The Kenyan Boeing engineer who chose trucks over prestige
Charles Thuo’s career journey makes very little sense, at least until you sit down with him. By his own admission, it did not make much sense to his parents either when he walked away from a stable career path in America to chase logistics and trucking. “They’ve since come around,” he said, bursting into laughter. He studied engineering, served in the United States military, worked at aerospace giant Boeing, then walked away to drive trucks and build a logistics startup. But spend an hour with the founder of Apexloads—a logistics startup that connects cargo owners with transporters— his obsession with systems, and his frustration with broken ones, becomes clear. “I come from a very humble background, and that works in my favour,” Thuo says early into our conversation. “At Apexloads, we’re very scrappy. When we tell people we haven’t raised any money, they’re surprised. I learned resourcefulness growing up.” That resourcefulness now sits at the heart of a company trying to solve trust in logistics, one of Africa’s least glamorous but most consequential commerce problems. Apexloads is building digital infrastructure for transporters, brokers, and shippers, verification rails that Thuo believes could unlock financing, reduce payment delays, and remove inefficiency from East Africa’s freight economy. He believes logistics is about fixing the friction that taxes trade across the continent. Years spent working in the American trucking industry exposed him to systems where strangers transact seamlessly because trust is embedded into the infrastructure. Returning to Africa, he encountered endless paperwork, unverifiable operators, delayed payments, and an industry normalised around distrust. When we spoke, Thuo reflected on leaving Boeing, why Africa’s logistics startups keep failing, the cultural acceptance of inefficiency, and why verification, not payments, is the real bottleneck holding back African trade. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. When people introduce you today, they probably say, “Founder of Apexloads.” What part of your story do they consistently miss? The part that people miss is that I’m not a tech guy who discovered logistics. It’s actually that I was in logistics—I saw the inefficiencies, the waiting, dealing with brokers—and then I found technology and built a technology solution to solve that problem. You’ve lived several lives already: student, soldier, engineer, trucker. Which version of Charles Thuo do you trust the most? It’s not that the military is perfect. I was in some sketchy situations. But the military removes ambiguity. You either show up or you don’t. The mission either succeeds or it doesn’t. And you get to operate in that binary. That’s very important, especially whenever you’re dealing with a market like Africa; you have to have that clarity of mission. You can’t afford distractions or constant pivots. So I trust that version. I don’t trust comfort. The most important thing is having clarity of vision. How did being an immigrant in the US shape the way you think about building infrastructure back home? America taught me what infrastructure does, how things are supposed to work. And what you see is that trust is very cheap. In logistics, I worked for over eight years. I have never met a single broker. You work with strangers. You hire someone to deliver something from point A to point B. You get cash based on your invoices. Things just work because the rails are there. But when you come to Africa, you see the inefficiencies. That’s the real tax on commerce, because whenever trust is expensive, the transaction carries the entire cost of distrust. When you look at Africa, the only thing missing is that infrastructure. Because with infrastructure, everything else falls into place. The biggest frustration is the acceptance. Whenever I see inefficiency, that’s just a problem that hasn’t been solved. As an engineer, that’s exciting. But whenever you talk to people, and you get that cultural shrug—”Oh, this is Africa” or “This is how things work”—it’s very alarming. Because I see that the people who are supposed to fix things have kind of given up. And that’s what I find a little disturbing, because it’s a problem that can actually be solved. You earned US citizenship in uniform. Did that experience deepen your connection to Kenya, or complicate it? I got this strange feeling of what it means to fully belong to something that you’re not born into. And what you learn is that belonging is a choice. It helped deepen my connection to Kenya because these are things we take for granted. It’s one of the reasons I’m finding my way back. Even the problem we’re trying to solve, it wasn’t handed to me. It’s something we chose. And I can appreciate being Kenyan more now. Your journey reads almost like a controlled experiment in discipline—military, engineering, logistics. What habit from the US Army still shows up in how you run Apexloads? In the military, we had this thing called an AAR, an After Action Review. Every time you complete a mission, whether it’s good or bad, you do a debrief. Okay, what went wrong? What worked? That’s the most important thing for a startup because there are so many iterations. Sometimes I have to remind myself to celebrate some wins. But I’m more interested in figuring out what worked, because if it worked, you can double down. And what didn’t work, that’s just as important, if not more. That way, you can fix it. The advantage we have is that our customers’ performance windows are very limited. You’re talking to the same person. So the sooner you solve it, the easier it is to get to the next person. That debrief—after the day, after the week—to analyse it, examine it, that’s super important. Some of the products we’re releasing, especially around verification and acceptance, I find fascinating. Especially now, in the age of AI, people are very concerned about data, even if they don’t quite understand what that means. So there’s always that initial mistrust: “What do you need my Tax Compliance Certificate (TCC) for? What do you
