Fintech Snacks 🍿 | May 9 2023
My job is to make sure your weekly reading list on African fintech is lit 🔥
Hey guys,
So I’ve been MIA for the past two weeks and for good reason. I took a good break from reading and thinking about fintech to go marry the absolute love of my life 😍.
Introducing Mrs Nchedolisa Akuma to you 😊.
As you can imagine, I returned to a flood of reading I had to catch up on. Here are some of the insightful reads I’ve enjoyed in the past few days👇🏾:
#1: 🤝Alex Johnson’s Thriving in the next era of Banking-as-a-service
Alex basically narrates the history of Baas in the US. Banking-as-a-service (Baas) is one of those unecessarily bogus terms but it’s simply how fintechs collaborate with banks to provide banking products to their customers (like accounts, payment cards, regulatory compliance etc).
Why I even bothered with a Baas piece is because I feel that as the African fintech ecosystem matures, we’re going to see more Baas-type startups crop up (i.e Mono, Stitch, Okra etc) whose primary job is helping fintechs and banks collaborate better. I’m not one of those who believe in a world where fintechs displace banks for good. The future is collaboration.
In the US, it’s been smaller, regional banks who’ve been most supportive of Baas. I have a sense it may be the same in Nigeria as we’re already seeing smaller banks like Wema, Providus leading the way with ‘virtual accounts as a service’.
#2: 💸 Kenya’s Government wants some of that digital cake
The Kenyan Government has proposed new amendments which will slam digital creators and influencers with a 15% witholding tax. Worse, the proposal defines ‘digital creators’ quite broadly to include any electronic sale of entertainment, social, literal, artistic, and educational services.
All I have is tears 😭 😭. Sometimes I feel like reading African fintech news is a lot of ‘growth, growth, growth, then whoops there goes the government with its feet on the breaks!’. Dear President Ruto, please tick the “Do not approve ❌” box when the bill lands on your desk.
I get that the government really needs revenue to get out of debt and that Kenya’s tax-to-GDP ratio (14%) is relatively low compared to other African giants like South Africa (23%). But Kenya’s digital economy is still quite young, taxation is akin to milking an immature calf.
My bigger fear is with the copy-and-paste policy strategy that some African nations tend to follow. Moves like this give other governments’ ideas. The wrong ones, sadly. Nigerian tech companies are currently trying to fend off NITDA (its ICT agency) from introducing its controversial NITDA bill which plans on introducing fresh taxes on digital companies.
#2: Benjamin Dada’s Curating data for venture funding in Africa
This discussion touched on the impact of having several venture funding trackers reporting on Africa’s tech ecosystem. A long overdue conversation, in my opinion.
The likes of Partech Africa, Benjamindada, Disrupt Africa, Techpoint, Techcabal (and others) release periodic reports on the state of funding in Africa’s tech ecosystem. Each has slightly different methodologies which results in often conflicting estimations on the size of venture funding on the continent.
Two things I agree with the panelists on were 1) Publishers need to be extra transparent about their methodology and 2.) We need to track more than just funding (How about the number of engineering hires/churn at each startup?)
The one thing I was iffy about was the suggestion for publications to collaborate on producing a single report. I thought that was a bit of wishful thinking. In an ideal world with unicorns and peach lollipops, maybe that could have seen the light of day. But reality check, I don’t see any of these publications particularly excited to have to list a potential competitor on the cover page of a report.
Okay, now on to the best part 😅: raving about La Campagne Tropicana.
It’s an African themed beach resort located in Epe, Lagos. My husband and I spent a couple days there for our honeymoon. Bruh, that place was quite the experience. Two things got me: the service and the simplistic design.
The resort staff were exceptionally doting. At some point, I started getting scared. If you live in Nigeria, you get used to dealing with very terrible customer service. So to say I was shocked would be putting it mildly.
I was also impressed by the playful use of low-cost, locally sourced materials that was a consistent theme across the resort i.e bamboo sticks, ankara cloth curtains etc.
And the foooood, don’t get me started. I was stuffed to the max.
You should check it out. It’s worth it.
See y’all next week,
Nchy 😊
Disclaimer: All content in this newsletter solely reflects my views and opinions. They are not a product of any sponsored ads. Nor are they associated with my current employer.