Bolt cuts offline trips by 42% in Nigeria after enforcing real-time monitoring
Bolt has seen offline trips drop by 42% since tightening safety measures in November 2024, a move the ride-hailing giant says will curb disputes and harassment tied to unrecorded rides. Executives at a media briefing on Wednesday credit the drop to punitive actions and real-time monitoring, part of a $107 million safety investment announced last year. The company attributes the drop in offline trips to algorithmic penalties that flag and penalise drivers who attempt to process payments off-platform. Drivers caught steering passengers toward cash transactions, a common tactic to bypass Bolt’s commission structure, now face account suspension or reduced earnings. Bolt Nigeria’s General Manager, Osi Oguah, hopes this security upgrade will make riders feel more comfortable rejecting drivers’ requests to take trips offline, where he claims more mishaps, ranging from fare disputes to physical violence, occur. “If you’re not transacting within the app, you’re exposing yourself to danger,” Oguah warned. “We’ve seen what happens when rides go [offline]. This isn’t just about business, it’s about keeping people safe.” Bolt has also introduced other safety features, including the “Trusted Contacts,” which allows the app to notify designated family or friends if a trip goes awry. Bolt reports a 290% surge in riders using this feature. Additionally, over 5,000 users have adopted the Pickup PIN system, requiring drivers and passengers to verify a numeric code before starting a ride to prevent wrong pickups or impersonation scams. These are in addition to existing safety features like the real-time ride monitoring, in-app emergency button connects riders directly to local law enforcement, allowing users to report criminal incidents. There is also a trip recording, allows passengers to discreetly capture audio during rides. The nearly 50% reduction in offline trips over six months is significant progress in Bolt’s effort to tighten the platform’s safety. However, the long-term impact of this change on Bolt’s business operations hinges on how drivers adapt to increased restrictions. Ogua noted that many drivers have historically favoured offline trips to “maximise their earnings” by avoiding platform commissions and fees. With rising fuel costs and vehicle maintenance, drivers argue that static commission rates further erode their profits. This has led to widespread dissatisfaction, with drivers voicing concerns through protests, including a sit-at-home on May 1st (Labour Day), and even pursuing legal action against the platforms. In response to these pressures, drivers are increasingly turning to multi-homing—using several ride-hailing apps simultaneously—to increase their earnings. If the window for commission-free earnings continues to shrink, there is a risk that some drivers may abandon Bolt for platforms with more lax measures altogether. The company has not disclosed data on overall driver or rider engagement since the crackdown on offline trips. However, the policy’s long-term success will depend on a critical balance: drivers’ willingness to forgo offline earnings, and passengers’ commitment to online safety, even if it means spending more time waiting for a driver who would keep the trip online. Mark your calendars! Moonshot by TechCabal is back in Lagos on October 15–16! Join Africa’s top founders, creatives & tech leaders for 2 days of keynotes, mixers & future-forward ideas. Early bird tickets now 20% off—don’t snooze! moonshot.techcabal.com
Read More
IFC taps Nigeria’s market to boost Benin as West Africa’s next investment hub
When Vincent Arthur Floreani took over as the International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) Country Manager for Benin in 2023, the stakes were modest. The IFC’s office in Cotonou had just opened its doors, and the small francophone nation of 13 million wasn’t high on the list of investor destinations in West Africa. But Floreani saw something else: a tightly governed economy with rising ambitions, an underserved private sector, and a unique geographic advantage—direct proximity to Nigeria’s 200-million-person market. Today, Floreani is leading an ambitious $100 million-a-year investment strategy to transform Benin into a springboard for regional growth and digital resilience. “We want Benin to plug into Nigeria’s scale,” he told TechCabal in an interview. That phrase now echoes through the IFC’s pitch to public and private stakeholders across West Africa. Floreani’s blueprint starts with digital infrastructure, which he describes as “particularly catalytic” for Benin’s economic transformation. While many development finance institutions treat internet access as an enabler, the IFC sees it as an economic multiplier in fragile and small markets. In Benin, the development agency is investing in broadband rollouts, mobile network expansion, and data centers—critical rails for everything from digital government to fintech. Floreani points to a regional project with Maroc Telecom to scale 4G access in Mali and Chad as a template for similar Beninese ventures. The IFC has also ramped up its support for digital financial services and skills development, viewing workforce readiness as inseparable from infrastructure. “There’s a throughline between connectivity, education, and jobs,” Floreani says. “Our investments in universities and training programs aim to close that loop.” Linking up with Nigeria: A regional bet The cross-border dimension gives Benin its geopolitical edge. Nestled between Nigeria and Togo, Benin has long played second fiddle in West Africa’s economic theater. Floreani believes that this can change if the country positions itself as a complementary supply hub for Nigeria’s demand-heavy sectors, including agribusiness, textiles, business process outsourcing, and even