Read MoreSamsung phones that lost software support in May 2026
Table of contents How Samsung’s update system works The three phones that lost support Quick specs comparison What losing software support means for your phone Samsung phones still receiving updates (May 2026) How to check for updates on your Samsung phone In May 2026, Samsung removed three Galaxy smartphones from its software update eligibility chart. The Galaxy A13, Galaxy A23 LTE, and Galaxy M33 5G are off the list. That means no more routine security or firmware updates for these phones. The devices still work fine, but the security protection that Samsung provided is now gone. All three phones launched in 2022 and were popular across Africa and other budget-focused markets, where the A-series and M-series have long been go-to choices. If you own any of these phones, here is what you need to know. How Samsung’s update system works Samsung publishes a monthly update eligibility chart on its mobile security portal at security.samsungmobile.com/workScope.smsb. Every month, you can check exactly which phones are still getting updates and which are not. The chart has two active tiers: Monthly updates: flagships, foldables, and select enterprise devices get security patches every month. Quarterly updates: mid-range and budget phones get patches roughly once every three months. Samsung used to have a third tier called Biannual, in which older phones would receive patches only twice a year. That tier no longer exists. Now, once a phone’s support window ends, it drops off the chart completely with no in-between step. The three phones covered in this article were all on the quarterly tier before Samsung pulled them from the May 2026 chart. Samsung One UI 8.5 now available: What Galaxy users should know The three phones that lost support 1. Galaxy A13 Launched: March 2022 The Galaxy A13 was one of Samsung’s most affordable options in 2022. It ran on Samsung’s own Exynos 850 chip and came with up to 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. The 6.6-inch LCD display, a 5,000mAh battery with 15W charging, and a 50MP quad-camera setup made it a solid entry-level phone for its price. It launched on Android 12 with One UI 4.0 and received two major Android upgrades, ending on Android 14 with One UI 6. After that, it moved to Samsung’s quarterly security patch schedule. As of May 2026, the Galaxy A13 has been dropped from Samsung’s quarterly update list. Sammy Fans and SamMobile, both of which track Samsung’s security scope page, confirmed the removal. In April’s chart, the A13 appeared in the same row as the A14 and A14 5G. In the May chart, that row starts at A14. The A13 is gone. 2. Galaxy A23 LTE Launched: March 2022 The Galaxy A23 LTE ran on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 680 chip with up to 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. It had a 6.6-inch LCD display with a 90Hz refresh rate, a 5,000mAh battery with 25W fast charging, and a 50MP main camera with optical image stabilisation. Like the A13, it launched on Android 12 (One UI 4.1) and ended its OS journey on Android 14 (One UI 6) after two major upgrades. It was on the quarterly security update schedule before Samsung pulled the plug this month. One important thing to note: only the LTE version of the A23 lost support. The Galaxy A23 5G, which is a different device built on the Snapdragon 695, is still on Samsung’s quarterly update list. If you are in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, or South Africa, the LTE model was the more widely available variant, so this distinction matters to many users in those markets. Sammy Fans confirmed the removal: in April, the A23 and A23 5G were listed together. In May, only the A23 5G remains. 3. Galaxy M33 5G Launched: April 2022 The Galaxy M33 5G is arguably the most surprising of the three. It ran on Samsung’s Exynos 1280 chip, the same processor used in the more expensive A33 5G and A53 5G. It had a 6.6-inch 120Hz LCD display, up to 8GB of RAM, and came with a 6,000mAh battery in its Indian variant (the global model used a 5,000mAh cell). The 50MP quad camera setup and 25W fast charging were solid specs for a mid-range phone at the time. What makes its removal surprising is how far Samsung went with it in software. The M33 5G started on Android 12 with One UI 4.1 and received four major Android upgrades, ending on Android 16 with One UI 8. That is more than most mid-range phones from 2022 got. Some owners were hoping for One UI 8.5 as a final update, but Samsung closed the book before that arrived. Sammy Fans confirmed that the M33 5G was removed from the May 2026 chart. In April, it appeared in the same row as the M34 5G. In May, the row starts from the M34 5G. Everything Samsung announced at Galaxy Unpacked 2026 Quick specs comparison Here is a side-by-side look at the three phones: What losing software support means for your phone Your phone does not stop working. You can still make calls, send messages, take photos, and use apps you already have installed. The hardware is fine. What changes is the layer of protection that Samsung used to provide in the background. 1. Security: This is the most important change. Samsung will no longer send patches to fix newly discovered vulnerabilities in Android, the Exynos or Snapdragon platform, or One UI itself. For context, Samsung’s May 2026 security patch fixed 39 issues, two of them rated Critical. Going forward, your phone will not receive fixes like those. Bugs that could allow someone to access your device remotely, exploit your Bluetooth or Wi-Fi connection, or compromise your data will go unaddressed by Samsung. Google Play Protect, Play Services, and Google Play system updates will still come through for a while, since those come from Google, not Samsung. But they do not replace system-level patches. 2. App compatibility: Over time, apps that require newer versions of
Read MoreTrazo built a food delivery business in smaller cities. Now it wants to enter Lagos.
