Ghana's Vice President Wants to Power the Government with Blockchain

What’s happened this Week:

• Logistics startup Maad raises $3.2 million

• Bamboo allows users in Nigeria to purchase Nigerian stocks

• and more!

In The News This Week:

Logistics Startup Maad Raises $3.2 Million to Transform Francophone Africa’s Retail Market

Maad, a fastest-growing tech & logistics platform for informal retailers, raised a $3.2 million seed funding round (debt & equity).

TBD Partners With Chipper Cash, Adding To Its Growing tbDEX Ecosystem

TBD, part of Block, which is focused on creating open and decentralized technologies to connect the financial world, has announced that African fintech Chipper Cash has integrated with the tbDEX protocol to power cross-border payments and decentralized identity use cases for individuals and businesses on the African continent. 

Bamboo Launches Access To Nigerian Stocks On Its Platform

Online brokerage firm Bamboo has announced the expansion of its investment offerings by introducing Nigerian stocks on its platform.

In the rest of the news:

• d.light Provides 10,000 Solar Home Systems to Refugees in Uganda

• Latin American Payment Processor PayRetailers Expands To Africa

• Paystack 2023 Report Shows 98% Usage Of Mobile Money for Checkout In the Ghanaian Market

• Flutterwave Places 14th On CNBC Disruptor 50 List

• Zimbabwe Allows Mobile Money Agents To Operate Again To Help Boost The ZiG Currency

• Four Startups Selected as Finalists For 2024 Africa Prize For Engineering Innovation

• FinTech Super App NoOnes Surpasses 200,000 Downloads

• Are Creative Agencies Helping or Slowing Growth Of Ghana’s Influencer Ecosystem?

Deep Dive

Putting Ghana Government Operations On The Blockchain Does Not Feel Like A Priority Right Now - Last week, Ghana’s Vice President Bawumia made comments at the 14th Commonwealth Regional Conference about pushing Ghana to be powered by Blockchain technology.

Why This Matters: One of the primary challenges is the technological infrastructure required to implement blockchain on a governmental scale. Blockchain systems require a significant amount of computational power and energy, which can be a hurdle for a country where energy resources are already stretched thin.

Zoom Out: With Ghana currently in agreement with the IMF for a $3 billion loan and the state of the economy, the implementation of blockchain for government operations doesn’t seem like a project to undertake in the near future.

Africa Ecosystem Activity

• Google’s Hustle Academy relaunches with AI focus to empower African SMBs - Disrupt Africa

• Kenyan agri-tech startup Farm to Feed secures funding to help it scale - Disrupt Africa

• Egyptian fintech startup MNZL raises $3.5m seed funding round to scale - Disrupt Africa

• Egypt’s Swypex launches an all-in-one fintech platform after $4m seed round - Disrupt Africa

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Stat of The Day

According to data from the Financial Times, Afex recorded a revenue of $302 million in 2022.

The list focuses on the fastest growing companies in Africa in 2024.

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