GoTyme heats up South Africa’s fintech talent war with employee ownership plan
GoTyme Bank, the South African digital bank backed by billionaire Patrice Motsepe, has launched a long-term employee ownership programme for staff across the business, deepening its push to attract and retain fintech talent. The bank’s CEO Cheslyn Jacobs on Tuesday told TechCabal that employees are participating through a Long-Term Incentive Programme (LTIP) designed to align workers across the digital banking group with its long-term growth and success. “The programme gives qualifying employees the opportunity to participate in the value created over time and reflects our belief that the people building the business should share in its success,” he said. The move is part of a broader shift in South Africa’s fintech sector, where employee ownership is increasingly being used to attract and retain talent, moving beyond Silicon Valley-style perks. In a sector defined by aggressive growth, mounting competition and rising pressure to prove profitability, the digital race is increasingly about keeping the people building billion-dollar businesses invested in the outcome. As digital lenders mature and Initial Public Offering (IPO) ambitions come into focus, equity is fast becoming less of a Silicon Valley pay package and more of a strategic retention tool. Employee share ownership plans (ESOPs) have gained momentum in South Africa, benefiting more than 211,000 workers since 2019 and paying out about R3.3 billion ($201 million) in dividends, according to the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition. The department says telco giant Vodacom and Old Mutual are among the 98 ESOPs established in recent years, with another 27 underway. Similarly, Jacobs underlined that the employee shareholding scheme is intended to support long-term alignment, retention, and shared-ownership thinking across the organisation. Early reactions from employees suggest the programme is already reshaping how staff view their role within the digital bank. “Being shareholders has given us a whole new perspective on the business. We’re no longer simply contributing to GoTyme Bank’s growth; we’re sharing in it,” said Lindelani Nxumalo, a customer service representative. “That sense of ownership has made us more engaged, more committed, and even prouder to be part of the GoTyme Bank family.” For senior employees, the initiative is also reinforcing a sense of long-term purpose and belonging within the business. “It’s incredibly motivating to work at a company such as GoTyme Bank that sees employees as part of its long-term future,” said Lee-Anne Kalam, Head of Marketing. “Becoming a shareholder makes me feel trusted and valued, and reinforces the sense that we are all contributing to something meaningful together.” Crucially, the empowerment scheme, which extends participation to employees with more than six months’ tenure, reflects a broader evolution in how African fintechs think about incentives as they grow from startup disruptors into mature financial institutions. “We have reached a scale where it is important to deepen long-term alignment between employees, customers and shareholders. The programme was fundamentally created to reinforce our ownership culture and recognise the contribution employees are making to the company’s growth,” Jacobs said. While GoTyme is not disclosing how much of the business has been allocated to employees, Jacobs underlined that the LTIP was designed to allow workers to “participate in the value created over time” while strengthening retention and long-term alignment. The strategy reflects a growing reality in African fintech that digital talent has become one of the industry’s most valuable currencies. Across Africa, high-growth startups, banks and fintechs, including Lesaka, have joined established players such as Absa Bank and Capitec in experimenting with equity or share-linked incentives, though these programmes have often remained largely limited to senior executives. The timing is also notable for GoTyme, which serves more than 21 million customers across South Africa and the Philippines. The digital bank is targeting significant long-term growth and has publicly discussed the possibility of an eventual public listing. Although the Philippines remains GoTyme’s main growth engine due to its larger population and more mature scale, Jacobs said South Africa is punching above its weight, with strong customer adoption reinforcing its importance in the bank’s long-term expansion strategy despite a highly competitive banking market. Jacobs stopped short of linking the employee scheme directly to IPO ambitions, but noted that the bank was entering a more mature stage of growth. “The timing reflects the maturity and momentum of the business more than any single future event,” he said. “We are building for the long term.”