Nollywood-adjacent content. In 2024, the IFC commissioned a study identifying Benin’s most promising value chains, like agribusiness (rice, maize, soya), textiles, tourism, cinema, education, and business process outsourcing (BPO), for Nigerian trade. It has since shared the findings with both governments. “Nigeria offers scale. Benin offers agility and geographic access,” Floreani notes. “We’re actively working on projects to formalize that corridor.” During Benin Digital Week in November, the IFC will co-host a workshop on regional digital integration, convening stakeholders from the Economic Communities of West African States (ECOWAS) to telecom giants. It’s part of a broader push to harmonize policy and infrastructure across borders. While infrastructure remains the IFC’s bread and butter, it has also grown into a major force in Africa’s tech ecosystem. The IFC’s portfolio now includes some of the most prominent startups in the region, including mobile money unicorn Wave in Senegal and super app Gozem in Benin and Togo. Still, Floreani insists IFC’s checkbook comes with caveats. “We’re not in the business of spraying money,” he says. “We look for leadership, sustainability, and a path to scale.” That path doesn’t always mean equity either. The IFC provides debt, technical assistance, and ecosystem support and often co-invests with venture funds or commercial banks. Gozem, for instance, used IFC capital to sharpen its regional expansion model. Floreani calls it a playbook: back a solid operator early, then help them scale across difficult terrain. But he’s quick to temper expectations. “Not every startup will raise equity,” he says, echoing a growing chorus among African investors urging founders to rethink capital strategies. “Talent is not the issue. But we need stronger pipelines, incubators, and financial literacy.” The $100 million goal and the startup mindset to get there With IFC Benin still a relatively young outpost—it opened in 2020—Floreani compares his mandate to building a startup: introducing an unfamiliar product (IFC’s blended capital model), recruiting local allies, and chasing scalable wins. Since his arrival, IFC has diversified its portfolio from financial inclusion to logistics and is preparing to announce a major investment in the banking sector. Next up: energy and agribusiness, two sectors Floreani believes can drive both local employment and regional trade. Internally, his North Star is simple: deploy $100 million annually in high-impact, private-sector-led projects. Externally, the goal is more expansive: position Benin not just as a recipient of development finance, but as a regional node of growth, a platform economy in the making. “We want to go beyond transactional deals,” he says, “and build transformative partnerships with startups, with banks, with governments, and especially with Nigeria.” Mark your calendars! Moonshot by TechCabal is back in Lagos on October 15–16! Join Africa’s top founders, creatives & tech leaders for 2 days of keynotes, mixers & future-forward ideas. Early bird tickets now 20% off—don’t snooze! moonshot.techcabal.com
Read More
How African startups can use NLP to power the future of business innovation
Artificial intelligence is having its moment, but much of the buzz on the continent focuses on shiny use cases like image generation or coding assistants. Meanwhile, Natural Language Processing (NLP), a branch of AI that helps machines understand human language, remains underexplored by African startups. That’s a missed opportunity. With hundreds of languages, messy data formats, and customer service pain points across sectors, NLP is exactly the tool African startups should be using to build smarter, more inclusive products. From chatbots to sentiment analysis to document automation, the possibilities are practical, not theoretical. But adoption lags, often due to misconceptions, lack of local data, or fear of complexity. That needs to change, and quickly. Why NLP fits Africa’s unique needs Africa’s tech challenges aren’t always about access; they’re about context. One of the biggest: language. Most global AI systems are built around high-resource languages like English, Mandarin, or French. But in Nigeria alone, over 500 languages are spoken. In Kenya, Swahili dominates everyday interactions, yet barely registers in major AI benchmarks. That linguistic gap creates real business friction: customer support falls flat, marketing messages miss, and voice assistants fail. NLP, when localised, can help close that gap. There’s also the problem of unstructured or informal data. Whether it’s medical records scribbled by hand, social media rants about telecom services, or voice notes sent over WhatsApp, much of Africa’s data isn’t clean or nicely labeled. NLP models trained on regional data can help extract meaning, classify feedback, and even summarise long messages. This opens up massive value for startups in fintech, health, logistics, and beyond, if they’re willing to invest in adapting the tech to local realities. Real-world use cases are already emerging Despite limited attention, some African startups are already showing what’s possible with NLP. In South Africa, startups like Botlhale AI are utilising NLP to assist businesses in processing customer queries in local languages, thereby accelerating support and enhancing the accessibility of digital services. In Ghana, developers have used Google’s open-source speech models and community-sourced data to build tools like Khaya, an app that transcribes and translates Twi and other local languages, filling gaps left by Big Tech. And it’s not just about bots. NLP-powered sentiment analysis is being used to track how people feel about bank services or government policies by monitoring social media in real-time. In healthcare, NLP models trained on clinical notes are being used to surface overlooked