Chams Profit Rises 188% as Cybersecurity Revenue Triples
Chams Holding Company Plc reported a 188% jump in first‑quarter profit to ₦429.4 million ($311 k), propelled by a 240% surge in cybersecurity revenue. Total revenue rose 8.5% to ₦4.20 billion ($3.05 m) while cost of sales fell 7.2%, sharpening margins. Cybersecurity and infrastructure sales now represent roughly 17% of the company’s top line, reflecting heightened spending by Nigerian firms amid rising cyber threats and stricter regulator mandates. Legacy biometrics and card services still provide the bulk of earnings.
Safaricom Increases Home Fibre Internet Speeds to Fend Off Low-Cost Rivals
Safaricom, Kenya’s leading telco, has boosted speeds on its home fibre plans without raising prices, lifting the entry tier to 40 Mbps and mid‑tier packages to 60 Mbps and 150 Mbps. The price‑per‑Mbps improves dramatically, positioning the operator against low‑cost rivals such as...
At AVCA Summit, Investors Push Pragmatic Approach as Africa’s Exits Surge
At the AVCA Venture Capital Summit in Nairobi, investors highlighted a pragmatic turn in Africa’s private‑capital market as 2025 saw record venture‑backed exits despite a tougher fundraising environment. Deal volume surged to over 500 transactions, pushing total capital deployed close...
Amazon’s Satellite Internet Unit Kuiper Seeks Kenya Licence After Nigeria Approval
Amazon’s satellite internet arm, rebranded as Amazon LEO, has filed for a Network Facilities Provider Tier‑2 licence in Kenya, following a seven‑year licence win in Nigeria. The Kenyan licence costs about $115,000 upfront, runs for 15 years and requires at...
Nigeria Moves to Mandate Organisations to Disclose Cyber Attacks Amid Rising Threats
Nigeria’s tech regulator, NITDA, announced that banks, fintechs and other organisations must disclose cyber‑breaches or at least share threat intelligence. The push follows a weak reporting record – only 37% of financial institutions filed fraud incidents in 2023 and fraud...
Kenya’s WapiPay Expands Into Jamaica to Tap $2.5 Billion Remittance Market
WapiPay, the Nairobi‑based remittance platform, secured regulatory approval from the Bank of Jamaica to operate in Jamaica through a partnership with local payments firm JN Money Services. The launch aims to tap the island’s $2.5 billion annual remittance inflows, which represent...
Ethiopia-Based Dodai Raises $13 Million to Expand Battery-Swapping EV Network
Dodai, an Ethiopia‑based electric two‑wheeler firm, closed a $13 million Series A round—$8 million equity and $5 million debt—to scale its motorbike and battery‑swapping network in Addis Ababa. The funding arrives as Ethiopia bans private ICE vehicle imports, pushing the nation toward an estimated...
Kenya’s Central Bank Is Hiring for Crypto Compliance Roles as Landmark Regulation Nears
Kenya’s Central Bank has posted four senior and managerial vacancies to manage licensing, product approval, and compliance for virtual asset service providers (VASPs). The roles, posted on its Digital Payment Services Division portal, close on May 18 and signal the...
Rack Centre to Train Engineers as Nigeria’s Data Centre Talent Shortage Grows
Rack Centre, a Lagos‑based Tier III data centre operator, is rolling out a four‑to‑five‑month training programme for university graduates and engineering students. The initiative will initially train 15‑20 engineers, covering Schneider Electric certification and a month‑long live‑facility internship, with costs fully subsidised...
Botswana Tech Fund Sees Opportunity Where African Venture Capital Rarely Flows
The Botswana Tech Fund, anchored by billionaire Stephen Lansdown, has secured £10 million ($13.5 million) to invest in under‑funded Southern African startups. Its multi‑stage approach combines a pre‑seed accelerator offering £100 k ($135 k) cheques to about 100 companies over five years with growth‑stage...
Airtel Money Pushes Into Merchant Payments with Absa Bank Kenya Account Integration
Airtel Money, Kenya’s second‑largest mobile money wallet, has linked its platform with Absa Bank Kenya to enable merchants to move funds directly between wallets and bank accounts. The integration allows small‑business owners to receive Airtel Money payments into Absa accounts...
Why Nigerian Crypto Startups Are Expanding Beyond Retail Trading
Nigerian crypto startups, long reliant on retail buy‑sell fees, are broadening into B2B payments, stablecoins, virtual cards, futures and crypto‑backed loans as competition squeezes margins. Unit‑economics show a typical $100 trade yields only $0.30‑$1.40 gross profit, while fixed costs such...
