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Kenya plans to extend the standard 16% valued added tax (VAT) to electric vehicles (EVs), lithium-ion batteries, and electric bicycles, reversing tax breaks that supported the country’s electric mobility industry. The proposal, contained in the Finance Bill 2026, could increase the cost of imported batteries, electric buses, and related components in a market where startups like BasiGo, Roam, and Ampersand are expanding operations across public transport and battery-swapping infrastructure. The proposed VAT changes come as electric mobility firms continue to rely heavily on imported batteries, vehicles, and charging equipment. A 2025 industry study found that “all or almost all inputs for EVs are imported,” exposing the sector to foreign exchange costs, shipping charges, and import taxes. Kenya has emerged as one of East Africa’s most active electric mobility markets in recent years, partly helped by tax incentives that lower the cost of adopting electric vehicles and batteries. Kenya has also become one of Africa’s busiest electric mobility markets, with government investment data projecting annual EV sales could rise from 2,700 units in 2023 to 70,000 by 2030, supported by battery-swapping networks, charging infrastructure, and EV startup expansion across East Africa Industry operators have increasingly turned to Kenya as a regional base for expansion because of the country’s electricity supply, with government and energy sector data showing more than 90% of Kenya’s electricity generation comes from renewable sources, including geothermal, hydro, wind, and solar. The Finance Bill does not provide reasons for removing the VAT relief. The proposed changes are part of broader amendments affecting digital services, software, mobile phones, and virtual asset providers as the Treasury seeks to expand domestic revenue collection. The proposed amendments add to a broader debate across African markets about how governments can widen tax collection while still supporting investment in sectors tied to climate transition and industrial growth.
Read MoreOn Nairobi’s roads, traffic police officers have long acted like human operating systems—stepping into chaotic intersections, overriding traffic lights, waving matatus forward, stopping impatient motorists, and manually holding a city perpetually on the brink of gridlock together. The government now wants machines to take over. Treasury documents tabled in parliament show Kenya has allocated KES 1.18 billion ($9.1 million) next financial year to expand Nairobi’s Intelligent Transport System (ITS) Phase III, an AI-powered network of smart traffic lights, surveillance cameras, and road sensors that could gradually reduce the need for traffic police officers at major junctions across the capital. The investment is a sharp increase from the current KES 116 million ($898,180) allocation and signals the government’s growing confidence that cameras and algorithms can better manage Nairobi’s roads than traffic police officers stationed at major intersections. “The third phase of ITS marks the full integration of Nairobi’s traffic ecosystem,” Kenya Urban Roads Authority (Kura) said in project documents. “It will encompass 125 intersections, linking them to the central control system at Cabanas.” The system, being rolled out by the Kura, will use artificial intelligence (AI) to monitor traffic in real time, detect violations, and automatically adjust traffic lights depending on congestion levels at specific junctions. The network will have a command hub at City Cabanas on Mombasa Road, where engineers will watch live feeds from intersections across Nairobi and remotely coordinate traffic flow. The project’s implications could be huge for the city’s five million inhabitants. For decades, Nairobi’s traffic system has depended heavily on human intervention. Officers manually direct vehicles at busy junctions, especially during rush hour or when traffic lights fail. Now, automated systems will take over much of that work. Economic cost of traffic Every smart junction under the project will be equipped with cameras capable of recognising number plates, identifying red-light offences, monitoring speeding violations, and detecting helmet compliance among boda boda riders. The system will also analyse vehicle movement, passenger numbers, and turning patterns before automatically relaying offences for enforcement. Officials say the project is necessary because the city’s congestion problem has become economically unsustainable. Government estimates released in 2024 showed traffic jams cost Kenya roughly KES 120 billion ($929.1 million) annually through lost productivity and fuel wastage. Commuters spend nearly an hour on journeys that should take minutes under normal traffic conditions. The government believes AI-controlled traffic systems can reduce those losses by making Nairobi’s roads more responsive and coordinated. Instead of relying on fixed traffic-light schedules or officers manually adjusting traffic flow, the AI system will continuously analyse congestion levels and dynamically adjust signal timings. “You don’t have to walk into a junction to adjust signal timings any more,” Kura said in project documents. “Everything happens from the control room.” The technology mirrors traffic-management systems already used in Chinese cities and European capitals like London, where sensors and AI-controlled intersections are increasingly replacing manual traffic coordination. A cabinet document approving the project in 2024 described the ITS rollout as a way of “eliminating human interfaces in traffic control,” unusually direct language that hinted at the government’s longer-term ambition. The project will integrate 125 intersections into the central traffic-control system. Treasury projections show the government plans to spend at least Sh5.3 billion on the programme over the next three financial years, with much of the financing coming from a $185 million concessional loan signed between Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi and the Export–Import Bank of China in 2025. Among the intersections targeted are some of Nairobi’s worst choke points, including Moi Avenue and Kenyatta Avenue, Koinange Street and Kenyatta Avenue, Raila Odinga Way and Lang’ata Road, and Limuru Road and Muthaiga Road. The government says the system will also improve emergency response by instantly detecting abnormal traffic patterns caused by accidents or road disruptions and alerting police and rescue teams in real time. “If there is an accident, the system detects a change in traffic flow and immediately alerts the control centre,” Kura said. “Police and emergency teams can then be dispatched instantly.” However, the rollout raises questions beyond congestion. A citywide network capable of recognising number plates, monitoring traffic behaviour, and digitally issuing penalties creates a far more expansive surveillance infrastructure than Kenya has previously operated at this scale.
