Nedbank taps AI-powered lending to reach underserved South Africans
Nedbank, one of South Africa’s largest banks, is turning to artificial intelligence to expand lending to millions of customers who have traditionally fallen outside the reach of formal credit. The Johannesburg-based lender has partnered with JUMO, a fintech infrastructure company, to launch Nedbank Quick Loans, an AI-powered lending product embedded within the Nedbank Money App. Customers can apply for loans from as little as R500 ($27) and receive credit decisions within minutes, with repayment terms ranging from one to 12 months. The partnership indicates a broader shift in African banking, with lenders increasingly turning to fintechs and AI to reach customers that conventional credit models have struggled to serve. The real test will not be how much money the partnership lends, but whether it can profitably offer fair, transparent credit to millions of low-income and thin-file borrowers who have historically relied on loan sharks, payday lenders and other informal lenders. “By embedding JUMO’s AI-led proprietary models and processes into Nedbank’s Money App, we are enabling a quick and easy client experience,” said Mutsa Chironga, Managing Executive for Personal Banking at Nedbank. “It is a great solution for smaller and short-term borrowing needs clients have.” Nedbank, which has a market capitalisation of R127 billion ($6.9 billion), is providing the balance sheet and banking infrastructure. JUMO, which operates in eight African markets and has facilitated more than $10 billion in loans across the continent, supplies the AI-powered lending engine that evaluates borrowers in real time. “We’ve spent the last 11 years building banking infrastructure and earning the trust of banks,” JUMO CEO Paul Whelpton told TechCabal on Thursday. “What we’re now seeing is JUMO becoming the intelligence layer of African financial services.” Historically, small-ticket lending has been difficult for banks. Customer onboarding costs were high, risk assessment was expensive, and predicting defaults among borrowers with limited credit histories was challenging. As a result, 37% of consumers who turned to the short-term informal credit market, dominated by more than 40,000 loan sharks, eventually required debt counselling. JUMO believes AI can change that equation. According to Whelpton, the platform analyses transactional, behavioural and repayment signals to assess both a customer’s ability and willingness to repay a loan. “We use behavioural and transactional information, as well as signals we have learned over the last decade about how customers behave outside the traditional banking and credit world,” he said. Whelpton noted that JUMO’s technology can help lenders serve customers who lack formal payslips, audited financial statements or extensive credit bureau histories. “I think the average man on the street, or the grandmother in the township, will now get access to formal credit in the right way,” he said. “It’s fully transparent, with no hidden fees and nothing that could hurt them or get them into a debt trap.” Questions remain about whether easier access to digital credit could create new forms of over-indebtedness. Whelpton said JUMO and Nedbank have implemented strict affordability measures and lend below regulatory maximum thresholds to avoid pushing customers to their limits. The economics appear promising. JUMO says it has disbursed more than $10 billion across Africa and processes about $240 million in loans each month. Despite focusing on unsecured lending and customers with limited traditional credit histories, its banking partnerships are recording default rates of about 3.3%. The partnership offers a glimpse into South Africa’s banking future, where banks provide the capital and trust, while fintechs deliver the intelligence that determines who gains access to credit.
Read MoreHow AI is breaking banking’s old employment model
Banking jobs in Kenya and, by extension, most African markets have carried a certain social prestige thanks to stable salaries, pension plans, and confidence in a sector that seems too important to shrink. But the proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) is threatening to rewrite this promise. Looking at a bank like Standard Chartered Kenya (StanChart), the numbers tell a big story before its executives do. In 2013, StaChart had over 2,200 employees. At the time, the bank operated a large branch network, sizable operational teams, several middle-management roles, and thousands of employees handling most processes manually—from onboarding customers and processing paperwork to compliance reviews and reconciliations. By the end of 2025, its workforce fell below 1,000 employees for the first time in history. These shifts at Stanchart signal re-pricing of labour inside Africa’s banking sector. The work that used to justify thousands of entry- and mid-level roles is now being done by systems that are cheaper and involve far fewer people. In May, the lender’s parent company signalled that the decade-long cuts are not temporary, but part of its new strategic focus. During an investor event in Hong Kong on May 19, the British bank said it plans