Dare Okoudjou is the CEO of MFS Africa-- a firm which specialises in “making simple and relevant financial services accessible through mobile phones across Africa”. His international consulting background and current role as overseer of MFS Africa’s business across 22 African countries inform his perspectives on what might be next for the continent’s fintech scene.
In this chat with Andile Masuku, Dare factors in on a broad range of topics, including what financial services incumbents might be doing that makes them ripe for disruption, and why he reckons Africa is poised to lead the world in terms of fintech innovation within the next decade.
Sechaba Ngwenya is the co-founder of fintech startup, Creditable, that is currently enjoying the support of VC’s like Nest.vc while “playing nicely” with financial incumbents like DBS Hong Kong to establish the commercial viability to their innovative banking solutions.
Sechaba lets Andile Masuku in on what it’s taken to get his company to the relatively peachy phase they are now operating in, and dishes on the tricky business of securing the trust of existing financial institutions that have historically done well at servicing business, but not nearly as well at meeting the needs of individuals.
Last week, the Standard Bank Incubator in Johannesburg played host to Nest.vc’s forum on finance and technology. The gathering formed part Nest’s monthly entrepreneurship speaker series and showcase dubbed #WhatsNext.
It is the very first #WhatsNext event that Nest has hosted in Southern Africa— doing so in partnership with Standard Bank South Africa, and with support provided by iAfrikan and the African Tech Round Up.
In this week’s discussion, Zimbabwean tech entrepreneur and Business Analyst Team Leader at Digital Planet, Nzwisisa Chidembo joins Andile Masuku to unpack some of the weightier insights shared by the panelists who spoke at #WhatsNext #FinTech— namely, Dare Okoudjou of MFS Africa, Gerry Mitchley of Visa, Sechaba Ngwenya of Creditable and Lungisa Matshoba of Yoco.
Africa is seeing the unprecedented adoption of cutting edge financial technologies that some are hoping will accelerate financial inclusion on the continent. Incumbents within the financial services sector are being forced to rethink their business models in order to remain relevant and profitable in a rapidly-changing landscape. Meanwhile, innovative fintech disruptors are keenly carving out niches for themselves, and would only be too happy to render large institutions relics of the past.
Only one thing is certain for Africa’s financial industry— the future will happen. The question is, will legacy players gear up for continued domination, or will disruptive upstarts end up hosting the party?
Music Credits:
Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Music licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
Topics Working remote. Pros and cons. Hygiene and career paths. Cloudflare DDOS issues Making money off of Opensource The hosts Eric Van Johnson @shocm Tom Rideout @realrideout Follow us on Twitter @PHPUgly Email us at Podacast@phpugly.com https://github.com/PHPUgly/podcast/tree/master/shows/ep2.md
In this, the first show of PHPUgly we meet the host and learn what makes them tick Other Topics We spend some time talking about the goals of this podcast, which frankly isn't that much. Drinking and coding The new sub reddit PHP LOL Discussion around Laravel Spark and the decision to charge for it. New Braintree integration into Laravel Cashier New communication app called Wired Follow us on Twitter @PHPUgly Email us at Podacast@phpugly.com https://github.com/PHPUgly/podcast/tree/master/shows/ep1.md
Vodacom is reportedly fielding a lawsuit filed by a South African company called Ndabenhle Business Enterprises CC. Word is, Ndabenhle is alleging that Vodacom stole the “Airtime Advance” idea from them and ran with it, leaving them in the cold. Vodacom’s Airtime Advance innovation allows prepaid subscribers who run out of airtime to get R5 or R10 in prepaid minutes on credit and only pay it back when they recharge, with a little interest of course.
In this episode of the African Tech Round-up, Tefo Mohapi and Andile Masuku debate what constitutes a protectable idea and whether the plaintiff in this particular matter may have approached their interaction with Vodacom with naiveté. It’s worth remembering that former Vodacom employee Kenneth Nkosana Makate’s court case against Vodacom, in which he alleges that Vodacom stole his ‘Please Call Me' idea, is still pending.
The one thing these two cases have in common aside from alleging that the folks at Vodacom are a bunch thieving rascals, is the busload of cash the plaintiffs stand to rake in if they win their respective legal bids. It’s the type of money that no doubt makes the incredibly difficult legal confrontation with a well-heeled corporate giant seem worth the slog.
Andile Masuku had a lively chat with Aaron Fu, Managing Partner (Africa) at NEST recorded during his first proper visit to Johannesburg in December 2015. They talked about everything from what he’s personally looking forward to in 2016 to what strikes his fancy in his professional capacity as the head of a leading VC firm on the continent.
Andile Masuku chats to Stuff Magazine South Africa Editor, Craig Wilson, about all the biggest news to come out of the Mobile World Congress 2016-- that went down in Barcelona.
