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nouhaila_zaki

M-Pesa: a Mobile Money success story from Kenya - Technology and Operations Management - 0 views

  • Given the up-front costs of acquiring agents, it is tempting for mobile money providers to want to take short cuts and minimize the agent-to-customer ratio. However, this does not set an individual agent up for success. If Safaricom were to recruit too few agents, customers would find M-Pesa difficult to use and difficult to access.. On the other hand, if there were too many agents, many of them would not be able to generate enough business to cover the cost of managing their e-cash and cash liquidity. As a result, they would stop maintaining their electronic money float and cash balances. M-Pesa’s success lies in the fact that they grew their agent network at the same pace as their customer base, keeping transactions per agent per month steady at around 1,000 / agent / month.
  • According to a McKinsey report on Mobile Money, proximity of nearest agent makes a significant impact on transaction volumes. “When a cash agent is more than 15 minutes away, mobile money has relatively little appeal, and customers use it once or twice a month. But when the agent is less than 10 minutes away, usage rises to 10 times a month—and for those within 2 minutes of an agent, to 30 times a month.” Safaricom spread its agents out across Kenya so as to truly enable network effects and enable Kenyans to send e-cash to their family members and friends even if they did not live in the same geography.
  • Customers who sign up for the M-Pesa service can convert between e-cash and real cash (these are called cash-in / cash-out transactions), and can transfer e-cash from their account to that of another account holder via SMS.
    • kenzabenessalah
       
      M-PESA gives people the option of converting their e-cash to real cash which is not the case in most services.
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  • Customers who sign up for the M-Pesa service can convert between e-cash and real cash (these are called cash-in / cash-out transactions), and can transfer e-cash from their account to that of another account holder via SMS. Cash-in / cash-out operations take place at one of many designated M-Pesa retail outlets, also known as “agents”. These agents are not employed by Safaricom, but are simply retailers / regular businessmen and women that are ‘authorized’ to trade e-cash for real cash.
    • ghtazi
       
      m-pesa is a company that allows its customers to convert between e-cash and real cash.
  • Although some of M-Pesa’s initial success could be attributed to a uniquely favorable context for mobile-payments (strong customer need, welcoming regulatory environment, support from banks, strong brand awareness of Safaricom), its rapid and sustained growth was only possible due to a thoughtful operating model design, particularly regarding M-Pesa’s “agent network.”
    • nourserghini
       
      M-pesa's success goes back to its advantageous situation in Africa as well as it successful operating model design.
  • Revenue from transaction fees that Safaricom collects via the agent during cash withdrawal operations and transfer operations (depositing money into mobile wallet is free). Reduce Safaricom customers’ churn, improve engagement, lifetime value etc.
    • sawsanenn
       
      This excerpt shows the business model that M-pesa follows and thier values
    • nouhaila_zaki
       
      This excerpt is important because it reports the two ways in which Safaricom makes value through M-Pesa: on the one hand revenues from transaction fees collected via agents, and on the other hand, the reduction of Safaricom customers' churn.
  • Safaricom pays commission to its “agents”, usually on a monthly basis, based on metrics such as transactions per branch, customers per branch, and quantities transacted, etc. Because it takes agents a couple months to ‘ramp up’ at their branch by attracting M-Pesa customers and convincing them to start transacting, the business model of M-Pesa incurs significant up-front costs and is one of the reasons many mobile-money deployments fail in the early days. Mobile-Money becomes profitable only when it goes viral. According to a McKinsey report, to make mobile money for the unbanked commercially viable, operators and telco’s like Safaricom “must sign up 15 to 20 percent of the addressable market.”
    • nouhaila_zaki
       
      This excerpt describes M-Pesa's business model, which consists of paying commissions to agents, incurring significant up-front costs and relying on mobile-money to become viral for success.
  •  
    I think that it's interesting to see that agents are playing a vital role in the success of M-Pesa in Kenya. The company knew about the costs related to acquiring agents, but they also knew that recruiting too few agents will kill the solution M-Pesa is providing. In addition to that, M-Pesa tried to spread its agents all over Kenya to make their solution available and easy to access anywhere in Kenya.
mehdibella

AgroCenta : empowering smallholder farmers in Africa through technology and innovations - 0 views

