News & Views

Interview: AFF Director Munyi Nthigah on digital financial inclusion

Connecting Africa Video
4/25/2024

Africa Fintech Festival (AFF) 2024 Festival Director Munyi Nthigah spoke to Connecting Africa Associate Editor Matshepo Sehloho at the Africa eGovernance Conference (AfreGov) in Kigali, Rwanda, about the importance of financial inclusion on the African continent.

Mastercard, Onafriq partner to bring secure payments for SMEs

Matshepo Sehloho
4/15/2024

Global payments firm Mastercard and pan-African payments company Onafriq have partnered to bring secure payments to consumers and small and medium enterprises (SME) across the continent.

I&M offers free mobile money transfers to SMEs in Kenya

Matshepo Sehloho
4/11/2024

Pan-African banking group I&M is offering free M-Pesa and Airtel Money transfers to solo business owners.

Connecting Africa Podcast: S3 Ep. 2 – Nigeria's king of micro-payments

Paula Gilbert
4/5/2024

On this episode, we speak to Touch and Pay Technologies Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer Michael Oluwole about how the startup is digitizing and processing micro-transactions in Nigeria's transport sector and his aspirations to grow the service across the continent.

Paymentology looks to strengthen its African roots

Paula Gilbert
4/4/2024

Global issuer-processor Paymentology's CEO Jeff Parker spoke to Connecting Africa about the company's African roots and aspirations to work with more banks, fintechs and enterprises both on the continent and globally.

Interview: JUMO's Joe Mucheru on AI's role in fintech

Connecting Africa Video
3/28/2024

JUMO President Joe Mucheru joined Connecting Africa Editor Paula Gilbert for a video interview to talk about the fintech company's work across Africa and how it's using artificial intelligence (AI) to provide credit to millions of Africans.

Africa to lead MFS growth in next five years – Ericsson and Juniper Research

Paula Gilbert
3/27/2024

A new report from Ericsson and Juniper Research predicts that almost half of all African mobile subscribers will use mobile financial services (MFS) by 2029 and African MFS transaction values will grow by 114% in the next five years.

MTN grows revenue, but naira slump pulls profit down

Paula Gilbert
3/25/2024

Pan-African telecoms operator MTN Group has reported a major drop in full-year profit as a sharp devaluation in the Nigerian naira pushed down the group's results.

West Africa has become mobile money powerhouse – GSMA

Paula Gilbert
3/20/2024

The GSMA's new 2024 State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money shows that in 2023, over a third of new mobile money accounts globally were from West Africa and the region has doubled its overall number of mobile money accounts over the past ten years.

Kuda secures licenses in Tanzania and Canada

Matshepo Sehloho
3/19/2024

Nigerian digital bank Kuda has secured payment licenses in Canada and Tanzania, allowing it to offer remittance and multi-currency wallet services.

African governments must be enablers of innovation

Matshepo Sehloho
3/14/2024

Panelists at the Africa eGovernance Conference (AfreGov) urged African governments to become enablers and create environments that allow citizens to participate in the digital economy.

Kenya's central bank grants 19 digital lenders licenses

Matshepo Sehloho
3/7/2024

The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has licensed a further 19 digital lenders, bringing up the total number of licensed Digital Credit Providers to 51 in the East African country.

Connecting Africa Podcast: S3 Ep. 1 – Trending topics in 2024

Paula Gilbert
3/5/2024

The Connecting Africa Podcast is back for season three. In this episode, we discuss startups and companies making their mark across emerging trends like social commerce, AI and smartphone affordability, and we venture into the hot topic of climate tech.

Mastercard, MTN Group launch virtual MoMo card for 13 African markets

Paula Gilbert
3/4/2024

MTN Group and Mastercard have launched a prepaid virtual bank card and a physical Mastercard companion card for MTN Mobile Money (MoMo) users across 13 markets in Africa.

MWC 2024: African telco deals

Paula Gilbert
3/1/2024

Connecting Africa has compiled a list of all the major deals that African operators announced at MWC 2024 in Barcelona, Spain.

GSMA, SA operators partner on API services to fight mobile fraud

Connecting Africa News
2/26/2024

South African mobile operators MTN, Telkom and Cell C are implementing the GSMA's number verification and SIM swap APIs to combat mobile fraud, as part of GSMA's Open Gateway initiative.

