F-Squared Podcast

For an operator moving millions across borders, Stone Atwine has come to understand where there’s real value to be created and where hype dominates. For him, having built his Fintech chops in a Mobile Money region, the value proposition for Stablecoins became evident almost immediately.  Why manage 10 different bank accounts and wait days for SWIFT when you can run a continental treasury from a single USDT buffer?

Stone Atwine is a battle-tested fintech veteran who was talking about unit economics long before the "Venture Winter" made it cool. From solving "black tax" remittances for his grandmother to building Eversend on a lean $1.2M seed round, Stone has transitioned the company from a B2C wallet to the high-leverage B2B infrastructure powering African trade.

This conversation moves away from the chatter about web3 towards how companies are solving real treasury challenges with stablecoins. Stone breaks down his "4-Level" payment architecture framework, a system that replaces traditional pre-funding with "Just-in-Time" liquidity. He explains why Eversend has completely abandoned SWIFT for internal operations and why the future of money looks like e-money on open rails.

In This Episode, You Will Hear:

• The Death of SWIFT: Why Eversend no longer uses traditional bank messaging for internal treasury.

• Centralized Stablecoin Treasury: Moving from fragmented local accounts to a single USDC buffer for 30-minute rebalancing.

• The Settlement Tension: Why "Just-in-Time" instant settlement can sometimes be costlier than traditional netting.

• Global Use Cases: Why players like Deel and Wise are the perfect fit for stablecoin infrastructure.

• Evaluating the Stack: What banks need to learn about custodial services like Fireblocks and security audits.

• The Issuance Arms Race: Why JPMorgan and Citi, not just Tether, could dominate the future of yield-bearing reserves.

• CBDCs vs. Private Stablecoins: Why the BIS mBridge is a "brilliant idea" but local stablecoin mandates may be the more practical path.

"Stablecoins are basically e-money... but with a global ability to move on a blockchain ledger instead of a telco's ledger. It’s just-in-time financing for the real world."

Connect with Us:

• Samora Kariuki (Host): https://www.linkedin.com/in/samorakariuki/

• Stone Atwine (Guest): https://www.linkedin.com/in/stoneatwine/

• Frontier Fintech: https://frontierfintech.substack.com/

Why does it take five days and $30 to move money from Mexico to the US, or Nigeria to China? In a world of instant communication, the "black hole" of correspondent banking is still swallowing billions in fees and lost time.

Kirill Gertmann, CEO of Conduit, is a 20-year fintech veteran who spent years in traditional banking before diving into crypto. After surviving the 2022 DeFi collapse without losing a cent of client funds, he pivoted Conduit from a "yield" platform to a "utility" powerhouse. Today, Conduit is the "Money Movement Operating System" helping businesses and banks bypass the 1970s-era SWIFT architecture.

This episode deconstructs the strategic shift from speculative DeFi to practical cross-border execution. Kirill explains the "stablecoin sandwich" model, the reality of "hard mode" jurisdictions, how Africa is likely to be their biggest geography by end of 2026, and why the ultimate "SWIFT killer" isn't a new coin, but a superior distribution network. We explore why Tier 2 banks are the next big frontier for stablecoin adoption and why CBDCs are likely a dead end.

In This Episode, You Will Hear:

• The Pivot: How the 2022 crypto crash forced a move from DeFi yield to solving the "on-ramp" problem in Latin America.

• The "Stablecoin Sandwich": Why the most successful fintechs abstract crypto away so CFOs only see fiat-to-fiat results.

• Bypassing SWIFT: Why Tier 2 banks are desperate for an alternative to the "bottleneck" of correspondent banking.

• The Africa Growth Story: Why Nigeria has a "higher pain point" than Mexico, how partnering with local fintechs scales growth and how Africa will be their largest geography by end of 2026.

• The Network Moat: Why Tether (USDT) dominates the Global South and why "distribution beats yield" every time.

• The Compliance Hurdle: How to balance aggressive growth with the "boring stuff" like SOC2 and rigorous KYB.

Key Quote: "Most crypto use cases were speculative. We wanted to build something people would actually use every day... The only moat in payments is the network. Visa and Mastercard are successful because of their network and distribution, not secret technology."

