Zimbabwe Arrests Chinese National Over Alleged 720-Tonne Lithium Smuggling Scheme
The Anti-Corruption Commission says the suspect ran an illicit processing site outside Harare that stockpiled and exported unbeneficiated lithium ore using fraudulent documents.
South Africa's Transnet Posts First Annual Profit in Four Years
A R12.5bn gain from selling a stake in its container terminal business to a Philippine port operator helped turn a R1.9bn loss into a R4.6bn profit.
AfriConvert Wants to Fix the Guesswork in Sending Money Across Borders
The FX comparison engine tracks rates and fees across 162 currencies and 89 payment providers, aiming at diaspora households and freelancers who overpay without realizing it.
Absa Bank Kenya Confirms Yusuf Omari as CEO After Two Decades Inside the Bank
Omari moves up from interim CEO and 17 years as chief financial officer, succeeding Abdi Mohamed, who left to lead I&M Bank.
Kenyan Operator Used Claude to Mass-Produce Fake Grassroots Posts Ahead of 2027 Vote
Anthropic caught and banned a domestic Kenyan account generating batches of 50 posts at a time praising government officials and attacking opposition figures, though it says the campaign never reached real people.
South African Crypto Firms Form Coalition to Fight Draft Capital-Flow Rules
VALR, Luno, EasyEquities and others banded together as CATASTROPHE, warning that proposed Reserve Bank and Treasury rules on cross-border crypto payments could isolate South Africa from the global digital economy.
MTN Becomes Nigeria's First Telecom to Hit 100 Million Subscribers
MTN Nigeria added 6.6 million lines this year alone, now controlling more than half the country's mobile market, backed by $450m in first-half network investment.
Africa's Cross-Border Payment System Is Quietly Scaling Fast
PAPSS now connects 30 countries and settles transactions in 7 seconds instead of days, and it's aiming to cover the whole continent within five years.
Medbankr Launches to Give Nigerians a Single, Portable Health Record
The app lets patients collect lab results, prescriptions, and clinical notes from every provider they've ever used into one record they control, instead of relying on paper files and memory.
US Logistics Firm Pigee Buys 55% of Nigerian Startup ShipAfrica
The staged acquisition pairs Pigee's shipping software with ShipAfrica's local carrier relationships and physical hubs, aiming at Africa's costly, fragmented trade logistics.
Creditchek Acquires Ugandan Core Banking Startup Algosys in East Africa Push
The fintech infrastructure company gains a direct foothold in Uganda's Sacco lending market as it builds out full-stack credit infrastructure across the region.
Nigerian Convenience Platform OyaNow Adds Payments With OyaNow Pay
The Abuja-founded logistics and delivery app is folding bill payments and AI-enabled operations into its ecosystem as it pushes beyond deliveries into everyday fintech.
Portugal's BPI Exits Angola After 30 Years in $451M Bank Stake Sale
Angolan food magnate Nelson Carrinho's Congolian Financial is buying BPI's remaining 33.35% stake in Banco de Fomento Angola, pending regulatory approval.
Why Getting Paid Across Borders Is Getting Harder for Kenyans
A string of platform pullbacks over the past year, from Twitch to PayPal to local fintechs, is squeezing how Kenyan creators and freelancers get paid from abroad.
South Africa's Internet Prices Are Rising Faster Than Inflation, Regulator Finds
The Competition Commission flagged wireless and wired internet cost increases outpacing headline inflation in early 2026, even as other bills rose faster still.
PressOne Launches Signals, a Programmable Telephony Platform for African Software and AI Systems
The Nigerian company is opening up the voice infrastructure it built for its own products so other developers can plug into local phone networks without becoming carriers.
Nigerian Fintech Nomba Raises $3M to Push Deeper Into Africa-Asia Payments
The debt facility from CardinalStone will fund Nomba's push toward $1 billion in monthly cross-border volume out of its DRC operations.
Nigeria's Reserves Just Hit an 18-Year High — and the Naira Is Following
External reserves reached $54.08bn, the strongest level since 2008, pushing the naira to N1,315.67 on a mix of oil-tax inflows and a record month for remittances.
'If It Walks and Quacks Like a Duck': South Africa's Central Bank Wants Fintechs Regulated Like Banks
SARB Governor Lesetja Kganyago says the new National Payment System Bill will let fintechs get authorized directly for payment activities, without needing a bank sponsor.
