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Happy pre-Friday 
It’s the last day before tickets to Moonshot 2024 get pricier.
Get your early-bird tickets here to join 85 speakers and 4,000 guests at Africa’s most ambitious tech festival in Lagos, Nigeria, from October 9–10, 2024.
Funding
Founders Factory Africa rebrands to 54Collective
In 2023, the early-stage accelerator, Founders Factory Africa (FFA), raised $114 million from Mastercard Foundation and Johnson & Johnson Impact Ventures. Before the raise, the accelerator which combines venture studios and VC models raised $32 million to invest in early-stage startups across the continent. FFA invested $20 million of that money in 57 companies.
The accelerator has now rebranded as 54 Collective, a VC firm with a $40 million fund for early-stage startup investment. The VC firm has made over 20 investments as part of the fund. The startup writes checks of up to $250,000 and offers $150,000 loans at 5% to startups. 54 Collective claims the VC firm manages about $150 million in startup investment.
Unlike traditional accelerators, which typically provide short-term support and seed funding, 54 Collective now offers larger investments and a longer-term commitment to its portfolio companies.
The VC firm says it will be a sector-agnostic VC firm, by investing across all sectors. CEO Bongani Sithole is confident that his team’s deep understanding of the local scene and ability to identify high-potential startups across various industries will yield returns.
Read Moniepoint’s 2024 Informal Economy Report
Did you know that 57.7% of the business owners in Nigeria’s informal economy are under 34 years old? Click here to find out more about the demographics of Nigeria’s informal economy.
Banking
FCMB Group plans to go public with Credit Direct
FCMB Group is planning an initial public offering (IPO) for its lending subsidiary, Credit Direct. The company’s strong business health will be an enticing entry point for investors who want to own a piece of the pie.
Credit Direct has been on a steady growth climb since last year. It returned a profit after tax of ₦4 billion ($2.5 million) in 2023, and in Q1 this year, it recorded ₦2.9 billion ($1.8 million) pre-tax profit.
Despite these strong showings, Credit Direct doesn’t get the same level of recognition as private lenders like Fairmoney do. The company has been doing great business under the radar servicing customers in the public sector.
Credit Direct offers payday loans to paramilitary officers and civil servants. It serves more than 1.5 million users across 25 states in Nigeria, and now the company wants to expand its offering to private borrowers.
When we caught up with CEO Chukwuma Nwanze in May, he told TechCabal that the next growth phase the company needed to unlock is visibility—and an IPO makes a great use case.
Credit Direct will likely be listed on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX). In the last ten years, 21 companies have been listed on the exchange, with 13 of them listed in the last three years. Credit Direct’s holding company, FCMB Group is currently offering 15.197 trillion shares to the public for ₦110.9 billion ($70.125 million), as part of Central Bank of Nigeria’s recapitalisation requirements.
Going public with a subsidiary company will help it raise extra funding to run its businesses. That’s what holding companies are trying to achieve with their non-core banking businesses.
Credit Direct will also launch a customer-facing app as it plans to reach more users.
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Energy
Adani inks $900 million power transmission deal in Kenya
Gautam Adani’s has just inked a $907 million deal to electrify Kenya to build out transmission lines and substations in a classic public-private partnership.
Adani Energy Solutions, which operates more than 21,000km of power distribution lines, will build 371km of lines and five substations in the west and eastern of Kenya.
But while the project promises to brighten the country’s power grid, it’s also throwing a spotlight on the growing concerns about Adani’s business practices.
The latest venture comes hot on the heels of the equally controversial Jomo Kenyatta International Airport concession, which has sparked outrage and questions about transparency. These deals are part of Kenya’s push to offload infrastructure projects to private investors, a move driven by a mountain of debt.
Adani, which has been weathering a storm of accusations over market manipulation and fraud, seems undeterred. A recent $1 billion equity raise suggests investors are still betting on the tycoon. However, with each new deal, the pressure mounts for the company to prove its critics wrong.
Mobile Money
MTN’s MoMo PSB CEO and CCO leave the company
MoMo Payment Service Bank (PSB), MTN Nigeria’s wholly-owned fintech arm, saw a major leadership reshuffle. CEO Eli Hini and chief commercial officer Elsa Muzzolini both left the company in June and July 2024 respectively, with Muzzolini joining M-PESA Ethiopia as CEO three days after resigning.
Phrase Lubega, previously the company’s group executive for fintech commercial operations, has been named the acting CEO, pending approval from Nigeria’s central bank.
Hini and Muzzolini joined the company when MoMo launched in 2022 and are two executives credited for the growth initiatives at MoMo leading to its uprising in the mobile money sector. MoMo had over 77 million customers in 2023 and is one of the biggest MNO-led mobile money providers—second only to the 220 million customers Airtel’s SmartCash boasts.
Following MoMo PSB’s strong performance in 2023 and H1 2024, it increased mobile money wallet signups to 5.5 million and contributed to MTN Nigeria’s revenue bank despite a slow first half.
MoMo expanded across other African countries in April 2024, including Ethiopia. With Muzzolini taking charge of M-PESA in Ethiopia, the competition will make for a great dynamic as MoMo tries to grow its operations there.
All eyes will be on MoMo to see how it continues its solid performance under Lubega’s interim leadership.
Paystack Virtual Terminal is now live in more countries
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Crypto Tracker
The World Wide Web3
Source:
|
Coin Name |
Current Value |
Day |
Month |
|---|---|---|---|
 Bitcoin |
$56,960 |
+ 0.14% |
+ 2.80% |
| Ether |
$2,430 |
– 3.47% |
– 16.58% |
 XRP |
$0.604 |
+ 17.05% |
+ 39.26% |
| Solana |
$153.07 |
– 1.23% |
+ 8.56% |
* Data as of 06:45 AM WAT, August 8, 2024.
You should definitely read these 
Written by: Emmanuel Nwosu & Faith Omoniyi
Edited by: Muyiwa Olowogboyega & Timi Odueso
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I am the CEO of 9JAGISTLAND.My name is Adedeji Timothy and my co-owner is Oyekola Damilare.This blog is born out of our passion to educating to people in all aspect of internet life.We are enthusiastic about writing posts and articles online.
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