Read MoreNigerian AI startup Talksign launches real-time sign language translation models
Talksign, a Nigeria- and UK-based artificial intelligence (AI) research and product company, has launched two AI-powered models that enable real-time translation between American Sign Language (ASL) and text or speech. Palm 1.0 interprets ASL into text or speech with 84.2% semantic accuracy, while Echo 1.0 converts written or spoken language into photorealistic ASL video, generating avatars in real time with minimal delay. The two translators, launched on May 20, build on Talksign’s first foundation model, Talksign-1, introduced in February, which provided basic bidirectional communication by translating 250 ASL signs into speech or text and converting spoken or typed words into sign language video sequences. Talksign-1, however, was limited to isolated signs and could not interpret continuous sentences or fingerspelling, a limitation that Palm 1.0 and Echo 1.0 aim to overcome. The launch comes as part of a growing effort to address a global communication gap affecting millions of people with hearing loss. According to the World Health Organisation, over 430 million people worldwide have disabling hearing loss, and tens of millions use sign language as their primary mode of communication. Most digital tools—from video conferencing platforms to public service kiosks—still assume users can hear and speak, creating barriers to everyday participation in society. Palm 1.0 is Talksign’s sign-to-text model, designed to translate ASL into written or spoken language in real time. The company said the model achieves 84.2% semantic accuracy, meaning it captures the intended meaning of a signer’s gestures, and 79.6% word-level accuracy, approaching fluency for a visual language that has historically lacked large-scale training data. It was trained on over 71,000 ASL samples and was built on a transformer-based architecture with a system called SAGE (Spatial Attention Graph Encoder), which tracks 133 anatomical landmarks on the body, including hands, head, and shoulders. According to Talksign, this allows Palm 1.0 to interpret signing as a continuous, contextual conversation rather than as isolated gestures. “Palm 1.0 is the first model we are confident putting into the hands of Deaf users at scale,” said Edidiong Ekong, Talksign’s CEO and co-founder. “The next step is putting it everywhere a Deaf person needs to communicate: on phones, smart glasses, in classrooms and hospitals.” The company said Echo 1.0, the second product, was trained on 94,410 ASL sentence pairs, running through the dataset 15 times to improve accuracy and fluency. It converts written or spoken language into ASL video using photorealistic avatars. The company said it outputs 30 frames per second video with translation latency of approximately 29 milliseconds, making the signing appear in real time. The model translates English text into ASL gloss, preserving ASL grammar and word order rather than producing a literal, word-for-word transcription. Each gloss token is then matched to a high-fidelity 3D motion sequence and rendered by a neural engine. Echo 1.0 also allows personalised avatars to be generated from a single reference photo, which the company said helps make signing feel natural. The translation process for Echo 1.0 operates in three stages: speech recognition or direct text input, conversion of English text to ASL gloss, and rendering of gloss tokens into photorealistic video. This workflow allows the model to produce fluent, visually coherent signing rather than a word-for-word transcription of English. Kazi Mahathir Rahman, Talksign’s co-founder and CTO, said the models also open the door to “signing as a first-class interface” for human-computer interaction, enabling new ways for Deaf users to interact with AI systems without relying on speech or keyboards. Talksign said the new models are intended for contexts where professional sign language interpreters are scarce or unavailable, including emergency alerts and live news broadcasts. The company said both models were trained on datasets reviewed with Deaf advisors, educators, and accessibility advocates. Landmark extraction occurs on the user’s device, meaning only processed data points—not raw video—are sent to company servers. The company acknowledged that both models currently have limitations. Echo 1.0 accepts only English input, with Spanish, French, and Arabic planned for future versions. Specialised vocabulary in fields such as medicine, law, and engineering requires additional fine-tuning, and multi-word ASL phrases are only partially modeled. Palm 1.0, while capable of sentence-level interpretation, is not yet optimised for all continuous signing contexts. Talksign said it plans to expand the models’ capabilities in upcoming versions, including support for additional sign languages such as British Sign Language, Deutsche Gebärdensprache, and Nigerian Sign Language. The company said the full rollout of Palm 1.0 and Echo 1.0 on the desktop app and Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses is scheduled for August 20, 2026. With the launch of the 2 products, Talksign joins other AI-powered accessibility platforms, including SignVrse, whose flagship product Terp 360 provides real-time translation of spoken language into sign language using a hyper-realistic 3D avatar, using artificial intelligence to reduce communication barriers for people with hearing impairments.
Read More
Every Google I/O 2026 feature Nigerians can use right now
Table of contents What you can use right now, for free What you can use right now, behind a subscription What is coming to Nigeria soon What Nigeria is locked out of, for now Google made over 20 announcements at I/O 2026. A good chunk of those features are US-only at launch, and the keynote did not always make that clear. This article cuts through everything and tells you exactly what you can open your phone and use today, what you need to pay for, what is coming your way soon, and what is simply off the table for now. What you can use right now, for free 1. Gemini 3.5 Flash Gemini 3.5 Flash is now the default model powering Google Search’s AI Mode and the Gemini app. Google confirmed this is a global rollout, so you are already using it every time you open Search or the Gemini app. You do not need to do anything to turn it on. Google says it performs at the level of much larger models on coding and other complex tasks, while being faster than its predecessor. 2. The Gemini app’s new look (Neural Expressive) The Gemini app got a full redesign. Google calls the new design language Neural Expressive. You will notice fluid animations, bolder typography, and a new way responses are formatted, with the most important information surfaced at the top, followed by inline images, timelines, and interactive visuals where relevant. This is rolling out now to Android, iOS, and the web globally. 3. The new Search box (Intelligent Search) Google redesigned the main Search box and is calling it the Intelligent Search box. This is the AI Mode upgrade, not an AI Overviews change. The box now expands dynamically for longer queries and accepts text, images, files, videos, and open Chrome tabs together in a single search. From the Google blog: the new Intelligent Search box is rolling out today in all countries and languages where AI Mode is available. Nigeria is included. 