Cash Still Trumps Mobile Payments and Bitcoin in Africa

The year 2017 is predicted to push fintech and blockchain segment in South Africa. The next fintech and blockchain revolution is waiting to happen in South Africa. The country is already home for some of the most innovative startups, and with the new fintech wave catching up, more startups are expected to raise their heads by the end of this year. According to a leading regional startup news platform, most of the innovations in the year 2017 will be focused on mobile payments, digital banking, Bitcoin, SME financing, data analytics, real estate and automation solutions. Incidentally, all....

South African payments provider Wallettec has partnered with BitPay to integrate bitcoin with its point-of-sale (POS) payment platform. The company worked with South African BitPay affiliate Bitcoin Payments to allow merchants using its platform to accept bitcoin payments via in-store POS devices. The new partnership is an important step forward in bringing bitcoin to brick-and-mortar retailers in South Africa. Wallettec's founder Johan Meyer told CoinDesk that "this is the first time anybody has integrated bitcoin point-of-sale and allowed merchants to accept bitcoin payments from almost....

The 6th annual Remittance & Mobile Money Expo, held today and tomorrow – Feb. 2 and 3 in Lagos, Nigeria, will address the challenges and opportunities in the emerging African remittance market. Billing itself as the largest gathering of stakeholders in the remittance ecosystem serving Africa, the conference will be at the Lagos Oriental Hotel. The theme of the conference, hosted by MobileMoneyAfrica, a resource for mobile financial inclusion, is “lowering transaction cost.” There will be more than 30 speakers. According to MobileMoneyAfrica, Nigeria is the largest remittance....

This is where the manufacturer has a competitive advantage over Apple Pay and Android Pay, as those solutions only support very limited smartphone models. Although consumers upgrade their smartphones on a near-yearly basis these days, it is hard to justify a new seven-hundred dollar phone just to use mobile payments. The Fintech sector is buzzing with various mobile payment solutions which are all directly competing with one another. LG Pay will be rolling out very soon, which only makes things more interesting for consumers. Especially when considering how LG Pay will be available across....

Indications are rife that Bitcoin use will grow in parts of Africa in the coming years in the mobile payment market which Statistics says is expected to grow to 101.34 million users in 2016. EY's attractiveness survey Africa 2015 says capital investment into Africa between 2013 and 2014 surged to $128 billion, up 136% and foreign direct investment FDI created 188,400 new African jobs at a 68% increase. Co-founder of Chankura in South Africa, Thabang Mashiloane, says they have discovered that ±13% of the $128 billion has been flowing within Africa in remittances and the large number of the....