How is Mambu Expanding Islamic Finance in Africa?

SaaS cloud banking platform Mambu has announced a strategic collaboration with Nyla, Africa’s first Islamic neobank, to power its Shari’ah-compliant digital banking infrastructure.

The partnership comes as Nyla prepares for its initial launch in Ghana followed by a broader expansion across the West African region.

This move represents a significant milestone for Mambu’s Islamic banking presence on the continent. By providing a scalable, cloud-native infrastructure, Mambu is helping Nyla enter an underserved market where ethical, values-based financial services remain in high demand.

Addressing the credit gap

While the global Islamic finance market is valued at over US$7tn , Africa currently accounts for just 2% of the industry. Nyla aims to bridge this divide through a digital-first model, utilising Mambu’s API-first platform to bypass the need for building core infrastructure from scratch.

At the point of launch, the neobank will offer digital current and savings wallets, bill payments, peer-to-peer transfers and card-linked accounts.

The core engine provided by Mambu manages the technical heavy lifting, including account creation, product configuration and transaction processing.

“The global Islamic finance market represents a significant and underserved opportunity, particularly across Africa. Nyla is addressing that gap with a digital-first, values-driven model, and we are proud to power their core infrastructure,” says Mark Geneste, Chief Revenue Officer at Mambu.

“Our platform is purpose-built to support Islamic and non-interest banking products, enabling institutions to innovate while maintaining compliance and operational resilience. This collaborative partnership reflects the growing demand for modern, scalable Islamic digital banking solutions.”

Scaling across the continent

Running on Amazon Web Services (AWS), the composable foundation allows Nyla to scale efficiently into new regulatory environments. Following the Ghana launch, the neobank has set its sights on Nigeria, Senegal and Gambia.

The technical suite supports a range of Shari’ah-compliant deposit and investment products, such as transactional accounts and fixed deposits. This allows Nyla to offer services that align with Islamic funding principles either alongside or independent of conventional banking models.

Nyla has already seen substantial market interest, with more than 33,000 users on its waitlist. After a successful oversubscribed pre-seed funding round, the neobank is targeting 10,000 sign-ups within its first month of operation in June 2026. By the end of that year, a total of 400,000 users is expected. 

Mubarak Sumaila, CEO of Nyla, notes: “Our long-term ambition is to build the largest Islamic bank in the world. We are starting with digital products, but our vision extends to building the infrastructure layer for Islamic finance across Africa and beyond. 

“By combining ethical banking principles with scalable technology, we aim to confront financial exclusion with a lasting and practical solution. Collaborating with Mambu gives us the foundation to execute that vision with speed and compliance.”

Future product roadmap

Nyla intends to deepen the product suite ver the next 24 to 36 months to include physical debit cards, remittances and Shari’ah-compliant investment instruments such as Sukuk. The roadmap also includes a Nyla for Business offering and Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) services.

While all customer-facing transactions are processed within the Mambu core system, customer funds will be held with and regulated under Nyla’s licensed banking partners.

This structure ensures that the neobank can maintain high levels of compliance while leveraging the agility of a cloud-native fintech stack.