For every ₦1 Nigerian banks lent consumers, corporates got ₦10
This is Follow the Money, our weekly series that unpacks the earnings, business, and scaling strategies of African fintechs, financial institutions, companies, and governments. A new edition drops every Monday. Four of Nigeria’s biggest banks held ₦89.94 trillion ($65.63 billion) in customer deposits in 2025. Much of that money came from the millions of retail customers who save, transact, and bank with them every day. Yet nearly 90% of the loans the banks disbursed went to corporate borrowers. Oil and gas companies, manufacturers, and telecom operators accounted for most of the credit exposure. For every ₦1 these banks lent to retail customers, they lent about ₦10 to corporates. The Credit Chasm ₦10 to Corporates, ₦1 to You. Nigeria’s top four banks hold ₦89.9 trillion in deposits. But when it comes to lending that money back out, the gap between everyday consumers and large corporations is staggering. The Retail to Corporate Ratio 1 : 10.3 Naira Values Percentages Retail Loans ₦3.47 Trillion 10.5% Corporate Loans ₦29.60 Trillion 89.5% Source: TechCabal Analysis / 2025 Annual Reports (GTCO, Access, UBA, First Bank). This is according to an analysis of the annual reports of Access Holdings Plc, Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc (GTCO), United Bank for Africa (UBA), and First HoldCo Plc. The numbers reveal a banking system where millions of retail customers provide part of the deposits that fund lending, but large businesses receive most of the credit. For traditional lenders, large corporate loans are easier to monitor, cheaper to administer, and often more profitable than thousands of small consumer loans. But this imbalance has left a large section of consumers and small businesses underserved by formal lending and created the gap that digital lenders and fintechs are increasingly trying to close. Only around 6% of adults borrow from formal sources, even though over 64% of adults are financially included, according to Enhancing Financial Inclusion and Advancement (EFInA), a financial sector organisation that tracks financial inclusion. “Limited access to credit can hinder economic growth and development by constraining investment in productive assets, stifling entrepreneurship, and impeding consumption,” EFInA said. Interactive Tool Where Does Your Deposit Go? 1. Select a Bank All Four Banks (Average 1:10.3) GTCO (1:5) Access Holdings (1:6) UBA (1:11) First Bank (1:18) 2. Enter a hypothetical deposit ₦ 100k 500k 1 Million 5 Million For every ₦1 lent to ordinary people, this bank lends ₦10.3 to businesses. 8.8% 91.2% Retail Credit ₦8,850 Corporate Credit ₦91,150 Source: 2025 Annual Reports (Access, GTCO, UBA, First Bank) Built by TechCabal Share this Insight Follow the loans At the end of 2025, GTCO held ₦12.55 trillion ($9.16 billion) in customer deposits. including ₦5.92 trillion ($4.32 billion) from retail customers. For every ₦1 GTCO lent to retail customers, it lent about ₦5 to corporates. GTCO Deep Dive The Deposit-Loan Paradox Everyday consumers supply nearly half of GTCO’s deposits. Yet, when those funds are deployed as credit, large corporations secure the vast majority of the capital. Naira Values Percentages Money In: 2025 Deposits Retail Customers ₦5.92 Trillion 47.2% Corporate Customers ₦6.63 Trillion 52.8% Money Out: 2025 Loans Retail Loans ₦517.1 Billion 16.5% Corporate Loans ₦2.62 Trillion 83.5% YoY Credit Growth (2024 – 2025) Retail Credit +33.2% ₦388.3B → ₦517.1B Corporate Credit +9.1% ₦2.40T → ₦2.62T Source: TechCabal Data Analysis / GTCO 2024 & 2025 Annual Reports. Access Holdings ended the year with ₦34.56 trillion ($25.22 billion) in customer deposits. For every ₦1 Access lent to retail borrowers, it lent more than ₦6 to businesses. Access Bank Breakdown More than ₦6 to Businesses for Every ₦1 to You. In 2025, retail consumers deposited ₦9.87 trillion with Access Bank. Yet despite funding 28% of the bank’s deposit base, they received only 13.7% of the total dispersed credit. Naira Values Percentages Money In: 2025 Deposits Retail Banking ₦9.87 Trillion 28.5% Corporate & Commercial ₦24.70 Trillion 71.5% Money Out: 2025 Loans Retail Loans ₦1.88 Trillion 13.7% Corporate Loans ₦11.81 Trillion 86.3% YoY Credit Growth (2024 – 2025) Retail Credit +32.0% ₦1.42T → ₦1.88T Corporate Credit +14.2% ₦10.34T → ₦11.81T Source: TechCabal Data Analysis / Access Holdings 2024 & 2025 Financial Reports. At UBA, loans to individuals amounted to roughly ₦588.89 billion ($429.70 million). For every ₦1 UBA lent to retail customers, it lent nearly ₦11 to corporates. UBA Breakdown Nearly ₦11 to Businesses for Every ₦1 to You. In 2025, everyday consumers supplied nearly 41% of UBA’s customer deposits (₦9.77 trillion). However, when those funds were disbursed, the retail sector received just 8.4% of the credit. Naira Values Percentages Money In: 2025 Deposits Retail Customers ₦9.77 Trillion 40.8% Corporate Customers ₦14.17 Trillion 59.2% Money Out: 2025 Loans Retail Loans ₦588.9 Billion 8.4% Corporate Loans ₦6.43 Trillion 91.6% YoY Credit Growth (2024 – 2025) Retail Credit +2.8% ₦572.8B → ₦588.9B Corporate Credit +0.8% ₦6.38T → ₦6.43T Source: TechCabal Data Analysis / UBA 2024 & 2025 Financial Reports. First Bank showed the widest gap. Loans to individuals stood at roughly ₦487.91 billion ($356.02 million). For every ₦1 First Bank lent to retail customers, it lent almost ₦18 to businesses. First Bank Breakdown Nearly ₦18 to Businesses for Every ₦1 to You. First Bank holds a massive ₦18.88 trillion in total customer deposits. Yet out of their entire disbursed loan book, retail consumers received just 5.3% of the credit—and that fraction actually shrank over the last year. Naira Values Percentages Money In: 2025 Deposits Total Customer Deposits ₦18.88 Trillion 100% Money Out: 2025 Loans Retail Loans ₦487.9 Billion 5.3% Corporate Loans ₦8.74 Trillion 94.7% A Shrinking Loan Book Retail Credit Growth -3.0% ₦502.9B → ₦487.9B Corporate Credit Growth -0.2% ₦8.76T → ₦8.74T Source: TechCabal Data Analysis / First Bank Holdings 2024 & 2025 Financial Reports. Across the four banks, they lent roughly ₦10.3 to corporates for every ₦1 extended to retail customers. The trend extends beyond the biggest lenders. According to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), consumer credit stood at ₦3.81 trillion ($2.78 billion) in January 2026. Personal loans accounted for 51.44% of the total, while retail loans stood at ₦1.85 trillion
