Follow the Money

We hear a lot, in the African tech ecosystem, that the competition is with cash. Virtually every country in the world is on some form of a journey to move from cash to cashless. Many African markets, however, are quite far on that journey. And to understand how to accelerate this trend on the continent, we first need to understand how money moves.

[04:55] - For most Africans, the mobile money experience starts with agent networks, like TeamApt's MoniePoint, in Nigeria.
[09:47] - Though increasingly, people are getting paid by employers directly into their mobile wallets. Bulk disbursement startups like Julaya, in Cote d'Ivoire, play a role here.
[13:24] - But how does money actually move, between accounts and banks? The movement of money is powered by national payments switches. In South Africa, its payments switch is BankservAfrica.
[20:06] - So now that we know how money moves, how are fintechs building greater utility into their mobile wallets, to compel users to keep money in them?
[25:56] - How should we think about the design and extensibility of mobile wallets, in the context of physical wallets?

This season is sponsored by MFS Africa.

All this season, we're exploring value chains. And in the payments value chain, no fintech has a wider reach on the continent than MFS Africa. Through their network of over 180 partners - MNOs, banks, NGOs, fintechs, and global enterprises - MFS Africa's API hub makes connects over 320 million mobile wallets across 30+ countries in Africa.