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Press Release: Mal Closes Record $230 Million Seed Round to Build World’s First AI-Native Islamic Digital Bank
This will be the world's first AI-native Islamic financial platform targeting the world’s 2 billion Muslim population and other underbanked communities.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- North Africa & Near East
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Flutterwave Buys Nigeria’s Mono in $25 Million – $40 Million Deal to Deepen Africa’s Fintech Infrastructure
Flutterwave runs one of the continent’s widest payment networks, supporting local and cross-border transactions across more than 30 African countries, while Mono has built open banking APIs that allow businesses to access bank data, initiate payments, and verify customers.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Building the Financial Services Stack of the Future: Why True Resilience Requires a More Holistic Approach
Over the last decade, financial inclusion has experienced unprecedented progress, as 79% of adults globally now have a financial account compared to 62% 10 years ago. But according to Payal Dalal at the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, most financial inclusion initiatives are still organized around verticals like loans, savings and insurance, and delivered through separate providers and channels, which forces customers to piece them together into a comprehensive safety net or growth path. She argues that the financial services stack of the future must address this lack of integration, delivering solutions that meet multiple financial needs simultaneously — while responding to the growing headwinds that individuals and entrepreneurs face today.
- Categories
- Finance
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AI Risk Management in Digital Finance: Protecting Africa’s Underbanked from Invisible Threats
Digital finance has been a game-changer for financial inclusion across Africa. But as information technology security analyst Nathaniel Adeniyi Akande explains, many communities remain excluded — and though AI-powered lending tools offer new opportunities to reach them, these tools also introduce new risks that can undermine trust or even exclude the people they are designed to serve. He argues that it is digital lenders’ responsibility to anticipate and mitigate these threats, and explores several practices that are essential to AI risk management in the sector.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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Zazu Raises $1 Million Pre-Seed Round to Reinvent SME Banking Across Africa
With more than 50 SMEs already in beta and over 1,000 businesses on its waitlist, Zazu aims to serve Africa’s 50 million underserved SMEs.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- digital finance, fintech, MSMEs, startups
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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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Top-Down vs. Bottom-Up: Bhutan and Fiji’s Contrasting Paths to Digital Transformation Reveal the Pros and Cons of Government and Market-Driven Approaches
The pursuit of digital competitiveness — the capacity and readiness to adopt digital technologies — has led to remarkable success stories in emerging markets, transforming public infrastructure and enhancing the delivery of social and financial services. But as Neeraj Lekhwar and Garima Singh at FinValue Advisors explain, this path remains challenging for many nations — particularly small countries. They share insights from a FinValue study involving Bhutan and Fiji: two countries with comparable sizes and socioeconomic structures that have approached their digital transformation very differently. The policy paths they've taken present contrasting examples of digital adoption strategies that provide valuable lessons for other small markets.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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ADB Approves $30 Million Loan for GCash’s Fuse Financing to Boost MSME Lending
According to the ADB, Fuse’s new project aims to reduce poverty and promote social inclusion by expanding MSMEs’ access to financing, particularly in underserved and marginalized areas.
- Region
- Asia Pacific
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