In 2019, Ikechukwu Nweze was trying to solve a problem in Asaba, in southern Nigeria, where he was based: ordering food online was difficult. At the time, most venture-backed food delivery startups were focused on Lagos and Abuja, where higher population density and stronger consumer demand made logistics easier to scale. Mid-sized southern cities like Asaba and Warri were ignored. Nweze, a computer science graduate who had spent years building and discarding failed startup ideas—including a social platform meant to compete with online forum Nairaland and an indigenous email service he called Vmail—believed there was an opportunity to build a hyperlocal food delivery business in underserved cities where digital commerce infrastructure was thin. Together with co-founders Adinnu Benedict, Chiedu Victor, and Abanum Chukwuyenum—all software developers—he launched OliliFood in February 2020 with two restaurant vendors and two riders. Building through Nigeria’s lockdown economy The timing was uncomfortable. A few weeks after launch, the world entered the COVID-19 lockdown that locked out most commercial activity. Yet, for OliliFood, classified as an essential service, the crisis unexpectedly accelerated early adoption. Restaurants that once relied on foot traffic pivoted toward home deliveries, and the startup found itself with a new kind of customer. “The lockdown made us realise delivery can work,” Nweze said. “We were able to serve the people of Asaba while many vendors cooked from home.” Later in 2020, OliliFood launched a mobile app and began expanding into Warri, another mid-sized city in southern Nigeria. Yet, operating outside Lagos came with structural limitations. Food delivery remains heavily concentrated in Nigeria’s larger commercial centres, where longer working hours, higher disposable income, and urban movement create stronger demand for convenience services. In smaller cities like Asaba, where commuting patterns are lighter and more residents work closer to home, food delivery frequency tends to be lower, said Nweze. “Breaking even in a small city is quite challenging,” Nweze said. “If we had hoped to break even in the near future, I think we would have closed the business.” The startup survived on bootstrapping. Outside the food delivery business, Nweze and his co-founders had built other products, most notably Vent Africa, a crypto and fintech platform launched in 2021, and Hizo, a cross-border foreign exchange service. Revenue from those ventures kept OliliFood running at a time when its food delivery unit alone could not cover its costs, said Nweze. As Inflation accelerated across Nigeria over the past few years, operating costs rose sharply. Motorcycles that once cost ₦300,000 ($219) later sold for as much as ₦1.8 million ($1,313), and fuel costs climbed significantly after the removal of Nigeria’s petrol subsidy in 2023. OliliFood adapted by developing a hybrid rider model, combining owned fleets with third-party logistics operators. “You cannot rely fully on your in-house logistics, and you cannot rely fully on third-party logistics,” Nweze said. “There has to be a balance.” The startup also changed how riders were compensated after discovering that some delivery workers used company-funded fuel allocations to run personal errands while delaying customer orders. Under its revised structure, riders earn a base salary plus commissions per completed delivery, while handling their own fuel expenses. “We’ve been able to create a model that checks these riders compared to when we were buying fuel for them,” Nweze said. Six years, two cities, and a new name Six years after launch, OliliFood has processed over 120,000 orders and generated ₦2 billion ($1.5 million) in gross merchandise value (GMV) across Asaba and Warri, according to Nweze. It currently boasts about 25,000 total users—with roughly 500 monthly active customers—and operates a 20-rider network split between five in-house riders and 15 third-party logistics partners. Now rebranded as Trazo, it plans to expand into Lagos and Abuja by the first quarter of 2027, positioning itself directly against established delivery players, including Chowdeck, Glovo, and new entrant Swoop in Lagos, as well as Heyfood in Abuja. Yet, the scale gap that Trazo must bridge is significant. Glovo, which entered Nigeria in 2021, delivered 38 million items in the country last year and has invested over ₦37 billion ($27 million) locally; it now operates in 11 cities with over 2,000 active riders and more than 6,000 vendor partners. Chowdeck, the Y Combinator-backed Nigerian food delivery startup, saw its GMV grow more than sixfold in 2024, its last reported growth, and raised a $9 million Series A round the following year. It runs a 20,000-rider network across 14 cities. Nigeria’s online food delivery market, valued at around $1.14 billion in 2025, according to research firm IMARC Group, is largely contested between those two startups in Lagos, where delivery density and repeat-ordering frequency create compounding advantages for incumbents. Against that backdrop, Trazo’s 500 monthly active customers, 20 riders, and $1.5 million in lifetime GMV paint a picture of a startup entering a different weight class. The rebrand also reflects a strategic shift in the startup’s operations. It is expanding beyond restaurant delivery into groceries, pharmaceuticals, household essentials, gas refills, and eventually, home services like cleaning and spa bookings. The founders concluded that OliliFood’s original architecture and branding were holding the company back and decided to rebuild from scratch. “The app itself couldn’t go full scale into other cities because of how it was built,” Nweze said. “And the name also limited us.” The word “Olili,” he explained, is derived from an Igbo language expression associated with feasting and food, making it difficult to extend naturally into categories beyond restaurant delivery. The argument for coming second Nweze argues that building first in smaller cities forced the company to solve operational problems that bigger-city startups rarely encounter early on: inconsistent mapping systems, thin rider supply, low order density, and weaker consumer demand for delivery services. Those lessons, he believes, now give Trazo a fighting chance in harder markets. “If a business in Lagos chooses to come down to Asaba, it will be easier for them to fail than for [Trazo] to go to Lagos,” he said. “When you have a startup that has faced a
Read MoreKenya plans 16% VAT on electric vehicles, batteries, e-bikes imports