Uganda Just Merged Your National ID With Your Tax ID
Cabinet approved replacing the separate Tax Identification Number with the National Identification Number, after individual TIN registrations fell by nearly half in three years.
Kenya Will Start Withholding 5% of YouTubers' AdSense Earnings Next Month
Creators must register a valid KRA PIN with AdSense by October 1 or face payment holds, as Kenya moves to formally tax its growing digital creator economy.
A Nigerian Fintech Is Using DRC as Its Launchpad for Africa-Asia Trade Payments
Nomba raised $3M to expand cross-border payment infrastructure in the DRC, targeting a China-DRC trade corridor worth $26.7 billion in 2025.
Tolaram Refinances Its Guinness Nigeria Debt — a Vote of Confidence After the Bet Paid Off
A $51M loan from Mauritius Commercial Bank replaces part of the debt Tolaram took on to buy Diageo's 58% stake, after Guinness Nigeria swung back to ₦41.2bn in profit.
Kenya Just Kicked Out a Company That's Mined There for 115 Years
President Ruto ordered Tata Chemicals to leave its century-old soda-ash operation at Lake Magadi, accusing it of exporting raw material instead of processing it locally.
FNB Customers Locked Out of Online Banking for Three Hours
The South African bank restored service by early afternoon after an intermittent access disruption hit app and web logins Wednesday morning.
Kenya's High Court Just Struck Down the Rule Capping What Uber and Bolt Can Charge Drivers
The 2022 regulation limiting platform commissions to 18% was ruled unconstitutional, along with mandatory data collection requirements — the government now has 12 months to redo it properly.
Uber Just Left Nigeria and Uganda — Its Fourth African Exit in a Year
The pullout came the same day Uber announced 3,300 global job cuts, following driver protests, rising costs and tightening regulation in both markets.
Kenya Just Made Getting Paid by the Government Conditional on a Valid Tax Invoice
The Kenya Revenue Authority linked its e-invoicing system directly to government payment processing — suppliers without a matching eTIMS invoice simply won't get paid.
Shoprite Just Bought Majority Control of the POS Devices 15,000 South African Spaza Shops Rely On
The retail giant's acquisition of R&A Cellular gives it a direct stake in the point-of-sale hardware layer powering South Africa's informal retail sector.
WIOCC Just Raised $300M to Build More of Africa's Internet Backbone
Africa Finance Corporation and Saudi Arabia's Vision Invest are backing an expansion of data centres, fibre networks and subsea cables across more than 30 African countries.
Namibia Launches a National Digital ID After 65% of Citizens Reported Being Targeted by Fraud
DigiNam, built on Public Key Infrastructure, lets Namibians prove their identity and sign documents electronically — a direct response to fraud numbers the government couldn't ignore.
Paystack Is Shutting Down Allawee's Accounts — a Year After Quietly Buying the Company
Customers have until November 30 to withdraw funds and update payment details before Allawee's personal and business accounts close on December 1.
South Africa's Nedbank Just Became the Majority Owner of One of Kenya's Biggest Banks
Kenya's central bank cleared Nedbank's $856 million acquisition of 66% of NCBA, with the local lender keeping its name, brand and Nairobi headquarters.
Terra Industries Hires a Palantir Veteran to Sell Its Security Systems Beyond Africa
Todd Stiefler joins as Director of Commercial as Terra, whose systems already protect $11 billion in critical infrastructure across Africa, pushes into the wider Global South.
Labat Africa Promised Its First Dividend Since 1999 — Then Just Didn't Pay It
The JSE suspended trading in the company after it missed its own August 3 deadline to pay a declared 1-cent-per-share dividend worth about R22.7 million.
Mozambique Just Launched a Body to Coordinate the Country's Entire AI Policy
AMIA brings government, companies, universities and civil society into one coordinating structure, building on a national AI strategy and a Commission created earlier this year.
Nigeria Built 20 Accessibility Tools in a Hackathon — the Platforms They Need to Work On Aren't Ready
The NCC's fourth Hackathon Live Show produced AI speech-to-text and sign language translation tools, but most of the digital services they'd plug into still don't meet Nigeria's own accessibility guidelines.
Microsoft Names a New East Africa Lead as Its AI Push in the Region Accelerates
Angela Nganga, a 20-year veteran of tech, telecoms and public policy roles across the continent, takes over as Microsoft doubles down on digital and AI investment in Kenya and East Africa.
