FinTech Archives - Page 4 of 10 - AfricaBusiness.com

Blockchain to rebuild African financial system and tell new story

25Jan

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Fintech

Blockchain to rebuild African financial system and tell new story

Blockchain Research Institute Africa Making Strides in Levelling Financial Playing field Africa has an enormous cash and informal trade economy, however, at the root of many challenges that Africa currently faces is financial exclusion. An alarming 900 million are unbanked in Africa due to numerous challenges, including accessibility to banks, occupation barriers, financial limitations, gender issues, and a liquidity crunch. The incumbent financial system (FS) leans toward the urbanized, serving a limited uniform people group and has contributed to slowing down inclusion in the past. It requires uniformity to be successful; those who do not fit the mould that the financial system is designed to serve, struggle to save, participate in the economy, and generate wealth. It has been challeng...

Touch and Pay [TAP] launch Cowry card cashless fare collection technology on new LRMT Blue Rail Line

24Jan

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Fintech, Nigeria News

Touch and Pay [TAP] launch Cowry card cashless fare collection technology on new LRMT Blue Rail Line

500,000 Lagosians set to benefit as Nigerian startup becomes first local company to unify rail, bus and ferry via contactless cards Touch and Pay Technologies [TAP], a Nigerian fintech company and leading processor of micro-transactions in Africa, announced today that for the first time, rail passengers across Nigeria’s largest city, Lagos, can access the newly launched Blue Rail Line using TAP’s contactless Cowry card. Founded in 2019, by Olamide Afolabi, Kabir Yabo, and Michael Oluwole, TAP was the first payment company in Nigeria to provide payment infrastructure that allowed contactless payment cards to be used on buses and ferries. The company continues its record of innovation by enabling contactless payment cards to be used on trains in Nigeria. TAP is helping by advancing financi...

McKinsey & Company Predicts African Fintech Revenues Could Reach an Impressive $30 Billion by 2025

15Dec

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Fintech

McKinsey & Company Predicts African Fintech Revenues Could Reach an Impressive $30 Billion by 2025

As the fastest-growing start-up industry in Africa, African fintech raised over US$1,3 billion in 2021 alone, the success of fintech companies is being fuelled by several trends, including increasing smartphone ownership, declining internet costs, expanded network coverage, and a young, fast-growing, and rapidly urbanizing population. [i] African fintech has a significant impact on day-to-day life on the continent and with its current upward trend it can be perfectly poised to rapidly advance Africa’s global competitiveness with an increase in the exporting of fintech services globally. These fertile grounds do have challenges. Regulatory uncertainties and differences between countries are a bottleneck, throttling the expansion of financial inclusion in Africa. This has led to the conti...

Retailers, banks & fintech players unpack SA’s ambitious fintech future

31Oct

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Fintech, South Africa News

Retailers, banks & fintech players unpack SA’s ambitious fintech future

OPEN FINTECH FUTURE: Jean Olivier of Shoprite, John Singlam of Investec and Anand Naidoo of HelloPaisa shared their fintech journeys in discussion with financial journalist Refilwe Moloto at the dt (Direct Transact) Open the Future gathering in Joburg. Several local innovators came together to discuss the future of fintech for brands, retailers and banks in Africa in the next 20 years. Photo credit: Sandy Coffey Monday 31 October, Johannesburg - As South Africa heads into a financial future where its flow of money will be impacted by a likely greylisting, an irreversible shift to cashless and non-traditional transacting, and more retailers entering the banking game, an unavoidable fintech boom will transform the financial ecosystem as we know it. This picture of the future was painte...

27Oct

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Fintech, South Africa News

Capital Appreciation Group and LayUp partnership Triumphs at the 11th Annual MTN Business App of the Year Awards

The mobile application for Africa’s first digital lay-by and recurring payments provider, LayUp, has won ‘Best Incubated Solution’ at the 11th annual MTN Business App of the Year Awards, which honours the work of the best of the best coders, tech enthusiasts, students, start-ups and lesser-known app developers in South Africa. The application was developed by the Capital Appreciation Group’s development team, for LayUp. LayUp is Africa's first fully digital lay-by and recurring payments business, certified through the Payments Association South Africa (PASA). LayUp’s omnichannel digitised payment plan solution enables retailers with smart technology that increases sales and grows their market whilst simultaneously providing improved access for consumers. “We’re delighted to see our deve...

