News
MePlaylistTM Secures Investment from Mathew Knowles, Other Global Investors
MePlaylistTM, an African solution to music consumption and promotion has earned the attention of global investors and partners like Mr Mathew Knowles, father of artists Beyoncé and Solange Knowles.
Mr Knowles believes MePlaylistTM offers music consumers in Africa a unique experience that is much more simplified for a continent where internet penetration and the use of smartphones is projected to experience significant growth.
“MePlaylistTM is Africa’s own answer to the popular music streaming platforms, but it takes streaming a step further by personalizing the experience for each consumer based on their consumption patterns and the technology available to them.
This and the population of Africans both on the continent and in the diaspora is why I am proud to have invested in MePlaylistTM”, he said in a statement.
With increasing mobile phone usage in Africa and the global prominence of African acts like Diamond Platinumz, Davido, Tiwa, Wizkid, Yemi Alade and Burna Boy, convenient and reliable platforms with expansive catalogues of streamable are far from the norm on the continent.
Many streaming platforms prioritize commercialization efforts in high-income countries and pay less attention to low and middle-income countries. This has created a gap between Africa’s rich musical contents and the need to reach fans through channels that make monetization and exchange of value easier and convenient.
It is solving this challenge that birthed MePlaylistTM; a music streaming platform that presents music content to users in an intuitive and data-friendly fashion, projecting African acts to the world and vice versa.
The platform comes with a unique administrative royalty distribution, multiple plan types and subscription currencies, high-quality audio, plus DDEX standards for ingesting and reporting usage. These amongst others have attracted global music stakeholders to the platform, hence making it possible to partner with music distributors globally.
According to a year-end report from the RIAA, revenues from streaming services grew nearly 20% in 2019 to $8.8 billion, accounting for 79.5% of all recorded music revenues, which means the streaming music services’ share of total music revenues is bigger than ever.
With the global music industry now worth about $19.1 billion, the African market is still largely untapped with its 1 billion-plus mostly young population and still accounts for a mere 2% of the global recorded-music sector and less than 1% of the royalties collected.
Unfortunately for music consumers in Africa, many of whom fall between the ages of 17 and 22, streaming services though ubiquitous, are not without their challenges.
Consumers have over time complained about the high cost of subscribing to some platforms, the unresponsive and unexciting user interfaces and catalogues not as exhaustive as consumers would love. This has presented a challenge for content creators in Africa to earn suitable revenue from their work.
MePlaylistTM is a 100% African solution to music consumption and promotion. The company which was founded by Olakunle Oladehin, a seasoned entertainment industry insider, is poised to revitalize the streaming market by providing a music consumption and promotion service that will make music consumers enjoy their listening experience on an optimized app without breaking the bank or running out of options. MePlaylistTM users will also be able to curate their own playlists and get followers to enjoy new music from all over the world.
According to Olakunle, “our focus is to put our users and their music consumption habits first; our platform has been designed with the understanding that people are mobile and constantly in need of new content, so from our interface to our catalogue options, we are making the MePlaylistTM experience the best in the market”.
Olakunle further emphasised the increasing importance of user-generated content (UGC) to give more visibility to music that matters. In his words “MePlaylistTM has been designed to be an intelligent music App that applies artificial intelligence to give each user a unique experience.”
His words are echoed by Ayodeji Oyenekan the Head of Technical Innovation at MePlaylistTM who says the MePlaylistTM app has been built to make expanding the catalogue on offer and other features as seamless as possible.
“Because of the innovative app we have built, MePlaylistTM will offer artists, aggregators and other content owners the opportunity to better monetize their content and reach a wider audience.”
Mr Knowles’ Music World Entertainment Corporation is joining other global industry majors who have invested in Nigeria’s rapidly growing music industry.
Mr Michael Kay Kiladejo, Managing Partner of Music World International, and CEO of Track Record Entertainment LTD, UK, expressed optimism in the African music landscape and cited reasons for investing in MePlaylistTM. In his words “We are very confident in the technical capabilities and expansion strategies for MePlaylistTM to deliver world-class service to music lovers in Africa and beyond.
To this end, it is a timely move to be able to facilitate the availability of the iconic Music World catalogue on the MePlaylist platform, and simultaneously take advantage of access to the dynamic new market it offers to artists on the Track Record Entertainment label.”