4. Ask Play in the Google Play Store Ask Play is a conversational AI overlay inside the Google Play Store. You can type questions like ‘what is the best offline puzzle game under 100MB’ and get an AI-generated recommendation with a summary of why each app fits your needs. It builds on AI-powered Q&A that already handles 95% of Play Store user queries, according to Google. Ask Play is rolling out globally. The companion Play Shorts video feed is US-only at launch, but Ask Play itself is available to you. 5. Gemini Omni in YouTube Shorts and YouTube Create Google’s new Gemini Omni model is now inside YouTube Shorts Remix and the YouTube Create app, and it is free for all YouTube users worldwide. You can use it to remix existing Shorts with AI-generated video layered in. Remixed clips come with SynthID watermarks and a link back to the original video. 6. Generative UI in Search (coming this summer, free) This summer, Google Search will start generating custom visual layouts directly inside your search results. Think interactive diagrams, tables, simulations, and graphs built on the fly in response to your query. A search about how a mechanical watch works, for example, might produce an animated explainer rather than a list of links. Google confirmed this is free for all users globally, including Nigeria, powered by Gemini 3.5 Flash. 7. Personal Intelligence in AI Mode (free, global, and Nigeria is included) Personal Intelligence lets AI Mode draw on your Gmail and Google Photos to give you answers specific to your life. Ask ‘when is my next dentist appointment?’ and it will find the confirmation email. Ask ‘what hotel did I stay at in Port Harcourt in February?’ and it will pull the booking. Before I/O 2026, this was a US-only, paid feature. Google expanded it at I/O to nearly 200 countries, in 98 languages, with no subscription required. You opt in; Google does not automatically connect your accounts. What you can use right now, behind a subscription 1. Google AI Ultra: two tiers, both available in Nigeria Image source: Google blog Google restructured its premium plans at I/O 2026. There are now two AI Ultra tiers: AI Ultra at $100/month: 5x the usage limits of AI Pro, Gemini Omni Flash, YouTube Premium, and higher Gemini Flow credits. Google caps cloud storage at 20 TB on this tier. AI Ultra at $200/month: 20x the usage limits of AI Pro, full access to Project Genie with Street View, the highest access to Gemini 3 Pro and Deep Search, and no storage cap. The previous $250 plan was reduced to this price while keeping the same features. Google confirmed AI Ultra is available in more than 150 countries. Nigeria is included. The Naira pricing was set when the top tier was $249.99 monthly. Expect Google to revise local pricing downward now that USD pricing has dropped. One thing both Ultra tiers include that you cannot access in Nigeria yet: Gemini Spark. That is US-only for now. More on it below. 2. Project Genie + Street View (AI Ultra $200) Project Genie is Google’s world-building model. The new Street View integration lets you pick a location on a map, choose a visual style like Ocean World or Stone Age, and then walk around an AI-generated version of that place at 720p and 24 frames per second, for sessions of around 60 seconds. The catch for Nigerian Ultra subscribers: the Street View imagery is only anchored to US locations at launch. You can use Genie globally, but you can’t yet drop into an AI-generated version of Lagos or Abuja. Google says it will expand the location coverage over time. 3. Gemini Omni in the Gemini app (AI Plus and above) Image source: Gemini Free-tier users get Gemini 3.5 Flash in the Gemini app, which is already a significant upgrade. But Gemini Omni, the model that can generate and edit video from any input, is locked to AI Plus and above. AI
Read MoreLagos wants to triple its data centre capacity by 2030 as AI demand surges
The Lagos State government plans to increase the city’s data centre capacity to more than 250 megawatts (MW) by 2030, said Olatubosun Alake, commissioner for innovation, science, and technology. Alake said Lagos already hosts nearly three-quarters of Nigeria’s commercial data centre capacity, but the state intends to significantly expand its infrastructure footprint over the next five years. “There are about 146 additional megawatt data centres planned in the pipeline,” he said at the launch of the Kasi Cloud LOS1 data centre facility in Lekki. “We envisage that by 2030, we would have over 250 megawatts of data centre capacity in Lagos, three times the current capacity growth.” The expansion comes as demand for cloud services, AI computing power, and local data storage continues to grow across Nigeria’s digital economy. Lagos is home to one of Africa’s largest startup ecosystems, valued at more than $15 billion. That growth is expected to drive a major increase in data centre investments. According to research firm Arizton Advisory & Intelligence, Nigeria is projected to become Africa’s fastest-growing data centre investment market, with annual investments expected to hit nearly $770 million by 2031. Alake said the Kasi Cloud facility represents Lagos’ entry into “large-scale hyperscale AI infrastructure,” signalling the state’s ambition to evolve beyond being known primarily as a startup hub into a major centre for digital infrastructure and AI computing. “Lagos is no longer simply a startup city,” he said. “It is an infrastructure city.” The Kasi LOS1 facility is designed as a 40MW hyperscale data centre campus, beginning operations with an initial 7.2MW IT load. According to Alake, the facility includes advanced GPU computing infrastructure powered by Nvidia H100 and H200 chips, alongside liquid cooling systems and cloud infrastructure services designed to support AI workloads. The Lagos government believes such infrastructure will become critical as AI adoption accelerates globally. Alake said the state is investing in fibre optic networks, smart city technologies, university innovation programmes, and digital government systems to prepare for the transition. “The AI economy is going to require hundreds [of megawatts],” he said. “The market has already made its decision about where digital infrastructure belongs.” Johnson Agbogun, co-founder and chief executive officer of Kasi Cloud, said the project was built to reduce Nigeria’s dependence on foreign cloud infrastructure and give African businesses more control over how their data and AI systems are developed. “Nigerian enterprises are currently spending $850 million every year on foreign cloud infrastructure,” he said. “Every naira spent abroad on cloud and AI infrastructure helps build capabilities somewhere else.” He added that the facility runs GPU-powered AI workloads from local enterprises and described the Lekki campus as “the beginning of Nigeria’s AI factory.” Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), the manager of Nigeria’s Sovereign Wealth Fund, invested in Kasi Cloud through a US$8 million convertible loan note. “As artificial intelligence reshapes economies globally, the nations that control their own compute infrastructure and data will be the ones positioned to lead,” Kolawole Owodunni, NSIA’s Executive Director and Chief Information Officer, said. But data centre operators still face major challenges, including energy costs that have surged by 64.1% since January 2026, unstable national electricity generation hovering between 3,000MW and 4,000MW, foreign exchange volatility, and cooling systems that consume nearly 40% of total energy costs. Building hyperscale facilities also requires significant long-term capital investments and stable connectivity infrastructure. Despite the hurdles, Lagos officials insist the city is already positioning itself as Africa’s next major digital infrastructure hub. “Lagos is not coming,” Alake said. “It is already here.”