symptoms and treatment patterns, helping providers make earlier, more informed decisions. These are not moonshots. They’re low-hanging fruit, practical, scalable, and impactful. But they remain isolated efforts, not yet the norm. The next wave of African startup innovation will depend on making these capabilities mainstream. Tools exist, so what’s stopping us? The good news? You don’t need a Google-sized budget to build with NLP anymore. Tools like Hugging Face, Rasa, and Cohere offer pre-trained models and APIs that even small teams can use. Masakhane, a grassroots NLP research group, has developed models & datasets for dozens of African languages, freely available on GitHub. Google’s Text-to-Speech and Speech-to-Text APIs also support several local dialects, and open datasets are growing thanks to academic and community efforts. The real bottleneck isn’t access. It’s awareness, mindset, and sometimes, fear. Many startups wrongly assume NLP requires deep AI expertise or huge compute power. But that’s no longer true. You can start with just one narrow task, say, auto-tagging support emails and tickets or analysing survey responses, and expand from there. What matters is starting. The infrastructure exists. The demand is clear. What’s missing is widespread experimentation, and that’s an opportunity for any African founder looking to stand out. A call to action Africa doesn’t need to wait for Silicon Valley to solve its data problems. NLP is not just for billion-dollar companies; it’s a tool that smart, ambitious startups can and should be using right now. The barriers to entry are lower than ever. The local needs are urgent. And the upside is huge: better products, more inclusive services, and a competitive edge that’s hard to replicate. The AI race is global, but the solutions must be local. African founders who embrace NLP now, on their terms, won’t just be catching up. They’ll be building the next frontier of innovation where it matters most: in the languages, lives, and daily realities of their users. ______ Michael Umeokoli is a Nigerian software engineer and researcher with a focus on natural language processing (NLP) and artificial intelligence. His experience spans academic research, public sector technology, and AI model training, with a commitment to building responsible, effective tools powered by machine learning. Mark your calendars! Moonshot by TechCabal is back in Lagos on October 15–16! Join Africa’s top founders, creatives & tech leaders for 2 days of keynotes, mixers & future-forward ideas. Early bird tickets now 20% off—don’t snooze! moonshot.techcabal.com
Read More
MultiChoice raises DStv, GOtv prices in Kenya again, cuts Showmax mobile rates
Kenyan DStv subscribers will have to pay more from August 1, as Multichoice rolls out yet another price hike, part of a pattern of increases over the past five years. DStv packages will rise by between 4% and 7%. The Premium package—the highest residential tier—will now cost KES 11,700 ($91), up from KES 11,000. Compact Plus will increase to KES 7,300 ($57), Compact to KES 4,200 ($33), Family to KES 2,250 ($17), Access to KES 1,450 ($11), and Lite to KES 750 ($6). The price for XtraView, which allows customers to connect multiple decoders, will also rise to KES 1,700 ($13). Even as core DStv prices rise, MultiChoice is trimming costs on some of its digital and mobile offerings. To appeal to price-sensitive users and reduce subscriber churn, the company is slashing Showmax’s entry-level mobile rates. The General Entertainment (GE) plan will drop from KES 650 to KES 550 ($4 to $3), while the mobile-only version falls from KES 300 to KES 200 ($2 to $1.55). The Premier League (PL) Mobile plan now costs KES 450 ($3.49), down from KES 500 ($3.88). Bundled plans combining General Entertainment (GE) and PL have also been reduced: the mobile bundle drops to KES 520 ($4.03) from KES 700 ($5.43), while the standard bundle is down to KES 800 ($6.20) from KES 1,000 ($7.75). MultiChoice says the adjustments are part of its annual price review to balance affordability with the rising cost of delivering local and international content. Across Africa, the pay-TV group lost 1.2 million subscribers in the past financial year. Kenya accounted for roughly 15% of that decline—around 180,000 users—while Zambia saw the sharpest drop, with subscriptions falling by 60%. In its home market of South Africa, MultiChoice posted a headline loss of R800 million ($45 million), triggering a renewed push for cost-cutting and new revenue models. One idea CEO Calvo Mawela floated during the company’s results briefing is to unbundle sports content—especially Supersport—into standalone subscriptions. The move could allow sports fans to pay less for targeted access while giving non-sports viewers an option to avoid premium pricing tied to bundled sports rights. Still, Kenya showed signs of recovery in early 2025, helped in part by the collapse of Azam TV’s operations in the country. The Tanzanian rival lost nearly two-thirds of its local user base, leaving MultiChoice with fewer direct competitors. Now, the company is banking on exclusive content—particularly live sports—and more competitive mobile offerings to hold on to its audience. Mark your calendars! Moonshot by TechCabal is back in Lagos on October 15–16! Join Africa’s top founders, creatives & tech leaders for 2 days of keynotes, mixers & future-forward ideas. Early bird tickets now 20% off—don’t snooze! moonshot.techcabal.com
Read More
👨🏿🚀TechCabal Daily – A Stitch with Efficacy saves nine