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The Next Wave: The myth of founder-friendly capital
Cet article est aussi disponible en français <!– In partnership with –> First published June 21, 2026 When Google graduated another cohort from its African startup accelerator this week in Nairobi, it repeated a decision it has made for years: take no equity from participating startups. The arrangement is often presented as founder-friendly support, proof that startups can access resources, expertise and distribution without diluting ownership. Yet Google’s model points to a larger reality taking shape across technology and finance. The most sophisticated capital providers are becoming less interested in owning startups and more interested in owning the ecosystems, revenue streams and commercial relationships that startups eventually create. That interpretation is seductive, but is also incomplete. Much of the conversation around startup funding over the last three years has been shaped by a single concern: dilution. As venture valuations corrected, down rounds became more common and fundraising timelines stretched, founders began searching for ways to avoid selling larger portions of their companies at lower prices. The response has been a surge of interest in non-dilutive financing, a broad category that includes venture debt, revenue-based financing, royalty agreements and platform support programmes such as Google’s accelerator. The appeal is obvious: why surrender ownership when alternative sources of capital appear willing to fund growth while leaving the cap table untouched? Yet the obsession with dilution may be causing founders to focus on the wrong metric. The real issue is not whether founders surrender equity, but whether they surrender future economic value through other means. This distinction becomes clearer when viewed through the lens of the private credit market, which has grown into a roughly $3 trillion asset class. The expansion of private credit is often presented as evidence that entrepreneurs have more funding options than ever before. A closer look suggests that private credit has not reduced the cost of capital so much as it has given investors new ways to capture startup upside without taking ownership. Google’s accelerator illustrates this dynamic in a softer form. The company does not need equity because ownership is not the primary source of value it seeks. Every startup that scales on Google Cloud, builds products for Android, purchases advertising inventory or embeds itself deeper into Google’s ecosystem generates value for Google without requiring a seat on the cap table. From Google’s perspective, equity would arguably be the less attractive asset. While a minority stake in a startup may or may not generate returns years down the line, an expanding ecosystem of companies building on Google’s infrastructure can produce commercial returns almost immediately. Next Wave continues after this ad. We’re thrilled to announce the official theme for Moonshot 2026: “Courage & Conviction: Building for a New World.” This year, we’re calling on the African tech scene to back bold ideas and dig deep to build an ecosystem that solves African problems on a global scale. The continent’s most ambitious founders, investors, LPs, operators, creatives, and policymakers will converge at Moonshot 2026 to chart Africa’s next era. You don’t want to be left out. Secure Your Spot! Seen this way, Google’s equity-free model suggests not that ownership has lost its value, but that it is no longer the most efficient way to capture it. The same logic is becoming visible across the wider startup financing market. Revenue-based financing firms advance capital in exchange for a fixed percentage of future sales until a predetermined repayment threshold is reached. Royalty investors purchase rights to future revenue streams without acquiring shares. Venture debt providers attach warrants and backend fees that allow them to participate in upside while maintaining creditor protections. These structures differ in their mechanics, but they share a common objective: securing access to future economic value while avoiding the risks associated with common equity ownership. What makes these instruments attractive is that they turn an obvious cost into a hidden one. Equity dilution is visible the moment a deal closes, while the cost of revenue-sharing agreements, royalty structures and venture debt reveals itself slowly through future cash flows. Giving up 20% of a company feels expensive because the sacrifice is immediate and tangible. Committing 5% of future revenue feels modest by comparison, even though a successful company may ultimately surrender more economic value through that arrangement than it would have through a traditional equity round. The dilution illution This is where the language of non-dilutive capital begins to break down. Dilution has traditionally referred to ownership. But ownership is only one dimension of economic control. If a company commits a portion of future revenue to investors, pledges key assets to lenders, grants warrants to debt providers and structures future cash flows around multiple financing obligations, the founder may retain nominal ownership while steadily surrendering economic freedom. The consequences become visible when companies attempt to raise additional capital. Venture investors tend to dislike pre-existing claims on future revenue because every dollar committed to servicing historic obligations is a dollar unavailable for growth. What initially appeared to be founder-friendly financing can