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Unlock Your Potential with Tekedia Mini-MBA: Where Knowledge Meets Business Execution

By
Ndubuisi Ekekwe
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0

Imagine the thrill of a perfectly aimed penalty kick. Yes, that moment of precision, power, and ultimate goal, to win a trophy. That’s the same feeling you’ll get when you equip yourself with the knowledge and skills from Tekedia Mini-MBA, propelling your career and business towards undeniable success.

The Tekedia Mini-MBA Edition 18 is a dynamic 12-week online innovation management program, meticulously designed to elevate your understanding of business execution and growth, all within a crucial digital framework. Running from September 15 to December 6, 2025, this program is themed “Innovation, Growth & Digital Execution – Techniques for Building Category-King Companies.”

You will get a manual titled “The Dangote System: Techniques for Building Conglomerates” which will open your eyes on the physics of building enduring wealth.

Why Tekedia Mini-MBA?

  • Flexible Learning: All course content is self-paced, recorded, and archived, offering you the flexibility to learn at your convenience, no matter your schedule.
  • Comprehensive Curriculum: Dive deep into a wide array of critical business topics including Innovation, Design Thinking, Business Systems & Processes, Exponential Technologies, Marketing, Sales Management, Law, Leadership, and much more. Each week builds on the last, ensuring a holistic understanding of modern business landscapes.
  • Global Faculty & Engagement: Learn from a global faculty coordinated by the esteemed Prof. Ndubuisi Ekekwe. Engage directly with faculty and guests through “Tekedia Live” – optional Zoom sessions held thrice weekly (Tues, Thurs, Sat at 7 pm WAT), with all sessions archived for your convenience.
  • Practical & Applied Knowledge: The program is packed with videos, flash cases, challenge assignments, labs, and written materials, ensuring a practical and hands-on learning experience that goes beyond theoretical concepts.
  • Industry-Agnostic: Whether you’re in tech, finance, healthcare, or any other sector, the principles taught are universally applicable, designed to foster innovation and growth in any industry or firm.
  • Certificate of Achievement: Upon successful completion, you will be awarded a certificate of achievement by Tekedia Institute, Boston USA, a testament to your newly acquired expertise.

Invest in Your Future – Flexible Pricing Options!

Take advantage of early bird pricing until Aug 2, 2025.

  • “MINI” Package: Includes the Tekedia Mini-MBA and WhatsApp School for just US$170 or N120,000.
  • “MINF” Annual Package: For those committed to continuous growth, this package offers 3 consecutive MINI programs, 2 optional capstones, and annual access to Blucera.com and the Tekedia Daily podcast for $340 or N180,000.

Optional add-ons like homework review and a Tekedia capstone research paper are also available to enhance your learning journey.

Don’t miss out on this opportunity to transform your business acumen and kickstart your path to becoming a category-king!

Enroll today and take that decisive penalty kick towards unparalleled success with the Tekedia Mini-MBA. Visit https://school.tekedia.com/course/mmba18/ for more details and to register.

Afriex Expands Into Asia’s Largest Remittance Markets to Power Cross-Border Payments For African Traders And Diaspora

By
Ojukwu Emmanuel
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0

Afriex, a money-transfer platform that allows users to make instant and affordable money transfers locally and abroad, has expanded into Asia’s three biggest remittance markets, China, India, and Pakistan to meet rising demand for seamless cross-border payments.

The move strengthens Afriex’s position to serve African merchants and diaspora communities engaged in foreign trade or sending money home.

Speaking on the expansion, Afriex’s co-founder and CEO Tope Alabi said,

“Our money transfers to India and Pakistan are instant, just like sending money to a friend or paying your Uber driver, and 90% of our transactions are completed in under two seconds. Although on China’s side, we are not yet at the same level of instant, but we’re getting close.”

Asia’s remittance market is a critical component of the global financial landscape, driven by high migration rates and the economic contributions of diaspora communities.

The global remittance market was valued at approximately USD 796.74 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach USD 1,334.69 billion by 2032, with a CAGR of 5.9%. Asia-Pacific holds the largest share, accounting for a significant portion of global inflows due to its high migrant population.

In 2022, Asia received USD 302.1 billion in remittances, the largest share of the global total of USD 682.6 billion. The Asia-Pacific digital remittance market was valued at USD 49.85 billion in 2018 and is expected to reach USD 269.78 billion by 2026, with a CAGR of 23.5%, driven by mobile money ecosystems and digital platforms.

India alone received $120 billion in remittances in 2023, followed by China with $50 billion and Pakistan with $27 billion three of the world’s top five recipient countries.

Afriex’s expansion to Asia’s biggest remittance markets comes amid a global surge in cross-border payments, fueled by migration, trade, and remote work. This move reflects the startup’s ambition to bridge financial connectivity between Africa and Asia, driven by increasing trade, migration, and global payment trends.

Afriex’s entry will facilitate smoother money transfers between Africa and Asia, benefiting African traders importing from Asia and diaspora communities supporting families.

Afriex was founded in 2019 by Alabi and John Obirine to fix a broken system where cross-border transfers were slow, expensive, and unfair. The company began as a simple MVP for friends and family.

