Uganda: Equity Bank to Work With Fintechs to Transform Customers’ Lives
Kampala — Gift Shoko, Managing Director of Equity Bank Uganda, has re-affirmed that the future of banking is not just about banks but more about strategic partnerships and shared infrastructure with FinTechs to provide seamless banking experiences.
“Equity Bank sees FinTechs not just as clients but as partners in driving financial inclusion, fostering innovation and creating efficiencies for businesses and communities across Africa,” he said.
This was last Friday when Equity Bank Uganda in collaboration with the Financial Technologies Service Providers Association (FITSPA) successfully hosted an exclusive Fintech Engagement Breakfast at Golden Tulip Hotel, Kampala.
Learn more: https://allafrica.com/stories/202504010347.html
Credit Direct Pivots to Full Digital Finance with New Suite of Fintech Products
LAGOS, March 30, 2025 – Credit Direct, a leading Nigerian financial services company, announced a strategic pivot from lending to a comprehensive digital finance company with the launch of several innovative fintech products. At its “This is Credit Direct” product demo event in Lagos on March 29, the company unveiled digital offerings targeting retail investments, payments for individuals and businesses, and a Buy Now, Pay Later solution for merchants and individuals.
The company, which has historically operated as a lender for 18 years, is now positioning itself as a digital-first financial technology company that provides financial access through multiple channels, including mobile and web app, USSD, API links for their Buy Now, Pay Later Solution on merchant sites, WhatsApp, and AI intelligence.
Busy Eid Fintech Week (TWIF – Africa 03/31)
South Africa’s Competition Tribunal has explained why it forbid a proposed multibillion-rand deal between telecoms operator Vodacom and fiber company Maziv last year.
Five months after the deal was prohibited by the Tribunal, the competition watchdog released a detailed statement outlining its reasons and said if the transaction were to go ahead it would have “permanent” anti-competitive effects for the market.
“The merger-specific public interest benefits of the proposed transaction, on the other hand, are limited in duration and do not outweigh its negative competition effects that relate to various relevant markets and that will ultimately impact millions of South African consumers that will increasingly in the future be making use of data/internet services,” the Tribunal’s statement reads.
Learn more: https://www.connectingafrica.com/regulation/sa-tribunal-explains-why-it-blocked-vodacom-maziv-deal
SumUp Teams up With FreedomPay to Help Merchants to Focus on Growth
paymSumUp, a payment and business solution provider, is partnering with payment orchestration platform FreedomPay, to enable businesses to focus on growth and success.
Through the partnership, SumUp and FreedomPay plan to deliver a robust payment system with offline capability alongside hardware flexibility and enterprise-level infrastructural functionality for commercial operations.
By partnering with FreedomPay, the independent payment gateway, SumUp aims to deliver new solutions that empower merchants to focus on growth and success.
Learn more: https://thefintechtimes.com/sumup-teams-up-with-freedompay-to-help-merchants-to-focus-on-growth/
Mastercard brings embedded virtual card tech to commercial payments
From April, banks using Mastercard’s Virtual Card Number (VCN) technology can enable platform-partners that have enrolled in the new programme to accelerate the use of embedded consumer-like experiences in commercial payments.
By embedding VCN technology into the systems that corporates are already using, Mastercard says it will make payments more efficient and streamlined. The programme, it claims, will help slash lengthy onboarding processes, unlock efficiency for all VCN ecosystem participants and accelerate VCN usage in an $80 trillion serviceable market.
Enhancing cross-border payments in Europe and beyond
As we gather here today in Osijek, we stand at a crossroads in the world of payments.
Digitalisation is driving economic progress and transforming the way we make retail payments, yet there is growing frustration that the dramatic decline in IT and telecommunications costs has not been reflected in lower fees for cross-border payments in many parts of the world.
This has proven to be an obstacle to economic integration, including in this part of Europe. For instance, a small business owner here in Croatia trying to make a €5,000 transfer to a supplier in a Western Balkan economy that is not part of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) faces costs up to 12 times higher than when sending the same amount to a counterpart within SEPA.[1]
Learn more: https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/key/date/2025/html/ecb.sp250401~9e1ee05e88.en.html