Read MoreEverything announced at the Google I/O 2026
Table of contents 1. AI and Gemini 2. Google Search 3. Google Workspace and Productivity 4. Shopping 5. YouTube 6. Android and Hardware 7. Developer Tools 8. Google Play 9. Google AI Subscription Plan Changes Release Dates at a Glance Google held its annual developer conference, Google I/O 2026, on May 19 and 20 at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California. The two-day event is where Google shares its biggest product updates and roadmap with developers and the public. This year was almost entirely about AI. From the first minute of the keynote, CEO Sundar Pichai made it clear that Google is now building every product around Gemini, its family of AI models. The theme he kept coming back to: AI that not only answers your questions but also takes action for you. Below is a breakdown of everything Google announced, organised by category, with a table of release dates at the end. What is Google I/O? Google I/O is Google’s annual developer conference. It started in 2008 and has grown into one of the biggest tech events of the year. Google uses it to show off new software, AI models, and hardware previews to developers first, before they reach the general public. This year, the keynote was watched live by tens of thousands of people around the world. Where was it held? Google I/O 2026 took place at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California, which is near Google’s main headquarters. The keynote kicked off on May 19 at 1 p.m. ET (6 p.m. BST / 7 p.m. WAT). On-demand sessions and codelabs will become available on May 21. Everything Google announced at I/O 2026 1. AI and Gemini Gemini 3.5 Flash is now the default model Google launched Gemini 3.5 Flash as its new default AI model across the Gemini app and AI Mode in Google Search. According to Google, it runs four times faster than comparable frontier models and costs less than half the price. It is available globally as of May 19, including in Nigeria, at no extra cost on the free tier. Gemini 3.5 Pro is coming next month Google confirmed that Gemini 3.5 Pro is in internal testing and will roll out in June 2026. Gemini Omni: a model that understands text, images, audio, and video Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis introduced Gemini Omni, a new multimodal model that accepts text, images, audio, and video and outputs video. It is available now in the Gemini app, Google Flow, and YouTube Shorts for AI Plus, Pro, and Ultra subscribers. Developer API access is coming in the next few weeks. Gemini Spark: your AI that keeps working while your phone is locked Pichai’s biggest announcement was Gemini Spark, a 24/7 personal AI agent that runs on Google Cloud and keeps working even when your phone is locked or your laptop is closed. It can: Parse your credit card statements for hidden subscriptions Monitor your inbox and flag deadlines from school emails Write up meeting notes into a Google Doc and email it out Draft project kickoff emails from a quick voice note It connects to Gmail, Docs, and Workspace at launch. Third-party app support via MCP (a standard for connecting AI to apps) is coming over the summer. Gemini Spark is rolling out to US AI Ultra subscribers ($100/month) as a beta next week. Daily Brief: your morning AI summary A new Gemini agent called Daily Brief creates a personalised morning digest from your Gmail, Calendar, and Tasks. It is rolling out to AI Plus, Pro, and Ultra subscribers in the US starting today. The Gemini app gets a full redesign The Gemini app on Android, iOS, and the web has been visually overhauled. Google is calling the new look ‘Neural Expressive.’ The new design includes a pill-shaped prompt box, fluid animations, haptic feedback, and inline images and videos instead of plain text walls. Gemini Live is now inline rather than full-screen. This is rolling out globally now. How usage limits are changing The Gemini app is moving away from daily prompt limits. Going forward, limits will reset every five hours until you hit a weekly cap. Complex prompts, such as videos or code, will use more of your allowance than simple text questions. Project Genie meets Street View Google DeepMind’s Project Genie can now connect to real Google Street View imagery and let you generate an interactive virtual world built around that location. This is available today for AI Ultra subscribers on the $200/month plan, for users aged 18 and above. For now, only US Street View imagery is supported. SynthID watermarking expands Google is bringing AI watermark detection to Google Search and Chrome. You will be able to right-click any image and check whether it was AI-generated. Pichai said SynthID has already watermarked over 100 billion images, videos, and audio files. OpenAI, Kakao, and Eleven Labs are now adopting SynthID too. Gemini for Science A new set of AI research tools that connects Google’s Antigravity platform to over 30 major life-science databases. Available today on GitHub and inside Antigravity as ‘Science Skills.’ Google’s new AI chips: TPU 8t and 8i Google announced its first dual-chip TPU generation. The 8t chip is built for large-scale AI training and delivers nearly three times the raw compute of its predecessor. The 8i chip handles inference. Both deliver up to two times better performance per watt. Google can now distribute AI training across more than one million TPUs globally. 2. Google Search The Search box gets its biggest upgrade in 25 years Google says the redesigned Search box is the biggest upgrade to Search in over 25 years. The box now expands as you type, predicts what you are looking for, and accepts images, files, videos, and Chrome tabs as inputs alongside text. This is live globally today, including in Nigeria. Information agents: Search that monitors topics for you New personalised agents will work in the background around the clock to track news, blogs, social posts, and
Read MoreHe started building in military-era Nigeria. Now he builds AI HR software.
