Stablecoins make up 43% of Sub-Saharan Africa’s crypto transactions in 2024
Global financial institutions are integrating stablecoins for payments and treasury operations, with corporate transactions growing by 25% in 2024, particularly in cross-border payments and supply chain settlements, according to a new report by Yellow Card, a stablecoin infrastructure startup operating in 20 African countries. The report noted that stablecoins accounted for 43% of total crypto transaction volume in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2024. Nigeria processed nearly $22 billion in stablecoin transactions between July 2023 and June 2024, while South Africa has seen stablecoins displace Bitcoin as the country’s most used cryptocurrency. Adoption is spreading to Ghana, Kenya, Zambia, Ethiopia, and Uganda. Stablecoins are becoming critical tools for business operations dealing with volatile currencies and limited access to FX. Treasury management, payroll, and supplier payments are the top use cases. Yellow Card reported that 99% of its transactions now involve stablecoins, mostly among businesses using USDT, serving more than 30,000 of them across 20 African countries and processing over $6 billion in transactions. The growth is being driven by necessity rather than speculation. Businesses rely on stablecoins to bypass FX shortages and banking delays, moving money quickly and predictably across borders. In South Africa, companies are even running payroll on stablecoin rails, paying staff and contractors across the continent without the costs and inefficiencies of traditional banking systems. Despite rising adoption, traditional financial institutions in most African countries remain cautious. Many banks do not provide services to crypto firms or publicly integrate stablecoin rails into their operations, citing regulatory uncertainty. South Africa is the exception, having introduced clear rules for digital assets that make it the continent’s most advanced regulatory environment. Meanwhile, fintechs are pressing ahead. Yellow Card has partnered with PayPal’s Xoom service to enable international transfers using PayPal USD, and with Coinbase, the largest crypto firm in the US, to broaden access to dollar-backed stablecoins. The pan-African stablecoin startup is also planning to expand to emerging markets across the globe, including Argentina, Brazil, Bangladesh, India, Mexico, Pakistan, and Colombia. As stablecoins become increasingly embedded in African business operations, regulators face mounting pressure to provide clarity. The direction they take will determine whether banks catch up or whether fintechs and businesses continue to lead the charge for stablecoin adoption. Mark your calendars! Moonshot by TechCabal is back in Lagos on October 15–16! Join Africa’s top founders, creatives & tech leaders for 2 days of keynotes, mixers & future-forward ideas. Early bird tickets now 20% off—don’t snooze! moonshot.techcabal.com
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Road to 2027: Preparing for Nigerian elections in a world of AI deepfakes
Every Thursday, Delve Into AI will provide nuanced insights on how the continent’s AI trajectory is shaping up. In this column, we examine how AI influences culture, policy, businesses, and vice versa. Read to get smarter about the people, projects, and questions shaping Africa’s AI future. Let us know your thoughts on the column through this form. In 2024, a video of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu made the rounds online. In the clip, Tinubu stands before a microphone, two men behind flanking him, addressing an unseen audience. “I am a fan of Chelsea, and I don’t like the way they are losing. Anytime they loss (sic), it gives me heart attack. So I’m planning to buy from their owner,” he says. The problem is he never actually said it; the viral footage was AI-generated. And though the deepfake was not directly political, it revealed just how easily AI tools can fabricate a politician’s words, and how quickly such fabrications can spread, shaping public perception before the truth catches up. As Nigeria looks toward the 2027 general elections, the dangers of AI-powered misinformation loom large. What happens when videos, voices, and images of political leaders can be convincingly faked? In a country where trust in visuals runs high and misinformation spreads at lightning speed, the risks are profound; as seen during the #EndSARS protests and the infodemic during COVID 19. Electoral bodies, political parties, fact-checkers, and AI researchers are already bracing for the challenge. From INEC’s new Artificial Intelligence Division to grassroots fact-checking networks and digital literacy drives, Nigeria is racing to build defences against a threat that could distort democracy itself. In other climes Nigeria is not the only country at risk of AI-powered misinformation. AI tools are being used in some parts of the world to generate voice-cloned robocalls impersonating politicians, create face-swapped campaign videos and fabricated screenshots, and amplify falsehoods through bot-driven social media networks. In March 2024, the daughter of former South African President Jacob Zuma shared a deepfake video of Donald Trump, the current US President, endorsing the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) political party, which gained significant online attention. In Indonesia’s 2024 presidential race, deepfake videos falsely showed then presidential candidate, Prabowo Subianto, speaking Arabic to appeal to Muslim voters. In Germany, a “Storm-1516” operation, set up numerous AI-powered websites to distribute deepfake content attacking politicians ahead of national elections. The list goes on and on: in the US, France, Argentina, Bangladesh, Philippines, Canada and Spain to mention a few. Similar tactics used with AI in these countries can be used to exploit Nigeria’s unique situation: high trust in visual and audio media, ethnic/religious sensitivities, and low digital literacy in many communities. 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Many citizens doubt the process not only because of allegations of ballot rigging or opaque collation procedures, but also because political parties themselves rarely stand on firm ideological ground. Politicians switch parties at will, alliances are built more on expediency than philosophy, and campaigns are often more about personalities than policies. Elections are tense national events, shadowed by fears of manipulation, violence, or post-election unrest. Nigerians already brace themselves for outcomes they believe may be predetermined. This history has created a trust deficit now complicated further by technologies that influence the electoral process. “In 2019 it
