As it enters its third year, e-commerce enabler Sabi creates a lane of its own
In business, comparisons and generalizations are common and useful, but sometimes they ignore complexities. So with those generalizations aside, here’s how to think about Sabi, a Norskenn-22-backed startup valued at $300 million in 2023: it’s in the business of creating market intelligence that enables commerce. While many B2B e-commerce companies focus mostly on retail distribution—a notoriously thin-margin business if ever there was one—Sabi serves manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and even farmers. It builds digital infrastructure for anyone involved in buying and selling. Sabi provides everything that makes commerce seamless: payments, retail, logistics, and most importantly, market intelligence that can be the difference between success and failure. Market information and clear data points can be difficult to obtain in Africa, driving inefficiencies for several players in the value chain. For instance, a distributor’s inventory management becomes easier if they can know with a high degree of accuracy, each retailer within a given market and the frequency of their orders. Such seemingly simple data points can be difficult in a market where one retailer or agent can act as an aggregator for several other retailers, obscuring granular information to make just-in-time inventory management possible. The complexity of Sabi’s model and its goal of collecting actionable intelligence on all players in the value chain means that it’s a platform and a marketplace. The company’s revenue is from a take rate on marketplace transactions and a margin on credit-related transactions. “Sabi has become, over the last three years, one of Africa’s largest and most important e-commerce companies,” said Ademola Adesina, one of the company’s co-founders. Rarely in the news, the company grabbed the public’s attention when it hit $1 billion in 2023 Gross Merchandise Value (GMV). This month, the business will celebrate its third anniversary. Founded in 2021 by Ademola Adesina and Anu Adasolum, Sabi has grown exponentially in three years. It has 250,000 registered users, facilitates 15,000 monthly orders, and in 2023 nearly tripled its revenues on an annualized basis from 2022. Most of that growth has come from Nigeria, its primary market. The company is also present in South Africa, and hopes to replicate this success in new markets like Tanzania and Senegal. “Our key differentiators are our product design and our focus on aligning incentives across the value chain. We are a partner to our users and we deliver for our merchants’ top and bottom lines,” Adasolum said. The company operates in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), agriculture, and minerals sectors. “We’ve never really felt any need to follow models, we do follow the market,” she added. Despite the breadth of the company’s ambitions and offerings to players along the value chain, it is still asset-light. While being asset-light is often a buzzword, it makes sense once you understand that this is essentially a market intelligence play. It can keep warehousing partners in business by using intelligence to get them consistent order flow. “We’re not trying to displace distributors. We’re platforming them, giving them the tools, the financing, the logistics, etc, to grow their businesses,” Adasolum said, highlighting their commitment to enabling commerce. “Sabi has been helpful and supportive in terms of our ventures and our trade. Without them, we probably wouldn’t be in business,” said Sadiq Mohammed, the founder of K2 agricultural processing company which has received close to N800 million in financing from Sabi for two deals. Facilitating trade beyond Africa Sabi has also talked up its vision to facilitate trade beyond Africa. Through its digital platform, Technology Rails for African Commodity Exchange (TRACE), the company helps big manufacturers facilitate commodities exports from Africa to Asia, Europe, South America, and the USA. “We’re one of the largest facilitators of exports from Nigeria to the rest of the world,” Adesina said. At a time when the AfCFTA agreement is only in its first phase, tools like SABI’s TRACE are using technology to meet buyers and sellers at every point of need. The company believes that it will benefit greatly from the implementation of the free trade area project in terms of the discovery of buyers and sellers, facilitation of cross-border logistics, tracking, and financing. With inflation and currency pressures in different markets, companies have been forced to close shop or cut costs. But Sabi sees this differently. The devaluation of the naira, while challenging, has also presented an opportunity for Nigerian exports. A weak naira makes Nigerian goods cheaper for international buyers and savvy businesses can capitalise on this opportunity to scale. “What we’re good at is spotting that directional move on the macro level and supporting our businesses to monetise that opportunity.”