In the 1990s, when most Nigerian businesses still relied on paper files, fax machines, and office memos, Chuma Chukwujama was already convinced software was the future he should pursue. Fresh out of studying electrical and electronics engineering at Obafemi Awolowo University, one of Nigeria’s premier universities, in 1996, he had realised something early: he did not want to become a traditional engineer. Nigeria was still under military rule; engineering jobs were limited despite a high employment rate of over 82%, which was mostly informal; and the internet economy, which would later reshape business operations worldwide, was only beginning to take shape. So instead of searching endlessly for employment, Chukwujama started building technology. “If thousands of engineering graduates came out of universities at the time, only a small fraction could find actual engineering jobs,” Chukwujama told TechCabal in an interview. So I started asking myself what else I could do, and that was how I began building technology.” He started his first company, Allied Technologies, in 1996 at a time when businesses globally were beginning to shift from paper-based operations to digital tools. That same year, Microsoft released products that helped make computers and the internet more practical for everyday business use. These included Internet Explorer 3.0, one of Microsoft’s early web browsers that helped popularise internet browsing, and Windows CE 1.0, a lightweight operating system designed for early handheld and portable devices. In November 1996, Microsoft Office 97 introduced Outlook, combining email, calendars, and scheduling into a single workplace application. As businesses slowly adopted these tools, Allied Technologies positioned itself to help Nigerian companies make the transition. The company assisted organisations in setting up computers, connecting office systems, and deploying Microsoft technologies, according to Chukwujama. In 2001, Chukwujama and his co-founder, Duke Obasi, renamed their company AlliedSoft as Nigeria’s telecom sector opened to new operators such as MTN Nigeria and Econet. The company began developing custom software for telecom operators, banks, and other large organisations. AlliedSoft built systems such as SIM registration platforms and other business software to help organisations manage their operations more efficiently. While working with these companies, Chukwujama noticed that many businesses struggled with managing their workforce and employee records. Sensing an opportunity, the company expanded into HR software development in 2004 as an additional service. But building business software at the time came with major limitations. “When we started building technology, there was no cloud computing,” Chukwujama recalled. At the time, deploying software was expensive and technically demanding. In 2004, a mid-range enterprise server such as a Dell PowerEdge or HP ProLiant could cost between $5,000 and $15,000 per unit, excluding the additional cost of server racks, cooling systems, and networking equipment. For many medium-sized businesses, setting up a functional server room often starts at around $30,000. Companies also needed physical servers inside their offices, internal networks connecting branches, and dedicated IT teams just to keep business applications running. The affordability gaps were glaring. Only large corporations could afford enterprise software infrastructure, including physical servers, internal computer networks, databases, internet systems, storage devices, and the IT teams that manage them. Smaller businesses were effectively shut out. “The way software was built then required companies to keep physical servers inside their offices,” Chukwujama explained. “Businesses also needed internal networks, and larger companies had to connect multiple branches through wide area networks. It was expensive and difficult to manage.” That began to change around 2010 with the global launch of Microsoft Azure and the arrival of the MainOne submarine cable in Nigeria, the country’s first privately-owned cable, which improved internet access and made cloud computing more practical for businesses. Companies no longer needed to build expensive, diesel-powered server rooms inside their offices. Instead, they could host their systems in professional data centres such as MDXi and Rack Centre, where businesses shared the cost of industrial cooling, backup power, and internet infrastructure. The shift significantly reduced operating costs, in some cases by as much as 40%, while making software deployment faster and more reliable. By 2015, Chukwujama realised the shift to cloud technology could no longer be ignored. Companies around the world were moving away from traditional client-server systems to cloud-native platforms delivered over the internet, forcing software companies to rethink how they built and delivered products. “That was the conversation happening between 2010 and 2015,” he said. “Everybody had to decide whether to continue building software the old way or move fully into the cloud.” His company chose the latter. The business, which had previously operated as Allied Technologies and later Allied Software, evolved into Xceed365HR Limited in 2015, focused entirely on cloud-native HR software. A decade later, the company restructured again into Talpro Software, a broader software-as-a-service company with Xceed365HR as its flagship product. “We are building the HR ecosystem infrastructure for Africa,” Chukwujama said. That ambition comes as Nigeria’s enterprise software market grows increasingly crowded, with localised enterprise tech investments