September 15, 2017 @ 7:34 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Blockchain platform Humaniq announced earlier this week the next phase in its expansion as it launches the Ghana Use Case. The company’s key goal is to bring onboard two thousand users. According to Humaniq, the Ghana launch news comes as phase 1 of a pilot… Read More

September 14, 2017 @ 2:30 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

On Thursday, AlliedCrowds released the second edition of its Developing World Alternative Finance report. In the latest report, AlliedCrowds examine impact investing in Africa and looked closer at Somalia’s impact landscape. “Development finance is moving from grants and donations to loans and investments, and impact investing is… Read More

August 31, 2017 @ 3:28 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

BitPesa, a blockchain payments platform for Africa today announced Greycroft as its lead investor in a follow-up to its Series A funding round. The platform revealed that it has reached $10 million in total funding. The platform stated that its 25% month-on-month growth for nearly two years demonstrates… Read More

July 13, 2017 @ 7:25 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Leading digital money transfer service WorldRemit and Huawei have announced a partnership making WorldRemit’s international money transfer service available to all partners of Huawei’s mobile money service platform across Africa. WorldRemit claims to process 74% of all international transfers to mobile money accounts coming from money transfer… Read More

June 21, 2017 @ 10:24 am By Samantha Hurst  |  

Digital Financial Services Lab (DFS Lab) announced on Tuesday it is set to invest $250,000 in four separate fintech startups that are building products that help low-income consumers in developing markets. The startups are Inclusive (based in Ghana), Pula (based in Kenya), Pezesha, (based in Kenya), and… Read More

June 14, 2017 @ 5:31 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School has launched its third European benchmarking survey and the second survey for Africa and the Middle East. The two separate research initiatives will review the emerging alternative finance markets in each… Read More

June 8, 2017 @ 8:48 am By JD Alois  |  

Crowd4Climate.org, a crowdfunding platform for climate protection projects in developing countries, has successfully funded its second project since the launch of the platform in November 2016. A Mobile solar power plant, Africa GmbH & Co. KG from Germany, collected more than €170,000 for a mobile… Read More

April 24, 2017 @ 2:58 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Barclays Bank recently selected the 10 fintech startups that will be participation in its second acceleration program, powered by TechStars, at its Africa’s Rise fintech innovation hub in Cape Town. According to TechStars, the second class’ applications extended to 52 countries across the globe and… Read More

April 16, 2017 @ 12:45 pm By JD Alois  |  

Crowdfunding is a global phenomenon but it is obviously evolving at different speeds in different countries. Africa is one region where the new form of finance can be utilized to benefit the economy.  A recent report published by the CrowdfundingHub highlights a single country in… Read More

April 7, 2017 @ 2:26 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

On Friday, Finnovation Africa: Uganda 2017 opened in Kampala and brought together more than 300 fintech leaders that are seeking to drive the constructive transformation of banking and financial services across Africa.  According to the organizers, the conference opened with a keynote session featuring international fintech… Read More

March 27, 2017 @ 2:04 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

German-based SME lending platform Bitbond and African payment services provider BitPesa announced on Monday they have formed a new partnership to improve access to African SMEs financing.  Bitbond stated that by working with BitPesa, borrowers who receive funding on its lending platform can now have their loan… Read More

March 24, 2017 @ 4:24 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Digital money transfer service, WorldRemit, announced on Friday it has partnered with East and Central Africa bank, KCB, to create a new instant option to send remittance to Kenya. According to the company, the partnership aims to support the growing demand for instant, digital remittances among… Read More

March 20, 2017 @ 4:43 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

FinTech Circle has formed a partnership with Cape Innovation and Technology Initiative (CiTi) to launch FinTech Academy Africa. The companies revealed that the new program is geared towards those interested looking more about fintech and the curriculum was designed to deliver a comprehensive understanding of the… Read More

February 10, 2017 @ 3:28 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) has published its first benchmarking report covering alternative finance in the African and Middle East markets. Produced with the support and backing of Energy4Impact, UKAid and CME Group Foundation, the CCAF report states that alternative finance totaled more… Read More

January 30, 2017 @ 4:00 am By JD Alois  |  

Africa is probably the least developed continent when it comes to alternative finance but it certainly stands to gain much in its evolution. In a new report published today by the Financial Sector Deepening Africa (FSD Africa) in partnership with the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) and Anjarwalla… Read More

December 9, 2016 @ 2:23 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Digital money transfer service WorldRemit announced on Friday it is teaming up with African financial institution Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) have launched new money transfer routes to West and Central Africa. With the WorldRemit app or its website, users may now send secure overseas money transfers to any bank account in… Read More

December 8, 2016 @ 3:43 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Visa has partnered with the Hong Kong-based VC firm and incubator Nest to run a four-day fintech bootcamp in Nairobi for innovative startups in Africa, according to a release. Nest mentors will join executives from Visa’s teams in Kenya, South Africa, and the UAE to coach selected… Read More

September 22, 2016 @ 7:03 am By Erin Hobey  |  

Equity Bank and Safaricom, a Kenyan lending platform and a telecom platform, are courting PayPal customers seeking to make transfer account funds more quickly and easily, according to Business Daily Africa.  The agreement signed by Equity Bank means customers can now cash their PayPal accounts in three days instead of the earlier… Read More

September 13, 2016 @ 5:22 pm By Samantha Hurst  |  

Last week,  founders of Africa Courier Express (ACE), Tunde Kehinde and Ercin Eksin, announced the launch of a new financial services platform called Lidya. The portal was notably founded to improve access to credit and finance across the African continent and for Africans living in the… Read More

August 3, 2016 @ 12:45 pm By Dave Van Niekerk  |  

We’ve heard the sensationalism before – That the unbridled array of opportunities in Africa are either being “squandered”, “exploited” or just now seeping to the surface for globalization to capitalize on the ‘Rising Continent’ in a timely fashion. Though rhetoric, it’s no doubt significant, though that… Read More