The Open Africa Podcast: Recent Episodes
The Open Africa Podcast
On this podcast 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa talk about technology, startups, and issues across the African technology ecosystem.
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We call this the episode that almost never was but thankfully we were able to salvage it (everybody, say thank you ‘Laolu!) and now you get to listen.
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On this episode of the podcast, Nosa, Furo, and 'Laolu talked about some new people changes at MTN MoMo, USA Mercury Bank’s decision to close accounts linked to Nigeria and implications, the Unity and Providus Bank Merger, and the 44 billion naira reported fraud at Nigeria’s First Bank.
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On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa have a guest! They are joined by Angie Jones, the Global Vice President of Developer Relations for tbd. This is Block’s new business unit focused on decentralized technologies to move money in a fast and compliant way.
They discuss tbd’s flagship protocol tbDEX, and the upcoming hackathon happening at the Africa Bitcoin Conference in December.
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On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa do a deep dive into some not so exciting news in the Tech Ecosystem; Carbon shut down its debit card service over two years after launch, the reoccurring problems with Cards among Fintechs in Nigeria, Afrigo - the CBN’s Domestic Card Scheme, Prospa, and Brass’ acquisition by a Paystack-led consortium, amongst other industry news.
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On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa recount recent popping headlines in the Tech Ecosystem, Orca’s $550,000 pre-seed round led by Norrsken22, the Central Bank of Nigeria and new directives for Bureau De Change operators, Snitching-as-a-service, Google’s plan to build Umoja; the first-ever fibre-optic cable directly connecting Africa with Australia, BlackCopper and a million naira debt, amongst other industry news.
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On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa discuss YC’s list of best performing startups, the Peer’s shutdown, CBN’s directive for neobanks to temporarily halt onboarding of new accounts, and Chowdeck’s recent $2.5 million seed raise, among other industry news.
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On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa recount some activities of The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in recent weeks; new BDC regulations, revoking of 4,173 Bureau De Change licenses, Binance exiting Nigeria. Mara pausing operations, Bfree raising $3 million, Carbon acquiring Vella Finance, and other industry news.
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Happy New Year, everyone!
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On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa talk about some updates in the Cryptocurrency Industry; CNGN stable coin by the Africa Stablecoin Consortium and the unveiling of suspects connected to the ₦ 142.8 million Patricia hack. They all discuss Mastercard’s partnership with Jumia, Rova’s quarterly report, Yellowcard and Coinbase.
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Merry Christmas, everyone!🎄
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On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa look at some industry predictions made in January, if they came to pass, and attempt to make predictions for 2024. They also consider what exactly a layoff is, some industry news, and the CBN lifting the ban on Cryptocurrency.
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Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/the-incident
License code: SMVH9OS5QDVKM1DZ
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We recorded this episode remotely so if the sound quality seems a little off, that's why, please bear with us.
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On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa do recap of some happenings in the industry, they talk about the CBN’s new requirements for Tier-1 bank accounts, Interswitch losing ₦30 billion to chargeback fraud and attempts at recovery, Crowdyvest owing customers and equity proposal, Patricia and tokens, and why we might need more regulation in the ecosystem.
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On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa have a guest! They are joined by Kenny Bayeroju; an investment and finance professional based in Nigeria. Together, they talk about Dash - a Ghanaian-based Fintech that shut down recently, how to raise money in the Nigerian capital market, and other significant industry news.
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On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa share their thoughts on some industry news - ChipperCash's pivot into offering KYC services, Anchor raising $2.4 million in a seed round, Nestcoin raising $1.9 million to grow Onboard; “a secure self-custody wallet for managing digital assets with no middlemen”, and Swap by Flutterwave.
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On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa discuss Moniepoint; evolution from B2B to B2C, expansion to Kenya and acquisition of Kopo Kopo, the limitations of innovation in Mobile Money markets, Bankly’s Microfinance Bank announcement, and Chipper Cash’s Forbes interview.
