From the moment he burst onto the scene with that signature “Ololade mi Asake†tag, Nigerian music has not been the same. And Spotify just made it official. Asake has been confirmed as the most streamed artist in Nigeria since the platform launched in 2021, with four of the top ten most streamed songs in the country belonging to him, including the number one track “Remember.†Four out of ten. Let that sink in.
If you have ever found yourself at a party, a wedding, a road trip, or simply in your room at midnight and an Asake song came on and the whole atmosphere shifted, you already understand why the numbers look the way they do. Now We’re diving into the five tracks that have had Nigeria on a collective loop, with the volume firmly at 100.
Remember
As the official most-streamed song in Spotify Nigeria’s history, this standout from the 2023 album “Work of Art†remains a masterclass in Amapiano-infused nostalgia. Its infectious refrain and high-energy production turned it into a global anthem that still feels like a brand-new release every time it hits the speakers.
Lonely At The Top
Also from his 2023 sophomore project Work of Art, this soulful masterpiece became a national anthem for anyone navigating the pressures of success. It showcased a more vulnerable side of Mr. Money, proving he could dominate the charts with quiet introspection just as easily as with loud club bangers.
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Joha
A fan-favorite from his record-breaking 2022 debut album Mr. Money With The Vibe, this track originated from a dance he created during his university days. Its fusion of traditional Fuji vibes with modern log drums made it an irresistible replay staple that continues to ignite dancefloors across the continent.
Sungba (Remix) ft. Burna Boy
First appearing on his debut Ololade Asake EP in early 2022, this explosive remix gave the street hit global wings by adding a heavyweight verse from the African Giant. The heavy log drums and “Sungba†chant created a sonic earthquake that still moves crowds years later, particularly after its inclusion on his debut album “Mr. Money With The Vibe.â€
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Peace Be Unto You (PBUY)
Released in June 2022 as a cornerstone of his record-breaking debut album Mr. Money With The Vibe, this track solidified his status as an untouchable hit-making machine. The unique blend of Islamic-inspired chants and high-octane production made it one of the most distinctive and replayed songs of his breakout era.
One of the many things to love about Asake is that his sense of style is just as intentional as his music. Yes, the music speaks for itself—hit records, Grammy nominations, sold-out stages—but when it comes to fashion, he refuses to be boxed in. He knows his lane, and he never overstays in one look.
One moment, he’s sharply dressed in a tailored grey two-piece for his Red Bull Symphonic performance. The next, he’s stepping out with electric blue hair, completely switching the mood.
That instinct was on full display in Johannesburg, where Asake stepped out for his first-ever South African performance at the Goldrush Dome. For a night that marked both a personal milestone and the closing chapter of his Africa tour, he chose a look that felt considered without trying too hard: a tan corduroy matching set that did the talking.
The outfit featured a collarless jacket detailed with contrast black piping along the edges, finished with statement white buttons and front patch pockets. The wide-leg trousers echoed the same piping down the sides, creating a clean visual line from top to bottom. Underneath, a crisp white shirt kept things grounded, while chunky tan platform boots added a practical, almost utilitarian touch that worked perfectly for a live performance setting. Dark rectangular sunglasses and stud earrings rounded things off without distraction.
What really works here is the balance. The boxy jacket and wide-leg trousers play with proportion in a way that feels both throwback and current. The tan palette does most of the talking, while the corduroy texture and black piping quietly sharpen the look.
The night itself had plenty going on. Johannesburg showed up as Asake took the stage, closing out his Africa tour on a high. The set moved smoothly between familiar favourites and moments that felt specially built for the room, with orchestral arrangements sitting comfortably alongside the Soweto Choir’s harmonies, and performances from Focalistic and YoungJonn.
December just got a whole lot hotter!. Afrobeats superstar Asake is coming back to the soil this festive season, and he’s bringing his hits with him. After a whirlwind year of touring and performing on global stages, Mr Money himself is set to light up Nairobi, Lagos, and Côte d’Ivoire this December with his highly anticipated Mr. Money African Tour.
Kicking off in Nairobi on December 20, the tour will head to Lagos on December 24, before closing out the year in Côte d’Ivoire on December 27. For fans across the continent, this is a big moment. After spending much of 2025 on international stages, Asake is returning to perform for his home crowd.
The announcement has been met with plenty of excitement – especially as fans are still eagerly waiting for his much-teased album, “Mr. Money.†While the album’s release date is still under wraps, Asake has kept us fed with hits like “WhyLove†and “BadmanGangsta†featuring Tiakola, both of which have dominated African streaming charts this year.
Captioning his announcement post “back to the soil,†Asake seems ready to celebrate his roots and close out the year with a bang. If his past shows are anything to go by, this tour will be a December highlight you won’t want to miss.
If you thought “Coco Money†was tough in audio, wait till you see the video. Adekunle Gold is back with the visuals and it’s shot entirely in black and white. It still delivers the same bold message to work smart, stay focused and enjoy your wins.