  •  AgroCenta’s main competitors are Esoko (www.esoko.com), FarmerLine (www.farmerline.co) and Farm Radio (www.farmradio.org). These 3 competitors are “information-based” only, delivering market prices, weather information and extension advisory services via SMS to farmers.
    • aminej
       
      Some of the main competitors of AgroCenta's are Esoko , FarmerLine and Farm Radio. These 3 competitors are not really competitors because they do not provide the same services. These competitors are more "information-based" only, delivering market prices, weather information and extension advisory services via SMS to farmers.
  • AgroCenta came about when both co-founders identified the missing gap in the post harvest value chain, that is access to market for smallholder farmers. This gap gave way to exploitative buying from middlemen at the disadvantage to the smallholder farmer.
    • nouhaila_zaki
       
      This excerpt is important because it shows the need that AgroCenta founders identified in Ghana, and thus reflects the company's reason for existing.
  • AgroCenta’s core services are AgroTrade : Which is a sales platform that connects smallholder farmer directly to a larger market to trade fairly. AgroTrade matches smallholder farmers in rural areas to small, medium and large buyers in the urban areas. TrucKR : TruckR is the on-demand trucks & logistics aspect of AgroCenta where farmers can book for truck delivery services to cart their commodities from farms to markets just at a click of a button AgroInfo : Real time weather, market prices and extension advisory services are delivered via SMS and voice solutions to smallholder farmers using mobile technologies AgroPay : AgroPay is the financial inclusion platform for smallholder farmers where farmers in rural areas, without bank accounts, receive payments for goods and services via mobile money technologies.
    • nouhaila_zaki
       
      This excerpt is important because one can identify the different products and services proposed by the firm.
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  • AgroTrade : Which is a sales platform that connects smallholder farmer directly to a larger market to trade fairly. AgroTrade matches smallholder farmers in rural areas to small, medium and large buyers in the urban areas.
    • kenzabenessalah
       
      I find this concept beneficial for all farmers because they will be able to have more direct access to larger markets. This way they could earn more and interact more.
  • Francis Obirikorang is the CEO/Co-founder of AgroCenta and Michael Ocansey is the CTO/Co-founder of AgroCenta. Francis and Michael are both ex-employees of Esoko, one of the largest market information platforms in Africa for smallholder farmers.
  • AgroCenta’s success factor is the elimination of the exploitative buying approach from the post harvest value chain, and putting the smallholder farmer at a pivotal position where they are able to sell their commodities to interested buyers fairly, generate enough income and become financially independent
    • mehdibella
       
      AgroCenta provides the "last mile" approach for the smallholder farmers, going a step further to help farmers sell competitively after the get market information only from existing e-agriculture products on the market.
  • AgroCenta’s core services are
    • kenza_abdelhaq
       
      AgroCenta's services include: -AgroTrade: platform connecting farmers to markets and promoting fair trade. -TrucKR: farmers can have access to transportation through this platform. - AgroInfo: platform that gives useful insights to farmers (weather, market prices) - AgroPay: a platform for financial inclusion, giving small and underbanked farmers the possibility to receive payments via their mobile.
  • AgroPay is the financial inclusion platform for smallholder farmers where farmers in rural areas, without bank accounts, receive payments for goods and services via mobile money technologies.
    • sawsanenn
       
      It is a good service because it is a good alternative for smallholders farmers to receive secure payments even without owning a bank account
  • AgroCenta provides the “last mile” approach for the smallholder farmers, going a step further to help farmers sell competitively after the get market information only from existing e-agriculture products on the market.
    • ghtazi
       
      AgroCenta gives smallholder farmers the "last mile" solution, moving a step further to help farmers sell competitively after only collecting demand knowledge from existing e-agricultural products on the market.
    • mbellakbail69
       
      It is a good service because it is a good way for farmers, even without getting a bank account, to get safe payments  This idea is great for all producers, so they will have direct access to bigger markets more effectively. They will gain more and engage with more.
kenza_abdelhaq