therefore create friction precisely when a company needs flexibility the most. Some startups discover that preserving ownership today complicates fundraising tomorrow. The problem becomes even more acute when alternative financing products pile up. Revenue-based financing may coexist with venture debt. Venture debt may sit alongside invoice factoring. Factoring arrangements may conflict with traditional bank lending facilities. Each instrument is designed to solve a specific financing problem. Together they can create a balance sheet crowded with competing claims, conflicting priorities and legal complexity. At that point, the issue is no longer dilution. It is whether the company still controls enough of its future cash flow to operate effectively. Next Wave continues after this ad. Are you a business leader or data analyst? Join us this July as we celebrate the retirement of PAWA BI and welcome Immortal BI – the smarter and intuitive way of intelligent data processing. From Africa to the world; get your free tickets HERE. What often goes unexamined in the celebration of founder-friendly capital is
Read MoreSpiro secures another $55 million three weeks after $215 million raise
Spiro, one of Africa’s largest electric motorcycle and battery-swapping companies, has secured an additional $55 million equity investment from Chinese early-stage investor NewTrails Capital, bringing the funding round announced earlier this month to $270 million. The investment comes three weeks after Spiro disclosed a record $215 million equity raise, one of the largest funding rounds announced in Africa’s electric mobility sector. With the latest commitment, Spiro’s total disclosed funding now stands at about $557 million, cementing its position among the continent’s most heavily funded electric mobility companies. It also comes less than two weeks after Spiro appointed former Indofast Energy chief executive Anant Badjatya as group CEO. Badjatya previously oversaw a battery-swapping network of more than 1,800 stations in India, one of the world’s most developed markets for the technology. “Partnering with NewTrail Capital’s deeply experienced team marks a powerful new chapter for Spiro as we prepare for the next steps of our pan-African and international expansion,” founder and chairman Gagan Gupta said in a statement on Monday. The company said it will use the fresh capital to expand its battery-swapping network, manufacturing operations and energy infrastructure across African markets where it already operates, including Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Nigeria. The investment also deepens Spiro’s ties to Chinese investors and suppliers. The company has previously sourced batteries from Chinese manufacturers, including a $11.6 million supply deal with CBAK Energy Technology. In October 2025, Spiro said 30% of the value of its motorcycles is now produced locally. NewTrails Capital said it views Spiro as an “infrastructure-like business” and sees the company’s battery-swapping network as part of a broader energy transition taking place across African markets. “Spiro is still a young company, and everything today is only the beginning. We look forward to continuing to fulfill our role as a long-term investor, contributing our resources and experience, growing together with Spiro, and helping accelerate Africa’s new energy transition,” said Yufan Zhang, Founding Partner of NewTrails Capital. Founded in 2022 by Gupta, Spiro says it has deployed more than 100,000 electric vehicles and built over 2,500 battery-swapping stations across seven countries. The company has attracted backing from investors including Impact Fund Denmark, Equitane, FEDA, Nithio, Afreximbank and the Africa Go Green Fund.
Read MoreWhat to expect from Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2
Table of contents Has Samsung announced the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2? When will the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 release? How much will the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 cost? Expected specs of the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2? Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 vs Galaxy Watch Ultra What we still do not know A new Galaxy Watch Ultra is on the way, and the early signs point to one of the biggest upgrades the Ultra line has seen. Samsung has refreshed its own health app, and Qualcomm has detailed a new chip built for the next Galaxy Watch. Regulatory filings add to the picture too, even though Samsung has stayed quiet about the name. This guide separates what is confirmed from the leak, so you know what to trust. It covers the expected launch date, pricing, key features and upgrades, and how the device compares with the current Galaxy Watch Ultra. Has Samsung announced the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2? Samsung has not confirmed the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 yet. As of June 20, 2026, the company has not sent out an Unpacked invite or used the name “Galaxy Watch Ultra 2” in any official statement. Four things tied to the watch have surfaced so far. A Samsung Health app overhaul. On June 4, 2026, Samsung’s Global Newsroom announced a major update to the Samsung Health app, rolling out from June 8. Samsung built the update for “the upcoming Galaxy Watch,” though it stopped short of naming the device. Hon Pak, who leads Samsung’s Digital Health team, said the update connects your health data to AI-driven insights to help you better understand your body. The app now centers on five areas: Sleep, Activity, Nutrition, Mindfulness, and Vitals. New features include: Vitals checks five overnight signals (heart rate, heart rate variability, breathing rate, skin temperature, and blood oxygen) against your baseline and alerts you only when something looks off. Heart Health Score, a single daily number that replaces last year’s Vascular Load and blends your sleep, stress, activity, and body composition data. Daily Cardio Load, which tracks how much strain