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Nigeria’s banking sector has wrapped up one of its biggest capital-raising exercises in recent history, with lenders pulling in a combined ₦4.65 trillion to meet new regulatory thresholds set by the Central Bank of Nigeria. The capital raise drew heavily from local investors, who accounted for 72.55% (₦3.37 trillion) of the total, while foreign investors contributed 27.45% (₦1.28 trillion), a split the CBN says signals sustained confidence in Nigeria’s banking system despite macroeconomic headwinds. In a press statement on Wednesday, the regulator said the over 24-month recapitalisation programme, which began in March 2024, has now been concluded, strengthening banks’ balance sheets and positioning the sector to better absorb shocks and fund economic growth. “The recapitalisation programme has strengthened the capital base of Nigerian banks,” said CBN governor, Olayemi Cardoso. “Reinforcing the resilience of the financial system and ensuring it is well-positioned to support economic growth and withstand domestic and external shocks.” The recapitalisation exercise, first announced in 2024, was meant to strengthen banks’ balance sheets amid rising inflation, currency volatility, and growing credit risks, while positioning lenders to finance Nigeria’s long-term ambition of becoming a $1 trillion economy. Under the new regime, banks must meet minimum paid-up capital based on their operating licences: international banks to ₦500 billion ($370.58 million), national banks to ₦200 billion ($148.23 million), regional banks to ₦50 billion ($37.06 million), merchant banks to ₦50 billion ($37.06 million), non-interest banks with national authorisation to ₦20 billion ($14.82 million), and non-interest banks with regional authorisation to ₦10 billion ($7.41 million). Most banks clear the bar According to the CBN, 33 banks have met the revised minimum capital requirements. A handful of institutions remain entangled in regulatory and judicial processes, which are being addressed through established supervisory and legal frameworks. The regulator stressed that all banks are still fully operational. With the recapitalisation phase now closed, the CBN is shifting focus to supervision. Banks are now required to run regular stress tests and maintain capital buffers under a strengthened risk-based framework. The regulator also signalled that prudential guidelines and supervisory rules will be reviewed periodically to keep pace with evolving risks. The CBN noted that banking services remained uninterrupted throughout the capital raise, preserving access for individuals and businesses, a critical factor in a period of economic adjustment. According to the apex bank, the successful completion of the programme establishes a stronger and more resilient banking system, better positioned to support lending, mobilise savings, and withstand domestic and global shocks.
Read MoreHow we’re thinking about 2026 and beyond. Here’s the thing about two speeds. Over the last few years, the African tech ecosystem has been moving at a pace that feels almost contradictory: consolidation at the centre and new ideas flickering relentlessly at the edges. Capital tightened, regulation grew heavier. Scale began pooling around fewer, stronger players. Meanwhile, out past the headlines, new ideas continued to form — quieter now, less theatrical, yet persistent. If you’re only watching one speed, you’re half-blind. Technology stopped being a standalone sector. These shifts are showing up everywhere — in how people work, move money, access services, and navigate daily life, often far from anything labelled ‘tech’. In moments like this, the signals that matter most are easy to miss if you’re only watching the surface. TechCabal has lived through multiple cycles of this ecosystem, which is why we recognise this moment for what it is. And it’s why Q1 looked the way it did. We launched Headlines By TC A weekly newsroom conversation that interrogates the most important technology headlines and explains what they actually mean for people living and working in Africa. The tone is casual; the journalism is rigorous. It’s not a recap show. It surfaces the non-obvious insight and resolves confusion. We also shipped TC Predictions 2026 An annual outlook collecting evidence-based predictions from industry leaders across African tech. Not gut feelings. Theses grounded in data, explicit in their claims, and specific enough to be evaluated at year-end. Both are early signals of what we’re building toward. That direction has a name now: Four-Point-Oh. Shaped by experience. Guided by judgment. Focused — more deliberately than ever — on helping you see beyond what’s trending to what’s happening, and what it means. In practice, this means investing in our newsmaking system: our ability to tell you what happened, fast, when it matters. A fintech acquires a competitor, a policy drops, a platform goes dark, a founder raises a round — we want to get it to you first. Speed still counts, but with context. The analysis, the features, the profiles, the deep dives—they follow, building on the headline to show you what it actually means and where it leads. We’ve organised our coverage around four verticals, each designed to track specific forces shaping the ecosystem: Startups tracks who’s building and what new technologies emerge before they’re obvious; Money follows how capital moves; Enterprise & Policy covers what regulators and platforms decide; and Life & Work captures how all of it shows up in everyday life. Over the next few weeks, you’ll see this reflected more visibly on the site and across our platforms. Four-Point-Oh What’s Happening. What It Means. + Startups Who’s Building, How, Why? + Money Capital, Funding, Returns + Enterprise & Policy Regulation, Infrastructure + Life & Work People, Platforms, Access Founders, Products AI, Hardware, Crypto New Frontiers Growth Signals Venture Rounds Revenue Models Transaction Economics Who Profits, How Telcos, Government Platform Decisions Regulatory Shifts Ecosystem Ripple Effects Work Culture Service Access Digital Daily Life Human Stories Signals Over Surface. · Context Over Speed. All of Four-Point-Oh will be anchored by a registration layer — signing up to get unlimited access to all of TechCabal’s reporting, for FREE. Beyond access, it marks the beginning of a deeper relationship: early access to events, from mixers and roundtables to Moonshot in October. The ability to contribute your perspective to our reporting — through tips, feedback, and direct input into the stories we tell. And where relevant, your work could get featured for what you’re building inside the ecosystem. It’s started out as a busy year, and it’ll only get busier. But here’s the commitment: we’ll be paying attention, asking the questions as the answers become less obvious.
