Nigeria’s Central Bank Expands PoS Operating Radius to 70 Metres
Nigeria’s Central Bank has relaxed its geo‑fencing rule, expanding the permitted operating radius for Point‑of‑Sale terminals from 10 metres to 70 metres. The regulator also pushed the compliance deadline to August 1, 2026, with evidence of adherence due by July 31. The change affects major agents such as Moniepoint, OPay and Palmpay, which must still geo‑tag devices and certify them through the National Central Switch. The move comes as the country’s PoS network processes roughly $13 billion in transactions each quarter, up from a modest base a year earlier.
“I Didn’t See It Becoming a Business”: Day 1 to 1000 of Startbutton Africa
Mallick Bolakale turned a personal eBay loss into Startbutton Africa, a merchant‑of‑record platform that removes payment, tax and compliance hurdles for firms expanding into Africa. Launched in July 2023, the startup now operates in 15 markets and helps businesses collect...
MTN to Join Airtel, Globacom to Restore Airtime Lending After Regulatory Pause
MTN Nigeria announced it will restore its Xtratime airtime‑lending service after the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission suspended enforcement of the Digital, Electronic, Online or Non‑Traditional Consumer Lending (DEON) regulations. The move follows Airtel and Globacom, which have already...
Why Glovo Thinks Africa Could Become the World’s Biggest Quick Commerce Market
Glovo sees Africa’s dense, informal retail landscape as the ideal foundation for quick commerce, betting that grocery and other fast‑delivery services will eventually surpass restaurant orders in key cities. To fuel the strategy, the company announced a $77.6 million investment in...
The Next Fintech Race Is Infrastructure. Paga Wants In
Paga Group is pivoting from consumer payments to a B2B infrastructure model with its new Paga Engine. The service packages two decades of internal payment technology, allowing Nigerian firms to outsource payment acceptance, wallets, and disbursements. In 2025 the engine...
Samsung Phones that Won’t Get the Android 17 Update
Samsung announced that a broad swath of Galaxy devices launched in 2022 or earlier will not receive Android 17, the next major Android release slated for June 2026. The company’s seven‑year update policy counts only OS upgrades, and these phones...
Ghana’s Central Bank Suspends Proposed MTN Mobile Money Transfer Fee
Ghana’s central bank has ordered MTN Ghana’s fintech subsidiary, Mobile Money Fintech Limited (MMFL), to suspend a proposed 0.75 percent fee on wallet‑to‑bank transfers that was set to start on June 1. The fee would have affected about 7 percent of the country’s...
Stablecoins Are Hard to Spend. This Startup Wants to Make It Easy.
Rach Finance, founded by Keji Pius and CTO Martins Chigoziem in January 2026, offers a non‑custodial payment gateway that lets African merchants accept USDT and USDC and settle instantly in local currencies. The startup has already processed about $250,000 across...
Smartcomply Expands to the UK with Africa-Focused Compliance Platform
Smartcomply, a Nigerian compliance and cybersecurity startup, is expanding into the United Kingdom with its AI‑powered AML, KYC and fraud‑detection platform Adhere. The service, built for African financial systems, already monitors over $1 billion in monthly transaction volume across more than...
IOS 26.5 Is Out: Everything iPhone Users Need to Know
Apple rolled out iOS 26.5 on May 11, 2026, delivering a modest feature set and over 50 security patches. The headline addition is end‑to‑end encrypted RCS messaging in beta, which works only with a limited list of carriers, primarily in...
Spotify Wants More Nigerians Paying for Music, Not Higher Subscription Prices
Spotify says growth in Nigerian artist earnings will come from more paying listeners, not higher subscription fees. Premium costs only $1.16 in Nigeria, far below prices in South Africa ($4.29), Ghana ($2.07) and Kenya ($3.23). Nigerian artist payouts rose 140%...
South Africa’s bPOWERd Expands Into Nigeria with Solar Battery Rental Hubs
South African clean‑energy startup bPOWERd has entered Nigeria, rolling out a solar‑battery‑rental service across seven sites in Lagos using Mobil service stations as swapping and charging hubs. Customers pay a refundable $10.96 deposit and rent 300‑Wh or 1,000‑Wh batteries for...
IHS Towers Board Backs MTN Buyout as Shareholders Prepare to Vote
IHS Towers’ board has approved MTN Group’s $2.2 billion cash offer to take the tower operator private at $8.50 per share. The deal, detailed in a Schedule 13E‑3 filing, will require a two‑thirds shareholder vote at a London EGM later this year....
Safaricom Updates My OneApp to Support Airtel, Roaming Users
Safaricom has upgraded its My OneApp platform so users stay logged in when they switch from Safaricom to rival networks such as Airtel Kenya, eliminating the frequent forced logouts that plagued diaspora and roaming customers. The update lets the app...
New Orange-Backed Subsea Cable to Connect Nigeria, 19 Other Countries
Orange is leading a consortium to build the Via Africa subsea cable, a 20,000‑kilometre system that will connect Nigeria with roughly 19 other African and European nations. The Atlantic‑focused route adds a new, diversified path that bypasses traditional Mediterranean corridors,...