The Open Africa Podcast

On this episode, Laolu, Furo, and Nosa are joined by Nnanna from Fintech is Easy to unpack Zap's expansion into airtime and data, Moniepoint's Kenya play, and what the recent fundings and acquisitions mean for the ecosystem.They also discuss Zpay's licence revocation in Ghana, the CBN's latest regulatory changes, Lemfi's evolving strategy, and other industry bits.

On this episode, Laolu, Furo, and Nosa discuss the recent revocation of microfinance bank licences by the CBN.Joined by Seun Lanlege, co-founder of Polytope Labs, they explore how Polytope is rethinking payments with its recently launched product – HyperFX, and the cost of building blockchain infrastructure in Africa.This episode is sponsored by Busha — Nigeria’s licensed digital assets exchange for businesses looking to move money across borders. If you are running a business exploring fast cross-border payments, stablecoin and FX liquidity, and easy treasury management, get started at busha.io/business, and for individuals? You can buy, sell, and send digital assets anywhere in the world, and also save in naira or dollars, with up to 20% annual interest. Download the Busha App and use code OPENAFRICA or visit https://surl.li/jvbwvt to get started.

On this episode, Laolu, Furo, and Nosa discuss some recent fundraises in the ecosystem — Spiro’s $215M raise backed by Impact Fund Denmark and Equitane, Nala’s $50M credit facility, LemFi’s $34.8M extension, BFREE’s growth round led by AfricInvest, and Shiprazor’s $2.65M seed funding.They also unpack Chowdeck’s vendor trust issues and explore broader financial trends and news.This episode is sponsored by Busha — Nigeria’s licensed digital assets exchange for businesses looking to move money across borders. If you are running a business exploring fast cross-border payments, stablecoin and FX liquidity, and easy treasury management, get started at busha.io/business, and for individuals? You can buy, sell, and send digital assets anywhere in the world, and also save in naira or dollars, with up to 20% annual interest. Download the Busha App and use code OPENAFRICA or visit https://surl.li/jvbwvt to get started.

On this episode, Laolu, Furo, and Nosa talk about Chowdeck using its $9 million Series A to chase a superapp strategy and whether that ambition risks diluting the operational focus that made it Nigeria's best food delivery app, ARCON arresting small business owners for running Instagram ads without prior approval under the 2022 ARCON Act, the CBN's 2026 Guide to Charges, Airtel Money’s IPO, and other news in Nigeria’s Fintech ecosystem.This episode is sponsored by Busha — Nigeria’s licensed digital assets exchange for businesses looking to move money across borders. If you are running a business exploring fast cross-border payments, stablecoin and FX liquidity, and easy treasury management, get started at busha.io/business, and for individuals? You can buy, sell, and send digital assets anywhere in the world, and also save in naira or dollars, with up to 20% annual interest. Download the Busha App and use code OPENAFRICA or visit https://surl.li/jvbwvt to get started.

On this episode, Laolu, Furo, and Nosa talk about Flutterwave's acquisition of Mono to gain a National Microfinance Bank licence, the CBN's AML/CFT supervision pilot for six crypto and fintech firms including KuCoin and Paystack, Moniepoint's acquisition of restaurant management platform Orda Africa as a credit underwriting play, and OPay turning the CBN's new One Principal Rule for POS agents into an aggressive marketing campaign while opening physical branches across Nigeria.This episode is sponsored by Busha — Nigeria’s licensed digital assets exchange for businesses looking to move money across borders. If you are running a business exploring fast cross-border payments, stablecoin and FX liquidity, and easy treasury management, get started at busha.io/business, and for individuals? You can buy, sell, and send digital assets anywhere in the world, and also save in naira or dollars, with up to 20% annual interest. Download the Busha App and use code OPENAFRICA or visit https://surl.li/jvbwvt to get started.

On this episode, Laolu, Furo, and Nosa talk about Moniepoint taking Alerzo to court over ₦5 billion unpaid loan, NIN for sale and data compromise, Terra Industries’ partnership with DICON to boost sovereign defence production and give some context to Nigeria’s GSI framework for loan recovery alongside other industry news.This episode is sponsored by Busha — Nigeria’s licensed digital assets exchange for businesses looking to move money across borders. If you are running a business exploring fast cross-border payments, stablecoin and FX liquidity, and easy treasury management, get started at busha.io/business, and for individuals? You can buy, sell, and send digital assets anywhere in the world, and also save in naira or dollars, with up to 20% annual interest. Download the Busha App and use code OPENAFRICA or visit https://surl.li/jvbwvt to get started.

On this episode, Laolu, Furo, and Nosa talk about CBN upgrading OPay, Moniepoint, and Kuda to national MFB licences, Paystack turning 10 and launching The Stack Group, Busha launching crypto-backed loans, Raenest expanding into India, and a deep dive into why African startups have a numbers problem; with Moniepoint as case study. This episode is sponsored by Busha — Nigeria’s licensed digital assets exchange for businesses looking to move money across borders. If you are running a business exploring fast cross-border payments, stablecoin and FX liquidity, and easy treasury management, get started at busha.io/business, and for individuals? You can buy, sell, and send digital assets anywhere in the world, and also save in naira or dollars, with up to 20% annual interest. Download the Busha App and use code OPENAFRICA or visit https://surl.li/jvbwvt to get started.

On this episode, Laolu, Furo, and Nosa do the usual Year in Review and make few predictions for 2026!Thank you for loving the podcast all year long!_We love hearing your thoughts! Find us on X (@TheOAPod) and Instagram (@openafricapod) and tag us in your conversations.