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Uncovered Fund, Monex Ventures partner for $20 million African VC fund
Uncovered Fund, a Tokyo-based venture capital firm with portfolio companies like Piggyvest and Lemfi, has partnered with Monex, a Japanese financial services firm, to invest $20 million in startups across Africa and the Middle East, with cheque sizes ranging from $100,000 to $2 million. The fund, Uncovered Monex Africa Investment Partnership (UMAIP), will invest between $100,000 and $500,000 as its initial ticket size in 30 companies and reserve half of its fund size for follow-on rounds with $1-2 million cheques. The fund will also raise debt in Japan, given its low interest rates, and provide debt financing to fintech startups. “Monex was one of our LPs back when I was at my previous firm,” Takuma Terakubo, Uncovered’s CEO, told TechCabal. “It is a major Japanese financial institution and also operates Japan’s largest crypto exchange. They have long been interested in investing in Africa and are looking to leverage Japan’s financial strength to support African fintech and crypto-related companies.” The UMAIP fund mirrors Tokyo’s recent investment push into Africa as the country cautiously moves from aid toward de-risked private investment. Last week, Japan’s government signed an agreement with the African Development Bank to provide $5.5 billion in loans to African businesses in three years. The Nigerian government is also set to establish a $40 million fund to invest in early-stage technology startups, with half of the fund coming from Japan’s overseas development assistance arm, the Japan International Cooperation Agency. Equally managed by Uncovered and Monex, the fund saw participation from Japanese financial institutions, trading houses, automotive companies, and logistics firms. Given its diverse limited partners’ base, the fund is sector-agnostic with a preference for fintech, mobility, retail, logistics, and climate tech startups. “We focus on businesses that can leverage the scale advantages of Africa’s vast market and population, such as fintech, retail, the supporting logistics sector, and mobility,” Terakubo said. “We are also paying close attention to climate tech, which can harness Africa’s abundant land and solar potential.” The fund will invest in startups building infrastructure-like functions, and connect these startups to Japanese companies for partnerships, acquisitions, and funding. “We not only provide access to Japanese technology and business know-how, but also monitor and track the outcomes of these connections to ensure long-term value creation,” Terkaubo said. “Regarding climate tech, we will support enabling Japan to trade carbon credits issued by African startups in the future.” The UMAIP fund will focus on Egypt in North Africa and will mostly back consumer-focused businesses in the country. “Egypt represents one of the largest markets in Africa with strong consumer purchasing power,” Terakubo said. “We are focusing on business opportunities expanding from Egypt across the entire MENA region.” Uncovered has previously invested in 29 early-stage African startups across 17 countries and the Middle East, with companies like Gozem, Autochek, Termii, Chari, and Yoco in its portfolio. Based on its learnings from the first fund, the firm decided to double down on fintech, mobility, logistics, and online retail for the UMAIP fund. Another thing the firm will carry on is its annual Showcase Africa event, where it connects African startups to Japanese businesses and investors. So far, the firm claims to have connected over 500 Japanese businesses with 50 African startups. “While mergers and acquisitions activity from the US and Europe may be more familiar to African startups, our aim is to bring opportunities for acquisitions from Asian companies, particularly Japanese corporates, into the African ecosystem,” Terakubo said. Outside of Africa, the UMAIP fund will invest in scalable businesses that can expand across Asia and Latin America. Mark your calendars! Moonshot by TechCabal is back in Lagos on October 15–16! Join Africa’s top founders, creatives & tech leaders for 2 days of keynotes, mixers & future-forward ideas. Early bird tickets now 20% off—don’t snooze! moonshot.techcabal.com
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Inside Codex’s plan to build a stablecoin-only settlement layer for payments in Africa
Moving money across African borders has always been complicated. Transactions take time to complete, when or if they do, and come with extra costs. When dollars or euros are involved, exchange rates fluctuate, compliance checks hold up settlements, and companies are left scrambling to cover gaps. Codex, a global blockchain startup, is wagering that a narrow focus can fix this. It is building a blockchain that supports only one thing—stablecoins. Most blockchains try to do many things at once, hosting thousands of tokens and apps. Codex’s bet is that by focusing only on stablecoins, it can make payments faster and easier across borders. Founded by Haonan Li, Victor Yaw, and Momo Ong, Codex came out of stealth in April 2025 after raising $15.8 million to build a blockchain designed for stablecoins only. The seed round was led by Dragonfly Capital, with additional participation from Coinbase, Circle, Cumberland Labs, Wintermute Ventures and others. Codex competes in the global $230 billion stablecoin infrastructure market, where the demand for fiat-backed digital assets is growing and regulators are beginning to align around them. The startup is already active in Europe and North America, but its eyes are now on Africa, where cross-border payments remain one of the continent’s thorniest financial problems. Get the best African tech newsletters in your inbox Country Afghanistan Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil British Antarctic Territory British Indian Ocean Territory British Virgin Islands Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Canton and Enderbury Islands Cape Verde Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Christmas Island Cocos [Keeling] Islands Colombia Comoros Congo – Brazzaville Congo – Kinshasa Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Côte