TOP 3 // African Fintech
The best cases on fintech innovators in Africa from the Case Writing Centre
It’s impossible to talk about doing business in Africa without talking about the role of fintech. As the gateway to markets, products, and services in previously under-reached corners of the continent, fintech is a sector that we at the UCT GSB CWC return to again and again. The rapid adoption of mobile finance tools in African countries over the last two decades – with two-thirds of the world’s mobile money transactions in 2025 were in Africa – has solidified fintech innovation and infrastructure as a defining feature of the business landscape. In some regions where fintech represents a zero-to-one technology, fintech has become part of the fabric of daily life: in Kenya, the world leader in mobile money adoption, 87% of the population uses mobile wallets. This contrasts with more developed markets where regulatory barriers, consumer protection, and incumbent institutions strongly moderate fintech innovation, and keep fintech tools largely under the hood.
But unlike 20 years ago, today we no longer talk about fintech as a “nice to have” or an optional payment tool. It’s embedded in the infrastructure of every African business – from the smallest township shops to the largest corporates – and the lines between fintech companies and their partners in industry is becoming blurrier by the day. The managers of tomorrow need find ways to leverage fintech tools, models, and providers to reach new markets and grow the ones they are already in. At the UCT GSB, we are in conversation with some of the most dynamic fintech challengers on the continent, who generously share their roadmaps to innovation. Here are our top three fintech cases, which take us from Cote d’Ivoire to Kenya to Zambia:
1. Djamo: Leveraging fintech to unlock cross-border financial services in West Africa
By Professor Mikael Samuelsson, Sarah Boyd, Luvuyo Mncanca
Djamo is a fintech based in Côte d'Ivoire and enables financial inclusion for the country's largely unbanked population through a personal finance application as well as credit card distribution, made possible by a partnership with Visa. By 2024, they have become the leading issuer of credit cards in the country and have expanded services into Senegal. The case finds the company at the start of 2024 as Régis Bamba, co-founder and chief product officer, is reflecting on Djamo's recent Senegal expansion and the lessons learned from entering a new market. Francophone Africa, with its large population of unbanked and underbanked people, is a major untapped market for consumer-level fintech. Meanwhile, economic integration efforts in West Africa are dependent on seamless cross-border financial flows. Further expansion across Africa is inevitable for Djamo, but having faced the challenges of navigating complex banking regulations, market differences, and cultural nuances, Régis is wondering how Djamo should approach their next new market. On the ground, the product manager and vice president of engineering have lessons of their own from Senegal to consider. How can Djamo move forward into the next phase of growth, while creating a market for the unbanked of West Africa?
2. Wasoko: Going the last mile for informal retailers in East Africa
By Professor Hamieda Parker, Professor John Luiz, Jonathan Ancer
This operations case follows Wasoko, a Kenya-based e-commerce company that distributes fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs) to informal retailers across six African markets: Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Ivory Coast, and Senegal. Originally founded as Sokowatch in 2013 by CEO Daniel Yu, Wasoko emerged as a first mover in digitising transactions between suppliers and the region's vast, dispersed network of informal retailers, where last-mile delivery has long been a barrier to strengthening supply chains and growing small businesses. By 2019, Wasoko had become the largest distributor to informal retailers across its markets, a position Daniel and his team maintained by learning as they went and solving problems with few precedents to draw from. In the case, this approach is tested in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic sends shocks through global supply chains, triggering job losses, diminished consumer purchasing power, cash flow shortages for retailers, and food insecurity across Wasoko's markets. The company's response surfaces both the complexities of maintaining supply chains across diverse countries and how firm-level resilience can drive innovative solutions. But the fixes Wasoko implements are temporary, and by 2022 Daniel must consider a more sustainable path to securing the supply chain. Should Wasoko begin producing its own range of essential goods to reduce its dependence on suppliers? And if so, how can it do this without straying from the core platform business that made it a market leader?
3. Zoona Mobile Money: Investing for impact (cases A and B)
By John Bazley, Cynthia Rayner, Professor Thomas Hellman, Aunnie Patton Power
This case focusses on the decisions made by the management team at Zoona, a mobile money and financial services provider in Zambia. Zoona emerged as one of the first successful fintechs enabling financial inclusion for the large population of unbanked individuals in Africa through a tech-enabled on-the-ground distribution network.
The case tracks the real story of a successful Series A investment by multiple impact investors in one of the most socially innovative tech startup in Africa. This deal was one of the first of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa and undoubtedly the first of its kind in Zambia. Case A presents students with the challenges of equipping an early-stage business with the necessary structures and processes to attract investors, while dealing with a string of cash flow crises. Case B focusses on the management team as they prepare for the arrival of the term sheets from its first Series A investors – and decide how to manage their new slate of partners. This case is the winner of the 2016 CEEMAN/Emerald Case Writing Competition.
Read the cases
You can find these and more cases on education innovation from the GSB Case Writing Centre at Harvard Business Impact and Emerald Emerging Market Case Studies.