In partnership with Lire en Français اقرأ هذا باللغة العربية Happy pre-TGIF! Let’s get into today’s dispatch. South Africa’s Stitch acquires Efficacy Payments How MTN Nigeria survived an 8-hour cyber siege Kenya’s Leta expands to Ghana after $5 million seed round After the Ramses fire, banking and telecom services in Egypt are nearing full return World Wide Web 3 Opportunities Fintech South Africa’s Stitch acquires Efficacy Payments to become a direct card processor Image Source: Stitch Stitch now owns every inch of the card payment pipeline, and it’s not slowing down. The South African payments infrastructure company, has acquired Efficacy Payments, a digital payments startup with access to the national clearing system. With this acquisition, Stitch now has direct access to South Africa’s national clearing system, something that was once only available to licensed banks and a handful of big processors. What does this mean? Access to the national clearing system lets Stitch move money between banks directly, enabling faster payment settlements, reduced reliance on intermediaries, and greater control over the entire payment flow. Stitch has become one of the only fintechs in South Africa, apart from Adumo, that can handle the entire card acquiring process, from gateway to switching to settlement. This move follows Stitch’s earlier acquisition of ExiPay, giving it a foothold in point-of-sale infrastructure. With Efficacy now in the fold, Stitch controls both the in-store and online card payments, offering a fully integrated stack for merchants. Is Switch trying to be a bank? Not quite, but it’s definitely moving into a territory that was once bank dominated. The company doesn’t collect deposits or hand out loans, but it is positioning itself as a payments infrastructure layer that rivals what banks typically offer to merchants and businesses. Think of it like: Banks used to own the whole yard for card payments. Now Stitch has built its own fast lane, and is letting businesses drive on it directly. Together, these moves position Stitch as the payments backbone for South Africa’s card payments system—expected to reach $159 billion in 2025. End to end, and on its own terms. Paying 2% or more on every transaction adds up fast. For businesses in e-commerce, logistics, travel, fintech, and more, every naira counts. Fincra helps you save more with 1% NGN fees capped at ₦300. Ideal for high-value or high-volume transactions. Get started for free with just your email address! Cybersecurity MTN Nigeria survived an 8-hour cyber siege Image Source: Surfshark On the 2nd of August, 2023, MTN Nigeria was under fire—literally. For eight hours, the telecom giant was locked in a digital standoff, forced into full defence mode as attackers battered its system in waves. Each time they reinforced their defence, Anonymous Sudan hit back harder. The hacktivist group launched one of the biggest Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks ever recorded for a West African company, flooding MTN’s network with junk traffic. But it wasn’t an isolated attack, and MTN was somewhat prepared. A few days earlier, Kenya’s Citizen portal had gone dark and M-Pesa faltered. Tanzania stumbled, and MTN Nigeria guessed they might be next, so it burst into action. Firewalls were optimised. Suspicious packets were dropped. Government and industry players were alerted. No subscriber data was lost. But the financial and operational costs were steep. Here’s the real problem: Telecoms are the soft underbelly of digital Africa, and not all telecom operators are MTN. They don’t have scale, budget, or early warning systems. If they don’t take cybersecurity seriously, DDoS will not just mean slow internet speeds, but a collapse of national systems. These attacks are cheap to launch, expensive to stop, and powered by thousands of unsecured devices. Anonymous Sudan may sound like a meme, but they’re turning African telecommunication infrastructure into a battlefield. Paga Engine powers the boldest ideas in Africa “Across various use cases and industries, Paga Engine provides reliable rails for your business needs to run smoothly and grow sustainably.” – Tayo Oviosu. Read the full article. Funding Kenya’s Leta expands to Ghana after $5 million seed round Leta founder Nick Joshi (left) and staff. IMAGE | LETA Kenya’s Leta, a software startup that builds logistics software for businesses, has expanded into Ghana, its seventh market on the continent. Why does it matter? This expansion comes a few months after its $5m seed round in March 2025. At a time when logistics startups in Africa saw a 69% decrease in funding, it signals growing investor confidence in Leta’s mission to help businesses improve supply chain and logistics efficiency using AI-powered tools. By adding Ghana, Leta is strengthening its continental footprint. Its entry could help boost competition in Ghana’s logistics sector and provide businesses with more innovative tools to transport goods efficiently. Leta was founded in 2021 by Nick Joshi as a software development company that creates supply chain and logistics solutions to enable the optimal and efficient movement of goods. Since then, it has expanded into five other markets: Uganda, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Mauritius. It has also raised over $8 million in two rounds, including its most recent one in March 2025, which was led by a European venture capital (VC) firm, Speedinvest, alongside Google’s Africa Investment Fund and Equator, an Africa-focused climate tech fund. State of play: With its entry into Accra, Leta’s first Ghanaian client is Simbisa Brands, one of Africa’s biggest fast-service restaurant groups, which already boasts of over 600 outlets in 11 countries. The big picture: The startup’s entry into Ghana demonstrates its broader ambitions to become the default logistics software provider for businesses across the continent. If its growth continues, Leta could help revive a declining investor interest in the logistics space on the continent. Accept Apple Pay with Paystack today! Anyone can get paid globally. With Paystack and Apple Pay, let customers pay you instantly and securely from 60+ countries. Get started here → Infrastructure After the Ramses fire, banking and telecom services in Egypt are nearing full return Image Source: Enterprise News Egypt On July 7,