AgroCenta CEO on the Challenges of Entrepreneurship in Ghana - 0 views

  • Does being an entrepreneur in Ghana – and in a developing economy in Africa – presents any ulterior challenges you had overcome?Being an entrepreneur in Africa and in emerging markets, in general, is quite difficult because of the lack of structure and supports put in place by the government. It requires a lot of courage and persistence to get the simplest things done. Any simple tech solution that you might want to build can end up being a very complex challenge because it relies on services that do not exist or don’t work properly. Access to funding also remains a big problem for many entrepreneurs who will need money to test, pilot and scale a platform or a solution. Many investors are quite held back when it comes to making investments in Africa for an obvious reason: corruption.
    • nouhaila_zaki
       
      This excerpt is important because it reflects the challenges faced by AgroCenta in Ghana, i.e. corruption, lack of financing, lack of proper infrastructure, lack of government help, among other things.
  • Our business model is simple, we are a B2B business that generates commission fees on trade volumes from the businesses we work with.
    • nouhaila_zaki
       
      This excerpt is extremely important because it clearly states the business model of the company.
  • we are definitely improving the financial livelihood of smallholder farmers through fair trade. Many smallholder farmers are paid less than $1 a day and our objective is to increase it to $4 a day by 2020.
    • kenzabenessalah
       
      AgroCenta is an extremely important concept because it is helping to increase farmers' salaries. Going from $1 a day to $4 a day is already an improvement.
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  • AgroCenta focuses on 3 key impact goals for Ghana:No Poverty: Gender Equality: in Sub-Saharan Africa, traditions and land ownerships do not favor women, which ends up in many women being excluded from the agriculture value chain. By engaging the relevant stakeholders, AgroCenta rents arable agricultural lands to female smallholder farmers for free. Women are also given seeds, fertilizers, mechanized tractor services and extensive advisory information on farming best practices such as what type of seed to plant, when to plant, how to plant, etc.Decent Work & Economic Growth: we empower smallholder farmers to see agriculture as more than just a way to survive and position it as a viable industry that can be sustainable for their family.
    • mehdibella
       
      as you can see this company cares a lot about the livelyhood of their farmers and is trying to provide them only with the best features that would make life easier which in fact the main things that they tackle in the SDGs.
  • Seedstars Summit has been phenomenal. It has put AgroCenta on a pedestal and in the spotlight of a huge community in Africa. The experience after the Summit has been amazing: we received a lot of proposals from potential investors, partners and other service providers keen on working with us for growth and expansion.
  • Winning the vote of the entire jury, AgroCenta from Ghana was crowned the Seedstars Global Winner of the 5th edition of Seedstars Summit. At Seedstars, we are convinced that AgroCenta will shape the future of AgriTech in Africa. Indeed, the start-up’s mission is to improve the financial livelihood of smallholder farmers through fair trade.
    • aminej
       
      Agrocenta will have a great impact on farmers in Africa since it will enable them to protect their production and have an insurace in case of any risks. It will also help them regulate the market of agricultural products in order to set a price for each one
  • We identified a missing gap in the value chain that was the capacity to access the market for smallholder farmers after they have successfully cultivated their commodities. Access to the market was a huge problem for millions of smallholder farmers.
    • kenza_abdelhaq
       
      AgroCenta is fulfilling a market gap that is the need for smallholder farmers to access the market.
  • AgroCenta focuses as well as Seedstars on achieving the Sustainable Goals set up by the UN
    • sawsanenn
       
      one of the main goals is to reach economic growth by empowering smallholders farmers to see agriculture not only as a survival solution but as an investment
  • Gender Equality: in Sub-Saharan Africa, traditions and land ownerships do not favor women, which ends up in many women being excluded from the agriculture value chain. By engaging the relevant stakeholders, AgroCenta rents arable agricultural lands to female smallholder farmers for free. Women are also given seeds, fertilizers, mechanized tractor services and extensive advisory information on farming best practices such as what type of seed to plant, when to plant, how to plant, etc.Decent Work & Economic Growth: we empower smallholder farmers to see agriculture as more than just a way to survive and position it as a viable industry that can be sustainable for their family.
    • hibaerrai
       
      Agrocenta main goals are the following: first and the most evident one no poverty especially for farmers who are not paid enough. second, gender equality and finally economic agricultural development within the country.
  • A great team for sure! Our major strength has been a team made of people with diverse backgrounds and experiences and a deep understanding of the agricultural value chain. This asset allowed us to save a lot of time we would have naturally spent on trying to fine tune and launch the AgroCenta platform. Thanks to that we avoided making the common mistakes many new and unexperienced founders make.
    • ghtazi
       
      what we can understand is that having a great team is the key asset that led to the rapid growth of Agrocenta. cross-cultural team has been a plus for the development of agrocenta. it helped the company to save time and avoid making common mistakes that many new and inexperienced founders make.
  • Many investors are quite held back when it comes to making investments in Africa for an obvious reason: corruption.
nourserghini

