October 14th, 2023
 

Africa’s Weekly Fintech Review

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• Kigali & Qatar financial centers renew partnership
• Bank of Mauritius to soon launch Digital Rupee
• Egypt’s Amenli raises $1M USD
• Sony Ventures to invest $10M in creative African startups
AND MORE!

Kigali International Financial Centre and Qatar Financial Centre Authority renew partnership, including support for fintech and Islamic finance 
“A core facet of this partnership revolves around fostering a favourable environment for fintech development by creating opportunities for banks and other regulated financial institutions in both countries to engage in collaborative endeavours.” Kenyan Wall Street. 

Bank of Mauritius plans to launch Digital Rupee pilot in the coming months 
“Furthermore, Mauritius is striving to position itself as a top choice for multinational corporations looking to set up their treasury headquarters in the region. The African island nation intends to leverage its modern and resilient financial services sector to attract such entities.” BitcoinKE. 

Banking & Telecom Activity

• African Bank Holdings acquires 2 units from Sasfin Bank to power scale ahead of IPO – Bloomberg
• ABSA Bank Kenya increases mobile transaction limits on its Timiza wallets following directive from the Central Bank of Kenya – Kenyan Wall Street
• 14 commodity exchanges partner under the AfCFTA to create the AfCFTA Association of Commodities Exchanges – GhanaWeb
• 2023 ABSA Financial Markets Index reveals that more African countries are adopting Islamic Banking as an Asset Class – Financial Insight

Startup Activity

 Egypt – InsurTech startup, Amenli, raises $1M USD to grow its team, and strengthen its product offering and brand
 Nigeria – InsurTech startup, Haba, raises $75K USD pre-seed funding as the company looks to expand upon its offerings 
 South Africa – AI startup, Cue, raises $500K USD to enhance its mission to improve customer service with large language models (LLM) 
 South Africa – LogiTech startup, Tripplo, raises $1.8M USD seed round to help empower the company’s expansion and growth ambitions 

Investor Activity

• Sony Ventures announces $10M USD of investment capital set aside for early-stage African gaming, music, film and content distribution startups – WeeTracker
• Africa Trust Group and Samata Capital form ATG Samata to invest in early-stage, scalable startups in Africa – TechTrends Zambia 

Featured Article

How Bitcoin mining is being used to increase access to electricity in Africa – BitcoinKE
“As an anchor tenant, bitcoin mining is used for new energy generation that wouldn’t otherwise exist in rural sites where traditional industrial or commercial customers are not available.” Continue reading.