Africa FinTech and BankTech
Deal Monitor

Flutterwave partners with Tempo for stablecoin-powered cross-border settlement

Large African PSPs are testing multi-rail infrastructure. Correspondent banking is no longer the only route for cross-border settlement.

Interswitch partners with Temenos across core banking, digital banking, payments, wealth management and financial crime management. Target markets: Nigeria, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya.

Nigeria’s largest payment processor is entering managed bank technology services. A direct competitor to existing core banking distribution players in West Africa.

Fireblocks launches Flow, with Flutterwave among the first customers. Gives PSPs and fintechs infrastructure to accept stablecoin payments.

Stablecoin acceptance is entering mainstream payment-service-provider tooling. The question is no longer whether, but how fast.

Kacha connects into EthSwitch network in Ethiopia, gaining access to about 30,000 agents and shared payment infrastructure

Ethiopia is moving from closed digital wallets toward shared payment infrastructure. Kacha’s integration is an early marker of that shift.

Co-operative Bank Kenya and Paymenta announce a BaaS payments partnership. Co-op Bank provides regulated infrastructure; Paymenta retains the customer-facing layer.

Bank-led BaaS is gaining ground. Fintechs use licensed bank infrastructure while keeping product control. A model that works for both sides.

Yoco acquires Dyner.ai to expand beyond merchant payments into operating tools for restaurants and SMEs

Payment data is becoming the entry point to merchant operating software. Yoco is building a business platform, not only a payments tool.

NALA secures up to $50 million credit facility to expand stablecoin-powered payment corridors across Africa and Asia

Cross-border infrastructure needs liquidity and prefunding, not only software. NALA’s facility shows the financing layer behind stablecoin corridors.

dLocal acquires selected AZA Finance assets, intellectual property and customer relationships

Licences, market access and local operating knowledge are the real assets in African payments. dLocal is buying what takes years to build organically.

Paystack launches AI-powered dashboard. Businesses query payment data in plain language for transaction insight, reconciliation and business decisions.

AI in African fintech is moving from conversational interfaces into transaction workflows. Reconciliation and business insight are the first use cases.

Mauritius Commercial Bank launches Apple Pay for MCB customers, advancing contactless payments and card tokenisation in Mauritius

Smaller African markets can move quickly on contactless and mobile wallet acceptance when card infrastructure is in place. MCB is a case in point.

Tether invests in LemFi to support stablecoin-powered remittance infrastructure for Africa and other emerging markets

Diaspora finance, dollar liquidity and remittance settlement are converging in stablecoins. LemFi gives Tether a direct consumer distribution channel.

Atos and Backbase partner on AI-native banking platform targeting regulated markets including Africa. Combines Backbase’s Banking OS with Atos systems integration and sovereign-cloud capability.

Sovereign cloud requirements are shaping how global technology companies package AI banking platforms for African regulators.

Mastercard and Yellow Card partner on stablecoin payments covering remittances, B2B settlement, digital loyalty and treasury. Initial focus: Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.

Mastercard is using stablecoins to extend its B2B and treasury reach beyond card rails. Yellow Card brings the African distribution.

Paga partners with Sui Network to bring Sui Dollar into its consumer, merchant and B2B infrastructure across Africa

One of Africa’s oldest fintechs is adding blockchain settlement rails. Scale meets stablecoin infrastructure at $1.5 billion in monthly payments.

Airtel Money and Absa Bank Kenya integrate merchant payments. Airtel Money users can pay directly into Absa accounts and merchant paybill accounts.

Wallet-to-bank settlement for merchants is still an active infrastructure gap in East Africa. Airtel and Absa are addressing it directly.

Kenswitch and Visa partner in Kenya on new products, processing, clearing and settlement infrastructure

Kenya’s domestic processing conversation is moving forward. Kenswitch’s Visa partnership strengthens the case for local infrastructure ownership alongside international networks.

Flutterwave secures national microfinance banking licence from the Central Bank of Nigeria, enabling deposit-taking, bank accounts and direct lending for the first time

Africa’s most valuable fintech is now a regulated deposit-taking institution in its biggest market. The payments-to-banking transition is no longer a trend. It is a fact.

Scale and Mastercard expand card issuing across five African markets, helping fintechs and non-financial institutions launch card programmes with reduced operational complexity

Card issuing is becoming a plug-in service. Fintechs no longer need to build separate relationships with networks, sponsors and processors.

Paymentology and Bank Zero partner in South Africa. Bank Zero names Paymentology its first alliance partner for Mastercard issuing for fintechs, retailers and SMEs.

Bank licences and processor technology are combining in embedded finance. Bank Zero and Paymentology show how the model works in practice.

Circle and Sasai Fintech (Cassava Technologies) collaborate to accelerate USDC adoption and expand internet-native financial infrastructure across Africa

USDC finds a distribution partner with Cassava’s existing telco and digital wallet presence. Stablecoin infrastructure is following the mobile money playbook.

Mambu selected by Nyla, Africa’s first Islamic neobank, to power Shari’ah-compliant digital banking infrastructure for Ghana launch and West Africa expansion

Africa’s Islamic finance gap is still largely unaddressed. Cloud-native core banking platforms are becoming the preferred path for new entrants in underserved segments.

Onafriq and PAPSS launch a wallet-based outbound payment pilot enabling instant naira-based wallet payments from Nigeria to Ghana without hard-currency conversion

Local-currency settlement for intra-African trade is moving from concept to live pilot. PAPSS is proving the model works at the wallet level.

PayPal expands PYUSD stablecoin to 70 markets, including selected African markets

Consumer stablecoin products from global payment companies are reaching Africa. The competitive pressure on local stablecoin players is increasing.

Onafriq partners with Conduit for stablecoin-based treasury, account funding and faster payouts

Stablecoins are entering the back office for liquidity and settlement operations. Treasury management is a quieter but significant use case.

EthSwitch launches EthioPay instant payment system on BPC SmartVista, supporting real-time transfers, QR payments, alias transfers and recurring collections

Ethiopia now has a national instant payment layer. One of Africa’s largest economies is building core financial infrastructure at scale.

10x Banking and HassemPrag partner to deliver cloud-native core banking to African banks seeking legacy modernisation without full rip-and-replace risk

The modular, low-disruption modernisation argument is resonating with African bank boards. Products that promise speed and risk reduction are winning attention.

Flutterwave partners with Turnkey and Nuvion to launch stablecoin balances for merchants and users across its payment platform

Flutterwave is layering stablecoin rails beneath its merchant infrastructure. The product direction is part of a systematic build toward its IPO.

Orange Money Group and Visa announce virtual-card partnership, enabling 45 million Orange Money users to create Visa virtual cards for international online payments. Rollout covers Botswana, Madagascar, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Burkina Faso and DRC.

Mobile money wallets are gaining international card acceptance without replacing the underlying wallet infrastructure. A practical model for francophone Africa.