E-Financial
Nigeria Leads as Africa’s Tech Start-ups Attract $2bn Investment

In 2019, 243 African tech start-ups raised a total of $2.02 billion in equity through 250 rounds, representing a 74% growth year-on-year that saw Nigeria attracting the highest.
This is according to Partech Africa, which published its annual report on venture capital (VC) funding for African start-ups.
The report shows 2019 was another year of breaking records and achieving new milestones for the dynamic and fast-growing tech investment ecosystem in Africa.
The report, which is the fourth the team has produced, is based on the same methodology as the previous years – it covers equity deals in the tech and digital spaces, as well as funding rounds higher than $200 000. It covers both disclosed and undisclosed deals.
The Partech Africa report tracked 250 rounds raised by 234 start-ups compared to 164 rounds by 146 start-ups the year before, representing 52% growth year-on-year in deal count.
“We noticed a massive densification of early stage rounds with 206 transactions (57% year-on-year) in seed and series A investments, which confirms investors’ confidence in taking early bets in Africa,” says Cyril Collon, general partner at Partech.
“Africa’s tech ecosystem has moved into the mainstream, transforming economies considerably, and while there are certain ups and downs to be expected in the future, this new reality is also redefining the scope of private equity on the continent, with venture capital on the way to becoming the number one asset class in Africa.”
The report says 70 investors made two or more transactions in 2019, compared with 20 investors in 2017.
It adds the top five most active investors have each done about seven deals.
It states Nigeria attracted a record high of $747 million in tech VC investment (37% of all funding), but only takes fourth place, behind Egypt, in deal count.
Meanwhile, Egypt broke into the top three both in terms of deal count (147% year-on-year) and deal volume (215% year-on-year).
Partech notes the regional landscape has now been redrawn, with 85% of the total funding ($1.7 billion) going to the top four countries – Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt and SA.
According to the report, South Africa has slowed down compared to Kenya and Nigeria in terms of total funding, with $205 million (18% year-on-year) but remains the undisputed number one in deal count with 66 deals (78% year-on-year) thanks to its maturing early stage ecosystem growing faster (28% of all seed and series A transactions).
In SA, 11 start-ups raised 11 rounds equal to or higher than $5 million.
It points out there were 18 countries with at least one equity tech deal above $200 000 in 2019, compared to 19 countries in 2018.
With total funding of $294 million (53%) raised over 47 deals (24% year-on-year), the rest of the continent (excluding the top four countries) is absorbing 15% of total investment across the continent.
Regarding French-speaking Africa, Senegal confirms again its position as the leading hub, with $16 million raised in six deals, the firm says.
Driven by fintech, financial inclusion remains the main investment sector on the continent, attracting 54.5% of the total funding, it says.
However, the online and mobile consumer services sector has witnessed a steep increase to 29.3% of total funding (versus 19.6% in 2018) while B2B and tech adoption represents only 16.1% of total deals (versus 30.4% in 2018).
“Fintech is clearly exploding on the continent, with more and more digital players enabling start-ups to serve the segment,” says Tidjane Deme, general partner at Partech.
“This is one of the reasons that VC investors now have a much larger pool to play with than the traditional private equity investors did before. We’re seeing the latter come in into smaller tickets and into the tech space, trying to find interesting opportunities.”
E-Financial
NIBBS: Banks Close 29.4m Accounts, Dormant Accounts Hit 33.39m

Banks in Nigeria closed 29.4 million accounts as of March 2025, according to the latest report by the Nigerian Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS).
The figure represents a sharp year-on-year increase of 30.43 per cent from the 22.54 million closed accounts recorded in March 2024.
It also reflects a steady rise in account closures over recent months, with 33.29 million closed accounts reported in February 2025 and 29.43 million in January.
The report also revealed a significant increase in dormant accounts, which surged to 33.39 million in March 2025, up from 19.79 million in the same period in 2024, a 71.3 per cent rise in inactive accounts over the past year.
Despite the spike in closures and dormant accounts, the number of active bank accounts rose from 219.64 million in March 2024 to 320.05 million in March 2025, representing an increase of over 100 million, or 45.7 per cent.
NIBSS defines a dormant account as one that has seen no deposit, withdrawal, transfer, or point-of-sale transaction for a period of six months.
The surge in account closures and dormancy follows the Central Bank of Nigeria’s directive issued in December 2023, mandating commercial banks to restrict Tier-1 accounts not linked to a Bank Verification Number (BVN) and National Identification Number (NIN) by March 1, 2024.
In response to the directive, BVN enrolment increased from 61.6 million in April 2024 to 66.23 million by July 2025, as more Nigerians rushed to meet the CBN’s compliance deadline.
E-Financial
Cardoso, CBN Boss Risks Arrest over Alleged N5.2 Trillion Unremitted Funds

The Joint Committee of the House of Representatives on Public Accounts and Public Assets has threatened to issue a warrant of arrest against Mr. Olayemi Cardoso, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), over repeated failure to honour its invitations regarding the probe into non-compliance with the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007 and Finance Act 2020.

