The Barefoot Economist
Hugo PachecoGround-level intelligence on financial inclusion technology and emerging market fintech written by someone who's built agent networks across 9 African countries, not watched from a distance. Home of the Agent Network OS.
| Platform |  | Pricing | Freemium | Publishes | Weekly |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Issues | 117 | Founded | 3 years ago | Last Issue | 9 days ago |
| Active | |||||
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barefooteconomist.substack.comLatest Issues
📍 The Ghost POS Agent With Perfect GPS
On May 29, 2026, the CBN gave Nigeria’s POS industry a little more room to breathe. The permitted operating radius for terminals moved from 10 metres to 70 metres, and enforcement of the mandatory geofencing framework was pushed to August 1...
🪛 The Repair Layer
There is a man in Asaba Computer Village who has trained fifteen apprentices.
He works from a stall roughly the size of a bathroom. His tools cost less than a decent restaurant meal. His diagnostic equipment is partly YouTube. His parts su...
🧲 The business model has to match the gravity
The Moniepoint question was never really about Moniepoint.
Last week in my Frontier Fintech piece, I argued that the terminal records the sale but not necessarily the purchase. It sees settlement but may not see sourcing. It sees payment v...
🔒 De-risking is not development: the credit guarantee question Africa cannot avoid
Guarantees are being deployed to solve a legibility problem that is being misdiagnosed as a risk problem, and until that changes, DFI Capital will keep building dependency instead of confidence.
Last month, I introduced a mobile money lend...
🌾 The agri supply chain has an agent network problem. So does agri lending. They’re the same problem.
Change the payment trigger and you change the business model. Fraud-resistant operations and bankable supply chains aren't two problems.
Most agri aggregators don’t have a credit problem. They have an auditable evidence problem. The physic...
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| Subscribers | Engagement | 68 | Monthly Web Visits | ||
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I help fintechs to reach last-mile customers using alternative channels
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