Nigeria Is Tightening Tax Enforcement. TaxStreem Wants to Automate Compliance.
TaxStreem, an AI‑powered tax compliance platform, launched in March 2026 to automate Nigerian businesses’ tax calculation, filing and invoicing. The solution reads real‑time transaction data from bank and fintech accounts, assigns the correct VAT, withholding or exemption, and files returns...
This Kenyan Startup Wants to Rebuild Enterprise Software Around AI Agents
Kenyan AI startup Lua secured $5.8 million (≈ KES 748 million) seed funding to launch a platform that lets enterprises build autonomous AI agents capable of executing entire business processes. The agents operate through familiar channels such as Slack, WhatsApp and email, handling multi‑step...
Everything You Need to Know About the Newly Released OPPO Find X9 Ultra
OPPO unveiled the Find X9 Ultra on April 21, 2026 in Chengdu, partnering again with Hasselblad to market the phone as a photography flagship. The device features dual 200 MP sensors, a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, a 7,050 mAh “Glacier” battery with 100 W wired charging,...
Glovo Says Nigeria Is Its Fastest-Growing Market After Expansion Push
Glovo announced that Nigeria has become its fastest‑growing market in 2025, after investing $27 million and delivering 38 million items last year. The company said merchant sales grew sharply, with product and technology upgrades accounting for 35% of the increase. Glovo also...
Swoop Raises $7.3 Million Seed for African Super App, Food Delivery First
Swoop, an Eswatini‑origin food‑delivery startup, secured a $7.3 million seed round to fund its first expansion outside the country, targeting Nigeria’s burgeoning market. The round was led by Silicon Valley investors such as Long Journey, Variant, Soma Capital and Zero Knowledge...
Mauritius’ New AI Policy Makes Ethics Mandatory, Not Optional
Mauritius unveiled its National AI Strategy 2025‑2029, anchored by the FAIR framework that makes ethical compliance mandatory for every AI system, including imported tools. The non‑binding guidelines cover the full AI lifecycle and enforce fairness, accountability, inclusiveness and integrity, with...
Kenya’s BuuPass Enters Corporate Travel Market with New Booking Product
Kenyan mobility startup BuuPass has launched Gavanpass, a corporate travel platform aimed at digitising Africa’s largely manual enterprise travel segment. The service is already used by more than 20 Kenyan firms, spanning banks, fintechs, insurers and manufacturers. BuuPass leverages its...
Absa Kenya to Spend $23.2 Million a Year in Digital Banking Push
Absa Bank Kenya plans to allocate up to KES 3 billion ($23.2 million) each year to technology, cementing its digital‑banking strategy. In 2025 the bank already spent KES 2.16 billion ($16.7 million) on tech, with 94% of transactions processed outside branches, up from roughly...
Kenya’s M-TIBA Refunds Users After Shutting Health Savings Wallet
Kenya healthtech startup CarePay is shutting down the M‑TIBA My Health Funds (MHF) wallet, which allowed users to earmark money for medical expenses. Beginning April 8, 2026, the company automatically refunded balances into users’ M‑PESA accounts, even for those who missed...
Nigerian Web3 Startups Raised $43 Million in 2025, but Growth Remains Early
Nigeria’s Web3 sector raised $43 million in 2025, twice the amount raised in 2024, according to Hashed Emergent’s Nigeria Web3 Landscape Report. Funding was heavily skewed toward stablecoin‑centric finance, with 89% ($38 million) supporting payments, fiat‑crypto exchanges and related infrastructure. Early‑stage activity...
Kenya Wants Lenders to Prove Borrowers Can Repay Before Approving Loans
Kenyan regulators have drafted a Financial Consumer Protection Framework that would require all lenders—including banks, fintechs, and mobile‑money providers—to prove a borrower’s ability to repay before issuing a loan. The rule mandates verification of income, expenses and existing debt, moving...
Kenyan Authorities Freeze some Binance Accounts in Widening Crackdown
Kenya’s Directorate of Criminal Investigations has frozen an undisclosed number of Binance user accounts as part of a broader crackdown on crypto‑linked fraud, money‑laundering and terrorism financing. The freezes affect users primarily engaged in peer‑to‑peer (P2P) trading, the main channel...
