The 20-metre neobank: How Mukuru is solving the gap between receiving cash and spending it
For the Spanish-born executive, the future of African fintech is about eliminating the friction that hinders how people receive, store, move, and spend their money.
Juan Seco, Chief Growth Officer and Managing Director for East Africa at Mukuru, a digital financial services company, once transferred money to his 76-year-old mother in Harare through the app. After checking, she told him to stop using friends for such transactions. This 20-metre walk in Harare represents the essence of Mukuru's expansion, according to Seco.
Seco, born in Madrid, spent his childhood in France and Luxembourg before studying finance at McGill University in Canada. He worked in private equity, mergers and acquisitions, and later joined Jumia, Africa's e-commerce leader, as their CFO. His decade-long tenure at Jumia exposed him to the need for a middle layer to connect various payment systems.
Seco realized that African fintech should focus on eliminating friction in money reception, storage, movement, and spending. Mukuru, a "remittance-led neobank," serves over 17.6 million customers across 60 countries in Southern and East Africa, including wallets, cards, payments, and banking infrastructure.
In countries like Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Botswana, people seek financial solutions without complicated processes. Mukuru has built trust by focusing on both the sender and receiver, addressing the needs of millions who rely on it to send money home.
Written by urgent.news from TechCabal's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
