In recent years, a handful of Latin American fintechs have made inroads into Africa to tap into its growing digital payments market. The latest entrant is Minka, a Colombian fintech backed by Tiger Global. Minka builds payment networks that allow people to send money between participating banks and other financial institutions.
On Tuesday, Minka launched in East Africa, setting shop in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Ethiopia. The company plans to expand to Mozambique, Zambia, and Malawi in Southern Africa.
Minkas arrival in East Africa follows a trend of Latin American fintech companies expanding into Africa. In 2022, EBANX launched in 11 African countries. Two years earlier, Uruguays dLocal launched in West Africa and Kenya. The expansion makes sense because both regions have similar challenges over 350 million African adults lack access to financial institutions and rely solely on cash transactions.
We are solving these problems across the LatAm region and now want to bring these advantages to the people of East Africa, the company said in a statement to TechCabal.
Minka sees some real synergies between the work we are doing in Latin America and the issues that are being faced in East Africa, the companys growth lead Alexander Perko, told TechCabal. These similarities include high levels of financial exclusion, with eight out of the bottom ten ranked markets for overall financial inclusion located in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa, and heavy reliance on cash transactions with large informal sectors.