Read More
Two wheels, one city: my life as a Glovo rider in Abuja
When we talk about technology, our minds often jump to the developers and the big companies building the platforms. But the true power of tech shines brightest in the lives of everyday users. Last month, I handed over the column to John Adoyi, a blind journalist, who wrote about how he uses technology to navigate the world without sight. This week, you’ll meet Christian, a delivery rider with Glovo, one of Nigeria’s top food delivery apps. He went from being a job seeker, so strapped for options he had to return to his village, to a courier earning nearly a million naira every month. Here’s Christian’s story, as told to TechCabal, and heavily edited for clarity, narrative flow, and structure. The sun has only just risen when my phone’s alarm pierces the silence of my room in Abuja. It’s 7:00 a.m., the first of six alarms I’ve set: 7:10, 7:30, 8:00, 8:10, 8:30, to ensure I don’t sleep through my morning. I’m the kind of person who could sleep for 24 hours straight, especially when nestling in the quiet of my own space. But the rhythm of my life as a Glovo delivery rider demands otherwise. Time is money in this job, and time waits for no one. So I roll out of bed, shake off the grogginess, and prepare to claim my slot for the day: a 13-hour stretch from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m., during which I’ll drive through Abuja’s streets, delivering food and parcels to customers who place orders on the Glovo app. My name is Christian Ogbu, and I’m a Lagosian by birth, though Abuja has been my home since late 2020. I spent my first two decades in Lagos. Like any man born to a low-income family, I had to quickly try my hand at informal trade. As an Igbo man, I took up an apprenticeship in a pharmacy. When that didn’t work out after four or five years, I returned to my father’s village in Nsukka, Enugu, where I hoped to recalibrate and find opportunities to settle. But that was short-lived. I’m not a village boy; I’m wired for movement, for the bustle of a city. So, towards the end of 2020, I left for Anambra State, where I chased work that never materialised. I didn’t want to return to Lagos, where I would have to rely on my mum. Instead, I left Anambra for Abuja, where an uncle offered me a place to stay. It was a chance to start over, to find my own “greener pasture”, as I told myself. Abuja was unkind at first. I took a job as a security guard, arranged by my uncle, but the pay was meagre: hand-to-mouth, barely enough to keep me afloat. Frustration gnawed at me. I wasn’t raised to live in someone else’s shadow, least of all my mother’s, so I refused to return to Lagos. Instead, I struck out on my own, submitting CVs to companies, hoping for something better. My uncle’s refusal to support my job search, denying me his signature and his ID, left me feeling stranded. I was sleeping in someone’s house, but I had no one to lean on. I often took to the streets looking tattered and hungry in search of a job. That’s when I stumbled into dispatch work. Get the best African tech newsletters in your inbox Country Afghanistan Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil British Antarctic Territory British Indian Ocean Territory British Virgin Islands Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Canton and Enderbury Islands Cape Verde Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Christmas Island Cocos [Keeling] Islands Colombia Comoros Congo – Brazzaville Congo – Kinshasa Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Côte d’Ivoire Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Dronning Maud Land East Germany Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories French Southern and Antarctic Territories Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Heard Island and McDonald Islands Honduras Hong Kong SAR China Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Isle of Man Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jersey Johnston Island Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macau SAR China Macedonia Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Metropolitan France Mexico Micronesia Midway Islands Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar [Burma] Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles Neutral Zone New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island North Korea North Vietnam Northern Mariana Islands Norway Oman Pacific Islands Trust Territory Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territories Panama Panama Canal Zone Papua New Guinea Paraguay People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen Peru Philippines Pitcairn Islands Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russia Rwanda Réunion Saint Barthélemy Saint Helena Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Martin Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands South Korea Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Svalbard and Jan Mayen Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Syria São Tomé and Príncipe Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tokelau Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu U.S. Minor Outlying Islands U.S. Miscellaneous Pacific Islands U.S. Virgin Islands Uganda Ukraine Union of Soviet Socialist Republics United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Unknown or Invalid Region Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican City Venezuela Vietnam Wake Island Wallis and Futuna Western Sahara Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe Åland Islands ?> Gender Male Female Others TC Daily Events TC Scoop <!– Next Wave –> <!– Entering Tech –> Subscribe It was a
Read More