Produced by Niphkeys, “Coco Money†is all about working smart, avoiding bad decisions and cashing out proudly. Adekunle isn’t sugarcoating anything. He calls out misplaced priorities and lazy behaviour with lines like “Can’t be broke, can’t be lazy.â€
But it’s not all grit. There’s also enjoyment, with Adekunle Gold proudly chanting “My money be like coco money.†It’s confident, cheeky, and exactly the kind of song you want on when you’re spending or still scheming.
Is your money adding up, or are you still running on a deficit? Adekunle Gold isn’t here to play nice about it. His latest single, “Coco Money,†is a bold reminder to work smart, stay focused, and enjoy the rewards of your hustle.
Produced by Niphkeys, the track is laced with witty lines and sharp commentary on misplaced priorities. Adekunle throws subtle jabs at people who chase trends without getting their finances right, singing, “Misplaced priorities, uh-uh. Can’t be broke, can’t be lazy.â€
But it’s not all tough talk. There’s also an unapologetic celebration of wealth and enjoyment, with Adekunle proudly chanting, “My money be like coco money†and “Bitch better have my money.†The vibe is confident, cheeky, and just the kind of soundtrack you need when you’re cashing out or dreaming big.
If you’ve been slipping on your grind, consider this your wake-up call.
As OkayAfrica marks our 15th anniversary, we're taking a look back at 15 defining African moments of the past 15 years that deserve to be remembered, and the impact they've had. Here's Moment No. 14. Click here for more OkayAfrica15 stories.
Africa’s financial technology revolution didn’t happen overnight, but its speed and general impact in the past 15 years has been – and continues to be – nothing short of inspiring. Over the last decade and a half, the breadth of financial services Africans have access to has been greatly widened, from digital payments processing and seamless global remittances to accessible premium banking services and even crypto investments.
At the start of the 2010s, using debit cards to withdraw cash from Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) was arguably the most impactful financial advancement in many African countries. However, in Kenya, the mobile money revolution was in full swing with M-PESA, which launched a few years earlier and fundamentally affected the landscape of financial inclusion.
With just T9 keyboard phones, Kenyans could deposit, send, receive and withdraw money through a network of agents and retail outlets, services that would typically require trips to bank branches. Targeted at the unbanked population, M-PESA, fronted by telecommunication giant Safaricom, was immediately popular and lauded as “the most successful mobile phone‐based financial service in the developing world.”
The blistering success of M-PESA was an indicator that Africa’s financial services system was in need of inventive approaches to widen possibilities. It also showed that widespread trust – a longtime issue in the sector – was attainable. “What M-PESA really did was to put some doubt into that idea that many of Africa’s unbanked did so because they didn’t trust banks,” economic consultant Gregory Hunpiyah tells OkayAfrica. “It takes a lot of boldness to get people to buy into having a wallet on phones that aren’t smartphones and it paid off.”
Although their contexts are different, there’s correlation between the explosion of M-PESA in Kenya to the breakouts of Fawry in Egypt and TymeBank in South Africa, and the fairly recent ultra-ubiquity of Opay in Nigeria. The premise of making financial services available to unbanked and underbanked populations represents an opportunity that has led to the launch of dozens of products across the continent, while traditional banks have also had to evolve accordingly.
Leveraging the internet as the ultimate technological advancement and coinciding with the rise of smartphone technology, fintech in Africa quickly diversified and has grown more effective over the years.
When Interswitch started operations in Nigeria in 2002, its ambitions as an integrated payment processing platform for businesses and banks was lofty. The process itself was cumbersome, requiring upfront payment and filling of multiple forms. In its evolution, Interswitch offered digital and data solutions to banks, was key to the ATM revolution, launched its own payments card company Verve, and ran the popular payment platform Quickteller. By 2019, Interswitch became the first African fintech company to be valued at $1 billion and earn the unicorn status.
“Interswitch obviously paved the way for Flutterwave, Paystack, HUB2 and these other payments companies,” Hunpiyah says. Late last year, HUB2 closed its Series A investment round, securing $8.5 million in funding as it looks to expand its payment solutions services across French-speaking African countries. Founder Ashley Gauzeresaid his company is “creating infrastructure and unifying payments in the region like a Stripe-like platform,” referencing the well-known American payments unicorn.
In October 2020, Stripe acquired Nigerian startup Paystack, which had been referred to as “the Stripe of Africa.” The merger and acquisition deal, which was reportedly worth about $200 million, was momentous, further proof that African fintech companies are creating world class products.