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New home affairs online booking SA 2024
The South African Department of Home Affairs has a new convenient home affairs online booking system known as the eHomeAffairs. It streamlines the process of submitting ID and passport applications online, making online payments for applications, even making bookings where allowed, and consequently obtaining essential documents like smart ID cards, passports, and even marriage certificates. Here’s a step-by-step guide to navigate your home affairs online booking in 2024: 1. Confirm centre eligibility for the home affairs online booking 2024 The online booking system is currently not available at all Home Affairs offices. Before you proceed, visit the Department of Home Affairs website and check if your preferred office offers online bookings. There you’ll find a list of participating offices. 2. Get requirements While booking your appointment online, ensure you have the necessary documents readily available. These typically include proof of identity (your ID book or passport) and any additional documentation specific to your application (birth certificate for ID applications). 3. Go to eHome page With your chosen office confirmed and documents prepared, it’s time to visit the official Home Affairs online booking portal: https://ehome.dha.gov.za/eHomeAffairsV3/SGAccount/LogOn. This is the designated platform for all home affairs online booking. 4. Register or login If you’re a first-time user, you’ll need to register to use the home affairs e-portal. This involves creating a profile with your basic information. Existing users can simply log in using their saved credentials. 5. Book your slot Once logged in, find the “Booking” section and select the type of service you require (e.g., Smart ID application, passport renewal), provide the required information/documents, and make appropriate payments. The system will then display available appointment slots for your chosen Home Affairs office. Pick a date and time that best suits your schedule and confirm your booking. 6. Confirmation and reminders after home affairs online booking 2024 Following your home affairs online booking, you’ll receive a confirmation email with all the appointment details. Double-check the information for accuracy and make sure to note the appointment date and time. The system might also send you reminders closer to your appointment date. Final thoughts on the home affairs online booking 2024 By following these steps, you can enjoy a hassle-free experience with your next Home Affairs visit. The home affairs online booking may require you to pay some fees at some points, and these fees may vary depending on the service you’re applying for. So it’s important to bear cost implications in mind.
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👨🏿🚀TechCabal Daily – A broken Heritage
In partnership with Share this newsletter: Lire en Français اقرأ هذا باللغة العربية Happy new month Before you dig into today’s edition, we think it’s pretty important for you to know that The Mastercard Foundation is hosting its inaugural EdTech Conference from July 8 – 10, 2024 at the Transcorp Hilton in Abuja, Nigeria. The Mastercard Foundation EdTech Conference, in partnership with the Federal Government of Nigeria, is themed “Education Technology for Resilient and Inclusive Learning in Africa.” You can expect conversations on the current state of the EdTech ecosystem, emerging trends, the role of EdTech in solving Africa’s educational challenges and much more. Click here to find out more. P.S Today’s edition is written by our Editor-in-Chief, Olumuyiwa Olowogboyega, and he’s going to be writing to you a lot more as part of a team-bonding team-building exercise we’ve got going at TechCabal. In today’s edition Nigerian fintechs can now onboard new customers Heritage Bank loses its licence Kimberly-Clark ramps up its Nigerian exit Seacom has completed all subsea cable repairs The World Wide Web3 Opportunities Fintechs CBN lifts ban on fintech customer onboarding Between 2020 and 2023, formal financial inclusion—a metric that measures a population’s use of financial services from banks or non-banks—has grown from 56% to 64%. An easier way to think about it is that 3 in 5 Nigerians are financially included. A 2024 report from EFInA points out that technology has played a significant role in driving inclusion. Neobanks like Carbon, Kuda, and ALAT allowed people to open bank accounts on their phones, an important evolution as smartphone and internet penetration grew. Agency banking, which has taken the form of physical agents with hard infrastructure embedded in markets and mom-and-pop shops, has allowed people in semi-urban, rural, and even underserved areas to open bank accounts and access cash-in, cash-out services. As important as the technology has been, regulation and a near obsession by the Central Bank leadership to improve financial inclusion have been equally pivotal. For years, some regulations allowed anyone to open bank accounts without sharing a lot of personal information. It was a gift that removed friction in the onboarding process, and Nigerian fintech startups don’t look gift horses in the mouth. They onboarded customers faster than we could blink and extended their distribution in Nigeria’s huge informal market. During Nigeria’s 2023 cash crunch, they rose to the occasion and showed that in countries with large informal