Nigerian Banks Will Now Verify Fraud-Linked Mobile Numbers Under New CBN–NCC Agreement
Nigeria’s Central Bank and the Nigerian Communications Commission signed a memorandum of understanding that gives banks real‑time access to telecom data through the Telecom Identity Risk Management System (TIRMS). The system lets financial institutions verify whether a mobile number linked...
Infinix GT 50 Pro Launches April 24. Here’s Everything You Need to Know
Infinix will launch the GT 50 Pro on April 24, 2026, targeting mobile gamers who demand 144 FPS performance without flagship pricing. The device packs a MediaTek Dimensity 8400 Ultimate SoC, 12 GB of LPDDR5X RAM, and a 6.78‑inch 144 Hz AMOLED display, plus unique gaming hardware such...
AXIAN’s Benjamin Toulouze Says CVCs Can Move Faster than VCs
Benjamin Toulouze leads AXIAN Investment’s corporate venture arm, one of Africa’s first CVCs, with a four‑person team split between Dubai and Madagascar. Since its 2021 launch, the unit has invested in 33 startups and taken stakes in 38 funds, targeting...
The Money Engines that Built Fawry’s $1 Billion Business
Fawry, Egypt’s largest mobile‑money platform, has scaled from a modest e‑payment switch in 2008 to a $1.3 billion market‑cap fintech by 2026. Revenue surged 1,900% to EGP 8.65 billion ($166.7 m) in 2025, with net profit of EGP 3.1 billion ($59.7 m). Transaction fees remain the core...
Terra Industries Says It Is Building Africa’s Largest Drone Factory in Ghana
Terra Industries, Africa’s most‑funded defence‑tech startup, is constructing a 34,000‑square‑foot drone factory in Accra, Ghana, slated to open in June 2026. The Pax‑2 plant will more than double its Abuja footprint and aims to produce 50,000 UAVs annually by 2028,...
“I Didn’t Quite Understand the Extent of What I Was Working On”: Day 1-1000 of Citizens’ Gavel
Citizens’ Gavel, a Nigerian non‑profit founded by former lawyer Nelson Olanipekun, grew from a social‑media case‑picking service in 2017 to an AI‑driven justice platform. The organization responded to the 2020 #EndSARS protests, handling over 400 interventions that year and expanding...
Why MTN and Airtel Temporarily Suspended Airtime Lending in Nigeria
Nigeria’s two largest telecoms, MTN and Airtel, have temporarily halted their airtime‑and‑data credit services—MTN’s Xtratime and Airtel’s similar offering—to align with the Digital, Electronic, Online or Non‑Traditional Consumer Lending Regulations introduced by the FCCPC in 2025. The regulator clarified it...
Africa Runs on Digital Payments. Now It Must Build for Reliability
Africa’s digital payments ecosystem, driven by mobile‑money platforms, now processes over 80 billion transactions a year and is growing at roughly 35% annually. The continent’s digital economy is projected to reach $1.5 trillion by 2030, shifting focus from consumer adoption to enterprise‑grade...
Naira Volatility Cost His Family. He Built an FX Platform for Businesses.
Shalom Osiadi launched Esca Finance in 2023 to give African firms a hedge against volatile local currencies using stablecoins and crypto‑backed FX services. After pivoting from a food‑delivery platform, Esca now offers automatic conversion of naira, cedi and other emerging‑market...
This Nigerian State Is Building 260 Smart Schools. Scale Is the Challenge.
Enugu State in Nigeria has launched an ambitious plan to build 260 "smart" schools—one in each of its 260 wards—equipped with interactive boards, science labs, digital libraries and innovation studios. The initiative is backed by a record 32.27% of the...
Ted Pantone on Building Turaco, Surviving Covid, and Aiming for a Billion People
Turaco, a Kenyan insurtech founded by Ted Pantone, has insured roughly five million low‑income customers by leveraging partnerships with fintechs, banks and micro‑finance institutions. The company proved demand when more than half of farmers contacted through One Acre Fund signed...
Nigeria’s Enugu State Plans AI Insitute in Bold Bet on Digital Talent Exports
Enugu State in southeastern Nigeria is launching a specialised artificial‑intelligence institute as the flagship of its "talent city" strategy, linking AI, cloud, cybersecurity and software engineering training directly to global outsourcing contracts. The project, budgeted at roughly $15 million, will repurpose...
Sama to Lay Off over 1,100 Kenyan Workers After Meta Contract Ends
Sama, a Kenya‑based data‑labeling firm, announced it will lay off 1,108 workers in Nairobi after Meta terminated a major content‑annotation contract. The redundancy notice complies with Kenya’s Employment Act and will take effect later this month. The cuts represent the...
