Debt reshapes fintech, markets wobble, creators keep building

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👋🏿 Welcome. This week fintech swapped hoodies for suits as debt drives a $2 billion funding run. The GSE hit a snag with trading volumes down more than 50 percent. Short, sharp, and worth your attention.

🎬  Watch: From Medicine to Harvard to Building Nigeria’s First $1B Private Equity Firm

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Today’s Top Story

Is Fintech in Africa Running Out of Steam or Just Changing Gears?

For nearly a decade, if you wanted to explain Africa’s startup boom in one word, you could just say fintech. Payments, lending apps, and neobanks became the continent’s poster children for venture capital. But this August served a curveball: African startups raised just $93 million across 33 deals, and none of the top five rounds came from fintech.

Instead, the spotlight moved elsewhere. Kenya’s Hewatele pulled in $10.5 million for healthcare, Egypt’s Breadfast grabbed $10 million for food delivery, Nigeria’s Chowdeck served up $9 million for food logistics, Rwanda’s Ampersand quietly closed an eight-digit energy deal, and Egypt’s valU securitised $9 million. For once, fintech sat on the bench.

The month vs. the year

One slow month makes headlines, but zoom out and the picture looks different. By the end of August, African startups had already raised $2 billion in 2025, setting up the first year of growth since 2022. Fintech is still the engine, pulling in $640 million in the first half alone. On a rolling 12-month basis, fintech accounts for more than half of all funding. The ecosystem is not abandoning fintech. It is simply funding it differently.

Debt is the new equity

The real twist is in the instruments. For years, fintech’s story was about flashy equity rounds: the Series A or B that came with big press. Now, debt is taking over.

• Wave (Senegal) secured $137m in credit.
  
  

• MNT-Halan (Egypt) raised $50m in bonds.
  
  

• Bokra and valU leaned into Islamic sukuks and securitised debt.

These don’t grab headlines the way VC rounds do, but they reveal fintechs evolving into institutions. Less hype, more banking.

Money for the few, not the many

Capital is also becoming more concentrated. The median fintech raise in 2025 is $1.7m, compared to just $500k for non-fintech startups. Nearly half of all $10m+ rounds this year went to fintech. Translation: investors are still betting on fintech, but mainly on the big players with balance sheets strong enough to carry large facilities. Smaller startups are left with tougher odds.

Geography shapes the story

Not every market looks the same:

• Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa: fintech is still king, eating more than half of startup capital.
  
  

• Kenya: with mobile money already at 95% penetration, investors are chasing energy, healthcare, and logistics instead.

The bigger picture

Fintech isn’t running out of cash. It is just graduating. Equity blitzscaling is giving way to structured debt, concentration, and sustainability. For younger startups, that makes entry harder. For established players, it signals stability.

So, no, fintech funding in Africa hasn’t dried up. It has just swapped its hoodie for a tailored suit.

Continue reading here.

Business

GSE Sharp Slow Down Raises Eyebrows

The Ghana Stock Exchange had a quiet Monday, and by quiet we mean awkwardly quiet. Trading volume plunged more than 50%, with just 4.4 million shares worth GH¢15.8m changing hands on September 8. The Composite Index barely moved, but investors moved their feet, mostly out the door.

This is not a one-off blip. Markets across Africa often wrestle with low liquidity. Unlike Nigeria or South Africa, Ghana’s exchange is small, heavily concentrated in a handful of stocks, and sensitive to shifts in inflation, interest rates, and the cedi’s dance with the dollar.

So why does it matter?

• For businesses: Thin volume makes it harder to raise capital. If no one’s buying, your shiny new equity offering might sit on the shelf.

• For investors: Liquidity risk rises. Higher bid-ask spreads and weaker price discovery mean you could get stuck with shares no one wants.

• For tech hopefuls: ICT has been a bright spot on the GSE, but a dry trading day puts IPO dreams on ice.

• For media and creators: A sleepy market is harder to hype, but explaining risk in plain language is a win.

The irony? Year-to-date, the GSE is still up almost 45%. Think of it like a trotro that’s been speeding all morning, only to stall at the next stop. Momentum is real, but without fuel (liquidity), it doesn’t go far.

What to watch next: regulators may tweak fees or incentives to spark activity. In the meantime, long-term investors could see bargains hiding in the slowdown. For the rest of us, it’s a reminder that markets, like chop bars, need both cooks and hungry customers to stay lively.

Continue reading here.

Technology

Rektron Bids $150M for 60% of Ghana's AT

Canadian giant Rektron wants to buy 60% of AT Ghana, the state-owned telco once rescued for just one dollar. Backed by $150 million, the deal promises debt restructuring, new towers, and a digital facelift for the struggling operator.