markets, distribution is king. But as transaction volumes and value grew exponentially, bad actors took notice, and fraud—across fintechs and banks— grew. The fintech startups, which have not always been as tightly regulated as the banks, received outsized scrutiny. Threats were made, talks were had, a freeze on new customer onboarding was issued, conditions were shared to lift that freeze and after five long weeks, there’s light at the end of the tunnel. Here’s what Muktar Oladunmade wrote for TechCabal: The Central Bank of Nigeria has lifted a six-week-long ban on onboarding new customers imposed on five of the country’s most prominent fintech startups: Paga, OPay, Kuda, Palmpay, and Moniepoint. On May 20, 2024, the fintechs were given several conditions for the onboarding freeze to be lifted including asking them to block P2P crypto transfers and mandating physical address verification for all tiers of accounts. While the decision to lift the freeze on customer onboarding is a quick read, I recommend reading our exclusive coverage from April 29 that showed how the CBN arrived at the decision. Moniepoint is Africa’s fastest-growing fintech The Financial Times has ranked Moniepoint as Africa’s fastest-growing fintech based on its absolute and compound growth rate. Read more about it here. Banking NDIC takes over Heritage Bank “The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent,” a saying attributed to John Keynes is a reminder that you can rightly spot a trend or make a prediction but the market will chug right on for months without blinking. While it’s not a perfect analogy, it’s how I think about Heritage Bank and the Central Bank’s decision to revoke its licence on Monday. Heritage Bank and its staggering (losses/high NPLs/weak capital base—take your pick) is the worst-kept secret in Nigerian banking. Many analysts began predicting the bank’s collapse in 2018, but its survival remained irrational in the face of their expertise. But like all good but inherently problematic runs (hello MMM), it had to end. Here’s what I wrote on Monday morning from the car park of a Heritage Bank branch in Victoria Island where I stalked watched NDIC officials who refused to speak to me walk into the bank to begin the takeover process: Heritage Bank’s high indebtedness has been public for five years and there has been significant coverage of the erosion of its capital base. In December 2023, a Nigerian publication claimed Heritage Bank failed a stress test, prompting the Central Bank to ask the financial institution to seek strategic investors to aid its recapitalisation. How bad was Heritage Bank’s situation? Part of the answer is in this article which gives you a sense of how inevitable this turn of events was: According to internal documents seen by TechCabal, at least 90% of the bank’s active loan portfolio of around ₦700 billion was considered lost or doubtful as of March 31, 2024. Two words: hot damn. Collect payments anytime anywhere with Fincra Are you dealing with the complexities of collecting payments from your customers? Fincra’s payment gateway makes it easy to accept payments via cards, bank transfers, virtual accounts and mobile money. What’s more? You get to save money on fees when you use Fincra. Get started now. Shutdowns Kimberly-Clark, makers of Huggies diapers begins Nigeria exit Fifteen years and a $100 million manufacturing facility later, Kimberly-Clark, the American maker of Huggies diapers and Kotex announced its intention to exit the Nigerian market on Saturday in a terse statement: Kimberly-Clark today announces it has made the difficult decision to exit its business in Nigeria after almost 15 years, due
Read MoreKimberly-Clark lays off 90% of employees as it begins Nigerian exit
Three days after it first announced its decision to exit Nigeria, Kimberly-Clark, the American multinational that manufactures Huggies diapers, has begun the process of shutting down its operations in Africa’s most populous country after laying off nearly 90% of its employees, one person with direct knowledge of the matter said. At a company-wide meeting last Friday, some 150 workers were told about the layoffs. The company has a relatively small number for a factory thanks to a high level of automation, one person familiar with their operations said. It also outsources sales and distribution to Multipro. Maersk, the Dannish shipping and logistics company, handled its imports and exports. The retained employees will eventually be laid off when the exit is completed. A communications manager for Kimberly-Clark did not immediately respond to a request for comments. While it did not initially share a timeline when it announced its exit plan, the company’s actions mean it will write off its $100 million investment in a manufacturing facility that was launched in Lagos in 2022. It will also cease manufacturing or marketing its Huggies and Kotex products in the country. In a statement last Friday, the company said it is exiting Nigeria due to a “recently refocused company strategic priorities globally as well as economic developments in the country.” Kimberly-Clark’s departure from Nigeria after almost 15 years is a telltale sign of the struggles of manufacturing in Nigeria with companies having to deal with depressed consumer spending power, high cost of electricity, and FX scarcity. Multinationals like Unilever, GSK, and PZ Cussons have either scaled back or exited market segments entirely.