projected to exceed $2.45 billion by the end of 2023 as digital transformation accelerates. Global giants like SAP and Oracle remain dominant benchmarks for many large organisations, while newer startups continue to emerge across payroll, HR, and workplace management. At home, Xceed365HR is facing competition from Pade and Seamless HR. But Chukwujama believes African businesses still face a deeper problem: most global enterprise tools were not designed for African realities. “The paradigm has always been that technology is agnostic,” he said. “But what works globally does not always work here.” That localisation challenge, he argues, extends beyond language or currency support. Xceed365HR is designed to build around those complexities instead of ignoring them, according to Chukwujama. The company is integrating directly with African fintech infrastructure so businesses can move seamlessly from HR workflows into payroll and payment systems without relying on multiple disconnected platforms, according to Chukwujama. The next leap, however, may come from artificial intelligence. While many software companies are still trying to bolt AI assistants onto existing systems, Chukwujama says Talpro rebuilt its upcoming platform version entirely around AI agents. The “V3” system, which would
Read MoreWhy Kenyan digital bank Cloud9 acquired Mtickets in $773,000 deal
Tesh Mbaabu believes that finance begins in personal life. People wake up thinking about where they want to go, who they want to meet, or what they want to do, and not their banks, he explained. While consumers may not actively think about financial services, money powers almost every decision they make. “That is why I think the intersection of lifestyle and fintech has become very important and interesting,” he told TechCabal in an interview on Thursday, May 14. “It’s not just about moving money; it’s about what you can offer beyond payments infrastructure.” That thinking formed the rationale behind why Cloud9, the Kenyan digital bank Mbaabu founded with Mesongo Sibuti, acquired Kenyan ticketing platform M-Tickets in an all-stock deal valued at roughly KES 100 million ($773,000). The deal comes seven months after the cofounders exited Chpter, the social commerce startup that helps businesses sell and communicate with customers across platforms like WhatsApp and Instagram. The acquisition gives Cloud9 access to a platform that says it has processed more than one million tickets across concerts, transport and sports events since 2014. “On the surface, Mtickets looks like a ticketing platform,” Mbaabu said. “But for us, we see it as a really strong point of contact with the youth, while they’re going about their daily lives.” Mbaabu told TechCabal that Mtickets will continue operating as a standalone brand under CEO and founder Brian Bogonko, adding that Mtickets’ services will be integrated directly into the Cloud9 app. Cloud9 users can buy tickets on Mtickets and on its app. Event organisers and vendors will also be able to receive payments through Cloud9’s business banking infrastructure. He also noted that the acquisition could create lending opportunities for event organisers that need upfront capital before ticket revenues come in. Cloud9 intends to use transaction histories and sales performance data from the platform to assess creditworthiness and extend financing to selected organisers, he said. First announced in October 2025, Cloud9 targets younger African consumers who earn and transact online. The startup offers multicurrency accounts, cross-border payments, virtual cards, savings products and investment tools through partnerships with regulated banks. Users can hold Kenyan shillings, US dollars, euros, Tanzanian shillings and Ugandan shillings within the app, he noted. Cloud9 currently generates revenue through transaction fees and subscription-based account tiers ranging from a free plan to a KES 999 ($7.73) monthly subscription. The paid tiers include features such as cashback and unlimited transfers. The deal pushes Cloud9 into competition with digital banks, fintech startups and ticketing platforms such as TicketSasa and Ticket Yetu. Mbaabu argued that Cloud9’s advantage lies in building financial services around user behaviour. Before Cloud9, Mbaabu and Sibuti co-founded social commerce startup Chpter and retail-tech company MarketForce. Mbaabu said both ventures shaped his understanding of how African consumers and merchants use digital services. “Each experience has built on top of the other in terms of just understanding what the continent needs from an innovation perspective,” he said. “It has made me better positioned to join the dots between how merchants operate and what they really need.” Cloud9 publicly launched in March 2026 after initially operating through a waitlist. The startup said it has thousands of users signed up and is recording hundreds of new registrations daily. Cloud9 plans to launch its business banking product publicly later this month and is exploring consumer credit and buy-now-pay-later products tied to ticket purchases and merchant activity on the platform. Mbaabu said the company remained open to more acquisitions and partnerships as it expands beyond consumer banking into embedded financial services. “The future of fintech won’t be defined by who builds the best banking app. It will be defined by who understands where life happens — and builds there first,” he wrote in his personal blog. “ For us, Mtickets is a step in that direction. Not because we want to be in ticketing. But because we want to be closer to life. And life doesn’t start in banking apps. It never did.”
