Fintech Snacks 🍿 | July 22 2023

My job is to make sure your reading list on African fintech is lit 🔥

Hey peeps,

A warm welcome to all new and old subscribers to Fintech Snacks 🍿,

Each week, I’ll round up three of my favourite fintech articles, reports, podcasts, webinars etc., that explore a trending topic in Africa’s fintech scene. No deep analysis here; just serving you a list of recommended reads that’ll help you sort through the noise.

Despite many late nights, tight work deadlines and bottomless coffee mugs this past week, I barely managed to sneak in some good fintech reading.

Here’s what made it onto my reading list this past week 👇🏾:

#1:  🇰🇪 Ngozi’s Newsletter on M-PESA; good but far from great

• For the lovers of controversy, here’s something for ya 😋. (P.S Ngozi is the co-founder of Carbon, one of Nigeria’s top digital banks)

• For context, M-Pesa is Kenya’s wildly successful mobile payment scheme which gets a lot of good press as an excellent case study for digital financial services innovation on the continent.

• Ngozi believes that Safaricom (M-Pesa’s parent company) can do more with its data to extend more sophisticated services beyond payments & lending. The big question this raises is whether regulation is permissive of such innovation.

#2:  🇷🇼 Semafor covers Rwanda’s push to be Africa’s financial hub

• Rwanda wants to attract budding African startups, and they’re making serious moves to clean up their operating environment.

• But I must confess, I have mixed feelings about Rwanda. Paul Kagame isn’t exactly the biggest fan of full democracy. At what point does the Kagame administration’s autocratic tendencies start to encroach on business interests? (Like we saw in China’s crackdown on tech companies in 2021)

• I guess there’s no perfect paradise for startup hubs in emerging markets.

#3: 📝 Tech Safari on MFS Africa Acquisition Playbook

• I dare you to try and be smart about African tech without a subscription to Tech Safari, lol.

• I personally find Dare Okoudjou (CEO of MFS Africa) to be one of the most astute fintech CEOs on the continent. He made a simple bet on Africa’s financial future nine years ago that’s working out to this day: linking mobile money wallets across countries.

• Caleb breaks down MFS acquisition strategy, product portfolio and future ambitions. In 13 years, MFS Africa has become for Africa an indispensable payment super-highway, much like VISA & Mastercard are in the US & UK.

When I’m not thinking about Fintech

• So, I stumbled on this podcast, “Power Corrupts”, hosted by Brian Klaas

• I’m officially addicted. Brian’s storytelling is top-notch. He creatively covers how power gets formed, who gets power and the economics and sociology of power. If getting into the minds of some of history’s most diabolic criminals excites you, then please stop what you’re doing and give this a listen.

• You get to learn about crazy dictators like Jean-Bedel Bokassa, a 17-year military dictator of the Central African Republic who was rumoured to eat human flesh 🤮(unconfirmed reports)

  

• Alright, done with my rant

Catch ya next week!

Nchy 😊

Disclaimer: All content in this newsletter solely reflects my views and opinions. They are not associated with my current employer.