We often hear news about alternative finance in a few main geographies: the the UK and Continental Europe, the US and China....
German-based marketplace lender Bitbond has partnered with African payments provider BitPesa to improve the lending experience for small and medium enterprise (SME) borrowers; Bitbond will enhance the blockchain lending services of its platform by incorporating cross-border payments through BitPesa; the BitPesa payments platform can make payments in 20 minutes and is now live in Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda and Tanzania. Source
In collaboration with Energy 4 Impact, UKAid and the CME Group Foundation, the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance has released a study on crowdfunding and P2P lending in Africa and the Middle East; Lend Academy provides details of the report in their article; covers 46 countries in Africa and 12 countries in the Middle East, featuring data on 70 alternative platforms. Source
Ebanx announced the expansion of its operations to the African continent after acquiring an essential presence in 15 Latin American nations.
The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) announced the complete interoperability of mobile money payment services in Kenya.
Lidya has raised $1.25 million to expand its financing services for small and medium enterprises in Africa; the funding round was led by Accion Venture Lab and will help the company enhance its credit scoring for small businesses and improve access to small business funding; it is targeting $4.9 million in loans for its first year of business. Source
Nontraditional data is relevant across Africa as credit bureaus don't have the historical depth their Western counterparts enjoy.
Latin America Ebanx expects growth in alternative payment methods as e-commerce continues to grow in the region, as well as in Africa.
Announced today, the MasterCard Foundation is partnering with the Center for Financial Inclusion (CFI) at Accion on a $4.4 million initiative to promote more robust consumer financial protection laws around the world; CFI's Smart Campaign has existed since 2009 and has certified the consumer protection practices of 68 financial institutions to-date; the MasterCard Foundation contribution will support involvement of more parties (such as regulators, non-bank financial institutions and fintech platforms) and more countries; a particular focus will be on sub-Saharan Africa. Source
Wagner Ruiz, Co-founder of EBANX, talked at the Fintech Nexus LatAm 2022 event about the outlook for payment innovation in emerging markets.