d’Ivoire Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Dronning Maud Land East Germany Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories French Southern and Antarctic Territories Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Heard Island and McDonald Islands Honduras Hong Kong SAR China Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Isle of Man Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jersey Johnston Island Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macau SAR China Macedonia Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Metropolitan France Mexico Micronesia Midway Islands Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar [Burma] Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles Neutral Zone New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island North Korea North Vietnam Northern Mariana Islands Norway Oman Pacific Islands Trust Territory Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territories Panama Panama Canal Zone Papua New Guinea Paraguay People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen Peru Philippines Pitcairn Islands Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russia Rwanda Réunion Saint Barthélemy Saint Helena Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Martin Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands South Korea Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Svalbard and Jan Mayen Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Syria São Tomé and Príncipe Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tokelau Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu U.S. Minor Outlying Islands U.S. Miscellaneous Pacific Islands U.S. Virgin Islands Uganda Ukraine Union of Soviet Socialist Republics United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Unknown or Invalid Region Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican City Venezuela Vietnam Wake Island Wallis and Futuna Western Sahara Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe Åland Islands ?> Gender Male Female Others TC Daily Events TC Scoop <!– Next Wave –> <!– Entering Tech –> Subscribe A market defined by friction To understand Codex’s play, it helps to first look at how money actually moves in and out of Africa today. Sending money from Lagos to Accra can take days, with multiple middlemen adding fees and delays. Digital transfers also face blockages once currencies change. This creates uncertainty and pushes up transaction costs for businesses and consumers. Stablecoins were supposed to solve this. These are digital tokens pegged to real-world currencies like the US dollar or the Euro. A Nigerian company can hold digital dollars on-chain, send them across the world in minutes, and then cash out locally. Yet in practice, stablecoins rarely behave like perfect dollars. The exchange rate can shift depending on the platform, the chain, or the compliance checks involved. “One USDC does not always equal one US dollar when you off-ramp into local currencies,” said Oluwaferanmi Ajetomobi, Codex’s Africa expansion lead. “You see differences in price across exchanges, across countries, across compliance checks. That lack of singleness is what Codex wants to solve.” That “singleness of money” is the critical gap Codex says it was built to close. Codex’s big bet Codex runs as a Layer 2 blockchain on Optimism, which means it is built on Ethereum but optimised for speed and lower fees. It is not trying to host all kinds of tokens. Instead, it focuses only on stablecoins, making them equal and interchangeable across markets. The chain already supports USDC and USDT, two of the most widely used stablecoins, and is preparing to integrate Nigeria’s cNGN. Codex has also drawn a firm line on what types of stablecoins it will support. Ajetomobi said the blockchain will not list algorithmic stablecoins, pointing to the collapse of Terra’s UST in 2022 as a cautionary tale. Algorithmic stablecoins tried to hold their value using formulas and automatic trades instead of being backed by real dollars in reserve. When UST lost its peg, it triggered a chain reaction that erased more than $40 billion in value and damaged trust across the industry. Steering clear of that model signals that Codex only
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Jumia names Axian Telecom founder to board as takeover talk intensifies
E-commerce giant Jumia has filed a petition to appoint Hassanein Hiridjee, the founder and director of Axian Telecom, Africa’s sixth-largest telecommunications company, to its Supervisory Board. The move follows the resignation of Angela Mwanza, a managing director at Rockefeller Capital Management, who stepped down in June after serving on the board since 2019. Her exit, along with that of another board member, Ms. Elizabeth Huebner, left the board with only four members, below the six members stipulated in the company’s articles of association. According to an SEC filing on Tuesday, Jumia’s management had proposed to reduce the board’s size to five members, but this resolution was rejected by shareholders at the annual general meeting on June 19, 2025. Hiridjee will fill one of the two vacant seats. The appointment is not entirely unexpected. Axian Telecom, having recently upped its stake in Jumia to 9.97%, is now one of the company’s most influential investors. Axian’s investment has intensified market speculation about a potential takeover of the e-commerce giant, whose shares have rallied sharply in response. On Tuesday, Jumia’s stock reached a 52-week high of $8.68. The first notable reports regarding Axian Telecom’s ambitions to acquire Jumia emerged in July 2025 on Bloomberg. The publication reported that Axian was contemplating a full buyout of Jumia, citing sources close to internal negotiations, recent shareholder filings, and corroborating regulatory disclosures. At the time, Axian had completed a $600 million bond issuance, fuelling analyst expectations that it was gearing for a major expansion, possibly including the acquisition of Jumia. Jumia CEO Francic Dufay has not responded directly to the speculations. Nonetheless, in an interview republished on the Jumia site, Dufay says of Axian, “Since they disclosed their position, we’ve been talking… looking at what we can achieve together, where we can create synergies.” However, Axian’s stake may be a strategic partnership, not a precursor to a takeover. Likewise, Axian Telecom has been tight-lipped, neither confirming nor denying any acquisition plans. The