Hi Fintech friends 👋,

Here are the highlights of what happened in African Fintech this week;

  • A Morocco based Fintech raised $2.2 Million to digitize the Neighbourhood Retail Economy.

  • African startups set a new funding milestone in 2025.

  • Kenyan Member of Parliaments opened inquiry into $1.Billion Mpesa’s owner stake sale.

  • African founder revealed a plan to acquire a bank.

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💸Fundraise and Exits

  • Wolizraised $2.2 Million to digitise and expand financial services to Morocco’s Neighbourhood Retail Economy.

💰 Venture Funds

  • African startups raised $3.2 Billion in 2025.

🚀 Partnerships & Product Launches

  • NALAenabled Kenyans to send money from Kenya to the UK and Europe.

  • Sterling Bankpartnered with Thunes to simplify diaspora payments into Nigeria.

👔 Leadership Lineup

  • The path to Silicon Valley just got steeper for African founders.

📰 News of the Week

  • Kenyan Member of Parliaments opened inquiry into $1.Billion Mpesa’s owner stake sale amid valuation and control fears.

The Kenyan government planned to sell 15% of Safaricom to South Africa’s Vodacom for about $1.5 Billion, and Vodacom will also buy another 5% from Vodafone, which would raise Vodacom’s total ownership to 55% and give it control of Safaricom, while the government’s stake would fall to 20% and public investors would hold the remaining 25%, and this shift of control from the state to a foreign company is why the deal is politically sensitive and under scrutiny.

👀 Eye Openers

  • Meet the 10 startup founders building Africa’s emerging payment tech solutions.

📑 Read of the week

  • Top 10 Patterns for African Fintech in 2026. (Mambo Brief)

📖 Other News, Reads, and Media

  • Rent, vacation and new business dominated Nigerians' savings target in 2025.

🪙 Stablecoin Watch

  • Nigeria planned to trace crypto money without cracking the blockchain.

  • South Africa’s SpendlMoneylaunched a crypto-to-fiat debit card.

🎥 VIDEO INTERVIEWS/DISCUSSIONS

  • Interview with Zach Bijessie (Former CEO, Pay Hippo) where he shared the brutal lessons learned from scaling a leading fintech lender to 100+ people and raising $15 Million, only to discover a core, fatal flaw in their product-market fit.

🦉 Tweet of the Week

  • African Fintechs are becoming banks 

❝

i want to buy a bank in East Africa.— Benjamin Fernandes 🇹🇿 (@Benji_Fernandes) January 6, 2026

Made in Tanzania 🇹🇿 with 💚

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