Author: Ibrahima jr Dia

Wicrypt, a Nigerian blockchain-based Wi-Fi sharing startup, announced it raised $ 1.5 million in a fundraising round. Funding was led by AU21 Capital, Inclusion Capital and Outlier Ventures, among others. The newly secured fund is expected to help the decentralized mobile internet sharing and monetization network expand into new countries. The “platform had formed substantial business partnerships in Africa, but the funding will further allow expansion into new countries by increasing marketing efforts,” said Ugochukwu Aronu, the CEO of Wicrypt. Initially launched in 2018, the startup became profitable in 2020 and signed an exclusive partnership with the city of Enugu,…

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Equity Bank Kenya Limited announced on Monday (November 8th) its intention to buy Britam’s stake in HF Group, a mortgage finance provider in Kenya. The Nairobi-based bank has said it will review its stake in HF, seven years after selling its 24.7% stake to the insurance group. Last March, insurer Britam announced it was selling its majority stake in HF Group to focus on the insurance business. With this in mind, the company plans to sell part of its stake in HF Group to one of the country’s major banks as part of the review of its investment portfolio. “We…

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TymeBank, a South African-based exclusively digital retail bank, announced on Thursday (November 4th) that it had reached the 4 million customer mark by the end of October 2021. The digital bank said it continues to experience rapid monthly growth with more of 140,000 clients per month. “We are delighted to have reached a base of four million customers in approximately 32 months,” said TymeBank Managing Director Tauriq Keraan. He added: “We have expanded our offering and improved product functionality to ensure that we can offer customers everything they need in one bank account while allowing them to pay little -…

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Chipper Cash, an African cross-border payments company, has raised $ 150 million in a Series C extension round, valuing itself at $ 2 billion. The roundtable was led by the cryptocurrency exchange FTX of Sam Bankman-Fried, Deciens Capital, and One Way Ventures, among others. According to Ham Serunjogi, co-founder of Chipper Cash, the company’s strategy is to provide the “best price” while making it easier to transfer money from Africa to the United States. Peer-to-peer money transfers from the United States to Nigeria and Uganda, he points out, are now available to customers in those countries. Before the end of…

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Centum Investment Group announced at the end of last week that it is in negotiations to acquire three companies based in Kenya and two others in neighboring countries. The company has not released the names of these structures. However, the group said it plans to invest up to 5 billion shillings (US $ 45 million) over the next five years in various sectors of the economy. Centum has in the past acquired significant stakes in companies operating in a variety of industries, including financial services, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), manufacturing, energy, education and technology. “We are building a pipeline…

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Starsight Energy, West Africa’s leading commercial and industrial clean off-grid energy supplier, has become the first renewable energy company in Nigeria to achieve carbon credit accreditation. It achieved certification by switching its customers’ power and cooling from predominantly diesel-based electricity to a combination of solar, battery and diesel hybrid systems. With this certification, Starsight became the first renewable energy company to generate carbon credits from the CO2 emission reductions provided by the combination of solar production and energy efficiency initiatives in Nigeria. The possibility of selling carbon credits should provide additional sources of income for Starsight. The company helps reduce…

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Standard Bank, Africa’s largest bank in terms of assets, has partnered with Flutterwave, Africa’s leading payment technology company, internal group sources reported Thursday (October 28th). The main objective of this initiative is to improve the digital payment experiences of its customers in Nigeria, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda, Ghana, Mauritius, Ivory Coast and Malawi. The two entities are working together to create e-commerce, card issuance, payments, collection, USSD, loan and buy-now capabilities for millions of Africans. The integration will need to help customers, including individuals, SMEs, large enterprises and institutions, to take full advantage of the power of digital payments and e-commerce…

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Nairobi-based venture capital fund Antler East Africa announced on October 29, 2021 that it had raised 1.6 billion shillings ($ 15 million) from institutional investors, including the International Finance Corporation (IFC), for invest in local and regional start-ups. The company claims to have invested 11.1 million shillings (US $ 100,000) for a 20% stake in each company selected by its investment committee. IFC is set to invest a total of 222 million shillings ($ 2 million) in Antler, which will mobilize the remainder of the capital from other investors. “The fund seeks to raise USD 15 million in capital commitments.…

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South African fintech AIP Stitch announced Thursday, October 28, that it had raised USD 2 million for its expansion project in Nigeria. The roundtable was led by Firstminute Capital, CRE, Village Global, 500 Fintech, and Future Africa, among others. The South African start-up got an additional $ 2 million for its funding round after raising $ 4 million earlier this year, bringing its total funding round to $ 6 million. Stitch will launch with a transparent and token bank payment offering to help Nigerian businesses and fintechs improve their user experience, eliminate fraud, and lower fees associated with alternative payment…

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South African microfinance firm Barko announced Thursday, October 28, that it will launch a new digital bank built on Temenos Transact and powered by The Temenos Banking Cloud. The institution has applied for a mutual banking license to operate as a full-service digital bank. Leveraging Temenos’ comprehensive front-to-back services, Barko aims to deliver banking products that are easy to consume, configure and integrate with external applications. These capabilities should enable it to help underserved and unbanked South Africans with longer-term and lower-cost loans, competitive affordable banking products and easy-to-use services with a seamless experience across its digital channels and its…

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Sub-Saharan Africa’s economy is expected to grow 3.7 percent in 2021 and 3.8 percent in 2022, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said. The Bretton Woods institution noted that this progress is welcome, but still represents the slowest recovery compared to other regions. According to Ethiopian Abebe Aemro Selassie, director of the Fund’s Africa department, the economic outlook differs on three levels: between sub-Saharan Africa and other regions, and within countries. The official notes that these discrepancies reflect the slower deployment of vaccines in the region, more limited fiscal space and regional disparities in resilience. The outlook, he stresses, remains extremely…

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The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) has revealed nearly USD 3.097 billion in investment opportunities in the country’s condensate refinery space. Indeed, the company stressed that it needed $ 1.6-2.7 billion to improve the supply and distribution of petroleum products, renovate liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) infrastructure and build factories. of compressed natural gas (CNG). Nigeria’s demand for petroleum products is forecast to increase from 15.1 million tonnes in 2020 to 17.3 million metric tonnes by 2025. “The country would need a refining capacity of about 1, 52 million barrels per day (MBPSD) to meet its gasoline needs over the next…

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The Agricultural Bank of Egypt (ABE) and Misr Life Insurance Company signed earlier this week an agreement whereby the bank allows the insurer to market and deliver its insurance services and programs through 100 branches of the bank. Across the country. This agreement aims to contribute to the implementation of the objectives of the Decent Life Initiative, by providing all its banking and financial services and ensuring that they reach a large sector of the rural population. “This step aims to support the bank’s efforts to diversify its banking services and products,” said Alaa Farouk, president of ABE. The official…

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United Bank for Africa (UBA) on Monday, October 25, released its audited quarterly financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2021. The Lagos, Nigeria-based bank posted a jump in profits during the reporting period. Indeed, after-tax profit rose 36% to 104.6 billion naira (255 million USD), against 77.1 billion naira (188 million USD) recorded a year earlier. For its part, operating profit increased 13% year-on-year to close at 331.7 billion naira (809 million USD), from 293.7 billion naira (716 million USD) in September 2020. Regarding profit before tax, it increased by 37%, or 123.4 billion naira (301 million USD)…

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