South African Telecoms Lost R199 Million to Fraud — and It's Not the Fraud You'd Expect
Reported subscription fraud cases jumped 307% year-on-year, with criminals using genuine stolen IDs and bank statements to pass verification checks rather than exploiting weak security.
Nigeria's Central Bank Wants to See Your Open Banking Idea — Applications Close Today
The CBN's second regulatory sandbox cohort opened a dedicated track for permission-based data sharing, alongside its existing virtual asset track, with the application window closing 31 August.
MTN Pulls In a Flutterwave Veteran to Fix Its Struggling Nigerian Mobile Money Arm
Bode Abifarin, formerly Flutterwave's COO, takes over as CEO of MoMo PSB on September 1, tasked with turning around a business that's been underperforming MTN's fintech ambitions.
South Africa's 'My AI Lawyer' Now Costs R5, Billed Straight to Your Airtime
The WhatsApp-based legal advice service partnered with Cell C so users without a debit or credit card can pay for legal guidance the same way they buy data bundles.
Kenya Gave Its Central Bank the Power to Block Dollar Stablecoins — It Just Hasn't Used It Yet
The new law lets the Central Bank of Kenya restrict access to USDT and USDC if the shilling comes under pressure, even though reserves are currently strong and there's no immediate crisis.
A Major SPAR Shareholder Just Sold Down Its Stake — But Isn't Heading for the Exit
Coronation Asset Management cut its SPAR holding from 10.89% to 9.53%, offloading over R100 million in shares while remaining one of the retailer's largest institutional investors.
Nigeria's Competition Watchdog Clears MTN's $2.2B IHS Towers Deal — With Strings Attached
The FCCPC granted conditional approval, tied to local investor participation requirements, for MTN's bid to buy out the roughly 75% of IHS it doesn't already own.
OPay Might List in Lagos Instead of New York After All
After chasing a $4bn US IPO, the Nigerian fintech is reportedly weighing a domestic NGX listing instead — helped by the exchange's 57% rally this year.
Pick n Pay Turned Grocery Shopping Into a TikTok Feed
The South African retailer's new 'Inspire' feature lets shoppers tap ingredients in recipe videos to add them straight to their basket for same-hour delivery.
Cameroon Is About to Cut Off 700,000 Phones That Skipped Customs
Starting September 1, MTN, Orange and Camtel will disconnect any device the government can't confirm cleared customs — about 2.4% of the country's mobile connections.
Kenya Wants Into the World's Main Cross-Border Cybercrime Treaty — Mobile Fraud Losses Explain Why
SIM swap fraud climbed 327% in Kenya by 2025, and mobile banking fraud losses topped $6 million in 2024, pushing the country to pursue Budapest Convention membership.
A Nigerian VC Firm Just Closed an $84M Fund — Nearly Double Its Last One
Ventures Platform's second fund pulled in the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development among new backers, and the firm plans bigger checks into fewer startups.
Nigeria Just Approved Two New Satellites to Cut Its Reliance on Foreign Broadband Infrastructure
NIGCOMSAT-2A and 2B, built by Thales Alenia Space and Israel Aerospace Industries, are expected to launch in 2027-2028 and connect all 774 of Nigeria's local government secretariats.
Kenya Now Requires Uber, Bolt and Glovo to Log What's Inside Every Package They Deliver
New rules effective September 20 create a formal courier-licensing category, with parcel contents and sender/recipient details available to police and tax authorities on request.
Moniepoint Just Killed Its UK Remittance App — 18 Months and $7.4M After Launch
Despite 70% monthly transaction growth, the Nigerian fintech unicorn is shutting down MonieWorld to refocus resources deeper into African markets instead of chasing the diaspora.
Nigeria's Fibre Broadband Connections Tripled in Six Months — Now the Hard Part Starts
Fibre-to-the-premises overtook fixed wireless as Nigeria's dominant broadband technology, with median speeds up 155% since 2023, but affordability and rural buildout costs remain steep barriers.
MTN Wants to 6x Its Nigerian Fintech Users — From 5 Million to 30 Million
CEO Ralph Mupita is betting MTN's telecom distribution network can convert up to half of Nigerian customers into fintech users, expanding into lending with partners Alipay and Ant International.