Kenya plans to extend the standard 16% valued added tax (VAT) to electric vehicles (EVs), lithium-ion batteries, and electric bicycles, reversing tax breaks that supported the country’s electric mobility industry. The proposal, contained in the Finance Bill 2026, could increase the cost of imported batteries, electric buses, and related components in a market where startups like BasiGo, Roam, and Ampersand are expanding operations across public transport and battery-swapping infrastructure. The proposed VAT changes come as electric mobility firms continue to rely heavily on imported batteries, vehicles, and charging equipment. A 2025 industry study found that “all or almost all inputs for EVs are imported,” exposing the sector to foreign exchange costs, shipping charges, and import taxes. Kenya has emerged as one of East Africa’s most active electric mobility markets in recent years, partly helped by tax incentives that lower the cost of adopting electric vehicles and batteries. Kenya has also become one of Africa’s busiest electric mobility markets, with government investment data projecting annual EV sales could rise from 2,700 units in 2023 to 70,000 by 2030, supported by battery-swapping networks, charging infrastructure, and EV startup expansion across East Africa Industry operators have increasingly turned to Kenya as a regional base for expansion because of the country’s electricity supply, with government and energy sector data showing more than 90% of Kenya’s electricity generation comes from renewable sources, including geothermal, hydro, wind, and solar. The Finance Bill does not provide reasons for removing the VAT relief. The proposed changes are part of broader amendments affecting digital services, software, mobile phones, and virtual asset providers as the Treasury seeks to expand domestic revenue collection. The proposed amendments add to a broader debate across African markets about how governments can widen tax collection while still supporting investment in sectors tied to climate transition and industrial growth.
Read MoreNairobi’s traffic police may soon give way to AI
On Nairobi’s roads, traffic police officers have long acted like human operating systems—stepping into chaotic intersections, overriding traffic lights, waving matatus forward, stopping impatient motorists, and manually holding a city perpetually on the brink of gridlock together. The government now wants machines to take over. Treasury documents tabled in parliament show Kenya has allocated KES 1.18 billion ($9.1 million) next financial year to expand Nairobi’s Intelligent Transport System (ITS) Phase III, an AI-powered network of smart traffic lights, surveillance cameras, and road sensors that could gradually reduce the need for traffic police officers at major junctions across the capital. The investment is a sharp increase from the current KES 116 million ($898,180) allocation and signals the government’s growing confidence that cameras and algorithms can better manage Nairobi’s roads than traffic police officers stationed at major intersections. “The third phase of ITS marks the full integration of Nairobi’s traffic ecosystem,” Kenya Urban Roads Authority (Kura) said in project documents. “It will encompass 125 intersections, linking them to the central control system at Cabanas.” The system, being rolled out by the Kura, will use artificial intelligence (AI) to monitor traffic in real time, detect violations, and automatically adjust traffic lights depending on congestion levels at specific junctions. The network will have a command hub at City Cabanas on Mombasa Road, where engineers will watch live feeds from intersections across Nairobi and remotely coordinate traffic flow. The project’s implications could be huge for the city’s five million inhabitants. For decades, Nairobi’s traffic system has depended heavily on human intervention. Officers manually direct vehicles at busy junctions, especially during rush hour or when traffic lights fail. Now, automated systems will take over much of that work. Economic cost of traffic Every smart junction under the project will be equipped with cameras capable of recognising number plates, identifying red-light offences, monitoring speeding violations, and detecting helmet compliance among boda boda riders. The system will also analyse vehicle movement, passenger numbers, and turning patterns before automatically relaying offences for enforcement. Officials say the project is necessary because the city’s congestion problem has become economically unsustainable. Government estimates released in 2024 showed traffic jams cost Kenya roughly KES 120 billion ($929.1 million) annually through lost productivity and fuel wastage. Commuters spend nearly an hour on journeys that should take minutes under normal traffic conditions. The government believes AI-controlled traffic systems can reduce those losses by making Nairobi’s roads more responsive and coordinated. Instead of relying on fixed traffic-light schedules or officers manually adjusting traffic flow, the AI system will continuously analyse congestion levels and dynamically adjust signal timings. “You don’t have to walk into a junction to adjust signal timings any more,” Kura said in project documents. “Everything happens from the control room.” The technology mirrors traffic-management systems already used in Chinese cities and European capitals like London, where sensors and AI-controlled intersections are increasingly replacing manual traffic coordination. A cabinet document approving the project in 2024 described the ITS rollout as a way of “eliminating human interfaces in traffic control,” unusually direct language that hinted at the government’s longer-term ambition. The project will integrate 125 intersections into the central traffic-control system. Treasury projections show the government plans to spend at least Sh5.3 billion on the programme over the next three financial years, with much of the financing coming from a $185 million concessional loan signed between Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi and the Export–Import Bank of China in 2025. Among the intersections targeted are some of Nairobi’s worst choke points, including Moi Avenue and Kenyatta Avenue, Koinange Street and Kenyatta Avenue, Raila Odinga Way and Lang’ata Road, and Limuru Road and Muthaiga Road. The government says the system will also improve emergency response by instantly detecting abnormal traffic patterns caused by accidents or road disruptions and alerting police and rescue teams in real time. “If there is an accident, the system detects a change in traffic flow and immediately alerts the control centre,” Kura said. “Police and emergency teams can then be dispatched instantly.” However, the rollout raises questions beyond congestion. A citywide network capable of recognising number plates, monitoring traffic behaviour, and digitally issuing penalties creates a far more expansive surveillance infrastructure than Kenya has previously operated at this scale.