Omdia View: January 2024

Guest Perspectives
2/23/2024

Highlights in January 2024 in the Middle East and Africa included a $200 million fintech deal between MTN and Mastercard as well as 5G network trials by Telecom Egypt – that and more in this month's Omdia View.

SA's iKhokha invests $105M in small businesses

Matshepo Sehloho
2/16/2024

South African fintech firm iKhokha has distributed more than 2 billion South African rands (US$105 million) in working capital to its small and midsized enterprise (SME) customer base.

Mastercard appoints new West Africa head

Matshepo Sehloho
2/15/2024

Global payments firm Mastercard has appointed Folasade Femi-Lawal as its new country manager and area business head for West Africa.

Interview: Orange's Brelotte Ba on digital inclusion

Sponsored Video
2/15/2024

Orange's Middle East and Africa Deputy CEO, Brelotte Ba, spoke to Connecting Africa at Africa Tech Festival 2023 about the operator's work across Africa to improve digital inclusion. He shared how Orange is focused on expanding beyond just connectivity solutions, to provide digital services that are relevant to the communities it serves, including key areas like mobile money and energy services. #sponsored

Safaricom users in Ethiopia tick up

Paula Gilbert
2/7/2024

Kenyan-headquartered Safaricom now has 9 million mobile customers in Ethiopia and just over 3 million M-Pesa users after a year of operating in the Horn of Africa nation.

Mastercard invests $200M into MTN fintech, MoMo offers loans via JUMO

Paula Gilbert
2/6/2024

Mastercard is investing $200 million into MTN Group's fintech business, and MTN's mobile money platform MoMo has partnered with banking tech company JUMO to launch short-term loans in South Africa.

Vodacom, Airtel Africa see strong financial services growth

Paula Gilbert
2/2/2024

Pan-African operators Vodacom and Airtel Africa reported strong third-quarter results this week, with financial services revenue growth a highlight for both telcos.

Global 'funding winter' hits African tech startups

Paula Gilbert
1/29/2024

Disrupt Africa's latest African Tech Startups Funding Report shows that investment into startups fell 28% to US$2.4 billion in 2023, as the global "funding winter" began to bite.

Kenya's Turaco aspires to insure 1 billion lives

Matshepo Sehloho
1/26/2024

Kenyan-based insurtech Turaco spoke to Connecting Africa about how it aims to provide uninsured African communities with affordable insurance options.

Four African cloud startups to watch in 2024

Matshepo Sehloho
1/25/2024

Connecting Africa has compiled a list of four cloud-powered startups that have been making an impact on the lives of the communities they serve and are worth watching in 2024.

Safaricom's M-Pesa experiences second outage in January

Matshepo Sehloho
1/24/2024

Safaricom has confirmed that its mobile money platform M-Pesa has been experiencing outages mainly impacting its paybill services and bank-to-M-Pesa transfers.

Moniepoint: AI is changing fintech for the better

Paula Gilbert
1/23/2024

Moniepoint Founder and CEO Tosin Eniolorunda spoke to Connecting Africa about how artificial intelligence (AI) is positively changing the fintech market in Africa.

Hot startup of the month: Kenya's eBiashara

Matshepo Sehloho
1/22/2024

Connecting Africa's hot startup this month is Kenya's eBiashara, a supply chain finance platform that offers scalable cloud solutions to its customers.

Vodafone, Microsoft partner to move M-Pesa to the cloud

Paula Gilbert
1/16/2024

Vodafone and Microsoft have announced a $1.5 billion, ten-year strategic partnership across Europe and Africa, which includes housing mobile money platform M-Pesa on Azure and enabling generative AI services.

Interview: Vodacom's Mariam Cassim on the evolution of MFS

Connecting Africa Video
1/12/2024

Vodacom's CEO of Financial and Digital Services, Mariam Cassim, joined Connecting Africa Editor Paula Gilbert for a video interview to talk about the evolution of Vodacom's mobile financial services (MFS) portfolio.

Bolt Kenya adds feature to stop offline trips

Matshepo Sehloho
1/12/2024

Ride-sharing platform Bolt in Kenya has introduced a new feature on its app called 'Driver Asked to Pay Off-the-App' to discourage riders from taking trips offline and paying off the app.

Ericsson targets fintech growth through MTN partnership

Paula Gilbert
1/10/2024

Swedish multinational Ericsson is looking to grow its mobile financial services (MFS) business in Africa even further through an extended partnership with pan-African operator MTN.

