The Open Africa Podcast

On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa talk about dLocal's intention to acquire AZA Finance, Fincra's Expansion to East Africa, Palmpay's plan to Raise, and other alleged Industry news._We love hearing your thoughts! Find us on X (@TheOAPod) and Instagram (@openafricapod) and tag us in your conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa talk about Banks—how banks make money, how banks loan money, and what most Nigerians think about bank charges, while reading commentary from Twitter (X).Read our substack about Bank Charges here_We love hearing your thoughts! Find us on X (@TheOAPod) and Instagram (@openafricapod) and tag us in your conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa talk about Paystack launching Zap, PayHippo's recent $4 million raise, rebrand as Rivy and pivot to clean energy financing, alongside news of Nigerian neobanks like Kuda and Nomba launching premium tiers._We love hearing your thoughts! Find us on X (@TheOAPod) and Instagram (@openafricapod) and tag us in your conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of the podcast, 'Laolu, Nosa, and Furo talk about Cedar Money's $9.9 million seed round, Ghana-based fintech Oze securing undisclosed funding from Visa and DEG, Edukoya's shutdown as a result of macroeconomic challenges, Vendease's second round of layoffs in five months, and other industry news across the continent._We love hearing your thoughts! Find us on X (@TheOAPod) and Instagram (@openafricapod) and tag us in your conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to our first explainer episode for 2025!–On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa talk about how cross border payments and remittances really work, LemFi's expansion into Europe and why this is a good thing._We love hearing your thoughts! Find us on X (@TheOAPod) and Instagram (@openafricapod) and tag us in your conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of the podcast, 'Laolu, Nosa, and Furo talk about Moniepoint and Visa's partnership, Accrue, SeamlessHR's additional $9 million raise in series A extension, MoneyHash's $5.2 million pre-series A raise, and what they think is really happening with Bento._We love hearing your thoughts! Find us on Twitter and Instagram (@openafricapod) and tag us in your conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of the podcast, 'Laolu, Nosa, and Furo talk about the KPMG Customer finance report; what exactly investing in commodity looks like, LemFi's $53 million raise as it expands remittance services into Europe, Gokada filing for bankruptcy, some predictions for 2025, alongside other industry news._We love hearing your thoughts! Find us on Twitter and Instagram (@openafricapod) and tag us in your conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

…and it's a wrap! Thank you for rocking with your favorite finance trio this year (and don't worry, we tried not to make “doomy” predictions this time ;-) )–On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa do a month by month recap of 2024 episodes. From raises to shutdowns to unicorns to migrations to fraud, this was the year it all happened._We love hearing your thoughts! Find us on Twitter and Instagram (@openafricapod) and tag us in your conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa talk about Moniepoint raising $110 million in their series C funding and achieving Unicorn status, their ambitious plans of becoming a commercial bank and the Access bank playbook. We also discuss the reoccurring fraud problems at First Bank alongside other industry news._We love hearing your thoughts! Find us on Twitter and Instagram (@openafricapod) and tag us in your conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa talk about some developments in the ecosystem in recent weeks. They consider Rise's acquisition of Hisa; a Kenyan investment startup, Chipper's expansion and securing Ghana's SEC license, Fincra receiving a Third Party Payment Provider (TPPP) licence in South Africa, and other industry news._We love hearing your thoughts! Find us on Twitter and Instagram (@openafricapod) and tag us in your conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We call this the episode that almost never was but thankfully we were able to salvage it (everybody, say thank you ‘Laolu!) and now you get to listen._On this episode of the podcast, Nosa, Furo, and 'Laolu talked about some new people changes at MTN MoMo, USA Mercury Bank's decision to close accounts linked to Nigeria and implications, the Unity and Providus Bank Merger, and the 44 billion naira reported fraud at Nigeria's First Bank._We love hearing your thoughts! Find us on Twitter and Instagram (@openafricapod) and tag us in your conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa have a guest! They are joined by Angie Jones, the Global Vice President of Developer Relations for tbd. This is Block's new business unit focused on decentralized technologies to move money in a fast and compliant way.They discuss tbd's flagship protocol tbDEX, and the upcoming hackathon happening at the Africa Bitcoin Conference in December._We love hearing your thoughts! Find us on Twitter and Instagram (@openafricapod) and tag us in your conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa do a deep dive into some not so exciting