to cut more than 15% of its support-function staff by 2030. These are the people working in areas like human resources, compliance, procurement, operations, and administration. The bank openly said AI will help replace many of those tasks as its acceleration will “deliver faster execution and clear financial outcomes.” It is moving toward what it calls a “simple, connected and fast” operating model, in which every task is assigned to automation, AI-assisted workflows, or humans. By 2027, it expects 90% of key technology controls to be continuously monitored by AI, while 80% of controls will be fully codified into executable rules. Operational processes are also being automated, with AI document processing targeted at 95% accuracy (up from 85%) and virtual assistants expected to resolve up to 60% of internal queries without human intervention. The bank has deployed more than 300 AI use cases, including 43 high-impact generative AI applications, and trained about 85,000 staff on Microsoft Copilot. It is reporting early efficiency gains, including a 40% reduction in false positives in digital asset surveillance, an 88% cut in monitoring manpower through centralised systems (saving roughly $10 million annually), and a 30% reduction in manual effort tied to regulatory change implementation. AI is coming for the people The first wave of digital banking killed some branches, but AI is now coming for the few ones that are remaining and even the headquarters. In essence, the first era was customer-facing. Banks spent the last 15 years persuading customers to stop visiting branches and use online or mobile banking, ATMs, and agency banking. This removed the need for physical interactions, moving a majority of transactions outside bank halls. The first phase of the transition affected only frontline workers, such as tellers. As branch footprints shrank, cash handling declined. But the next stage of automation, as signalled by Stanchart, is more consequential because it targets the institutional backbone inside banks themselves. Banking functions like human resources, compliance, call centres, and customer onboarding employ thousands of people across African markets precisely because banking remains one of the continent’s most administratively complex industries. The sector must navigate fragmented identity systems, cross-border regulations, paper-heavy documentation requirements, anti-money laundering obligations, and diverse payment infrastructures across multiple markets. Historically, a large workforce addressed most of these inefficiencies, but AI now threatens to do so more cheaply. That is the significance of StanChart’s announcement. The bank is arguing that many support functions no longer need to be labour-intensive. For instance, a large language model (LLM) can review documents continuously without overtime costs and flag suspicious transactions faster than human analysts. Automated compliance systems can process vast amounts of regulatory information instantly, while customer-service chatbots can handle thousands of queries simultaneously. What once required floors of junior employees requires software infrastructure supervised by a smaller number of specialists. The middle-class jobs The danger of faster AI adoption in banks for African economies is not simply unemployment. It is the erosion of middle-tier professional work. Banking has historically been one of Africa’s most important engines of the urban middle class. It created structured graduate recruitment pipelines, management-training programmes, pension-backed careers, and relatively stable white-collar employment. Notable African political and business elites passed through banks early in their careers. What AI threatens to remove are precisely the kinds of jobs that created those pathways. These jobs are repetitive enough to automate but skilled enough to have historically supported middle-income urban life. That creates a bigger social risk. If banks continue to earn strong profits while employing significantly fewer people, the sector may cease functioning as a major employer. Banking could resemble the technology sector itself, becoming highly productive and highly profitable while employing small numbers of specialised workers. And transformation may already be underway. Across Kenya’s banking sector, hiring is concentrated around cybersecurity, data engineering, AI, and specialised relationship management rather than traditional operations. Some banks like KCB Group and Equity Group continue expanding overall staff numbers, but the composition of hiring is changing.
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👨🏿🚀TechCabal Daily – Uber-charged for Kenya
