Nigeria Fintech Goes Public, Gets Taxed, and Leaves Microfinance in the Dust

PalmPay is mulling a Hong Kong IPO and a fresh $200 million funding round that would value the mobile money platform at over $1 billion, according to Bloomberg. The Chinese-backed fintech — owned by Transsion Holdings, the company behind Tecno and Infinix phones — joins OPay, which announced a $4 billion US listing in May, in a two-pronged push to take Nigeria's mobile money giants public. The twist: PalmPay is eyeing HKEX rather than New York or London, signalling...