MePlaylistTM Founder Olakunle Oladehin believes that everyone will find their favourite kind of music on the app and anticipates that pre-launch subscription figures will shoot up significantly in the coming days as more Nigerians experience the seamless features of the MePlaylistTM app. “Whether you are looking for the next Wizkid, Burna Boy or Tiwa Savage song or your taste is more Obesere and King Sunny Ade, we have something for you on an app that makes the music more interesting for you”.
Legal and Transaction advisory services for the MePlaylistTM project was provided by leading Entertainment Law Firm in Nigeria, RBMM Solicitors. According to Demilade Olaosun, the Lead Solicitor at the Firm, it was a privilege working with the MePlaylistTM Management Team to iron out critical equity acquisition terms between the Company and Mr Mathew Knowles and his team.
Olaosun strongly believes the African Entertainment industry stands to gain a lot from this strategic collaboration and he is excited about the prospects of MePlaylistTM in shaping music consumption in Africa and across the world.
Police Special Fraud Unit (PSFU), Ikoyi, Lagos, said its operatives have busted a syndicate who used Point of Sale (POS) terminals and other technological tools to gain access to financial institution’s database to steal more than N3 billion.
Police did not name the financial institution where the money was stolen but DSP Ovie Ewhubare, spokesperson for the Unit, in a statement Friday, said that while a member of the syndicate has been arrested, other remained at large.
The PSFU spokesperson said the suspect was apprehended following an extensive investigation into a sophisticated cyber intrusion targeting a financial institution.
“The members of the syndicate allegedly used Point of Sale (POS) terminals and other technological tools to gain unauthorised access to the financial institution’s database.
“The breach enabled the suspects to initiate fraudulent transactions worth more than N3 billion,’’ he said.
According to him, investigations reveal that the proceeds of the alleged fraud are quickly laundered through multiple bank accounts in an attempt to conceal the source and movement of the funds.
The spokesperson said that the detectives deployed advanced digital forensic techniques and financial analysis to trace the transactions, identify members of the syndicate and recover key evidence to support prosecution.
Ewhubare said that Mr Eloho Okpoiakpo, commissioner of Police in charge of the PSFU, commended the investigating team for its professionalism in uncovering the alleged fraud.Law Enforcement
He said that Okpoiakpo directed the detectives to intensify efforts to apprehend other fleeing members of the syndicate, assuring that every effort would be made to bring all those involved to justice.
A new case study by Moniepoint Inc., Africa’s all-in-one financial ecosystem platform for individuals, businesses and their customers, traces four decades of Nigeria’s food service industry and reveals how the sector’s most persistent payment problems, that include settlement delays, unreliable confirmation, unchecked theft and inaccessible credit have been resolved by real-time digital infrastructure, turning food commerce into an $11.09 billion market in 2025.
The sector has undergone a massive structural shift marked by food-delivery super-apps, as well as a new generation of cloud kitchens operating without a single dining chair, with the food service industry poised to experience unprecedented growth as the Nigerian market is projected to reach $19.31 billion by 2030, growing at 11.73% annually.
The study traces the industry’s roots from the UAC-owned Kingsway Rendezvous of 1973 and the 1986 launch of Mr Bigg’s, through the rise of Chicken Republic and other quick-service chains, to the present day, where food and drinks form the second-largest merchant sector on Moniepoint’s platform, trailing only retail.
Tosin Eniolorunda, group CEO of Moniepoint Inc., noted that “Moniepoint believes financial inclusion is not just about access. It’s about dignity, about enabling people to transact on their terms. What’s happening in the food service sector today is significant. The real competitive question today is how deeply that payment infrastructure is woven into the way the business actually runs day to day.
“Moniepoint is sitting right at the centre of that shift. We are ensuring that payments are connected to inventory, inventory to recipes, recipes to procurement, procurement to credit, and credit to growth plans. By building out tools like Moniebook and Orda that match the operational reality of these culinary entrepreneurs, who act as mini-factories converting perishable raw materials into time-sensitive output, we are providing the digital operating system that drives sustainable scale for Nigeria’s socio-economic development.”