Abacus - VC4A - 0 views

  • Abacus allows investors, locally and in the diaspora, to invest in equities, fixed income, unit trust, real estate and unlisted securities in Kenya.
    • ayachehbouni
       
      Abacus builds web and mobile software to help investors across the globe access African financial markets. It makes it possible for both local and international investors to research and invest, any time, any where.
  • We are looking to cover at least 50% of Africa’s financial markets by 2019. We are an e*trade for Africa.We provide real time data and news, research, analyses and insights, technology driven advisory and community forums with investing leaderboards where you can see, copy or follow other investors’ activity. 
    • nourserghini
       
      This article states that Abacus Kenya is planning on covering about 50% or more in the African financial market these past years, by providing significant data and insights as well as community forums with investors.
mbellakbail69

Digital Payments Firm Strikes Gold in Egypt, Where Cash Is King - Bloomberg - 0 views

  • An Egyptian digital payments firm has quadrupled in value during the pandemic, helped by a government push to reduce citizens’ heavy reliance on cash. Investors and analysts are split on whether the stock rally has further legs.
  • A 300% rally from a mid-March low has boosted its market value to 20 billion Egyptian pounds ($1.3 billion). That puts Fawry among the country’s 10 most valuable companies alongside firms such as Telecom Egypt Co. and Elswedy Electric Co., which generate many times more revenue and profit.
    • ayachehbouni
       
      In addition to the opportunity the Covid-19 crisis has created to Fintech companies such as Fawry, The North African nation's central bank asking lenders to find a way to make sure all citizens have access to financial services, focusing on digital payments and mobile wallets, is also one of the main reasons behind the rise in the company's valuation as it resulted in its services being needed more than ever before.
  • Egypt, where it’s common for government employees to ring doorbells to collect cash payments for gas and electricity bills, is trying to shift more transactions digital. The North African nation’s central bank has asked lenders to set a strategy to ensure all citizens have access to financial services, focusing on digital payments and mobile wallets. The regulator is also pushing consumers to use payment platforms such as Fawry in an attempt to curb the spread of the new coronavirus.#lazy-img-364482620:before{padding-top:56.25%;}
    • nouhaila_zaki
       
      This excerpt is important because it reflects how the Egyptian government and central bank contributed to the prosperity of Fawry during the covid-19 pandemic.
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  • The National Bank of Egypt is looking to buy stakes in Aman, Raya Holding for Financial Investments’ e-payment subsidiary, which was planned to IPO in three years, the local business newspaper Al Mal reported in 2019. MM Group for Industry & International Trade SAE is also planning to begin procedures to list non-banking investments firm Ebtikar next year, according to Daily News Egypt.
    • mbellakbail69
       
      All the same, Fawry's surging stock price may encourage further investment in Egypt's e-payment sector.
  •  
    I believe that digitalization helped many companies to boost their profits during the pandemic. Fawry's is the leading Fintech company in Egypt and the pandemic served this company very well.
  •  
    "Egypt, where it's common for government employees to ring doorbells to collect cash payments for gas and electricity bills, is trying to shift more transactions digital. The North African nation's central bank has asked lenders to set a strategy to ensure all citizens have access to financial services, focusing on digital payments and mobile wallets. The regulator is also pushing consumers to use payment platforms such as Fawry in an attempt to curb the spread of the new coronavirus."
ghtazi

Seven ways for financial institutions to react to financial-technology companies | McKi... - 0 views