In partnership with Lire en Français اقرأ هذا باللغة العربية Happy pre-TGIF. Very few events can earn the tag of unprecedented in Nigeria’s tech ecosystem, especially in the last ten years. If, like us, you have followed the ecosystem religiously in this time, you would have seen it all. Exits, mega-rounds, acquisitions, shutdowns, layoffs, and even the occasional initial public offerings (IPOs). But when Cowrywise, the Nigerian wealth management startup that manages money for two million people, promoted eleven people to the position of associate vice president in January, it earned that tag. Read our in-depth article to understand why the startup made the promotions, why it matters, and what it means for the ecosystem. Get smarter about Francophone Africa with our newsletter, Francophone Weekly—the startups, tech policies, and institutions building the pipelines for ecosystem growth. Subscribe Uber to expand Kenyan operations Amazon Prime launches in South Africa ViaTunisia subsea cable goes live Smartphones to cost Nigerians more World Wide Web 3 Events Ride-hailing Uber wants to double its electric boda fleet in Kenya Uber Electric Boda. Image Source: Uber When Uber, the ride-hailing giant, launched Electric Boda (e-bikes) in Nairobi, Kenya, in August 2023, its pitch was to offer cheaper rides for passengers, lower costs for drivers, and a cleaner city for everyone. By the end of 2024, its e-bike fleet had reportedly completed 94% of its trips since its launch. The company also said its e-boda fleet drove an 81% increase in active driver sign-ups. Seeing the results, Uber will double its electric motorcycle fleet in Kenya by the end of 2026, the clearest sign yet that what started as an experiment has become a core part of how the company wants to grow in that market. Why are Kenyan boda boda gig riders choosing electric? Petrol. Maintenance. Repairs. These three things eat into a rider’s income every day. Electric bikes cut operating costs by an estimated 30–35% compared to petrol. Kenya Power, the country’s electricity distributor, reported KES 382 million ($2.9 million) in EV charging revenue between July 2023 and April 2026, a 113-fold increase from where it started, driven almost entirely by motorcycle charging. Zoom out: Kenya had 35,000 registered EVs by the end of 2025, up from 796 three years earlier. Almost all of them are motorcycles. Uber doubling its fleet doesn’t just grow a product line; it puts more electric bikes on the road in a country where 1.5 million people depend on boda bodas for their livelihood. When Uber scales in Kenya, it scales for them. Money20/20 in Amsterdam Event. Join us for a night of cocktails, conversations, and networking on the sidelines of Money20/20 in Amsterdam. Spaces are limited. RSVP here. Ecommerce Amazon Prime launches in South Africa, offering customers delivery perks Image Source: Andertoons For R59 ($3.6) a month, South Africans can now get same-day or next-day delivery on their Amazon orders, access to Prime Video, cloud gaming, and a front-row seat to Prime Day deals. On Wednesday, Amazon, the Jeff Bezos-founded e-commerce company that expanded to South Africa in May 2024, launched Amazon Prime locally, bringing its flagship membership programme to the country for the first time. An annual plan costs R399 ($24), saving members 44% compared to paying monthly. State of play: The subscription will bundle e-commerce delivery perks, free gaming, and streaming services for South Africans, making it one of the most competitive offerings to land in the market at that price point. Amazon Prime is not new to Africa. Amazon Prime is currently available in 28 countries globally, with monthly prices ranging from $4 to about $8. In Africa, Egypt is the only other market with Prime delivery perks, having launched in 2022, where membership costs EGP 87 ($1.67) every three months or EGP 249 ($4.79) annually. At that price, Egypt’s offering is notably cheaper than South Africa’s. Globally, however, South Africa’s R59 ($3.6) monthly rate sits among the more affordable entry points, with the notable exception that US members, who pay more, get full access to the entire Amazon services ecosystem in return. The service also arrives just in time to rope South Africans into Prime Day, Amazon’s annual global discount event running from June 23 to 26. An attempt to deepen customer loyalty and increase competition: Takealot, which has spent years building its own loyalty and delivery proposition, now faces a better-funded, globally tested version of the same idea. Checkers Sixty60 built its dominance on free delivery and speed. Prime is now in that lane, too. What Amazon is really launching is not a membership programme. It is the infrastructure that made it unbeatable everywhere else, now pointed directly at South Africa’s most competitive consumer categories, all at once. Naira Life 2026 is here! The theme for this year’s Naira Life Conference by Zikoko is “All About Wealth.”Join 2,000+ in Lagos on August 22 for a day of practical money conversations and workshops designed to move you from simply earning an income to building lasting wealth. Get 15% off early bird tickets. Telecoms Tunisia gets a new direct data highway to Europe Image Source: Orange Most people never think about submarine cables until one breaks. Then suddenly the Internet slows down, payments fail, and entire countries start looking for backup routes. On Wednesday, Orange announced that the ViaTunisia subsea cable segment connecting Marseille in France to Bizerte in Tunisia has reached “Ready for Service” status, meaning it is now operational and capable of carrying live traffic. The project forms part of Medusa, a wider Mediterranean cable system that aims to improve connectivity between Europe and North Africa. It all started in 2022: The European Union (EU) agreed to support the project through its Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) programme. ViaTunisia cost €32 million ($37 million) to deploy, with the EU contributing €9.6 million ($11 million) towards construction and management costs. Why Tunisia? Geography. Marseille is an important Internet hub, acting as a gateway for submarine cables that link Europe to Africa, the Middle East, and