your body has taken on and suggests when to train and when to rest. Fitness Index, which compares your heart rate and VO2 max against your peers and factors in your daily steps. Hearing Health, which uses your watch’s microphone to flag loud places that could damage your hearing. Antioxidant Index and AGEs Index upgrades, both of which now track trends over time instead of single readings. This update applies to the whole Galaxy Watch lineup, not just the Ultra 2. Current Watch owners get the redesigned app now, but the full feature set is tied to new hardware coming later this year. A new chip has been confirmed for the next Galaxy Watch. At MWC 2026 in March, Qualcomm confirmed that the next Galaxy Watch will use its new Snapdragon Wear Elite chip. Samsung backed this up with an on-record quote from InKang Song, who leads technology strategy for Samsung’s mobile business. He said the new chip will help the watch become an even more complete wellness companion. Here is what the Snapdragon Wear Elite brings: A 3nm chip with one fast core at 2.1GHz and four efficiency cores at 1.95GHz. Up to 5 times the CPU power and 7 times the GPU power of the previous Snapdragon wearable chip, enough to render 1080p video at 60fps. A dedicated AI chip that can run models with up to 2 billion parameters right on your wrist, working through about 10 tokens every second, with no phone or cloud needed. 30% more battery life than the last generation, plus a 50% charge in around 10 minutes. Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 6.0, UWB, GPS, 5G, and satellite messaging support, all in one chip. Qualcomm named Samsung and Google as launch partners for the chip, along with Motorola. There is a catch, though. Samsung and Qualcomm only said “the next generation Galaxy Watch,” not which model gets it. This has led to conflicting reports. Some outlets say both the Watch 9 and Watch Ultra 2 get the Snapdragon Wear Elite chip. Other sources claim only the Watch Ultra 2 gets it, while the standard Watch 9 keeps the older Exynos W1000. A separate leak goes further, claiming a regional split: the US version of the Watch Ultra 2 uses a Snapdragon chip with 5G, while the European version keeps the Exynos chip with LTE. Even the model numbers do not fully agree. An earlier leak pointed to SM-L716 as the US 5G model, but a more recent FCC filing lists the US carrier model as SM-L715U instead. Samsung has not confirmed any of these versions, so treat the chip question as open until Samsung says otherwise. The Unpacked date. Korean media reports point to July 22, 2026, in London, as the date for Samsung’s next Unpacked event, where the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 is expected to share the stage with the Galaxy Watch 9, the Z Fold 8, Z Flip 8, Z Fold 8 Wide, and Samsung’s new Galaxy Glasses. Samsung has not confirmed this date. Regulatory filings. In the middle of June 2026, the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 cleared both FCC and CMIIT certification under the model number SM-L715, with SM-L715F for global markets and SM-L715U for US carriers. Neither filing included a Watch 9 Classic model number, which is a strong sign Samsung is skipping a Classic model this year. A separate charging certification from China’s 3C agency confirmed the Watch Ultra 2 sticks with 10W wired charging, the same speed as before. India’s BIS database and additional CMIIT listings also confirmed the device exists, though none of these filings listed a battery capacity. When will the Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 release? Last year’s launch gives the clearest clue here. Samsung announced the Galaxy Watch Ultra on July 9, 2025, and put it on sale on July 25, a gap of 16 days. If Samsung follows that same pattern this year, expect the Galaxy Watch Ultra
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Samsung Galaxy Buds to buy in 2026: Every model compared
Table of contents Quick comparison Galaxy Buds4 Pro Galaxy Buds4 Galaxy Buds3 Pro Galaxy Buds3 Galaxy Buds3 FE Galaxy Buds Core Open fit or sealed: what the difference actually means Which one should you buy? Should you wait for the Galaxy Buds Able? Samsung currently sells six different Galaxy Buds models right now, but the names alone do not make it obvious which pair is right for you. From the budget-friendly Buds Core to the flagshipBuds4 Pro, each model is designed for a different kind of listener, with varying features. This guide breaks down every Galaxy Buds model available today to help you choose the right pair for your budget and needs. You will find a quick comparison table, a full breakdown of each model, an explainer on the two main earbud designs Samsung uses, and a final verdict on which pair to buy. Quick comparison Here is how the six current Galaxy Buds models stack up at a glance. Galaxy Buds4 Pro Image source: Marques Brownlee on YouTube Samsung announced the Buds4 Pro on February 25, 2026, alongside the Galaxy S26 phones, and it went on sale on March 11. It costs $249 in the US, £219 in the UK, and R4,999 in South Africa. These buds use a sealed, in-ear design with silicone tips in three sizes. Each earbud carries two drivers, an 11mm woofer and a 5.5mm tweeter, which give you fuller bass and clearer highs than a single driver can manage. Noise canceling is where the Buds4 Pro stands out. Lab testing by SoundGuys found it blocks about 84% of outside noise at full strength. That beats the older Buds3 Pro, though it still trails the Sony WF-1000XM6 and the Apple AirPods Pro 3, which both cancel slightly more noise. Battery life sits in the middle of the pack. You get about 6 hours with ANC turned on and 8.5 hours with it off, based on independent lab tests. The case adds roughly three and a half extra charges. A few features only show up on this model: Head Gestures, so you can nod to accept a call or shake your head to decline it 360 Audio with head tracking, for a more immersive listening feel A dedicated 360 Audio recording mode Six microphones plus a voice pickup sensor