In Nigeria, subscribers on MTN’s Pulse tariff plan earn points every time they buy airtime. Over time, those points can be converted into data bundles. Supermarkets in Lagos and around the world run similar systems, rewarding customers with loyalty points they can redeem on future purchases.
But these programmes operate in silos. Points earned on airtime cannot be used at a grocery store. A supermarket’s loyalty card offers no value at a fuel station. Each brand builds its own ecosystem, and customers’ rewards remain trapped within it.
Points Africa, a Ghana-based fintech, believes that fragmentation is the opportunity.
The startup is building what it describes as Sub-Saharan Africa’s first shared loyalty network, a system that allows multiple merchants to issue and redeem a single reward currency to its users.
To support that vision, it has raised $2 million from VestedWorld, an early-stage venture capital firm. The funding will be used to finance its rollout in Ghana, strengthen its infrastructure, and support expansion into new African markets over the next 18 months.
Building a loyalty coalition model for Africa
Points Africa is led by Andrew McBarnett and Don Cochrane, executives with decades of experience in coalition loyalty systems across Canada, the United Kingdom, and Latin America. Both previously worked on large-scale loyalty programmes such as Air Miles, where multiple airline brands participate in a shared rewards programme for customers.
In mature markets, coalition loyalty programmes have become a significant commercial infrastructure. Canada’s Air Miles, for example, has enrolled more than 9.7 million members, allowing customers to earn rewards from more than 400 brands and retail locations across the country.
While loyalty programmes exist across Africa, Points Africa believes that they remain largely proprietary. Telecoms, banks, fuel retailers, and supermarkets operate separate systems with no shared infrastructure connecting them.
“We created the technology to be the glue between all of those items that you [users] buy every day so that you can be rewarded,” McBarnett said. “We reward members for everyday shopping.”
Launched in Ghana in December 2025, Point Africa integrates participating merchants into a shared loyalty currency; a customer’s spending across grocery shops, telecommunications, fuel, and other participating categories contributes reward points to one unified balance.
Instead of waiting months to accumulate enough points within a single retailer, customers earn into a central wallet that aggregates value from multiple transactions across sectors.
“The only thing that you [users] need to do is to choose the partners that are with us, and then you’re going to earn the same currency, which is going to make you earn and redeem faster,” said Leandro Torres, the company’s chief operating officer.
How the system works
Points Africa operates the technology layer that tracks transactions and manages the loyalty currency. Merchants decide how much each point is worth, based on their marketing budgets.
The company offers two levels of integration for its Application Programming Interface (API). Deep integrations connect directly to a merchant’s technology stack, allowing inventory-level visibility. Lighter integrations rely on payment confirmation, such as mobile money transactions, to issue points against a basket of goods without requiring the merchant to link directly to Points Africa’s API.
When a customer completes a transaction, points are automatically credited to their central wallet and are accumulated as long as spending occurs within participating merchants. When those points are redeemed at a participating merchant, Points Africa settles the value exchange between network participants to ensure that the cost of rewards is distributed according to prior agreements.
Beyond issuing points, the startup says it uses advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics to predict when a user is likely to stop visiting a shop and trigger a personalised loyalty offer to retain them. It aggregates transactional signals across its network to create a multi-sector view of spending behaviour, allowing merchants to refine targeting strategies.
“AI gives us scale to do it in more real time,” Torres added, explaining how predictive tools can identify customers at risk of stopping patronage and then trigger offers before they disengage.
A bet on shared infrastructure
Points Africa does not directly replace existing loyalty programmes. Itcompetes indirectly with proprietary loyalty programmes operated by telecom providers, banks, and retailers. Proprietary loyalty refers to reward systems that are owned and operated by a single company, where points earned can only be redeemed within that brand’s ecosystem.
Its pitch is structural: rather than building another closed loop, it wants to provide shared infrastructure.
The startup says it has secured partnerships in Ghana with MTN, Jumia, Uber, Melcom, Star Oil, and Access Bank to position its infrastructure across multiple spending categories.
Points Africa generates revenue when points are issued and redeemed within its network. Partners fund the value of the points they want to allocate, and the company earns its margin from facilitating the reward-earning and redemption process.
Building a coalition loyalty network in Africa comes with structural hurdles. The company must navigate regulatory compliance, convince competitors to share infrastructure, and educate consumers on how a shared rewards currency works.
The company says its immediate focus is on increasing awareness and simplifying the earning and redemption process to ensure the value proposition is clear from the first transaction.
Ghana is the starting point of its loyalty coalition offering. Over the next 18 months, Points Africa plans to expand into new African markets, starting with Nigeria, followed by Uganda, Rwanda, and Kenya.
The long-term goal is for the loyalty currency to be useful everywhere, changinghow purchasing power is viewed across the continent.
“We want to be the wallet of Africa concerning loyalty,” McBarnett said.
