Hi Fintech friends 👋, I'm publishing this newsletter from China, where I'm spending a few weeks. If you know any African or global fintechs with an interest in Africa that have a presence in China, kindly introduce them to me at john@thisweekinfintech.com so we can meet and discuss more Fintech business.

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

• Nigeria’s SEC announced that it will issue the first Crypto Licenses in August.
• Two African fintechs raised their series A and B funding rounds.
• South Africa’s Neo Bank with $222 Million in customer deposits planned to expand in Indonesia.
• World’s largest Crypto exchange enabled its customers in different African countries to trade Cryptors via Mobile Money.
• Nigeria’s payments Unicorn partnered with one of the largest global card network owners.

💸Fundraise and Exits

• Kenya based HR and payroll platform Workpay raised $5 Million in Series A funding.

• Ghana and Uganda focused credit lender Fido raised its Series B.

💰 Venture Funds

• Egypt’s T-Vencubator, a leading venture capital firm and incubator launched its inaugural investment programme, and aims to invest in five startups by the end of the year.

🚀 Partnerships & Product Launches

• TymeBank, the South African digital bank with $222 million in customer deposits said it will launch in Indonesia by the end of 2024.

• Flutterwave partnered with American Express to allow Nigerian merchants to receive payments from American Express card customers.

• Zone, a Nigerian blockchain-enabled payments infrastructure partnered with the Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement Scheme (NIBSS) to introduce blockchain technology to POS terminal payments.
• Binance enabled users in Ghana, Uganda, Zambia to trade crypto assets via mobile money.

• Stripe planned to allow US retailers to sell directly to Nigerians.

• Yellow Card partnered with Fireblocks to Streamline Cross-Border Transactions in Africa.

👔 Leadership Lineup

• OmniRetail,an African B2B e-commerce and financial services provider  hired ex-Jumia commercial lead Steve Dakayi to lead Francophone expansion.

📰 News of the Week

• Nigerian SEC to issue first Crypto licenses in August.

“Approval is yet to be given to anyone,” SEC Director General Emomotimi Agama told TechCabal. The regulator will issue its first licences for digital service and tokenized assets in August, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.

Since February 2024, crypto exchanges have faced increased scrutiny from Nigerian regulators. The government accused crypto traders of using P2P trading to manipulate the naira. Nigeria’s National Security Adviser (NSA) also classified crypto trading as a national security issue.

Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, has been at the center of a regulatory clampdown in Nigeria with the company facing money laundering challenges and one of its executives detained. Nigeria Central Bank Governor Olayemi Cardoso claimed $26 billion in untraceable transactions were processed by Binance.

👀 Eye Openers

• Telecoms (Owners of Mobile Money) Want It All for Themselves.

Access to build on top of their platforms is very limited. Firas Ahmad, founder of the Tanzania-based mobile money company Azam Pesa, refers to this as a “walled garden strategy.”

If you compete in other areas, they will do whatever it takes to stop you. Recently, Kenya’s telecom operator, which owns the largest mobile money service, asked the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) to review its decision to grant independent licenses to satellite service providers, warning that such an arrangement could allow illegal connections and cause harm.

One person gave this advice that, if taken by telecoms, could real impact the African tech ecosystem: “Please learn to grow the cake to achieve a larger pie, and avoid becoming overly comfortable with a bigger slice of a smaller cake.”

📑 Read of the week

• This African Fintech Is Giving Workers A Better Way To Send Money Home. (Forbes)
• Scramble for smartphone loans in Africa, How quickly mobile money is beating fintechs and banks.(Substack)
• The Transformative Power of Digital Remittances in Africa. (UN)

📖 Other News, Reads, and Media

• Nigerian fintech lost $90K initially recovered from fraudsters.

🎥 VIDEO INTERVIEWS/DISCUSSIONS

• Interview with Thomas Brennan, the co-founder and CEO of Franc, an investment marketplace that's making it easier than ever for all South Africans to grow their wealth.

🦉 Tweet of the Week

🎯 Fintech Opportunities

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