for clearer calls in noisy places It comes in Black, White, and Pink Gold, with Pink Gold sold only through Samsung’s online store. If you already own a Galaxy phone, this is the easiest pair to recommend. TechRadar called the sound fantastic, but pointed out that the best features only work on Samsung devices. Galaxy Buds4 The standard Buds4 launched on the same day as the Pro, at $179 in the US and £159 in the UK. It uses an open fit design with no ear tips, similar to the original AirPods. This design makes the Buds4 light and comfortable for long wear, but it comes at a cost. Lab tests show that the open fit limits how well ANC can work, since there is no seal to block outside sound in the first place. Water resistance also drops to IP54, a step down from what the Buds3 offered. Battery life is about 5 hours with ANC on and 6 hours with ANC off, almost identical to the older Buds3. You still get the full set of Galaxy AI features, including Live Translate and Interpreter mode, just without Head Gestures, which Samsung kept exclusive to the Pro. SoundGuys called it the best unsealed earbud for Samsung users, but warned that an unstable fit can hurt both sound and noise canceling. If you already know open-fit earbuds suit your ears, this is a solid pick. If not, the Buds4 Pro will serve you better. Galaxy Buds3 Pro Image source: 6 Months Later on YouTube Before the Buds4 Pro, this was Samsung’s flagship. It launched in July 2024 at $249.99, the same price as its successor, and uses a similar dual-driver setup with a 10.5mm woofer and 6.1mm tweeter. Noise canceling sits a step below the Buds4 Pro. SoundGuys measured about a 76% reduction with ANC on, compared to 84% on the newer model. Battery life is roughly 6 hours with ANC on. Now that the Buds4 Pro has replaced it as the flagship, you can often find the Buds3 Pro discounted well below its original price, sometimes for less than half. If you want most of what the Buds4 Pro offers without paying full price, this is the model to look for. Galaxy Buds3 The standard Buds3 launched on the same day as the Buds3 Pro and also uses an open-fit design. Originally $179.99, it now sells for much less. Lab testing found ANC reduces noise by only about 35%, well below what the sealed models manage. Battery life matches the Buds4 at around 5 hours with ANC on. SoundGuys put it simply: pick the Buds3 only if open-fit earbuds already fit you well and you want wireless charging at a lower price. For most people, the Buds3 FE is a better choice at a similar price point. Galaxy Buds3 FE Image source: Mike O’Brien on YouTube The Buds3 FE launched in September 2025 at $149.99, and it might be the smartest buy in the whole lineup. It uses a sealed design with ear tips, and despite costing $100 less than the Buds4 Pro, its noise canceling actually tests stronger. SoundGuys measured 86% noise reduction with ANC on, beating every other model in this guide, including the flagships. Battery life is also strong, at 8.5 hours with ANC off and up to 30 hours total with the case. You still get most of the Galaxy AI features that matter day to day, including Live Translate, Bixby, and a 9-band EQ with six presets. In everyday use, the only things missing are wireless charging and multipoint, an easy trade for the price you pay. SoundGuys called it the Goldilocks of the Galaxy Buds lineup, and it is hard
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Digital Nomads: Alma Asinobi learned to build mobility by confronting her own immobility
Alma Asinobi remembered the moment reality set in. The profession she had prepared for would not fund the life she wanted to live. It was late 2020, and she had just finished her master’s degree in architecture from Covenant University, Ota, in Southwestern Nigeria. Asinobi did the math: if she stayed in the profession and stretched a Nigerian junior architect’s salary, she would not be able to travel the way she wanted. According to Glassdoor data from July 2022, junior architects in Lagos earned between ₦124,000 and ₦208,000 ($299–$502 at the official exchange rate at the time) monthly, underscoring the modest pay many early-career professionals in Nigeria’s architecture industry received. But before this awakening, Asinobi had been quietly building other skills. She managed a blog, ran a small thrift business and learned how communities formed around social media. She applied for a content writing role at an investment management startup, Cowrywise, in late 2020. Although she didn’t get the job, her writing caught the attention of a human resources manager who found her Instagram profile and later offered her a content marketing strategist role. “My entire career in tech started not because I studied anything in marketing,” she said. “It was just me putting out these skills I already had.” She built a community on the Cowrywise app around savings and took on consulting work. By the time she decided to leave the role, she had assembled what she calls six streams of income, and none of it came from the degree she had spent years pursuing. The first trip beyond the Nigerian border But the real shift that would define her next five years came in 2020, on a weekend road trip to Benin Republic that she said cost her ₦45,500 ($121.62, using the exchange rate as of March 2020). It was an escape with two friends, and only a few days before the COVID-19 pandemic locked the world down. “We got a taxi, took a drive to the border, and then we stayed in Benin Republic for the weekend,” she said. Asinobi documented all the trip entailed, and pulled it all together into an ebook and put it up for pre-order while she was still travelling. By the time she returned to Lagos, the pre-order sales had exceeded what she had spent on the entire trip. “I realised that there was a gap,” she said. “Many people wanted the information, but not enough people were sharing it.” During the lockdown, when travel was not possible, she shared what she was learning about the creator economy. When the world reopened, she travelled to