👨🏿‍🚀TechCabal Daily – A Quick Pass

In partnership with Share this newsletter: Lire en Français اقرأ هذا باللغة العربية Happy workers’ day Application for TechCabal Battlefield is still ongoing, don’t miss the opportunity to showcase your startup to a global audience and win an exciting prize. For 2024’s edition of the pitch competition, we’re introducing exciting changes to elevate the experience including pre-accelerator programs, deal sessions, and much more. If you’re a founder building innovation solutions for Africa, we invite you to be a part of TechCabal Battlefield. Apply now. In today’s edition Nigeria stops MultiChoice from increasing subscription fees KYC regulations drags MTN’s MoMo subscriptions down Twiga appoints new CEO BuuPass acquires QuickBus The World Wide Web3 Opportunities Streaming Nigeria stops MultiChoice from increasing subscription fees Across Africa, DStv subscription fees are increasing faster than several exchange rates. In April 2023, MultiChoice increased fees for its DStv and GOtv bouquets by 4.8% across several countries. By November 2023, it announced another 18% price hike in Nigeria, and its southern Africa countries. According to the company, the hikes were inescapable as the cost of its business operations kept rising with inflation.  Three price hikes in one year: In the early hours of April 24, Multichoice announced a 25% increment to its customers, which was scheduled to take effect from today, May 1. But Nigeria has had enough of the hikes: The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), the agency saddled with the function of promoting fair, efficient and competitive markets in Nigeria, and the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has started investigating the reason for the hike in price.  This investigation comes after a petitioner sued MultiChoice for the price hikes and sought an injunction barring the company from increasing its prices.  A three-member Competition and Consumer Protection Tribunal (CCPT), which heard the petition, delivered a ruling on Monday restraining MultiChoice from increasing its tariffs and cost of products and services scheduled to begin on May 1. The tribunal also ordered that the injunction remain in effect until a final decision is made on the case. All parties in the lawsuit are required to appear in court on May 7th, 2024 at 10:00 am to discuss the case further. Nigerians react: The increment riled Nigerians up across social media with some netizens advising others to abandon the pay TV. An X user, TheMahleek, tweeted, “DSTV premium subscription don pass a minimum wage. Na to dey watch EPL from WhatsApp status.” Another X user, OlamideOfficial said, “Someone needs to explain to me like a 2-year-old why DSTV keeps increasing their subscription packages”. MultiChoice has its reasons: In a four-page letter submitted to the FCCPC, MultiChoice may have answered OlamideOfficial’s question, detailing the reasons for the price hikes in their cable services. Adamu Abdullahi, acting executive vice chairman of FCCPC revealed in an interview with Channels Television that the company cited the cost of electricity, generator operations and the cost of dollars for some spare parts are some of the reasons for the price increase.  He continued in the interview saying the FCCPC suspects the company may be abusing their market position by engaging in unfair practices. Abdullahi explained that limited consumer choice in the market allows this company to potentially act with impunity. “If the FCCPC confirms these suspicions, they will take legal action as mandated by their authority,” he said. The whole country will now wait for the tribunal’s final judgement to see if the hike will be effected.  Read Moniepoint’s case study on family-owned businesses Family-owned businesses are everywhere, shaping our world in ways you might not expect. We’ve found some insights into how they work, and we’d love to share them with you. Dive in right away here. Telecoms KYC regulation affects MTN MoMo revenues KYC—short for know your customer—regulation has been a major taking point amongst Nigerian fintech. Neobanks across the country have been heavily criticised for having lax KYC measures. Former regulation by the CBN allowed people to register with neobanks without providing any form of identification—NIN and BVN. Bad actors soon began exploring this loophole to transfer fraud proceeds into such accounts. The CBN soon caught up with this trick and revised its regulation to only allow for the opening of accounts linked with proper identifications. Users have had to adjust to this transition as the once easy-to-open neobanks now require stringent account opening processes. This, in turn, has affected the growth and user count of fintechs and MTN’s fintech arm—MTN MoMo—was not left out. The news: In its latest financial report, the telecom stated that “KYC requirements and the delays in CBN approvals for some of our commercial initiatives impacted the growth of active wallets.” MTN’s fintech arm closed the first quarter with 4.8 million active wallet users, reflecting a decrease of 566,000 compared to the previous quarter. Similarly, the number of MoMo agents declined by 94,000. It was not all gloom as the fintech added over 75,000 new merchants in Q1, pushing the total number of merchants within its ecosystem to more than 400,000. Zoom out: MTN’s financials also revealed that the company made more money via data revenue than it did with voice. Data revenue grew by more than 50%, while voice revenues grew by 14.9%. The telecom made ₦318.9 billion ($228 million) and ₦349.5 billion ($251 million) on voice and data respectively. Enjoy hassle-free transactions with Fincra Collect payments without stress from your customers via bank transfer, cards, virtual accounts & mobile money. What’s more? You get to save money on fees when you use Fincra. Start now. Companies Twiga Foods gets new CEO Twiga gets a breath of fresh air! Last year, the e-commerce startup suffered bouts of trouble: it delayed payments to suppliers and staff, had multiple rounds of layoffs and was also involved in a legal tussle with Incentro Africa over a $450,000 cloud bill. While the cloud bill payment was settled out of court, Twiga’s tumultuous year culminated with the resignation of its CEO, Peter Njonjo,