e-finance Wins Approval for $122 Million Tamweely Acquisition

Egyptian fintech group e-finance has received shareholder approval to acquire 99.32% of micro-lender Tamweely in a cash-and-share transaction valued at EGP6.4 billion ($122 million).

The deal would extend e-finance’s business beyond the digital infrastructure it provides for Egypt’s government payments system and give the publicly listed group exposure to lending and other financial services.

Cash and shares

Under the terms reported, e-finance will pay EGP956 million ($18 million) in cash upfront. A further payment linked to Tamweely’s future financial performance is due in 2028, although the amount has not been disclosed.

e-finance will also issue 146.1 million new shares to Turin Egypt. The share issuance would give Turin Egypt a 4.04% stake in e-finance.

Tamweely serves consumer and small-business financial needs. Its inclusion in the transaction would provide e-finance with access to microfinance customers seeking working capital, according to the report.

The transaction follows e-finance’s purchase of an 8% stake in Wilzy for EGP100 million ($2 million) in August. Together, the Tamweely deal and Wilzy investment have been presented as signs of a broader strategy spanning payments, lending and investing.

Funding activity across African and Middle Eastern markets

Elsewhere, electric mobility company Spiro has secured an additional $18 million in debt funding from the Africa Go Green Fund. The new financing takes the fund’s debt commitment to Spiro to $36 million in less than 10 months and is intended to support expansion of the company’s electric motorcycle and battery-swapping operations in Uganda and Rwanda.

Spiro also reportedly raised $270 million in equity in June, bringing its total funding to more than $550 million. The company is preparing to make its battery infrastructure available to third parties after acquiring UK-based engineering firm Coexlion, according to the report.

Egyptian payments company Paymob has announced a $35 million pre-Series C funding round co-led by Mubadala and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Paymob said its revenue tripled over 18 months, while revenue from the Gulf grew sevenfold and represented almost half of its business.

Paymob also said it added about 20,000 merchants across three Gulf markets after receiving a payments licence in the United Arab Emirates in January 2025. The company plans to expand further in the Gulf and enter agentic commerce, according to the report.

Kenya tax and property recovery developments

TikTok has asked Kenyan creators to provide tax and residency information as it prepares to comply with the country’s digital content tax rules. The platform has not said when deductions will begin or identified which creator payouts will be affected.

Kenya’s tax authority lists withholding tax rates of 5% for residents and 20% for non-residents on digital content monetisation, according to the report.

In a separate development, Standard Chartered Bank Kenya is seeking to recover more than KES1.9 billion ($14.7 million) in defaulted loans advanced to Nakumatt Holdings. The bank has moved to seize rental income and sell five prime properties connected to the case.

Standard Chartered won a 2025 High Court ruling allowing it to issue public notices before continuing with statutory recovery action. Public auctions are expected to begin after the statutory 40-day notice period ends.

The properties were pledged by Creative Enterprises and Nakumatt Investments in Nairobi, Mombasa and Nakuru. Nakumatt, once a major East African retail chain with more than 60 stores, experienced a severe cash-flow crisis and was reported to have an estimated KES30 billion ($232 million) debt burden in 2017.