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👨🏿🚀TechCabal Daily – No space for Starlink in SA
In partnership with Lire en Français اقرأ هذا باللغة العربية Happy pre-TGIF. Elon Musk got a double whammy yesterday, at home and abroad. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman testified against him in court, saying Musk wanted control of OpenAI for himself and even floated passing it to his children. And back home in South Africa, talks over equity equivalence rules that would have let Starlink operate in the country appear to be dead. Read more in today’s newsletter. —Emmanuel Get smarter about Francophone Africa with our newsletter, Francophone Weekly—the startups, tech policies, and institutions building the pipelines for ecosystem growth. Subscribe End of the road for Starlink in South Africa? Cameroon acquires French-owned bank Chimoney shuts down Kenya proposes 25% levy on smartphones World Wide Web 3 Events companies South Africa says it won’t cancel this critical rule keeping Starlink locked out Image Source: Tenor If Starlink, the Elon Musk-owned satellite Internet company, had any hope of a South African entry, that future just got bleaker. The country is ten toes down. It won’t consider the equity equivalence programme suggested by Solly Malatsi, the country’s communications minister, in 2025, and will stick with the Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) rule that has stood for over 20 years. On Wednesday, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), the country’s telecoms regulator, pushed back against Malatsi’s plan to create a workaround that would allow Starlink and other foreign telecom companies to operate in the country without giving up 30% equity ownership under BEE rules. Understand this first: South Africa’s Electronic Communications Act (ECA) requires telecom licence holders to have at least 30% ownership by historically disadvantaged groups. That is the exact requirement Starlink says it cannot comply with. Malatsi had spent months pushing Equity Equivalent Investment Programmes (EEIPs) as an alternative. EEIPs allow companies to meet empowerment obligations through investments like infrastructure projects or local development initiatives. Starlink had also pledged to commit capital to community development under this route. All of that is now off the table. ICASA remains rigid in its reasoning: It says the ECA does not allow that flexibility; unless the law changes, the workaround cannot move forward. Starlink now has two realistic paths. One, accept the 30% ownership structure, which seems unlikely given that it hasn’t done so in any of the 26 African countries it operates in, and given Musk’s repeated public criticism of South Africa’s race-based ownership rules. Two, establish a local subsidiary, though that offers no guarantee either; Starlink said it had tried something similar in Namibia and was still rejected by regulators. The situation is further complicated by Musk’s deteriorating relationship with South African officials. In April, he called Clayson Monyela, the country’s Head of Public Affairs, unprintable names in an X post, straining an already tense relationship. We Have Secured the Bank of Ghana EPSP Licence. With our new Enhanced Payment Service Provider licence, we can help businesses collect, process and settle in cedis directly. Start here. government Cameroon has taken over Société Générale’s local bank Image Source: Tenor The Cameroonian government has completed the acquisition of the local subsidiary of Société Générale (SocGen), a French multinational bank and financial services company. Cameroon bought the French bank’s 58.08% stake, pushing its total ownership to 83.68%. The country said the takeover is temporary and designed to manage SocGen’s exit while creating room for new strategic investors later. The government has already renamed the lender as the General Bank of Cameroon. It’s not unheard of: African governments have historically held stakes in telecom and financial infrastructure businesses before gradually reducing ownership by selling to private entities. The Cameroonian government already holds stakes in lenders like Union Bank of Cameroon, NFC Bank, and Commercial Bank of Cameroon. The Kenyan government also held a stake in Safaricom before gradually selling portions over time. The great European bank retreat? Over the last few years, foreign lenders have either reduced their footprint in African markets or exited certain countries entirely. SocGen itself has sold subsidiaries in Congo, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, and Mauritania. Standard Chartered has exited markets in Gambia and Tanzania to focus on its wealth management banking. This doesn’t necessarily mean that Africa is bad business. In many cases, these global banks are retreating to focus on markets where they see the most scale. What’s Cameroon’s play here? SocGen’s local subsidiary is one of the country’s biggest banks; allowing a sudden exit without a transition plan could have disrupted lending activity in the banking sector. By stepping in temporarily, the government intends to keep the bank’s operations stable and eventually open it to national and international strategic investors. Unlimited free transfers on PalmPay PalmPay guarantees you unlimited free transfers to all banks in Nigeria and a 99.9% transaction success rate. We are making digital banking safer, simpler, and more reliable for everyday Nigerians. https://bit.ly/PalmPay-ng companies Chimoney, a fintech startup, is shutting down Image Source: Tenor Chimoney, the Nigerian-Canadian fintech that built a single application programming interface (API) for cross-border payments across 41 currencies, has shut down after four years. The Canada-based startup, founded by Uchi Uchibeke and backed by the Techstars Toronto Accelerator, stopped accepting new transactions on April 30 and is refunding all customer wallet balances through August 31, 2026. Chimoneyraised under $1 million across its entire lifespan. It held aFinancial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) Money Services Business (MSB) licence and was among the first companies to receive a Payment Service Provider (PSP) licence under the Bank of Canada’s Retail Payments Activities Act (RPAA). That kind of regulatory credibility costs money to build and money to maintain. Chimoney’s story is really a story about what Africa’s fintech ecosystem chooses to fund. The companies building payment rails and compliance infrastructure are a harder sell to early-stage investors than the consumer apps sitting on top of them. Chimoney had paying customers and four years of runway, but the capital never showed up to match the ambition. The startup said it notified investors and customers
Read MoreSouth African artists earned $30.69 million on Spotify in 2025. Most of it came from abroad.
