Good morning! 
Ads are coming to WhatsApp!
Yesterday, Meta announced that it would roll out advertisements on the messaging app. Meta says ads won’t show up in personal or group chats but will instead be introduced in the app’s Updates tab, which hosts Status updates and Channels.
How do you feel about that? I only wonder how this is going to affect WhatsApp influencers who sell ad spaces on their whatsapp statuses.
In other news, we are launching our web-only newsletter about tech in Francophone Africa today. If you want to get smarter about tech innovation, policy, culture, and economy as it unfolds in Francophone Africa, the newsletter is curated just for you. We have teamed up with Lina Kacyem of Launch Africa to bring you the biggest insider insights and analysis of the region’s technology landscape. Sign up here and be the first to know.
Companies
Safaricom briefly hit a trillion-shilling in market cap
On June 12, Safaricom, Kenya’s largest telecom company, celebrated briefly after it became a KES 1 trillion ($7.7 billion) company. This was the first time that Safaricom reached a trillion-shilling status since October 2022.
Being worth a trillion-shilling last week made Safaricom the most valuable company on the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE).
In good company: Safaricom is among only eight publicly-traded telecom companies in Africa that have at least $1 billion market caps, including MTN Group, MTN Nigeria, Airtel Africa, Vodacom Group, Sonatel Senegal, Morocco’s Maroc Telecom, and South Africa’s Telkom.
However, Safaricom has since lost its trillion-shilling status. At the close of market on Monday, Safaricom’s market cap had declined to KES 987.61 billion ($7.6 billion). Yet, the telecom giant has been on an upward market trend. Year-to-date, Safaricom has grown its market share by 43% from KES 689.13 billion ($5.3 billion) to KES 987.61 billion ($7.6 billion). Its share price has also climbed from KES 17.25 ($0.13) to KES 23 ($0.18) since the start of the year.
Why is Safaricom’s market cap flying high? The rally is due to a string of strong financial results and investor confidence. In May 2025, Safaricom posted a record KES 388.7 billion ($3 billion) in revenue and a 10.8% rise in net income.
Much of the momentum is also driven by M-Pesa, which now contributes 44.2% of service revenue. Expanding into Ethiopia has added 2.8 million M-Pesa users in one year, who are transacting KES 20.6 billion ($159 million). Safaricom also expects to turn profitable in Ethiopia by 2027.
Join Fincra for an Exclusive Networking Mixer at iFX Expo, Cyprus.
Fincra is co-hosting “AI-Powered Fintech and Blockchain” at iFX Expo, Cyprus, with Quidax. Join the brightest minds in fintech and blockchain for insightful panels & networking. Limited spots – RSVP here.
Fintech
Wave enters Cameroon’s payments market
US fintech startup, Wave, is making its debut in Cameroon’s payments scene from June 11, 2025.
Through a partnership with Commercial Bank Cameroon (CBC), Wave will allow users to deposit and withdraw cash, pay bills, receive international transfers, and make transfers between mobile wallets and bank accounts.
Why are they doing this? In Central Africa, particularly within the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC), Cameroon is the mobile money powerhouse, where the sector contributes between 5% and 8% of GDP. According to the region’s central bank, BEAC, Cameroon handled 1.7 billion mobile money transactions, making up 71% of the region’s total transactions in 2022. Wave wants to grab a huge slice of this huge market.
Here’s the catch: This service will be exclusively available to CBC clients.
Wave is walking into a crowded ring where Orange Mone holds 70% of the market with 10 million mobile money accounts and over 100,000 business partners. MTN’s MoMo and its other financial services saw a 14.1% growth rate in Cameroon in 2024—the highest growth rate among its services recorded for the year. These local operators have spent years building reach and loyalty.
Wave’s bet? Our best guess is that bank-backed convenience and the company’s signature low fees will give it an edge in an increasingly competitive payments war. How they perform? Well, that’s a story still loading.
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Fintech
LemFi acquires Pillar to give migrants access to credit
Nigerian fintech startup, LemFi, best known for helping migrants in the UK, Canada, and Europe to send money back home, has acquired British credit card issuer, Pillar.
Why does this matter? Migrants who have not been in a new country long enough to have a local credit history often struggle to get financial services. Pillar’s technology changes that. Their system sources data from 18 low and middle-income countries. With this data, LemFi can assess your financial reliability before you even land in the country. This means newly arrived migrants could get a credit card straight from the LemFi app.
