The founders of Ping Express US LLC, a Texan payments corporation with connections to the United Kingdom, were given a 27-month prison term for allegedly sending $160 million in proceeds of fraud to Nigeria through the business.

Applications have opened for South Africa’s Design Innovation Seed Fund (DISF), through which designers, inventors, entrepreneurs and product developers with pre-revenue innovations can apply for grant funding of up to ZAR800,000 (US$47,000).

Nigerian full-service fintech and Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) infrastructure provider Bloc has announced its acquisition of Getwallets, the wallets-as-a-service provider that has now recently pivoted to become payments orchestration company Orchestrate.

SendSprint, a money transfer startup based in the U.K. but with operations in the U.S. and Nigeria, has been launched today with the unique selling point of a $5 flat fee for all transfers.

Zazuu, a London-based fintech building a marketplace for remittance companies, has announced a $2 million raise.

IFC, a global development organization, has announced an investment in Wave Mobile Money S.A. (Senegal) and Wave Côte d’Ivoire S.A., mobile money companies that are assisting with lowering pricing and extending services in the region.

Ghanaian e-mobility company SolarTaxi has raised funding from Persistent to further scale its offering.

South African smart parking software management solution has launched operations in Cape Town’s CBD with plans to expand nationally and internationally later this year.

The level of insurance penetration in Kenya is way below the global average. According to a 2020 report by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) insurance uptake in Kenya is only at 2.4%, while the global average is 7.2%.