Standard Chartered Bank Launches Agency Banking

SCB has followed in the footsteps of other traditional Nigerian Banks like First Bank with FirstMonie and Access Bank with Access Closa to offer Agency Banking services.

Editor’s Notes: Raise your hands if you remember when SCB was the Bank of “the Nigerian elite”. It’s interesting to see them move into payment services and expand their retail banking offerings. With their Agency Banking network, you can now perform cash-in, cash-out, and transfer transactions at an SCB Agent near you.

CashApp Launches Cash Deposits

CashApp — one of the largest payment services companies in the world has just introduced PaperMoney — a way to deposit cash into your CashApp wallet.

Editor’s Notes: CashApp (For local context, think of Abeg) is giving me Agency banking vibes with their paper money feature where users can deposit cash to their wallets at shops without going to a bank.

Ghana adds a 1.75% Levy on eTransactions

At the end of last year, the Ghanian government proposed a 1.75% levy on electronic transactions — mobile money, bank transfers, etc in order to “widen the tax net and rope in the informal sector”.

This is an issue for FinTechs in Ghana who are already trying to drive down their charges. This levy may further reduce their margins. Ghanaians are generally dissatisfied with this new levy but with no viable alternatives (other than cash), they may be forced to adapt.

Editor’s Notes: I can imagine that if this was to happen in Nigeria, Nigerians would groan. Imagine paying an additional N1750 on a N100k transfer? 😮

MTN Makes a Fortune from VAS

MTN brought in N70bn from their VAS(Value added services) in 2021, up by over 51% from 2020.

MTN has grown its MoMo Agent network to 770k Agents with 9.4 million active customers. They plan on continuing to focus on expanding their VAS offerings as expanding their subscriber base is proving tough due to regulations.

Cross-Border Payments in Africa with PAPSS

PAPSS (Pan-African Payment and Settlement System) powered by the Afreximbank is a cross-border payments system that allows for instant settlement in your local currency.

Imagine ordering shoes from Nigeria while in Ghana, you send Cedis to the seller, and the seller is settled in Naira — that’s the goal with PAPSS. As Governments and Central Banks already have affiliations with Afrexmibank, it makes it easy to leverage those connections in order to settle customers in their local currency. Transactions on PAPSS are nearly instant too!

Learn more about PAPSS here

Editor’s Notes: We’ve seen companies like Flutterwave, SendWave, and Chipper cash pioneer cross-border payments in Africa. With PAPSS, I’m excited to see what Fintech companies will build to facilitate inter-country payments! Imagine the possibilities!

And now to the more we promised…

Moni Music Playlist

We curated a Moni playlist especially for you. In this month’s playlist, we included a lot of RnB music to soothe you on days that feel chaotic and put you in the right mood for this Valentine’s week.

It features some of the songs from Dvsn’s Sept 5th and Amusing Her Feelings albums. Dvsn combined their soulful whispery vocals, hypnotic percussion, and serene strings to create magical songs we’re sure you’ll enjoy.

It also features Wande Coal — The falsetto king of Nigeria — in his iconic song Superwoman.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/468yoQyC00exfREAQFIytp

Fashion

What Do Moni People Wear To Work?

You may #hate to dress up; maybe not to fancy restaurants or even hangouts with friends but rather, what you dislike the most about dressing up is having to do it to work.

If you’re indecisive like me, you’ll agree that picking out outfits five days a week to physically pull up at work is exhausting, except of course you have a personal stylist which I’m sure isn’t the case because do you even have the cash for that? Thought so too.

Moni people don’t like stress, and that’s one of the reasons we’re fully remote. I asked Moni people how they like to dress to work remotely, and here’s what a few had to say.

Femi: Femi is our CEO, and he dresses to kill, always. He’s probably the only male that takes fashion seriously in this company. When he’s not out wearing those governor’s material clothing or expensive Atiku pieces, he’s indoors on his laptop dressed in joggers and a t-shirt.

Femi in blinding lights

Toyosi: If bonnets are banned in Nigeria, Toyosi will probably be the first to carry a placard to Aso Rock. She’ll only turn on her video when she’s in the best of moods, except Dapo, our CTO makes it compulsory. Asides from food, bonnets and mini clothes define Tbaby’s work style at home.

Toyosi, bonneting.

At the end of the day, working remotely reduces the stress of constantly thinking about what to wear to work. Whether you’re a fashion icon, or not, there’s the freedom that comes with being in your comfort zone. Do you see yourself in any of these Moni people? Who’s your alter ego? Let us know in the comments.

Moni People Certified Places to Eat

Every month, we’ll do a rundown of new places Moni People have tried and can rave about!

Mai Shayi Coffee Roasters Lagos

There’s practically nothing an Eric Kayser cup of coffee can’t fix. If you, like me, despise Mondays and need a boost to get through the day, ring their lines. Their breakfast menu is amazeballs, you’ll even love it more if you’re a sweet tooth.

Femi & Dapo at Mai Shayi Coffee

Femi and Dapo: We tried out the Coffee and the Sweet Latte at Mai Shayi Coffee and we stuck with the latte cos of personal preference. We thought the coffee was great but just wanted a soft kind of drink that early in the morning.

Adebola Adeniran: I am very particular about teas because as simple as a cup of tea is, the level of mastery required in making a good one is high. Maybe they are tea masters at May Shayi cos I loved the ginger & lemon tea; just hoped they filled the entire cup.

Adebola Adeniran enjoying the tea and the view

Eric Kayser

Adebola at Eric Kayser

Adebola Williams: We stan the ice cream at Eric Kayser! It’s great! And more importantly, it’s affordable. One scoop can change a gloomy day to one as bright and joyful as this picture.

Creatives of the Month

Once upon a time, our Nigerian parents really convinced us that being a Doctor or an Engineer was more important and more lucrative than any art form. Sigh! They even made us write debates about it in secondary school. The tables have turned in recent years; we have different types of creatives popping up everywhere doing what they love and getting paid for it. We have decided to give a special shout-out to two such creatives — Uzoma Nduka and Jacinta Mbewu.

Uzoma Nduka is a 21-year old digital artist who is obsessed with making portrait paintings of black women. She started off making sketches of the Powerpuff Girls as a toddler, graduated to making abstract paintings digitally, and now studies Fine Arts at the University of Benin. Although she does her portrait paintings on the side and gets paid commissions every now and then, she hopes to graduate and build a career as an Illustrator. You can find her on Instagram as @uzoma_nduka

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Art by Uzoma Nduka

Jacinta Mbewu is another digital artist doing well for herself. She’s currently a 200-level Mass Communications student at the University of Lagos. She’s achieved a lot for a 19-year-old — when she’s not creating bad-ass illustrations for herself or working on multiple paid commissions, she works as a cartoonist for the UNILAG Newspaper. You can find her on Instagram as @art_by_jacinta.

Art by Jacinta. Image source: https://twitter.com/art_by_jacinta/status/1485302871059058693?t=eAWVHqKUP9VRcxlcH3H6nw&s=19

Contributors:

  • Ozioma Nduka
  • Toyosi Adebusuyi
  • Adebola Adeniran
  • Adebola Willams

Community Finance For Africa

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