Hi Fintech friends 👋,

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

• Egypt’s B2B ecommerce raised series A funding to launch credits to its retailer customers.
• Egypt’s first Unicorn acquired Turkish based Fintech.
• Nigerian payments Unicorn acquired PSP License in Ghana.
• Nigerian Fintech sued its bank partner for $503K Chargeback issue and demanded $6.2 Million in damages.
• Reputable Nigerian VC planned to expand outside Nigeria.
• Four African Fintechs aimed to become Mercury alternatives for African startups.
• Cape Town-headquartered VC secured first close of $15 Million for its African Innovation Fund 3.

💸Fundraise and Exits

• Egypt’s Cartona raised a $8.1 Million Series A extension to provide retailers with working capital.

• MNT-Halan  Acquired Turkish Tam Finans.The acquisition comes at the back of a recent fundraise of $157 Million by MNT-Halan.

💰 Venture Funds

• Nigeria based VC, Ventures Platform turned its attention outside Nigeria and aiming to become more pan-African.

• HAVAIC Secured First Close of $15 Million For Its African Innovation Fund 3.

🚀 Partnerships & Product Launches

• Flutterwave secured Ghana PSP license following Mozambique expansion.

• Raenest, Leatherback, Vesti, and Graph pitched themselves to African founders as Mercury alternatives.
• OurPass acquired a Microfinance Bank license as it hopes to serve enterprise customers.

FORECAST OF ONLINE BANKING PENETRATION IN NIGERIA

• Afriex launched global accounts, transforming cross-border payments.

👔 Leadership Lineup

• Jumia hired ex-PalmPay manager, Anthony Mbagwu, to head its Nigerian fintech subsidiary.

📰 News of the Week

• Inside Shago Payments and Fidelity Bank’s $503K chargeback tussle.

Shago Payments, a fintech company owned by B2B e-commerce platform Alerzo, has taken Fidelity Bank to court over a chargeback dispute. Shago, which offers payments and agent banking services like Moniepoint and Opay, had its settlement accounts with Fidelity Bank.

Shago Payments, has sued Fidelity Bank over $503K in chargeback claims deducted from its account without prior notice. The disputes occurred between June and August 2023. Despite efforts to resolve the issue through meetings and reports to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the matter remains unresolved. 

Shago seeks $6.2 Million in damages and has requested that the deducted amount be held in trust until the court's decision. In the lawsuit, Global Accelerex and Interswitch are also named as defendants. The court has ordered Fidelity Bank to transfer $503K to a designated account and barred further debits pending the case's outcome. The next court session is on August 1, 2024.

👀 Eye Openers

• What Is Bad About Mobile Money in Africa?

Mobile money has done a lot in Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa has 1.6 billion registered mobile money accounts that transact $1.26 trillion per year. It is hard to talk about digital financial services in Africa without talking about mobile money.

But what is bad about mobile money in Africa?

• It is expensive: In Tanzania, it costs up to 20% in transaction fees when paying merchants via mobile money.
• USSD Failure: Largely running on USSD, mobile money payments have a low success rate. I run a payments company where our customers pay by mobile money, and we always experience payment failures.
• It  is built to lower access: Most mobile money companies avoid competition by blocking access to any company that wants to build something on top of their platform. Whenever they feel like they might be challenged, they will always block access.

What do you think is bad or do you dislike about mobile money in Africa? Share your thoughts in the comments, and I will publish them in the next newsletter.

📑 Read of the week

• Why hasn’t Kenya produced a unicorn yet? (Techcabal)

📖 Other News, Reads, and Media

• Kenya banks’ assets went down 2.7% to $58.2 billion.
• As digital banking grows, Kenyan banks continued ditch costly ATMs.

• Lending product drove MTN Nigeria's fintech revenue growth in H1 2024.
• d.light, a provider of solar-powered household products and affordable finance for low-income households, achieved its highest-ever quarterly revenue and profits in Q2 2024.

🎥 VIDEO INTERVIEWS/DISCUSSIONS

• Investing in Africa: A Fireside chat with Nimmy Mathews(Head of EMEA Sales, Startups at AWS) and  Yvonne Bajela(Partner at LocalGlobe and Latitude)

🦉 Tweet of the Week

🎯 Fintech Opportunities

• Visa opened Applications for the 3rd Cohort of its Fintech Accelerator Program for Africa.
• 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.

Made in Tanzania 🇹🇿 with 💚

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