  • Financial-technology companies are changing the face of finance. Over the past ten years, what started mostly as disruption in the payments space has expanded to every corner of finance. Even areas once assumed to be safe are seeing new entrants and competitive threats. Wealth and asset management, wholesale banking, capital markets, regulation and risk (“regtech”), and trade finance are just the most recent areas to see innovation driven by small technology-first players.
  • Whether fintechs ultimately win or lose significant market share may be beside the point; they are redefining customer expectations and continue to create new business models. As fintechs are frequently building their entire technology stacks from the ground up, they are highlighting incumbent financial institutions’ weaknesses not only in digital user experiences but also in operational efficiency. Whether a new digital brokerage wins or loses may not matter when customer expectations around brokerage fees change. A retail foreign-exchange fintech having 5 or 50 percent of the market may matter less than retail FX margins disappearing for everyone. Whether the next crops of “neobanks” disrupt retail banking may be less important than their highlighting for users and customers the possibilities of a modern, digital-first experience.
  • As we counsel the leaders of incumbent financial institutions, we often turn to seven potential reactions they can consider. Leaders can seek to pursue a combination of      these options: Buy a fintech. Strategic through-cycle M&A can be a powerful driver of growth even as valuations remain high, particularly among the most successful and largest fintech companies. Whether incumbents purchase a company for its traction (customer base, loan book), technology (user experience, core system, advanced data capability), or talent (engineering, product management, executive leadership), we frequently find that success depends on their developing strength in post-acquisition integration. Partner with a fintech. A carefully designed partnership can enable faster time to market and cost-efficient implementation, with the ultimate goal of enable enabling bottom-line business impact from accessing new customers or improving back-office processes. Invest in fintechs. Investing in fintech companies is frequently a way to learn more about the space and to hedge some o
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  • f your downside potential from disruptive threats. Incumbents can choose to invest in companies they partner with or to focus on areas they know well or interesting adjacencies. We frequently advise clients to find ways of keeping corporate venture-capital groups slightly at arm’s length to attract skilled managers, and we recently have seen increased interest in investing in established outside managers who focus on financial technology. Transform yourself to be more like a fintech. Digital transformation is a difficult but necessary process for most incumbent financial institutions. Redesigning core infrastructure to be more modular and dynamic, driving a new agile operating model, and upgrading technology and workforce skills are all necessary to compete with outside threats, fintech and otherwise. Build your own (internal) fintech. The road for transformations is normally measured in years, but the competitive threat from fintechs is today. Increasingly, we are seeing financial institutions try to beat fintechs at their own game or self-disrupt areas of their business before others can. The key to success in new digital business building is to combine the agility, speed, and talent of a start-up with the “unfair advantage” of an incumbent by leveraging existing assets (e.g. customers, distribution, or infrastructure). Serve the fintechs. A few financial institutions can find their competitive advantage in creating scaled, efficient technology and operations to enable others to embed financial services in their customer experiences. This “banking as a service” business model depends on finding a profitable path to white labeling but draws on the inspiration of large tech platforms. Enabling the customer experiences of others has quickly moved beyond just enabling fintechs to also working with big technology companies, retailers, telecommunications companies, and beyond. Ignore fintechs. Although ignoring the competition is rarely the right choice, some businesses are built on moats—frequently regulatory—that are difficult to disrupt or they play within narrow markets. Companies should prioritize where they need to focus and in doing so know when they need to pay attention and when they need to avoid the distraction of disrupters.
    • samiatazi
       
      New competitors and competitive challenges are seen also in areas once thought to be protected. The most recent sectors to see innovation are wealth and asset management, wholesale finance, financial markets, taxation and risk. Fintechs illustrate the gaps of digital customer interfaces and organizational performance of incumbent financial institutions. In order to deal with the Fintech challenge, incumbents can attempt to follow a mix of seven alternatives.
  • Financial-technology companies are changing the face of finance. Over the past ten years, what started mostly as disruption in the payments space has expanded to every corner of finance. Even areas once assumed to be safe are seeing new entrants and competitive threats. Wealth and asset management, wholesale banking, capital markets, regulation and risk (“regtech”), and trade finance are just the most recent areas to see innovation driven by small technology-first players.
    • ghtazi
       
      what we can say is that even in the fintech world there is harsh competition, what once started as a disruption in the payments space has now been extended to every corner of finance. even the safest areas see new entrants and competitiveness. But even with all the pressure that they may encounter Fintechs always finds a way to redefine customer expectations and continue to create new business models.
mohammed_ab

