[East Africa Business Week] Bob Koigi: The fintech revolution and what it portends for the region

The expansion of Nigerian fintech Paga to Ethiopia through a partnership with the Bank of Abyssinia is the latest in a growing list of digital financial services investments in the region, a move that is positioning the region as a fintech hub.

Just recently Airtel Mobile Commerce Uganda, the provider of affordable and secure Airtel money platform, has partnered with Housing Finance Bank Uganda and digital lending platform provider YABX to enable Airtel Money customers access quick loans when they do not have sufficient funds in their wallet. This is the latest service offered by Airtel Money to give financial access to support customers’ needs.

Other recent notable developments in this space include The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) granting Cellulant a Payment Service Provider (PSP) authorisation in Kenya, enabling the company to expand its payments offering for businesses, banks, and consumers.

In Ethiopia, Dashen Bank, a private bank, announced that it had extended its strategic partnership with CR2, as it accelerates its branch transformation programme, a key pillar of its overall digital transformation.

The strategic initiative responds to the changing nature of the branch, migrating traditional teller services to digital points of access such as mobile, online and in-branch self-service terminals including the ATM and kiosk.

And MarketForce, the Nairobi-headquartered B2B platform for retail distribution of consumer goods and digital financial services in Africa, announced the closing of a $40 million Series A round, the largest Series A round of it’s kind in East and Central Africa. The raise comes 7 months after concluding a pre-Series A round.

In the tourism sector, International Finance Corporation, IFC, announced a partnership with 3B Group of Hotels to support the company's expansion and the upgrading of its existing lodges in the country.

IFC will lend up to $3.7 million to 3B Group of Hotels to support its construction of a 30-room mid-market safari camp in Akagera in Rwanda's Great Lakes region and the refurbishment and upgrading of its three existing properties in Rwanda. IFC's investment will also help 3B Group of Hotels meet its working capital needs and strengthen its environmental, social, and governance practices.

On the tech beat, Mitel, a player in business communication technology, has announced plans to expand its footprint in the East African region, buoyed by a positive growth trajectory experienced last year.

Safaricom Ethiopia has selected multi-cloud services provider VMware as its Telco Cloud Platform partner.
VMware Telco Cloud Platform enables service providers to rapidly deploy and efficiently operate multi-vendor CNFs and VNFs with agility and scalability across 5G and other networks that span from the core and the edge to the radio access network (RAN). Safaricom intends to deploy the platform across both its IT environments and telco network in Ethiopia.

Mozilla Common Voice, an open-source initiative that aims to make voice technology more inclusive has announced $400,000 in grants for voice technologies that leverage its open-source Kiswahili data set. The initiative will support people and projects across East Africa who are using voice technology to unlock social and economic opportunities. 

And on the banking sector, EAC staff, delegates, members of its Organs and Institutions and visitors can now easily conduct banking services at the EAC premises, following the launch of a Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) Tanzania mini-branch, at the EAC Secretariat Headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania.
The move followed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the EAC Secretary General Dr. Peter Mathuki and KCB Tanzania Managing Director Mr. Cosmas Kimario set to guide the establishment and extension of banking services by the regional lender at the EAC premises.

Bob Koigi is the East African Region Editor at Africa Business Communities