Nearly 74% of the R504 million ($30.69 million) generated by South African artists on Spotify in 2025 came from listeners outside the country, making the rest of the world South African music’s biggest market on the streaming platform. This was disclosed by Spotify at its new Rosebank office in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Wednesday. The R504 million ($30.69 million) earned by South African artists is a 28% year-on-year increase, nearly double the earnings recorded in 2023. The growth underscores how streaming platforms are turning African music into an export industry, and reflects a sustained international appetite for South African music genres such as amapiano. The announced figures are part of the global streaming platform’s annual Loud & Clear report. The report attempts to give visibility into artists’ earnings on the platform. According to the company, it pays out two-thirds of every dollar it generates from music streaming to rights holders, who eventually pay artists. Globally, it paid out $11 billion in 2025, and Nigerian artists earned over ₦60 billion ($43.92 million) in royalties. South Africa has roughly a quarter of Nigeria’s population, making the per-capita earnings comparison notable. In 2025, South African artists were discovered by first-time listeners more than 1.6 billion times, up 40% from the previous year. More than half of the royalties generated by South African artists on Spotify went to independent artists or labels, reflecting how streaming is lowering barriers to global distribution and allowing artists to monetise audiences without major label backing. The announcement also comes as Spotify deepens its investment in Africa’s music ecosystem, following its launch in South Africa, its first on the continent, in 2018. Speaking at the company’s Johannesburg event, Jocelyne Muhutu-Remy, Spotify Sub-Saharan Africa Managing Director, said South African artists have become “a globally dominant creative force.” “Their success is driven by worldwide demand, ensuring that independent and local talent alike are being discovered by billions of listeners and taking the international stage by storm,” she added. Spotify’s data also showed that South African artists accounted for 67% of songs featured on Spotify South Africa’s Daily Top 50 chart in 2025. The company highlighted strong growth in music performed in Zulu, with a 37% increase in global royalties and more than 120% over two years. Local streams of South African female artists grew by 22% year-on-year, while their international streams grew by 20%. Overall, nearly 3,550 South African artists were added to editorial playlists on Spotify in 2025, and cloud rap, pop country, acoustic country, pop rap, and worship are the country’s fastest-growing genres over the last five years, according to Spotify data.
