That is the vision of MobiBank CEO Jussi Teeriaho, who plans to sell his multifunctional mobile banks - once known as smartphones - to users for $85 or less.

While phone tech providers like Apple and Google offer financial services, Teeriaho points out that they are not specialists and are not building full-scale solutions to help users get the best value for their money. In addition, the architecture of smartphones can create security risks that banks have insufficient ability to address, he claims.

“The problem with the many competitors nowadays in the fintech industry is that they own the app. The app is theirs. But when we go to the pipes underneath, they belong to somebody else. And when we go to the full-stack system - device, operating systems, financial engine and distributed channels - it starts to be divided between so many players that there are challenges all the time,” Teeriaho told Global South World. “Our target is to have one hub where you get all the services, including application, including security, including the pipe channels, and how to deliver things in the future.”

Teeriaho wants to bring his experience designing safety and backup features for Nokia to build a better phone that will empower users who are dependent on mobile payments. One of his first targets is farming and mining businesses in Africa, which need to be able to send and receive money but currently suffer from high transaction costs.

Once licences are signed off, he promises the capacity to produce tens of thousands of phones a day. Scale is important. With 1.7 billion people in the world still unbanked, there is the potential to change the equation around livelihoods as well as economic growth. Traditional banking services, which can take days or weeks to onboard new customers, are not up to the challenge.

MobiBank is promising to address another challenge - it is aiming to provide banking functionalities that can operate without the internet .

So far, the company is raising around $10 million from private and institutional investors in 12 countries, and Teeriaho says it is planning a launch in Nigeria in the third quarter of 2026.

If his vision is fulfilled, we could be leaving the smartphone era to enter a smart-banking world.

On September 11, the European Parliament adopted a resolution (2025/2862(RSP)) condemning the detention of Abdoul Aziz Goma, an Irish-Togolese citizen held in Lomé since 2018. Lawmakers denounced torture, inhumane conditions, and an unfair trial that led to a ten-year sentence after a one-day hearing in February. They urged his immediate release, medical evacuation, and annulment of his conviction, while warning of democratic backsliding in Togo. Goma has been on hunger strike since August 27, with reports of critical health complications.

ECOWAS Parliament relocates session amid rising tensions

The ECOWAS Parliament has shifted its second extraordinary session of 2025 from Lomé to Abuja, citing “circumstances beyond our control”. The move came shortly after the June 6 Movement (M66) announced a September 20 protest demanding President Faure Gnassingbé’s resignation and the release of political prisoners. Civil society actors view the relocation as recognition of mounting unrest following Togo’s contested constitutional changes earlier this year.

Togo summons EU ambassador over resolution

Following the European Parliament’s resolution, Togolese authorities summoned Gwilym Ceri Jones, the EU’s ambassador in Lomé, on September 12. Officials accused the EU of interference and defended the independence of Togo’s judiciary. The move came as international voices, including UN experts, continued to criticise Goma’s detention and trial.

Fintech becomes Togo’s first to win BCEAO authorisation

Togo-based Ollo Africa has become the country’s first fintech to win authorisation from the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) to operate across the eight-nation UEMOA zone. The company is launching Ohana Africa, a platform designed to digitise traditional group savings systems and expand financial inclusion. Backed by partnerships with Ecobank, Ollo Africa aims to reach one million users in Togo before scaling regionally.

Togo posts sharp economic rebound in 2024

Togo’s economy surged in late 2024, with GDP growing 17.7% in the fourth quarter compared to the same period in 2023, according to INSEED data. Annual growth reached 6.5%, driven by strong performances in agriculture, construction, extractive industries, and services. While electricity, hospitality, and public administration contracted, officials credited reforms under the Government Roadmap 2020–2025 for strengthening economic resilience through diversification, logistics, and infrastructure investment.

Desde su lanzamiento en 2023 en Chile y su expansión a México y Brasil, Toku ha conseguido 475 clientes, principalmente en los sectores de seguros, préstamos, gestión de propiedades, educación y servicios públicos. La firma de capital riesgo Oak HC/FT lideró la reciente financiación, junto con inversores existentes como F-Prime Capital y Gradient Ventures. Antes de esta ronda, Toku había conseguido 9 millones de dólares a través de Acuerdo Simple para Acciones Futuras en 2022.

Con una recaudación récord, Toku busca posicionarse en un mercado de pagos en Latinoamérica que se caracteriza por su fragmentación. Cristina Etcheberry destaca que en la región, el 95% de las empresas utilizan bancos locales para procesar pagos; las fintech estadounidenses tienen poca penetración. Además, los métodos de pago en Latinoamérica varían significativamente entre países, siendo el sistema Pix en Brasil y Spei en México ejemplos de soluciones locales.

Toku facilita a las empresas la aceptación de pagos de diversos procesadores y la gestión de recordatorios de facturación. Su software optimiza el flujo de pagos, minimizando el número de fallos en las transacciones. A medida que la empresa continúa creciendo, su enfoque se dirige hacia la expansión en Brasil y la consolidación de su imagen como un referente en la tecnología de pagos en la región.