company has, however, been publicly complimentary of Jumia’s digital platforms, especially JumiaPay, a payment platform that has enabled Jumia to receive payment for goods digitally. In a June 2025 press release, AXIAN signalled intent to explore the use of Jumia’s payment gateway, JumiaPay, within its fintech ecosystem – positioning Jumia not just as a merchant platform, but as a payment enabler for broader digital use cases. Market reaction to these developments has been dramatic. The share rally is rewarding for the company that has been making painful cuts to become profitable. The onboarding of a strategic investor such as Axian promises access to new capital, technology, and networks at a critical inflexion point for continental e-commerce in Africa. For Jumia, it may be the turning point needed to reassert itself amid increasing competition. Editor’s note: This article has been updated with additional details from an SEC filing. Mark your calendars! Moonshot by TechCabal is back in Lagos on October 15–16! Join Africa’s top founders, creatives & tech leaders for 2 days of keynotes, mixers & future-forward ideas. Early bird tickets now 20% off—don’t snooze! moonshot.techcabal.com
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Tracking company laptops, other devices, with Rayda
When 54gene shut down in 2023, the collapse of one of Africa’s most visible biotech startups was widely read as a cautionary tale about scaling too fast in a volatile market. Yet for Ogochukwu Francis Osifo, who had co-founded 54gene and served as its vice president of engineering, that chapter was a stepping stone to a new venture in a completely different field. Out of the day-to-day frustrations of managing laptops, tablets, and IT assets for hundreds of distributed employees came Rayda, a device lifecycle management startup now active in over 170 countries. The core problem was painfully clear at 54gene, where the company’s rapid expansion exposed just how messy IT logistics could be. “I discovered firsthand the problem of equipping remote teams with IT equipment at 54gene,” Osifo told me. “As co-founder/VP of engineering, I managed our IT hardware (mostly laptops and tablets). That meant I had to ensure new employees received their company-issued laptops with the security software before onboarding. If employees left, I had to ensure we retrieved the laptops or other devices.” As 54gene grew from 45 employees to over 300 across Africa, North America, Europe, the Gulf, and Canada during the COVID-19 testing boom, equipment management quickly became unmanageable. A shipment to Nairobi for a new Kenyan hire sat for months in customs, requiring repeated visits, additional paperwork, and what Osifo described as a “king’s ransom” in fees. In the end, the company spent more than if it had purchased the device locally. At scale, these inefficiencies undermined productivity and financial reporting, as IT teams struggled to reconcile asset values in spreadsheets with what was actually in circulation. Like its name suggests, Rayda set out to give firms radar-like visibility over their devices, whether in transit, storage, or employee use. The shift from biotech to IT logistics may appear stark, but Osifo told me he sees continuity in his engineering background. He argues that solving practical infrastructure problems for global companies came more naturally than remaining in biotech, which would have required deep sector expertise. What does Rayda do? Rayda is a device lifecycle management platform. This means it enables companies to procure laptops and peripherals for new hires, track them in real-time once deployed, retrieve them when staff leave, wipe and securely store them, and eventually redeploy or dispose of them. The platform functions as both a marketplace and an operations layer. IT or HR managers log into the system to place requests for onboarding or offboarding. From there, the workflow is tracked at every stage. “It tracks their request in real-time and provides all relevant details on the order: Is the laptop in transit? Is it already in the warehouse? Has it been wiped? Is it in storage? They have a detailed history of what’s happening in real time with that particular piece of equipment,” Osifo explained. Rayda does not attempt to compete with enterprise security providers. Instead, it integrates with the mobile device management solutions that many companies already use, such as Microsoft Intune, Apple Business Manager, and JumpCloud. This ensures that devices remain compliant while Rayda handles logistics, visibility, and asset accounting. The tight coupling between Rayda’s platform and HR systems is a distinctive feature since the startup has built integrations with over twelve human resource information systems (HRIS) providers, allowing the onboarding and offboarding process to trigger device logistics automatically. For example, when a new hire enters a company’s HRIS, Rayda can initiate the procurement and delivery of the necessary equipment. When an employee is marked as leaving, the system prompts retrieval and data wiping. A technical and operational engine Behind the user-facing interface is an operations engine that relies heavily on partnerships. The company currently has 21 full-time staff, mostly based in Nigeria. Rather than setting up local offices in each of the 170 countries it serves, Rayda works with vetted procurement and logistics partners. These partners are selected after evaluating their infrastructure, communication standards, and ability to meet specific service level agreements to allow Rayda to enforce consistent outcomes while tailoring its operations to the quirks of each market. Osifo said delivery services do not commonly use tracking numbers in countries like India and Pakistan. Rayda addresses this by choosing partners who can provide proactive status updates and proof of delivery. Integration with established logistics providers in other regions provides traceability through standard systems. By codifying these requirements into a playbook, Rayda avoids reinventing processes each time it enters a new geography. Where competitors often take four to eight weeks to deliver equipment, Rayda claims to manage it in three to eight business days. In one case, a global competitor took eight weeks to provide a laptop to an employee in Costa Rica. Rayda managed the same delivery in four days. Revenue and funding The company earns money through two main streams. Subscriptions suit firms that