Kenya’s Leta enters Ghana after $5 million seed round
Leta, a Kenyan software startup that builds logistics software for businesses, has expanded into Ghana, its seventh market, after a $5 million seed round in March 2025. The company already operates in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Mauritius. Founded in 2021 by Nick Joshi, Leta is a software development company that creates supply chain and logistics solutions to enable the efficient and automated movement of goods. Its platform helps businesses manage fleet operations, optimise delivery routes, and reduce transportation costs using AI-powered tools. “We are officially live in Accra with our first customer on the ground: Simbisa Brands Limited, one of Africa’s largest quick service restaurant groups, with over 600 outlets in 11 countries,” Joshi announced on his LinkedIn on Wednesday. Leta’s entry into Ghana is the latest sign of its pan-African ambition to become a go-to logistics software provider. As more businesses look for ways to move goods efficiently in tough operating environments, the startup bets that better software—not just more trucks—can help solve delivery challenges. Leta has raised over $8 million in two rounds, including its most recent in March 2025, led by Speedinvest with participation from Google’s Africa Investment Fund and Equator. The capital is aimed at scaling its AI-powered platform, which helps businesses optimise delivery routes and cut transportation costs across the continent. “Our investors’ backing validates our vision and progress. With this capital, we’re looking to refine our product to empower more businesses with a cost-effective, data-driven supply chain,” Joshi said in March. Since its pre-seed round in 2022, Leta claims it has posted 5X revenue growth, handled 4.5 million deliveries, moved 150,000 tonnes of goods, and managed over 7,400 vehicles. It supports major clients like KFC, East African Breweries Limited (EABL), Wells Fargo Courier, and Gilani’s in cutting costs and improving logistics efficiency. Mark your calendars! Moonshot by TechCabal is back in Lagos on October 15–16! Join Africa’s top founders, creatives & tech leaders for 2 days of keynotes, mixers & future-forward ideas. Early bird tickets now 20% off—don’t snooze! moonshot.techcabal.com
Read More
Inside the eight-hour-long cyberattack that tried to cripple MTN Nigeria
On August 2, 2023, MTN Nigeria, the country’s largest telecom operator, became the target of one of the most extensive Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks ever recorded against a corporate entity in West Africa. The cyberattack, claimed by the notorious hacktivist group Anonymous Sudan, tested the company’s cybersecurity infrastructure and highlighted the growing threat of coordinated digital assaults across the continent. This was not an isolated event. Days earlier, on July 27 and 28, Kenya had been rocked by a wave of DDoS attacks that crippled public and private systems: the government’s eCitizen portal went offline, Kenya Power and Lighting’s prepaid token system was disrupted, and access to banks, hospitals, and even M-Pesa, East Africa’s dominant mobile money service, was severely compromised. Tanzania and other nations soon followed. A pattern was forming, and MTN Nigeria knew they might be next. Shoyinka Shodunke, MTN Nigeria’s Chief Information Officer, recalled the warning signs. “It was not just limited to Nigeria. There had been attacks going on in Kenya, Tanzania, and a whole lot of other African countries,” he told TechCabal in an interview. “We predicted they might shift to Nigeria.” Anonymous Sudan also launched similar DDoS attacks in Uganda on February 6, 2024, targeting Airtel, MTN, and Uganda Telecom. With early warning indicators in sight, MTN Nigeria activated its internal security protocols. While the company did not disclose specific details, the telecom industry’s best practices for defending against Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks typically involve a multi-layered, defense-in-depth strategy. This approach combines proactive monitoring, intelligent traffic filtering, and automated mitigation systems. It begins with constant network traffic surveillance, leveraging AI and machine learning tools to detect anomalies—such as sudden traffic spikes or irregular patterns—that could signal an attack. Upon detection, operators often scale up bandwidth to absorb the surge, apply rate limiting and access control lists (ACLs) to block suspicious traffic, and deploy cloud-based DDoS mitigation services to filter out malicious data before it reaches core systems. “DDoS is like the low-hanging fruit for most organisations if they are not prepared,” said Peter Obadare, a Professor of Practice in Cybersecurity, Miva Open University. “ The truth is, if hackers can’t get in, they use a DDoS attack. They flood your system or network with overwhelming traffic from multiple sources, making it difficult to distinguish between legitimate and malicious requests. The goal is to exhaust the system’s resources, making it unavailable to users. As part of its coordinated response, MTN Nigeria promptly alerted key government and industry stakeholders, including the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), and the Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, about the imminent threat. However, before full defensive measures could be deployed across the ecosystem, the first signs of network disruption began to surface. What is a DDoS attack? A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack occurs when malicious actors flood a server or network with excessive traffic from multiple sources, often hijacked computers known as “zombies” or “botnets,” to the point where legitimate users are unable to access the service. It’s the digital equivalent of hundreds of thousands of people