Connect with Us:

• Samora Kariuki (Host): https://www.linkedin.com/in/samorakariuki/

• Kirill Gertmann (Guest): https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirillgertman/

Frontier Fintech: https://frontierfintech.substack.com/

Why does Nigeria have 120 million people with digital identities but only 70 million with bank accounts? Despite a decade of growth, the "last mile" of financial inclusion remains a stubborn red ocean.

Samora Kariuki sits down with Olu Akanmu, a rare leader who has navigated the "commercial battlefield" at the highest levels of telcos, Tier-1 banks, and scale-up fintechs (OPay). From his work with EFInA to his current role in academia at Lagos Business School, Olu brings a balanced perspective on why Nigeria’s fintech journey looks so different from the rest of the continent.

This episode is a masterclass in the structural realities of the Nigerian market. Olu deconstructs the "Banking Lobby" that slowed mobile money, the friction between competing national identity systems (BVN vs. NIN), and why the next phase of fintech must move from simple payments to deep credit integration. He also provides a candid critique of "generic" late-stage fintech strategies and the internal politics that kill bank-led innovation.

In This Episode, You Will Hear:

• The Banking Lobby vs. Telcos: A behind-the-scenes look at why mobile money struggled to launch in Nigeria and how fintechs filled the gap.
• The Prosperity Paradox: Why financial inclusion cannot scale in Northern Nigeria without solving for economic inclusion first.
• Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI): The missed opportunity of siloed identity and payment systems (BVN vs. NIN).
• Open Banking & the Credit Gap: Why payments grew 30% but credit only 4%, and how Open Banking can bridge that divide.
• Late-Stage Consolidation: Why "regulatory arbitrage" is ending and how fintechs must find "uncontested markets" to survive.
• The "Frigate Elephant" Problem: Why bank-led fintech subsidiaries often fail due to traditional banking mindsets.
• The "Peak Mobile Money" Myth: Why declining agent revenues are actually a sign of a maturing digital ecosystem.

"Strategy begins with looking at your unique capabilities... You cannot come in as a late entrant offering a generic proposition and expect to scale in a contested market."

Connect with Us:

• Samora Kariuki (Host): https://www.linkedin.com/in/samorakariuki/
• Olu Akanmu (Guest): https://www.linkedin.com/in/olu-akanmu-88280a/
• Frontier Fintech: frontierfintech.substack.com

Insurance penetration in Kenya has hovered at 2% for decades. Why? Because the industry tries to sell annual policies to people who earn daily wages. It’s a relevance problem, not a demand problem.

Bente Krogman didn't start in fintech. She grew up in a German village of 300 people, managed mosquito net logistics in Tanzania, and launched a car wash in Nairobi. That grit led her to found M-Tek, an Insurtech that pivoted from a B2C marketplace to a B2B2C orchestration platform. In 2026, M-Tek was acquired by global Insurtech unicorn Bolttech, a rare and significant exit in the Kenyan tech ecosystem.

In this episode, Samora Kariuki sits down with Bente to decode the journey from "idea to exit." They discuss the brutal reality of B2C customer acquisition costs, why "embedded insurance" is the only path to scale, and the specific unit economics that make micro-insurance profitable (hint: it’s not the 10-shilling premiums).

In This Episode, You Will Hear:

• The Origin Story: How running a manual car wash in Nairobi taught Bente the fundamentals of African business.

• The Pivot: Why MTek moved from a B2C marketplace to a B2B2C "embedded" model to solve the trust deficit.

• Unit Economics: Why the "middle segment" (500 KES premiums) is more profitable than ultra-micro products.

• The "Netflix" Problem: Why complex claims processes kill insurance adoption faster than price. Hint - How long does it take to pay for your Netflix subscription that costs the same as a Micro-insurance premium?

• Partnership Strategy: How to sell to incumbents by focusing on their distribution headaches.

• The Exit: Inside the acquisition by Bolttech, why it was a "people decision" over a commercial one.

Key Quote: "If you cannot explain a micro-insurance product to me in 20 seconds, it is not a product. Just because it is cheap doesn't mean people will buy it if the process is like buying a car."