Read MoreNigeria’s Legend Internet revenue drops 19% as costs surge sharply
Legend Internet Plc, Nigeria’s first listed internet service provider, reported a sharp decline in half-year revenue thanks to rising operating costs, weaker broadband sales, and growing debt pressures. Revenue fell 18.8% to ₦505.36 million ($368,000) in the six months ended January 2026, down from ₦622.64 million ($453,400) in the corresponding period in the previous year, according to the company’s financial results. The downturn marks a reversal from the growth momentum surrounding its April 2025 listing on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX). The company’s financial performance highlights the mounting pressure on smaller broadband providers in Nigeria’s internet market, where rising operating costs, aggressive competition from telecom operators, and the growing presence of satellite internet provider Starlink are squeezing margins. The revenue decline was driven largely by weaker performance in Legend Fibre, the company’s core broadband business. Revenue from the segment dropped to ₦198.3 million ($144,401) from ₦318.15 million ($231,676) in the previous year. Inside Legend’s Overhead Explosion Tap below to see how surging administrative and personnel costs wiped out profitability. H1 2025 (Previous) H1 2026 (Current) Total Admin Expenses+174.4% ₦166.77M Personnel Expensesx2 (Doubled) ₦76.75M Professional Fees>8x Surge ₦9.93M Net Impact ₦239.85M (Profit) The Insight: A year ago, overhead costs were manageable, allowing the company to retain a healthy ₦239.85 million in net profit. Source: Legend Internet Plc Financial Results While revenue declined, operating costs moved in the opposite direction. Legend’s administrative expenses rose 174.4% year-on-year to ₦457.62 million ($333,238). Personnel expenses doubled to ₦153.5 million ($111,778), while professional fees increased more than eightfold to ₦79.45 million ($57,855). The rising overheads sharply eroded profitability. Gross profit fell by 21.48%, while the company swung from a profit after tax of ₦239.85 million in the previous year to a net loss of ₦99.34 million ($72,339). The decline comes after a relatively stronger 2025 financial year, when Legend reported a 4% increase in revenue to ₦1.19 billion ($866,557) and a 44% rise in profit after tax to ₦172.7 million ($125,760). However, quarterly filings had already shown slowing revenue growth alongside rising spending on personnel and marketing. Those pressures appear to have intensified in the first half of 2026. The company’s balance sheet also points to increasing reliance on debt financing to support operations. Cash and cash equivalents rose sharply from ₦21.02 million ($15,306) in July 2025 to ₦269.13 million ($195,980) by January 2026. However, the improvement was largely funded through borrowing rather than operational performance. The additional borrowing has helped preserve short-term liquidity but has also increased financial risk. Cash flow data paints a similarly challenging picture. Legend recorded a negative operating cash flow of ₦237.48 million ($172,932), a significant deterioration from the positive ₦18.43 million ($13,420) reported previously. The company spent more on prepayments, infrastructure-related costs, and general operations than it generated from broadband services. Without external financing, the company would have faced severe liquidity pressure. Net cash from financing activities reached ₦382.04 million ($278,194), largely driven by commercial paper proceeds and other borrowings. The company has also kept broadband pricing relatively stable despite inflation and currency pressures, a strategy aimed at retaining subscribers but one that has further compressed margins. Spectranet merger may offer a lifeline The company’s proposed merger with Spectranet has become increasingly important. Announced in March 2026, the deal would create what the companies describe as Nigeria’s largest ISP. The merger is designed to combine Legend’s fibre infrastructure with Spectranet’s established wireless broadband customer base, creating a larger platform capable of generating economies of scale. For Legend, the transaction could provide a path out of its current financial challenges. The merger offers opportunities to increase utilisation of its ₦2.45 billion ($1.78 million) fibre infrastructure assets, expand revenue through cross-selling, reduce duplicated administrative costs, and strengthen its balance sheet. However, analysts expect integration costs and regulatory approvals to weigh on earnings in the near term, even if the combined entity gains a stronger position in Nigeria’s increasingly competitive broadband market.