Currently, the startup enables users to send and receive money in local currencies between Africa and other regions without relying on traditional payment rails like SWIFT. Its multi-currency payment infrastructure settles transactions in real time through a mobile app integrated with local banks.

Afriex enables real-time, low-cost money transfers through its mobile app, bypassing traditional systems like SWIFT. It waives fees on transfers above USD 10, earning revenue via foreign exchange spreads, and integrates with local banking systems for seamless settlements.

Afriex’s services target African traders and global diaspora populations that import goods or support families across these markets. To encourage adoption, Afriex waives transaction fees on transfers above $10, generating revenue from foreign exchange spreads.

The company currently has over 600k active users, serves over 50+ countries, and is backed by leading investors which include Y Combinator, Dragonfly, Sequoia Capital, and GoldenTree Asset Management.

Afriex aims to achieve instant payments to China by the end of 2025, matching its capabilities in India and Pakistan. The company partners with local firms in each country to navigate regulatory requirements efficiently.

The startup joins other African fintechs expanding globally, which include Flutterwave, which entered India through a local banking partnership in 2023, and LemFi, which secured $53 million in 2025 to scale operations across Asia and Europe. However, its focus on African-Asian corridors differentiates it, offering tailored solutions for underserved trade and remittance routes.

Notably, while its approach has evolved over the years, the company’s long-term goal is to build a global bank that enables people to send money to anyone instantly.

Business Financing and Unlocking Corporate Credit in Africa | Tekedia Mini-MBA

By
Ndubuisi Ekekwe
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0

Access to business financing remains a critical challenge for many enterprises in Africa. Despite the continent’s entrepreneurial spirit and a growing pool of SMEs, traditional financing systems often exclude these businesses due to high collateral demands, limited credit histories, and fragmented financial markets. This exclusion stifles innovation and scalability, leaving many promising ventures underfunded and unable to expand. Informal financing still dominates, but it lacks the structure and sustainability necessary to drive long-term growth.

To unlock corporate credit across Africa, stakeholders must build robust credit infrastructure, deepen financial inclusion, and embrace innovative models such as fintech lending, invoice factoring, supply chain finance, and credit guarantees. Credit bureaus and digital identity systems can improve creditworthiness assessments. Public-private partnerships and regulatory reforms must also support more transparent and accessible lending ecosystems. By rethinking credit mechanisms and reducing structural barriers, Africa can catalyze entrepreneurship and industrial growth across its markets.

Tomorrow, at Tekedia Mini-MBA, Abeeb Ogunsola, CEO of Evea, a pioneering corporate credit company in Nigeria will educate on this, explaining the core difference between using a corporate credit card and a business loan – and how the firm has been funding companies via credit.

Thur, July 31 | 7pm-8pm WAT | Business Financing and Unlocking Corporate Credit in Africa – Abeeb Ogunsola, Evea | Zoom link https://school.tekedia.com/course/mmba18/

Generative AI Apps Soar in Usage and Revenue, With ChatGPT Leading the Surge

By
Samuel Nwite
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0

Generative AI apps are enjoying an unprecedented surge in popularity, as both user downloads and in-app spending reached record highs in the first half of 2025, according to a report released by market intelligence firm Sensor Tower.

Between January and June 2025, users downloaded generative AI apps 1.7 billion times—up from 1 billion in the latter half of 2024—signaling a staggering 70% growth. The category also recorded a dramatic spike in in-app purchases, with revenue nearly doubling to $1.87 billion from $932 million in H2 2024.

Users are not just downloading these apps; they’re spending more time than ever inside them. Sensor Tower reported that Gen AI apps saw over 15.6 billion hours of usage in H1 2025, a sharp rise from 8.5 billion hours in the second half of 2024. These figures spanned 426 billion sessions, a sign of increasing user engagement.

Asia Emerges as the AI Frontier

Asia outpaced all other regions in download growth, accounting for 42.6% of global Gen AI app installs in the first half of the year. Much of this momentum was driven by rising adoption in markets like India and Mainland China, with the region’s overall download growth reaching 80%, far ahead of 51% in Europe and 39% in North America.

When it comes to in-app purchases, Latin America registered the highest growth, though North America still holds the largest market share, pulling in 40% of total Gen AI in-app revenues.

ChatGPT Dominates Global Market—Except China

The growth of ChatGPT stood out in nearly every category. The app led in-app revenue rankings globally, except in China, where DeepSeek, a local competitor, topped the charts shortly after launch. While DeepSeek took the lead in downloads in China, ChatGPT maintained its dominance elsewhere, becoming the most-used generative AI assistant.

According to Sensor Tower, ChatGPT was used for an average of 12.1 days per month in H1 2025. That frequency places it alongside top social platforms like X and Reddit, with only Google having a better usage rate. Notably, weekend usage of ChatGPT also rose, suggesting that users now rely on the app not only for work-related tasks but also for lifestyle needs and personal support.

