FINASA Partners with Digital Finance Africa 2025 to Champion Fintech Growth Across South Africa
Johannesburg, South Africa— IT News Africa is thrilled to announce a strategic partnership with the Fintech Association of South Africa (FINASA) for the upcoming Digital Finance Africa 2025 summit, taking place on Thursday, 3rd July 2025 at The Maslow Hotel in Sandton, Johannesburg.
Now in its fifth year, Digital Finance Africa has become one of the continent’s most influential gatherings of fintech visionaries, banking executives, regulators, and cybersecurity professionals. The 2025 edition is themed “Safeguarding Innovation: Advancing Secure, Inclusive Finance in Africa” and will highlight the innovative, disruptive, and transformative role of technology in shaping the future of African financial services.
EFT Corporation Partners with Kenyan SACCOs to Co-Create Shared Digital Payments Platform
EFT Corporation, an African payment solutions provider supporting over 100 million end users and processing more than $33 billion in transactions annually, has announced its partnership with a number of Kenya’s leading SACCOs to co-create a shared digital payments platform. The announcement was made at the EFT Connect: Kenya event, held in Nairobi in May 2025, where regulators, SACCO leaders, and fintech enablers gathered to explore the future of cooperative financial infrastructure.
While SACCOs have made strong strides in adopting digital tools, many have not yet been licensed as PSPs or integrated into Kenya’s National Payment System (NPS). As a result, they haven’t had the opportunity to issue cards, process transactions directly, or scale digital services without relying on bank intermediaries.
Afreximbank: PAPSS launches the African Currency Marketplace to accelerate intra-African payments
Abuja, June 25, 2025 – The Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), a flagship initiative of Afreximbank in partnership with the African Union Commission and the AfCFTA Secretariat, has reached a major milestone with the official launch of the African Currency Marketplace, a groundbreaking platform designed to streamline cross-border payments in local currencies across Africa.
Named the African Currency Marketplace, this new feature aims to eliminate dependence on strong currencies (such as the dollar or euro) in commercial exchanges between African countries. The principle: allow a transaction to initiate in a local currency and conclude in another, without intermediate conversion into a foreign currency. “No hard currency involved,” summarized Mike Ogbalu, CEO of PAPSS, on the sidelines of the official opening of the 2025 Afreximbank Annual Meetings in Abuja.
NMB Bank and Mastercard Launch Digital Payment Card for Tanzanian SMEs
NMB Bank Plc, in collaboration with Mastercard, has launched the NMB Business Debit Traders card designed to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and microbusinesses in Tanzania grow their operations and expand their reach across borders. Tailored for the specific needs of traders, the new card simplifies domestic and cross-border transactions while unlocking access to exclusive discounts through Mastercard’s Easy Savings merchant platform.
With this payment solution, Tanzanian SMEs can now seamlessly process payments across major trade corridors including China, Turkey, the UAE, and Nigeria—regions where many local traders source goods and grow supplier relationships. By reducing transaction barriers and enhancing payment security, the card supports SMEs in boosting efficiency, lowering operational costs, and scaling operations.
Ethiopia to allow foreign banks for first time in 50 years
Ethiopia’s central bank has issued a long-awaited directive allowing foreign banks and investors to formally enter its financial sector, marking a major step in the country’s broader economic liberalisation programme. The move comes after years of reform commitments and follows the December 2024 ratification of a new banking law by parliament.
It is the first time Ethiopia is opening its banking system to foreign financial institutions since the sector was nationalised under the Derg regime in 1974. Despite being home to over 128 million people and the largest economy in East Africa by GDP, Ethiopia has long maintained a closed banking sector. Analysts say the move could inject new capital, boost competition, and accelerate the development of a sector that remains heavily dominated by the state-owned Commercial Bank of Ethiopia.
Read more: https://techcabal.com/2025/06/26/ethiopia-opens-banking-sector-to-foreign-investors/
Belgium and Travel Ledger Join Forces to Transform Digital Payments in European Travel
The collaboration between Belgium‘s ECTAA and Travel Ledger comes at a crucial moment in European travel news, as the industry faces growing pressure to update traditional payment systems. These conventional methods have often been slow, expensive, and prone to errors. The new partnership seeks to overcome these challenges by introducing advanced digital payment strategies that will streamline financial processes for travel businesses across the continent.
By implementing these modern solutions, travel businesses will be able to eliminate manual reconciliation, reduce operational costs, and process payments more swiftly. This digital transformation not only improves efficiency but also bolsters financial resilience, which is vital for businesses in today’s competitive travel market.
