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In February, Beltone Holding, an Egypt-headquartered financial services group with operations in investment banking and asset management, spent $227.13 million (€197.6 million) to acquire Baobab Group. Three months later, the lender generated more revenue than all of Beltone’s other businesses combined. Baobab contributed 53% of Beltone’s EGP6.8 billion ($136.68 million) operating revenue in the first quarter of 2026, making it the group’s single largest business line, according to the company’s financial results. Its gross lending portfolio grew by 236% year-on-year to EGP101.1 billion ($2.03 billion) in the first quarter. Baobab alone contributed EGP60.9 billion ($1.22 billion), meaning roughly six out of every ten pounds lent by the group now originates from the acquired business. Beltone’s first-quarter results show how its bet on cross-border growth is paying off. Rather than expand market by market, the company acquired Baobab, a pan-African lender with operations across seven countries. Within three months of completing the deal, Baobab had become Beltone’s largest source of revenue and lending activity, offering an early indication that the company’s next phase of growth could come from outside Egypt. The strategy mirrors a broader trend across Africa’s tech ecosystem, where companies are increasingly buying capabilities instead of building them. In March, Moniepoint, a Visa-backed Nigerian fintech unicorn, acquired restaurant management platform Orda to deepen its merchant ecosystem. Baobab’s acquisition expanded Beltone’s geographic footprint across seven African countries and expanded its balance sheet. Baobab brought EGP37.3 billion ($749.75 million) in deposits into the group. Nigeria continues to play an important role in the group. Baobab Nigeria, which operates 38 branches across 15 states and the country’s capital, contributed EGP3.3 billion ($66.33 million) to Beltone’s portfolio and held EGP3.3 billion ($66.33 million) in customer deposits during the quarter. Beyond Baobab, Beltone’s legacy businesses continue to grow. Beltone Asset Management maintained its leading position as Egypt’s largest non-bank-affiliated asset manager, with assets under management reaching a new record high of EGP49.0 billion ($984.95 million) during Q1, 2026. Overall, the group’s net operating profit grew to EGP1.3 billion ($26.13 million) in Q1, 2026, and profit after tax and minority interest fell by 1% to EGP695 million ($13.97 million). The company said profitability was impacted by one-off expenses associated with expansions, ongoing strategic initiatives, and platform scaling efforts. “Furthermore, SG&A expenses increased compared to the same period last year, reflecting the costs associated with the integration of Baobab, alongside continued investments in talent acquisition, infrastructure, technology, and business expansions to support future growth across various businesses,” it said in its results.
Read MoreTable of contents Galaxy Watch 8 vs Galaxy Watch 9 at a Glance Galaxy Watch 8 vs Galaxy Watch 9: Feature by feature Price Release date Should you upgrade? Samsung has not announced the Galaxy Watch 9 yet, but there is enough information to already compare it to the Galaxy Watch 8. This article separates what Samsung and its suppliers have confirmed from what remains speculation, so you know exactly what to trust before deciding whether to upgrade. Based on available information so far, the design and the display look will be similar to the Watch 8. The 44mm battery and the charging speed look unchanged too. The bigger story is the chip. Samsung’s longtime chip partner is being replaced by Qualcomm on at least one model in the new lineup, and that single change could shape how useful the AI features in your watch turn out to be. Two questions are still open and worth keeping in mind as you read. The first is which chip the standard Watch 9 actually uses. The second is whether a Watch 9 Classic with the rotating bezel makes a comeback this year. There is also a wider reason Samsung needs the Watch 9 to land well. Counterpoint Research data reported in June 2026 showed that Galaxy Watch shipments fell 28% year over year in the first quarter of 2026, pushing Samsung’s global smartwatch share down from 7% to 5%, even as the overall market grew and Apple gained ground. That puts pressure on Samsung to make the Watch 9 worth your money against the Pixel Watch and the Apple Watch. Below, you will find a full spec comparison table, a feature-by-feature breakdown, a price comparison, a release date estimate, and a final verdict on whether you should upgrade now or wait. Galaxy Watch 8 vs Galaxy Watch 9 at a Glance Here is how the two watches compare side by side, based on what Samsung has confirmed and what has leaked so far. Galaxy Watch 8 vs Galaxy Watch 9: Feature by feature Now let’s go deeper into each part of the watch, comparing what Samsung has confirmed for the Watch 8 with what has leaked or remains unconfirmed for the Watch 9. 