Read MoreBreaking: CBN gives fintechs go-ahead to begin onboarding new customers after weeks of pause
The Central Bank of Nigeria has lifted a six-week-long ban on onboarding new customers imposed on five of the country’s most prominent fintech startups: Paga, OPay, Kuda, Palmpay, and Moniepoint. The regulator’s directive to freeze new customer signups first came on April 29, 2024, days after over 1,000 accounts were blocked for peer-to-peer crypto trading. The country’s National Security Adviser (NSA) also categorised crypto as a security concern and was keen to have the fintechs ramp up Know Your Customer (KYC) and fraud measures to prevent crypto transactions going through the fintechs. On May 20, 2024, the fintechs were given several conditions for the onboarding freeze to be lifted including asking them to block P2P crypto transfers and mandating physical address verification for all tiers of accounts. The fintechs were also asked to update their facial verification for customers. The fintechs have been disproportionately criticised for lax KYC measures that have led to fraud, but recent reports suggest that the battle against fraud is an industry-wide issue. Nonetheless, the fintech startups will be happy with today’s decision which crippled growth for weeks and stopped them from onboarding thousands of customers. *This is a developing story
Read MoreDepositors will get up to $3,300 in relief following Heritage Bank’s liquidation
As the liquidation process begins for Heritage Bank following the revocation of its licence on Monday, customers will get up to ₦5 million ($3,313) as insured deposits, per NDIC guidelines. All customers with less than ₦5 million may get their deposits back as early as Wednesday, said one person familiar with the matter. “Depositors with funds in excess of the insured deposits will be paid as and when the assets of the closed bank are realised,” an excerpt from the NDIC’s notice read. The timing of Heritage Bank’s liquidation presents a silver lining for customers, as the national insurer only increased the insured deposit limit from ₦500,000 in May 2024. The increase was meant to inspire confidence in Nigeria’s banking sector and cover 99% of depositors in Nigeria. However, customers must submit documents such as proof of account ownership, verifiable means of identification, and alternate bank accounts to facilitate seamless verification and payment of their insured deposits. While customers might heave a sigh of relief, they will have questions about how the regulator allowed the troubled bank to operate for this long without intervention. In 2023, TechCabal reported that the bank’s customers could not withdraw their deposits for weeks. An employee of the bank also told TechCabal on Monday that the bank’s mobile app has been unavailable for two months, highlighting the bank’s struggles. The NDIC will repay customers from the yearly premiums paid by the banks. For deposits beyond the ₦5 million threshold, the government-backed insurer will assess the bank’s assets and sell whatever it can. It will also recover their loans and sell whatever investments the bank has. In May 2023, the NDIC began compensating customers of microfinance banks (MFBs) and primary mortgage banks (PMBs) whose licences were revoked by the CBN. Two of the most prominent banks affected by the CBN action are Eyowo Microfinance Bank, backed by Softcom, and Purple Microfinance Bank. At the time, some customers of the affected banks received a maximum payment of ₦200,000 upon proof that they held deposits.
Read MoreExclusive: How ₦590 billion in non-performing loans made Heritage Bank’s closure inevitable
Despite initial denials of a liquidation process from deposit insurer NDIC, Nigeria’s Central Bank announced the revocation of Heritage Bank’s banking licence or ceasing to “carry on in Nigeria the type of banking business for which the licence was issued for any continuous period of six months.” Heritage Bank has struggled with huge Non-performing loans for years and on social media, many commenters were surprised it took so long for Heritage’s licence to be revoked. Heritage is thought to have one of the worst NPL ratios in the banking industry. According to internal documents seen by TechCabal, at least 90% of the bank’s active loan portfolio of around ₦700 billion was considered lost or doubtful as of March 31, 2024. The bank’s tier-1 capital comprising equity, reserves, and accumulated earnings was in the deficit of over ₦1 Trillion. CBN revokes Heritage Bank’s licence minutes after NDIC visit Internal documents showed that less then 5% of outstanding loans were performing, with 90% classified as lost. Some of those loans date back to 2018 when the bank reported loan impairment of ₦37.5 billion in the first half of 2018. According to people familiar with internal conversations, the bank was considering a host of strategies like storming the residences of defaulters with available security resources, employing debt recovery agents, sale of pledged property, and engagement with ex-staff. The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has been appointed the liquidator of Heritage Bank. Essentially, NDIC officials will take over the existing management of the bank and will begin the payment of insured deposits up to the insurable limits which was recently increased from ₦500,000 to ₦5 million. One NDIC official who asked not to be named said depositors will access their deposits as quickly as Wednesday. Regulators will begin to find a buyer for the bank and in the interim, a bridge bank will be created to take over the bank’s failed assets and liabilities, allowing customers to continue accessing their deposits and banking services uninterrupted.The last time a Nigerian bank—Skye Bank—was liquidated, Polaris Bank took over Skye Bank with a ₦786 billion cash injection.
