…
Kenya to regulate loan rates of digital lenders with proposed law change
Based on a proposed change to its laws, Kenya wants to give its Apex bank the right to supervise digital lending apps. The aim is to limit the emerging predatory practices by several of these digital …
How an ambitious African startup grew into a global fintech powerhouse
How an ambitious African startup grew into a global fintech powerhouse…
Online transactions in Nigeria dropped by $10 billion during the lockdown
Though several Nigerians seemingly adopted online platforms during the lockdown, the volume of financial transactions dropped. Numbers seem to be recovering, but businesses may soon need to be wary of…
Safaricom’s financials show how much stake it owns in the new M-Pesa venture
When Safaricom and Vodacom acquired M-Pesa from UK telecoms operator, Vodafone, details of their stakes and acquisition costs were still unclear. But we can tell from their financials.…
OPay finally drops super app ambition; restructures model
OPay responds to shutdown claims of its businesses in Nigeria as it reveals plans to restructure. For the Chinese-backed startup, it seems current economic situations have forced it to limit its focus…
Nigerian fintech startups may soon need regulatory approval to launch new products
Nigeria’s apex bank has released a regulatory sandbox framework for both new and existing fintech companies. With the proposal, new fintech products might have to be tested and approved before a full …
The Financial Knight: Uzoma Dozie’s journey from traditional to digital banking
Ex-Diamond Bank CEO, Uzoma Dozie sits for a chat with Techpoint Africa’s Adewale Yusuf to discuss his shift from traditional banking to digital banking with ‘Sparkle’, potential comp…
Egypt’s MoneyFellows lands $4m Series A deal
Egyptian fintech platform MoneyFellows has secured $4 million in a Series A investment from venture capital (VC) firms Partech and Sawari Ventures, as it works towards helping millions of new users re…
How Voyance wants to tackle the menace of fintech fraud in Nigeria
Voyance, a Nigerian data science company, has launched Sigma to help fintechs tackle the constant problem of fraud. We have a chat with its co-founder, Abdul, and a fintech founder to weigh the merits…
How the pandemic will disrupt banking and fintechs in Nigeria
The rise of fintech firms in recent years has disrupted Nigeria’s financial sector. However, the outbreak of the pandemic has highlighted a number of challenges that only the most innovative will surm…
What’s happening to OPay’s super app plans?
Nigerian fintech startup, OPay has added more verticals to its platform. With the termination of ORide in Lagos earlier this year, we address speculations about the startup’s survival and explor…
Borrowers have a right to claim personal loan insurance, but do they know?
CBN’s guidelines for financial institutions require lenders to present loan insurance to borrowers. This means borrowers out of employment due to the pandemic can claim personal insurance, if they kno…
COVID-19 could reduce remittance costs to Sub-Saharan Africa
Though remittances in Africa have been on the increase, as a result of the pandemic, sub-Saharan Africa is set to lose $9 billion in remittances in 2020. But could other factors yield positive results…
Former Binance Labs director, Yele Bademosi launches ‘Bundle’, to unify traditional fintech and open finance
Launching officially today, Bundle will create a world where traditional fintech and open finance co-exist in parallel through the power of blockchain technology…
X-raying the emerging culture of digital predatory lending in Nigeria
In what could potentially be financially trying times for most individuals in Nigeria, we take a closer look at the activities of digital lenders and what it could mean for low and average income earn…
How these developers want to use soundwaves to make last-mile payments seamless and secure in Nigeria
Team Digital came out tops in CBN and NIBSS backed fintech sandbox hackathon. We take a look at the solution that seeks to use soundwaves from mobile phones to ease last-mile payments for low-income e…
Visa’s non-equity partnerships with African fintech startups could lead to future equity investments
Paga recently announced its partnership with Visa and while no investment was made in the Nigerian payments startup, Visa says it could happen down the line just as it did with Paystack, Flutterwave, …
The future of Nigeria’s finance is edging towards decentralisation
With fintech startups, finance has evolved from analogue to digital. The next stage is decentralisation, enabled by the blockchain technology, and tech startups are gradually positioning themselves…