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As electronic payments have moved to the forefront, the traditional market participants, banks, have also been facing increased competition from innovative financial technology firms (FinTechs) focusing on niches within the payments value chain. Such firms have been enabled by advances in technology, including the ability to develop their systems in the cloud and with a green field that is not tied to a mainframe and old code.

The application of technological innovations to the finance industry (Fintech) has been attracting tens of billions of dollars in venture capital in recent years. Examples of Fintech innovations include digital cash transfer services in Kenya and India, and peer-to-peer lending platforms in China. These services, when developed in tandem with complementary government policies and regulatory frameworks, have the potential to expand financial services to hundreds of millions of people currently lacking access and to break new ground on the way finance is conducted. This is important because sustainable economic growth is strongly linked with financial inclusion. The successful adoption of Fintech to increase financial inclusion is highly dependent on competent regulatory oversight. By examining varying degrees of success in the adoption of Fintech services in Kenya, India and China this paper argues that adopting a responsive regulatory approach, rather than an overly interventionist one, is the most suitable framework for boosting financial inclusion through technological innovation.

Fintech is used to define an industry that integrates financial and technology resources to develop financial solutions for organizations. In recent years, fintech innovations have transformed the way and the speed at which money can change hands. The major benefit of this has been at the consumer end. Making payments for them has become safer and quicker than ever before!

Cependant, l’application, qui se rapproche de ce que fait Lydia en Europe, n’est pas limitée au marché nigérian. En effet, la société cherche à étendre ses activités en Afrique de l’Ouest et au-delà. En janvier, Paga a ainsi mis la main sur la société éthiopienne Apposit pour se développer dans ce pays d’Afrique de l’Est. L’Éthiopie est le deuxième pays le plus peuplé d’Afrique avec 109 millions d’habitants, derrière le Nigeria et ses 200 millions d’habitants. Paga a également ouvert un bureau au Mexique pour déployer son service de paiement mobile cette année. Une expansion à l’international qui traduit les ambitions de la start-up de devenir une plateforme FinTech de référence dans les pays émergents.

AgroCenta brings the shareholders in Ghana’s agricultural value chain under one umbrella. Focusing on the producers, rural smallholder farmers, the company has developed a web and mobile platform that provides rural farmers with a suite of services to empower them to sell their crops at fair-market prices. AgroCenta’s platform, which is includes SMS functionality, provides the following services: 1) AgroInfo: real-time commodity pricing information; 2) TruckR: an on-demand logistics solution; 3) AgroTrade: a market platform to offer crops for sale; and 4) AgroPay: a mobile-money based payments service. The company markets its platform leveraging an intimate knowledge of the African cultural context and recruiting and technologically empowering village chiefs to act as advocates or agents for the platform.

“We are excited to partner with Visa, a leader in payments globally, as they are constantly building world-class solutions for consumers and businesses. Our goals are well-aligned. As we scale our wallet across emerging markets such as Nigeria, Mexico and Ethiopia, partnering with Visa to give both consumers and businesses, who have been underserved, access to Visa’s global network made sense to us,” the company said in a press release.

During the Global SME Finance Forum 2018, Jumo's Martin Vogdt, Chief Product Officer, demoed the company's services at the TechPitch on November 6.  Jumo is an alternative lender in Africa and Asia providing nano loans to consumers and MSMEs through mobile money rails. The Forum's TechPitch provided an opportunity for 13 innovative fintechs to demo their product to global and emerging market investment firms, financial institutions and other Forum participants. This exclusive opportunity is one of the key features of the conference and is open to a limited number of financial technology innovators working in the SME space.

Jumo is an alternative lender in Africa and Asia providing nano loans to consumers and MSMEs through mobile money rails.

A Dutch company technology company developed an application that enables buyers to order, pay and receive a shipment. Belcash Technology Solutions Plc launched the e-commerce platform, HelloMarket shipments, with an estimated investment of one million dollars. The application, which was designed with the major aim of allowing local suppliers and manufacturers to promote and sell their products, will provide leather products, crafts, traditional clothing, souvenirs, homemade seasonings and other similar items manufactured by small and medium-sized enterprises. The e-commerce platform, integrated with Hellocash, a mobile and agent banking app for the purpose of making electronic payments, has a delivery system in place through Belcash agents around the country.

Belcash successfully piloted the app for three months and officially launched it in July 2019. It has supplied 200 tablets to its agents. Thus far, 50 small and medium enterprises have signed up and placed their products on the HelloMarket platform.

Belcash successfully piloted the app for three months and officially launched it in July 2019. It has supplied 200 tablets to its agents. Thus far, 50 small and medium enterprises have signed up and placed their products on the HelloMarket platform.