“That was the second deal that year that everyone went, ‘Wow!’ It was a little surreal,” Hunpiyah says. Two months before the Stripe-Paystack deal, cross-border payments company WorldRemit announced it was acquiring Sendwave, a remittance-focused company, in a deal worth over $500 million. “Granted, Sendwave operates from the U.S. but its focus is in Africa, and that’s what made the deal possible in the first place.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, dozens of African tech companies received millions of dollars in investments, a show of optimism in a growing ecosystem. That funding spree has slowed down as the limitations of operating fintech startups in Africa have surfaced over the years, including low but growing level of internet penetration, stiff competition and oversaturation, regulatory obstacles, and a few cases of financial mismanagement. With investors, mainly outside the continent, being more selective about who to back, the question of scale and profitability have become more prominent than ever.
“A lot was made out of potential during COVID,” Hunpiyah says. “I think hard lessons were learnt after that and, to be positive, I think it’s shown that African startups can be resilient. Many companies have scaled back and tried new execution strategies to figure out what can work, which is something to write home about.”
Even amidst the market correction, the number of fintech companies in Africa almost tripled between 2020 and 2024, according to a report by the European Investment Bank. It signals a positive future outlook for fintech growth across the continent, as new unicorns are minted and more join the club. Last year, TymeBank and Nigeria’s Moniepoint joined the billion-dollar valuation list, stamping their impact on retail commerce and their role in improving the accessibility of banking services.
In its report, ‘Redefining Success: A New Playbook for African Fintech Leaders,’ McKinsey suggests that fintech revenues could reach up to $47 billion, depending on penetration across the continent reaching 15%. The report also shared six dynamics shaping trends in the ecosystem, including the acceleration of product innovation and fintechs integrating into other verticals. Opay is a great example of the latter, it evolved from the popular browser Opera into a superapp where users can open a bank account just with their phone numbers and carry out a myriad of transactions.
“It’s impossible to miss the impact of fintech companies that have proven themselves by just growing,” Hunpiyah says, referencing MNT-Halan, Egypt’s first fintech unicorn that started as a digital lending service. MNT-Halan has expanded into e-commerce and also offers buy now, pay later solutions.
Hunpiyah concludes that as much as it is about profits, the social aspect of African fintech will always be relevant because “these products are clearly improving quality of life for many Africans.”
Across markets in Dakar, the Senegalese capital, vendors used to lose nearly a tenth of their daily earnings just by accepting mobile payments. Every transfer from a customer came with a fee (sometimes 5%, even 10%) sliced away by the telecom companies that dominated Senegal’s mobile money market for nearly a decade. Then, in 2018, something changed.
A new player, Wave, arrived with a simple pitch: What if sending money cost almost nothing? And Senegal’s mass market quickly embraced this new order.
That promise—radically cheaper digital payments—has turned Wave into one of Africa’s most valuable startups. Now, with a fresh USD 137 M debt round led by Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) and backed by global development financiers, the company is doubling down on its mission: to make Africa the first cashless continent.
Wave’s rise reads like a playbook for how to disrupt a monopoly. Before its launch, mobile money in West Africa was controlled by telecom operators like Orange, which charged fees as high as 10% per transaction. For millions of small merchants and low-income users, those fees made digital payments more expensive than cash.
Then came Wave—no fees on deposits or withdrawals, just a flat 1% on transfers, with bill payments subsidised by businesses rather than customers. The model was so aggressively consumer-friendly that skeptics questioned its sustainability. Yet six years later, Wave is thriving.
Today, the company operates in eight West African countries, serving 20 million monthly active users through a network of 150,000 mobile money agents. In 2021, it became Francophone Africa’s first unicorn after a record-breaking USD 200 M Series A. Now, with this new funding, it’s eyeing further expansion into Central and East Africa.
The USD 137 M debt round—led by RMB and supported by British International Investment (BII), Norfund, and Finnfund—comes at a pivotal moment. Africa’s startup ecosystem has seen venture funding dip, but debt financing is emerging as an alternative, especially for companies like Wave that have provable scale and revenue.
For development financiers, the appeal is clear as Wave is well-positioned as a financial inclusion machine. “Wave’s platform is a clear example of technology enabling inclusive finance at scale,” said a representative from British International Investment. “This is aligned with our mandate to support digital infrastructure that empowers communities.”
Wave CEO and co-founder Drew Durbin said in a statement that the new “funding means we can help even more people by delivering the best possible product at the lowest possible price.”
“It brings us closer to our mission of making Africa the first cashless continent.”
The numbers back him up. In Senegal alone, Wave now processes more transactions than some traditional banks. And for two years running, it’s been the only African company on Y Combinator’s list of top 50 highest-earning startups.
Wave’s ambitions, however, face real obstacles. Regulators are watching closely as fintechs gain influence, and in some countries, telecom operators still hold political sway. Then there’s the sheer dominance of cash—90% of transactions in Africa are still offline, per World Bank data.
But if anyone can shift that balance, it might be Wave. After all, it’s already done the unthinkable once: making digital money cheaper than cash and accessible to everyone, not just the rich as in the past, while wrestling market share from telecom giants. Now, with fresh capital and a continent still ripe for disruption, it’s betting it can do it again at scale.
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