Hi Fintech friends, Happy Eid al-Adha 👋,

Here are the highlights of what happened in African Fintech this week;

• Two Weeks, Two Banks Acquired in Tanzania: By a Fintech and a Bank.
• The shares of the African e-commerce giant and fintech provider continued to rally after strong Q1 results, up 150% year-to-date.
• Egyptian Fintech raised $6 Million to build a super app in partnership with government agencies.
• A $637K fund for startups was launched by one of Africa’s hot tech states.
• Owner of  Africa’s most successful mobile money partnered with a lending startup to finance African SMEs.
• The Central Bank of Africa's most funded startup country planned to issue payment licenses, with two African unicorns potentially being first in line.
• The African country dropped tax evasion charges brought against the world's largest crypto exchange.

💸Fundraise and Exits

• Access Bank acquired ABCT Bank in Tanzania as it deepened its East African presence. It has been a week since Tanzanian fintech Selcom acquired the local Access Microfinance Bank Tanzania, which has no relation to Access Bank. Selcom changed the name of Access Microfinance to Selcom Microfinance Bank after acquiring it. Therefore, Access Bank might enter the Tanzanian market without changing its brand name.

• Sahl, an Egyptian fintech company, raised $6 Million in Series A and seed funding rounds to operate as a one-stop shop for household bills in collaboration with government agencies.

💰 Venture Funds

• Lagos State allocated $637K Seed Fund for Startups.

🚀 Partnerships & Product Launches

• Safaricom and Pezesha launched a new loan service that will allow small business owners to borrow money directly through their M-PESA business accounts. 

• The Central Bank Of Kenya planned to issue payment licenses: Flutterwave and Chipper Cash could be first in line.

• ThriveAgric, a Nigerian agrifintech announced partnership with Visa to expand into Kenya and support up to 10,000 farmers.
• Kenyan influencer marketing platform Wowzi partnered with Mastercard and Masria Digital Payments in a $2.04 Million deal to transform the financial management landscape for content creators.

👔 Leadership Lineup

• Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) dropped the tax evasion charges brought against Binance executives, Tigran Gambaryan and Nadeem Anjarwalla making Binance the sole defendant, one week after sixteen US lawmakers accused Nigeria of holding Gambrayan, hostage. Gambrayan has been detained for 110 days, while Anjarwalla escaped detention on March 22.

• FBI director visited Nigeria to discuss cybersecurity with Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and other executives from the EFCC. The discussions reportedly centered on the FBI’s cooperation with Nigeria in combating terrorism, violent crime, and cybercrime. They explored ways for the FBI to offer further training and resources to enhance the EFCC’s capabilities in investigating cyber threats.

📰 News of the Week

• Jumia stock rallied continued after strong Q1 results, rising 150% year-to-date.

Shares of African e-commerce giant and now fintech provider Jumia (JMIA) soared to $8.67 on Monday, June 10, continuing an unexpected rally that began with positive reactions to its Q1 2024 results. It is the highest the stock has traded in 2024 after beginning the year at $3.36.

While it is shy of unicorn valuation, its market capitalisation is $872 million, it is a huge improvement from where it started the year.In  Q1 2024, it cut its losses by 70%, trimming advertising and sales costs even as revenue grew 18.5%. Jumia has historically struggled with cutting costs despite often talking about a need to be profitable.

CEO Francis Dufay has been a hit with shareholders since he was appointed in 2023. He has engineered an important change in the company’s business model and admitted its economics was unsustainable.He has shut down Jumia Food, a loss-making vertical, moved UAE-based executives to Jumia’s active markets, and has made the right calls in returning the company to a growth track.Part of that growth has included the launch of a 30,000 sqm integrated warehouse in Lagos to improve logistics capabilities and reduce delivery time.

According to Techcrunch, a big driver in Jumia’s quest to reach profitability continues to be JumiaPay (the ratio of JumiaPay orders on physical goods went up from 20% to 32.5% in Q1 2024).

👀 Eye Openers

• What is the largest intra-African remittance corridor across the continent?

📑 Read of the week

• How to build a super fintech in Africa? You're competing with cash.(Substack)
• M-PESA: Why The World’s First Large Mobile Payment Platform Keeps On Winning.(Forbes)

📖 Other News, Reads, and Media

• Acquired weeks ago by a group of investors led by Paystack, Brass opted for a smaller team under new management and so 16 employees were laid off.
• Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a disclaimer alert to investors regarding $DAVIDO, a meme coin backed and promoted by Afrobeats superstar Davido which dipped by 90 within 24 hours of its launch.
• The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) might increase the minimum capital requirement for commercial banks ten-fold to $77.8 million (KES10 billion), Kenya finance minister Njuguna Ndung’u announced on Thursday.
• YC-backed Prospa was unable to process withdrawals for the second time in 5 months.
• A Kenyan court set aside a February 2024 interim order that forced B2B e-commerce startup Wasoko to keep nine employees on its payroll despite laying them off in December 2023. 
• Unregistered loan apps persisted via APKs to dodge regulatory compliance as FCCPC delisted more.

🎥 VIDEO INTERVIEWS/DISCUSSIONS

• An African Tech Exit: Selling Sendwave for $500 Million .

One of the African tech ecosystem's largest exits was the 2020 sale of Sendwave to WorldRemit for $500 million.Sid Sridhar was Sendwave's Head of Business at the time, and in this episode, Sid shares his M&A lessons for the African tech ecosystem.

🦉 Tweet of the Week

• “Visa inequity is very frustrating”

Few weeks ago, Africa's richest man, Aliko Dangote said he needs 35 visas to travel in Africa on his Nigerian passport. But a French passport has more visa-free access in Africa than Dangote.

When will this change?

🎯 Fintech Opportunities

• African Fintechs can apply for Ecobank Fintech Challenge and stand a chance to win an overall cash prize of US$50,000, and the opportunity to partner and scale their solutions with Ecobank.
• Want to sponsor or share your fintech story and reach over 100,000 fintech enthusiasts each week? reach out to john@thisweekinfintech.com to get started.

👍🏽👎🏽  Did you enjoy this edition of This Week In Fintech Africa? Please share your feedback with me on Twitter or LinkedIn .