Fintech Snacks 🍿 | April 20 2023
My job is to make sure your weekly reading list on African fintech is lit 🔥
We have three public holidays in the month of April. THREE. God couldn’t have created a better month!
📚 Whatchyu been reading this week?
🔍 Here are some of the most interesting pieces I stumbled across this past week:
#1: 🌍 Africa the Big Deal’s Bottom of the Class No more
I’m a huge fan of Max & Maxime’s weekly short data-viz newsletter, where they highlight a key trend in the African funding and startup ecosystem in 1-2 paragraphs. Short and sweet is so my style.
Africa keeps stubbornly defying global trends in VC funding. Yeah, we’re going through a contraction, no doubt, but we’re not having it as bad as other regions like Asia, Latin America, USA.
One thing to keep in mind, though, is that we are growing from a very low base (Africa accounts for 1% of global VC funding), so that can contribute to why we grew faster than the rest of the world in H1 2022 and contracted slower in H2 2022 and Q1 2023.
#2: 🇹🇬 Lessons in digital government-to-person payments: Togo’s poverty alleviation program (Novissi)
In my spare time, you can probably find me ranting about how the Nigerian government isn’t creating enough incentives for the financially excluded to want to be formally included.
Part of my annoyance is when the government misses out on opportunities to use digital rails to drive its cash transfer programs (aka travelling to remote villages to hand out envelopes stuffed with cash rather than just making instant mobile payments etc.).
I randomly bumped into this awesome case study in Togo, and it made my heart smile. Could this be the heavens nudging me to relocate to Togo? Heard the food is the bomb.
I’m just looking to see whether the Nigerian government will take cues for how it plans to distribute the $800 million we received from the World Bank to support vulnerable households ahead of the petrol subsidy removal. Fingers crossed, we get it right this time.
#3: 📊 Standard Bank & CV VC’s Africa Blockchain Report 2022
For my blockchain, crypto-fan boys and girls, this one goes out to you
This is probably one of the more detailed Africa-focused blockchain reports I’ve come across.
One of the charts that stuck 👇🏾
Seychelles? Who woulda thought? I will be honest, I’m not sure how to interpret Seychelles as a regional capital for blockchain ventures. Perhaps the attraction for blockchain startups is its crypto-friendly regulations. But I can’t help but also worry about whether that may impact on the level of oversight these startups get on their corporate governance etc.
Maybe this is me still traumatized by ex-CEO of the crypto-trading platform FTX, Sam Bankman-Friedman, who’d set up his headquarters in the Bahamas.
That’s all folks!
Light detour: So I tried out a new spot to work in Lekki Phase I. It’s the new Toasties branch that opened up on Admiralty Way.
Quick reviews? It’s pretty noisy because there’s a super loud generator in the compound, so it was very difficult to take calls. The sandwiches were also kiddie-size 😭. As a foodie, I felt thoroughly insulted by the size. It tasted good, though (cop yourself that Ram sandwich)
The other good thing is the view. It’s nestled upstairs and surrounded by high windows, so you’re looking out at the mad dash of cars on busy Admiralty Way. For those with a creative, artistic edge, it has a calming feel to it.
What are your favourite spots to work in Lagos?
Catch y’all next week.
Nchy 😊.