consistently hire across multiple countries and want Rayda baked into their IT workflows. Transactions cover one-off services such as onboarding, offboarding, or storage. According to Osifo, most revenue comes from the latter. “We make money in two ways: subscriptions and transaction revenues on onboarding, offboarding, and device storage.” Between 70% and 80% of revenues are generated through onboarding and offboarding requests. On the funding side, Rayda has secured an angel round with participation from Microtraction, Beta Ventures, Techstars, HOAQ Club, and several syndicates. It is currently preparing for a fresh round of financing. Get the best African tech newsletters in your inbox Country Afghanistan Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil British Antarctic Territory British Indian Ocean Territory British Virgin Islands Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Canton and Enderbury Islands Cape Verde Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Christmas Island Cocos [Keeling] Islands Colombia Comoros Congo – Brazzaville Congo – Kinshasa Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Cyprus
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Research and startup support: Here’s how Consonance is differentiating itself in African VC
Venture capital (VC) is a fiercely competitive industry, with firms locked in a constant race to back the most promising startups, knowing that portfolio quality ultimately determines whether they can deliver returns. To win deals in this crowded space, funds typically differentiate themselves in two ways: either by offering founders attractive terms or providing deep, hands-on support to help their startups scale faster. Besides these two options, Consonance, a pan-African VC firm, also differentiates itself with research on a wide range of topics. Going through the firm’s website, you can find research on how to unlock Nigeria’s prosperity, economic transformation and productivity in Cote d’Ivoire, the success story of Botswana’s economic resurgence, and, more surprisingly, a detailed report on Nigeria’s fashion industry. “Context beats capital,” Jadesola Campbell, Consonance’s principal, told TechCabal. “Our bottom-up research turns noise into systems maps, not hot takes. It helps us underwrite better, source earlier, and avoid unforced errors.” Consonance backs startups from pre-seed through Series A, with its first fund writing cheques that averaged around $500,000. The firm operates with a three-pronged strategy: its core venture program for early-stage equity bets, a venture studio that builds companies from scratch, and debt financing that provides secured, non-dilutive loans to venture-backed businesses. “Our role is to back operators who turn bottlenecks into platforms-and then help them compound,” Campbell told TechCabal. For this week’s Ask an Investor, I spoke to Jadesola Campbell, the principal at Consonance, to understand how the firm thinks about its research, its support for startups, and how the firm thinks about the future of African venture capital. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. What’s your firm’s core thesis? We invest where three circles overlap. Foundational prosperity: human capital, social capital, real assets, digital rails, and fintech. Fragmented value chains: chokepoints whose removal unlocks system-wide value. Scalar business models: companies that don’t just scale, but compound cash flows and market power in the real economy. Our role is to back operators who turn bottlenecks into platforms-and then help them compound. Who drives research, and how does it feed sourcing? The investment team owns it. We start from the five prosperity pillars, map chokepoints, and identify scalable fixes. That feeds directly into deal sourcing, venture-building, and policy dialogues. Do you see your research as ecosystem-building, LP education, or part of the firm’s competitive edge? All three. For the ecosystem aspect, we see it as a shining light on overlooked foundations. We also use our research to educate limited partners by demystifying Africa’s under-analysed markets. On the edge part, our research allows us to spot flywheels before they form. How many exits has Consonance recorded to date? Get the best African tech newsletters in your inbox Country Afghanistan Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil British Antarctic Territory British Indian Ocean Territory British Virgin Islands Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Canton and Enderbury Islands Cape Verde Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Christmas Island Cocos [Keeling] Islands Colombia Comoros Congo – Brazzaville Congo – Kinshasa Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Côte d’Ivoire Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Dronning Maud Land East Germany Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories French Southern and Antarctic Territories Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Heard Island and McDonald Islands Honduras Hong Kong SAR China Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Isle of Man Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jersey Johnston Island Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macau SAR China Macedonia Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Metropolitan France Mexico Micronesia Midway Islands Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar [Burma] Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles Neutral Zone New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island North Korea North Vietnam Northern Mariana Islands Norway Oman Pacific Islands Trust Territory Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territories Panama Panama Canal Zone Papua New Guinea Paraguay People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen Peru Philippines Pitcairn Islands Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russia Rwanda Réunion Saint Barthélemy Saint Helena Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Martin Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands South Korea Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Svalbard and Jan Mayen Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Syria São Tomé and Príncipe Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tokelau Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu U.S. Minor Outlying Islands U.S. Miscellaneous Pacific Islands U.S. Virgin Islands Uganda Ukraine Union of Soviet Socialist Republics United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Unknown or Invalid Region Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican City Venezuela Vietnam Wake Island Wallis and Futuna Western Sahara Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe Åland Islands ?