Bonjour Fintech Friends 👋,
It’s July already, ready for Q3 one of the busiest quarters. First, if you are new here, welcome. If you were with us last week, do you remember the Monzo and Revolut play? Yeah, this time the narrative shifts from global fiat giants entering the continent to global payment networks rebuilding our internal rails from the ground up.
While outside players are capturing market share via traditional fiat, inside players are moving the entire backend plumbing straight onto blockchain infrastructure.
In a massive development, Visa, M-Pesa, and Onafriq launched a live pilot in the DRC to settle cross-border mobile transactions directly using dollar backed stablecoins.
Why are they doing this? To bypass the slow, expensive traditional banking corridors that eat up nearly 8% in fees. By using stablecoins on the backend, they can settle transactions instantly for pennies. Meanwhile, the consumer experience stays exactly the same, merchants get paid in local currency, and the user just triggers a familiar mobile wallet transfer. It’s infrastructure efficiency disguised as everyday convenience.
Let's look at the rest of this week's fintech news from Africa.
📰 News of the Week
Visa partnered with M-Pesa and Onafriq to pilot crossborder stablecoin payments in the DRC.
Visa, M-Pesa, and Onafriq launched a stablecoin pilot in the DRC to eliminate the high friction of traditional cross-border retail payments. By routing backend settlements through digital dollars instead of multiple banking intermediaries, they aim to slash transaction costs which average nearly 8% regionally and clear payments instantly, providing merchants and mobile wallet users with a cheaper, faster alternative for daily commerce.
Fundraise, Venture Capital and Exit
LemFi acquired UK investment platform Wealth8 to expand into cross-border wealth management.
Rise Group integrated its acquired platforms, rebranding Chaka and Hisa under unified operations.
Launch Africa Ventures exited its secondary equity position in South Africa's Peach Payments to 27four.
Senegal launched a fresh $50 million fund targeting early-stage tech startups and digital innovation.
Leadership Lineup
Interswitch appointed Abdul-Hafiz Ibrahim as its new Chief Technology Officer.
Policy & Regulations
The CBN revoked the operating licenses of NowNow, Sycamore, and OurPass microfinance banks.
The Nigerian SEC admitted Luno, Bitbarter, and GetEquity into its digital asset incubation program.
South Africa’s SARS clarified crypto tax rules, targeting non-compliant digital asset holders.
Nigeria and Rwanda formed a regulatory partnership to combat cross-border crypto fraud.
A Ghana Court ordered Zeepay and its CEO to pay $11.6 million over unremitted transaction funds.
Nigeria's FCCPC denied approving 48 new loan applications amid an ongoing court-ordered pause.
The BCEAO extended the integration timeline for fintechs linking to its PI-SPI regional payment rail.
Partnerships & Product Launches
Grey launched local currency deposit services for users in Ghana and Kenya.
Namibia's Central Bank signed a pact with IPN to strengthen instant payments.
Nigeria strengthened its cross-border push via digital payment talks with Interswitch.
Ajebutter's Muva Networks secured a Nigerian IMTO license after processing $200 million last year.
Read of the week
The Biggest Stablecoin Opportunity Has Nothing to Do With Payments. It is Something much Bigger. - Emeka
Stablecoin & Crypto Watch
Paga teamed up with TBook to launch tokenized real-world assets across Africa.
VALR integrated with Hyperliquid to launch perpetual contracts for its cryptocurrency users.
An industry clash over cNGN highlighted deep adoption hurdles for Nigerian fintechs.
Cauridor teamed up with Fireblocks to secure and scale cross-border stablecoin payments across Africa.
Other News, Reads, and Media
Video Interviews/Discussions
This episode breaks down the CBN's radical new mandate forcing fintechs to localize payment data by 2027 and strict market concentration caps targeting dominant payment monopolies.
Tweet of the Week
That's all for this week. See you next Monday.
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