TechFinancials - South Africa's Reliable Tech News - 0 views

  • EasyEquities has partnered with Synatic to create data aggregation and data integration components for all the systems it uses to track clients current lifecycle, trading and investment history. The solution gives a comprehensive view of all client activities.
  • Through the platform’s powerful API creation tool, Synatic built a solution that enables EasyEquities to aggregate and display all client information seamlessly even while software updates are being done. Previously this information wasn’t available during updates. It has further helped EasyEquities streamline its loyalty programme
  •  
    I think that this partnership with Synatic will help EasyEquities increase their customer satisfaction as they could access all their activity data with convenience.
mehdibella

Egypt's Fawry is now a billion-dollar company - 1 views

  • Fawry had witnessed a surge in its stock price during the first two months after its public markets debut but the price afterward remained almost flat until March – when they also saw it drop to one of its lowest points of EGP 7 per share. But since then, it has been on an upward trajectory – which also coincides with Covid-19.
    • tahaemsd
       
      the pandemic has created a surge in demand for electronic payment services and Fawry being the leading player in Egypt benefitted a lot from that.
  • Fawry that is the only technology company on The Egyptian Exchange currently offers over 250 electronic payment services through its network of over 105,000 service points across 300 cities in Egypt – that include ATMs, mobile wallets, retail shops, post offices, and little vendor kiosks.
    • kenza_abdelhaq
       
      Fawry has a large network of service points and diversified services spread out in different cities in Egypt.
  • The pandemic has created a surge in demand for electronic payment services and Fawry being the leading player in Egypt obviously has benefitted a lot from that – which is also evident from company’s just-announced financials for the second quarter.
    • kenza_abdelhaq
       
      The demand for electronic payment services mainly provided by Fawry in Egypt increased in the context of the pandemic.
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  • Share7KTweetShareWhatsAppEmail7K SharesEgyptian electronic payments company Fawry now has a market cap of over $1 billion. It achieved the feat during the intraday trading, with its share price rising to EGP 22.69 which gives it a market cap of EGP 16 billion or $1 billion (for the first time). With this, Fawry has become the first technology company in Egypt to get to the billion-dollar valuation.
    • kenzabenessalah
       
      It's important to keep in mind that Fawry started out small and then became the first technology company in Egypt to get a market cap of $1 billion.
  • Egyptian electronic payments company Fawry now has a market cap of over $1 billion. It achieved the feat during the intraday trading, with its share price rising to EGP 22.69 which gives it a market cap of EGP 16 billion or $1 billion (for the first time). With this, Fawry has become the first technology company in Egypt to get to the billion-dollar valuation.
    • ayachehbouni
       
      This achievement was partly, or mainly, due to the Covid-19 pandemic that pushed many people to place a high demand on Fawry's many e-payment solutions and services.
  • Its revenue for the first half of 2020 has increased by 47 percent (year-on-year) to EGP 549.26 million ($34.41 million) from EGP 373.33 million ($23.38 million) for the same period of 2019. The net profit of the company in H1 2020 has increased by over 135 percent YoY to EGP 85.9 million ($5.38 million) from EGP 36.47 million ($2.29) in H1 2019.
    • hibaerrai
       
      Fawry leads the Fintech Egyptian Market, its stock price has increased, and its revenue has increased as well in 2020.
  • Its stock price has increased by over 300 percent since its debut at The Egyptian Exchange in August last year. It had gone public with its shares priced at EGP 6.46 (per share).
  • Egypt's Fawry is now a billion-dollar company
  • Its stock price has increased by over 300 percent since its debut at The Egyptian Exchange in August last year. It had gone public with its shares priced at EGP 6.46 (per share).
    • mehdibella
       
      Fawry had witnessed a surge in its stock price during the first two months after its public markets debut but the price afterward remained almost flat until March -
  • Its revenue for the first half of 2020 has increased by 47 percent (year-on-year) to EGP 549.26 million ($34.41 million) from EGP 373.33 million ($23.38 million) for the same period of 2019. The net profit of the company in H1 2020 has increased by over 135 percent YoY to EGP 85.9 million ($5.38 million) from EGP 36.47 million ($2.29) in H1 2019.
    • mehdibella
       
