The partnership between the two companies addresses several issues, including transparency problems. It also helps avoid the long bank queues.  

Orange Money and pan-African payment company Cellulant recently partnered to launch card-to-wallet transfers for eight banks in Botswana. 

According to a release published by Cellulant last Monday, the solution baptized Orange Money Card-To-Wallet will positively impact growth in the informal and financial services sectors. 

“The introduction of Card-To-Wallet aligns with our financial inclusion strategy that is centered around providing relevant and convenient solutions that address our customers’ everyday needs, as well as addressing our priorities around placing our customers first,” said Seabelo Pilane, CEO of Orange Money Botswana.  

For  Bathusi Beleme, Cellulant's Country Manager in Botswana, the partnership is in line with the payment company’s strategy to extend its services to “merchants in Botswana to help them digitize their payments.”

The service is already accessible to banked Orange Botswana subscribers. It will allow them to transfer funds from their bank cards to Orange Money wallets via Orange Botswana’s website. The process is powered by Tingg, Cellulant's payment platform. 

The sender will need only a registered Orange SIM card while the recipient will need an Orange Money account. Although most banks in Botswana have mobile apps, some do not yet offer this option to their customers. This solution, therefore, offers bank customers more options and allows them to transfer money easily and transparently, saving a lot of time.

 In its 2021 report, "The State of Instant Payments in Africa: Progress and Prospects," independent organization AfricaNenda says that, in Africa, 27.5 billion transactions were made by mobile payment accounts in 2020. The overall transaction value was US$495 billion. Year-on-year, the transaction number rose by 15% while the value increased by 23%.

Samira Njoya

Sending funds home has always proven difficult for the African diaspora. To address the situation, a Senegelase startup is offering an interesting alternative to the already existing means. 

Cauri Money is a fintech solution developed by an eponymous Senegalese startup, founded in 2021. It allows users, the African diaspora notably, to transfer funds at affordable rates. 

The solution has a mobile app, which allows Android and iOS users to access its services. Before accessing its services, users must first register accounts by providing a set of personal data. 

After the usual checks, they can start making international transfers through the solution, whose customer support is accessible to even those who speak local languages. In partnership with Paynetics AD, a Bulgaria-based banking platform provider specializing in B2B payments, Cauri Money can create payment accounts and provide MasterCard bank cards to its customers.

In 2020, the startup stated its ambition to reach over ten thousand users by the end of 2021. However, it is still struggling to build a significant user base and, according to Playstore data, its Android app has been downloaded by just over 100 users, as of publication date.  The startup nevertheless eyes markets like Mali, Côte d’Ivoire, and Nigeria. To support its growth, it has raised some US$350,000 since its inception. 

Adoni Conrad Quenum

In recent years, African tech entrepreneurs have developed several digital tools to help businesses reach their full potential. This is the case of Kenyan startup Boya which has developed an interesting solution that helps businesses track employee expenditures. 

Boya is a fintech solution developed by a Kenyan firm Boya Inc. It allows businesses to issue Visa expense cards and track the expenditures made from those cards via its web and mobile (Android and iOS) apps. 

In addition to giving businesses a real-time overview of employee spending and allowing them to quickly activate or deactivate expense cards, the fintech solution offers instant overdraft when needed. The overdraft limit increases proportionally to the transactions made by requesters through Boya. 

To quickly address client issues, Boya  Inc, which was founded in 2019, has a 24/7 support service for Boya users. 

Let’s note that the Kenyan startup has been selected to participate in the 2022 Winter cohort of Californian accelerator Y Combinator. The program is an opportunity for Boya to find additional capital besides the financing it will receive from Y Combinator.

Adoni Conrad Quenum

The fintech, which developed the solution wants to help Sudanese users manage the growing devaluation of their local currency. Its ambition is to expand in East Africa, a market of about 500 million individuals. 

Bloom is a fintech solution developed by a Kenyan eponymous startup. It helps users save in US dollars and spend Sudanese pounds. The started behind the innovation was founded in 2021 by Ahmed Ismail, Youcef Oudjidane, Khalid Keenan, and Abdigani Diriye. In July 2022, it completed a US$6.5 million funding round to support its growth. 

According to Ahmed Ismail, “the plan is to scale in the country and then expand to other markets. We anticipate being in at least one market before the end of the year and a couple more early next year.” Bloom’s ambition is to help Sudanese manage the rapid devaluation of the Sudanese pound.  

The fintech has a mobile app, which can be downloaded from AppStore, PlayStore, or its web platform. Users can create free accounts by registering with their phone numbers to start saving. "Banking services are provided by the Export Development Bank, which is licensed by the Central Bank of Sudan and is a member of the Bank Deposit Security Fund of the Central Bank of Sudan," the fintech indicates. 