Read MoreAngola is not a market that often comes up in African venture capital conversations. It does not appear in the funding trackers or the ecosystem rankings, nor is it typically represented on the conference panels. BFA Asset Management is trying to change that. The Luanda-based firm, a spin-off from Banco de Fomento Angola (BFA)—the country’s second-largest private bank by assets—manages $600 million across public and private markets. Last year, BFA’s parent completed a $239 million IPO on the local stock exchange, the largest in Angolan history, drawing demand five times the shares available. In 2024, Angola’s sovereign wealth fund, FSDEA, anchored the firm’s Kimbo Fund with a $5 million commitment, making it Angola’s first private credit vehicle focused on small and mid-market companies. The fund’s first deployment went into FoodCare, an agri-food processor exporting to Europe and North America. Its second, announced this month, is a $1.2 million investment in Anda, a mobility startup that has raised $3.4 million from Breega, Speedinvest, and 4DX Ventures to formalise Angola’s motorcycle taxi market through a drive-to-own financing model. Rui Oliveira, the firm’s chief executive officer (CEO) and co-chief investment officer, does not call Kimbo a venture fund, despite seeking venture-scale returns. Its due diligence on Anda took three years as it went through bank statements transaction by transaction, interviewed suppliers and employees, and then cross-referenced its findings with Anda’s international investors. Some of them, Oliveira says, had not looked at the things his team had, an advantage of local context. In our conversation, Oliveira and Pascoa Faria, the fund’s alternative investment analyst, lay out why they believe Angola’s information asymmetry is an opportunity rather than an obstacle, why they track companies for years before writing a cheque, and why international investors who want to deploy capital in Angola cannot do it alone. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. How does a bank invest in startups? We are not your traditional private equity or venture capital firm. We play in both public and private markets. Kimbo Fund is just part of our alternative strategies. We have been in business since 2016. We have raised over $600 million since then. Our investor base ranges from institutional clients to high-net-worth individuals. Since last year, we have expanded to include wealth management services and other capital solutions strategies. Kimbo Fund is our private equity vehicle. We are not the first private equity fund manager in Angola, but we are the first to deploy, at least the way we are doing it. Nobody has done it before. Anda is our second deal. Our first was last year with Foodcare, a mid-size food processing company. For us, this fund is more out of love because we truly believe in what we are trying to achieve here: supporting where the actual growth is locally in the mid-market and growth-market segments. Angola barely receives any startup funding, and $1.28 million is a meaningful cheque in Angola, but outside of that, in larger ecosystems like Nairobi, it’s not that much. Is this a function of where Angolan startups are in their lifecycle, or a reflection of how much risk Kimbo is willing to take? This is a reflection of a market that is just appearing. We are opening up a new pathway, and this is unprecedented for the country. We were the first to actually deploy. Then, last year, another private equity firm deployed. We are the first to deploy at this level, with the way that we are structuring the deals. The short answer is it’s a function of the market and the stage of the market, not a function of our limitations as a fund. You describe Kimbo as a “private impact fund.” When many hear the word “impact,” they automatically think lower return expectations. What type of return profile are you targeting? We are not looking at lower returns. The reason we call it impact is that we are not just writing cheques for these companies. We are supporting them all along the way. As soon as we write a cheque, we put them in touch with the different networks we have. With Anda specifically, we are going to provide support in building their impact strategy and impact measurements, including impact accounting standards. With our first deal last year, we are doing a lot more. We are recruiting people for them, reviewing their accounts, improving how they report their numbers, and helping them expand their business. There is a lot that goes into the work we do beyond writing cheques. The sole reason we call it impact is that we are not just providing capital—we are directly impacting the business, not just with money. In terms of returns, for a deal like this, we are looking at the 20s. Not even the mid-teens. These are high returns, not lower returns. What other types of support do you give startups apart from what you just mentioned? One of the things we are working on now is helping startups get ready for investment. We partner with local accelerators (not in an official sense) and participate in workshop sessions where we interact with startups and the ecosystem to give them a sense of what is necessary to be ready to receive investment, whether it’s local, regional, or international. We try to clarify that our investment is not pre-seed or seed. It is for the next stage, which I would say is growth. A big focus for us is market development and preparing startups in our ecosystem to attract the right investment for their stage. The Angolan tech ecosystem is really young. How do you think about helping these startups move from the early stage to the growth stage? When we were building the strategy for this fund, we realised our commitment should not be passive. When we are writing a cheque, we want a company that has a lot of intrinsic value but has not yet realised that value. And then, is that company neglected, not just
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