      The pandemic has created a surge in demand for electronic payment services and Fawry being the leading player in Egypt obviously has benefitted a lot from that - which is also evident from company's just-announced financials for the second quarter
  •  
    "Fawry that is the only technology company on The Egyptian Exchange currently offers over 250 electronic payment services through its network of over 105,000 service points across 300 cities in Egypt - that include ATMs, mobile wallets, retail shops, post offices, and little vendor kiosks."
  •  
    Fawry that is the only technology company on The Egyptian Exchange currently offers over 250 electronic payment services through its network of over 105,000 service points across 300 cities in Egypt - that include ATMs, mobile wallets, retail shops, post offices, and little vendor kiosks.
nouhaila_zaki

Fintechs seize opportunities in Africa remittances market - African Business - 0 views

  • Yet the pandemic and increasing competition have presented an opportunity for newer, nimble firms such as WorldRemit and Mukuru, who use disruptive online technology through smartphones, and often undercut the prices traditional remittance firms charge customers to send money to the continent. 
  • WorldRemit also partnered with OPay, a Nigerian financial services technology company, and Mukuru, an Africa-based remittances fintech business operating in over 20 African markets. The deal now means there will be no charges for Mukuru customers on cash collections for transactions with WorldRemit.  
  • For Mukuru, the weakening of the informal trade has meant growth has accelerated since April, says CEO Andy Jury, although the long-term impact of Covid-19 on labour migration is unknown. 
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    • nouhaila_zaki
       
      These excerpts reflect how by weakening the informal remittances sector, the pandemic has become a growth opportunity for Mukuru. Also, the excerpts reflect how the collaboration and partnership between Mukuru and other companies i.e. WorldRemit, helped Mukuru prosper.
hibaerrai

Ghanaian agri-tech startup AgroCenta closes $650k seed round of funding - 0 views

  • Founded in 2015, AgroCenta is an online sales solution for smallholder farmers, with two offerings – supply chain platform AgroTrade, and financial inclusion service AgroPay.
    • hibaerrai
       
      AgroCenta has two different platforms; a supply chain one specialized in agricultural storages, seed sales, elevator services and basically the supply of primary elements. The fintech has also a financial services platform Agropay which is basically about loans and e-payments.
  • Disrupt Africa reported yesterday AgroCenta was one of six African startups awarded non-equity funding by the GSMA Ecosystem Accelerator. Though the startup’s co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Francis Obirikorang declined to disclose the breakdown of equity versus grant cash, Disrupt Africa can confirm that the GSMA input is worth around US$250,000. Obirikorang said the funds will be used to scale up AgroCenta’s operations in Ghana, while the GSMA grant is more specifically geared towards the AgroPay platform, which provides any smallholder farmer who has traded using AgroTrade with a financial statement they can use to get access to finance.
    • hibaerrai
       
      AgroCenta was granted about 650000$ in order to grow its activities as its potential is clear. The agritech was granted 250K from GSMA ecosystem only as well.
aymanelmamoun

SimbaPay launches Kenya to China payment service over WeChat | TechCrunch - 1 views

  • The new product — which piggy-backs on WeChat’s messaging service — is aimed at Kenyan merchants who purchase goods from China, Kenya’s largest import source.
    • tahaemsd
       
      Simbapay developed a third party payment aggregator that enables funds delivery when the buyer and seller both use Wechat
  • Forging another link between Africa and China’s digital economies, the African-focused money transfer startup SimbaPay and Kenya’s Family Bank have launched an instant payment service from East Africa to China.
  • The new product — which piggy-backs on WeChat’s messaging service — is aimed at Kenyan merchants who purchase goods from China, Kenya’s largest import source.
    • aminej
       
      SimbaPay offers a new connection between Africa and China for people who buy their goods from there. Kenya is one of the biggest importers of products from China equivalent of 4 billion $ which is huge.
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  • SimbaPay transfers funds to 11 countries — nine in Africa then to China and India. “Early next year we’ll increase this to 29 countries,” said Sagini. This includes offering the WeChat China payment service elsewhere in East Africa.
    • ghtazi
       
      I like how simbapay finds its way through the African market and will increase the countries where customers can transfer funds from 11 to 29.
  • SimbaPay and Family Bank will generate revenues on the WeChat-based transfer service through a fee share arrangement on transactions. “We have a sliding scale of charges [for the service]. For example, to send the equivalent of $80 will cost $3.50,” said Sagini.This presents a significant reduction of fees and opportunity cost for Kenyan traders who import from China, according to Sagini and Family Bank.Current available payment methods to China for Kenyan businesses are less secure and more expensive options, such as traditional money transmitters (Western Union), SWIFT and off the grid services, according to Sagini and Family Bank Chief Operation Officer (COO) Godfrey Kamau Kariuki.
    • nouhaila_zaki
       