Orange Mali, TerraPay join forces for cross-border payments

Connecting Africa News
1/8/2024

Orange Mali is partnering with cross-border payments network TerraPay to enable digital payments to and from TerraPay's global network, including other African countries.

Cellulant Group CEO Akshay Grover resigns

Matshepo Sehloho
1/5/2024

Kenyan-based payments company Cellulant is parting ways with Group CEO Akshay Grover.

Hot startup of the month: Nigeria's Enricher

Matshepo Sehloho
12/20/2023

Connecting Africa's hot startup is Nigerian Enricher, a halal wealth management platform that enables individuals and corporates to grow their wealth while adhering to the principles of Sharia law.

ATF 2023: Vodacom SA CEO Sitho Mdlalose on 5G, fintech & fiber

Connecting Africa Video
12/18/2023

Vodacom South Africa CEO Sitho Mdlalose spoke to Connecting Africa Editor Paula Gilbert at Africa Tech Festival 2023 about the telecoms market in South Africa and Vodacom's strategy for growth in 5G, fintech and fiber.

Cassava Tech Talks Ep. 4: More than mobile money

Paula Gilbert
12/14/2023

In the latest Cassava Tech Talks podcast we discuss financial inclusion in Africa and how the ecosystem is evolving beyond just mobile money. Guests are Darlington T Mandivenga, CEO of Sasai, and Kalvin Bahai, principal economist at GSMA Intelligence. #sponsored

SA's Everything.Insure is digitizing, demystifying insurance

Paula Gilbert
12/8/2023

South African insurtech platform Everything.Insure is trying to shake up the insurance market and help 'demystify' insurance for consumers through its digital marketplace.

Onafriq aims to create digital pathways for Africa

Matshepo Sehloho
12/6/2023

African fintech platform Onafriq believes its on a journey to become an omnichannel, multichannel digital platform for African consumers to connect to the rest of the world.

Airtel Zambia, Zanaco Bank enable mobile money for school fees

Matshepo Sehloho
12/1/2023

Airtel Zambia has partnered with Zanaco Bank to provide bill muster services on the Airtel Money platform.

Orange walks away from Ethio Telecom acquisition

Paula Gilbert
11/28/2023

French telecoms operator Orange Group has decided not to buy a minority stake in Ethiopian state-owned operator Ethio Telecom.

Orange launches super app 'Max it' for Africa

Paula Gilbert
11/24/2023

Telecoms operator Orange has launched its own super app, called Max it, in five African countries with plans to roll it out across its operations in Africa and the Middle East.

MWC Kigali: GSMA's Caroline Mbugua on mobile taxes in Africa

Connecting Africa Video
11/20/2023

GSMA Director of Public Policy for sub-Saharan Africa, Caroline Mbugua, spoke to Connecting Africa at MWC Kigali 2023 about how high taxation on Africa's mobile sector is impacting device and service affordability for consumers.

ATF 2023: African startups win big

Matshepo Sehloho
11/20/2023

The Africa Tech Festival held last week in Cape Town, South Africa, saw African startups winning accolades for their innovative skills as well as technological prowess.

Vodacom interim revenue boosted by Egyptian acquisition

Paula Gilbert
11/13/2023

Vodacom Group saw a 35.5% bump in half-year revenue spurred by its investment in Vodafone Egypt last year.

MWC Kigali: Rosemary Kimaku on Ericsson's fintech business

Connecting Africa Video
11/13/2023

Rosemary Kimaku, business development manager for mobile financial services (MFS) at Ericsson spoke to Connecting Africa at MWC Kigali 2023 about Ericsson's MFS business and how fintech is aiding financial and digital inclusion.

MWC Kigali: Vodacom Tanzania MD Philip Besiimire on MFS growth

Connecting Africa Video
11/13/2023

Vodacom Tanzania MD Philip Besiimire spoke to Connecting Africa at MWC Kigali 2023 about Tanzania's competitive telecoms market and growth areas like mobile financial services (MFS).

M-Pesa registers 1.2M customers in Ethiopia

Matshepo Sehloho
11/10/2023

Mobile financial services platform M-Pesa has registered 1.2 million members in Ethiopia since the mobile money service started in August.

MWC Kigali: Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa on connectivity in Kenya

Connecting Africa Video
11/9/2023

Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa joined Connecting Africa Editor Paula Gilbert at MWC Kigali 2023 for a video interview about the telecoms market in Kenya – the growth of 4G and 5G, M-Pesa and the telco's venture into Ethiopia.

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