Episode 209 with Dara Adekunle, Managing Partner and CEO of FARMTIES Capital, an investment firm financing export oriented African agribusinesses and strengthening Africa’s role in global trade.

Dara brings deep experience in impact investing, innovative finance, and international trade to this conversation on one of the most critical and under examined constraints to Africa’s economic growth the trade finance gap facing agricultural SMEs.

In this episode, we explore why Africa’s challenge is not agricultural production, but the lack of working capital, trade infrastructure, and risk appropriate financing needed to move goods from farms to global markets. Dara explains how FARMTIES Fund I, a 50 million dollar profit sharing trade finance fund, is unlocking capital for export ready agribusinesses across West and East Africa, with strong market linkages to North America and Europe.

From blended finance and technical assistance to compliance, traceability, and ESG standards, this conversation breaks down how African SMEs can become bankable, competitive, and scalable in global food markets. Dara also unpacks why gender inclusive and climate resilient value chains are not only good for impact, but essential for long term commercial success.

What We Discuss With Dara

• Why Africa’s biggest constraint to agribusiness growth is the trade finance gap rather than production capacity
• How profit sharing trade finance and blended capital structures can de risk African agriculture
• Turning compliance, traceability, and ESG requirements into competitive advantages for African exporters
• The commercial case for gender inclusive and climate resilient agricultural value chains
• What founders, investors, and policymakers must change to unlock Africa’s export led growth

Did you miss my previous episode where I discuss Financial Inclusion, Entrepreneurship, and How to Build Markets That Work in Africa? Make sure to check it out!

Connect with Terser:
LinkedIn - Terser Adamu
Instagram - unlockingafrica
Twitter (X) - @TerserAdamu

Connect with Dara:
LinkedIn - Oluwadara (Dara) Adekunle and Farmties Capital Limited

Many of the businesses unlocking opportunities in Africa don’t do it alone. If you’d like strategic support on entering or expanding across African markets, reach out to our partners ETK Group:

www.etkgroup.co.uk
info@etkgroup.co.uk

Episode 208 with Carl Manlan, a development practitioner and global thought leader working at the intersection of financial inclusion, policy, entrepreneurship, and social impact across Africa and emerging markets.

Carl brings deep experience from senior leadership roles at Visa, where he served as Vice President of Social Impact and Sustainability for the CEMEA region, and at Ecobank Foundation, where he was Chief Operating Officer leading programmes across 33 African markets, earning a Euromoney Award for Excellence. His career also spans influential roles across the United Nations system and AUDA NEPAD, bridging global economic policy with real world impact.

In this episode, Carl explains why financial inclusion and digital payments are not social initiatives, but core economic infrastructure essential for Africa’s long term growth, productivity, and resilience. Drawing on his concept of Polytunity, he reframes Africa’s current economic disruptions as opportunities to redesign markets, institutions, and business models that work for entrepreneurs and small businesses at scale.

The conversation challenges outdated narratives around informality, positioning Africa’s popular economy and MSMEs as the continent’s most adaptive and underestimated growth engine. Carl shares practical insights on how lowering transaction costs through smarter regulation, adaptive governance, and purpose driven business models can unlock inclusive economic growth.

What We Discuss With Carl

• Why financial inclusion and digital payments are foundational economic infrastructure for African markets
• Reframing crisis as opportunity through Polytunity and adaptive economic thinking
• Challenging the myth of informality and unlocking growth in Africa’s popular economy and MSMEs
• Designing markets that work for entrepreneurs by lowering transaction costs through smart policy and regulation
• Intergenerational leadership, succession planning, and building lasting economic legacies in Africa

Did you miss my previous episode where I discuss Africa’s $2 Trillion Instant Payment Boom and What It Means for Trade and Economic Growth? Make sure to check it out!

Connect with Terser:
LinkedIn - Terser Adamu
Instagram - unlockingafrica
Twitter (X) - @TerserAdamu

Connect with Carl:
LinkedIn - Carl Manlan and Inside The Blueprint Podcast

Many of the businesses unlocking opportunities in Africa don’t do it alone. If you’d like strategic support on entering or expanding across African markets, reach out to our partners ETK Group:

www.etkgroup.co.uk
info@etkgroup.co.uk

Episode 207 with Sabine Mensah, Deputy CEO of AfricaNenda Foundation and co author of the State of Inclusive Instant Payment Systems in Africa 2025 report, one of the most comprehensive studies on Africa’s digital payments infrastructure.

The SIIPS 2025 report reveals the extraordinary scale of Africa’s instant payments transformation, with 64 billion real time payment transactions worth nearly 2 trillion dollars processed in 2024 alone. Sabine shares what this rapid growth means for Africa’s digital economy and why instant payments are no longer a fintech niche, but a core driver of trade, productivity, and financial inclusion across the continent.

Drawing on insights from 31 countries, we explore why Nigeria has emerged as Africa’s first fully mature instant payment system, the governance and interoperability decisions behind NIBSS’s success, and the critical lessons other African markets must learn to scale inclusive payment infrastructure.

The conversation dives into how instant payments are reshaping cross border trade, remittances, and SME cash flow, why payment systems are foundational to AfCFTA success, and how real time payments unlock faster settlement, liquidity, and growth for African businesses. Sabine also explains why scale alone does not guarantee inclusion, highlighting the importance of trust, consumer protection, and system design in driving sustained adoption.

What We Discuss With Sabine

• Why instant payments have become the backbone of Africa’s digital economy and a prerequisite for trade, growth, and financial inclusion
• How Nigeria became the first African country to achieve a fully mature instant payment system and what other markets can learn from its governance and interoperability model
• The role of real time payments in transforming cross border trade, remittances, and SME cash flow under AfCFTA
• Why scale alone does not equal inclusion and how trust, consumer protection, and system design shape who benefits from digital payments
• Instant payments as digital public infrastructure and what policymakers, investors, and founders must do now to unlock Africa’s next decade of economic growth

Did you miss my previous episode where I discuss Unlocking Diaspora Wealth: How Housing Investment Is Driving African Development? Make sure to check it out!

Connect with Terser:
LinkedIn - Terser Adamu
Instagram - unlockingafrica
Twitter (X) - @TerserAdamu

Connect with Sabine:
LinkedIn - Sabine Mensah and AfricaNenda Foundation

Many of the businesses unlocking opportunities in Africa don’t do it alone. If you’d like strategic support on entering or expanding across African markets, reach out to our partners ETK Group:

www.etkgroup.co.uk
info@etkgroup.co.uk