By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The money app for Africans, Kuda, has defeated four other major African fintechs; TymeBank, Moniepoint, FairMoney and MNT-Halan, to clinch the 2023 Africa Fintech Summit (AFTS) Excellence in Digital Banking award.
The honour was bestowed on the company by the Africa Fintech Summit (AFS) in Washington, D.C. on April 12 after it topped an open voting system.
The founder and chief executive of Kuda, Mr Babs Ogundeyi, congratulated fellow nominees and expressed gratitude to everyone who voted for his firm to win the award.
He also thanked the AFTS team for the recognition while assuring them that the Kuda team would keep up the good work.
“It’s no small feat to beat out four other fast-rising African fintechs to this award, and I’m excited about the next phase of our mission to make financial services accessible and affordable for all Africans. Congratulations to the Kuda team!” he said.
He further said the company and, indeed, the entire staff of Kuda were excited at winning the award, noting that the recognition was an acknowledgement of the commitment and resilience of the Kuda team to building innovative solutions that increase access for Africans living on the continent and those in the Diaspora to enjoy affordable and quality financial services at all times.
“In almost four years of building the money app for Africans, awards like this have been a meaningful acknowledgement of the work we are doing to make financial services accessible, affordable and rewarding on the continent and in the diaspora,” he stated.
AFTS is the largest bi-annual gathering of financial technology stakeholders on the African continent: welcoming over 4,000 stakeholders from across over 100 countries since its first summit in early 2018. The AFTS was founded in 2017 with the mission of bringing the issues, trends, and changemakers impacting Africa’s financial technology ecosystem together.
Kuda is a fintech company operating in Nigeria and the United Kingdom and was co-founded by Mr Ogundeyi and Musty Mustapha in 2019. It is valued at $500 million and has raised over $90 million from investors, including Target Global and Valar Ventures.
Aduragbemi Omiyale 
Dipo Olowookere