Senegal in November 2021, deliberately flooding her feeds with content, so that she would not be known merely as someone who travelled occasionally, but as someone for whom travel was central. Asinobi shared, “During that period, I started to post a lot more about my trips and everything, and I knew that I was coming closer and closer to the end of my time in the nine-to-five.” By January 2022, she said she had to quit her fintech job to pursue content creation full-time. In August that same year, she received an offer to resume a role as an associate in content & performance marketing from a Nairobi and Berlin-based company, Kwara, a startup turning credit unions into modern digital banks. The role allowed her to temporarily move to Nairobi, Kenya, which she did through an East African Visa by October of the same year. Months later, Asinobi, in pursuit of another stream of income to fund her travel lifestyle, said she realised she wanted to build a travel company. At this point, she was also planning one-off trips for people, ranging from honeymoons to getaways, while providing information on visa applications, and also growing her personal brand as a travel content creator. Earnings in foreign currency from her role at Kwara also allowed her to save and build her travel fund without the fluctuations common to the Naira. In December 2022, she returned to Nigeria and realised that the demand for travel information from her travel community was overwhelming. People were reaching out to ask for help with visas and inquiring about how to navigate travel systems. The same month, she launched Kaijego, her travel business, after realising that she could not help people at scale without structure. The name “Kaijego” is linked to Asinobi’s Igbo roots, a tribe in Southeastern Nigeria; combining “Ka anyi je” (let’s go) with “Anyi e je go” (we have gone). Kaijego solves a specific problem: Africans want to travel. But they are immobilised by the fear of going alone, fear of visa rejection, fear of the sheer machinery of planning in a system that was not built for them. Kaijego removes part of that friction. It provides companions, a route, and proof that the journey is possible. In March 2023, Kaijego had its first group trip to Beirut, Lebanon. And Asinobi learned something: the trip itself is not the endpoint. The first Kaijego trip. Image source: Kaijego/IG “When people travel with us for the first time, they realise there’s more,” she said. “There’s more to see, more to do, more of the world they want to see. And within a few trips, they’re already considering moving abroad, and building different lives.” Travel, she also discovered, is about perspective. It is about knowing what 24-hour electricity feels like, what a road without potholes looks like, and what becomes possible when you see it with your own eyes instead of imagining it from home. “When they come back home with that perspective, they know what exists,” she said. “They can demand more.” Kaijego in Jordan, October 2023. Image source: Kaijego/IG She sees the gaps that keep Africans grounded: the opaque and capricious visa systems, the currency conversions that make travel prohibitively expensive, the ecosystem of visa agents charging different prices for the same service, and the lack of transparency about why applications are denied. African travellers paid a steep price
Read MoreKenyan cross-border fintech WapiPay enters Canada with money services licence
WapiPay, a Kenyan cross-border payments fintech, has entered the North American market after securing a Money Services Business (MSB) licence from the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC), part of the company’s global expansion. The licence allows the company to offer foreign exchange, money transfer, and payment services in Canada through a newly established subsidiary, while also providing regulatory approval to handle virtual currency and digital asset transactions. The approval gives the Nairobi-founded company its first regulated operational hub in North America, extending a payments network that already includes Africa, Asia, the UK and the Caribbean. “Securing a footprint in North America through obtaining a Money Services Business licence is a massive milestone for WapiPay,” co-founder and CEO Edward Ndichu told TechCabal on Saturday. “By pairing traditional fiat payment capabilities with virtual currencies and digital assets under a robust Canadian regulatory framework, we are building the next generation of global financial rails.” Global ambitions The expansion comes as African fintech startups seek regulatory licences across multiple jurisdictions to facilitate faster cross-border payments, particularly between developed markets and emerging economies where correspondent banking remains costly and fragmented. According to the World Bank, sending $200 to Sub-Saharan Africa costs an average of about 7.7% of the transaction value, making it the world’s most expensive remittance corridor and well above the UN Sustainable Development Goal target of 3%. This creates a large market for fintechs promising faster and cheaper settlement. The North American entry is part of fintech’s global expansion over the past year, Ndichu told TechCabal. In April, WapiPay secured regulatory approval to launch in Jamaica, using the Caribbean nation as a gateway for remittance and trade flows between Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean. Founded in 2019 by twins Eddie Ndichu and Paul Ndichu, the company initially focused on facilitating payments between Africa and Asia, targeting traders and small businesses moving goods across those corridors. But in recent months, it has also begun to push deeper into the financial services that sit atop those transactions. In February, it launched a remittance-based credit-scoring platform designed to help Kenyan banks use diaspora remittances to assess borrowers with little or no formal credit history, an attempt to turn billions of dollars in annual remittances into usable financial data for lenders.
