Afrobility: Africa Tech and Business

Overview:  Today, we’re going to talk about Afrobility. We’ll explore the Afrobility story across the following areas:
Why we started Afrobility

Lessons from past episodes

Behind the scenes of Afrobility

Future plans after Afrobility

Closing thoughts

This episode was recorded on June 8 & 14, 2025

Companies discussed: All of them :) - Jumia, Flutterwave, Paystack, Andela, Chipper Cash, Safaricom (M-Pesa), Wave, Reliance Health, M-Kopa, Naspers, Interswitch, Kuda, Yoco, Tyme Bank, Twiga Foods & many more…

Business concepts discussed: Market Creation, Business Model Innovation, Cross-border Expansion, Fintech Infrastructure, Informal Economy Digitization, Agent Networks, Platform vs Vertical Strategy, Talent and Outsourcing, Unit Economics, Scalability, Offline-to-Online (O2O), Acquisition & Exit Strategies

Conversation highlights:
(05:50) - Afrobility Founding Story

(19:07) - Review of all Afrobility episodes

(03:50:12) - Lessons across episodes

(4:00:10) - Bankole’s overall thoughts 

(4:05:00) - Olumide’s overall thoughts

(4:10:00) - Recommendations 

Olumide’s recommendations:
Interested in investing in Africa Tech with Olumide: Read about Adamantium fund & contact me at olumide@afrobility.com. Founders looking for funding: If you're a B2B founder working on Education, Health, Finance or food, please contact me for funding at olumide@afrobility.com

Checkout my FIREDOM book = FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) + Freedom = personal finance and financial independence book. Website, Read: Substack Newsletter & Buy: Print, eBook or Audiobook)

Recommendation: How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World (Harry Browne) - Independent thinking and freedom 

Recommendation: FIREDOM: Financial Independence stories of immigrants, expats, underdogs, outsiders, nomads or minorities (Olumide Ogunsanwo & Achani Samon Biaou)- Book about creating and living the life you want. I love it because I wrote it.

Recommendation: Maximum Achievement (Bryan Tracy) - Self belief & Self development

Bankole’s recommendations:
Recommendation: Anything you want (Derek Sivers)

Recommendation: Book of Why (Dana Mackenzie & Judea Pearl)

Listeners: We’d love to hear from you. Email info@afrobility.com with feedback!
Founders & Operators: We'd love to hear about what you're working on, email us at info@afrobility.com
Investors: It would be great to link up with you. Contact us at info@afrobility.com
Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes on Afrobility.com

Overview: Today, we’re going to talk about Cellulant, the African payments infrastructure  company. We’ll explore the story across the following areas

African financial sector context 

Cellulant’s early history

Product & monetization strategy 

Competitive positioning & potential exit options

Outlook

This episode was recorded on  Jan 20, 2025

Companies discussed: Cellulant, Flutterwave, Interswitch, DPO Group (Network International), Paystack, Stripe, Moniepoint, MTN & Airtel.

Business concepts discussed: Payments platforms, payments partnerships strategy, card networks, payments infrastructure, low-end disruption, banking regulation & payments M&A strategy

Conversation highlights:

(01:00) - What is Cellulant and why we’re talking about them

(07:25) - Context of African Banking Opportunity and Neobanks

(15:07) - Cellulant founding and early history

(36:16) - Fundraising

(41:17) - Growth and Geographical Expansion

(58:12) - Product and Monetization Strategy

(01:15:12) - Competition and Options for Exit

(1:21:26) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and outlook

(1:28:18) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook

(1:32:45) - Recommendations and small wins

Olumide’s recommendations & small wins:

Interested in investing in Africa Tech with Olumide: Read about Adamantium fund & contact me at olumide@afrobility.com. Founders looking for funding: If you're a B2B founder working on Education, Health, Finance or food, please contact me for funding at olumide@afrobility.com

Checkout my FIREDOM book = FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) + Freedom = personal finance and financial independence book. Website, Read: Substack Newsletter & Buy: Print, eBook or Audiobook)

Recommendation: Titan - Rockefeller's autobiography. Solid and thorough look at the fascinating life of an incredible person. Incredible read.

Recommendation: Areté: Activate Your Heroic Potential. Personal development book filled with ideas, as it compiles insights from other renowned books.

Recommendation: The 38 Letters from J.D. Rockefeller to his son: Letters from Rochaleller to his son with timeless stories and life principles

Recommendation: Google Notebook LM. Game changer for researchers, Incredible resource to research information when you have sources.