Read MoreEsca Finance taps Tether-backed MANSA for same-day African payment settlements
Esca Finance, a Nigerian-founded foreign exchange (FX) sourcing and treasury management startup, has partnered with MANSA, a Tether-backed stablecoin settlement provider, to enable same-day settlements across key African payment corridors, including Nigeria, Ghana, and Francophone West and Central African markets. The partnership combines Esca’s FX, banking, and local payout infrastructure with MANSA’s stablecoin-backed settlement rails, allowing payment companies and remittance providers to complete transactions faster without tying up capital across multiple markets. Cross-border payment companies often have to pre-fund accounts in destination countries before processing transactions. That means keeping money parked across several markets in advance, tying up working capital, and making expansion more expensive. Esca said MANSA’s infrastructure provides liquidity when transactions are initiated, reducing the need for businesses to hold large balances in multiple countries. The move underscores how FX infrastructure providers are using stablecoins to offer faster settlement to businesses seeking alternatives to conventional correspondent banking systems, which can be slow and costly in many African markets. Stablecoin-based settlement infrastructure has emerged as an option for cross-border money movement while improving access to dollar liquidity. The partnership will enable Esca’s customers to move money across Nigerian, Ghanaian, XAF, and XOF corridors with same-day settlement, rather than waiting for funds to move through traditional banking networks. Esca said transactions routed through MANSA’s infrastructure are expected to account for 10%–20% of its monthly payment volume over the next 12 months. “MANSA’s settlement-first USDT rails have strengthened our ability to deliver same-day settlements across key African corridors, helping Esca scale more efficiently with tier-one remittance players,” Shalom Osiadi, chief executive officer of Esca Finance, said. Founded in 2023, Esca Finance helps businesses manage foreign exchange exposure across emerging markets. The company says it processes between $75 million and $120 million in monthly transaction volume and serves customers ranging from remittance firms and fintechs to exporters and multinational businesses. It lists MoneyGram and Bridge, the Stripe-owned stablecoin infrastructure company, among clients. The deal supports Esca’s broader expansion across the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). The company said it is already live through partner rails in Burundi, Comoros, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, and plans to expand into additional markets, including Seychelles and Djibouti, in 2026. “Esca has built deep capabilities in local execution and banking relationships across African markets, while MANSA provides the settlement liquidity layer,” Mouloukou Sanoh, chief executive officer and co-founder of MANSA, said. The partnership will initially focus on markets where both companies already operate, with plans to expand as Esca grows its African network and MANSA adds new settlement corridors.
Read MoreBright Okereke didn’t choose product management. A missing grade did.
Bright Okereke didn’t plan to become a product manager. A missing biology exam changed everything. In 2013, Okereke, fresh out of secondary school, was hoping to study Electrical and Electronics (Computer) Engineering at the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO) in southeastern Nigeria’s Imo State. He had spent most of his teenage years obsessed with computers. “I got access to computers as a kid; I was enrolled into a computer training centre immediately after my primary school,” he says. “I was able to pick up very quickly and during my secondary school days, I could type at over 100 words per minute.” Computers fascinated him, and engineering felt like a natural path. But when admission season came, things did not go as planned. Okereke, who grew up in Aba, the commercial city in southeastern Nigeria’s Abia State, failed to secure admission to study engineering. He had listed Agricultural Extension as a backup course. “I loved agriculture,” he recalls. “ My dad had a farm, and I used to join him.” Then another problem surfaced. A university staff member informed him that he could not switch into Agricultural Extension because he had not taken Biology in the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), Nigeria’s university entrance exam. Instead, she suggested something else: Project Management. “I did [choose Project Management] because I didn’t even know what else to do then,” he admits. At first, the course sounded random. Then curiosity kicked in. Okereke began researching what project management actually meant. Somewhere in that search, he realised the field sat surprisingly close to technology, operations, and systems building. “I found out [project management] was actually a very big thing,” he recalls. “It was also a tech career that I could pursue.” That accidental pivot would quietly shape the rest of his career. By the time he graduated from FUTO in 2018 with a degree in Project Management, he had already started teaching himself how software worked. Between 2016 and 2017, he spent late nights learning to code through platforms like W3Schools and Lynda.com. But graduating into Nigeria’s job market was less inspiring. Nigeria produces over 600,000 university graduates a year, many of whom struggle to find formal employment. Like many young Nigerians trying to stay afloat, Okereke took whatever work he could find. For a while, he worked in a bakery mixing dough and baking bread, while waiting to participate in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Nigeria’s mandatory one-year program for graduates. In 2020, he was posted to Atisbo Local Government Area in Oyo State, hundreds of kilometres away from home. He taught Mathematics at Baptist Secondary School during the week and spent weekends travelling to Ogun State to freelance for MaxOrg Homes and Properties, a real estate company, generating leads and managing prospective clients. The role paid, but it drained him. “It let me know that [marketing] was not my calling, [and] that I needed to move into something else,” he says. Reserved by nature, he found the constant social interaction exhausting. But the experience taught him something useful: communication mattered, even for quiet people. After concluding his NYSC in 2021, his friend recommended him for a role at Clever Realty, a Lagos-based real estate company, as an executive assistant and project manager. He got the role. It was not yet tech, but the experience would help him in his future tech roles. “I learned planning and executing goals across an organisation,” he says. “As a reserved person, it trained me as well to be able to speak up to people,” he