Investors update: July 26 2023 - South Africa, Kenya lead Africa’s B2B digital payments

South Africa, Kenya lead Africa’s B2B digital payments

Highlights

• A new Duplo report finds that Nigeria trails South Africa and Kenya in the development of key B2B payment processes across Africa, including the adoption of electronic bank transfers, speed of processing invoices, and payment automation.
• The study surveyed more than 1,200 professionals from those countries and Ghana. South Africa leads in electronic bank transfers, with 49.1% choosing it as their preferred way to pay vendors, followed by Nigeria (48.5%), Ghana (34%), and Kenya (31.9%). 
• Kenya leads by payment automation, with 83.4% of Kenyans stating that their payment system was either semi-automated or fully automated, compared to Nigeria (79.9%), South Africa (71.69%), and Ghana (67.23%).

Source: Duplo

Our Takeaway

Africa’s B2B payment sector represents a significant, yet largely untapped opportunity partly due to the complexity and larger transaction volumes associated with B2B payments. Per the World Bank, the continent’s share of the global B2B payment opportunity stands at $1.5 trillion but many businesses still grapple with considerable payment delays and other issues, which negatively impact their cash flow and slow their growth. In recent years, digital payments solutions have eased many of these challenges but there remains a number of issues to be addressed in the journey of easing the flow of money between businesses in Africa.

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Namibia signs bill regulating crypto, digital assets into law

Highlights

• The Namibian government officially signed a law to regulate Virtual Asset Service Providers operating in the country last week, reversing its original 2017 decision to ban cryptocurrency exchanges.
• On July 21, the VASP-regulating law was inserted into the Gazette of the Republic of Namibia after previously being approved in Namibia’s National Assembly on July 6 and signed by President Hage Geingob on July 14.
• The bill—Namibia Virtual Assets Act 2023—aims to assign a regulatory authority to supervise crypto exchanges in the country. It is the first crypto law and will enter into force at a date determined by the Ministry of Finance.

Source: Coindesk

Our Takeaway

Namibia’s new crypto law comes nine months after the central bank approved Bitcoin as a legal tender and about a week after the government imposed a tax on virtual assets. These moves underscore a growing trend across Africa, where governments are seeking ways to regulate and leverage these new financial instruments. Other African nations that have passed cryptocurrency laws include Botswana, Kenya, Mauritius, and Seychelles and earlier this month, South Africa said all crypto exchanges in the country will be required to obtain licenses.

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Egypt’s EdVentures partners Saudi firm on edtech industry

Highlights

• Egypt-based ed-tech corporate VC firm EdVentures has partnered with VMS, a leading venture studio for entrepreneurs and startups in the Middle East, to enhance ed-tech in the region.
• The partnership between the two is significant for the development of the ed-tech industry in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, allowing both companies to support a greater number of ed-tech startups.
• EdVentures will provide startups with its incubation, acceleration, and investment programs while VMS will leverage its network to offer essential guidance, mentorship, and advisory services to enhance the startups’ chances of success.

Source: Disrupt Africa

Our Takeaway

As the traditional school experience hasn’t changed in many years, many edtechs startups across Africa and the Middle East are pioneering a paradigm shift in higher education that puts learners first. This is even more crucial in the post-Covid era, as nearly all face-to-face interactions in different fields, from education and grocery shopping to events and work, are moving online, even in Africa. This development bodes well for the continent, where the average literacy rate is estimated at 70%, and access to higher education lags behind other parts of the world.