JUMO: Three regions. One direction

Across Africa, our work can look a little different market to market, but consistent in the ways that matter.

In Francophone West Africa, a regulatory reset has opened the door to a new era of compliant, scalable credit. In East Africa, the work is deepening: more customers, more capital, more conviction that mobile-first lending works when it's built responsibly. And in Southern Africa, a landmark partnership between JUMO and Nedbank points to where the financial sector is heading.

This edition of JUMO Pulse gathers perspectives from our three regional leads - Bryan Oliver Cliff Siyam , Wilfred Wabwire , and Joanne Chanda - alongside the announcement of our biggest South African partnership to date. Here's what's happening on the ground.

West Africa finds its footing

For years, the dominant fintech story in Africa mapped to Lagos, Nairobi, and Cairo. That map is being redrawn. Francophone Africa (the eight-nation WAEMU bloc and the six-nation CEMAC zone) is drawing sustained investor attention for the first time, and it has the numbers to back the story.

Venture capital deal volume in the region grew eightfold between 2021 and 2024, with fintech accounting for 31% of total startup investment. WAEMU added over 110 million mobile money accounts between 2018 and 2022, lifting financial inclusion from 56% to 71%. The infrastructure powering this (overwhelmingly USSD-based) reaches exactly the communities traditional banks cannot.

JUMO entered this market ahead of the curve. Our credit products have collectively served close to one million unique customers, disbursing over $108M across more than four million loan events. All via mobile. No collateral required. Default rate below 4%.

Cliff Siyam, Regional Head, West Africa: "A market trader in Cotonou with two years of mobile money activity now has a healthier financial footprint than a formally employed worker in a market with a credit bureau record. But only if you have the information management technology to read it."

Scale, resilience and what 10.9 million customers teach you

East Africa has long set the pace for mobile financial services, and the momentum continues to build. Across Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, digital credit is helping extend financial access to people who have historically been beyond the reach of traditional banking. At the same time, these are markets where climate shocks, health crises and economic uncertainty often hit hardest, making access to responsible finance more important than ever.

JUMO has seen that impact firsthand. In Uganda, Wewole on Airtel Money and Mosente on MTN MoMo have reached 10.9 million customers since launch. In Kenya, KopaCash has served more than 639,000 customers through Airtel Money, while in Tanzania, Timiza has reached close to 6 million. Behind that scale are long-term partnerships with Airtel and MTN, alongside funding from Absa, Standard Bank and BlueOrchard that helps put capital into the hands of the people who need it most.

But scale alone isn't the story. Lasting financial inclusion depends on products that people can use with confidence. That's why financial literacy is built into the customer journey, and why our products are designed to work on feature phones. Because if financial services aren't accessible to everyone, they aren't truly inclusive.

Wilfred Wabwire, Regional Head, East Africa: "When credit is delivered sustainably through trusted channels, in the right format, and at the right size, people use it and they repay."

Partnership, purpose, and the Nedbank moment

In June, JUMO and Nedbank announced a partnership that signals something bigger than a product launch. Nedbank Quick Loans - live now on the Nedbank Money App - lets customers apply in five minutes and access funds immediately, with loan amounts starting at R500, repayment terms from one month, no monthly service fees, and no bundled insurance. The addressable market: more than 20 million South Africans currently underserved by traditional lenders.

The partnership combines Nedbank's balance sheet strength and brand trust with JUMO's real-time lending infrastructure and AI prediction engine - capable of credit decisions in seconds, including for customers with limited bureau profiles. It is a practical blueprint for how established banks and fintech innovators can work together to deliver responsible credit at scale.

Paul Whelpton , CEO, JUMO: "JUMO's banking technology empowers inclusive, intelligent finance and our focus with Nedbank will be on building an enabling and sustainable ecosystem together."

Since launching in Zambia in 2015, JUMO has seen firsthand how responsible digital credit can expand financial access where it's needed most. As Country Manager Joanne Chanda reflects on more than a decade in the market, one thing remains constant: lasting impact comes from partnership. Mobile network operators provide the reach, financial institutions provide the capital, and JUMO provides the credit technology that brings it all together.

Today, that model powers everything from 7, 14 and 30-day consumer loans to multi-instalment products for customers, agent float loans that help keep rural commerce moving, and Fast Loan on the Mukuru platform, extending formal credit to immigrant workers from Zimbabwe who have traditionally been excluded from the financial system.

During a recent visit to Zambia's Copperbelt, traders asked when they would have access to the same products available on other networks, while agents wanted to know when they could offer new solutions to their customers. It's a powerful reminder that demand for responsible financial services continues to grow, and that building the next generation of products starts by listening.

Joanne Chanda, Country Manager, Southern Africa: "Partnerships are what make businesses thrive in Africa. In this market, mobile money and banking cannot live in silos, and the technology partner draws everyone together."

The view from here

Eleven years in, the question JUMO's regional teams still ask every day is the same one it has always been: are we doing it well? Each market answers differently. Each customer interaction sharpens the answer. The pipeline is growing with new markets, deeper partnerships, more capital flowing to people who have never had access to it before.

But the measure of success has not changed. A loan that is repaid, a business that grows and a financial footprint built from nothing. These are what open the doors to what comes next.