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Airtel Africa Eyes Starlink, IPO, and Crypto Push
If Airtel successfully blends satellite coverage, mobile money scale, and eventually crypto rails, it could reshape competition not just in Kenya, but across its entire African footprint.
- Categories
- Technology, Telecommunications
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Creating a Local Means of Exchange for African Entrepreneurs: How a Blockchain-Based Community Currency Gained Traction in Tanzania
In African communities, the lack of disposable income often hinders economic growth, and many local entrepreneurs are excluded from centralized, formal finance. Malik El Bay at the Encointer Association and Alinagwe Mwaselela at Jukumu NGO explore how their organizations are addressing this issue by leveraging blockchain technology to enable community members in Dar es Salaam to independently create and manage their own local cryptocurrency. They explain how this community currency model can be leveraged to support economic growth and entrepreneurship across Africa and other emerging markets.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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Tether Partners with UNODC to Boost Digital Asset Security Across Africa
Tether, the world’s largest stablecoin provider, has announced a strategic collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to enhance cybersecurity and public education on digital asset security across Africa.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Pan-African Fintech NALA Deepens Stablecoin Rails to Speed up Dollar Flows
Partnering with Noah allows NALA to offer global account usage, where companies can collect dollars anywhere in the world and pay out instantly in local currencies, all through licenced, regulated rails, said Fernandes.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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WattWallet Expands Digital Access to Prepaid Electricity in South Africa
The South African startup allows consumers to buy prepaid electricity tokens in a few clicks.
- Categories
- Energy, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Discovery Bank Becomes First Major South African Bank to Offer Crypto Trading
Discovery Bank has partnered with crypto exchange Luno to integrate crypto asset trading directly into the bank’s mobile application.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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SACCOs, Social Collateral and Bitcoin Communities: A Filmmaker Documents New (and Old) Ways to Extend Financial Inclusion Past the Limits of Fintech
Luke Willms worked at an African NGO, where he was tasked with creating short videos to showcase the positive impacts of its microcredit program. But as the video project progressed, his assumptions about the effectiveness of microfinance began to unravel. He would spend the next seven years filming stories from across Africa and other regions, exploring whether microlending still held relevance in a rapidly changing world. The resulting documentary, “Unbankable,” was released last year, with the goal of helping to reframe the global conversation around financial inclusion. He shares key stories from the movie, which show how Africa’s informal, trust-based financial systems offer models of resilience and adaptation that could find new applications in other emerging countries.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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Lisk’s $15 Million Fund Wants to Find WEB3 Unicorns in Emerging Markets
Their ticket sizes start at $250,000 for a first cheque. About 30% of the capital is reserved for follow-on rounds, with second cheques of up to $500,000. The maximum exposure per startup is capped at $750,000.
- Categories
- Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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