1. Design The Galaxy Watch 8 confirmed a new “cushion” shaped case, sometimes called a squircle, that blends square and round lines. It is 11% slimmer than the Watch 7. It weighs 30 grams in the 40mm size and 34 grams in the 44mm size, and uses an aluminum frame with sapphire crystal on top. And it also introduced the Dynamic Lug band system, which lets you swap straps without tools. The Watch 8 Classic uses a stainless steel case instead of aluminum and retains the rotating bezel. It also adds a third button called the Quick Button. It comes in one size, 46mm, and weighs about 63.5 grams. Leaks point to the same squircle design returning to the standard Watch 9, with one tipster describing it as even more squared-off than before. New band designs are expected across the lineup. The bigger redesign appears to be reserved for the Watch Ultra 2, which leaks describe with a boxier chassis and thinner bezels. Color leaks mention Black and Silver for the Watch 9. A Beige option has also leaked, though it is not yet clear if Beige applies to the standard Watch 9, the Ultra 2, or both. 2. Display The Galaxy Watch 8 confirmed a 1.34-inch screen on the 40mm model and a 1.47-inch screen on the 44mm model, both reaching 3,000-nit peak brightness with a sapphire crystal cover. Resolution comes in at 438 by 438 pixels on the smaller size and 480 by 480 pixels on the larger one. The Watch 9 display has not leaked. Outlets that track Samsung wearables expect the same screen sizes and a similar 3,000-nit peak brightness to carry over, simply because nothing has surfaced to suggest otherwise. Treat this as an assumption rather than a leak. 3. Performance and chip The Galaxy Watch 8 runs on Samsung’s own Exynos W1000 chip, built on a 3-nanometer process with 2GB of RAM. Storage sits at 32GB on the standard model and doubles to 64GB on the Classic. This is the same chip Samsung used in the Watch 7 and the 2024 Watch Ultra. At MWC 2026, Qualcomm announced a new smartwatch chip, the Snapdragon Wear Elite, built on a 3-nanometer process. Samsung’s own technology strategy lead backed the announcement, saying the new chip would help the next Galaxy Watch become a more complete wellness companion. Qualcomm never named the Watch 9 directly. It only referred to the next-generation Galaxy Watch. Every model-specific claim you read elsewhere is the outlet’s own guess, not Qualcomm’s words. This has created a genuine split among outlets, and it stays unresolved as of this writing. One camp believes the standard Watch 9 keeps the Exynos W1000, and only the Watch Ultra 2 moves to the Snapdragon. A second camp believes both watches make the switch. A few outlets, including this one, simply say the question is open until Samsung confirms it. Why does this matter to you? The Snapdragon Wear Elite carries a dedicated AI processor that Qualcomm says can run large on-device models quickly. Wear OS 7’s headline Gemini features depend on that processor. If the standard Watch 9 keeps the older Exynos chip, it would miss out on the on-device AI features that the Ultra 2 gets. Qualcomm’s own numbers claim up to 5 times faster CPU performance and up to 7 times faster graphics compared with the previous wearable chip. The company also claims up to 30% longer battery life per charge. These are the manufacturer’s own claims, made under controlled testing, so treat them as a ceiling rather than a guarantee until reviewers test the watch themselves. Some industry voices are already managing expectations. One outlet covering the chip change in March 2026 noted that big jumps in daily battery life are unlikely
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In a side room at the Africa CEO Forum in Kigali, Rwanda’s capital, on May 15, Yango Group Chief Business Officer Adeniyi Adebayo shared a brief history of the company’s expansion with an audience of business executives and investors. “The name Yango was actually coined in Ghana after a local word that means ‘let’s go,’” he said. “When we showed up in 2018 to set up this business, the first thing we recognised is that we have to be a local brand. Today, that story has grown across 35 markets. I started with a group of six other people building this business. We built multiple products; generally, we have got over 70 different product lines.” Yango Group is a Dubai-headquartered technology company that operates the Yango ride-hailing platform, one of the fastest-growing mobility services in Africa, with operations spanning markets including Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Cameroon, Zambia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The company says it has completed 340 million rides across Africa and has over 500,000 drivers on its platform across the continent. It also operates delivery, entertainment, and e-commerce services, and is pushing into mapping, logistics routing, and cloud infrastructure. However, the ride-hailing label has stuck, even as the business says it has moved well beyond it. That