says. “Imagine following your boss to client meetings, and seeing the way he addresses the clients.” The long road to the right role The transition into tech arrived properly in late 2021. Okereke interned at Mentortribes, a remote startup that provides practical learning and internship opportunities for aspiring technology professionals. There, he worked with scrum teams and helped manage product development processes for software products, including a digital savings application inspired by ajo, the community-based rotating savings system common across Nigeria. “My role was to manage the scrum team,” he says. “It served as a learning curve for me to practice agile product management within a SaaS team.” For the first time, the theories he had studied started connecting to real products. At the same time, he was taking online courses in product and project management through Coursera, building the foundation for what would become his career. Then crypto arrived In December 2021, while still interning at Mentortribes, Okereke joined Blocklo Technologies, a Nigerian blockchain and cryptocurrency company, initially writing articles about cryptocurrency and Web3. “I was able to start picking up a bit of interest in crypto while still in school,” he says. “There was a lot of buzz around Bitcoin [and] Ethereum.” By then, crypto adoption in Nigeria was exploding. Bitcoin and Ethereum had become part of mainstream online conversation, particularly among young Nigerians looking for alternative financial systems. Nearly one in three Nigerians had used or owned crypto assets, making Nigeria a leading country for Bitcoin and cryptocurrency adoption globally. Okereke saw an opening inside the company. “One day, I told my CEO that I also had project management experience,” he recalls. “We were looking for a project manager at the time.” The CEO agreed. In March 2022, he officially transitioned into product management, working on a crypto wallet and NFT marketplace. The role deepened his understanding of how digital products are built under pressure: coordinating engineers, balancing timelines, handling stakeholder expectations, and shipping products across distributed teams working in different countries and time zones. “Blocklo technologies helped me understand product development in the crypto and Web3 space,” he says. “I also understood how to collaborate across multiple time zones which helped me excel in further roles down the line”. That operational depth became increasingly valuable. In 2023, he joined Wazobia Technologies, a UK-based software development company that builds digital products and technology solutions for businesses, working remotely as a hybrid project and product manager until
Read MoreSouth Africa’s AI skills gap is widening faster than universities can keep up
The skills needed to work with artificial intelligence are changing faster than South Africa’s education system can adapt, leaving employers scrambling for talent as AI adoption accelerates across the economy. Ana Alonso, Salesforce Senior Vice President and General Manager for Eastern Mediterranean, Israel and Africa, a global cloud-based software company with offices in Johannesburg and Morocco, warned about the gap between what businesses need and what universities are teaching. “The gap is widening as AI technologies continue to evolve faster than traditional education systems can respond,” Alonso told TechCabal on the sidelines of the Agentforce World Tour Johannesburg event on Tuesday. South African businesses are embracing AI faster than ever, but the country’s education system remains constrained by slow curriculum cycles and outdated qualification frameworks. As demand grows for AI specialists, cloud developers and automation experts, the skills gap will require closer collaboration between universities, government and the private sector. Alonso noted that organisations are increasingly facing a mismatch between rapidly changing AI job requirements and qualification systems that can take years to update. “South Africa is a big growth engine for us in Africa,” she stated. “The companies here are adopting cloud technologies very fast, and when we look at our customer base, most of them are already trying to use AI. They are using AI mainly to improve the way they relate with their customers.” The challenge is becoming one of the most important questions facing Africa’s future workforce. While businesses across banking, telecommunications, retail and technology are rushing to deploy AI tools, they are competing for talent with skills that often did not exist when many employees completed their degrees. As AI capabilities evolve every few months, employers are placing greater value on practical skills, micro-credentials and continuous learning. It raises concerns that universities and training institutions may struggle to keep graduates relevant in an AI-driven economy. While much of the global AI conversation has focused on productivity gains, Alonso believes that the real value lies in helping businesses deliver better customer experiences. “There has been a lot of conversation about how AI is going to help companies be more efficient, and that is true. But really the value is about how companies are going to be able to serve customers in a better way,” she said. Dr Rowen Govender, Head of the School of AI at Regenesys Business School, said the talent shortfall between AI adoption and workforce readiness presents both a challenge and an opportunity for South Africa. “Without investment in AI education and skills development, South Africa risks falling behind in the global digital economy. However, with the right interventions, AI has the potential to drive economic growth, improve productivity and create new career opportunities across sectors,” said. Salesforce Senior Talent Program Manager Ursula Fear centred the challenge on South Africa’s qualification frameworks that typically operate on five-year cycles, while AI technologies and associated skills are changing in a matter of months. “Learning in the flow of work has become critical. People need to dedicate time every week to continuously build new skills,” she said. Fear said organisations are increasingly looking beyond formal qualifications and focusing on demonstrable capabilities. Salesforce’s Trailhead learning platform, which provides access to AI and cloud-related training, is the company’s effort to bridge that gap. She also highlighted shortages in specialist areas such as marketing automation, AI implementation, cloud development and AI-enabled customer experience design. The urgency is particularly acute in a country where youth unemployment remains among the highest in the world. South Africa’s official unemployment rate stands above 32%, while unemployment among people aged 15 to 24 exceeds 60%. Alonso believes AI could become an opportunity rather than a threat if governments, universities and businesses work together.