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On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa recap the events of the past month, discussing Bundle and Pillow in the retail crypto space, FX policies in Nigeria, GTBank’s new app rollout, and the purported CBN's social media for KYC requirement.
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On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa take a deep dive on cards, shedding light on concepts like card types, card schemes, and the difficulties in running a successful card business. They also discuss the IMF report on eNaira, and highlight the challenges of the CBDC.
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On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa weigh in on the latest happenings in the industry - Lazerpay and the media, technology journalism, the implications of a revoked banking license, and the woes of B2C companies in Nigeria.
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On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa discuss the recent happenings in the Crypto space in Nigeria amongst several industry news - Paxful and Lazerpay’s shut down, workplace fraud, use cases of AI in Crypto, and what to expect from Moniepoint's investment in Payday.
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On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa consider the recent events in the African Tech Ecosystem - Alerzo's second round of layoffs in seven months and the shutting down of some of their warehouses, Chipper Cash's recent round of layoffs, Silicon Valley Bank's collapse and what it means for businesses.
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On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa set out to solve the mystery of An Agri-fintech company's existence, Dozy Mmobuosi's ongoing plan to purchase Sheffield United, the reality of Nigeria's new cashless policy and why Bank transfers fail.
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Happy New Year!
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On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa attempt to make predictions for 2023, consider how AI might be coming after our jobs, and general industry happenings in recent times.
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On this episode of the podcast, ‘Laolu, Furo, and Nosa have a conversation with Dickson Nsofor – Founder and CEO of Kora.
They talk about his journey as a founder, recent industry news; raises, layoffs, and FTX, what Kora is building and what happened in Kenya.
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On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa have guests; Ojiugo Uche and Ekemezie Uche - Co-founders Genti Media, an entertainment company promoting audio stories, audio books, and podcasts in indigenous African languages.
Together, they talk about recent industry news, leadership problems in the ecosystem, and what to expect from Genti Media.
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On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa have a guest; Wole Ayodele - CEO Fincra, a fintech providing Fincra providing solutions that enable their clients accept payments securely and make payouts globally. Together, they talk about the recent news on Kuda MFB, and other happenings in the industry.
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- If you hear a number of blips - as you will - we had to filter this episode (quite heavily too) because we're really not trying to fight.. yet💀 *
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On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa talk about some Fund raises in the Ecosystem - Now Now, Bitmama, Grey - Flutterwave's IPO, and news around founders' activities in recent times.
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On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa talk about FinTech marketing on social media, some regulations, and why “Snitching-As-A-Service” just might be a viable business model.
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On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa bring us up to speed on some of the latest happenings in the Tech Ecosystem – Union 54, Flutterwave's recent incident in Kenya, fraud in the ecosystem, and regulatory troubles.
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On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa discuss some of the latest happenings in the Nigerian Tech Ecosystem – Interswitch's recent $110 million raise and their newly updated perks for employees of the company, BridgeCard - an app that allows you have all your cards in one place, and Open Banking.
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On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa talk about Foreign Exchange – how it works, how people source FX as individuals and businesses in Nigeria, recent regulations and restrictions, and how the “black market” come to play.
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On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa discuss Moniepoint and Nomba, toxic workplaces, and the potential impact of MTNs PSB license.
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On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa talk about some of the recent raises in the Ecosystem– BigCabal's $2.3 million seed funding, Dash's $32.8 million seed funding, Moove's $105 million series B funding – and finally take a deep dive into the B2B supply chain businesses in the African startup scene.
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On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa discuss some of the latest happenings in the Nigerian Tech Ecosystem – Earnipay's launch and what they do, Reliance's $40M raise led by General Atlantic, Flutterwave 3.0 and it's implications for the startup scene in Africa.
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On this episode, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa have Gbenga – big time fan of the podcast and blockchain engineer – to give insights on what exactly Web3 is, why it exists, and if we should be interested in it.
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On this episode of the podcast, 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa talk about the Payment Service Bank (PSB) License, how the license can be obtained and what the license does.