Beyond traditional uses like writing and coding, users are increasingly turning to ChatGPT for help with health and wellness, shopping recommendations, personal finance, and meal preparation. In Q2 2025 alone, over one-third of prompts were related to lifestyle and entertainment, demonstrating the app’s expanding role as a versatile assistant.

The report also found that 15% of ChatGPT users in the U.S. access it across both mobile and web, a multi-platform engagement that outpaces popular platforms like Temu and Threads, but still lags behind tech giants such as Google, Facebook, YouTube, and Amazon, where 25% or more of users interact across devices.

Generative AI Turns into a Branding Trend

The AI boom has also sparked a naming frenzy. The term “AI” now appears in over 100,000 app descriptions across the App Store and Play Store. In H1 2025, apps with “AI” in their names or descriptions were downloaded 7.5 billion times, accounting for about 10% of all app downloads globally.

Sensor Tower noted that developers across multiple categories—from photo editing and nutrition to test prep, translation, and hobby apps—are adding AI references to gain traction. This strategy has delivered measurable, though often short-lived, spikes in downloads.

“Apps that added terms like ‘AI’ or ‘LLM’ to their names or descriptions experienced a notable boost in downloads over the subsequent months,” the report stated, adding that while the term offers short-term visibility, it doesn’t guarantee long-term engagement unless backed by robust AI capabilities.

What It Means

The Sensor Tower report reinforces what many in the tech industry have anticipated—generative AI is not just a trend but a transformation. With increasing engagement times, cross-platform adoption, and diversified use cases, apps like ChatGPT are shifting how users interact with digital tools.

This means that as regional players like DeepSeek gain traction and new apps flood the market, the global generative AI space is setting the stage for even fiercer competition and innovation in the second half of the year.

Fintech Reclaims Dominance in African Startup Funding with $640M in H1 2025

By
Ojukwu Emmanuel
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0

The Fintech sector has once again taken the lead in African startup funding, attracting 45% of all investments (excluding exits) in the first half of 2025, securing approximately $640 million, according to a report by Africa; The Big Deal.

This performance is consistent with 2024’s 47% share and marks a rebound from a relative decline in previous years, when fintech’s share had dropped to 28%. Over the past 12 months, fintech has accounted for 51% of total funding, nearing its historical peak.

The five largest fintech deals in H1 2025 include;

Wave Money’s $137 million debt raise

Wave, a digital payment and mobile financial services provider, delivering secure, accessible, and reliable financial payments, secured $137 million in debt financing. The deal was led by Rand Merchant Bank, with backing from global development finance giants like British International Investment (BII), Finnfund, and Norfund.

The funding will help scale its mobile money operations and broaden financial access for underserved communities across the continent, the company said in a statement.

Bokra’s $59 million sukuk issuance in Egypt

Bokra, an Egyptian fintech successfully raised 3 billion Egyptian pounds ($58.9 million) through its inaugural sukuk issuance. The Mudaraba sukuks were issued for Aman Project Finance, a subsidiary of Aman Holding. This marked a key milestone for Bokra as it ventures into the project finance sector with Sharia-compliant debt instruments.

Stitch’s $55 million Series B in South Africa

South African payments infrastructure startup Stitch, secured a $55 million Series B funding round, bringing its total funding to $107 million. This investment according to the company will be used to expand its in-person payment offerings, enhance its online payment solutions, and facilitate its entry into card acquiring.

The round was led by QED Investors and included participation from Norrsken22, Flourish Ventures, Glynn Capital, and angel investor Trevor Noah. Existing investors like Ribbit Capital and PayPal Ventures also contribute

LemFi’s $53 million Series B in Nigeria

LemFi, a Nigerian-born fintech startup secured a $53 million Series B funding round. This investment, led by Highland Europe, will be used to expand LemFi’s global operations and introduce new financial products, particularly for the African diaspora.

The funding round also included participation from existing investors like Left Lane Capital, Palm Drive Capital, Y Combinator, and Endeavor Catalyst. This brings LemFi’s total funding to $85 million. 

MNT-Halan’s Tasaheel $50 million bond issuance in Egypt

Egyptian fintech giant MNT-Halan tapped into public debt markets after its subsidiary Tasaheel Holding Company successfully issued EGP 2.5 billion (approximately $49.4 million) in corporate bonds.

The move highlighted a growing trend among African credit-focused startups to seek alternative financing beyond traditional venture capital, increasingly looking towards local public debt markets and potential initial public offerings (IPOs) to fuel their growth and achieve sustainability.

Regional Deals

In terms of regional funding, Kenya stood out as an exception among the continent’s “Big Four” markets, raising just $23 million compared to over $100 million each for Nigeria, South Africa, and Egypt. The limited fintech funding in Kenya is likely due to the country’s uniquely robust mobile money ecosystem, where 95% of adults own a mobile money account and 82% use it weekly (GSMA).

Notably, Fintech deals also outpaced non-fintech transactions in size, with a median value of $1.7 million and an average of $10 million, compared to $0.5 million and $4.8 million, respectively, for non-fintech deals.

While fintech represented only 27% of total deal volume in H1 2025, its share increases to 31% for deals above $1 million and 46% for deals exceeding $10 million.

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