> Gender Male Female Others TC Daily Events TC Scoop <!– Next Wave –> <!– Entering Tech –> Subscribe We’ve had five exits. Three full, two partial. The partial exits are Medallion (Nigeria’s densest data centre, majority acquired by Digital Realty, a Fortune 500 company), SeamlessHR. Our full exits are Student Accommod8, She Leads Africa, Wealth.ng. How are you balancing early liquidity through secondaries versus waiting for strategic acquisitions or IPOs? We run two tracks. Programmatic secondaries at qualified rounds, usually exiting ~20% of our position when there’s clean liquidity. Strategic exits and IPOs for step-change value. In Fund II, we’ve added self-liquidating structures-like revenue-share notes with capped payback and redeemable prefs with cash sweeps-so LPs see early and mid-term cash returns without capping upside. Would you rather double down
Read MoreBank apps crash, OPay, PalmPay cash in: Inside ₦20.7 trillion mobile money rush
This is Follow the Money, our weekly series that unpacks the earnings, business, and scaling strategies of African fintechs and financial institutions. A new edition drops every Monday. The first time Adepeju Adenuga, an English PhD student, heard about Opay was during Nigeria’s cash crunch in 2023. “I was trying to make a transfer with my banking app, but it wasn’t even opening because of the cashless chaos at the time. It was the vendor I was trying to buy something from that told me to download Opay,” she said. Since then, Opay has become her go-to banking app for micro-transactions. For Bolu Omotayo, a journalist, it was a bank glitch in 2024 that made her switch to OPay. “I couldn’t access my salary for about a week, but someone told me about a feature on the app,” she recalled. “You can link another bank’s card to your OPay account and transfer money between third-party banks using the OPay app. That is what saved me.” Adenuga and Omotayo are not isolated cases. Each banking failure has pushed more Nigerians toward OPay or PalmPay. That steady shift helped drive mobile money (MMO) transactions to ₦20.71 trillion ($13.49 billion) in the first quarter of 2025, according to data from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS). This is a 1,518.64% increase from the ₦1.28 trillion ($833.43 million) recorded in Q1, 2021. Given that Q1 had 90 days, this works out to ₦230.09 billion ($149.89 million) daily, ₦9.59 billion ($6.25 million) per hour, ₦159.78 million ($104,091) every minute, and ₦2.66 million ($1,734) per second in Q1 2025. Despite this growth, MMO transactions still pale in comparison to the ₦284.99 trillion ($185.66 billion) conducted through instant transfers via traditional banking channels in the same period. 17 companies are licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to operate as mobile money operators, but OPay and PalmPay dominate. “OPay and PalmPay are the most prominent non-MNO-led mobile money providers and have gained significant market share in Nigeria since receiving their MMO licence,” stated GSMA, the global telecom industry body. How they won OPay and Palmpay rode a mix of timing, strategy, and luck. They tapped into Nigeria’s mobile boom, offering free and fast transfers in their early years, then heavily discounted rates as they matured. They gained credibility during moments when banks broke down, like the CBN’s failed naira redesign and withdrawal policy in 2022, and repeated bank glitches in 2024. Their growth also mirrors a global trend. In 2024, mobile money transaction values rose by 15% to $227 billion, with Sub-Saharan Africa still the epicentre of growth. More than a third of new active accounts in 2023 came from West Africa, driven by Nigeria, Ghana, and Senegal. Unlike East Africa, where telcos like Safaricom’s M-Pesa led growth, West Africa’s fintech boom has largely been driven by non-MNO players like OPay and PalmPay. The beginning OPay began operations in 2010 as PayCom Nigeria Limited, a mobile money platform incubated by Telnet (Nigeria) Limited. But it wasn’t until 2018, after Opera — owned by Chinese billionaire Yahui Zhou—acquired it, that it became a household name. Opera currently owns 9.4% of the company, with its stake valued at $258.3 million in 2024, placing OPay’s valuation at $2.75 billion. PalmPay launched in 2019 with a $40 million seed round led by Chinese mobile phone maker Transsion. This partnership gave the company a powerful distribution advantage, with its app preinstalled on Tecno, Infinix, and Itel smartphones, the dominant brands in Nigeria. OPay won the hearts of many Nigerians with its super app approach, offering numerous services. Its bike-hailing arm was particularly popular. However, a 2020 ban on bike rides in Lagos forced the company to focus exclusively on fintech, leveraging its vast agent network. PalmPay’s Transsion partnership gave it a ready-made user base, helping it grow to over 35 million. By 2023, Transsion and Xiaomi accounted for 85% of smartphone shipments into Nigeria, according to Canalys. Agents, trust, and scale Both companies grew aggressively by investing in agents. By 2023, OPay had over 500,000 agents, and PalmPay claims to have over one million. Mobile money agents serve as retail outlets and trust bridges. In areas with low smartphone penetration, they process deposits, withdrawals, airtime purchases, bill payments, and help with transfers. They are also the face of these companies in places where they do not have physical locations. These agents were able to help OPay and PalmPay expand aggressively by onboarding unbanked users with lower know-your-customer (KYC) requirements, in line with the CBN’s goal of increasing financial inclusion. Free transfers work OPay offered free transfers until June 2023, after which it charged ₦10 after the third transfer daily. PalmPay implemented the same strategy, introducing the ₦10 fee after years of offering free transfers. Having deep-pocketed investors made this sustainable. Opay has raised $570 million so far, while PalmPay has raised $140 million. CBN’s fumble, fintechs gain The CBN’s naira redesign in 2022 was meant to push Nigerians toward cashless payments. Instead, it exposed the fragility of banks’ systems as transaction failures