Funding has plunged to an eight-year low, shutdowns are mounting, and commercial VCs are nowhere to be seen. Inside the sector’s grant-dependency crisis.
From 2 November, all electronic-money transfers in the eight-nation WAEMU bloc must run through a single central bank platform. Transfers up to 8,000 FCFA a day are free. Above that, fees are capped at 0.8 per cent.
Fintech group captures nearly a quarter of Egypt's micro-lending market and expands retail credit footprint as EGP 4bn securitisation program supports growth.
The $1.7bn mobile money operator joined the PI-SPI system on deadline day alongside 175 institutions—ending closed-loop dominance across the $267bn WAEMU market.
Large language models can scrape the web, but they can't replicate deep domain expertise. From Cairo cold-emails to Cape Town acqui-hires, tech giants are paying up to buy niche capabilities.
An analysis of disclosed funding rounds in 2026 shows that despite the proliferation of mega-syndicates, only a handful of investors repeatedly co-invest together.
The i3 initiative, launched in 2022, is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation alongside corporate sponsors including MSD, Cencora, Sanofi, Boehringer Ingelheim, HELP Logistics, and Endless Health.
After hitting a 12% conversion wall with mobile money in gaming, founder Teddy Kossoko has pivoted Gara to digitise the region’s informal savings market.
Funding has plunged to an eight-year low, shutdowns are mounting, and commercial VCs are nowhere to be seen. Inside the sector’s grant-dependency crisis.
