SaltPay, a UK-based payment technology firm serving small and medium-sized enterprises in Europe, recently struck deals to acquire International Tutuka Holdings, a provider of payment cards that is based in South Africa, and
Category: Africa
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Mastercard Buying 3.8% Equity Stake in Mobile Money Unit of Airtel Africa for $100m
Mastercard, a US-based financial services company, recently agreed to pay USD 100 million for a 3.75-percent equity stake in Airtel Mobile Commerce, a subsidiary of the telecommunications company Airtel Africa that uses the trade name Airtel Money. Mastercard and Airtel Money plan to deepen their ongoing partnership in the areas of
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Fintech Appzone of Nigeria Raises $10m in Funding Round Led by CardinalStone Capital Advisers
Appzone, a Nigeria-based financial technology firm, recently raised USD 10 million (NGN 3.8 billion) in its Series A round of funding, which was led by Nigeria-based private equity investor CardinalStone. The other participating investors were US-based Lateral Investment Partners and three Nigeria-based firms:
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Fintech Zeepay of Ghana Buys Controlling Stake in Mangwee Mobile Money of Zambia
The Ghana-based financial technology (fintech) company Zeepay recently bought a 51-percent stake in Zambia-based digital wallet and remittance platform Mangwee Mobile Money for an undisclosed price. Zeepay Managing Director Andrew Takyi-Appiah noted, “The acquisition… will give Zeepay access to Mozambique, Malawi, Angola and Namibia among others in our effort to
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Amen Bank of Tunisia Borrows $17m from Sanad for On-lending to MSMEs Adjusting to COVID-19 Pandemic
Tunisia’s Amen Bank recently accepted a senior loan of EUR 14 million (USD 16.7 million) from the Luxembourg-domiciled Sanad Fund for MSME. Via its 160 branches, Amen Bank is to on-lend the funds to
MICROFINANCE PAPER WRAP-UP: “Evidence Review of Women’s Groups and COVID-19: Impacts, Challenges, and Policy Implications for Savings Groups in Africa;” by Eva Namisango et al
This brief offers evidence on how COVID-19 has affected women’s savings groups in sub-Saharan Africa – with a specific focus on Nigeria and Uganda – including how these groups have helped to “mitigate the pandemic’s negative consequences.” In a savings group, members pool their savings, lend out these funds and share the resulting profits. In addition to
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Kiva Refugee Investment Fund Closes with $32m to Scale Lending to Forcibly Displaced Persons, Host Communities Via Microfinance Institutions
The Kiva Refugee Investment Fund (KRIF), an entity controlled by the US-based NGO Kiva Microfunds, recently completed its first close, with USD 32.5 million raised from
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Pngme, Data Processor for Lenders in Africa, Raises $3m in Seed Equity Round Led by EchoVC, Lateral Capital, Radical Ventures, Raptor Group
Pngme, a US-based financial data firm focused on African markets, recently announced it has closed its seed fundraising round at a volume of USD 3 million. Pngme offers an application program interface (API) that allows financial institutions to access and analyze
MICROFINANCE PAPER WRAP-UP: “Financial Literacy Education: Implication on the Economic and Social Life of the Teacher in Ghana,” by Juabin Matey et al, Published by International Research Journal of Multidisciplinary Scope
The authors of this paper investigated “how consumers acquire knowledge of financial numeracy and how it’s applied, especially to their economic and social lives.” Past research has shown both higher borrowing costs and over-spending to be correlated with
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Apis Partners, JG Summit Commit $108m for Minority Equity Stakes in TymeBank to Expand Microinsurance, Payment Card Services to Individuals, SMEs in South Africa
TymeBank, the South African unit of Singapore-based TymeGlobal, has secured commitments totaling ZAR 1.6 billion (USD 108 million) from the Filipino conglomerate JG Summit Holdings and UK-based asset manager Apis Partners. Although the exact terms of the deal have not been released, TymeBank has so far received
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Vital Finance Borrows $5m from EIB for Microfinance in Benin, Mostly for Women
The EU’s European Investment Bank (EIB) recently agreed to a partnership with Vital Finance, a microlender in Benin, to support smaller businesses via a loan of EUR 4 million (USD 4.8 million). The wholesale loan, which is the first Vital Finance has taken from EIB, is to fund an estimated 77,000 retail loans, 70 percent of which are to go to female entrepreneurs. Vital Finance CEO Wakil Adjibi stated that the partnership with EIB
SPECIAL REPORT: Apply/Postulez/Postular – European Microfinance Award 2021
From 
the European Microfinance Platform (e-MFP): The €100,000 European Microfinance Award 2021 on ‘Inclusive Finance and Health Care’ highlights the crucial role the inclusive finance sector can play in helping low-income and excluded populations both plan day-to-day medical spending and ‘smooth’ out health-related financial shocks.