AT Ghana has been the underdog for years. MTN owns over 70% of the market, Telecel about 15%, while AT scrapes by with 13%. The result is patchy service and fewer choices for consumers. Rektron, better known for energy and infrastructure, now sees Ghana’s growing data appetite as a reason to gamble. For consumers, the deal could mean cheaper data and stronger competition; for government, a chance to offload over $200 million in liabilities; and for Rektron, a risky but strategic entry into Africa’s telecom boom.

Think of AT Ghana as that trotro with bad shocks. Rektron is offering a new engine. The question is, will it run smoothly this time?

Continue reading here.

Creator Economy

Creative Chaos Ignites New Wave of Collaborative Creativity in Accra

Accra’s event playbook is predictable: long speeches, little interaction, and an audience counting minutes until the networking break. Creative Chaos flips that script.

The festival swaps endless panels for immersive breakout sessions where attendees paint, debate, solve problems, and, most importantly, connect. Crowdpen, the organisers say the format has already created interesting partnerships and collaborations, proving that when people get involved, magic happens.

Backed by partners like British Council Ghana, Bolt, and Accra Art District, the event positions itself as more than a gathering. It is a test run for a new model of African events built on participation rather than passivity.

Today’s Top Idea

Can TBills Make You a Millionaire?

Ghana’s economy has seen volatile inflation and currency swings. In such an environment, many citizens ask whether government T-Bills, debt sold by Ghana’s finance ministry through the Bank of Ghana, can reliably build wealth. With the latest rates yet again under-subscribed, it appears the Ghanaian market is turning away from T-bills and into assets like the fixed deposit. This is going to be a long one, so brace up. 

Continue reading here.

Catching Trends

🤔Ghana has over 120 tech hubs, incubators, accelerators (mostly in Accra, Kumasi, Takoradi), supporting innovation, especially in agritech and ICT.

🤔The insurance penetration rate is very low: near 1.05% of GDP, meaning very few people actually have insurance.

🤔Among TV stations, TV3 is often ranked #1 in viewership (audience share), followed by UTV and Adom TV.

Stats For Nerds

$2 billion+

African startups have pulled in more than $2 billion this year, hitting the mark by August despite a sluggish month. The twist is that nearly half of the money now comes from debt, not equity, which could squeeze young companies chasing growth. Egypt and Kenya are leading the pack, while Nigeria’s dip signals shifting investor appetites. The milestone is impressive, but the funding model is changing fast.

[Read the Full Report →]

Creator Corner

Kwadwo Sheldon: From Pepease to Industry Shaper

Kwadwo Sheldon turned village life into viral reach. The content creator from Pepease blends sharp takeaways and streetwise humour to explain politics, culture, and the small daily nonsense that makes Ghana tick. His mix of short-form clips and longer YouTube pieces has made him one of the country’s most watched creators and a steady voice in local digital debates.

How he got here →

• Sheldon grew up with his grandmother and moved from a small-town routine into media work in Accra. 

• He learned the craft at Rave Media and then at OMG Digital, where a daily segment sharpened his timing and tone. 

• Those early days taught him how to turn a single idea into repeatable formats that viewers can recognise and share. 

• He later launched Kwadwo Sheldon Studios and built a team to scale ideas into shows, memes, and branded content.

What to expect from here: Expect Sheldon to keep straddling satire and service. He will push more longform interviews, expand studio output, and lean into formats that travel off-platform. That matters because creators who build systems and teams turn short-term viral hits into steady businesses. As Sheldon puts it, “All the successes that I’ve taken are as a result of hard work.” His path shows that consistency, format design, and local honesty still beat cheap stunts.

[Read Their Story →]

Upcoming Events & Opportunities

• Sept 16-19: Africa Creative Market 2025 – Creative Bridge, Lagos, Nigeria [Register Here]

• Sept 17-19: ARCATU 2025 – Applied Research Conference, Accra Technical University, Ghana [Register Here]

• Sept 22-27: MCT West Africa Tech Summit, Accra, Ghana [Register Here]

• Sept 21-27: FESTAC Africa 2025, Accra, Ghana [Registration]

• Sept 26: MEST Africa Challenge – Application Deadline [Apply Now]

Around The Continent 

📅 On this day: In 1920, Jujiro Matsuda founded a cork business, Toyo Cork Kogyo, in Hiroshima, Japan. In 1931, it produced the Mazda-Go, a three-wheeled car, and became known as Mazda.

 😎 That’s cool: The “Eye of the Sahara” in Mauritania is a giant circular geological formation so large it can be seen from space.

 💃🏾 Dance: Afrobeat dance challenges on TikTok have caused a 50% rise in local dance studio enrollments across parts of Africa, try mastering a move or two, if you dare!

🤩 Wow: Meet the turtle species in Africa that have been spotted wearing tiny, naturally formed “wigs” of algae and moss, nature’s little fashionistas!

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