But here’s where it gets tricky: Using credit score data across borders doesn’t exactly sit well with regulators. Some organisations agree that creditworthiness has to be determined based on the prospective borrower’s activity within the country. Meaning that UK data protection laws might ‘throw sand in the garri’ of LemFi’s plan to source credit data from abroad.
Still, LemFi is betting on the tech that speaks to migrants, a tech that sees them. The startup believes the rules of financial access weren’t written with migrants in mind. And now, LemFi wants to rewrite them.
Stay up to date with the latest Paystack news!
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COmpanies
Airtel’s SmartCash now lets you buy car insurance from your phone
SmartCash, the mobile banking arm of Airtel Nigeria, has teamed up with Leadway Assurance to make car insurance accessible for motorists.
The partnership allows drivers to buy third-party car insurance directly from their phones, either through the SmartCash app or by dialing *939#. The plans start from ₦15,000 ($9.73), and the whole process takes less than three minutes. With these insurance plans, motorists get premiums on their cars to offset costs in cases of damage.
It’s a smart move for SmartCash, which operates under a Payment Service Bank (PSB) licence. In Nigeria, PSBs are not allowed to offer insurance, loans, or FX directly. So, teaming up with Leadway allows Airtel to deliver extra value to its customers without breaking the rules.
The move also ties in with similar “super-app” moves by other fintech arms operated by telcos. For example, Kenya’s Safaricom offers insurance plans to its M-Pesa users through Bima, after receiving approval to launch the product in November 2024.
These telecom companies are getting creative in the way they bundle financial services. Mobile money, airtime, credit, and other lifestyle value-added services—and that’s the point. It’s a way to attract customers.
Yet, in Nigeria where mobile money adoption is still struggling—unlike Kenya and Uganda—microinsurance is even worse. There’s an inside joke that if you sell insurance in Africa, your competition is God himself; perhaps, this is more true for Nigerians than the rest of the continent. Only 3.11 million vehicles out of over 14 million registered cars in Nigeria are insured.
Partnering with Leadway and removing the regulatory barrier is one thing. But creating the buzz around its car insurance service is what will determine if Airtel won’t kill this product in the next 5 years.
Competitively, SmartCash is entering a first-mover market among telcos. However, there are already several micro-insurtech companies selling different car insurance pitches to customers, like ETAP Insure and Pay-U. SmartCash has to find a way to entrench itself in this market, and tapping into its wide telecom subscriber base is one way to start.
Introducing, The Naira Life Conference by Zikoko
This August, the Naira Life Con will bring together wealth builders, entrepreneurs, financial leaders, and everyday Nigerians to share their experiences with earning, managing, and spending money. Think: bold conversations, immersive workshops, and content tracks that hand you a playbook for building real wealth. Get early bird tickets now at 30% off only for a limited time.
CRYPTO TRACKER
The World Wide Web3
Source:
|
Coin Name |
Current Value |
Day |
Month |
|---|---|---|---|
 Bitcoin |
$107,341 |
+ 0.92% |
+ 3.78% |
| Ether |
$2,595 |
+ 0.78% |
+ 4.10% |
| XRP |
$2.25 |
+ 3.26% |
– 5.24% |
| Solana |
$153.32 |
– 2.16% |
– 9.29% |
* Data as of 06.15 AM WAT, June 17, 2025.
Opportunities
- Applications are now open for the 2025 FATE Institute Fellowship, a two-year, part-time and virtual programme for experienced Nigerian professionals passionate about entrepreneurship and policy reform. The fellowship is open to candidates with at least 10 years of relevant experience and a completed or ongoing Master’s or PhD in fields like Economics, Law, or Political Science. Fellows will work remotely, contribute to research on Nigeria’s entrepreneurship ecosystem, engage with policymakers, and take part in virtual policy discussions, without needing to leave their current roles. Apply by July 25.
- Opportunity knocks in Uganda!
The 2nd Edition of the Uganda Investor Summit is your chance to plug into East Africa’s fast-growing innovation scene. Whether you’re a founder looking to scale, an investor hunting for your next big win, or an operator exploring Uganda’s booming economy, this is where ideas turn into deals.
With the theme “Made in Uganda: Innovation to Market,” expect high-impact discussion investor matchmaking, and insights into science-led ventures shaping the region. Join investors in Kampala from June 19–20, 2025.
Register here.
Written by: Emmanuel Nwosu and Opeyemi Kareem
Edited by: Faith Omoniyi
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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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