We also considered MTN's existing mobile money network in countries across Africa, how it works, and what an expansion would look like.
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On this episode 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa, following the recent trends in the Finance and Technology industry talk about compliance and Risk management; what the Anti Money Laundering (AML) and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) controls do, why they exist, and who they apply to.
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On this episode 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa consider some of the recent raises by companies in the Ecosystem, what they do and the impact of these raises – Mono raising $15M, Stitch's $2M seed extension and expansion to Nigeria, Sparkle's seed round raise of $3.1M, Brass' $1.7M raise, Moove and MFS Africa.
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We apologize for this episode's quality. Something broke during recording and we didn't catch it until after. We thought about scrapping it several times, but it is such a fun and insightful conversation that we decided not to. Please bear with us.
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On this episode 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa have a conversation with Nadayar - CEO/Cofounder at Edenlife; a tech company in Lagos bringing the convenience of room service to homes.
They talk about the journey so far, why Edenlife is important, and biggest challenges.
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On this episode 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa (yes, it's just us today) discuss Some African startups that got into YC's Summer 2021 cohort, the new regulations by the CBN, and Opay's recent raise and becoming a unicorn.
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On this episode 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa are joined in the studio (actually, Zoom call) by Jude Dike and Temitope Ekundayo – CEO and Head of Growth at GetEquity; a private marketplace enabling retail purchase of equity.
They talk all about Tokenised Equity, creating an ecosystem around Venture Capital, their recent pre-seed fund raise, and challenges so far.
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On this episode 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa are joined in the studio by Folayemi Agusto – Co-founder and CEO of tix.africa; a self-service ticketing platform for event creators.
They consider tix.africa's recent six-figure pre-seed round, the company's plans for expansion into Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, and Egypt in H2 of 2021, and Tix Pro; a subscription based service launched recently.
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On this episode 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa discuss notable events that happened in the Tech and Finance ecosystem this July – FairMoney raising 42 million dollars during their Series B raises, Cowrywise getting the SEC Fund/Portfolio Management license, Carbon's partnership with Visa and what it means for their customers, ULesson's physical centres launch, and TeamApt raising an undisclosed amount of money.
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On this episode 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa discuss the payments business in Nigeria; players, licensing schemes, and attempt to contextualize common misconceptions about payments.
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On this episode 'Laolu, Furo, and Nosa discuss Telda; an Egyptian neobank that raised $5 million pre-seed funding, Chipper Cash's $100 million Series C raise, Paga's latest milestones; hitting 1 trillion Naira in 15 months, and the CBN's plan to launch their own digital currency.
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On this episode Laolu, Furo, and Nosa discuss Buycoins' new app, the SEC Sub Broker Licence, Abeg becoming the Headline Sponsor for the Big Brother Naija show, and Paystack in South Africa.
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On this episode Laolu, Furo, and Nosa have guests!
They have a conversation with Vanessa (Head of communications) and Bisola (Analyst) from Ingressive Capital about the role of investors in the tech ecosystem, Ingressive's role, portfolio, fundraising and selection process.
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On this episode Laolu, Furo, and Nosa discuss Twitter setting up an office in Ghana, AppZone's recent $10 million raise during their series A after 11 years and their plan to expand across more African countries, and what the NIBBS and SEC regulatory directives on BVN and foreign trading respectively mean.
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On this episode Laolu, Furo, and Nosa discuss Kuda's recent $25 million raise and their plan to expand into England, Jumia's plan to raise $400 million, and Startups across Africa that got into YC's class of W2021.
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On this episode Laolu, Furo, and Nosa discuss Fibre, the housing problem in Lagos, Rubies, and the top finance apps on the Android and iOS app stores in Nigeria and Kenya.
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We had some technical issues while recording, the audio quality is not our best work but the content is worth your time.
On this episode Laolu, Furo, Nosa discuss the activities around cryptocurrencies in Nigeria, the CBNs recent circular and press statement, why CBN may have fears and the impact on attracting investors within the Nigerian technology ecosystem.
