By Modupe Gbadeyanka

To enable seamless cross-border payments for licensed International Money Transfer Operators (IMTOs) across Africa, Airtel Money Africa has partnered with pawaPay.

This collaboration officially launches pawaPay’s service for inbound remittances into Uganda, Rwanda, Zambia, Malawi, Gabon, Congo Brazzaville, and Tanzania.

Remittances remain critical for millions of Africans, enabling family support, entrepreneurship, and financial inclusion.

This partnership ensures secure, instant mobile wallet transactions, key to advancing Africa’s digital economy. pawaPay will extend this capability to additional Airtel Money Africa markets in coming months.

The partnership allows IMTOs to efficiently deliver funds globally directly to recipients’ more than 161 million Airtel Money customers wallets, leveraging pawaPay’s renowned reliability, scalability, and 99.9 per cent platform uptime.

Building on five years of trusted collaboration in domestic mobile money, this expansion strengthens and simplifies Airtel Money Africa’s backend processes, using pawaPay’s robust payment service provider infrastructure, which processes over four million transactions daily.

“We’re pleased to expand our partnership with pawaPay to advance international remittances across Africa. Their proven reliability and commitment to African consumers make them an ideal partner.

“This integration empowers International Money Transfer Operators to securely connect with Airtel Money’s growing footprint, delivering real-time payments that support financial inclusion and economic growth,” the chief executive of Airtel Money Africa, Ian Ferrao, said.

Also, the chief executive of pawaPay, Nikolai Barnwell, said, “Our mission is to simplify payments for businesses in Africa, and remittances are pivotal.

“Deepening our relationship with Airtel Money allows International Money Transfer Operators to leverage our world-class infrastructure for seamless cross-border payments.”

By Adedapo Adesanya

Nigerian food delivery platform, Chowdeck, has raised $9 million in Series A funding to expand its operations in Nigeria and Ghana.

The equity round was led by Novastar Ventures, with participation from Y Combinator, AAIC Investment, Rebel Fund, GFR Fund, Kaleo, and HoaQ, among others.

The investment points to the profitability of Chowdeck in a sector that seen multiple exits, including Bolt Food and Jumia.

According to the chief executive and co-founder of Chowdeck, Mr Femi Aluko, the new round will help boost the company’s growth plans

“We’re thrilled about this round as it brings us closer to our vision of becoming Africa’s number one super app. This funding will supercharge our growth plans, enabling us to expand into more cities, reduce delivery times, scale our grocery footprint, and attract the best talent to drive innovation and customer satisfaction,” he said.

Founded in October 2021 by Mr Aluko, Mr Olumide Ojo, and Mr Lanre Yusuf, Chowdeck operates in 11 cities across Nigeria and Ghana, serving 1.5 million customers with a network of more than 20,000 riders. Its logistics system averages 30 minutes per order, and in dense areas, more than half of deliveries arrive by bicycle.

In 2024, the value of meals delivered through Chowdeck grew more than sixfold from the previous year. This year, the company says it passed its 2024 total before July.

The new funding will help Chowdeck roll out quick commerce, ultra-fast delivery backed by a network of dark stores and hyperlocal logistics hubs.

The company plans to open 40 dark stores by the end of this year and 500 by the end of 2026, with two to three new stores launching each week.

The raise builds upon Chowdeck’s $2.5 million seed round raised last year.

It will also be looking to build on its recent moves after the food delivery platform entered Ghana in May.

There have been results as within three months, it was handled 1,000 daily orders without paid advertising, which, according to Mr Aluko.

He said the company aims to quintuple that volume to 5,000 daily orders by the end of September 2025.

Mr Aluko says Chowdeck plans to apply the same playbook to dark stores, which will complement its restaurant and grocery delivery operations.

In June, the startup acquired Mira, a point-of-sale provider for African food and hospitality businesses. With this, it is able to manage inventory and orders in real time, making Chowdeck’s operations smoother.

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

The production of Tasty Tom Enriched Tomato Mix by Nutrifoods Ghana Limited has been suspended in Ghana on the directive of the country’s Food and Drugs Authority (FDA).

This is not the first time Nutrifoods is experiencing such as it was prohibited from manufacturing the same product in January 2025.

A statement signed by the acting chief executive of FDA Ghana, Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Manso Opuni, said the latest suspension was due to “serious health and safety concerns.”

Business Post learned that the serious lapses discovered by the agency affected specific batches of the 380g and 1.05kg pouches produced from the production plant of Nutrifoods Ghana Limited.

As a result, the regulator has asked the company to make a full recall of all canned products already on the shelves to safeguard the lives of Ghanaians and other consumers.

According to the notice, an inspection team of the FDA were at Nutrifoods Ghana Limited following several complaints from consumers and it was found out that the company did not keep to upmost standards, which necessitated the action.

It was stated that there were presence of mould on some products, as well as compromised sealing mechanism and poor equipment maintenance.

“The lapses at the manufacturing plant affected the integrity of the canned products by compromising the sealing mechanisms, leading to contamination and bloating of the products in pouches. Mould was found on some of them, raising serious health and safety concerns, hence the suspension and product recall,” a part of the disclosure revealed.

The FDA appealed to consumers, retailers, and wholesalers to comply with the recall, noting that, “We will continue to exercise rigorous oversight in accordance with our mandate to protect public health and safety.”

A few days to the suspension, the management of Nutrifoods, precisely on August 1, 2025, had called on its consumers and trade partners to bring back the affected products.