Connect with Us:

• Samora Kariuki (Host): https://www.linkedin.com/in/samorakariuki/

• Bente Krogman (Guest): https://www.linkedin.com/in/bente-krogmann/

• Frontier Fintech: https://frontierfintech.substack.com/

Most banks and fintechs misunderstand the problem at the last mile. They build "Supply Chain Finance" to fund invoices, assuming the sale has happened. But Fred Njogu explains that the real problem is the lost sale: the customer is at the counter, the demand is real, but the shopkeeper didn't have the cash that morning to stock the product.

The Story: Fred Njogu, COO of Correlaction, is a "reformed engineer" who spent years optimizing distribution for Coca-Cola and Unilever. In this episode, he deconstructs why traditional banking models fail informal retailers and why the solution isn't lending, it's "smoothing the order-to-cash cycle."

The Deep Dive: This conversation corrects a fundamental category error. Fred explains that manufacturers (Anchors) don't have a supply chain problem, their distribution is highly organized. The issue is the "Cash Trap" at the retailer level. He details how Correlaction uses data to help merchants "buy what they can sell, not just what they can afford," effectively financing the inventory gap to prevent stockouts.

In This Episode, You Will Hear:

• The "Supply Chain Finance" Misconception: Why the gap isn't about financing the supply chain, but solving the working capital constraint that causes stockouts.

• The "Look in the Drawer" Moment: The decision-making process of a retailer who has 5,000 shillings but needs 7,000 worth of stock.

• Order-to-Cash Smoothing: How to design a product that allows retailers to fulfill actual market demand rather than their limited cash capacity.

• Unit Economics of the Last Mile: Why a $2 order cannot be delivered by a truck, and the specific math of distribution costs.

• Why Credit Cards Failed: A lesson on why 16-digit cards and 30-minute till processes destroy sales in a high-velocity environment.

• Monetizing "Idle Assets": Using historical purchase data as "goodwill" to underwrite risk without physical collateral.

• The "Fragmentation" Trap: Why African markets fragment rather than consolidate, and the economic incentives behind it.

• Active vs. Passive Distribution: The difference between a wholesaler "sitting on a high chair" and a distributor who controls the outlet.

Key Quote: 

"The demand is there, and because... you don't have enough working capital, you end up losing the opportunities... It's not really a supply chain finance issue. It's more of a working capital... You can buy what you can sell tomorrow, not buy what you can afford today."

Connect with Us:

• Samora Kariuki (Host): https://www.linkedin.com/in/samorakariuki/

• Fred Njogu (Guest): https://www.linkedin.com/in/frednjogu/

• Frontier Fintech: www.frontierfintech.substack.com

Why do 30% of transactions in South Africa fail? And more importantly, why do merchants often get nothing but a generic error message when it happens?

Jonatan Allback, CEO of Njiapay, joins Samora Kariuki to deconstruct the "black hole" of African payments.

The conversation starts with the origin story of Njiapay, originally built as an internal tool to fix low conversion rates for the calling app Talk360. Jonatan breaks down the technical reality of the African payments stack, explaining why "orchestration" isn't just a buzzword, it’s the only way for mid-market companies to navigate the fragmented landscape of gateways, processors, and banks.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• The 20% Revenue Gap: Why African authorization rates lag behind the global average and how to fix it.

• The "Waiter" Analogy: A clear definition of the difference between a Gateway, a Processor, and an Acquiring Bank.

• The Talk360 Pivot: How a consumer app turned their biggest operational headache into a B2B fintech solution.

• Orchestration 101: Why relying on a single PSP (like Paystack or Peach) often isn't enough for scaling companies.

• The Fragmentation Trap: Why "Full Stack" control is nearly impossible in Africa, and how to navigate the alternative.

How do you build a lending business for a market traditional banks ignore? You don't start with a banking charter. You start with a catalog.

Sean Wibberley, CEO of Weaver Fintech, joins Samora Kariuki to share the incredible story of Finchoice. It’s a journey that starts with Home Choice, a catalog retailer, and a brilliant insight from the founder’s daughter: the company’s database of female customers—who proved they could repay retail credit—was a data goldmine for underwriting personal loans.

This foundation evolved into a high-tech ecosystem, supercharged by the strategic acquisition of BNPL leader PayJustNow. Sean explains how this move transformed their growth, turning a low-margin product into a powerful acquisition engine that feeds their entire flywheel.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• The "unfair advantage" of using proprietary behavioral data over thin credit bureau files.