Bloom claims more than 100,000 users. It has strategic partnerships with the likes of Visa, which invested in its funding round for regional expansion. In March 2022, the fintech was selected to participate in the Winter 2022 cohort of the Californian accelerator Y Combinator.

Adoni Conrad Quenum

From taking the risk of leaving a successful career at Coca-Cola for entrepreneurship to founding two successful fintech startups and selling one in an acclaimed deal, Hilda Moraa knows what it takes and how to achieve it. Some 12 years ago, after a few years of professional career, she decided to venture into entrepreneurship. Her two ventures were successful and she wants to help other Africans succeed by removing the main challenge that usually limits their efficiency: funding. 

Kenyan entrepreneur Hilda Moraa is the founder of Pezesha, a fintech founded in 2016 to facilitate access to financial support for African SMEs. According to Moraa, financial aid helps SMEs improve their efficiency. That is why she launched her fintech, which connects fund seekers with investors (banks and financial institutions notably) through a digital financial marketplace. 

“By resolving the issue of small and medium enterprises securing working capital and gaining a credit score, I believe we can equip business owners with assets so they can compete and trade on a national scale,” she told Google in Africa in March 2022. 

In 2021, she was among the fifty recipients of Google’s Black Founders Fund Africa. Two years earlier, she was among the participants of the Obama Foundation’s Leaders program. This enhanced the leadership and innovation skills she acquired in the course of her professional and entrepreneurship career. Indeed, ten years earlier, in 2011, she founded WezaTele, a startup that uses data analytics to help last-mile businesses grow and scale their businesses. She remained the CEO of WezaTele till its acquisition by financial services group AFB (now Jumo World) in 2015.  

The same year, she published her book, A Kenyan Startup Journey,  sharing the key lessons she learned as the founder and CEO of WezaTele. In 2016, in recognition of her actions in favor of entrepreneurship, she was selected on The Guardian’s list of Africa’s top 10 pioneers, and Business Daily’s top 40 women that celebrate women who thrive in the tech sector. She also made it to Quartz Africa’s list of the top 30 African innovators. In 2019, she also received the DFS Lab’s Female Focused Fintech Prize. 

The tech entrepreneur started her professional career in 2008 when she joined the IT company Techbiz as an IT intern in asset management and ERP implementation. The same year, she became coordinator of the Strathmore University computer lab. Then, in 2009, she was recruited, as a database analyst and innovation implementer, by Coca-Cola Kenya.

In 2011, Hilda Moraa became an innovation strategist and senior ICT researcher at iHub Nairobi. From 2017 to 2021, she was a board member of Station F, a startup campus based in Paris. Concurrently, in 2020, she served on Kenya's Covid-19 ICT and Innovations Advisory Committee established by the Ministry of ICT, Innovation, and Youth.

In June 2022, she was appointed a member of the Board of Directors of the Konza Technopolis Development Authority, whose mission is the development of a sustainable smart city and innovation ecosystem in Kenya.

Melchior Koba

Retail business is the most popular activity in Africa. However, the daily management of the transactions carried out by such shops can prove difficult for owners. Weebi, a Senegalese startup wants to ward off those difficulties.  

Weebi is a fintech solution launched in 2015, by an eponymous Senegalese startup. It is a multilingual tool that allows users (retail businesses mostly) to manage sales, supplies, payables, and receivables. 

The solution was launched because “we noticed that merchants needed tools to efficiently and transparently manage their cash register,” indicates Cheikh Sene, one of Weebi's co-founders.

“Weebi streamlines commercial exchanges. It helps manage the cash register and clients’ transactions securely and fairly. Weebi ends disputes involving clients’ transaction history,”  added Kande Diaby, another co-founder. 

The solution is delivered to users as a kit composed of a tablet computer and a printer. Using the dedicated tablet, Weebi’s paid users can create separate sheets for each of their clients. On the sheets, clients’ purchases can be listed and the type of transaction (paid in cash or on credit). 

Weebi also allows its users’ clients to load dedicated wallets that can be debited for each transaction made. In case of problems, the startup’s team is usually available to go on the ground to assist merchants.  For paying users, its subscription ranges from XOF99,900 and XOF149,000 for a computer tablet, an anti-theft device, a printer, and the bookkeeping app. 

The solution has won several awards since its launch. These include the Digital Innovation Award in January 2017 (Tigo / Reach for Change), the Digital Africa Challenge in 2017 (French Development Agency / BPIFrance), and the Arbre à Palabre hackathon in December 2017 in Abidjan (Société Générale). In the coming years, its developers intend to deploy it in Burkina Faso, Guinea, Gabon, Angola, and Ethiopia.

Adoni Conrad Quenum

In Africa, rural areas are usually shunned by banks. Therefore, residents of those areas have to rely on alternative solutions. With Save, Rwandan startup Exuus wants to make those alternative solutions more efficient. 