Read MoreSmartphone prices in Nigeria could jump 30% this year, hitting entry-level buyers
Nigeria’s smartphone market grew 8% year-on-year in Q1 2026, supported by demand for affordable 4G and 5G smartphones in the $200 to $299 segment, according to Omdia, a global technology market research firm. But that growth was smaller than the 25% recorded in Q4 2025, when the sub-$200 segment dominated. This will further worsen in 2026, with smartphone prices forecasted to rise by up to 30%, threatening affordability for millions who rely on mobile phones to get online. Rising global component and memory costs will drive this increase as manufacturers pass higher production expenses into retail pricing, according to Manish Pravinkumar, Principal Analyst at Omdia. “Pricing pressure also appears far from fully reflected at retail: with component and memory costs rising, Nigeria could still see another 15 to 30% upward pricing adjustment through the remainder of the year, particularly in the mass market,” Pravinkumar told TechCabal in an email. “Premium demand should remain comparatively resilient because the affordability impact is concentrated at the entry and lower-mid tiers.” BT, the British multinational telecommunications company, said in May that smartphone costs could rise as technology firms competing in the artificial intelligence race buy up semiconductor chips, adding pressure to already strained supply chains. The country is particularly exposed to supply chain pressures because it relies heavily on imported devices. Roughly 90% of smartphone volumes sold in the country are imported, according to Pravinkumar. Smartphones enabled 153.15 million mobile Internet subscriptions in Nigeria in March 2026. Local assembly, operator-backed financing, and telco-led device subsidies remain limited compared to some African markets. Phones priced below $150 account for more than 60% of smartphone volumes in the country, according to data from Omdia. Four in five smartphones sold in Nigeria and across Africa were priced below $200. The average smartphone selling price in the country rose to $134 in Q1 2026, up 2% year-on-year, according to Pravinkumar. “This leaves the market highly exposed to even modest pricing adjustments,” Pravinkumar said. With inflation eroding purchasing power and naira volatility raising import costs, higher global device prices could further strain household budgets. The most vulnerable segment is the $80–$150 price band. Pravinkumar said price increases in this category could push some consumers toward slightly higher tiers, supported by device financing where available, while others delay upgrades until late 2026 or even Q1 2027. “This creates a difficult near-term environment for vendors as replacement demand softens while first-time smartphone conversion also becomes more price sensitive,” Pravinkumar said. Nigeria is not alone. Across Africa, the affordable smartphones that have powered much of the continent’s digital growth are becoming harder to sustain commercially. Smartphone shipments across Africa grew 3% year-on-year to 19.9 million units in Q1 2026, according to Omdia, but the market is expected to face increasing pressure through the rest of the year. “Africa’s ultra-affordable smartphone market is entering a structurally more challenging phase in 2026 as margin compression strains entry-tier device economics to a breaking point,” Pravinkumar said. On a per-manufacturer basis, Nigeria remains one of Transsion Holdings’ most important global markets, but it is also among the most exposed to entry-level pricing pressure. The Chinese manufacturer, whose brands include Tecno, Infinix, and itel, grew shipments by 26% year-on-year in Q1 2026, outperforming the broader market, according to data from Omdia. Yet its dominance in affordable devices could also make it more vulnerable if consumer demand weakens at the lower end of the market. “While Transsion’s unmatched nationwide distribution, deep retail relationships and strong after-sales infrastructure continue to provide a major competitive advantage, its category leadership also makes it most vulnerable to affordability-led demand weakness,” the principal analyst at Omdia said. As margins tighten, market attention could increasingly shift toward vendors with stronger supply-chain advantages. Pravinkumar expects Samsung to be better positioned because of its scale in component sourcing and memory integration. With vendors already scaling back aggressive discounting and marketing spending, device financing may become an increasingly important competitive tool for boosting smartphone sales. “Nigeria remains one of Africa’s largest smartphone opportunities, but near-term growth will increasingly depend on how effectively brands manage affordability,” Pravinkumar added.
