Frontier Fintech GPS# 41 - July 23rd 2025
Airtel Kenya continues to gain momentum, MTN completes its first digital Bill of Exchange, South Africa to overhaul payments system and other stories that matter.
Illustration by Mary Mogoi
Hi All, Welcome to the 41st edition of Frontier Fintech GPS where I provide key insights on the top global Fintech news items that matter to you. This newsletter will be arriving in your inboxes every Wednesday morning. The idea behind Frontier Fintech GPS is to help you navigate the endless stream of Fintech news and get smart about global Fintech as it applies to Africa. To those who are yet to subscribe, hit the subscribe button below and share with your colleagues and friends. 🚀
Want to reach Africa’s top fintech decision-makers? We’ve updated our offering with premium content, executive visibility, and strategic advisory options.
Click the link below for media enquiries
Click the link below for consulting and advisory enquiries;
🇰🇪 | Airtel Kenya Reaches 24 Million Subscribers
Airtel Kenya has surpassed 24 million subscribers, according to the latest report from the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA). This growth is attributed to the company's network expansion campaign, particularly in previously underserved areas like Mandera, Wajir, and Garissa. The company's managing director, Ashish Malhotra, stated that this is part of a longer journey and that Airtel remains committed to investing in its network, customer care, and distribution infrastructure. The company also aims to enhance financial inclusion through its Airtel Money platform. The "Na Bado Tunagrow" campaign signifies their ongoing commitment to growth and providing reliable digital services to all Kenyans.
To put this shift in perspective, Airtel’s market share as per the Communications Authority has grown from 14% in 2017 to 32% in the Q1 of 2025. This has to be seen in the context of its growing mobile money market share which is inching up gradually. My general view is that continued market share growth is a threat to Safaricom and M-Pesa in particular. I’ve always argued that Mobile Money is a great business when you’re the only game in town - the economics aren’t bad but they’re not as great when you have to compete. Moreover, for M-Pesa’s lending product, default at an individual level becomes less costly when you can shift to another network that has critical mass. It’s definitely a trend I’d pay attention to if I were Safaricom.
🇿🇦 | MTN Completes First Electronic Bill of Exchange Transaction with J.P. Morgan
Mobile Technology Network South Africa (Pty) Ltd. (MTN SA) has completed the first transaction using J.P. Morgan's new Electronic Bill of Exchange (eBoE) offering. This transaction facilitated a shipment from Asia to the United Kingdom. The move is a significant step in digitizing trade finance, which has traditionally relied on paper-based processes. The Electronic Trade Document Act (ETDA), passed in the UK in 2023, legally recognizes electronic negotiable instruments, enabling this shift. The solution, which uses Enigio's trace:original technology, aims to improve transparency, streamline workflows, and reduce risks associated with manual processes. This offering is currently available for transactions under English law.
This is an interesting transaction particularly as trade digitisation is something that has been discussed ad infinitum over the last 10 years. The challenge though is that for this to move from pilot to mass adoption is almost impossible. Trade remains an extremely analogue industry because of the level of fragmentation. Each container has to go through multiple stakeholders from shipping lines to port authorities and tax agents. You cannot digitise one part of the process without digitising the entire thing. The best analogy is to consider where email adoption would be if you had to type out an email andonly send it by visiting the post office. If the entire stack is not digitised, the value is specious.
🇿🇦 | South African Reserve Bank to Overhaul National Payments System
The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) has released a position paper detailing its plan to modernize the country's national payments ecosystem. The initiative aims to address the high costs and fragmentation of the current system, which have hindered the adoption of digital payments. Key elements of the plan include the development of a national payments utility (NPU) to facilitate real-time, low-cost transactions and the creation of a digital financial identity in collaboration with the Department of Home Affairs. This overhaul will likely lead to the discontinuation of legacy systems like electronic funds transfer (EFT). The modernization also extends to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, with plans to update and eventually replace the existing SAMOS and SADC-RTGS systems to promote regional trade and reduce reliance on cash.
This is not a surprising move. I remember discussing with some people from SA’s tech scene some time back. They told me how they had discussed about PayShap to the regulator and argued that so long as it remains in the control of banks and that fees are charged, adoption will be limited. it’s a similar point I argued in an older post about Pix in Brazil and the options for Africa. Ultimately for instant payment systems to work and scale, Central Banks need to have some form of governance control, pricing needs to be super low or zero and it should be open to every licensed Fintech. SA’s moves are logical and we should expect the same across the continent. Just last week we discussed about Namibia’s partnership with NPCI to launch a Namibian UPI.
🌍 | Digital Finance Boosts Inclusion, But Financial Health Lags
The World Bank's Global Findex report shows that mobile technology has pushed global financial account ownership to 79% of adults, with mobile money driving growth in regions like Sub-Saharan Africa. The report indicates a significant rise in formal savings, also enabled by digital accounts, marking a structural shift towards mobile-first financial services in low and middle-income economies. However, this increased access and usage has not translated into better financial health, as measures of financial resilience remain unchanged since 2021. Key implications include persistent gaps in consumer protection, such as unexpected fees and poor security practices, highlighting that digital adoption is outpacing improvements in user well-being and security.