Small win: Stretching and yoga in the mornings before weight lifting workouts

Small win: Went to south pointe picnic with friends

Bankole’s recommendations & small wins:

Recommendation: Podcast: Francois Chollet, Mike Knoop - LLMs won’t lead to AGI - $1,000,000 Prize to find true solution & Video: 20 Mechanical Principles in One Lego Machine

Small win: Early in the year, but working out everyday

Other content: Ken Njoroge's Entrepreneurship Journey: Overcoming Tragedy and Building Success 

Listeners: We’d love to hear from you. Email info@afrobility.com with feedback!

Founders & Operators: We'd love to hear about what you're working on, email us at info@afrobility.com

Investors: It would be great to link up with you. Contact us at info@afrobility.com

Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes on Afrobility.com

Overview: Today, we’re going to talk about MNT-Halan, the Egyptian lending & financial services company.  We’ll explore the MNT-Halan story across the following areas

African and Egyptian financial sector context 

MNT-Halan’s early history

Product & monetization strategy 

Competitive positioning & potential exit options

Outlook

This episode was recorded on  Dec 11, 2024

Companies discussed: MNT-Halan, Mashroey, Tasaheel, Halan, Raseedy, Talabeyah, Advans Pakistan, Fawry, Swvl, Gojek, Paymob, & Tam Finans

Business concepts discussed: Asset-backed Financing, Microfinance Lending, Super App Strategy, Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL), Digital Wallets and Payment Solutions, B2B E-commerce, Corporate Venture Capital, Incubation, Financial Inclusion, Banking Infrastructure, Payroll Lending, Salary Advances, Agent Banking Networks, Revenue Models in Fintech, International Expansion

Conversation highlights:

(00:00) - Intro and why we're talking about MNT-Halan

(06:46) - Egypt country context

(16:17) - The opportunity for African neobanks

(26:15) - MNT Halan Founding and Early History

(57:55) - Growth and Geographical Expansion

(1:14:50) - Product Strategy and Monetization

(1:35:52) - Competition and options for exit

(1:47:20) - Bankole's overall thoughts and outlook

(1:54:22) - Olumide's overall thoughts and outlook

(2:06:32) - Recommendations and small wins

Olumide’s recommendations & small wins:

Interested in investing in Africa Tech with Olumide: Read about Adamantium fund & contact me at olumide@afrobility.com. Founders looking for funding: If you're a B2B founder working on Education, Health, Finance or food, please contact me for funding at olumide@afrobility.com

Checkout my FIREDOM book = FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) + Freedom = personal finance and financial independence book. Website, Read: Substack Newsletter & Buy: Print, eBook or Audiobook)

Recommendation: The Intel Trinity: How Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore, and Andy Grove Built the World's Most Important Company: Solid book about the story of Intel, the microprocessor, and the Silicon Valley industry, focusing on Robert Noyce, Gordon Moore, and Andy Grove

Recommendation: Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI (by Yuhal Noah Harari):  Nexus is a solid book that I would recommend, especially if you enjoyed his previous works like Sapiens. While it may not appeal to everyone, particularly those who didn’t enjoy his other books, it's an engaging read that offers a counterpoint to views like Marc Andreessen's, particularly on AI’s future impact.

Recommendations: Awardtool and PointsYeah:  Help you find award bookings but with a better user experience. For example, if you want to fly from Lagos to Paris, you might use Google Flights or Kayak for cash fares, but for award bookings with points, you'd traditionally need to visit individual airline sites like United.

Small win: I found a way to host my website on GitHub pages for free instead of paying Squarespace outrageous fee. Started doing yoga and stretching exercises every morning

Bankole’s recommendations & small wins:

Recommendations: Article about research challenging the common belief that "buying experiences makes you happier than buying possessions" & YouTube 41-shot rally video from Commonwealth Games featuring Chagun Toriola (Nigerian table tennis player)

Small win: Finally set up my home office with a streamlined single-cable setup for multiple computers

Listeners: We’d love to hear from you. Email info@afrobility.com with feedback!

Founders & Operators: We'd love to hear about what you're working on, email us at info@afrobility.com

Investors: It would be great to link up with you. Contact us at info@afrobility.com

Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes on Afrobility.com

Overview: Today, we’re going to explore PiggyVest - the Nigerian savings and investment platform. We’ll discuss the story across the following areas:

African Banking & Neobank context 

PiggyVest’s early history

Product & monetization strategy

Competitive positioning & potential exit options

Overall outlook

This episode was recorded on Oct 30, 2024

Companies discussed: PiggyVest, Chipper Cash, Kuda Bank, Paystack, Flutterwave, FairMoney, Paystack, Brass, Cowrywise, Carbon, Chipper Cash, Interswitch, GTBank, Sterling Bank & UBA.

