👨🏿‍🚀TechCabal Daily – Crossing Jordan

Fresh off its June 2025 listing on the Egyptian Exchange (EGX), Valu is adding more value with a push beyond its home market and into Jordan. The fintech, owned by financial services group EFG Holding, is one of the biggest companies in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

The company has received final approval from the Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ) to launch as a financial service provider in Q1 2026, under a specialised finance licence that will let it roll out a range of consumer financing products. Valu first received a greenlight from the CBJ in July 2025 to introduce its buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) services, and is now moving to a full launch.

State of play: Valu Jordan will be led by CEO Mohammad Al Yousef, who has over 18 years of experience across fintech, ecommerce, tech, and telecom, while Mothanna Gharaibeh, former Jordanian investment minister, will serve as board chairman. The company says Jordan is a key pillar in its regional expansion strategy, with rising demand for flexible credit and a fast-evolving digital payments ecosystem.

Valu’s EGX debut came as Egypt pushed for fresh listings and tried to draw in foreign and local retail investors to its bourse. The country floated its currency in 2024 to ease economic pressures and ensure participation in the capital markets. Valu listed through an in-kind dividend, where EFG Holding paid shareholders with 20.488% of Valu shares instead of cash; Amazon also bought 3.95% of those shares at EGP 6.041 ($0.13) per share. Today, Valu’s market capitalisation stands at EGP 18.7 billion ($395,000).

Zoom out: Valu is targeting Jordan’s underpenetrated consumer credit market, especially for retail services and Islamic finance. Digital finance in the country is growing, but competition remains limited. The move also extends its payments push in MENA after a 2022 partnership took its products to Saudi Arabia through FAS Labs, a joint venture of Alhokair and Arabian Centres Company. It is another example of a North African startup choosing to scale across MENA before looking south to the rest of Africa.

If you were part of the banking customers who ran away because: 1) your bank account couldn’t receive remittances without you queuing at a branch for 14 market days, or 2) you simply couldn’t receive international payments at all, Sterling Bank is calling you back. 

On Tuesday, the Nigerian tier-2 bank partnered with Thunes, a global payments service provider, to enable local customers to receive international payments. By joining Thunes’ Direct Global Network, Sterling’s customers can now receive payments from Europe directly into their bank accounts.

State of play: In 2024, remittance inflows to Nigeria crossed $20 billion, and since 2010, that figure has crossed at least $17 billion. That volume demands infrastructure that can settle quickly at a lower cost. Plus, Sterling Bank is setting itself up to capture a larger share of these formal inflows by ensuring its own customers do not use alternative third-party remittance apps.

Why does this matter? This partnership is significant for Sterling Bank, following the success of its homegrown core banking application, SEABaaS, which the lender says processed 2 billion transactions in 2025. Sterling is now upgrading its remittance capabilities by connecting directly with Thunes, which could ensure Sterling Bank can compete with nimble fintechs and digital banks that offer cross-border payments.

Who else is on this network? Sterling Bank joins a growing list of major Nigerian financial institutions that have partnered with Thunes. Access Bank partnered with the firm in October 2023 to facilitate payments across its African subsidiaries, while MTN’s MoMo PSB signed a deal with the company in November 2025 to enable real-time international wallet transfers from markets like the US and UK.

If wishes were horses, then Zimbabwe’s tax czar is about to mount an ambitious ride to collect taxes beyond its borders.

In December 2025, the country passed a new tax law that allows it to begin taxing foreign companies operating in the country. For the first time, Zimbabwe will start collecting 15% withholding tax on payments made to foreign digital platforms and consumer products, including Bolt, inDrive, Netflix, Starlink, and Spotify. When customers pay for subscription to these services using local banks or cards, the withholding tax will instantly be deducted before the payment reaches foreign companies. That tax rule kicked off on January 1, 2026.

Taxes, taxes—but from Zimbabwe’s POV: Zimbabwe wants a share of capital going to foreign companies. Since these payments originate from the country, it has a claim to those taxes. Like several other African countries that have launched or expanded new tax acts, Zimbabwe wants to grow its revenue net; as of 2024, Zimbabwe collected ZWG 69.22 billion ($2.67 billion) in taxes.

Between the lines: Zimbabwe is also adopting Kenya’s collection method. Local banks and payment processors will be tasked with collecting taxes from foreign companies operating in the country. The taxes will be removed automatically from users’ accounts once they pay for foreign services. Banks would then remit to the taxman.

What will this change? Previously, Zimbabwe collected value-added tax (VAT) on imported digital services. With the introduction of withholding tax, payments to foreign digital service providers will be held and deducted at the point of payment. As a result, foreign service providers may choose to mark up their prices to reflect the obligatory tax or absorb the costs—it’s a business decision. Importantly, users will not be required to file this tax themselves.

Banks, like Stanbic, have begun notifying customers of the new change. This model of taxation is not unique to Zimbabwe. In September 2025, Kenya released a draft on the Significant Economic Presence (SEP), which sets the taxable profit at 10% of gross turnover, similar to Nigeria’s SEP tax, introduced by the Finance Act, 2019.

By taxing foreign digital service providers without extending the same method to local players, Zimbabwe is not only attempting to widen its tax net; it could also be trying to drive demand to local players who remain subjected to existing domestic tax regimes.

Written by: Emmanuel Nwosu and Opeyemi Kareem

Edited by: Emmanuel Nwosu & Ganiu Oloruntade