Kenya Airways' Loss Just Widened to $123 Million — Fuel Costs Are the Main Culprit
Half-year results confirm what the airline warned about weeks ago: fuel costs jumped 32% on Iran-war-driven oil prices, now eating 52% of direct operating costs.
A French Identity Company Wants to Build Kenya's Next Digital ID Layer
IN Groupe has met Kenya's digital economy ministry to pitch a unified authentication platform that would sit on top of the existing Maisha Namba system.
Gauteng Now Wants Every Uber and Bolt Driver on a Government Database
South Africa's wealthiest province is rolling out mandatory registration for e-hailing drivers on a state transport system, with no compliance deadline set yet but the direction of travel clear.
Cell C Wants to Resell Starlink and Amazon's Satellite Internet — There's Just One Problem
South Africa's Cell C is in talks with both satellite providers to extend coverage cheaply, but Starlink still doesn't have a South African operating licence.
South African Banks Are Losing the AI Fraud Arms Race — and Only 7% Feel Ready
Deepfake voices and AI-coached scam calls are outpacing legacy fraud defences, with generative AI document forgery and deepfake social engineering both projected to grow 55% over the next two years.
Absa Cut SME Account Opening From Two Days to Under 30 Minutes
Straight-through processing using biometric verification, automated CIPC lookups and real-time credit checks is compressing what used to take Absa's business customers days into a single sitting.
Malawi Could Add 490,000 Jobs — If It Fixes a Coverage Gap That Isn't Actually About Coverage
A new GSMA report finds 80% of Malawians already live within mobile broadband range but don't use the internet, and closing that usage gap could unlock MWK 1.1 trillion in economic value by 2030.
Nigeria Just Finished a Year-Long Insurance Shakeout — 43 Firms Made It, Some Didn't
NAICOM's recapitalisation drive pulled over ₦300 billion in fresh capital into Nigeria's insurance sector, with 43 companies clearing new minimum thresholds and eight still under review.
Trump's 90-Day Beef Tariff Window Just Opened a Door for Namibia and Botswana
A temporary US move to ease ground beef prices lets African exporters ship up to 300,000 metric tons tariff-free, and Namibia is one of the only countries positioned to take advantage.
Dangote Refinery Just Landed $1B in Backing for What Could Be Africa's Biggest IPO
A $600M private placement tranche plus a $400M IPO commitment puts real money behind Aliko Dangote's plan to take Africa's largest refinery public.
Pouchers Raises $500K to Help Nigerians Earning in Dollars Actually Use Those Dollars
The Lagos-based fintech exits beta with fresh pre-seed funding for its stablecoin wallets and virtual dollar cards, aimed at freelancers and remote workers juggling multiple currencies.
Uber and Bolt Were Never Banned From Nigerian Airports — But They Do Need a Licence Now
FAAN says a July memo suspending ride-hailing pickups was about licensing, not a ban, and it's now working with Uber and Bolt on a formal framework to let them resume.
The Rand Just Hit Its Strongest Level Since the Iran War Began
Gold's rally and a weaker dollar pushed the South African rand back below 16 to the dollar for the first time since the Middle East conflict started in February.
A Failed Fuel Test in Namibia Is Rerouting Lufthansa Flights Through Angola
A jet fuel shipment that failed quality testing at Windhoek's airport has forced Discover Airlines to reroute its Frankfurt and Munich flights, disrupting both passengers and cargo.
A Nigerian Court Just Froze 69 Bank Accounts Over a ₦1.4bn Fintech Fraud
A Federal High Court order targets accounts across 12 banks and six fintechs after eTranzact reported a suspected database breach that funneled fraudulent credits across the system.
WhatsApp's Free Ride for South African Businesses Ends October 1
Meta is starting to charge roughly 12 cents a message for WhatsApp Business API replies in South Africa — hitting everyone from Absa and Capitec to Takealot and FlySafair.
Absa Wants Into Nigeria — and It's Willing to Start as a Merchant Bank to Get There
Africa's third-largest bank by assets is exploring converting its Lagos rep office into a merchant banking licence, part of a wider push to cut reliance on South Africa, Kenya and Ghana.
Zimbabwe Starts Actually Enforcing Its Data Protection Law Next Month
From 1 September, POTRAZ begins mandatory inspections of banks, hospitals, schools and other organisations holding personal data — with prison time on the table for non-compliance.