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In partnership with Lire en Français اقرأ هذا باللغة العربية Happy pre-TGIF. Elon Musk got a double whammy yesterday, at home and abroad. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman testified against him in court, saying Musk wanted control of OpenAI for himself and even floated passing it to his children. And back home in South Africa, talks over equity equivalence rules that would have let Starlink operate in the country appear to be dead. Read more in today’s newsletter. —Emmanuel Get smarter about Francophone Africa with our newsletter, Francophone Weekly—the startups, tech policies, and institutions building the pipelines for ecosystem growth. Subscribe End of the road for Starlink in South Africa? Cameroon acquires French-owned bank Chimoney shuts down Kenya proposes 25% levy on smartphones World Wide Web 3 Events companies South Africa says it won’t cancel this critical rule keeping Starlink locked out Image Source: Tenor If Starlink, the Elon Musk-owned satellite Internet company, had any hope of a South African entry, that future just got bleaker. The country is ten toes down. It won’t consider the equity equivalence programme suggested by Solly Malatsi, the country’s communications minister, in 2025, and will stick with the Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) rule that has stood for over 20 years. On Wednesday, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), the country’s telecoms regulator, pushed back against Malatsi’s plan to create a workaround that would allow Starlink and other foreign telecom companies to operate in the country without giving up 30% equity ownership under BEE rules. Understand this first: South Africa’s Electronic Communications Act (ECA) requires telecom licence holders to have at least 30% ownership by historically disadvantaged groups. That is the exact requirement Starlink says it cannot comply with. Malatsi had spent months pushing Equity Equivalent Investment Programmes (EEIPs) as an alternative. EEIPs allow companies to meet empowerment obligations through investments like infrastructure projects or local development initiatives. Starlink had also pledged to commit capital to community development under this route. All of that is now off the table. ICASA remains rigid in its reasoning: It says the ECA does not allow that flexibility; unless the law changes, the workaround cannot move forward. Starlink now has two realistic paths. One, accept the 30% ownership structure, which seems unlikely given that it hasn’t done so in any of the 26 African countries it operates in, and given Musk’s repeated public criticism of South Africa’s race-based ownership rules. Two, establish a local subsidiary, though that offers no guarantee either; Starlink said it had tried something similar in Namibia and was still rejected by regulators. The situation is further complicated by Musk’s deteriorating relationship with South African officials. In April, he called Clayson Monyela, the country’s Head of Public Affairs, unprintable names in an X post, straining an already tense relationship. We Have Secured the Bank of Ghana EPSP Licence. With our new Enhanced Payment Service Provider licence, we can help businesses collect, process and settle in cedis directly. Start here. government Cameroon has taken over Société Générale’s local bank Image Source: Tenor The Cameroonian government has completed the acquisition of the local subsidiary of Société Générale (SocGen), a French multinational bank and financial services company. Cameroon bought the French bank’s 58.08% stake, pushing its total ownership to 83.68%. The country said the takeover is temporary and designed to manage SocGen’s exit while creating room for new strategic investors later. The government has already renamed the lender as the General Bank of Cameroon. It’s not unheard of: African governments have historically held stakes in telecom and financial infrastructure businesses before gradually reducing ownership by selling to private entities. The Cameroonian government already holds stakes in lenders like Union Bank of Cameroon, NFC Bank, and Commercial Bank of Cameroon. The Kenyan government also held a stake in Safaricom before gradually selling portions over time. The great European bank retreat? Over the last few years, foreign lenders have either reduced their footprint in African markets or exited certain countries entirely. SocGen itself has sold subsidiaries in Congo, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, and Mauritania. Standard Chartered has exited markets in Gambia and Tanzania to focus on its wealth management banking. This doesn’t necessarily mean that Africa is bad business. In many cases, these global banks are retreating to focus on markets where they see the most scale. What’s Cameroon’s play here? SocGen’s local subsidiary is one of the country’s biggest banks; allowing a sudden exit without a transition plan could have disrupted lending activity in the banking sector. By stepping in temporarily, the government intends to keep the bank’s operations stable and eventually open it to national and international strategic investors. Unlimited free transfers on PalmPay PalmPay guarantees you unlimited free transfers to all banks in Nigeria and a 99.9% transaction success rate. We are making digital banking safer, simpler, and more reliable for everyday Nigerians. https://bit.ly/PalmPay-ng companies Chimoney, a fintech startup, is shutting down Image Source: Tenor Chimoney, the Nigerian-Canadian fintech that built a single application programming interface (API) for cross-border payments across 41 currencies, has shut down after four years. The Canada-based startup, founded by Uchi Uchibeke and backed by the Techstars Toronto Accelerator, stopped accepting new transactions on April 30 and is refunding all customer wallet balances through August 31, 2026. Chimoneyraised under $1 million across its entire lifespan. It held aFinancial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) Money Services Business (MSB) licence and was among the first companies to receive a Payment Service Provider (PSP) licence under the Bank of Canada’s Retail Payments Activities Act (RPAA). That kind of regulatory credibility costs money to build and money to maintain. Chimoney’s story is really a story about what Africa’s fintech ecosystem chooses to fund. The companies building payment rails and compliance infrastructure are a harder sell to early-stage investors than the consumer apps sitting on top of them. Chimoney had paying customers and four years of runway, but the capital never showed up to match the ambition. The startup said it notified investors and customers
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