news in the Tech Ecosystem; Carbon shut down its debit card service over two years after launch, the reoccurring problems with Cards among Fintechs in Nigeria, Afrigo - the CBN's Domestic Card Scheme, Prospa, and Brass' acquisition by a Paystack-led consortium, amongst other industry news._We love hearing your thoughts! Find us on Twitter and Instagram (@openafricapod) and tag us in your conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa recount recent popping headlines in the Tech Ecosystem, Orca's $550,000 pre-seed round led by Norrsken22, the Central Bank of Nigeria and new directives for Bureau De Change operators, Snitching-as-a-service, Google's plan to build Umoja; the first-ever fibre-optic cable directly connecting Africa with Australia, BlackCopper's 2 billion naira debt, amongst other industry news._We love hearing your thoughts! Find us on Twitter and Instagram (@openafricapod) and tag us in your conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa discuss YC's list of best performing startups, the Peer's shutdown, CBN's directive for neobanks to temporarily halt onboarding of new accounts, and Chowdeck's recent $2.5 million seed raise, among other industry news._We love hearing your thoughts! Find us on Twitter and Instagram (@openafricapod) and tag us in your conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa recount some activities of The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in recent weeks; new BDC regulations, revoking of 4,173 Bureau De Change licenses, Binance exiting Nigeria. Mara pausing operations, Bfree raising $3 million, Carbon acquiring Vella Finance, and other industry news._We love hearing your thoughts! Find us on Twitter and Instagram (@openafricapod) and tag us in your conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Happy New Year, everyone!_On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa talk about some updates in the Cryptocurrency Industry; CNGN stable coin by the Africa Stablecoin Consortium and the unveiling of suspects connected to the ₦ 142.8 million Patricia hack. They all discuss Mastercard's partnership with Jumia, Rova's quarterly report, Yellowcard and Coinbase._We love hearing your thoughts! Find us on Twitter and Instagram (@openafricapod) and tag us in your conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

We recorded this episode remotely so if the sound quality seems a little off, that's why, please bare with us._On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa do recap of some happenings in the industry, they talk about the CBN's new requirements for Tier-1 bank accounts, Interswitch losing ₦30 billion to chargeback fraud and attempts at recovery, Crowdyvest owing customers and equity proposal, Patricia and tokens, and why we might need more regulation in the ecosystem._We love hearing your thoughts! Find us on Twitter and Instagram (@openafricapod) and tag us in your conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa have a guest! They are joined by Kenny Bayeroju; an investment and finance professional based in Nigeria. Together, they talk about Dash - a Ghanaian-based Fintech that shut down recently, how to raise money in the Nigerian capital market, and other significant industry news._We love hearing your thoughts! Find us on Twitter and Instagram (@openafricapod) and tag us in your conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa share their thoughts on some industry news - ChipperCash's pivot into offering KYC services, Anchor raising $2.4 million in a seed round, Nestcoin raising $1.9 million to grow Onboard; “a secure self-custody wallet for managing digital assets with no middlemen”, and Swap by Flutterwave._We love hearing your thoughts! Find us on Twitter and Instagram (@openafricapod) and tag us in your conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa discuss Moniepoint; evolution from B2B to B2C, expansion to Kenya and acquisition of Kopo Kopo, the limitations of innovation in Mobile Money markets, Bankly's Microfinance Bank announcement, and Chipper Cash's Forbes interview._We love hearing your thoughts! Find us on Twitter and Instagram (@openafricapod) and tag us in your conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa recap the events of the past month, discussing Bundle and Pillow in the retail crypto space, FX policies in Nigeria, GTBank's new app rollout, and the purported CBN's social media for KYC requirement._We love hearing your thoughts! Find us on Twitter and Instagram (@openafricapod) and tag us in your conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa take a deep dive on cards, shedding light on concepts like card types, card schemes, and the difficulties in running a successful card business. They also discuss the IMF report on eNaira, and highlight the challenges of the CBDC._We love hearing your thoughts! Find us on Twitter and Instagram (@openafricapod) and tag us in your conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa weigh in on the latest happenings in the industry - Lazerpay and the media, technology journalism, the implications of a revoked banking license, and the woes of B2C companies in Nigeria.