trying to enter a building at once, overwhelming the entrances until even employees can’t get inside. These attacks are rarely random. They are often motivated by geopolitical tension, cyber extortion, or attempts to send political messages. In the case of MTN Nigeria, it was likely a continuation of the same state-linked cyber attack that had paralysed East African infrastructure just a week before. Eight hours under siege The DDoS attack, which lasted nearly eight hours, sought to overwhelm MTN’s voice and data services by flooding its network with malicious traffic from compromised computers across the globe. “The actors were targeting high-profile institutions to draw attention and demonstrate their capabilities,” said Gideon Adekile, MTN Nigeria’s General Manager for Information Security. These distributed attack networks or botnets—a network of privately owned computers secretly infected with malware and remotely controlled without their owners’ knowledge—launched a massive flood of malicious data packets targeting MTN Nigeria’s network. The goal was to overwhelm and disrupt services relied upon by more than 80 million subscribers nationwide. The assault lasted nearly eight hours, with attackers constantly adapting their tactics in real-time to evade MTN’s defenses—a hallmark of a sophisticated DDoS campaign. This approach involves actively monitoring the attack’s impact and adjusting methods on the fly, such as switching from high-volume traffic floods to targeted application-layer strikes, randomising patterns to avoid detection, spoofing IP addresses, or mimicking legitimate user behavior. Despite these evolving tactics, MTN was prepared, according to Adekile. “We had our support partners and internal teams on alert,” he said. “We identified and dropped suspicious packets, optimised our firewalls, and contained the attack. When it became clear they couldn’t bring us down, they moved on.” Apart from disrupting services during the duration of the attacks, MTN claimed no subscriber data was lost. An expensive threat While MTN successfully defended itself, DDoS attacks are a multi-billion-dollar problem globally. According to cybersecurity firm Cloudflare, the average cost of a successful DDoS attack can range from $20,000 to over $1 million, depending on the sector and severity. For telcos like MTN, the stakes are higher, given their role in national connectivity. In many DDoS attacks, cybercriminals turn to extortion, demanding ransom payments with the threat of prolonging or escalating the assault. Faced with potential service outages and reputational damage, some companies choose to comply. Telecommunications and critical infrastructure providers across Africa have increasingly become prime targets. In early 2025, South Africa’s CO.ZA domain registry was hit, taking thousands of websites offline. Around the same time, Cameroon’s national power utility, Eneo, had to suspend parts of its operations after a major cyberattack, exposing the fragility of essential services across the continent. Each successful incident emboldens attackers and fuels a cycle of repeated assaults. “They can keep you offline for weeks,” said Shodunke, referencing recent East African cases where entire digital ecosystems were crippled for nearly two months. “Then they start making
Read More
Stitch acquires Efficacy Payments to become a direct card processor in South Africa
Stitch, the South Africa-based payments infrastructure company, has acquired Efficacy Payments, a digital payments startup with direct access to the national clearing system. The acquisition gives Stitch control over every layer of the card payment stack, making it one of the first fintechs in South Africa to offer end-to-end card-acquiring services without relying on banks or third-party processors. The deal, Stitch’s second major strategic acquisition, strengthens the company’s play for dominance in South Africa’s digital payments sector at a time when the market is booming. According to GlobalData, the South African card payments market is expected to hit R2.9 trillion ($159 billion) in 2025. Founded in 2016, Efficacy Payments became a Designated Clearing System Participant (DCSP) in 2021, becoming the second fintech in South Africa licensed to clear card payments directly. Stitch will now assume that role, enabling it to process in-store and online card payments on behalf of merchants with fewer intermediaries. “Card processing is an essential requirement for businesses in South Africa, and we have seen a lot of room for improvement when it comes to conversion, recon capabilities, and access to the latest technology. We are excited to see the impact this will have on the way our merchants collect card payments from their customers,” said Junaid Dadan, President and Co-founder at Stitch. The move follows Stitch’s earlier acquisition of ExiPay, which expanded its reach into point-of-sale infrastructure. Together, the deals allow Stitch to offer a comprehensive suite of digital and in-person payment services, including gateway, switching, and now acquiring, under one roof. With this integration, Stitch clients, which include leading South African enterprises such as Takealot, Mr. D, MTN, Vodacom, Hollywoodbets, and Standard Bank’s Shyft, can expect faster settlements, real-time transaction visibility, and fewer reconciliation headaches. Founded in 2021, Stitch has raised $107 million to date, including a $55 million Series B round in April 2025. Mark your calendars! Moonshot by TechCabal is back in Lagos on October 15–16! Join Africa’s top founders, creatives & tech leaders for 2 days of keynotes, mixers & future-forward ideas. Early bird tickets now 20% off—don’t snooze! moonshot.techcabal.com
Read More
👨🏿🚀TechCabal Daily – Would’ve. Kuda’ve. Just might