tension, between what Yango is known as and what it is trying to become, was the subtext of everything Adebayo discussed in Kigali. On May 18, three days after those conversations, Yango Group formally announced the launch of Yango Tech in Africa: a business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-government (B2G) technology arm that packages AI consulting, smart city infrastructure, healthcare digitisation, and financial services platforms for businesses and governments across the continent. The city thesis To understand Yango Tech, you first have to understand how Yango Group thinks about markets. The company’s framework is not built around countries, but cities. “There is a fundamental belief, and this is actually very personal to me, that cities are the engines of growth on the continent,” Adebayo, who is also CEO Africa at Yango Group, told me during a wide-ranging interview on the sidelines of the forum. The argument he makes is statistical. Cote d’Ivoire has a population of roughly 34 million, but its economic activities are overwhelmingly concentrated in Abidjan, its capital city of 6.3 million people. No other city in the country has more than one million residents. Abidjan remains Côte d’Ivoire’s dominant economic hub, with the city’s port accounting for around 60% of national gross domestic product (GDP), according to the World Bank. “If Abidjan is producing, say, half the GDP, understandably, it means that the GDP per capita of Abidjan is not the GDP per capita of Côte d’Ivoire,” Adebayo said. “And that completely flips what is possible in terms of what are the needs and the demand of the people.” A vehicle branded with the Yango logo. Image source: Yango. The implication, for Yango, is that city dwellers in Abidjan are not poor-country consumers. In terms of their consumption behaviour and service expectations, they are closer, in Adebayo’s view, to residents of Dubai than to fellow Ivoirians in rural areas. “They are in the same country, but they are completely different spaces,” he said. That thinking informs Yango’s investment thesis. According to Adebayo, the company’s entry strategy in any market begins with identifying the densest node of commercial activity, building profitability there, and then using that anchor to subsidise expansion into secondary and tertiary cities. “If you don’t build a business that becomes profitable in Lusaka, you will not be able to build a sustainable business for the Copperbelt,” he said, using Zambia as an illustration. “So, for us, the idea is basically your beachhead market always has to start from where can I build density fast, and I can build a very profitable pool, and then that profitable pool becomes what subsidises the rest of the country.” The model, he acknowledged, is not without tension. Urban-first investment risks leaving rural populations behind, at least in the near term. But Adebayo’s counterargument is that the alternative, spreading capital thinly across an entire country from the start, usually produces an unprofitable business that eventually serves nobody. Perception arbitrage In 2018, most global tech companies expanding into Africa followed a familiar route: Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, and Egypt. The four markets dominated investor attention and served as the continent’s largest digital economies. Uber was already established across several of them, while Bolt was expanding aggressively. Yango took a different path. It launched in Côte d’Ivoire. “Nigeria was the first market we visited,” Adebayo said. “Every person that came into the continent then all went to Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Egypt, but we were also in Nigeria. But we thought then the value proposition that we had and the opportunity that was there in Côte d’Ivoire was a lot more promising and enticing than Nigeria, but you couldn’t have taken that choice sitting at a desk in Dubai.” The phrase he uses to describe this is “perception arbitrage.” The idea is that received wisdom about African markets, which countries are promising, which are too risky, which are too small, lags reality by years. “I always say our game is a perception arbitrage game,” he said. “The problem with that perception arbitrage is, if I tell you that the cafeteria is closed, typically, you are not going to double-check me. You just take it as a fact. The cafeteria is closed. I told you, and it’s the same thing across all African markets. People have certain stories that have been said and repeated.” The example he cited was Ethiopia. Yango entered in 2023, before the current wave of institutional interest in the country. Since then, the government has accelerated efforts to liberalise the economy, culminating in the launch of the Ethiopian Securities Exchange, which attracted 48 local and foreign institutional investors and raised more than twice its target in 2024. “We’ve been in Ethiopia for almost three years now; everybody’s opening up to
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