Inside Uganda’s emerging fintech ecosystem
Kenya’s financial technology sector could be worth $18.9 billion and more than double the country’s current IT market of $5.1 billion in 2017. By 2025, Kenya could be a $37.5 billion market.
Financial technology (fintech) has become increasingly prominent as one of the most dynamic and diverse sectors in the global economy, and, as a result, many Kenyan fintech startups are looking to expand and diversify.
One of those startups is BitKano, a fintech company that has transformed the way Kenyans and other people in rural areas manage their finances.
Launched in June 2016, the company was already serving 2,000 customers, but those numbers are expected to grow substantially as new customers sign up for the company’s services.
BitKano has also attracted the attention of investors. In December, Singapore-based Sbina Capital, the biggest fintech investment firm in Africa, joined the company’s advisory board and invested a total of $2 million, bringing the sum total committed from Sbina to over $4 million.
Sbina also announced its intention to join BitKano and its other fintech companies, including the Ghana-based company, AfriKano, which also has operations in Kenya and Ethiopia, and the Uganda-based company, BZK Finance, which is funded by the Technology Innovation Fund (TIF), in early 2018.
“BZK Finance is currently in the process of building a platform that allows other fintech companies to partner with one another. The platform will provide a platform to allow for interoperability and interoperability between these fintech companies,” said Mwangi Kibwende, founder and chairman of the BZK Group, and BZK Finance’s board chair.
The company expects to invest in more fintech startups by early 2018.
“The growth of technology in the financial sector has created a new phenomenon, which is the growth of fintech. In this era when the financial sector is embracing technology that can