Economy

From savings groups and cooperatives to investment clubs and bulk buying, group economics helps individuals and businesses build wealth through shared resources, stronger bargaining power, and greater financial discipline

Maminda Agri-Fintech is tackling some of Africa’s biggest agricultural challenges with a platform that combines AI, fintech, satellite crop monitoring, and digital marketplaces. The Zimbabwean startup is helping smallholder farmers gain better access to finance, advisory services, and buyers while preparing for regional expansion.

Nigerian-founded startup HaloBraid has secured $7 million in seed funding to launch a robotic braiding assistant that could significantly reduce the time required for popular braided hairstyles.

Flutterwave has attracted fresh backing from Ripple in a deal that values the fintech giant at $3.2 billion. The partnership aims to make cross-border payments across Africa faster, cheaper and more efficient by combining traditional payment systems with blockchain technology.

A delayed NYSC programme led Yinka Atunde down an unexpected path, from studying Computer Science to reviving Nigeria’s forgotten footwear industry. By restoring abandoned factory machines and betting on local manufacturing, he built Yikodeen into one of West Africa’s leading safety footwear companies, proving that old industries can create new opportunities.

Breeze Energy’s partnership with the CraftVantage 2026 Graduate Exhibition showcased how business and creativity can work together to support emerging Nigerian artists, sustainability, and the growth of the country’s creative economy.

Nigeria’s rich cultural heritage will take centre stage again as the fifth edition of the Ecobank Adire Lagos Experience opens its doors in Lagos. From today, June 11 to 14, the Ecobank Pan African Centre (EPAC) in Victoria Island will transform into a vibrant marketplace where fashion, art, food, music, and entrepreneurship intersect.

Victoria Esinam Attipoe’s story is one of the clearest examples of what consistent, patient, and deliberate career-building actually looks like across a lifetime of work. From starting out as a hotel receptionist to becoming Division Head at Universal Merchant Bank, Ghana, Victoria Esinam Attipoe’s story is one worth telling.

Every year, a handful of reports remind the global investment community that Africa is not a single market with a single story. Bloomberg’s 2026 edition of its African Startups to Watch list, its second, is one of the more useful ones.

Lagos is making a strong case for global investment. At the Invest Lagos 3.0 Summit, government leaders and the Commonwealth highlighted the city’s growing role in trade, technology and finance, with a shared vision of turning Lagos into Africa’s leading investment hub.