• The strategic thinking behind buying a customer acquisition channel (PayJustNow) instead of building one.

• The staggering unit economics: why a 2-product customer is 8x more valuable than a 1-product customer.

• How to create a "virtuous flywheel" where cross-selling "opens the jaws" between revenue and cost, improving your entire business.

How do you build an "accidental" career in fintech? Wiza Jalakasi, famously known as "the African fintech guy" and now Director of African Expansion at Ebanx, joins Samora Kariuki to trace his remarkable journey.

It's a story that begins with selling games on floppy disks in Malawi, moves through a failed startup, and lands him at the center of scaling both Africa's Talking and Chipper Cash during their hyper-growth phases. Wiza shares the unique "cheat code" that let him spot Chipper's rise, the hard lessons from his first failure, and the self-awareness that has guided his career.

This entire journey culminates in his current work at Ebanx, where he's solving one of the most complex, invisible problems in global tech: how do the world's largest companies collect local payments in Africa, and more importantly, how do they compliantly get their money out in USD?

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How Wiza's early hustles (like selling games on floppy disks) and a failed startup built the foundation for his fintech career.

• The "cheat code" at Africa's Talking that let him spot Chipper Cash's explosive growth before anyone else.

• The core problem: Why global brands can't just "plug into" M-Pesa or OPay themselves.

• The harsh reality of global priorities: why a 2% payment optimization in the US can be worth more than launching in all of Nigeria.

• The invisible hurdles of cross-border payments: breaking down the hidden pillars of local licensing, tax compliance, and especially treasury (getting USD out).

• Why Africa's "prepaid psychology" clashes with the subscription models that power the global internet, and how Ebanx solves it.

• A $10M startup idea Wiza would build today: chargeback automation for African PSPs.

He resigned from one of the world's largest hedge funds after his mom said he'd changed. Tarek Mouganie’s journey is anything but conventional, taking him from a PhD in material science to the trading floors of London, and back to Ghana to tackle one of the hardest problems on the continent: building a real bank for the African majority.

In this episode, Tarek, founder and CEO of Affinity Africa, joins Samora Kariuki to share the powerful personal story behind his return and the hard-won lessons from building a full-stack digital bank. Tarek unpacks why "banking failed Africa," how his hybrid "phygital" model is building trust where others can't, and why his proudest moment is seeing a roadside vendor who received a loan become a CEO. This is a masterclass in building a fintech with patience, purpose, and a deep understanding of the market, revealing how Affinity achieved a sub-2% default rate by treating credit as a reward, not a product.

Key Quote:"Imagine your African mother tells you, 'You are working for the second largest hedge fund in the world... but stop. This is bad for you.' I stood right up and I went and actually resigned. It was the wakeup call that I needed. She actually saved me."

Find us online:You can connect with our host, Samora Kariuki, and our guest, Tarek Mouganie, on LinkedIn. For more insights, visit the Frontier Fintech website.

He resigned from one of the world's largest hedge funds after his mom said he'd changed. Tarek Mouganie’s journey is anything but conventional, taking him from a PhD in material science to the trading floors of London, and back to Ghana to tackle one of the hardest problems on the continent: building a real bank for the African majority.

In this episode, Tarek, founder and CEO of Affinity Africa, joins Samora Kariuki to share the powerful personal story behind his return and the hard-won lessons from building a full-stack digital bank. Tarek unpacks why "banking failed Africa," how his hybrid "phygital" model is building trust where others can't, and why his proudest moment is seeing a roadside vendor who received a loan become a CEO. This is a masterclass in building a fintech with patience, purpose, and a deep understanding of the market, revealing how Affinity achieved a sub-2% default rate by treating credit as a reward, not a product.

Key Quote:"Imagine your African mother tells you, 'You are working for the second largest hedge fund in the world... but stop. This is bad for you.' I stood right up and I went and actually resigned. It was the wakeup call that I needed. She actually saved me."

Find us online:You can connect with our host, Samora Kariuki, and our guest, Tarek Mouganie, on LinkedIn. For more insights, visit the Frontier Fintech website.