On this episode, 'Furo, Nosa, and 'Laolu discuss Simple's closure, Chaka's tangle with the SEC, cryptocurrency, and make predictions for 2021
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On this episode Laolu, Furo, Nosa discuss some exciting products that have launched in Nigeria in 2020.
Paystack Storefront vs Flutterwave Store, Bento, Switch by Sterling and Brass and Propsa.
On this episode Laolu, Furo, and Nosa discuss some significant fundraising efforts that have happened in H2 2020; Kudabank's $10 million raise, Paystack's $200 million acquisition, Credpal's $1.5 million raise, Autocheck's $3.4 million raise, and Chipper Cash's $30 million raise.
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On this episode Laolu, Furo, Nosa discuss Monos fund raising, Patricia, Prospa's business banking proposition and Rwandas move away from ATMs to Agency Banking
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On this episode we have a guest, Tomisin Adeshiyan Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer at Vesicash. We discussed Union54 and their ambitious goals for their platform across Africa, Visas move to incorporate cryptocurrency in their payment networks, the proposed CBN Tiering model for Fintechs and We spent time discussing the business of trust and the role of escrow services in the African commerce ecosystem.
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On this episode we discuss startups in the Lagos technology ecosystem. Muney a personal financial management tool, Vesicash and Listbuy providing escrow services, the impact of the CBN GSI directive and the persistent FX scarcity in Nigeria.
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On the launch of Uber wallets in Nigeria powered by Flutterwave, Snapchats new Features, Piggyvest withdrawal penalty reduction and sexual harassment in the technology ecosystem.
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On this Episode, 'Furo, Nosa, and 'Laolu discuss payment options during a pandemic, what banks are doing wrong, and GTB's big plans for financial technology.
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On this Episode we have our first guest Koromone who is a Branding and Communications Specialist. We discuss the on going impact of COVID-19 on Individuals and Businesses in Nigeria, the rapid rise and adoption of e-commerce and the corresponding rise in Fraud.
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On this episode, 'Furo, Nosa, and 'Laolu explore Banking-As-A-Service, CBN cashless policy, Sparkle, and the Insurance industry in Nigeria.
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On this episode 'Furo, Nosa, and 'Laolu discuss the impact of COVID -19 on Nigerian economy and the opportunities for delivery based businesses, the future of work, and the future of businesses.
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On this episode Laolu, Nosa, and Furo discuss the failures of a peer-to-peer lending startup, Africa Fintech Foundry's newest cohort, and the stereotyping of African fintechs by foreign investors.
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On this episode, Furo, Laolu and Nosa discuss the effects of the Okada ban on Gokada, Max and Oride, question the decision of the Lagos State Government, and explore the verticals the affected startups can explore.
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On this Episode Furo, Laolu and Nosa discuss hypothetical partnerships between technology start ups and more established businesses. We also discuss startups that we have been eagerly awaiting.
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On this Episode Laolu, Nosa and Furo discuss Tech fundraising in Africa in 2019, CBNs new fee structure for banks and predictions for the Tech landscape in 2020.
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On this episode Furo, 'Laolu and Nosa attempt to step away from financial services to discuss Jack Dorsey's visit to Nigeria, Twiga Foods, and epic startup pivots that annoy them.
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On this episode 'Laolu, Furo and Nosa discuss Big Techs' foray into financial services, the evolution of Capitec Bank and a hot take by a Nigerian Tech leader.
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On this episode we discuss Nigerian Bank charges, BitPesa's rebranding and Bamboos launch.
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On this episode we discuss, Access Bank’s Africa Strategy, SME lending in Nigeria and the rise of Fintechs providing Nigerians access to Foreign investment opportunities.
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On this episode, we talk about cross-border payments, FX, PSB licenses in Nigeria.
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On Digital Lending. How Banks view loans and the role of alternative lenders in the market.
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On this episode we discuss Opay, Sparkle and Digital Banks in Nigeria, as well as building products for the Nigerian market.
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