Business concepts discussed:
Neobank / Challenger bank / digital bank strategy, remittances Neobank monetization & Consumer Lending, consumer FinTech monetization strategy, consumer lending, retail banking strategy, customer segmentation strategy & low-end disruption

Conversation highlights:

(00:30) - Introduction

(05:50) - African Banking & Neobank context

(30:16) - PiggyVest's Founding Story

(41:15) - Fundraising and Growth

(53:30) - Geographical Expansion and Partnerships

(01:18:52) - Product and Monetization strategy

(01:35:20) - Competition and options for exit

(01:54:35) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and outlook

(02:05:15) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook

(02:15:45) - Recommendations and small wins

Olumide’s recommendations & small wins:

Recommendation: Sisqo - Got to Get it video - Insane shit. Sisqo singing and dancing his heart out. So dope.

Recommendation: Rob Berger's Personal Finance YouTube channel

Recommendation: The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy. Excellent book. A little bit of everything, entrepreneurship - History, politics, family life & hollywood. 

Small win: I spent the week in Cusco & Lima, it was magical and fun. Some sand, some llamas, lots of dancing. Epic shit

Bankole’s recommendations & small wins:

Recommendation: BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time Podcast & Active - Asake

Small win: Running 25 miles a week

Other content: These Nigerian universities produced the most startup founders - Nairametrics 

Listeners: We’d love to hear from you. Email info@afrobility.com with feedback!

Founders & Operators: We'd love to hear about what you're working on, email us at info@afrobility.com

Investors: It would be great to link up with you. Contact us at info@afrobility.com

Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes on Afrobility.com

Overview: Today, we’re going to explore IHS Towers - the African telecommunications infrastructure company. We’ll discuss the story across the following areas: 

Telecom tower infrastructure context 

IHS Towers' early history

Product & monetization strategy

Competitive positioning & potential exit options

Overall outlook

This episode was recorded on May 5, 2024

Companies discussed: IHS Towers, MTN, Airtel, Telkom, Orange, Etisalat / 9 Mobile, American Tower Company, Globacom, Libancell, Helios Towers Nigeria, Telkom, Vodacom, Goldman Sachs, (IFC), Public Investment Corporation of South Africa, Ecobank, Investec, Standard Bank.

Business concepts discussed: Tower Infrastructure, Shared communication infrastructure, Tower Leasing and Ownership Models, Market Expansion, Sale and Leaseback, Local vs Global Strategy, Capital-intensive business models, Currency devaluation

Conversation highlights:

(01:50) - What IHS does and why we’re talking about it

(04:37) - How Towers work

(12:47) - How Telcos work with Towers in Nigeria and parts of Africa

(23:22) - IHS Founding and Early History

(34:19) - Funding

(39:32) - Growth and International Expansion

(47:26) - IHS IPO and trends post IPO

(55:50) - Product Strategy & Monetization

(1:08:30) - Competition

(1:16:22) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and outlook

(1:24:06) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook

(1:30:24) - Recommendations and small wins

Olumide’s recommendations & small wins:

Interested in investing in Africa Tech with Olumide: Read about Adamantium fund & contact me at olumide@afrobility.com. Founders looking for funding: If you're a B2B founder working on Education, Health, Finance or food, please contact me for funding at olumide@afrobility.com

Checkout my FIREDOM book = FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) + Freedom = personal finance and financial independence book. Website, Read: Substack Newsletter & Buy: Print, eBook or Audiobook)

Recommendation: Incredible Dance routine video to Sisa Song by King Promise: I love it so much I'm not sure how to put it into words. 1 minute of greatness

Recommendation: Chris Brown “Sensational” live performance : Watching Chris Brown dance is watching a master of his craft.

Recommendation: J. Cole - Let Nas Down

Recommendation: Nas - Make Nas Proud

Recommendation: Nas & Eminem - EPMD 2

Recommendation: Nas - Rare

Small win: Went back to reading older books to reset my reading palate

Bankole’s recommendations & small wins:

Recommendation: The Search for the Perfect Door - YouTube && Unusual Electric Car Features in Nigeria - Bloomberg

Small win: Running sprints 

Other content: Palito FM Autoscan Radio

Listeners: We’d love to hear from you. Email info@afrobility.com with feedback!

Founders & Operators: We'd love to hear about what you're working on, email us at info@afrobility.com

Investors: It would be great to link up with you. Contact us at info@afrobility.com

Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes on Afrobility.com