spiked, ATMs ran dry, and banking apps crashed. OPay and PalmPay benefited heavily from these glitches. By March 2023, they were Nigeria’s most downloaded finance apps. By October 2023, OPay was the country’s most-downloaded app. Having agile IT infrastructures due to their fintech-first approach enabled them to rapidly scale capacity. This also translated to revenue boosts. PalmPay’s revenue rose to $63.90 million in 2023, a 31,850% increase from $0.20 million in 2020. OPay’s revenue numbers remain undisclosed, but it reported 10 million daily active users and 100 million daily transaction volumes in 2024. In 2025, Chika Nwosu, the managing director at Palmpay, recently disclosed that the firm now processes 15 million daily transactions with a 99.5% success rate. “Mobile money wasn’t always perceived as viable, but we identified a core problem: system reliability, especially for simple things like free and seamless transfers,” he said in May. “So we invested in technology that’s efficient and reliable.” Betting on cards
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Cardtonic is building a super app for everything gift cards, gadgets, and payments
In Nigeria, the vibrant holiday season often comes with an unusual problem: wasted gift cards. A cousin in London might buy an Apple Store voucher and send it to a loved one in Lagos, but with no official Apple store, that card becomes little more than a shiny piece of plastic that sits unused until it expires. This gap has quietly spawned a parallel economy. As of 2024, Nigeria’s gifting industry is worth $2.1 billion and is projected to grow to $3 billion in the next three years. Across the country, gift cards have taken on another function entirely as a form of currency. A growing number of people prefer to sell gift cards for cash, and middlemen—gift card brokers—have stepped in to bridge the divide between foreign retailers and local realities. Cardtonic, a Nigerian fintech startup, built its business on that simple proposition: turning unused or inaccessible gift cards into liquid money. “The major issue was, people would get Nike or Adidas gift cards from their siblings abroad, and by the time it got to them in Nigeria, they didn’t know what to use it for. It just went to waste,” said Oluwatomisin Oduyemi, Cardtonic’s growth lead. “Our founders realised this was a problem that needed a solution.” Get the best African tech newsletters in your inbox Country Afghanistan Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil British Antarctic Territory British Indian Ocean Territory British Virgin Islands Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Canton and Enderbury Islands Cape Verde Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Christmas Island Cocos [Keeling] Islands Colombia Comoros Congo – Brazzaville Congo – Kinshasa Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Côte d’Ivoire Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Dronning Maud Land East Germany Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories French Southern and Antarctic Territories Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Heard Island and McDonald Islands Honduras Hong Kong SAR China Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Isle of Man Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jersey Johnston Island Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macau SAR China Macedonia Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Metropolitan France Mexico Micronesia Midway Islands Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar [Burma] Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles Neutral Zone New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island North Korea North Vietnam Northern Mariana Islands Norway Oman Pacific Islands Trust Territory Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territories Panama Panama Canal Zone Papua New Guinea Paraguay People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen Peru Philippines Pitcairn Islands Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russia Rwanda Réunion Saint Barthélemy Saint Helena Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Martin Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands South Korea Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Svalbard and Jan Mayen Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Syria São Tomé and Príncipe Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tokelau Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu U.S. Minor Outlying Islands U.S. Miscellaneous Pacific Islands U.S. Virgin Islands Uganda Ukraine Union of Soviet Socialist Republics United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Unknown or Invalid Region Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican City Venezuela Vietnam Wake Island Wallis and Futuna Western Sahara Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe Åland Islands ?> Gender Male Female Others TC Daily Events TC Scoop <!– Next Wave –> <!– Entering Tech –> Subscribe Building a business out of waste Founded in 2019 by Balogun Usman and Kayode Faturoti, Cardtonic—operating under its legal setup, The Tonic Technologies—started as a cryptocurrency trading app before pivoting to gift card trading. Seeing the lack of utility around gift cards in Nigeria, the startup set out to provide a solution to curb wastage. Cardtonic positioned itself as a reliable broker, where users could send in their gift cards, the startup validates them, and then offloads them to vetted partners who pay cash in return to take the cards. That efficiency is central to its appeal. Some cards, known internally as “fast cards,” can be validated and cashed out within 10 minutes. Others, such as store-specific vouchers that require manual checks, take longer. In January 2025, Cardtonic appointed Emmanuel Sohe as CEO, claiming it now serves more than one million users. Yet only around 500,000 to 600,000 of those users are considered “active”—customers who trade gift cards or use its other payment features at least once a month. The startup also claims it processes 400,000 gift cards monthly, emphasising that quick turnaround is its moat. “Over time, we’ve been able to optimise the transaction time from when you submit your cards to when you get paid, to about 10 minutes for the fast cards,” Oduyemi said. The business comes with plenty of risks. Some cards simply don’t work. Customers send in codes that turn out to have been used already, others submit numbers that don’t exist, and with physical cards, the digits sometimes get damaged when the surface is scratched off. These problems are so common that Cardtonic keeps a team focused only on quality checks before any payment is released. Fraud is another part of daily life in this market. Scammers pose as company staff, try to hack into user accounts, or trick people into handing over their codes. And once a gift card code is stolen or redeemed elsewhere, the value is gone for good. “Whenever you’re dealing with digital assets, there will always be an issue of authenticity,” said Oduyemi. To