Ukheshe and Gratifii partnership marries payments and rewards solutions for powerful embedded finance

24Oct

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Fintech

Ukheshe and Gratifii partnership marries payments and rewards solutions for powerful embedded finance

Fintech enablement partner Ukheshe continues to execute on its ongoing partnership agreement with enterprise loyalty and rewards company Gratifii. The agreement gives both organisations and their clients access to industry-leading payments solutions as well as a loyalty rewards platform, explains Pieter de Wet, President of Business Development International at Ukheshe. “Integrating Gratifii’s Mosaic loyalty platform into our Eclipse payment orchestration platform has given our existing and future customers added value, by allowing them to offer their own customers a loyalty programme. This programme can be added seamlessly to card payments – with no additional cards required, and no additional steps.” Partnerships like this have the potential to be game-changing, says Mark Schoombie, Gr...

African fintech platform M-Kopa has provided digital credits worth more than $ 600 million to underbanked customers

13Sep

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Fintech

African fintech platform M-Kopa has provided digital credits worth more than $ 600 million to underbanked customers

M-KOPA announced the release of its 2021 Impact Report. As a mission-driven company, M-KOPA's tremendous growth is rooted in commitment to both commercial and social goals. The report presents findings on M-KOPA’s smartphone, solar and cash loan customers across Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria and Ghana. While much of the impact has been realised in East Africa, M-KOPA recorded rapid growth following its expansion into West Africa over 2020/21. Key highlights of M-KOPA’s social and environmental impact at the end of 2021 include: $600 million of credit unlocked for customers; 4.5 million lives improved with life-changing products; Over 1 million solar home systems sold, avoiding 2 million tonnes of CO2 emissions; Over 1 million individuals accessing high-quality smart...

Big Fintech Company “Opportunities” for Small Businesses or Mousetrap for Your Money

2Sep

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Fintech

Big Fintech Company “Opportunities” for Small Businesses or Mousetrap for Your Money

This small post contains unpleasant moments from Fintech companies that small companies or entrepreneurs face. Best Online money transfer, Best Digital payment services... = High Fees, Big Saving on Customer Support, ..... But Virtual Selling Assistant without Real Support. A characteristic feature of such companies is primarily enriching only shareholders and strategy without developing customer relations. Read Twitter of such companies and their leaders. You will see a lot of pleasant tweets to their investors and one tweet with thanks to customers. Only money. Therefore, automation in many cases, in order to reduce staff and does not pay attention to individual customer requests. But they will not miss automatic profits. Because soon robots will become cheaper than the price of human ...

Payment Fraud: Steps to Take If Your Business Gets Scammed

4Apr

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Fintech

Payment Fraud: Steps to Take If Your Business Gets Scammed

Payment fraud is a nightmare scenario for any business. Irrespective of size, companies face substantial financial and reputational harm resulting from fraudulent activity. Depending on the severity of the crime and the losses incurred, the very survival of the business may be at stake. Ryan Mer, CEO at eftsure Africa, a Know Your Payee™ (KYP) platform provider, says banking and payment fraud remains a serious concern as fraudsters use increasingly sophisticated methods to exploit process vulnerabilities and take advantage of human error. A 2021 TransUnion report noted a significant surge in fraud and criminal activity related to financial services in South Africa, with fraud in this sector surging over 187% in the last year. An Accenture report from the previous year confirms South Afr...

22Feb

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Fintech

The biggest fintech trends changing the face of payments in emerging markets

Mark Dankworth, President Business Development Africa at Ukheshe, shares his thoughts on how mobile money, cross-border payments and ‘buy now, pay later’ are transforming the financial sector, particularly in emerging markets, for the better. Last year saw an unprecedented rate of change in the financial sector, with huge growth in the use of digital financial services. A report by CB Insights entitled ‘State of Fintech’ revealed that the third quarter of 2021 was the second highest on record for fintech financing, up by 147 percent year-on-year, and 2022 is looking like more of the same. Fintechs will continue to drive financial inclusion, assisting in the creation of an accessible and sustainable digital economy for all, particularly across developing nations. Africa’s large unbanked...