Hassan Bourgi, co‑founder and chief executive of Djamo, is wrestling with a strategic choice. His company has become one of the leading credit card issuers in francophone Africa, but competition is intensifying.
Bourgi’s options are: double down on Djamo’s core Ivory Coast market to strengthen its position before expanding regionally; accelerate its entry into Senegal, Burkina Faso and Cameroon to capture first‑mover advantage; or launch new financial products such as micro‑lending, which could increase revenues but raise regulatory and credit‑risk concerns.
Choosing the wrong trade-offs could slow momentum in a market that is finally attracting global fintech interest.
After completing his master in management at Eada in Barcelona and later building and selling his successful start-up Busportal in Peru, Bourgi had returned to Ivory Coast in 2019. Here he found a banking system still designed for the few — more than 120mn adults across francophone Africa were unbanked or underbanked. Six years later, Bourgi and his business partner, Régis Bamba, had turned Djamo into the region’s largest card issuer, with more than 750,000 users and $4.5bn in transactions processed.
Hassan Bourgi, left, and Régis Bamba of Djamo, which offers banking to francophone Africa