Kenya Airways Says Fuel Costs Are Up 72% Because of a War It Has Nothing to Do With
The Middle East conflict has pushed Kenya Airways' fuel bill up 72% in the first half of the year, even as the airline is picking up extra transit traffic diverted from Gulf hubs.
Africa's Biggest Bank Wants a Piece of OPay Before Its $4B US IPO
Standard Bank Group is in early talks to buy a stake in the Nigerian fintech ahead of a planned New York listing that could value OPay near $4 billion.
African Founders Can Apply for a Fully-Funded Commonwealth Startup Fellowship
The six-month programme pairs a bootcamp in Accra with a capstone week in London, offering 20 selected founders travel, accommodation and an equity-free £2,000 grant — applications close September 1.
Nigeria's Terra Industries Closes Africa's Largest-Ever Seed Round at $52M
The Abuja-based defense-tech company builds drones and surveillance systems for the Global South, and will use the fresh $18M to open a second factory in Ghana and its first international office in London.
Gates Foundation Offers $500K Grants for AI Tools That Improve Family Planning Access in Africa
The Grand Challenges call funds real-world deployment of AI consumer-engagement tools already reaching users in Sub-Saharan Africa, with an application deadline of August 25.
Kenya's JentaHub Launches a Verified Talent Marketplace for African Freelancers
The platform aims to solve the trust and verification gap that keeps qualified African professionals locked out of global freelance work despite established players like Upwork and Fiverr already existing.
Airtel Money Launches a Dedicated Business Wallet to Challenge M-Pesa in Kenya
Bizna Wallet lets small traders separate personal and business funds within a single Airtel account, arriving with a 50% cashback promotion aimed squarely at Safaricom's Pochi la Biashara users.
Fylings Wants to Be the Single Search Layer for Company Records Across Africa
The Nigerian platform has indexed more than 2 million companies across 18 countries, layering in procurement contracts, sanctions screening and beneficial-ownership data that used to require checking a dozen national registries separately.
Nigeria's Clea Launches Vendor Payments for Businesses Buying From Overseas Suppliers
The stablecoin-powered platform lets companies fund accounts in naira, convert to foreign currency, and pay international vendors like Copart and IAA in one workflow — already adopted by 50+ businesses.
Africa's First EV Battery Gigafactory Gets $114M African Development Bank Backing
Chinese battery maker Gotion will build a plant in Morocco starting at 10 GWh of annual capacity, with room to scale to 100 GWh and a pledge to hit 70% local content.
African Tech Funding Hit $224M in July as EV and Debt Deals Took Over
Two deals — a Moroccan battery gigafactory and an M-Kopa debt facility — captured the bulk of the month's capital, part of a broader shift from equity toward asset-backed lending.
Nigeria's SEC Admits Yellow Card and Blockchain.com to Its Crypto Regulatory Sandbox
The additions bring Nigeria's Accelerated Regulatory Incubation Programme to 14 participants, part of a broader push to bring virtual asset firms under formal, supervised oversight.
South Africa Opens a Local Factory to Build Its Homegrown AI Tutor Robot
IRIS, built by Durban-based BSG Technologies, teaches every subject from Grade R to tertiary level in all 11 official languages — and its new plant could create 20,000 jobs over five years.
Nigeria's Anti-Corruption Agency Finds an Official Who Put 14 Relatives on the Payroll
The ICPC says it has identified roughly 900 suspected ghost workers on federal payrolls, part of a fraud pattern that cost the government over ₦24 billion in pension funds alone in 2024.
Egypt's E-Finance to Acquire Microfinance Firm Tamweely for $95.5M
The deal gives the state-linked payments giant a ready-made base of 600,000 small-business customers as it pushes beyond payments into lending.
Kenya Will Require ID at Cyber Cafés, But Won't Track What You Browse
New rules effective August 14 force cafés to log who used which terminal and when, but the Communications Authority backed off an earlier plan to also require browsing history and mandatory CCTV.
Jumia Raises $50M From IFC and Axian as It Nears Its First-Ever Profit
The African e-commerce company will pour the funds into logistics, warehouses and JumiaPay, targeting break-even by Q4 2026 after years of losses.
Standard Bank Wants a Bigger Cut of Africa's Digital Payment Flows
Domestic payment values grew 11% and cross-border volumes 7% in H1 2026, as the continent's largest bank by assets leans into a payments market analysts project could hit $1.5 trillion by 2030.