Nigerian digital payments provider Moniepoint acquired a 78% stake in Sumac, a Kenyan microfinance bank, to build on an expansive trajectory that has made it one of Africa’s fastest-growing financial services companies.
Moniepoint has evolved over the last five years from a provider of technology solutions for banks to itself becoming a digital bank, notable among merchants for speedy transactions. Last year it launched an international remittance service to target payments by Africans living overseas.
Fintech acquisitions between African startups remain a developing aspect of the tech scene, with few multimillion-dollar exits on record. But Moniepoint belongs to a small club of African fintech unicorns behind a handful of deals that are driving consolidation between the hundreds of players in the financial services sector on the continent.