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📱First Ally Capital Acquires 60% Controlling Stake in Migo Nigeria

📱First Ally Capital Acquires 60% Controlling Stake in Migo Nigeria

Plus: 🧑🏽‍💻 WeThinkCode Secures $2m Grant

Innovation Village
June 12, 2025

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Today’s Menu ☕️

💵 First Ally Capital Acquires 60% Controlling Stake in Migo Nigeria, Signaling a New Era in Fintech Integration
🔋Solar Panda Acquires VITALITE Zambia to Accelerate Off-Grid Energy Access Across Africa
🧑🏽‍💻WeThinkCode Secures $2m Grant from Google.org to Expand AI Training in Africa
🩺 IFC Invests $10m in KERA Health to Power AI-Led Healthcare Reform in West Africa
🧑🏽‍💻 Salus Cloud Raises $3.7m to Bridge DevOps Infrastructure Gap in Emerging Markets

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💵 FINTECH

First Ally Capital Acquires 60% Controlling Stake in Migo Nigeria, Signaling a New Era in Fintech Integration

Ebenezer Olufowose, Group Managing Director of First Ally Capital, and Winston Osuchukwu, Chief Executive Officer of Mathesis Analytics, at the signing ceremony

First Ally Capital Limited has acquired a 60% controlling equity stake in Migo Nigeria, a digital credit platform formerly known as Mines.io. This strategic acquisition marks a significant development in the Nigerian fintech space, as it reflects a growing trend of deeper collaboration between traditional financial institutions and technology-driven lending platforms.

Migo, once a high-profile, venture-backed startup operating across Nigeria and Brazil, has evolved into a Credit-as-a-Service platform that enables businesses to offer instant loans using AI-powered credit scoring. With this acquisition, First Ally becomes the majority owner of Migo’s Nigerian operations, strengthening its commitment to expanding financial inclusion through innovative digital solutions.

The deal is not the beginning of the relationship, but a natural progression. First Ally was among Migo’s earliest investors and strategic partners, contributing to the company’s initial product-market fit and growth in Nigeria’s competitive lending environment. The acquisition formalizes years of collaboration and positions both entities for the next phase of scalable, compliant growth......……continue reading

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🔋 CLEAN ENERGY

Solar Panda Acquires VITALITE Zambia to Accelerate Off-Grid Energy Access Across Africa

The off-grid energy sector in Africa is undergoing a quiet but powerful transformation. What once was a landscape dominated by niche startups and donor-backed pilot projects is now rapidly maturing into a competitive, investor-driven industry. A prime example of this evolution is Solar Panda’s recent acquisition of VITALITE Zambia Limited—a move that reveals how nimble, vertically integrated players are stepping into leadership roles once occupied by global energy giants.

Solar Panda, a Canadian solar energy firm with a growing African footprint, has officially entered the Zambian market by acquiring VITALITE Zambia, the country’s pioneering provider of pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) solar home systems. The deal, while financial terms remain undisclosed, is being hailed as a strategic leap in Solar Panda’s ambition to scale across the continent. With operations already in Kenya and a newly announced expansion into Senegal, Zambia becomes the company’s third active African market—cementing its pan-African aspirations.

Founded in 2013, VITALITE Zambia was the first to introduce PAYGO solar in the country, a model that enables rural and low-income households to access solar power in affordable installments using mobile money. Over the years, it has built a customer base of over 100,000 households, offering not only solar home systems but also clean cookstoves and productive-use appliances—all critical tools in regions with limited electricity and cooking infrastructure..........…continue reading

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🧑🏽‍💻 EDUCATION

WeThinkCode Secures $2m Grant from Google.org to Expand AI Training in Africa

Africa’s growing digital economy faces a significant threat — not from lack of ambition, but from a shortage of skills. According to recent industry insights, 90% of companies on the continent report setbacks in innovation and project execution due to a lack of AI expertise. In a bold and inclusive response, South Africa-based tech academy WeThinkCode has partnered with Google.org, securing a $2 million (R35 million) grant to address the continent’s AI readiness challenge head-on.

Unlike many high-cost, exclusive tech training programmes, this initiative stands out for its deliberate focus on access and inclusion. With a goal to train 12,000 individuals across South Africa and Kenya, WeThinkCode is targeting youth from low-income, peri-urban, and rural communities—segments often overlooked in tech capacity-building efforts.

The training, offered as a free, extracurricular course, will span 40 to 80 hours and is tailored to both technical and non-technical audiences. One stream will prepare 6,000 aspiring software engineers to use AI tools and workflows, while the second stream will equip 6,000 early-career professionals in sectors like health, education, and legal services to integrate AI into routine administrative tasks..…...…continue reading

🩺 HEALTHTECH

IFC Invests $10m in KERA Health to Power AI-Led Healthcare Reform in West Africa

CEO Kera health - Moustapha Cisse

In much of West Africa, healthcare remains a fragmented, under-resourced system struggling to meet the needs of a growing population. Clinics are overwhelmed, medical records are largely paper-based, and insurance coverage is rare—especially among informal workers, who make up the majority of the region’s labor force. Against this backdrop, KERA Health Platforms isn’t just building a startup; it’s building a new foundation for how healthcare systems in Africa could work.

Founded in 2023 and based in Dakar, Senegal, KERA is developing a digital infrastructure that goes beyond telemedicine or diagnostic tools. It connects hospitals, pharmacies, labs, insurers, and patients into a single, AI-driven ecosystem designed to unify health data and streamline the delivery of services. It’s a model that treats healthcare not as a collection of institutions, but as a system in need of intelligent coordination.

This approach has now caught the attention of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), which recently proposed an equity investment of up to $10 million to support KERA’s continued growth. But this isn’t just another tech investment—it’s a strategic move aimed at addressing a chronic development challenge in a region where physician-to-patient ratios are among the lowest in the world.....…continue reading