Read MoreTop South Africa tech investor says it is no longer just a Tencent story
For years, investors have judged Prosus by a single yardstick: Tencent. The Amsterdam-listed internet giant, majority-owned by South African consumer internet group Naspers, built much of its market value on an early investment in the Chinese technology company. While Prosus assembled a portfolio spanning food delivery, payments, classifieds, and e-commerce across emerging markets, Tencent remained the business that mattered most. Now Prosus says that equation is beginning to change. In a trading statement released on Friday ahead of its annual results, the company said all of its operating ecosystems had reached profitability, marking a milestone in its effort to build businesses capable of generating earnings beyond Tencent. Prosus generated $7.3 billion in revenue and $1.1 billion in ecosystem adjusted Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortisation (EBITDA) for the year ended March 31, 2026. Core headline earnings per share are expected to increase by between 19% and 28%, while headline earnings are forecast to rise by between 6.7% and 15.7%. For much of the past decade, investors have questioned whether Prosus’s collection of operating businesses could create enough value to justify the billions invested in them. While Tencent consistently delivered outsized returns, many of Prosus’s businesses remained focused on growth rather than profitability. Friday’s statement suggests that transition may be reaching a turning point. “This is probably the first time that all of the ecosystem assets are cash-flow positive and generating a profit,” Rowan Williams, chief investment officer at Nitrogen Fund Managers, told TechCabal. “That should help Prosus become increasingly independent and less reliant on Tencent’s cash flows.” The comment goes to the heart of a question that has followed Prosus for years: whether the company could build a profitable operating business beyond the Chinese technology giant that transformed Naspers into one of the world’s most valuable technology investors. “The financial year ended March 2026 marked a milestone for Prosus,” stated Prosus in its trading statement. “We delivered on our ambitious targets, generating over US$7.3 billion in revenue and US$1.1 billion in Ecosystem adjusted EBITDA. Every one of our ecosystems is now profitable, and our free cash flow, excluding Tencent, continues to grow.” The company said stronger revenue growth and profitability across its consolidated businesses, alongside improved contributions from equity-accounted investments such as Tencent, drove earnings higher. The results also offer a clearer view of how Prosus wants investors to see the company. Rather than positioning itself as a technology investment holding company, Prosus is increasingly presenting itself as an operator of digital platforms. “We have completed our transformation from a traditional holding company into an active operator of AI-driven lifestyle ecosystems across Latin America, Europe and India,” the directors said. That shift is visible across the group’s portfolio. Prosus controls Brazilian food delivery giant iFood, owns payments business PayU, and continues to invest in e-commerce, fintech, and online marketplace businesses. In August, it announced plans to increase investment in iFood. Yet Tencent remains central to the investment case. Prosus said earnings growth from its operating businesses was partly offset by a lower gain from Tencent share sales and unrealised foreign exchange losses linked to euro-denominated bonds. Prosus is not escaping Tencent’s shadow overnight. But for the first time, it can point to a portfolio where every major operating ecosystem is profitable.
Read MoreWhat to expect from Samsung Galaxy Watch 9
Table of contents Has Samsung announced the Galaxy Watch 9? When will the Galaxy Watch 9 release? How much will the Galaxy Watch 9 cost? What are the expected specs of the Galaxy Watch 9? Galaxy Watch 9 vs Galaxy Watch 8 What we still do not know A new Samsung smartwatch is coming, and every clue points straight at a Galaxy Watch 9. Samsung’s own health app, a new chip from Qualcomm, and a string of leaked filings all hint at an imminent launch, even though Samsung itself has stayed quiet about the name. This guide separates what’s confirmed from what remains speculation, so you know what to trust. It covers the expected launch date, pricing, key features and upgrades, and how the device compares with the Galaxy Watch 8. Has Samsung announced the Galaxy Watch 9? Not yet. As of June 19, 2026, Samsung has not sent out an Unpacked invite or used the name “Galaxy Watch 9” in any official statement. Two things tied to the watch have been confirmed, though. A Samsung Health app overhaul. On June 4, 2026, Samsung’s Global Newsroom announced a major update to the Samsung Health app, rolling out from June 8. Samsung says the update showcases the key health features of its upcoming Galaxy Watch, though it stopped short of naming the device. Hon Pak, who leads Samsung’s Digital Health team, said the update connects your health data to AI-driven insights, helping you better understand your body. The app now centers on five areas: Sleep, Activity, Nutrition, Mindfulness, and Vitals. New features include: Vitals checks five overnight signals (heart rate, heart rate variability, breathing rate, skin temperature, and blood oxygen) against your baseline and alerts you only when something is genuinely off. Heart Health Score, a single daily number that replaces last year’s Vascular Load and blends your sleep, stress, activity, and body composition data. Daily Cardio Load, which tracks how much strain your body has taken on and suggests when to train and when to rest. Fitness Index, which compares your heart rate, VO2 max, and daily steps against your peers. Hearing Health, which uses your watch’s microphone to flag loud environments that could damage your hearing. Antioxidant Index and AGEs Index upgrades, both of which now track trends over time instead of single readings. Samsung’s own footnote says these features will first be available on the upcoming Galaxy Watch, which means current Watch owners get the redesigned app now, but the full feature set is tied to new hardware. Samsung has also recently published two health studies tied to the Galaxy Watch line. A joint study with a hospital in Korea found that the Galaxy Watch 6 could predict a fainting episode up to 5 minutes before it occurred, with 84.6 percent accuracy. A separate study with Massachusetts General Hospital is using the Galaxy Watch 8 to track muscle loss in patients on GLP-1 medication. Neither study confirms a Watch 9 feature, but both show where Samsung’s health focus is heading. A new chip. At MWC 2026 in March, Qualcomm confirmed that the next Galaxy Watch will use its new Snapdragon Wear Elite chip. Samsung backed this up with an on-record quote from InKang Song, who leads technology strategy for Samsung’s mobile business, saying the new chip will help the watch become an even better wellness companion. Qualcomm named Samsung, Google, and Motorola as launch partners for the chip. Here is what the Snapdragon Wear Elite brings: A 3nm chip with one fast core at 2.1GHz and four efficiency cores at 1.95GHz. Up to 5 times the CPU power and 7 times the GPU power of the previous Snapdragon wearable chip, enough to render 1080p video at 60fps. A dedicated AI chip that can run models with up to 2 billion parameters right on your wrist, working through about 10 tokens every second. 