What do Nigeria’s and Kenya’s banking industries have in common right now?

Both countries are forcing banks to recapitalise. While Nigeria is only twelve months away from its March 2026 deadline, Kenya’s finance committee is trying to approve KES10 billion ($78 million) as the threshold for banks to recapitalise within three years.

Recapitalisation can save a whole banking sector and prevent retail customers from losing confidence in the system. Yet, it is a nerve-wracking process for small banks. But not for KCB; not for Kenya’s largest bank by assets which, instead of keeping and raising more money for the recapitalisation exercise, has chosen to stray to the opposite side and complete a 75% acquisition of Riverbank Solutions, a Kenyan payments solutions provider, for $15.4 million.

But it’s not hard to see why KCB bagged the deal. Riverbank Solutions offers payment systems to a diverse clientele, including manufacturers, microfinance institutions, retailers, county governments, and the military. Operating in Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda, the company has been a key partner for KCB since 2013, particularly in agency banking services.

The acquisition will allow KCB to expand its digital service offerings, particularly to government counties. Counties, being public institutions, process large transactions, which could be a useful clientele for KCB, giving the bank an edge over other commercial banks focused on retail investors. There is also the possibility for KCB to upsell its new corporate clients on its wealth management services through its subsidiary, KCB Capital Ltd, keeping its high-value customers in a closed loop system.

The acquisition of Riverbank may have eaten deep into KCB’s pocket, but it is a minor dent compared to what it makes annually. In 2024, the bank’s profit after tax was KES 61.8 billion ($478 million) following strong business growth. Its cash flow position remains positive, and if the acquisition were to come back to bite KCB during the anticipated recapitalisation exercise—which is unlikely—the bank is owned by a holding company, KCB Group, which is willing to step in with a cash injection to balance its capital adequacy ratio, as we’ve seen in the past.

When AI became mainstream—thanks to ChatGPT’s viral launch in November 2022—the touted narrative was that AI was going to take your job. There’s no sugar-coating it; that might become the reality for business process outsourcing (BPO) firms and call centres across Africa if AI voice startups like Caantin perfect their tech.

Caantin, the Zambian AI communications company, wants to help businesses reduce the cost of making phone calls daily. The Zambian startup launched in 2021 is building voice bots that can make thousands of phone calls a day for businesses—from fintechs chasing loan repayments to FMCG brands managing daily retail orders. 

TechCabal’s startup reporter, Faith Omoniyi, had a go at using the incredibly human-sounding AI voice bots by role-playing a mom-and-pop shop placing orders. The experience was surprisingly natural, complete with human-like intonations, pauses, and interruptions.

Still, the product isn’t perfect yet. Conversations can occasionally fall flat, and the price—₦117 ($0.076) per minute in Nigeria—is nearly nine times what telecom operators charge in the country. Caantin defends its pricing, citing the cost of running human-staffed call centres. It claims fintech Cowrywise completed 100,000 calls with one employee using the tool.

If Caantin pulls it off, Africa’s call centres may have more than dropped calls to worry about.

Read our full review of the product here.

Like customer behaviour, market trends are fleeting. Today, you’re excited to be the first to provide a new technology (read: contactless payments); tomorrow, the market tide shifts back to the old-school tech you thought was dying. Case in point: Temu, the Chinese e-commerce startup you can’t get out of your ad streams, has partnered with Nigerian card provider Verve.

For years, local Nigerian cards were a giant pain because they didn’t work for international transactions. Banks and regulators restricted them to domestic use, making it difficult to pay for global services, subscriptions, and travel. Banks weren’t concerned; they weren’t trying to crack international payments or bring the exclusivity of dollar-denominated cards to the average Nigerian. GTBank, a tier 1 lender, stopped international transactions on its naira-denominated Mastercards on December 31, 2022.

But for fintechs which exist to somehow make life easier for customers neglected by banks, this became a problem to solve. In the following years, the popularity of USD virtual cards—which allow customers to convert their local currency, hold dollars, and make international payments—took off. 

Fintechs plugged into card infrastructure providers like Alcineo, partnered with Visa and MasterCard, or used overlay solutions with USD virtual card issuers like Bridgecard. Soon, their selling proposition became: Get USD virtual cards, shop online—followed by a list of international platforms that punctuated marketing copies.

Yet, local card scheme Verve, owned by payments giant Interswitch, remained in the lead—mostly thanks to banks that handed them out indiscriminately, it came right out of the box for Nigerians who bought new cards. Worse for fintechs, integrating foreign cards meant paying hefty fees in dollars which they passed on to customers. This is why you paid a small token in fees when you sneezed with your fancy virtual USD card.

But the black eye may get even blacker for fintechs. With international merchants like Temu partnering with Verve, the demand for USD virtual cards could shrink as Nigerians embrace local options. Temu’s move could affect Amazon which still doesn’t have a friction-free way for Nigerians to buy items on its platform. But for local players like Jumia and Konga—whose embedded finance apps already support local payments—it’s just another day in business, no problem.

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