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Kunjani fintech friends,
Well, welcome to the Upside Down, South Africa edition.
This week, South Africa’s crypto ecosystem found itself staring into its own regulatory rift. National Treasury and the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) released draft crossborder exchange control regulations that threaten to turn the country's thriving digital economy upside down. Under the proposed framework, local businesses would be outright blocked from using regulated crypto rails for international transactions. Even worse for individual users, transferring assets out to a self hosted wallet is allowed, but bringing those assets back into a local exchange is branded "non-permissible" creating a bizarre, trap door ruleset that penalizes legitimate users and threatens to force activity into the shadow black market.
Faced with an existential threat, the industry didn't just sit back. Major heavyweights including VALR, Luno, AltCoinTrader, and EasyEquities, alongside top legal minds, economists, and academics officially joined forces to form a unified defense alliance called CATASTROPHE (Crypto Asset Taskforce for Advancing Sound, Technology-Neutral Regulation for Opportunity, Prosperity and a Healthy Economy).
The coalition launched a nationwide campaign warning regulators that these restrictive rules won't curb illicit risk, they will destroy local tech jobs, drain billions in SARS tax revenue, freeze incoming foreign investment, and alienate South Africa from the global financial grid. Instead of blanket bans, CATASTROPHE is pushing back with a simple, common sense mandate: technology-neutral regulation where banks and fintechs operating cross border payments play by the exact same fair rules.
With public feedback closing on September 30, the clock is ticking for regulators to decide whether South Africa leads the digital finance revolution or becomes its biggest spectator.
Innovation doesn't stop when you build a wall around it; it simply walks out the door and takes the future with it.
If Treasury gets this wrong, South Africa won't just miss the next wave of global finance, it will be stranded in the dark watching the rest of the world build on the light. — Jovin
Please find another week of fintech news below:
The Rundown
🏦 M&A
CreditChek acquired Ugandan core banking software provider Algosys to expand its credit scoring and banking infrastructure into East Africa.
🚀 Product Launches
Mastercard partnered with Nigerian crypto platform Busha to launch Mastercard Crypto Credential, allowing users to transfer digital assets using simple, verified aliases.
TendePay received approval from the Central Bank of Kenya to launch regulated e-wallet services for digital balance management.
TerraPay partnered with Alipay+ to enable users of 15 African digital wallets to complete cross-border QR code payments at over 150 million global merchants.
M-KOPA expanded its pay-as-you-go asset financing platform to cover electric tuk-tuks for operators in Kenya.
💸 Fundraises
Kenyan fintech Flowt completed closed of its pre-seed funding round to expand working capital access for climate-focused small businesses.
Business payment startup Nomba raised a $3 million debt facility from CardinalStone Finance to scale its cross-border settlement infrastructure out of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Asset financing company Watu secured a $7 million non-dilutive debt facility from AHL Venture Partners to scale its motorcycle and smartphone financing portfolios across Africa.
Ghanaian fintech Seevcash raised $333,000 in funding from the Stellar Community Fund and launched a co-branded Visa debit card for its remittance users.
🗂️ Other News
dLocal Ghana Limited secured an Enhanced Payment Service Provider licence from the Bank of Ghana to process digital payments directly without local intermediaries.
Remittance platform AfriChange obtained an International Money Transfer Operator licence from the Bank of Ghana to expand its cross-border transfer services.
Nigerian digital bank FairMoney reached 30 million registered users, matching the customer scale of the country's oldest commercial banks.
South African crypto exchanges and industry leaders launched a national coalition campaign opposing proposed regulatory rules that restrict cross-border crypto payments and self-custody wallets.
Quote of the Week
TWIF FAQs
Which West African challenger disrupted incumbent telcos across Francophone markets with a flat 1% withdrawal fee, scaling to over 23 million monthly active users and becoming the region's first tech unicorn?
(Find the answer at the signoff below!)
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Before we wrap this up…
Did you guess which West African challenger disrupted incumbent telcos across Francophone markets with a flat 1% withdrawal fee, scaling to over 23 million monthly active users to become the region's first tech unicorn?
The answer is Wave Mobile Money. By eliminating traditional transfer fees and capping withdrawal charges at just 1%, Wave completely upended incumbent telco pricing models in Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire, rapidly transforming the Francophone mobile money landscape into one of the continent's most dynamic digital wallet battlegrounds.
That’s all for today, friends. See you next Monday.
Asante.