The report finds that for most of that history, Nigerian food businesses ran almost entirely on cash, with multi-location operators managing cash across a dozen or more outlets, facing constant exposure to loss, theft and human error. The rise of bank transfers in the 2010s introduced a new pain point around confirming that the payment had actually landed before releasing an order. At peak hours, the study notes, this manual verification could add two to five minutes to every transaction, with digital infrastructure most likely to falter precisely when demand and stakes were highest, especially during Christmas, New Year’s and Eid celebrations.
The study also documents how disconnected payment and inventory systems enabled operational leakage that was structurally difficult to detect, from unaccounted stock in the kitchen to under-ringing at the till and how Nigeria’s collateral-based lending system routinely locked thriving food businesses out of credit.
The International Finance Corporation estimates that the country’s unmet MSME credit demand was $32.2 billion in 2022, a gap that falls disproportionately on women, who, the report shows, own 86.8% of businesses in the accommodation and food services sector, the most female-dominated sector in the Nigerian economy.
To address these bottlenecks, Moniepoint introduced three structural interventions that reshaped the industry’s economics. Moving away from the traditional $T+1$ bank settlement cycle, it provided instant, same-day access to funds, allowing operators to finance the next morning’s inventory directly from the previous day’s sales.
This was paired with automated transfer confirmation at the terminal to eliminate manual verification queues and an embedded lending model that used verified transaction history instead of property collateral to unlock bulk purchasing power ahead of seasonal surges. Driven by these updates and the tightening of the cashless policy, Moniepoint witnessed a 2,823% surge in QSR terminal usage.
Beyond payments, a unified business banking dashboard replaced month-end spreadsheets with real-time, role-based visibility to curb financial misconduct across multiple branches. With Moniepoint’s launch of Moniebook and the acquisition of Orda, analysts say that the business is transitioning from a payment provider to a complete operating system, in line with its ecosystem ambition.
This integration allows culinary businesses to track ingredient depletion against precise recipes to expose hidden theft or portioning errors, while simultaneously consolidating fragmented orders from delivery apps, social media, and walk-ins into a single inventory ledger.
Some other insights from the study:
- Transaction volume across the industry peaks at lunch, between 1 pm and 2 pm, with a second evening peak at 7 pm reaching 10 to 15 times its level at 7 am – except online food delivery, which peaks and remains strong past 10 pm.
- Card payment activity records its biggest month-on-month jump of the year between November and December, while April is the industry’s quietest month for payment activity, running 46.3% below December’s.
This food service case study joins Moniepoint’s expanding pool of definitive thought leadership materials curated for the benefit of stakeholders, including regulators, investors, and the general public, aimed at enhancing their understanding of how digital payment ecosystems are transforming Nigeria’s commercial landscape across diverse sectors and market structures.
Flutterwave has secured a strategic investment from Circle Ventures, the venture capital arm of Circle Internet Group, to accelerate the expansion of its USDC payments and settlement infrastructure across Africa.
This comes as demand for faster and more efficient cross-border transactions grows.
The investment strengthens Flutterwave’s ambition to integrate USDC settlement into its existing payment ecosystem, allowing businesses to receive payments in local currencies while settling in the dollar-backed stablecoin.
The company said the move would reduce settlement delays and transaction costs while enabling near-instant settlements beyond traditional banking hours.
The announcement comes after Flutterwave participated in the launch of the Circle Payments Network in 2025, marking a deeper collaboration between the two companies in advancing digital payment infrastructure across the continent.
Flutterwave said the investment aligns with its strategy of positioning stablecoins as a key component of Africa’s financial infrastructure, while ensuring blockchain-based payment services operate within existing regulatory and compliance frameworks.
Commenting on the development, Flutterwave Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Olugbenga Agboola, said the investment would help build the infrastructure required for the next phase of global money movement from Africa.
According to him, stablecoins have evolved beyond experimentation into core financial infrastructure capable of transforming how businesses move money across borders.
“This support from Circle Ventures is about backing the rails that will power the next era of global money movement from Africa. Stablecoins like USDC are no longer an experiment; they are becoming core financial infrastructure.
“By embedding USDC settlement into our current payments infrastructure, we are building a system that lets businesses move money at the speed of the internet. This fundamentally changes how payments from Africa connect to the world, and it positions Flutterwave as the default stablecoin gateway for the continent,” Agboola said.
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