Category: Consulting

Locked Out, Then Forced to Innovate: Let’s talk about  PayPal’s Nigeria move

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For years, PayPal access in Nigeria created an asymmetry: Nigerians could buy from the world, but getting paid by the world was constrained and uneven at scale.
When a global platform that acts like the default “trust badge” for online payments limits receiving in a market as large as Nigeria, it doesn’t just frustrate users. It shapes what gets built, what gets funded, and which business models survive.
So yes, there is resentment. And it is justified. Because the opportunity cost isn’t a feeling ,it’s a decade of limitation

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The Battle for Africa’s Mobile Money: Mastercard builds ON mobile money,Visa builds AROUND mobile money,Chinese players build AGAINST mobile money.

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The Battle for Africa’s Mobile Money: Mastercard builds ON mobile money,Visa builds AROUND mobile money,Chinese players build AGAINST mobile money.

Nigeria’s 2023 cash crisis revealed who was ready for Africa’s digital future. When banks crashed and ATMs ran dry, two Chinese-backed apps—OPay and PalmPay—kept working while Nigerian banks scrambled.
Meanwhile, Mastercard was closing a $200 million deal with MTN’s mobile money division. Visa was launching its Africa Fintech Accelerator. And in Shenzhen, Transsion Holdings watched its payments app capture millions of users.
Three wildly different bets on the same market: Africa’s mobile money ecosystem, which processed $1.1 trillion in 2024, where cash still dominates 90%+ of retail payments, and where 1.4 billion people are going digital.

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Why Africans Don’t Trust Fintech’s and Mobile Money (Yet)

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Let’s start with a simple truth: access isn’t the same as trust.
We’ve spent over a decade celebrating Africa’s financial inclusion boom — the millions of new mobile wallets, the rise of fintech titans from Lagos to Nairobi, the mammoth stats that make development economists beam. Yet, I keep coming back to one uncomfortable question: do Africans trust the financial systems we’ve created for them?
Because if they don’t, then all we’ve built are digital doors — not open ones.

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Infrastructure Investments: Building Africa’s Digital Backbone for Growth

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Having sat on two investment committees—one in insurance, another in venture capital—as well as the board of Ghana’s GIFEC (which allocates universal access funds for ICT infrastructure), I’ve seen firsthand how capital allocation decisions shape long-term outcomes.

Insurance investments emphasize stability, risk management, and sustainable returns.

Venture capital emphasizes growth, agility, and the capacity to back bold bets.

GIFEC balances financial stewardship with national inclusion goals, investing in connectivity for underserved communities.

These three lenses—risk, growth, and inclusion—mirror the balance Africa must strike in digital infrastructure investments. Governance, therefore, is not a footnote. It is the multiplier that ensures that capital, once deployed, creates lasting resilience and inclusion.

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What Airtel Money’s Comeback against M-Pesa in Kenya teaches about Challenging Market Giants

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What Airtel Money’s Comeback against M-Pesa in Kenya teaches about Challenging Market Giants
For years, Safaricom’s M-Pesa was the immovable force in Kenya’s mobile money market. It dominated not only customer wallets but also public imagination, with over 90% market share and a network so vast it became synonymous with mobile money itself.
But quietly—and strategically—Airtel Money has staged a comeback. It didn’t happen overnight, and it didn’t happen by mimicking M-Pesa’s dominance. Instead, it was a masterclass in what challenger telcos can do right when facing a Goliath.
Kenya’s story offers rich lessons—and data—to learn from.

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The New Bank Of Ghana Corporate Governance Rules Signals a Call to Maturity for Fintech’s by the Regulator(..Is this an Africa Trend ?)

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In June 2025, the Bank of Ghana released its Corporate Governance Guidelines for Payment Service Providers. At first glance, it might seem like just another compliance update—but read between the lines, and you’ll see something deeper.
This is a call to leadership.
These guidelines don’t merely set minimum standards. They signal the central bank’s expectation that Ghana’s digital finance sector is no longer in its experimental phase. It is systemically important. And with that importance comes accountability, transparency, and—most importantly—governance maturity.
Ghana is not alone. Across Africa, fintech is growing up—and regulators are making it clear: scale must now be matched with structure.

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Bank of Ghana Governor Asiama’s Digital Finance Playbook: Quiet Revolution, Bold Stakes, and Ghana’s Fintech Future

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For all its clarity, the Governor’s strategy is still early-stage. Questions remain:
• Will the central bank invest directly in shared infrastructure, or depend on industry?
• Can digital identity initiatives integrate seamlessly with national ID systems?
• Will commercial banks respond with bold enough product pivots?
• Can government agencies align around identity and infrastructure without bureaucratic drag?

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