Read More
MTN’s IHS acquisition could change who controls connectivity in Francophone West Africa
19 mai 2026 Hello , Welcome back to Francophone Weekly by TechCabal, your weekly deep dive into the tech ecosystem across French-speaking Africa. For readers who want to understand Francophone Africa beyond headlines—through markets, startups, and systems. New editions of the newsletter will land directly in your inbox every Tuesday at 12 PM WAT. By default, this newsletter is in French. If you’re reading this in your email inbox, click the “Read in English” button below to switch to the English version. If you’re reading on our website, you can either click the button below or toggle the language selector at the top right-hand side of the page to view the English edition. Read in English En février 2026, MTN Group, le plus grand opérateur de téléphonie mobile d’Afrique avec plus de 300 millions d’abonnés, a annoncé le rachat des 75,3 % restants du capital d’IHS Towers qu’il ne détenait pas encore, valorisant ainsi la société à environ 6,2 milliards de dollars. La transaction, financée en grande partie grâce aux quelque 1,1 milliard de dollars de trésorerie disponible chez IHS, complétée par des liquidités et des emprunts de MTN, entraînera la sortie d’IHS de la Bourse de New York (NYSE) et placera l’une des plus grandes sociétés de tours indépendantes au monde sous le contrôle total de MTN. IHS Towers, ce n’est pas n’importe quel actif d’infrastructure. Fondée au Nigeria en 2001, elle exploite près de 29 000 tours dans cinq marchés africains — le Nigeria, la Côte d’Ivoire, le Cameroun, la Zambie et le Rwanda — dont environ 2 678 tours en Côte d’Ivoire et 2 500 au Cameroun. Pendant des décennies, ces tours ont constitué l’épine dorsale des réseaux mobiles à travers l’Afrique francophone et anglophone, fonctionnant comme une infrastructure neutre accessible à tous les opérateurs. Cette ère de neutralité, c’est terminé. 1. Comment les tours sont gérées en Afrique francophone (au-delà d’IHS) Source de l’image : IHS Towers En Afrique francophone, IHS n’a jamais été le seul acteur, même s’il a toujours été le plus grand. En Côte d’Ivoire et au Cameroun, le paysage est plus complexe. IHS y occupe la position dominante, mais Orange, dans le cadre d’un accord de gestion et de licence de location, avait confié à IHS la gestion de plus de 2 000 de ses propres tours dans ces deux marchés pendant 15 ans, tout en restant propriétaire de ces actifs. Par ailleurs, Aktivco, le bras spécialisé dans les services énergétiques de la société française d’infrastructure Camusat, gère des tours dans le cadre de contrats de type ESCO (Energy Services Company), notamment avec Orange en Côte d’Ivoire, au Niger et au Burkina Faso. Au Sénégal, la situation est différente. Helios Towers, la société londonienne de gestion de tours et troisième acteur du continent, est l’opérateur indépendant de référence, avec une équipe locale dédiée et un directeur général basé à Dakar. Al Karama Towers, une towerco sénégalaise soutenue par M&A Capital, est également active : elle a racheté les 625 sites d’Expresso Telecom dans le cadre d’une opération de cession-bail (sale-and-leaseback) et explore une expansion vers d’autres marchés ouest-africains. À l’échelle de la région, Helios Towers est présent au Sénégal, en République Démocratique du Congo (RDC), au Ghana, au Congo-Brazzaville, en Afrique du Sud et à Madagascar, avec plus de 8 000 tours sous gestion, se positionnant comme la principale alternative à IHS dans les marchés subsahariens. Ce tableau révèle un écosystème d’infrastructure fragmenté : les marchés francophones ont historiquement été desservis par une combinaison d’IHS (dominant en Côte d’Ivoire et au Cameroun), de Helios (dominant au Sénégal et en RDC), des actifs conservés par les opérateurs eux-mêmes (notamment Orange), et d’une poignée de petites towercos régionales. L’acquisition par MTN vient concentrer le plus grand bloc de cette infrastructure entre les mains d’un seul opérateur commercial. Le précédent mondial : les leçons de l’Asie et de l’Amérique latine Ce n’est pas la première fois qu’un grand marché émergent vit une telle consolidation de l’infrastructure télécom, et ce qui s’est passé ailleurs donne des signaux importants. L’Inde offre la comparaison la plus parlante. Quand Reliance Jio est entré sur le marché en 2016 avec des données gratuites et une tarification agressive, il a déclenché une vague de consolidation qui a réduit le nombre d’opérateurs majeurs de huit à pratiquement trois. Cela s’est directement répercuté sur le secteur des tours : Bharti Infratel et Indus Towers — cette dernière détenue en partie par Vodacom à l’époque — ont fusionné pour former la deuxième plus grande société de tours au monde hors Chine, gérant plus de 200 000 tours. Parallèlement, Brookfield Infrastructure a acquis environ 135 000 tours auprès de Reliance Jio dans le cadre d’une opération distincte de cession-bail. Résultat : un marché à deux acteurs avec les mêmes trois opérateurs comme clients principaux des deux. Cette concentration a certes généré des économies d’échelle, mais elle a aussi introduit un risque systémique : quand un opérateur ancre rencontre des difficultés financières — comme ce fut le cas pour Vodafone Idea —, tout le système vacille. Pour l’écosystème startup indien, la consolidation a eu un effet indirect mais réel : les coûts des données mobiles ont baissé après le débarquement de Jio, alimentant une croissance explosive dans la fintech, l’edtech et le e-commerce, mais la propriété de l’infrastructure est devenue très concentrée. L’Amérique latine offre une leçon différente. En l’espace d’une décennie à peine, les sociétés de tours indépendantes — menées par American Tower Corporation (ATC) et SBA Communications — en sont venues à posséder plus de 52 % de l’ensemble des tours télécom de la région. Ce mouvement était porté par les opérateurs qui cherchaient à alléger leurs actifs. SBA Communications a racheté 7 000 tours à Millicom ; KKR a acquis 1 100 tours Tigo en Colombie en janvier 2024 ; American Tower a porté son empreinte au Brésil à plus de 17 000 tours. Le modèle latino-américain a préservé la neutralité de l’infrastructure et maintenu des prix de colocation relativement ouverts. Cependant,
Read MoreSpotify now wants listeners to know when AI helped make a song