Read MoreGrey joins Moonshot 2026 as headline sponsor
TechCabal is announcing Grey, the US-based global cross-border payments company serving nearly three million users across 70 countries, as the headline sponsor of Moonshot 2026, for the conference’s return on October 28 and 29, 2026, at the National Theatre, Lagos, Nigeria. Grey’s headline partnership marks a new chapter for Moonshot, with the Y Combinator-backed fintech taking the top sponsorship slot for the first time as the conference enters its fourth edition. The partnership comes as Grey expands its cross-border capabilities with regulatory approval in Canada and the launch of Canadian dollar payouts, and deepens its push into B2B payments, placing the company at the centre of cross-border payments, one of the most active categories in global fintech today. Why Grey? Grey’s headline partnership comes at a moment when cross-border payments have become one of the most consequential fintech categories globally, with several companies in the sector operating across multiple countries and licenses. Built in Lagos, Moonshot’s home, Grey is a US-based global company now serving nearly three million users across 70 countries, with transfers to over 170 destinations in 30+ currencies. The company also powers virtual cards accepted at 150 million merchants worldwide, making it one of a small group of fintechs whose footprint genuinely matches the continent’s ambitions. Its recent expansion across South Asia and Latin America, introducing local payouts in Malaysia, Bangladesh, and Uruguay, demonstrates the global reach the conference’s programs celebrate. The February 2026 launch of Grey Business places the company directly in the path of the founders, operators, and SMEs the conference convenes. As Moonshot prepares for an edition focused on African tech’s role in the global economy, Grey’s combination of African roots and global reach makes the partnership a natural fit. “Cross-border payments are one of the few categories where Africa is building global infrastructure, not just consuming it. Moonshot is where that conversation is happening, and Grey wants to be part of shaping what gets built next. We have spent the last four years building for people and businesses that operate across borders, and a meaningful share of them are based on this continent. Showing up at Moonshot as headline sponsor is the right way to acknowledge that,” said Idorenyin Obong, CEO and co-founder of Grey. “Grey has built one of the most consequential companies in African fintech, a global payments business with nearly three million users that started in Lagos,” said Tomiwa Aladekomo, the CEO of Big Cabal Media. “Having them as the headline sponsor of Moonshot 2026 is a natural fit, and we are excited about the conversations their team will be leading on stage and in our halls this October.” What Grey’s partnership means for Moonshot 2026 Grey’s presence at Moonshot 2026 will include a headline keynote from CEO Idorenyin Obong on the future of borderless money, a private executive roundtable convening business decision-makers and investors, and an immersive on-site experience featuring both Grey’s consumer product and Grey Business. Full program details will be announced in the lead-up to the event. About Grey Grey is at the forefront of providing secure and convenient global banking solutions to meet the needs of customers and businesses. Grey holds a Money Service Business license from FINTRAC in Canada and FinCEN in the USA, and our primary focus is on emerging markets. Our range of services enables individuals and businesses to easily own and manage multi-currency accounts. This includes currency exchange, sending and receiving payments to and from over 170 countries, as well as access to virtual cards. About Moonshot by TechCabal Moonshot by TechCabal is the flagship pan-African technology conference convening founders, investors, operators, policymakers, and creatives from across Africa and beyond. The fourth edition takes place on October 28 and 29, 2026, at the National Theatre, Lagos. The conference theme and full programme will be announced in the coming weeks. To stay updated, visit moonshot.techcabal.com About TechCabal TechCabal is Africa’s leading technology media platform, providing reporting, data, and context on African technology, business, and innovation since 2013. TechCabal is part of Big Cabal Media, which also operates Zikoko, Cabal Creative, and TC Insights.
Read MoreTechstars-backed fintech Chimoney shuts down, to refund customer balances
Chimoney, a Nigerian-founded fintech that built cross-border payment infrastructure for businesses, has shut down, citing a lack of capital to sustain operations. In a May 1 email seen by TechCabal, the Canada-based startup told customers it had stopped processing new transactions and integrations and had begun refunding customer balances. “As of May 1, 2026, Chimoney has ceased all new transactions and integrations,” the email read. “No balance on file: No action needed on your end. This is our final operational email.” Businesses that relied on Chimoney’s payment rails will now have to find alternatives, exposing the fragility of building on startup infrastructure: when the provider goes down, so does the payment rail. Founded in 2022 by Uchi Uchibeke, Chimoney enabled businesses to pay freelancers and vendors in 41 currencies across Africa, North America, and Latin America. The startup provided businesses with a single API for cross-border payments, supporting bank transfers, mobile money, airtime, gift cards, and stablecoin rails for off-ramps. In 2023, it joined the Techstars Toronto accelerator. Chimoney raised $280,000 in total funding, according to startup directory Crunchbase, excluding undisclosed grants. Uchibeke said this figure was closer to $1 million. “Under $1 million is too thin for a venture-scale fintech across multiple jurisdictions,” Uchibeke said in an emailed response to TechCabal. “I should have either raised meaningfully more or bootstrapped properly with a profitable beachhead. Trying to operate at venture scale on bootstrap capital was the wrong strategy.” Chimoney notified investors of its planned wind-down in February 2026 and clients in April, according to Uchibeke. The company also published migration guides for developers before halting transactions on April 30. Uchibeke noted that client wallet balances are being refunded through a self-service dashboard that will remain open until August 31, 2026. Clients can select their preferred payment method, submit account details, and complete two-factor authentication. Chimoney said refunds are being processed within seven to 14 business days. Uchibeke added that unclaimed balances after August 2026 will be transferred to the relevant provincial unclaimed property offices, in line with Canada’s framework for dormant and unclaimed balances. “When revenue stayed flat, and there was no clear path to additional capital, the responsible decision was to wind down while we could still return every client dollar and meet every regulatory obligation,” he said. Chimoney processed tens of thousands of transactions for hundreds of business and enterprise clients, according to Uchibeke, although he declined to disclose exact figures. He said the company never solved distribution at scale, partly because too much focus was placed on product development over customer acquisition. The company had positioned itself as an early mover in API-first cross-border payouts and said it was one of the first production Interledger payment providers globally. In 2025, it attempted to reposition itself around AI agent payment infrastructure, allowing AI agents to hold wallets and move money under policy controls. “The thinking was that the convergence of agentic AI, stablecoins, and our existing infrastructure (Interledger wallets, multi-chain support, licenced rails, identity layer) put us in a defensible position,” Uchibeke said. “We shipped it, [but] it did not generate enough traction in time. The distribution and customer acquisition didn’t move fast enough on the runway we had left.” The pivot coincided with Chimoney securing a Payment Service Provider (PSP) licence under the Bank of Canada’s Retail Payment Activities Act (RPAA) in November 2025, allowing it to hold end-user funds. Despite the shutdown, Uchibeke said Chimoney’s parent entity, Chi Technologies Inc., will remain active and retain its PSP licence under dormant status. Chimoney is the latest venture Uchibeke has wound down, following the closure of AfricaHacks in 2023, a developer-focused community platform that later evolved into the World Innovation League (WII), a Canadian non-profit focused on digital skills and workforce development. He has also built several other products, including Oruly, a hybrid AI-and-human task outsourcing platform, and Food Waste Log, a food-waste tracking tool for restaurants. Uchibeke is now building APort, a separate product that requires AI agents to request and receive authorisation before they move money, change data, or trigger other sensitive actions on behalf of businesses. He said the new company is independent from Chimoney and carries none of its customer balances or regulatory obligations.