If you are
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Temasek Commits $500m in Equity to Impact Investor LeapFrog to Boost Financial Services, Healthcare in Africa, Asia
Temasek Holdings, an investment firm owned by the government of Singapore, recently committed USD 500 million to LeapFrog Investments, which is focused on financial and health services in Africa and Asia. Temasek will acquire a minority stake of
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Equity Bank Secures $144m from EIB, EU to Support Agriculture, SMEs in Kenya in Responding to COVID-19 Pandemic
Equity Bank (Kenya) Limited, a member of the Equity Bank Group, recently secured EUR 100 million (USD 120 million) from the EU’s European Investment Bank (EIB) for on-lending to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The EU Ambassador to Kenya, Simon Mordue, said,
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Fintech Platform Nomanini Secures $500k from FMO; Connecting MSMEs to Retail Distributors, MSME Customers to Financial Services in Africa
Financierings-Maatschappij voor Ontwikkelingslanden (FMO), a Dutch public-private partnership, recently invested USD 500,000 in financial technology (fintech) platform Nomanini in the form of a convertible loan. FMO disbursed the funding from MASSIF, a fund it manages for
SPECIAL REPORT: Shafiqual Haque Choudhury: A Practical Visionary
Shafiqual 
Haque Choudhury was born into a landowning family in what was then East Pakistan. Just after he graduated as a sociologist from Dhaka University, a brutal civil war in 1971 ended in the emergence of his new country, Bangladesh.
Wanting to do something about the devastating post-war poverty and underdevelopment, Shafiq joined an overseas charity that had come to Dhaka after the war. But the fishing co-operatives that he helped to form were all too often controlled by their wealthier members, and he took the Maoist view that the poor needed to confront these local elites more directly. With funds from sympathetic international donors, he founded the Association for Social Advancement (ASA) in 1978.
ASA formed groups of working men in the villages, trained them in night schools to “recognise the sources of their oppression” and urged them to carry out “social actions” like work and rent strikes as well as withholding repayments due to moneylenders. The plan was to federate the groups at local, then at district and finally at national levels, with the ultimate goal of creating a government that reflected the needs of its poorest citizens.
It didn’t work. Social actions were few and
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: ATL Secures $12m from Sanad for SME Leasing in Tunisia During COVID-19 Pandemic
Tunisia-based Arab Tunisian Lease (ATL) recently secured a senior loan of EUR 10 million (USD 12 million) from Sanad Fund for MSME, a Luxembourg-domiciled investor in lenders to micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), for
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: SunCulture of Kenya Receives $11m Line of Credit for Solar Irrigation of Farms in Africa from SunFunder, AfDB, AlphaMundi, NDF, Triodos Investment Management
Kenyan solar-irrigation company SunCulture recently received a credit facility of USD 11 million organized and led by SunFunder, a lender to solar energy projects in sub-Saharan Africa. The other participating funders are the African Development Bank’s (AfDB’s) Energy Inclusion Facility, Switzerland-based AlphaMundi, the Nordic Development Fund (NDF) and the Netherlands’ Triodos Investment Management. NDF is an institution of the governments of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The terms of the loan to SunCulture have not been released.
SunCulture utilizes solar technology “to provide customers with reliable access to water, irrigation, lighting and mobile charging.” Its products, such as solar pumps, lights and drip irrigation systems, are used by both farmers and non-farming households in Côte d’Ivoire,