In late 2025, Papaoutai, a French-language song, exploded across streaming platforms. The song currently has close to 140 million streams on Spotify. What most listeners did not realise was that the viral afro-soul version remix of the 2013 hit by Belgian artist Stromae was created using AI, and with most music platforms lacking clear labelling for AI music, many listeners did not know. AI-generated tracks now account for 44% of all new music uploaded to the platform, according to streaming platform Deezer, and 97% of people it surveyed could not hear any difference between AI- and human-made music. As AI-generated music becomes harder to distinguish from human-created work, streaming platforms are being forced to answer uncomfortable questions about impersonation, fraud, ownership, and authenticity. For Spotify, this means introducing new safeguards to promote AI transparency on its platform. “We believe that to truly unlock the positives and the potential in AI, we need to protect against the worst,” Bryan Johnson, Spotify’s Head of Artist & Industry Partnerships, told TechCabal during a two-day event at the company’s new South African office in Johannesburg on May 14. One of Spotify’s biggest concerns is spam. Johnson said the company removed 75 million spammy tracks from the platform in the past year as AI tools made it easier to mass-produce low-quality or deceptive uploads. In September 2025, Spotify explained that its spam filter was created to identify uploaders and tracks engaging in spam tactics, including mass uploads, duplicates, SEO hacks, artificially short track abuse, and other forms of slop. The system was designed to tag these tracks and stop recommending them. The company is also overhauling its artist verification process to what it describes as a more human-centric system. Previously, artists who signed up for Spotify for Artists automatically received a verification badge. Under the new Verified by Spotify system, artists must now demonstrate sustained listening activity, avoid fraudulent behaviour, and show evidence of real-world artistic activity such as ticket sales, performances, or merchandise sales before receiving verification. “We want regular listening, so sustained listening activity, which I think is at least 10,000 monthly active listeners over three consecutive months,” Johnson said during a panel session. Spotify is also testing what it calls AI credits, a feature that would allow artists and labels to disclose whether AI was used during parts of a song’s creation, including songwriting, instrumentation, or production. The platform is currently working with a few distributors on this. “The information is delivered from the artist or songwriter to the distributor label, and they deliver it to Spotify, and we can surface that on the artist page,” Johnson said. “It is all about giving artists more control over their profile, their presence on the platform in this AI era, and giving listeners more trust.” For now, Spotify insists AI is not a problem. The company has rolled out several AI-powered listener features, including AI DJ, a personalised, AI-powered music guide, which Johnson said has reached about 94 million listeners since launch. “We are leveraging this technology to give the best experience for listeners and to give them more control over the platform,” he said. “On the artist side, we are taking protective measures there too.” Spotify’s changes reflect a wider industry shift. Deezer began tagging AI-generated tracks in June 2025 and says it tagged more than 13.4 million AI tracks on its platform that year alone. As synthetic voices become increasingly indistinguishable from human ones, streaming companies are moving beyond simply hosting music and are beginning to decide what authenticity should look like in the AI era.
Read MoreKenya appoints Adan Mohamed as tax chief amid revenue pressure
Kenya has appointed Adan Abdulla Mohamed as Commissioner General of the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), in a major leadership reshuffle as President William Ruto’s government faces growing pressure to raise revenue without deepening public frustration over taxes. Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi appointed Mohamed to a three-year term effective immediately, according to a government gazette on Monday, formalising the leadership change at the country’s tax authority as Kenya struggles with rising debt servicing costs, weaker economic growth and persistent revenue shortfalls. Mohamed replaces Humphrey Wattanga, whose exit in April came abruptly after KRA’s board declined to renew his contract. The authority gave no detailed explanation for the decision beyond thanking him for his service and role in organisational restructuring. The move comes as tax collection has become one of the most politically sensitive parts of Ruto’s economic agenda. The government has leaned heavily on KRA to finance spending plans and narrow budget deficits, even as businesses and households grapple with high living costs and slower consumer demand. Under Wattanga, KRA expanded digital monitoring systems, tightened enforcement and increased scrutiny of businesses and imports in an effort to widen the tax base. Business groups and manufacturers said the measures increased compliance costs in an already weak economy. Mohamed takes over an agency expected to deliver stronger collections while avoiding further strain on economic activity. Parliament is currently debating proposals under the Finance Bill 2026 aimed at widening the tax net and tightening compliance measures. His appointment signals continuity in Kenya’s revenue strategy even after Wattanga’s abrupt exit. Kenya remains under pressure to improve domestic revenue mobilisation as part of broader fiscal reforms backed by lenders, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF). KRA collected KES 2.038 trillion ($15.7 billion) in the nine months through March 2026, missing its KES 2.122 trillion ($17 billion) target but posting 11.4% growth from a year earlier, according to KRA data. The revenue authority attributed the increase to wider digital compliance systems and data-driven tax administration, even as businesses continued to push back against rising enforcement pressure.
Read More