Mhoroi Fintech Friends 👋🏽,

(That's one way to say hello in Shona.)

Here are this week’s Africa Fintech highlights:

• Two fintech deals were announced for ~$15M in disclosed equity funding.
• McKinsey followed up last week’s must-read Fintech in Africa report with a new report on the Future of Payments in Africa.
• Nigeria may soon get a blockchain and crypto-friendly virtual free zone like Dubai’s.

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With that said, let's get into it.

💡 “The tsetse fly that lives among cows thinks it’s a cow too.” — Shona proverb

💸 Fundraises

• 🇳🇬 NowNow, a Nigerian digital banking platform, raised a $13M seed round led by NeoVision Ventures.
• 🇳🇬 Bitmama, a Nigerian blockchain payments platform, raised a $1.65M pre-seed extension round co-led by Unicorn Growth Capital and Launch Africa.

💰 Venture Funds

• 🇪🇬 Endure Capital announced the first close of its targeted $50M fund second fund, Endure 21. Its fintech portfolio includes Thndr, NowPay, and Tribal.

🚀 Partnerships & Product Launches

• Eyowo, a Nigerian digital bank, launched its Better Card product after meeting Mastercard’s certification requirements.
• Canadian neobank Be Mobile Africa announced its official launch in South Africa.
• Cudium, a Nigerian cross-border payments & currency swapping platform, launched to the public.

📰 News of the Week

Nigeria may soon have a special economic zone aimed at supporting crypto and blockchain-related businesses. The government agency that licenses, regulates, and operates free trade zones, The Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA), announced that it’s in discussions with Binance and Talent City to establish a crypto-friendly economic zone.

📑 Read of the week

The future of payments in Africa. “Although cash is still king in Africa, … its supremacy is likely to be challenged in the coming years as e-payments gain momentum,” according to this McKinsey report. It goes well with the Fintech in Africa report McKinsey published the previous week (PDF).

🙈 Visual of the week

👔 People Moves

• Jeremy Awori was appointed Group CEO of Pan-African banking conglomerate Ecobank.
• Sherif Abdou was appointed Managing Director of Egypt’s ZealPay.
• Dr. Reda Helal was appointed Group Managing Director of Network International’s Africa Processing business.
• Heba Hakky was appointed Egypt Managing Director of MENA P2P lending platform liwwa.
• Henry Obiekea was appointed Nigeria Managing Director of credit-led neobank FairMoney.
• Omo Ojeomogha was appointed Director of Engineering at Wave after three years in engineering management at Stripe.

📖 Other News, Reads, and Media

NEWS

• Cellulant has ended its two-year-old internal investigation of former CEO Bolaji Akinboro with no findings of financial misconduct or personal impropriety.
• Binance temporarily removed fees on South African Rand (ZAR) deposits on its recently launched fiat gateway in the country.

VIDEO

• Coen Jonker, Executive Chairman & Co-Founder, Tyme Bank (Pymnts)
• Chris Maurice, Founder & CEO, Yellow Card (CNBC Africa)
• Dakshesh Patel, CEO of Zympay and CFO of Tingo, (Southern African Times)

READS

• Francophone Africa’s first unicorn is disrupting the region’s mobile money market. But can it last? (Rest of World)
• SA telcos use fintech to tap into lending market (Connecting Africa)
• Fintech apps in Tunisia are giving traditional banks a run for their money (Kasi)

🦉 Tweet of the Week

Made in Nigeria 🇳🇬 with 💚

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