Read MoreCBN revokes Heritage Bank’s licence minutes after NDIC visit
The Central Bank of Nigeria has revoked the banking licence of Heritage Bank, minutes after a TechCabal report that officials of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation visited the bank. “In accordance with its mandate to promote a sound financial system in Nigeria and in exercise of its powers under Section 12 of the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act, hereby revokes the Licence of Heritage Bank Plc,” a statement from the Central Bank read. Exclusive: NDIC takes over Heritage Bank as CBN revokes licence of struggling lender “The action has become necessary due to the bank’s breach of Section 21(1) of BOFIA 2020. The Board and management of the bank have not been able to improve the bank’s financial performance, a situation which constiutues a threat to financial stability.” Heritage Bank’s struggles have long been public and a visit from NDIC officials on Monday morning were the final signs that a takeover was on the way. *This is a developing story.
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Exclusive: NDIC takes over Heritage Bank as CBN revokes licence of struggling lender
The Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) visited several Heritage Bank branches on Monday morning as talks of a distress resolution takeover gather steam. TechCabal identified at least twelve NDIC officials at the Victoria Island, Allen Avenue, Ilupeju, and Ladiopo branches of the bank. One of the officials at a branch office had a memo that showed they were on “special assignment.” The official declined to comment on the memo or provide any details. At least two persons with direct knowledge of the situation claimed the special assignment is connected to a distress resolution and a takeover of Heritage Bank. The Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) mandates the Central Bank to turn over significantly or critically under-capitalised banks to the deposit insurer for distress resolution. A Heritage Bank spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comments. Three NDIC officials insisted any talks of a takeover was false and that today’s visit was part of a “routine exercise” going on at all banks. A spokesperson for the Central Bank was unavailable for comments at the time of this report. Heritage Bank’s high indebtedness has been public for five years and there has been significant coverage of the erosion of its capital base. In December 2023, a Nigerian publication claimed Heritage Bank failed a stress test, prompting the Central Bank to ask the financial institution to seek strategic investors to aid its recapitalisation. According to one person familiar with the bank’s finances, it has negative shareholder equity—a metric that shows how much a company’s debts and liabilities outweigh the value of all its assets—of ₦900 billion. Despite a deadline of April 2024 to communicate its recapitalisation plans to the Central Bank, Heritage Bank failed to make any progress in talks to raise money from investors, one person privy to those conversations said. As those talks stalled, the bank laid off 1,000 employees in April 2024 and customers began experiencing difficulties accessing their deposits. TechCabal first reported those difficulties in June 2023. “The bank’s regular recourse to the CBN’s short-term borrowing window highlights persistent liquidity resolution issues,” said a 2019 report from Proshare that showed its liquidity issues. Established in 2012, Heritage Bank’s struggles began in 2018 after years of weak corporate governance led to questionable loan decisions. In 2014, it completed an ill-advised acquisition of Enterprise Bank for ₦56 billion, while betting on expanding its retail footprint. That bet backfired. In 2015, the Treasury Single Account was implemented, reducing the amount of public funds in banks, raising the cost of funds for Heritage, and reducing deposits for a bank with a small customer base. *This is a developing story *Additional reporting by Ganiu Oloruntade, Muktar Oladunmade and Faith Omoniyi
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👨🏿🚀TechCabal Daily – Gro shuts down
In partnership with Share this newsletter: Lire en Français اقرأ هذا باللغة العربية Happy new month From scattered offices to a central hub, Innovation City is changing how South Africa’s tech ecosystem works. It currently houses 10 early-stage startups, 17 high-growth-stage startups, 18 scaleups (including a Swedish unicorn) and nine venture capital firms. Read how these startups, VCs, and corporates are thriving there. In today’s edition Gro Intelligence shuts down First Bank employee on the run after diverting $29 million South Africa’s ANC falls short of parliamentary majority BioNTech secures $145 million for African vaccine factories The World Wide Web3 Opportunities Shutdowns Gro Intelligence shuts down despite funding efforts Another startup in Kenya has closed its doors. Gro Intelligence, an agricultural data company founded in 2012 and based in New York and Nairobi, is shutting down months after replacing CEO and founder Sara Menker and raising a last-minute funding round in March. The company will shut down because it failed to secure further investment from new and existing