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Financial Services on African markets
74 published articles in this view, tagged by country and sector. See all articles
The eNaira Was Never Going to Work, and Ghana Should Not Repeat Its Mistakes
Less than 0.5 percent of Nigerians had used the eNaira by late 2023. By 2025, approximately 13 million wallets had been issued and 98.5 percent had never been used, according to IMF research. The eNaira in circulation represented approximately 0.37 percent of total Nigerian currency, unchanged between early 2024 and early 2025. Ghana is now weighing whether to proceed with a full retail eCedi launch. We argue here that the eNaira's failure was not an execution problem. It was a product problem. Ghana should take the warning seriously.
Ghana · Financial Services Stop Calling Them Neobanks: The Pan-African Retail Bank Has Arrived
Kuda is now a nationally licensed Nigerian bank. FairMoney is a licensed microfinance bank with current accounts, savings, POS merchant solutions and NGN 150 billion in disbursed loans. TymeBank is profitable, valued at USD 1.5 billion, and expanding into Indonesia and Hong Kong. These are not neobanks. They are banks. The category name we have been using for five years is now misleading, and we argue here that continuing to use it obscures what is actually happening in African consumer banking.
Nigeria · Financial Services Why Nigeria's Open Banking Framework Will Underperform Its Promise
Nigeria became the first African country to go live with formal open banking on 1 August 2025. The Central Bank of Nigeria, the Open Banking Initiative, and most of the Nigerian fintech press have framed this as a transformative moment. We are not convinced. Our view is that the framework will produce meaningful but limited gains over the next 24 months, and that the transformative outcome the advocates promised will not arrive on schedule. Here is why.
Nigeria · Financial Services African Wealthtech Needs to Admit It Is a Currency Hedge, Not a Wealth Builder
PiggyVest has over 7 million users. Cowrywise passed 800,000. Bamboo and Risevest have built credible retail US stock access. The marketing language across the category is about building wealth, long-term compounding, and financial independence. Our view is that this framing does not match what customers actually do. African wealthtech is, in practice, a currency hedge. Admitting that would produce better products for customers and better businesses for operators.
Nigeria · Financial Services How to Price and Structure B2B Supply Chain Finance in African Markets
B2B supply chain finance is one of the most promising African fintech categories because it addresses a genuine credit gap with defensible unit economics. OmniPay in Nigeria maintains non-performing loans below 0.5 percent on over USD 800 million annual transactions. Pezesha raised USD 11 million in early 2025 for its B2B lending infrastructure. This guide walks through how to price and structure a supply chain finance product that works in African market conditions.
Nigeria · Financial Services Julaya: The BCEAO-Licensed B2B Payment Platform Rebuilding Francophone West African Finance
Julaya was founded to solve a specific problem in Cote d'Ivoire: why African businesses could not process B2B payments digitally at the scale their operations required. By 2025 the company had received a BCEAO electronic money institution license, becoming one of the first private-sector operators to do so under the updated framework. This is the story of how a small Abidjan-based team built regulated B2B payment infrastructure in a market most pan-African fintechs had been ignoring.
Côte d'Ivoire · Financial Services African Pension Tech and the Long-Term Savings Gap
Only a small fraction of African workers participate in any formal retirement savings system. Nigeria's Contributory Pension Scheme covers approximately 10 million workers out of a workforce of over 70 million. Kenya's NSSF coverage is similarly narrow. PiggyVest has 7 million users saving short-term but pensions remain underserved. Inside the gap, the emerging digital operators, and why retirement may be the next great African fintech opportunity.
Nigeria · Financial Services Mobile Money Agent Economics Are Quietly Breaking
Mobile money in Africa runs on a foundation of approximately 300,000 M-Pesa agents, several hundred thousand more across Nigerian operators, and uncounted thousands more across the continent. Practitioners inside the sector have started to whisper about something industry reports do not yet capture: the agent economics that made mobile money work are quietly deteriorating. If this pattern holds, the consequences for African digital finance are significant.
Kenya · Financial Services Yellow Card: Building the B2B Stablecoin Infrastructure Layer for African Corporates
Yellow Card operates in approximately 20 African countries providing stablecoin on-ramps and off-ramps to businesses that cannot access US dollars through their commercial banks. While most African crypto coverage focuses on retail speculation, Yellow Card built a B2B corporate treasury infrastructure business that serves the real operational need of African companies during a foreign exchange shortage era. This is the story of how the company positioned itself at the center of that need.
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