Chinese Nationals Plead Guilty to Cybercrime in Zambia

 The BBC published on 5 June 2024 an article titled "Chinese Nationals Ran Cybercrime Syndicate from Zambia" by Wycliffe Muia.

Twenty-two Chinese nationals pleaded guilty to committing cyber-related crimes in Zambia.  They were among seventy-seven persons, mostly Zambian nationals, arrested in April in connection with the fraud.  The company that organized the cybercrime was the Chinese-run Golden Top Support Services.  

China's Central Bank Digital Currency and African Finance

 The South African Institute of International Affairs published in February 2024 a paper titled "China's Central Bank Digital Currency: A New Force in African Finance?" by Lauren A. Johnston. 

The paper sets out the basics of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) and of China's digital currency, the e-CNY, in the African context.  It offers suggestions on areas of debate that might be encouraged to bring the CBDC out of monetary halls and into the arena of public interest debate.

Somalia's Banking Sector and Economic Growth

 The Mogadishu-based Heritage Institute published in June 2023 a report titled "Transforming Somalia's Banking Sector to Ignite Economic Growth: Status and Ways Forward" by Uweis Ali.

This report examines the state of the banking sector in Somalia with a focus on key bottlenecks to transforming the sector and offers policy options to address them.  

China Moves into Africa's Digital Currency Market

 The Interpreter published on 17 November 2021 a commentary titled "China's Digital Currency: Next Stop, Africa?" by Cornelia Tremann.  

Chinese companies have acquired 50 percent of Africa's mobile phone market and are moving into Africa's mobile money space.

Chinese Presence in African Technology Sector

The Berlin-based Mercator Institute for China Studies posted a 23 minute podcast on 9 July 2019 titled "Tom Bayes on Chinese Presence in the African Tech Sector" with Tom Bayes, a China-Africa researcher.

This wide-ranging interview discusses some of China's latest interaction with Africa in the technology sector. Bayes said Chinese private and state-owned enterprises are interested in Africa because it is a large market and a place to make money. This engagement adds a mostly positive dimension to China's engagement in Africa. He discusses Huawei's lead in 5G technology and the huge market share captured by Transsion, a Chinese company that has focused on inexpensive mobile phones for Africans. He also comments on the 5-year practice by Chinese technical staff at the Chinese-built African Union headquarters to transfer secretly each evening all messages back to a facility in Shanghai. The African Union subsequently took steps to end the spying.

Somalia May Become African Leader in Mobile Money

The World Bank published in August 2018 a major report titled "Rapid Growth in Mobile Money: Stability or Vulnerability?"

Somalia is the focus of the report, which suggests the country has the potential to become the largest mobile money market in Africa with the number of mobile money transactions exceeding those in Kenya.

Somaliland Drought: Diaspora and Mobile Banking to Rescue

The Gulf News published on 7 April 2017 an article titled "Did Adam Smith's Invisible Hand Rescue Somali Drought Victims?" by Bashir Goth, commentator on African issues.

The author reports how the Somali diaspora, using mobile banking, is providing much needed cash to relatives in Somaliland as drought devastates livestock in the Horn of Africa.

Following Mobile Money in Somaliland

The Rift Valley Institute published in November 2015 a study titled "Following Mobile Money in Somaliland" by Gianluca Iazzolino, PhD candidate at the University of Edinburgh.  The author maps the landscape of the mobile money transfer system in Somaliland.  He identifies the importance of trust at its foundation and the role that banking, financial institutions, and technology have played in the making of Somaliland.

Banking in Africa with Mobile Money

Ventures Africa published on 8 June 2015 an interview titled "Ismail Ahmed: The Somalian Revolutionizing Banking with Mobile Money" by Niyi Aderibigbe.  Ismail Ahmed is the CEO of WorldRemit, a global remittance company.  Ahmed discusses the future of mobile money in Africa. 

Somali Remittances

There have been a series of recent articles on the subject of Somali remittances.  Africa in Fact, the journal of Good Governance Africa, published on 1 April 2014 a piece titled "From Mogadishu to Minneapolis, And Back" by Brian Klaas, a scholar at Oxford University.

The Rift Valley Institute in Nairobi, Kenya, published in March 2014 an analysis titled "Challenges for the Somali Money Transfer Sector" by Anna Lindley and Jason Mosley. 

The London-based Africa Research Institute (ARI) published on 27 January 2014 a piece titled "Somali Remittances: 10 Things You Need to Know" by Hannah Gibson, policy researcher at ARI.  It is also available in French.

The Africa Research Institute published on 14 February 2014 an article titled "Somali Remittances Update: Banking Up the Wrong Tree" by Edward Paice, director of ARI.