Kenya’s LOLC Microfinance Bank Directors Risk Prosecution in Data Enforcement Case
Kenya’s Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) has recommended criminal prosecution of directors at LOLC Microfinance Bank after the lender ignored a formal request to justify publishing a former employee’s personal data. The regulator found the bank unlawfully processed...
The Solar-Powered Medical Kiosks Bringing Doctors to Remote Chadians
Telemedan, founded in 2021 by Abakar Mahamat and Ahmed Kotoko, deploys solar‑powered medical kiosks that link rural Chadians to qualified doctors via video and on‑site diagnostic tools. Each $10,000 unit is sold to governments or public health programs, offering consultations...
Cellulant Hires Ex-Xapo Bank Executive Anthony Hernandez as COO
Cellulant, the pan‑African payments platform, has appointed former Xapo Bank executive Anthony Hernandez as chief operating officer. Hernandez will oversee onboarding, transaction processing and customer growth, aiming to cut payment failures and improve transaction visibility across 20 markets. The hire...
Zuri Health Expands Mobile Clinic Fleet Across High-Traffic Nairobi
Zuri Health, the Kenya‑based health‑tech startup, has added two more solar‑powered mobile clinic buses, bringing its fleet to three operating in Nairobi. Two of the buses serve as self‑contained clinics offering diagnostics, dental care and cervical cancer screening, while the...
Kenya-Based Assistive Tech Accelerator Embeds Persons with Disabilities in Product Design
Kenya’s Innovate Now accelerator announced its largest cohort yet, selecting 19 startups that focus on speech therapy, mobility, inclusive education and caregiver support. The program’s “Live Labs” model embeds persons with disabilities directly into prototype testing, ensuring products are tailored to...
Airtel Expands Network Capacity in Latest Move to Close Gap with MTN
Airtel Nigeria has accelerated its network build, adding 1,561 sites to reach roughly 17,200 towers by December 2025 and committing $500 million to the effort. The expansion targets high‑traffic corridors where congestion threatens service quality as internet consumption hit 1.26 million terabytes...
Ex-Flutterwave Executive Awa Koné Joins Cauridor as Chief Operating Officer
Cauridor, a Guinea‑based cross‑border payments platform, has hired former Flutterwave Global Head of Operations Awa Koné as chief operating officer. Koné brings over five years of experience scaling payment infrastructure across Africa, Europe, the Americas and Asia, plus a stint as...
Storipod Strikes Deal to Distribute Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Books Digitally
Storipod, a mobile‑first microblogging platform for African creators, has partnered with Narrative Landscape Press to digitise Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s books and other leading African titles. The deal uses Storipod’s chapter‑by‑chapter micropayment system, lowering upfront costs and keeping content in users’ libraries. The...
Charm Impact’s Gavriel Landau on Backing Deals Others Avoid
Charm Impact has closed a $6.25 million raise for its Hummingbird One fund, about half of the $12 million target. The fund will issue short‑term loans of $50,000 to $500,000 to early‑stage renewable‑energy and clean‑cooking businesses across Africa that are too small...
Kenya Ruling Expands Tax Net to Foreign Income Earned From Nairobi Operations
Kenya’s Tax Appeals Tribunal ruled that income from overseas projects is taxable in Kenya when the firm’s management and control are exercised locally. The decision stems from a KES 1.9 billion ($14.6 million) dispute with German engineering firm H.P Gauff Ingenieure GmbH & Co...
Nigeria’s NIGCOMSAT Says It Earned $1.6 Million Amid Satellite Dispute
Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited reported ₦2.2 billion ($1.6 million) revenue for 2025, more than triple its 2024 earnings. Broadcasting still generates over half of that income, but the firm is pivoting toward broadband to reach a projected ₦8 billion ($5.8 million) target. CEO Jane...
For Kenyan Stablecoin Issuers, Reserves Must Be Kept Close to Home
Kenya’s draft Virtual Asset Service Provider regulations require stablecoin issuers to hold 30% of reserves in segregated accounts at local commercial banks and the remaining 70% in cash or short‑term government securities. Issuers must maintain at least KES 500 million (≈$3.85 million) in...
South Africa Chose Flexibility over Control in Its New AI Policy
South Africa released a draft AI policy on April 2, 2026 that favours sector‑specific oversight instead of a single super‑regulator. Existing bodies such as the FSCA, Reserve Bank and SAHPRA will enforce risk‑tiered rules ranging from bans on unacceptable systems...