Developer of a peer-to-peer investment and insurance platform designed to offer cost-effective crop insurance to farmers

Operating in Uganda, Zambia, Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania, and Pakistan, the fintech plans to expand its offering and service to Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria. 

We’re optimistic about the possibilities in these markets and continue to see huge growth opportunities in Africa, with the potential to replicate our successes in other markets over the longer term.”

Since JUMO was founded in 2014, the company doubled its staff complement each year for two consecutive years, and it was recently recognized by the London Stock Exchange Group as one of the Companies to Inspire Africa in 2019.

JUMO is a full technology platform, developed for building and running financial services

JUMO’s extensive network of partners includes financial services providers such as the Barclays Africa Group, Letshego Bank, and Telenor Microfinance Bank, as well as mobile network operators such as MTN, Airtel, Telenor, and Tigo.

Ethiopay is a four-party scheme, in which the issuer and acquirer are different entities, and is open for all payment institutions to join and issue their own cards. There are no limitations as to who may join the scheme, as long as the requirements of the scheme are met.Ethiopay Card schemes enables a simplified and guaranteed exchange of money between merchants, customers and their banks, by operating national & international networks and setting uniform standards.More specifically, Ethiopay defines rules for the routing of payment authorizations and settlement requests in point-of-sale and e-commerce transactions between merchant acquirers and card issuers, as well as ATM withdrawals or purchases with cashback transactions.

Ethswitch is the owner of Ethiopay-Ethiopia’s domestic Card Scheme. Ethiopay is developed for all banks in Ethiopia to issue and acquire payment cards.

Ethiopay is a four-party scheme, in which the issuer and acquirer are different entities, and is open for all payment institutions to join and issue their own cards. There are no limitations as to who may join the scheme, as long as the requirements of the scheme are met.Ethiopay Card schemes enables a simplified and guaranteed exchange of money between merchants, customers and their banks, by operating national & international networks and setting uniform standards.More specifically, Ethiopay defines rules for the routing of payment authorizations and settlement requests in point-of-sale and e-commerce transactions between merchant acquirers and card issuers, as well as ATM withdrawals or purchases with cashback transactions.

“The demand for agricultural raw materials from offtakers in the brewery, manufacturing and consumer sector is increasing exponentially because of the easing of the COVID-19 restrictions that were put in place by the government of Ghana, hence this capital injection will help to secure purchases at fair and transparent prices from smallholders — a much needed lifeline for many who are at the proverbial bottom of the pyramid.”

This is a significant milestone for AgroCenta, having the support of leading institutions, particularly with the COVID-19 backdrop, underlining the strength of AgroCenta and the importance of its mission,” they said. 

Michael Tome Business Reporter Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement Ministry says it highly upholds technological innovations that seek to develop agriculture productivity.This follows advances made by Cassava Smartech’s EcoFarmer to digitally enhance farming tips through mobile platform, which is a one-stop solution platform that gives farming tips, location-specific weather updates, weekly agriculture commodity market prices and financial services.

Belcash provides an ICT platform to banks and coordinates the roll out, with special focus on rural areas. LOI with local banks are signed for implementation. The project is advised by a former CEO of a large Dutch Development Bank and 2 international banks sit in the advisory board.

Driven by the belief that everyone deserves the benefits of a modern connected life, MTN is ramping up its efforts to enhance access to digital and financial services for its customers.

The company’s latest Fintech innovation is a mobile remittance application, MTN Homeland, aimed at facilitating money and airtime transfers from Europe to Africa and parts of the Middle East.

And finally in Kiva's defense, its behavior is emblematic of fund-raising in microfinance and charity generally, and is ultimately traceable to human foibles. People donate in part because it makes them feel good. Giving the beneficiary a face and constructing a story for her in which the donor helps write the next chapter opens purses. The pleasure of giving

Kiva is the path-breaking, fast-growing person-to-person microlending site. It works this way: Kiva posts pictures and stories of people needing loans. You give your money to Kiva. Kiva sends it to a microlender. The lender makes the loan to a person you choose. He or she ordinarily repays. You get your money back with no interest. It's like eBay for microcredit.

You knew that, right? Well guess what: you're wrong, and so is Kiva's diagram. Less that 5% of Kiva loans are disbursed after they are listed and funded on Kiva's site. Just today, for example, Kiva listed a loan fepor Phong Mut in Cambodia and at this writing only $25 of the needed $800 has been raised. But you needn't worry about whether Phong Mut will get the loan because it was disbursed last month. And if she defaults, you might not hear about it: the intermediating microlender MAXIMA might cover for her in order to keep its Kiva-listed repayment rate high.