Read MoreSpectranet, Starlink, and FibreOne control nearly 70% of Nigeria’s internet market
Spectranet, Starlink, and FibreOne now control nearly 70% of Nigeria’s internet service provider (ISP) market, highlighting the growing dominance of a handful of large operators as smaller providers struggle with rising costs and intense competition. According to the latest ISP subscriber statistics released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Nigeria recorded 352,006 active ISP subscribers in the fourth quarter of 2025. Of that figure, Spectranet, Starlink, and FibreOne accounted for a combined 244,929 subscribers, representing 69.58% of the market. Spectranet remained the market leader with 108,525 active subscribers, followed by Starlink with 91,991 and FibreOne with 44,413. The figures reflect a market becoming increasingly concentrated around a handful of providers despite the presence of more than 200 licenced ISPs in the country. The trend has been building throughout 2025. NCC data for the first half of the year showed that Nigeria had 313,713 active ISP subscribers by the end of June 2025, up 9.84% from 285,605 users recorded at the end of December 2024. Even then, the market was dominated by the same three players. Spectranet, Starlink, and FibreOne accounted for roughly 65% of all ISP users in the country. The latest figures suggest the dominance of the trio has only deepened, with their combined market share rising to almost 70% by the end of 2025. Starlink has emerged as one of the biggest beneficiaries of this market shift. Official NCC data showed the satellite internet provider had 66,523 subscribers at the end of the first half of 2025. By the fourth quarter, that figure had jumped to 91,991 subscribers, reflecting strong demand for Although the NCC maintains a registry of more than 220 licensed internet providers, only 133 operators were active enough to submit performance reports during the second quarter of 2025. This suggests that a significant number of licensed providers have either become dormant or operate at a very limited scale. Industry operators have long cited high bandwidth costs, expensive right-of-way charges imposed by state governments, foreign exchange pressures, and rising diesel prices as major obstacles to growth. Competition from mobile network operators has further intensified the pressure. Throughout 2025, telecom companies such as MTN and Airtel expanded their 5G networks and fibre-to-the-home offerings, attracting enterprise customers and households that traditionally relied on independent ISPs. Their larger scale, nationwide infrastructure, and ability to offer bundled services have made it increasingly difficult for smaller providers to compete. The result has been a steady consolidation of Nigeria’s ISP market. While overall subscriber numbers continue to grow, much of that growth is being captured by a few dominant players.
Read MoreUganda’s central bank caps cash withdrawals in digital payments push
Uganda’s central bank has imposed new limits on over-the-counter cash withdrawals and slashed cheque transaction thresholds in a sweeping push to accelerate the country’s transition to a cashless economy. In a May 29 circular sent to commercial banks, credit institutions, and microfinance deposit-taking institutions, the Bank of Uganda (BoU) said individual customers will only be allowed to withdraw up to UGX50 million ($13,700) daily and UGX250 million ($68,500) weekly in cash over the counter. The new rules will take effect from January 1, 2027. Businesses and corporate customers will face daily withdrawal caps of UGX500 million ($137,000) and weekly limits of UGX2.5 billion ($685,000). The measures mark the clearest signal that Uganda’s financial regulators want to reduce the economy’s reliance on cash and move transactions onto digital payment rails such as mobile money, internet banking, and real-time settlement systems. “These interventions align with our strategic commitment to fostering a modern, digital-first financial landscape by encouraging a shift from traditional paper- based instruments to secure electronic channels,” BoU said in the circular. “During this six-month transition period, the Bank of Uganda shall, in collaboration with all stakeholders, conduct comprehensive public awareness and information dissemination campaigns.” The central bank is also tightening cheque usage limits, further discouraging paper-based payments. Under the new rules, the maximum value for Uganda shilling-denominated cheques has been reduced from UGX10 million ($2,740) to UGX5 million ($1,370). US dollar cheque limits have been cut from $2,750 to $1,375, while euro cheque limits will fall from €2,250 to €1,125. Pound sterling cheque limits have similarly been reduced from £2,200 to £1,100, and Kenyan shilling cheque limits from KES 300,000 to KES 150,000. The restrictions come as digital payments continue to expand in the country. According to Bank of Uganda data, electronic money transactions grew 28% in 2025 to UGX366 trillion ($100.3 billion), while transaction volumes increased 17.3% to 9.1 billion transactions. In 2025, mobile money transaction volumes rose 21.1% to 301.1 million transactions, while transaction values surged 40% to UGX66.1 trillion ($18.1 billion). The number of active mobile money customers climbed to 36.3 million, supported by an agent network that expanded 27.5% to more than 1.16 million agents nationwide.
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