investors. According to a source of the news agency, the company faced other problems suc as a mismatch between its products and market demands which led to financial troubles for the company. Despite promoting its AI insights and vast data resources, it struggled with consistent revenues, relying heavily on its major client, Unilever. The company also had trouble with wrong hires and didn’t have a chief financial officer (CFO) until recently. While the company raised a total of $117 million, including $85 million in a Series B round backed by Intel Capital and Africa Internet Ventures, Gro Intelligence’s financial troubles became public in February 2024 with reports of missed payroll and pension payments. In March despite raising more funding which reportedly could last till June or July, Gro Intelligence downsized its staff by 60% and now faces lawsuits from ex-employees claiming unfair dismissal. Gro Intelligence is also reportedly being investigated by the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) over fraud allegations. The company which analysed data from government, weather, and finance agencies to provide practical guidance for agricultural businesses, will now close its offices in New York and Nairobi with just a few people to help wind down. It will join a growing list of well-funded startups to shut down in Kenya. These include iProcure, B2B e-commerce startup Zumi, and fulfilment startup Sendy which is presently in administration. Moniepoint is Africa’s fastest-growing fintech The Financial Times has ranked Moniepoint as Africa’s fastest-growing fintech based on its absolute and compound growth rate. Read more about it here. Cybercrime First Bank employee on the run after diverting $29 million First Bank, a leading Nigerian bank is in court to reclaim funds allegedly diverted by an employee. These funds were distributed to the employee’s wife’s account and several accounts were considered as main recipients of the diverted funds. People familiar with the situation told TechCabal that the initial amount found to be diverted was about ₦12 billion ($8.9 million), but now stands at around ₦40 billion ($29 million). The alleged employee who carried out the diversion is identified as Tijani Muiz Adeyinka. Adeyinka worked as a manager on the electronic products team at a head office in Iganmu, Lagos, according to court documents. A First Bank employee told TechCabal that Adeyinka could successfully carry this “heist” out as he was authorised to handle customer reversals; he also managed an account which he used for processing these reversals and credit merchant accounts. Muiz allegedly used his authority to credit customer reversal requests to a merchant account he controlled. As the final line of authorisation on the team, he didn’t require further approvals. The fraudulent activity went unnoticed for almost two years without detection until a customer made a complaint which escalated to the bank’s internal control unit. The control unit discovered several suspicious transactions and reported them to the police. “It was discovered that he made some fraudulent transactions to his wife’s account domiciled with Zenith Bank, which in turn transferred to other beneficiaries totalling thirty-four accounts which also gave birth to second beneficiaries domiciled with other banks totalling 1,190 accounts,” read a statement from the investigating police officer in charge of the case signed March 26, 2024. Within the period of April 4–8, three court orders from the Federal High Court in Lagos were granted to freeze hundreds of accounts suspected of possessing the stolen funds. An anonymous email sent to TechCabal alleged that some of the stolen money was used to purchase stable coin USDT from some crypto traders. These traders insisted they were unaware of the fraudulent origin of the funds and only sold the USDT. As a result of this involvement, their bank accounts have been restricted and are also caught in the middle of a legal dispute with the bank. Fraud continues to plague Nigeria’s financial sector, despite a decrease in cases in the first quarter of 2024. A 2023 BusinessDay reported that Access Bank suffered a ₦6.15 billion ($4.6 million) in fraud, while Fidelity Bank lost ₦2.5 billion across three separate incidents. Collect payments anytime anywhere with Fincra Are you dealing with the complexities of collecting payments from your customers? Fincra’s payment gateway makes it easy to accept payments via cards, bank transfers, virtual accounts and mobile money. What’s more? You get to save money on fees when you use Fincra. Get started now. Elections South Africa’s ANC falls short of parliamentary majority On May 29, our brothers and sisters in South Africa headed to the polls to elect new sets of leaders across the National Assembly as well as the provincial legislature in each of the country’s nine provinces. In the elections, which saw the lowest voter turnout in South Africa’s 30-year democratic history, the ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), secured only 40.19% of the total vote cast, falling short of the 50% vote needed to form a government. Sidebar: To form a government on its own, a party needs to receive more than 50% of the total
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