-We love hearing your thoughts! Find us on Twitter and Instagram (@openafricapod) and tag us in your conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa discuss the recent happenings in the Crypto space in Nigeria amongst several industry news - Paxful and Lazerpay's shut down, workplace fraud, use cases of AI in Crypto, and what to expect from Moniepoint's investment in Payday.We love hearing your thoughts! Find us on Twitter and Instagram (@opemafricapod) and tag us in your conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa consider the recent events in the African Tech Ecosystem - Alerzo's second round of layoffs in seven months and the shutting down of some of their warehouses, Chipper Cash's recent round of layoffs, Silicon Valley Bank's collapse and what it means for businesses.We love hearing your thoughts! Find us on Twitter and Instagram (@openafricapod) and tag us in your conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa set out to solve the mystery of An Agri-fintech company's existence, Dozy Mmobuosi's ongoing plan to purchase Sheffield United, the reality of Nigeria's new cashless policy and why Bank transfers fail._We love hearing your thoughts! Find us on Twitter and Instagram (@opemafricapod) and tag us in your conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Happy New Year!_On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa attempt to make predictions for 2023, consider how AI might be coming after our jobs, and general industry happenings in recent times._We love hearing your thoughts! Find us on Twitter and Instagram (@openafricapod) and tag us in your conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of the podcast, ‘Laolu, Furo, and Nosa have a conversation with Dickson Nsofor – Founder and CEO of Kora.They talk about his journey as a founder, recent industry news; raises, layoffs, and FTX, what Kora is building and what happened in Kenya._We love hearing your thoughts! Find us on Twitter and Instagram (@openafricapod) and tag us in your conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa have guests; Ojiugo Uche and Ekemezie Uche - Co-founders Genti Media, an entertainment company promoting audio stories, audio books, and podcasts in indigenous African languages.Together, they talk about recent industry news, leadership problems in the ecosystem, and what to expect from Genti Media._We love hearing your thoughts! Find us on Twitter and Instagram (@openafricapod) and tag us in your conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa have a guest; Wole Ayodele - CEO Fincra, a fintech providing Fincra providing solutions that enable their clients accept payments securely and make payouts globally. Together, they talk about the recent news on Kuda MFB, and other happenings in the industry._We love hearing your thoughts! Find us on Twitter and Instagram (@openafricapod) and tag us in your conversations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

* If you hear a number of blips - as you will - we had to filter this episode (quite heavily too) because we're really not trying to fight.. yet

On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa talk about FinTech marketing on social media, some regulations, and why “Snitching-As-A-Service” just might be a viable business model._We love hearing your thoughts! Find us on Twitter and Instagram (@openafricapod) and tag us in your conversations. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa bring us up to speed on some of the latest happenings in the Tech Ecosystem – Union 54, Flutterwave's recent incident in Kenya, fraud in the ecosystem, and regulatory troubles._We love hearing your thoughts! Find us on Twitter and Instagram (@openafricapod) and tag us in your conversations. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa discuss some of the latest happenings in the Nigerian Tech Ecosystem – Interswitch's recent $110 million raise and their newly updated perks for employees of the company, BridgeCard - an app that allows you have all your cards in one place, and Open Banking._We love hearing your thoughts! Find us on Twitter and Instagram (@openafricapod) and tag us in your conversations. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa talk about Foreign Exchange – how it works, how people source FX as individuals and businesses in Nigeria, recent regulations and restrictions, and how the “black market” come to play._We love hearing your thoughts! Find us on Twitter and Instagram (@openafricapod) and tag us in your conversations. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa discuss Moniepoint and Nomba, toxic workplaces, and the potential impact of MTNs PSB license. _We love hearing your thoughts! Find us on Twitter and Instagram (@openafricapod) and tag us in your conversations. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa talk about some of the recent raises in the Ecosystem– BigCabal's $2.3 million seed funding, Dash's $32.8 million seed funding, Moove's $105 million series B funding – and finally take a deep dive into the B2B supply chain businesses in the African startup scene._We love hearing your thoughts! Find us on Twitter and Instagram (@openafricapod) and tag us in your conversations. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa discuss some of the latest happenings in the Nigerian Tech Ecosystem – Earnipay's launch and what they do, Reliance's $40M raise led by General Atlantic, Flutterwave 3.0 and it's implications for the startup scene in Africa._We love hearing your thoughts! Find us on Twitter and Instagram (@openafricapod) and tag us in your conversations. