Blog
Longer-form writing from the Pulse team — product notes, explainers, and the occasional rant.
A Philippine Firm Bought Part of a South African Port. A Chinese National Stole Zimbabwean Lithium. Same Question, Opposite Answers.
One story is a legitimate equity deal that saved a struggling state utility's balance sheet. The other is 720 tonnes of raw ore smuggled out under fake paperwork. Both are about who gets to touch Africa's strategic assets, and the difference is entirely about consent.
Read post →2 days agoAfrica Just Built a 7-Second Payment Rail. South Africa Wants to Slow Crypto Down to a Crawl.
Same week, two totally different instincts about cross-border money in Africa. One side is racing to make it frictionless. The other wants more friction, just for the channel people actually reach for.
Read post →4 days agoTwitch and PayPal Are Quietly Locking Out Kenyans. Nomba Just Showed You Who Picks Up the Slack.
Same week, two stories about money crossing African borders. One is about foreign platforms pulling back with nothing to replace them. The other is a Lagos fintech building the replacement in real time.
Read post →6 days agoSouth Africa and Kenya Just Showed the Rest of Africa How to Regulate Things That Didn't Exist Ten Years Ago
One country is regulating fintechs by what they do, not what licence they hold. The other is taxing YouTube money at the platform level instead of chasing individual creators. Different problems, same clever idea underneath.
Read post →7 days agoKenya Just Removed a Driver Protection the Same Week Uber Proved Why It Was Needed
Uber left Nigeria and Uganda citing driver-earnings disputes. Days later, Kenya's High Court struck down the rule capping what platforms can charge drivers. I don't think that timing is something Kenya should feel relaxed about.
Read post →10 days agoThe Real African Tech Story This Week Wasn't an App. It Was Who Owns the Pipes.
WIOCC raised $300M for fibre and data centres. Shoprite bought majority control of the POS devices 15,000 spaza shops run on. Neither one is a flashy consumer product, and that's exactly why they matter more than most of what gets called African tech news.
Read post →12 days agoAfrica Is Building AI on Two Tracks That Don't Seem to Know About Each Other
Nigeria just hackathoned 20 genuinely clever AI accessibility tools. Mozambique just launched a body to coordinate national AI policy. Both are real progress. I don't think either one is talking to the other, and that gap is going to cost someone.
Read post →13 days agoAfrica Is Building Open Banking on an Assumption That Just Got Proven Wrong
Nigeria's central bank wants companies building on 'permission-based data sharing.' Days later, we learned South African telcos lost R199 million to criminals using real stolen IDs to pass verification. Same continent, same week, one very inconvenient truth.
Read post →15 days agoKenya and Cameroon Just Showed Us Two Completely Different Ways to Police a Phone
Kenya is joining an international treaty to fight fraud. Cameroon is just cutting off 700,000 phones. Same continent, same week, two totally different philosophies for solving a digital problem, and I don't think they'll age the same way.
Read post →17 days agoTwo of Nigeria's Biggest Fintech Players Just Made the Same Bet, and It's Not on the Diaspora
Moniepoint killed its UK remittance app the same week MTN announced it wants to 6x its Nigerian fintech users to 30 million. Read together, it's a quiet but clear signal about where the real money actually is.
Read post →19 days agoThe Same Week Absa Bragged About AI Speed, We Learned Criminals Have the Same AI
Absa cut SME account opening to under 30 minutes using AI. Days later, researchers warned only 7% of South African banks feel ready for AI-powered fraud. Same technology, same industry, same country, pointed in opposite directions.
Read post →21 days agoIn One Week, Nigeria Quietly Proved It Can Fund Its Own Billion-Dollar Problems
A $1 billion underwriting deal for Dangote Refinery and a year-long insurance capital shakeout landed in the same week. Neither made huge global headlines, but together they say something about who's actually funding Africa's next scale of growth.
Read post →23 days agoTwo Airlines, Two Continents Away From the Problem, Both Getting Wrecked This Week
Kenya Airways just said a war it has nothing to do with pushed its fuel bill up 72%. Days later, one failed fuel test in Namibia grounded Lufthansa's route to Europe. Different causes, same lesson: African aviation has no cushion left.
Read post →25 days agoTerra Industries Just Raised Africa's Biggest Seed Round. It Picked a Rough Week to Need Chips.
Nigeria's Terra Industries closed a record $52M seed round to build drones at industrial scale — right as global memory prices spike 500% on the back of the AI datacenter boom. Here's why that collision matters more than either headline on its own.
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