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“I started out of circumstance not ambition”: Day 1-1000 of Microware Solutions
When you ask Michael Ekeagbara, CEO of Microware Solutions Limited, about the origins of his company, he describes it as nothing less than “a journey of hope.” Ekeagbara, the subject of today’s edition of the Day 1–1000 column, began humbly, repairing computers in Kaduna. From that modest start, he pieced together a career that would carry him through fire, rejection, false starts, and finally into building a Systems, Applications & Products in Data Processing (SAP) Gold Partner company. Along the way, he tells of hunger as motivation, lessons paid for in failure, and the stubborn refusal to give up when the odds seemed impossible. This is the story of Microware Solutions as told to TechCabal. Day 1: I didn’t choose entrepreneurship, it chose me I didn’t just wake up one morning and decide to be an entrepreneur. Truth is, I wanted a job. I graduated in 1998 with an Higher National Degree (HND) in Computer Science, a degree widely discriminated against and thought to be lower than the Bachelor’s degree in Nigeria’s job market. I went for NYSC in Kaduna, and thought I’d land in a bank. I sent applications, sat for interviews, but they always said the same thing: “We don’t take HND holders.” There was no uncle to call, no godfather, no family nearby. Hunger was staring me in the face. So I picked up what I knew. I repaired computers. I took a part-time lecturing job, teaching programming. One day, a student working at NNPC asked if I could build a software for their internal audit. I wrote the code, and it worked. They adopted it across subsidiaries. I was surviving, but not earning much. My motivation was simple: food on the table. On February 22, 2000, Kaduna went up in crisis. It was one of those conflicts between Fulani herders and indigenous communities. By nightfall, my little office had been burned. My home too. I lost everything. I ran to the Nigerian Defence Academy, stayed there two nights, and then fled south with nothing but the software I had written. That software became my bargaining chip. By June 2000, I landed a job at Magic Software in Victoria Island after demonstrating it. My boss asked, “How many people built this?” I told him it was all me—analysis, coding, database. That impressed him. At Magic Software, I built finance and payroll systems for oil companies and banks. It gave me confidence that I could hold my own. Get the best African tech newsletters in your inbox Country Afghanistan Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil British Antarctic Territory British Indian Ocean Territory British Virgin Islands Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Canton and Enderbury Islands Cape Verde Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Christmas Island Cocos [Keeling] Islands Colombia Comoros Congo – Brazzaville Congo – Kinshasa Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Côte d’Ivoire Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Dronning Maud Land East Germany Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories French Southern and Antarctic Territories Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Heard Island and McDonald Islands Honduras Hong Kong SAR China Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Isle of Man Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jersey Johnston Island Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macau SAR China Macedonia Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Metropolitan France Mexico Micronesia Midway Islands Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar [Burma] Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles Neutral Zone New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island North Korea North Vietnam Northern Mariana Islands Norway Oman Pacific Islands Trust Territory Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territories Panama Panama Canal Zone Papua New Guinea Paraguay People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen Peru Philippines Pitcairn Islands Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russia Rwanda Réunion Saint Barthélemy Saint Helena Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Martin Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands South Korea Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Svalbard and Jan Mayen Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Syria São Tomé and Príncipe Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tokelau Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu U.S. Minor Outlying Islands U.S. Miscellaneous Pacific Islands U.S. Virgin Islands Uganda Ukraine Union of Soviet Socialist Republics United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Unknown or Invalid Region Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican City Venezuela Vietnam Wake Island Wallis and Futuna Western Sahara Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe Åland Islands ?> Gender Male Female Others TC Daily Events TC Scoop <!– Next Wave –> <!– Entering Tech –> Subscribe After Magic, I joined MTS First Wireless, building billing and data systems. Then came the big one: IT Manager at a major oil and gas firm. Out of over 1,000 applicants, I came out on top. The MD and GMs wanted me. But the chairman said no. His verdict: “No HND in any of my companies.” That cut deep. I told myself, never again. That was the last job application I ever wrote. I vowed I would prove that with this same HND, I would hire BScs, Masters, and PhDs. And that’s what pushed me back to my own company. The desert years I rebranded my company as Microware Solutions in 2008. And then I walked straight into what I call my desert years. Six years of drought. I tried everything to survive. I sold carpets and imported red wine from Italy. I lost
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