In partnership with Lire en Français اقرأ هذا باللغة العربية Happy mid-week. How has your week been? If you think you can escape capitalism, ask Rishi Sunak, the former prime minister of the United Kingdom, who just took a job as a senior adviser at Goldman Sachs after serving as prime minister for about two years. Yeah, even prime ministers have LinkedIn updates. Capitalism always wins! Kuda relaunches remittance product Roqqu expands into Kenya with Flitaa acquisition Temu sets up a warehouse in South Africa CompCom strikes a deal with Maziv and Vodacom World Wide Web 3 Opportunities Fintech Kuda is back in the remittance game after processing $9.3 billion in Q1 2025 Image Source: Kuda Three years after shoving its remittance product, Kuda is giving it another chance. The new version of its remittance product is a multi-currency wallet built within the app that allows for users outside Nigeria to send money home—no third parties. It’s the kind of infrastructure you build when you have enough volume to justify it. And Kuda does. In Q1 2025, the company processed over 300 million transactions worth $9.3 billion and issued $10.7 million in overdrafts—a 43% growth from last time. It raised $20 million at a $500 million valuation and now pulls in enough volume from both retail and business users to support more ambitious plays. ICYMI: Kuda first tried out remittances in 2022 and relied heavily on intermediaries, which weakened their margins. Even though the neobank is still taking hits on some products, Kuda is operating with a positive net margin between 3% and 7%. Relaunching remittances now is a signal that the economics finally work. Still, the remittance market has only gotten more crowded. LemFi, Nala, Moniepoint and even legacy players like Western Union and WorldRemit are fighting for the same diaspora wallets. Kuda’s bet? One app, fewer taps and a clean UX. Zoom out: Now that it has another shot, Kuda has no intermediaries to blame and no margin excuses to lean on. The infrastructure is in place, the users are still here and they hope that this time, the silence after the launch better not be another quiet exit. Paying 2% or more on every transaction adds up fast. For businesses in e-commerce, logistics, travel, fintech, and more, every naira counts. Fincra helps you save more with 1% NGN fees capped at ₦300. Ideal for high-value or high-volume transactions. Get started for free with just your email address! Get the best African tech newsletters in your inbox Country Afghanistan Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil British Antarctic Territory British Indian Ocean Territory British Virgin Islands Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Canton and Enderbury Islands Cape Verde Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Christmas Island Cocos [Keeling] Islands Colombia Comoros Congo – Brazzaville Congo – Kinshasa Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Côte d’Ivoire Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Dronning Maud Land East Germany Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories French Southern and Antarctic Territories Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Heard Island and McDonald Islands Honduras Hong Kong SAR China Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Isle of Man Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jersey Johnston Island Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macau SAR China Macedonia Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Metropolitan France Mexico Micronesia Midway Islands Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar [Burma] Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles Neutral Zone New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island North Korea North Vietnam Northern Mariana Islands Norway Oman Pacific Islands Trust Territory Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territories Panama Panama Canal Zone Papua New Guinea Paraguay People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen Peru Philippines Pitcairn Islands Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russia Rwanda Réunion Saint Barthélemy Saint Helena Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Martin Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands South Korea Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Svalbard and Jan Mayen Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Syria São Tomé and Príncipe Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tokelau Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu U.S. Minor Outlying Islands U.S. Miscellaneous Pacific Islands U.S. Virgin Islands Uganda Ukraine Union of Soviet Socialist Republics United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Unknown or Invalid Region Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican City Venezuela Vietnam Wake Island Wallis and Futuna Western Sahara Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe Åland Islands ?> Gender Male Female Others TC Daily Events TC Scoop <!– Next Wave –> <!– Entering Tech –> Subscribe Cryptocurrency Roqqu acquires crypto startup Flitaa, marking its entry into East Africa Image Source: Roqqu Consolidations are rare in Africa’s tech ecosystem. In the crypto sector, it’s worse; it’s like looking for a needle in a haystack. Why? Crypto in Africa, like most growth sectors, is still an emerging market. So when rare consolidation deals happen, we turn our heads to ask if it is the maturity sign we’ve been looking for. The Roqqu deal made us ask that question again. On July 8, we reported that Roqqu, a Nigerian crypto company, acquired Flitaa, another startup with majority of its operations in Kenya, in what was the first publicly disclosed intra-African consolidation. With Flitaa, Roqqu will enter its first East African market, expanding its footprint on the continent. Under the hood, Roqqu is acquiring a startup that has gained some traction in Kenya and
Read More