FairMoney, more money

2024 was a great year for FairMoney.

The fintech remained profitable, grew its revenue, and increased its profit to ₦7.9 billion ($5 million) from ₦780 million ($490,000).

As revenue grew, FairMoney also improved its profit margin, increasing from 1% in 2023 to 4.79% in 2024. The fintech keeps roughly ₦6.5 from every ₦100 it makes.

However, all this growth was only possible because the fintech stopped relying on borrowing money from other sources like commercial papers to finance its loan book. It now uses customer deposits—which grew significantly from ₦2.9 billion ($1.9 million) to ₦72.9 billion ($46 million)—to finance over 55% of its loan book, thereby increasing its margins and profitability. 

FairMoney makes money from lending to Nigerians. It offers quick loans, and within minutes, its customers can start spending money they borrowed from Fairmoney at a 10% monthly interest rate. 

The high interest rate makes FairMoney’s approach to lending seemingly healthy, as its net interest margin stands at 64.72%, but it also makes it likely that several customers won’t repay their loans. 

This was reflected by a 30% increase in its loan impairments. The company told TechCabal that this figure—₦59.4 billion ($37 million)—is inflated by the company’s accounting approach, which treats a loan as impaired immediately upon its issuance and until it is repaid. 

The business can also argue that its model works on the continent because of its profits, growing revenue, and its high 81.7% net interest margin. 

You can read TechCabal’s Muktar Oladunmade’s article about FairMoney’s 2024 financial report here.

When we reported that MTN Group, Africa's largest homegrown telecom operator, was moving its Nigerian headquarters to Eko Atlantic City, the reactions had us rolling off the edge of our seats. Some sharp minds even theorised that MTN Nigeria was funding the move with cash from the telecom tariff hikes. 

Yes, it cost an arm and a leg to build on Lagos’ futuristic city, but MTN Nigeria is likely not funding this from the tariff increase. If anything, it is through fundraising, share sales, revenue budgets, and commercial papers.

Case in point: MTN Group plans to sell 11% of its shareholding in its Nigerian subsidiary, MTN Nigeria. It currently holds 76% of shares in its Nigerian business and it will sell down to 65%. 

The telecom company is yet to decide when it will begin the secondary sale of its business, whether the offers will be made public, or even how much a unit will cost. However, the company notes that it will consider selling after its Nigerian operations return to profitability. 

And they’ll need that bounce-back. In 2024, MTN Nigeria bled ₦400 billion ($252 million), losing its crown as the group’s top cash cow. This isn’t their first sell-down, but it’s bigger than 2021’s retail investor offer which brought in ₦575 million ($362,000) and reduced MTN Group’s stake from 78.8% to 75.6% in the process.

MTN has made some interesting moves lately: relocating its Nigerian headquarters to Eko Atlantic, signing a deal to launch a Nollywood streaming platform, and developing a satellite-to-mobile project with Lynk Global to compete with Vodacom in South Africa. 

With the sale, there are two things here: it will either use the extra cash to make its Nigerian business whole again, or we've grossly underestimated the length the telecom operator will go to launch that Nollywood streaming platform.

Amazon’s rocket was ready. The countdown was ticking. But Mother Nature had other plans.

The much-anticipated launch of Amazon's Project Kuiper’s first 27 satellites was shut down by clouds and strong winds on April 9. Somewhere in Texas, Elon Musk probably chuckled and whispered, “Nice try, Bezos.”

Project Kuiper is Amazon’s answer to Starlink, with the low-earth orbit (LEO) project hoping to blast over 3,200 satellites into space to bring cheap, fast internet to the planet’s rural areas all over the world. And it has since partnered with Vodacom, a South African telecom company, to launch the satellites in the country, ahead of Musk's Starlink, which still doesn't have clearance to operate.

Well, both Vodacom, Amazon, and Bezos will now have to wait. No new date was announced. Meanwhile, MTN is flexing with its satellite buddy Lynk Global, having already made the first satellite-to-phone call in South Africa. That’s one small phone ring for man, one giant leap for mobile networks.

The trend signals that South African telecom operators are jumping in fast, hoping LEO-powered internet can fix what cell towers can’t. The market is buzzing, and a billionaire turf war between Musk and Bezos is possible in the near future.

Nonetheless, Amazon’s Kuiper launch will happen soon enough as it races against a July 2026 deadline to retain its licence. But until then, Starlink waits in agony, Vodacom watches the skies in hope, and MTN waves from orbit like, “We were here first.”

This week, Kenya’s Umba, a pan-African digital bank, secured a $5m debt facility from Star Strong Capital. (April 9)

Here’s the other deal for the week:

• Morocco-based fintech startup PayTic raised $4.4m in a new funding round led by AfricInvest, with backing from Axian Venture Lab, Mistral VC, and existing investors like CDG Invest, Build Ventures, Concrete VC, and ICP Ventures. (April 10)

Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn for more funding announcements. Before you go, what must happen for women-led African startups to record gains? Click this link to find out.