Is Nigeria's eNaira Digital Currency A Flop?
Mobile money reaches $1 trillion and dLocal gets licensed in Kenya and Rwanda
What’s happened this Week:
Mobile Money transactions passed $1 trillion in 2022
Fintech firm dLocal gets licenses in Kenya and Rwanda
and more!
Almost a year and a half ago, Nigeria officially launched its digital currency, the eNaira. Fast forward and it appears that the digital currency hasn’t been broadly adopted by Nigerians.
According to Bloomberg, as of October 2022, fewer than 1.15 million Nigerians, or roughly under 0.5% of the country’s population, had used the eNaira with only 1.4 million transactions made.
The Nigerian Central Bank had predicted that the eNaira had the potential to contribute to the growth of the Nation’s GDP by $29 billion over the next 10 years.
Other African countries including Eswatini, Kenya, Morocco, Namibia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe are all currently in the research stage of CBDC development.
Ghana, which piloted its digital currency called the eCedi last year, has decided to delay the project due to the country’s economic situation.
Not a great start for African digital currencies.
In The News This Week:
Energy Startup Kofa Raises Seed Funding to Launch Intelligent Battery-Swapping Network in Ghana
Ghanaian and UK-based energy technology company, Kofa, has secured seed funding to drive its mission of providing clean energy access to 10 million customers across Africa and offsetting 10 million tonnes of CO2 annually.
Fintech firm dLocal Obtains Regulatory Licenses To Operate in Kenya and Rwanda
dLocal, the fintech firm has announced that the Central Bank of Kenya and the National Bank of Rwanda have granted it their respective payment service licenses.
Mobile Money Services Reached Transaction Value of $1.26 trillion in 2022
According to the GSMA’s annual ‘State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money 2023, Mobile money services are growing faster than predicted around the globe, as digital services continue to rise in popularity.
Kunda Kids Raises $700,000 In Pre-Seed; Announces Kunda and Friends YouTube Series
Kunda Kids, the award-winning children’s media publisher, and creative studio, has announced the launch of the Kunda & Friends YouTube series, the company’s flagship animation series, premiering on May 29th at The Cineworld Cinema at The O2 in Greenwich, London.
Kenyan Startup Amini Raises $2 Million To Solve Environmental Data Scarcity for Africa
Amini, an early-stage company focused on solving Africa’s environmental data gap through artificial intelligence and satellite technology, has raised $2 million in pre-seed funding in an oversubscribed round led by Pale Blue Dot, a leading European Climate Tech fund.
Story Features
Did Ghana’s Movie Industry Miss Out On Streaming?
In recent years, the Ghanaian film sector has been struggling to keep up with the changing trends and demands of the global market.
One of the main challenges facing the industry is the lack of access to streaming platforms, which is becoming the dominant mode of distribution and consumption for movies in the 21st century.
Has the Ghana movie industry missed out on streaming?
Africa Ecosystem Funding Activity
SA ed-tech startup Play Sense raises funding to assist expansion plans - Disrupt Africa
SA’s Tyme raises $77.8m to fuel global expansion - Disrupt Africa
New “What’s Your Story” Podcast Episode
Christabel E. Dadzie is the founder of Ahaspora, a group that helps professional Ghanaian returnees with help and support. Before Christabel founded the group, she studied international relations at the College of Wooster in 2004 and then went on to continue her graduate study at Colombia University.
It was when she returned to Ghana in 2010 that she realized that there was a need for a support group for Ghanaian returnees. So with twelve other Ghanaian returnees, they help formed the Ahaspora group in 2011 as a listserv. Currently, the group has 3000+ members.
Christabel currently works for the World Bank as a Social Protection Specialist but makes time to help manage Ahaspora programs, mentoring activities and Ahaspora's "Adopt A Community" program.
This episode of "What's Your Story" is sponsored by Paystack. Sign up for a Paystack account at paystack.com/technova and start receiving payments for your website or online business
Ecosystem Data Portal
Subscribe to our Tech Ecosystem data portal and get access to information on 200+ startups and companies in the Ghanaian tech ecosystem.
You can access all this data by subscribing to our portal here for $20/month (or 60GHC a month)