Ghana reins in digital lenders

Sponsored By Alienmedia

👋🏿 Good evening. Africa’s tech scene is doing what it does best, moving. Regulators are tightening screws, creators are stacking revenue streams, and payments keep eating everything. Let’s get into it.

🎬 Watch: Tayo Aina’s latest “Made in Africa” founder journeys are a masterclass in storytelling that sells Africa to the world. Perfect inspo for your brand film or fundraise video. 

Did someone forward you this email? Subscribe here for free.

Today’s Top Story

Bank of Ghana pulls digital lenders into the regulatory net

On Friday, 29th Aug. 2025. The Bank of Ghana has designated Digital Credit Services as a non-bank financial service. The notice makes clear that digital lenders now sit inside the scope of Ghana’s financial regulation, and that the central bank will publish a follow-up directive with licensing and compliance requirements. 

What actually changed: 

• The Bank of Ghana formally named Digital Credit Services as a regulated service. This puts app-based loans, BNPL, airtime and utility microloans, and credit embedded in mobile money on the radar of the central bank. 

• The designation does not give anyone a license. Operators that already run lending apps still need to meet the new licensing rules once the Bank issues them. 

• The change signals that enforcement is coming. The Bank has signaled it will require disclosures, reporting, and consumer protection measures. 

Why the timing matters: Regulators act when harm rises. Ghana’s cyber and consumer protection bodies logged many reports of harassment, data misuse, and other abuses by unregulated loan apps. The Cyber Security Authority has publicly blacklisted apps tied to harassment and data abuse. That record pushed the BoG to act.  At the same time mobile money use and embedded credit keep growing across Africa. Mobile payment rails handle huge volumes, so lending that sits on those rails can scale fast and create wide effects when it goes wrong. The GSMA reports that mobile money processed about $1.68 trillion in 2024, and activity keeps rising. That scale makes regulation urgent. Finally, Ghana’s move follows a broader continental pattern. Kenya and Nigeria have already tightened rules for digital lenders. Those countries show the likely path forward: registration, licensing, disclosures, and penalties for bad practice. Expect a similar playbook here.

Today’s Top Idea

The 3-channel revenue stack for African creators & SMBs

TikTok has rolled out TikTok for Artists in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and South Africa, giving local creators better analytics and tools to plan releases and campaigns. Selar now supports local payouts and clear timelines for NGN, GHS and KES, so African creators can sell digital products with realistic cash flow.
WhatsApp Business gives simple, direct commerce tools like catalogs and broadcast lists, and the platform now uses per-message pricing for Business API customers. That makes conversational commerce a predictable, scalable channel when you plan costs.

How the stack works, step by step

Step 1: Distribution - TikTok for top-of-funnel

Post short, native clips to build attention. Use TikTok for Artists data to see which songs and posts move fans to action. Spend time on creative hooks and one clear call to action. If you are music or short-form first, treat TikTok as your traffic engine.

Step 2: Monetisation - Selar (or similar local checkout) to capture value

Put one paid product at the center. Examples: a paid masterclass, a sample pack, a fans’ club, or a live ticket. Link the TikTok bio or link-in-bio to a Selar product page. Selar supports multi-currency receipts and posts payout timelines by country. That removes major cross-border payout headaches.

Step 3: Retention - WhatsApp to own the relationship

Move buyers into a WhatsApp broadcast list or a dedicated group. Use a catalog message for new drops. Send value first. Then send one to two offer messages per week at most. Remember that customers must save your number for broadcasts to land. Plan for API costs if you scale.

Tactical checklist you can use this week

• Pick one flagship product. Price it reasonably.

• Run three TikTok creatives that point to the product page. One creative per week.

• Put the product on Selar. Confirm payout timing for your country.

• After a sale, move the buyer to WhatsApp and confirm they saved your number. Use the catalog for fast repeat purchases.

• Track CPA, conversion rate, average order value, and 30-day repeat rate. Improve one metric each sprint.

One last, simple rule
Start small. Measure the funnel. Reinvest a fixed percentage of profits into the next campaign. Compound decisions that show clear, repeatable ROI.

Catching Trends

Mobile money = macro muscle. Africa’s mobile money systems now serve 500M+ monthly active users, process $1.7T a year (about $3.2M per minute). If you’re not pricing, paying, or settling on these rails, you’re leaving CAC and margins on the table. 

Visa plants a data centre in SA. Lower latency, better reliability, and easier compliance for regional payment flows—good news for PSPs and fintechs scaling across SADC/ECOWAS.

Nigeria’s open banking play matures. With published operational guidelines and a shared API framework, expect B2B fintech infra (account aggregation, PFM, risk, payments initiation) to heat up.

Stats For Nerds

$2 billion

By 2025, African startups collectively raised over $2 billion in just eight months, with 83% of July’s record $550 million driven by two energy tech startups—showing how focused sectors can dominate funding rounds. It’s a bullish indicator that African entrepreneurship is not only alive but strategically sharpening its impact zones.

Creator Corner

Layi Wasabi’s Lagos playbook: comedy → commerce.

Three years ago, Nigerian law student Layi Wasabi started posting short-form comedy skits online. His sharp courtroom parodies and quick improv style built him a loyal following on Instagram and TikTok.

How he got here →

• Wasabi’s early sketches tapped into everyday Nigerian life, using satire to connect with an audience that wanted both humor and cultural relevance. His growth caught the eye of Penzaarville Africa, a talent management agency that helped structure his career into a sustainable business.

• Today, Wasabi works with brands across fintech, quick-service restaurants, and consumer goods. His campaigns often weave storytelling with product placement, making ads feel like part of the narrative rather than interruptions. In 2024, Meta named him one of its “Creators of Tomorrow,” recognizing his role as a next-generation African storyteller.

The model: Wasabi operates on three pillars—management support through Penzaarville, premium brand collaborations, and ownership of platform-agnostic intellectual property. The mix allows him to move beyond dependence on any single social platform while building long-term commercial value.

What to learn: For creators, Wasabi’s trajectory shows the power of pairing creative talent with structured management. The agency-plus-media-company setup gives him leverage with brands and keeps his IP central to the business. It’s a model that blends art with commerce and may become a template for other African creators scaling from skits to sustainable careers.ing template →

Upcoming Events & Opportunities

• Abuja, Sept 1–4: GITEX Nigeria 2025: Government, big tech, startups—expect procurement chats and AI demos. [Register Here] 

• Accra, Oct 8: Africa Fintech Summit – Fintech leaders converge at AICC. Excellent for BD and regulator intros. [Register Here] 

• Cape Town, Nov 10–13: Africa Tech Festival – : The continent’s biggest tech week—connectivity, cloud, AI, startup tracks. [Register Here] 

Around The Continent 

📅On this day: On September 1, 1975, Ghana switched to the metric system. Suddenly, people measuring land, liquid, or luggage had to swap yards and gallons for meters and liters. It was a full system upgrade, all units changed, all rules reset.

😭 A laughter epidemic closed a school: The laughter spread to 95 girls, stopped classwork, and forced the school to close for weeks.

🤖 Traffic lights are “robots” in South Africa: In South Africa people don’t say “stop at the red light.” They say “stop at the robot.” The word stuck, and now anyone will tell you to “watch out for the robot.”

We Want to Hear From You!👉🏾
What did you think of this issue? Hit reply and share your thoughts or suggestions. And if you loved it, forward this to a friend!

See you next time!
 – Enoch & The Meridian Brief Team