Olayemi Cardoso,, Gov, CBN
In a joint statement released on Friday and signed by Hon. Bamidele Salam and Hon. Ademorin Kuye, chairmen of the committees, the lawmakers decried the CBN governor’s continued disregard for legislative summons.
The committee is investigating the non-remittance of operating surplus as well as the mismanagement of unclaimed dividends and dormant account balances.
According to the committee, the Office of the Auditor General for the Federation reported a liability of N5.2 trillion in unremitted operating surplus due to the federal government from 2016 to 2022; a claim corroborated by the Fiscal Responsibility Commission in a separate submission to the National Assembly.
The committee cited provisions of the Finance Act 2020, which mandate that unclaimed dividends from publicly listed companies and dormant bank account balances older than six years be transferred into the Unclaimed Fund Trust Fund. The fund is to be managed by a Governing Council led by the Minister of Finance and the Debt Management Office (DMO).
Contrary to this, the CBN maintains that the Financial Institutions Act 2020 empowers it to manage dormant balances.
However, the committee noted that the Attorney General of the Federation has issued a legal opinion affirming that the Finance Act 2020 remains the valid law guiding the management of such funds.
Following extensive submissions, the committee resolved that the CBN must remit N3.64 trillion, representing 70% of the undisputed N5.2 trillion operating surplus, within 14 days from receipt of its June 27, 2025, directive, pending final reconciliation of the disputed amount.
Additionally, the apex bank was directed to submit a detailed report on the total sum of unclaimed dividends and dormant account balances by June 30, 2025.
The CBN was also ordered to transfer these funds into the Unclaimed Fund Trust Fund within 14 days and furnish the House with evidence of the transaction.
The lawmakers expressed frustration that, despite the clear directives and ample time, the CBN governor has failed to respond or appear before the joint committee to provide an explanation.
“In view of this continued defiance, the Committee will be compelled to exercise its constitutional powers to compel Mr. Olayemi Cardoso to appear before it,” the statement warned.
E-Financial
Moody’s Upgrades Ecobank’s Outlook to Stable

Moody’s has upgraded the outlook on Ecobank Transnational Incorporated’s long-term issuer and senior unsecured debt ratings to stable from negative.
In the latest rating commentary, made available to media on Thursday, Moody’s also affirmed the pan-African banking group’s B3/Not Prime long- and short-term issuer ratings; B3 senior unsecured debt rating; b2 notional Baseline Credit Assessment and b1 Adjusted BCA.
ETI’s subsidiaries operate across 38 countries, including 35 African countries, and total assets of $28.9bn as of March 2025, details from the rating note highlighted. Moody’s said the decision to change the outlook to stable on the long-term issuer and senior unsecured ratings reflects ETI’s resilient financial performance.
The rating upgrade also takes into consideration higher dividends being upstreamed to ETI, resulting in lower double leverage and reduced refinancing risk.
The rating adjustment also reflects an expectation that the recapitalisation process of Ecobank Nigeria Limited will be completed by the end of 2025, with limited impact on the group’s financial fundamentals.
“The stable outlook also captures our expectation that a series of capital-boosting initiatives and actions to cure Ecobank Nigeria’s total capital position will be completed before the end of 2025”, according to the ratings agency.
In May 2025, ETI received shareholder approval to raise $250 million in Additional Tier 1 (AT1) capital and announced the launch of the transaction effective 9 July 2025, of which a portion is expected to be downstreamed to Ecobank Nigeria as AT1 capital during Q3 2025.
Ecobank Nigeria’s plan to raise $200m in AT1 capital was noted in the rating note. The ratings analysts said they consider
“We also note that Ecobank Nigeria’s recent successful offer to tender $150m of its February 2026 $300 million notes and consent to remove the capital adequacy ratio covenant from this bond’s terms alleviates risks of an event of default in Nigeria that would trigger cross default at the ETI level. Over the past year, ETI has shown resilience in its financial performance, which supports our change in outlook to stable. Liquidity risks are being moderated by the group’s gradually improving profitability during 2024 and Q1-2025.
“This has translated into a 22 per cent increase in dividends upstreamed to ETI during 2024, these being received from 22 dividend-paying subsidiaries compared to just 14 in 2021,” the rating commentary revealed.
In turn, albeit high, ETI’s double leverage ratio, which measures the liquidity risk taken on by the holding company, as a result of it borrowing in order to invest in the equity of its subsidiaries, has eased to 168 per cent as of December 2024 from 173 per cent in 2023.
Additionally, the stable outlook reflects reduced liquidity risk at the holding company level with the refinancing of short-term liabilities in 2024 with longer-term funding.
Moody’s said this is underpinned by demonstrated market access, notably through senior unsecured notes issuance of $400m in October 2024 and a tap increase of $125m in May 2025, maturing in October 2029.
ETI’s B3 long-term issuer ratings affirmation reflects the affirmation of the group’s b2 notional BCA; the affirmation of the group’s b1 adjusted BCA as captured by a one-notch uplift for affiliate support, reflecting Moody’s assessment of a moderate probability that the firm’s major institutional shareholders would extend support to the group. Moody’s said asset quality for the group has improved over recent years.
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