      This excerpt is very important because it explains how SimbaPay plans on promoting Sino-Kenyan trade: reduction of fees and opportunity costs for kenyan traders importing from China through a partnership with the chinese WeChat.
  • “Kenya imports about $4 billion goods from China. That’s the total market that we’re getting into. We’re looking at a single digit market share of the transactional volume around that,” SimbaPay co-founder Sagini Onyancha told TechCrunch.“The users [of the new product] are primarily small Kenyan businesses, that import phones, gadgets, electronics…small to medium size traders who import goods from China,” he said.
    • nouhaila_zaki
       
      This excerpt is important because it explains the reasons underlying SimbaPay's decision to launch an instant payment service from East Africa to China. Indeed, exchanges between Kenya and China are huge, and SimbaPay attempts to capitalize on this market. The potential users of this service are expected to be Kenyan small to medium-size business owners who import electronics from China.
  • SimbaPay and Family Bank estimate over seven million customers and businesses will be able to access their China WeChat payment service, based on projections of Kenya’s current SMEs.
    • sawsanenn
       
      this estimation can be reached because of the huge customer portfolio that china has. Plus kenya is known to be one of the main importers from China
  • SimbaPay and Family Bank will generate revenues on the WeChat-based transfer service through a fee share arrangement on transactions. “We have a sliding scale of charges [for the service]. For example, to send the equivalent of $80 will cost $3.50,” said Sagini.
    • aymanelmamoun
       
      Reducing fees and opportunity cost for Kenyan traders importing from China is a very crucial step to Family Bank.
  •  
    Forging another link between Africa and China's digital economies, the African-focused money transfer startup SimbaPay and Kenya's Family Bank have launched an instant payment service from East Africa to China.
hichamachir

Fawry joins the billionaires - Economy - Al-Ahram Weekly - Ahram Online - 0 views

  • The digital transformation and e-payments company Fawry became the first listed tech company in Egypt with a market capitalisation of $1 billion last week. At the end of trading on 17 August, the market value of the company had jumped to LE15.56 billion (around $1 billion), meaning it is now rubbing shoulders with the likes of CIB (Egypt), QNB Al-Ahli, the Eastern Company, the Abu Qir Fertilisers Company, Telecom Egypt, and Al-Sewedy Electric in the EGX index billionaires’ club.
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    Fawry is a big sucess in Egypt. This business is going to inspire many startups to believe in digital business because it's the future. The fintech market is going to offer us many opportunities that can change our lives.
nouhaila_zaki

Startuplist Africa | Startuplist Africa - 0 views

  • AgroCenta focuses primarily on small holder farmers and farmer based organizations, connects them to a larger market online to trade equitably, a percentage of the sales of farmers farm produce is re-invested into purchase of agric inputs such as fertilizers, seedlings, pesticides, weedicides and hiring of tractor services. AgroCenta eliminates the common practice where middlemen/brokers act as exploitative buyers, purchase produce for less than a third of its actual value from smallholder farmers and re-sell in urban markets for huge profits.
    • nouhaila_zaki
       
      This excerpt is important because on the one hand, it introduces the niche market that AgroCenta products and services are targetting; but also the common practices that AgroCenta intended to eliminate (i.e. exploitative behaviors by middlemen and brokers).
mbellakbail69

Fawry becomes first Egyptian tech company to achieve USD 1 bn market cap | Enterprise - 0 views

  • STARTUP WATCH- Fawry is officially Egypt’s first unicorn: EGX-listed e-payments firm Fawry became the first Egyptian tech company to hit a market cap of USD 1 bn on Monday after its share price reached intraday highs of EGP 22.69, former managing director Mohamed Okasha announced in a LinkedIn post. Fawry’s share price has increased by more than 300% since it debuted on the EGX last year, a rise that has accelerated in recent months as the use of its payment services skyrocketed during the lockdown.
    • mbellakbail69
       
      To support its quest to understand its customers more deeply, Fawry will soon deploy IBM Watson Machine Learning Accelerator, which includes popular open source deep learning frameworks and efficient artificial intelligence
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