New conquests

Africa’s Newest Neobanks Make Unusual Bet On Customers Overseas

By  |  April 21, 2022

Dreams came true for Chinwe Osuji when she arrived in Sweden in September last year. Having bagged a scholarship at Örebro University months before to study Chemistry in Environmental Forensics in a Master’s programme, she had mentally escaped her home country, Nigeria, for Sweden so many times and spent hours longingly imagining how she’d settle in while counting down the days impatiently.

However, just a few days after Osuji completed Project Japa (the Yoruba word for “run fast” which is popular in Nigeria as the colloquial term for an ongoing phenomenon that has locals leaving the country in droves due to the persistent dysfunction and going after of work/study opportunities abroad), she found that all her daydreaming didn’t feature how much of an adjustment she would have to make when it comes to the small matter of accessing financial services as a Nigerian who is now resident in Scandinavia.

“Opening a bank account here is a very difficult task. As a foreigner, you have to...

Most Read


Nigeria’s Crypto Traders Take Business Underground Amid War On Binance

Nigeria’s heightened crackdown on cryptocurrency companies over the naira’s slide is driving the


Kenya Is Struggling To Find Winners After Startup Funding Boom

Kenya, the acclaimed Silicon Savannah, is reeling from turbulence in its tech landscape.


The New Playbook Behind Private Equity’s Quiet Boom In Africa

Private equity (PE) investment in Africa has seen a remarkable upswing in recent