Author: Opeloyeru Batly

LIFT airline’s acceptance of Apple Pay, Google Pay, and crypto payments marks a first for South African aviation. The Cape Town-based airline announced on 24 June 2026 that it had become the first carrier in the country to offer both Apple Pay and Google Pay directly on its website across mobile and desktop, while also introducing crypto payments through Ozow. The move gives LIFT one of the most comprehensive direct airline payment stacks in South Africa. Customers can now book flights using debit and credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, cryptocurrency via Ozow, payment plans through RCS and PayU, Mobicred…

Goldfinch Africa’s lending collapse is now official. On 12 June 2026, Warbler Labs, the development team behind Goldfinch, published governance proposal GIP-87, formally proposing to wind down Goldfinch Prime and move the protocol into maintenance mode. A snapshot vote opened on 20 June and is passing with 100% approval. It closed yesterday, 23 June 2026. The formal end of a protocol that once promised to reshape emerging market finance is now a governance formality. It did not have to end this way. Goldfinch launched in 2021 with a clear and compelling pitch to lend to businesses across 18 countries, including…

Kenya is shaping the future of its digital asset sector. However, some lawmakers believe the proposed rules need more work. Members of Parliament recently reviewed draft regulations under the Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASP) Act. The law took effect in November 2025. One provision drew particular attention. The draft requires stablecoin issuers to hold at least 30% of their reserves in commercial banks based in Kenya. Lawmakers did not question the need for stablecoin regulation in Kenya. Instead, they questioned whether the proposed rules strike the right balance between consumer protection and innovation. What Stablecoin Regulation in Kenya Proposes The…

The biggest mistake African crypto startups make is not a technical one. It is not a product failure either. According to Franklin Peters, in a recent interview with CoinAfrica, the mistake is structural. African crypto startups scale before they are ready and when the market shifts, they have nothing left to hold them up. Peters has seen this pattern repeat itself more times than he can count. He lived it himself. Scaling Without the Right Foundation The biggest mistake African crypto startups make often begins the moment growth arrives. Suddenly there is pressure to hire, to expand, to keep up…

For decades, moving money across Africa has been far more complicated than moving money across continents. A business owner in Lagos can often send funds to London more easily than to a supplier in Accra. Despite rapid growth in digital finance, Africa remains fragmented by dozens of currencies, varying banking regulations, and payment systems that rarely communicate seamlessly with one another. This challenge has fuelled a wave of financial innovation across the continent, from mobile money platforms like M-Pesa to fintech giants such as Flutterwave, Chipper Cash, and Paga. Now, according to Franklin Peters, CEO of Boundless Pay and Board…

On 11 June 2026, Binance announced $250,000 in humanitarian funding to support the frontline response to the ongoing Ebola outbreak spreading across eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and into Uganda. Health systems in both countries are under acute pressure. The funding will be split equally between the Uganda Red Cross Society and Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières(MSF). Both organisations are already operating in affected communities. Richard Teng, co-CEO of Binance, explained the decision directly. “Communities across Africa continue to show extraordinary resilience in the face of complex challenges, but frontline responders should not have to face crises…

Nigeria stablecoin crypto regulation has become a pressing concern for global financial watchdogs. The International Monetary Fund has now made that concern official. In its 2026 Article IV Consultation report, concluded on 1 June and released on 9 June, the IMF called on Nigerian authorities to bring stablecoin and crypto-asset activities fully into the country’s regulatory framework. But it also delivered a pointed message to Nigerian regulators. “Directors stressed the importance of further strengthening supervision and bringing stablecoin and other crypto-asset activities into the regulatory perimeter,” the report stated. In other words, the IMF is saying that Nigeria’s current regulatory…

Nigeria’s cross-border payment problem is not new. Businesses face high fees, slow settlement times, and a maze of intermediaries that add cost at every step. However, Konga Group CEO Prince Nnamdi Ekeh believes stablecoins can change that. On 4 June 2026, Ekeh took the stage at the E-Commerce and Payments Forum organised by the Africa Retail Academy of Lagos Business School. There, he announced that Konga had invested $2.7 million in Stable, a stablecoin payments startup. He framed the investment as a direct response to the payment barriers slowing Nigerian businesses down. “Nigeria’s competitive advantage is supposed to be manufacturing.…

On 9 June 2026, FIFA officially announced Kraken as the Official Crypto Exchange Supporter of the FIFA World Cup 2026. The tournament kicks off on 11 June and runs through 19 July across 16 host cities in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. “Football has always crossed borders. So does crypto, for most of history, the best markets were open only to the few. The FIFA World Cup 2026 is where we show everyone else what they’ve been missing: an open, borderless financial system that anyone can join with a phone in their pocket. This isn’t a future concept. It’s…

On 2 June 2026, Moneygram officially launched MGUSD, its own native U.S. dollar stablecoin on the Stellar blockchain. The product goes live in the United States first. However, the intent is clearly global. “MGUSD is the stablecoin we built for our customers, for the families sending money home and for the billions of people around the world with limited financial access,” said Anthony Soohoo, Chairman and CEO of MoneyGram. Why This Matters Beyond the Announcement This is not MoneyGram distributing someone else’s stablecoin. It is issuing its own. MGUSD is embedded directly into the MoneyGram app as a self-custodial wallet. …