Read MoreTelecom subscribers may feel impact as IHS Towers slows infrastructure projects
IHS Towers is slowing infrastructure spending as rising costs across African markets force telecom companies to rethink expansion plans, a move that could also slow efforts to improve network quality for millions of mobile subscribers. On Tuesday, the tower company reported capital spending of $41.4 million in the first quarter of 2026, a 5.3% drop compared to the same period last year. IHS attributed the decline to “phasing” of some of its discretionary spending, meaning it is spreading out or delaying non-essential growth projects. At the same time, the company’s cost of sales rose to $183.6 million, up 5.64% from the previous year. The slowdown in capital spending could have direct implications for telecom subscribers. Tower companies like IHS provide the infrastructure used by operators such as MTN, Airtel, and 9mobile to deliver mobile and internet services. When expansion spending slows, the rollout of new towers, network upgrades, and fibre infrastructure may also slow, especially in rural and underserved areas. IHS is slowing down or postponing some expansion work, such as building new towers, upgrading power systems, or expanding fibre networks, while focusing more on projects that can deliver quicker returns. For subscribers, the impact could mean slower improvements in network quality, weaker coverage in crowded urban areas, and delays in the expansion of 4G and 5G services. Data demand across Nigeria continues to rise as more people rely on video streaming, fintech apps, social media, and remote work. According to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the country had more than 153 million active internet subscriptions as of March 2026. Slower infrastructure expansion could make it harder for telecom operators to keep up with that growing demand. The cautious spending reflects a wider shift across Africa’s telecom industry, where tower companies are focusing more on efficiency than rapid expansion. Rising energy prices, inflation, and foreign exchange pressures have increased the cost of building and maintaining telecom infrastructure, pushing operators to prioritise projects that can generate faster returns. In Nigeria, IHS Towers’ biggest market, rising diesel prices and higher maintenance costs have made network expansion more expensive. Even so, the company increased spending in the country to $16.4 million in the first quarter of 2026, up from $11.2 million during the same period last year, according to its financial statements. The spending slowdown in overall spending also comes at a time of major strategic change for the company. In February 2026, IHS Towers announced plans to sell its Latin American tower business to Macquarie Asset Management and its 51% stake in I-Systems to TIM S.A. It is also preparing for a proposed $2.2 billion acquisition by MTN Group, expected to be completed later in 2026. Even though the company spent less on expansion, it still performed better financially in the quarter. Revenue from its ongoing operations went up by 6% to $415.4 million. Profit from core operations, measured as adjusted Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortisation (EBITDA), also rose by 6.4% to $268.7 million. Cash flow increased further, rising 15.8% to $173.5 million, mainly because the company paid less interest on its debt. Sam Darwish, chairman and chief executive officer of IHS Towers, said the results reflected “disciplined execution and continued commercial momentum across the business.” The company’s tower portfolio also continued to shift. Total tower count fell by 1,571 year-on-year to 37,641 towers, mainly due to the disposal of its Rwanda operations in late 2025. Tenant numbers also declined, partly because of the exit of Nigerian telecom operator T2, formerly known as 9mobile, from some sites under a restructuring agreement. “It was agreed that T2 (former 9mobile) would vacate our sites in exchange for a contractual commitment to settle portions of its historic overdue balances through July, 2027,” the company noted in its Q1 2026 report. “As a result, the total number of tenants was 54,854 at the end of the first quarter.” Still, IHS Towers said the underlying demand for telecom infrastructure remains steady. Excluding the impact of the Rwanda disposal and tenant exits, the company added 865 net new tenants over the past year. Lease amendments, which reflect additional services and equipment installed on towers, rose by 5,593 year-on-year. The company’s decision to slow capital spending mirrors actions taken by other telecom operators and infrastructure firms across the continent. Airtel Africa recently warned that rising energy costs linked to geopolitical tensions were affecting margins, while MTN Rwanda said it was maintaining stricter discipline around infrastructure spending.
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