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa have Gbenga – big time fan of the podcast and blockchain engineer – to give insights on what exactly Web3 is, why it exists, and if we should be interested in it._We love hearing your thoughts! Find us on Twitter and Instagram (@openafricapod) and tag us in your conversations. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this episode of the podcast, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa talk about the Payment Service Bank (PSB) License, how the license can be obtained and what the license does.We also considered MTN's existing mobile money network in countries across Africa, how it works, and what an expansion would look like._Follow us @OpenAfricaPod on Twitter and Instagram tag us in your conversations. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this episode 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa, following the recent trends in the Finance and Technology industry talk about compliance and Risk management; what the Anti Money Laundering (AML) and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) controls do, why they exist, and who they apply to._Follow us @OpenAfricaPod on Twitter and Instagram and tag us in your conversations. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this episode 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa consider some of the recent raises by companies in the Ecosystem, what they do and the impact of these raises – Mono raising $15M, Stitch's $2M seed extension and expansion to Nigeria, Sparkle's seed round raise of $3.1M, Brass' $1.7M raise, Moove and MFS Africa._Follow us @OpenAfricaPod on Twitter and Instagram and tag us in your conversations. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We apologize for this episode's quality. Something broke during recording and we didn't catch it until after. We thought about scrapping it several times, but it is such a fun and insightful conversation that we decided not to. Please bear with us._On this episode 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa have a conversation with Nadayar - CEO/Cofounder at Edenlife; a tech company in Lagos bringing the convenience of room service to homes.They talk about the journey so far, why Edenlife is important, and biggest challenges._Follow us @OpenAfricaPod on Twitter and Instagram and tag us in your conversations. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this episode 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa (yes, it's just us today) discuss Some African startups that got into YC's Summer 2021 cohort, the new regulations by the CBN, and Opay's recent raise and becoming a unicorn._Follow us @OpenAfricaPod on Twitter and Instagram and tag us in your conversations. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this episode 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa are joined in the studio (actually, Zoom call) by Jude Dike and Temitope Ekundayo – CEO and Head of Growth at GetEquity; a private marketplace enabling retail purchase of equity. They talk all about Tokenised Equity, creating an ecosystem around Venture Capital, their recent pre-seed fund raise, and challenges so far._Follow us @OpenAfricaPod on Twitter and Instagram and tag us in your conversations! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this episode 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa are joined in the studio by Folayemi Agusto – Co-founder and CEO of tix.africa; a self-service ticketing platform for event creators.They consider tix.africa's recent six-figure pre-seed round, the company's plans for expansion into Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, and Egypt in H2 of 2021, and Tix Pro; a subscription based service launched recently._Follow us @OpenAfricaPod on Twitter and Instagram and tag us in your conversations! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this episode 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa discuss notable events that happened in the Tech and Finance ecosystem this July – FairMoney raising 42 million dollars during their Series B raises, Cowrywise getting the SEC Fund/Portfolio Management license, Carbon's partnership with Visa and what it means for their customers, ULesson's physical centres launch, and TeamApt raising an undisclosed amount of money._Follow us @OpenAfricaPod on Twitter and Instagram and tag us in your conversations! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this episode 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa discuss the payments business in Nigeria; players, licensing schemes, and attempt to contextualize common misconceptions about payments._Follow us @OpenAfricaPod on Twitter and Instagram and tag us in your conversations! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this episode 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa discuss Telda; an Egyptian neobank that raised $5 million pre-seed funding, Chipper Cash's $100 million Series C raise, Paga's latest milestones; hitting 1 trillion Naira in 15 months, and the CBN's plan to launch their own digital currency._Follow us @OpenAfricaPod on Twitter and Instagram and tag us in your conversations! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.