Save is a fintech solution developed by Rwandan startup Exuus. It allows individuals to “save collectively” for financial empowerment.  

The solution was developed to facilitate an already existing process. “The lack of financial access for poor and vulnerable populations limits their access to a range of services and opportunities and, therefore, exacerbates their vulnerability to, in turn, end up in cycles of poverty. [...] To break this cycle, for decades now, low-income people both in urban and rural areas create savings groups. The savings circulates among members through different ways and return to members in credit or savings with interest giving them access to affordable capital to grow their small businesses and become financially resilient,”  explained Exuus founder, Steve Shema. 

Save makes the collective savings and loaning process smoother and more efficient.  Thanks to its mobile app (available for Android and iOS devices), web platform, and USSD code, the solution empowers members of each saving group. After paying dues, members can apply for loans to start or expand their businesses.  

The solution also helps members who belong to many saving groups to monitor their savings and pay their contributions without paying any transaction fee. In 2019, Exuus revealed that based on the feedback received for its fintech solution, it was planning to establish a presence in other East African countries. However, it said it was “tapping into a market of US$64 million in Rwanda and more than US$2 billion in annualized savings in East Africa.” At the time, the startup had already raised some US$575,000 for its operations. 

Adoni Conrad Quenum

In Sub-Saharan Africa, the majority of the population is unbanked or underbanked. To fill the gap left by mainstream financial institutions, startups are developing various tech solutions. 

Djamo is a fintech solution developed by Ivorian startup DJAMO Holding Ltd. It issues visa cards to its users, facilitating their online transactions.  

“Bank access is really difficult here [in Côte d’Ivoire]. We saw this difficulty as a huge opportunity. Our aim since inception has been to develop a mobile-first platform that could attract the masses. Our combined experience in the creation of consumer goods has been crucial in the launch of Djamo,” explained co-founder Hassan Bourgi.

By using its Android and iOS apps, Djamo clients can create an account and order a prepaid Visa card, which will be delivered within 48 hours. Users can load their Djamo Visa cards using mobile money or bank transfers. Then, they can easily make online purchases, benefiting from Djamo’s 3D secure technology. They can also easily block or unblock their cards (in the event of losing them or being stolen).  

From 2019 to 2021, the fintech had close to 90,000 users with some 50,000 transactions processed monthly. In February 2021, it was selected for Y Combinator’s accelerator program, becoming the first Ivorian startup to join the program. Its participation in the winter program entitled it to US$125,000 seed funding. Overall, since its creation, Djamo Holding has secured over US$450,000 to support its growth. 

Adoni Conrad Quenum

The young entrepreneur wants to contribute to financial inclusion and economic development in his country. His digital payment solution already boasts more than 70,000 users.

Jules Kader Kaboré (photo) is a Burkinabe programmer and co-founder of Sank Business, a money transfer company launched in January 2021. 

  His company developed Sank Pay, a mobile payment app enabling users to make fee-free deposits. Users can also secure loans and make withdrawals with fees amounting to about 1% of transactions. 

“At Sank Business, our goal is to lift Burkina Faso into the ranks of African countries that have fully-digitalized economies, by 2025,” Jules said in December 2021.  

Through Sank Business, the latter issues payment cards that have no expiration date and are renewable at will. Its cards enable people with no internet access to carry out cashless financial transactions.  

Jules Kader Kaboré launched Sank Business after a few years in the U.S. tech industry. In 2016, he worked as an intern web developer for Ignition 72, a Maryland-based internet marketing agency.  From September to December 2018, he became a math tutor at Laney College in California. 

A few months after his stint at Laney College, along with some Burkinabe students based in the USA, he developed Coucou-Africa, a solution that allows users to buy or sell goods in Africa and even get the latest information about the continent. 

Melchior Koba

Mobile money and digital payment solutions are gradually taking over the business world. To facilitate payment processing, entrepreneurs are developing efficient solutions. 

Paymee is a fintech solution developed by a Tunisian eponymous startup. It is a gateway allowing firms to collect card payments.  

According to Paymee founder Mawen Amamou (photo), the startup is already known for the simplicity and efficiency of its payment solutions. It now wants  “to become the market reference in Tunisia … addressing [..] client needs and simplifying their operations …,” he said in a recent release announcing the completion of a “six-figure round.” 

To integrate Paymee’s solution on their websites, firms just have to create a business account with the fintech startup and validate that account by submitting required documents. They can also use the startup’s application programming interface or plugins. No matter the integration method chosen, they can process their transactions in real-time. 

In May 2019, the Tunisian Ministry of the digital economy labeled Paymee, which was founded in 2017, as a “startup”. Currently, it claims over 15,000 agent accounts and more than 250 business accounts with some 100,000 transactions processed.  

Adoni Conrad Quenum