What caught my eye in this report is how mobile wallets are becoming the primary access point for financial services in Africa. Even salaried people use wallets as their primary financial touchpoint. If you’re a bank, providing wallet like features is critical because going forward, particularly with gig-work and solopreneurship, we may see fewer people actually opening traditional bank accounts
🇳🇬 | Africa's First Regulated Stablecoin Reaches New Milestones
Africa's first regulated stablecoin, cNGN, has surpassed $2.5 million in transaction volume since its launch in February. The stablecoin, backed 1:1 by the Nigerian naira, was developed by the African Stablecoin Consortium under the SEC's Regulatory Incubation Framework. Its growth signifies a move towards locally-tailored financial solutions in a market dominated by foreign stablecoins like USDT and USDC. The cNGN is expanding its utility in payments, DeFi, and GameFi, with plans to integrate on more chains and with regulated financial partners. The Investments and Securities Act (2024) has provided further regulatory clarity, supporting the stablecoin's goal of creating a scalable, compliant digital value layer across Africa.
Africa transacts billions of dollars per month in stablecoin volumes with remote areas in Kenya doing hundreds of millions of dollars in USDT. That cNGN has only achieved US$ 2.5 million in transaction volumes says a lot about demand for local currency stablecoins. Whilst I don’t want to sound like a pessimist, I just don’t see the value in local currency stablecoins. I’ve argued the same about consumer adoption of USD stablecoins in the USA. From a day to day perspective, they don’t necessarily solve any problem.
🇳🇬 | Stanbic IBTC Bank Secures CNY800 Million Loan from China Development Bank
Stanbic IBTC Bank has signed a three-year, CNY800 million term loan agreement with the China Development Bank (CDB). This facility was executed under the strategic collaboration framework between Standard Bank Group (SBG) and CDB. The agreement provides Stanbic IBTC Bank with direct access to Chinese Renminbi (CNY) liquidity. This will enable the bank to offer enhanced financing solutions to Nigerian corporates and institutions involved in trade and investment between Africa and China. The collaboration is a key part of Stanbic IBTC's Africa-China strategy, aiming to support Nigerian businesses, facilitate trade, and encourage foreign direct investment.
This is interesting in so far as I’ve argued that China seems to be internationalising its Yuan and this is a major trend to watch for the African fintech industry. The dichotomy is either Stablecoin adoption to bypass SWIFT or CIPS and other China led options such as Alipay+. Whilst other banks have announced Yuan loans in the past, note that Standard Bank was the first African bank to join CIPS. I expect to see similar moves i.e. joining CIPS and getting yuan loans for trade.
🇬🇭 | Fidelity Bank, MobileMoney Ltd, and JUMO Launch BoseaLoan
Fidelity Bank Ghana, in partnership with MobileMoney Limited and JUMO, has launched BoseaLoan, a mobile loan product. This initiative aims to enhance financial inclusion in Ghana by providing quick and flexible credit access to individuals and small businesses, particularly those underserved by traditional banking. The partnership leverages Fidelity Bank's capital, MobileMoney Ltd's distribution network, and JUMO's AI-driven technology for credit scoring and loan management. The BoseaLoan is available to MoMo from MTN customers and is designed to support economic empowerment by simplifying access to formal credit.
Ghana is a mobile money market and the interesting thing about MoMo in Ghana is that there’s no excessively dominant player. To this end, I’ve argued that digital credit is a major vector in Ghana because the MoMo transactional rails already exist. We’ve seen players like Fido, Affinity and Loop’s partnership with MTN validate this perspective. The challenge though is unlike Kenya, we may see significant fragmentation leading to players in Ghana having higher defaults and not achieving significant breakout scale. I have an up-coming podcast with Tarek of Affinity where we’ll discuss this in more detail.
🇳🇬 | FirstBank Reaches N1 Trillion in Digital Loan Disbursements
FirstBank has disbursed a cumulative N1 trillion in instant digital loans since August 2019. This milestone was achieved through a digital lending ecosystem utilizing Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, which provides unsecured loans to various customer segments, including salary earners, non-salary earners, and micro-business owners. The bank's digital loan products, including FirstAdvance, FirstCredit, and AgentCredit, are accessible through multiple channels such as USSD, mobile apps, and agent banking. This achievement highlights FirstBank's strategy of leveraging technology to enhance financial inclusion and customer empowerment. The bank currently disburses approximately N1 billion in digital loans daily.
US$ 650 million in total disbursements over 6 years whilst good for a banking system that has traditionally shied away from retail lending, is still a tiny amount in a market as big as Nigeria. For perspective, NCBA Loop does US$ 8 billion per annum in disbursements through M-Shwari and Fuliza. Whilst someone could argue that the unique nature of this partnership i.e. M-Pesa’s dominance invalidates such a comparison, the comparison matters from the perspective of what TAM exists for digital lending in SSA and especially a market like Nigeria. Note that whenever I talk about Safaricom’s dominance - think Shaquille O’Neal and not the legislative definition of market dominance.
🇳🇬 | Carbon Launches Payment Infrastructure for Nigerian Businesses
Carbon has launched Carbon Nexus, a payment collection and management platform for Nigerian businesses. The platform aims to address issues with payment reconciliation and tracking. Carbon Nexus provides virtual accounts for customers, allowing for real-time tracking of payments. It is designed for businesses with high transaction volumes or staggered payments, such as schools, retailers, and property managers. The platform requires no coding or extensive onboarding and offers credit to trusted customers. This initiative provides businesses with a tool to manage payments with increased visibility and automation.
In my discussion with Ngozi, he mentioned how their key focus as a Financial Service Provider going forward is to focus on SME and in particular, solving their problems beyond pure transactional services. This move by Carbon therefore is aligned to this product vision. Virtual accounts are becoming valuable for payment ops - Choice Bank in Kenya powers them and Verto relies on this infrastructure to power cross-border payments. I wrote about VA’s 4 years ago and I’m surprised at how they’re yet to catch on with banks particularly for SME payment ops. I know a Fintech in Kenya doing impressive volumes for mid-market SME’s by offering VA powered banking and transactional products.