30 percent more battery life than the last generation, plus a 50 percent charge in around 10 minutes. Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 6.0, UWB, GPS, 5G and satellite messaging support, all in one chip. There is one catch. Samsung and Qualcomm only said next-generation Galaxy Watch, not which model. Some reports say both the Watch 9 and Watch Ultra 2 get the new chip. Others, including information from Notebookcheck, say only the Watch Ultra 2 gets the Snapdragon chip while the standard Watch 9 keeps the older Exynos W1000. This is still unresolved. The Unpacked date. Korean media reports point to July 22, 2026, in London, as the date for Samsung’s next Unpacked event, where the Galaxy Watch 9 line is expected to share the stage with the Galaxy Z Fold 8, Z Flip 8, Z Fold 8 Wide and Samsung’s new Galaxy Glasses. Samsung has not confirmed this date. Regulatory filings. In the middle of June 2026, the Galaxy Watch 9 and Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 cleared both FCC and CMIIT certification. The filings list model numbers SM-L340 and SM-L345 for the 40mm Watch 9, SM-L350 and SM-L355 for the 44mm Watch 9, and SM-L715 for the Watch Ultra 2. No Classic model number appeared in either filing, which is a strong sign that Samsung is skipping the Watch 9 Classic this year. A separate charging certification confirmed both watches stick with 10W wired charging, so do not expect faster charging this time around. When will the Galaxy Watch 9 release? Last year’s launch gives the clearest clue here. Samsung announced the Galaxy Watch 8 on July 9, 2025, and put it on sale on July 25, 2025, a gap of 16 days. If Samsung follows that same pattern, expect the Galaxy Watch 9 to go on sale in early August 2026. The leaked Unpacked date of July 22, 2026, would only mark the announcement, not the on-sale date, and Samsung has not confirmed even that date yet. How much will the Galaxy Watch 9 cost? Pricing is the one area where leaks have gone quiet. PhoneArena has made it clear that the Galaxy Watch
Read MoreGoogle’s Alex Okosi on what’s holding back Africa’s AI startups
On Thursday, Google graduated 15 startups from eight African countries through its Google for Startups Accelerator Africa programme in Nairobi. Most of these startups are building artificial intelligence (AI) into core products in payments, transport, agriculture, healthcare and enterprise software. Google said 60% of the cohort is already profitable, generating an average of $60,000 in monthly revenue. This year’s cohort arrives amid growing debate over whether Africa can turn AI adoption into sustainable, venture-scale businesses. The selected startups offer a snapshot of that transition. Founders are moving beyond experimentation and using the technology to solve operational challenges and build products for local markets. Yet the infrastructure and capital needed to scale those businesses remain in short supply. In an interview with TechCabal, Alex Okosi, Google’s managing director for Africa, said African startups have already embraced AI, but argued that investment has not kept pace. While founders are building AI-powered products and services, the continent still faces gaps in cloud infrastructure, data centre capacity and funding. Those constraints, he said, risk limiting Africa’s ability to capture the economic value created by the technology. AI could add as much as $1.5 trillion to Africa’s economy by 2035, equivalent to roughly 40% of the continent’s current GDP, if governments and private sector players move fast enough to deploy it at scale, according to projections from the African Development Bank. The technology, the bank estimates, could generate hundreds of thousands of jobs while significantly lifting labour productivity across key sectors. The tension between growing AI adoption and limited investment formed the backdrop to this year’s accelerator programme, which featured startups from Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire and Angola. This interview has been edited for clarity and length. Has Africa’s AI moment arrived, or are we still early? If you look at this cohort for Google for Startups Accelerator Africa, many of the companies are AI-first or AI-native because they have built AI into their products to solve real challenges across the continent. That’s the opportunity AI presents, and it’s what excites me about both the startup and fintech ecosystems. Take Mastery Hive, for example. The company is using machine learning to detect fraud across fragmented networks. We also have companies like Loop in South Africa using AI to optimise a complex transit network and manage worker payments. Those are clear examples of startups already embracing AI and putting it to work. That said, the continent still faces challenges. There is a lot of talent and engineering ingenuity in Africa, but infrastructure remains a constraint. Capital is also a major gap. Until investors from the Global North see Africa as a place where AI is being used to solve meaningful problems and deploy more capital here, that challenge will remain. Africa offers significant opportunities to scale and create value. However, it requires investors to view the continent as an AI opportunity rather than a market still waiting to adopt the technology. It’s a twofold story. African companies are already adopting AI and building solutions with it. But from a funding perspective, the level of investment is still not where it needs to be to fully capture the opportunity. What’s the biggest bottleneck to building AI at scale in Africa? Infrastructure remains one of the biggest bottlenecks. To build AI at scale, you need reliable connectivity, and that requires investment in foundational infrastructure such as subsea cables. That’s why projects like Equiano and Umoja are important. They help create the capacity needed for the digital economy to grow. Talent is another critical area. We’ve trained about eight million people in digital skills, giving them the foundations they need to participate in and benefit from the digital economy. We also need to support small and medium enterprises (SMEs). That’s an area we’ve focused on, helping around 35,000 small and medium-sized businesses grow and scale. Those businesses are a key part of the ecosystem. When it comes to AI specifically, compute power is essential. You need cloud infrastructure that developers can build on. That’s one reason we’re investing in our cloud region in South Africa and working to expand cloud adoption. The challenge is that Africa still accounts for only about 1% of global data centre capacity. As a result, many builders have to move data outside the continent for processing and then bring it back to deploy solutions. There’s a clear opportunity to increase local capacity. That will require collaboration between governments, technology companies and other players across the ecosystem. More investment in connectivity, cloud infrastructure and compute capacity will be necessary if we want to scale AI across the continent. Google is playing its part, but this is something that requires collective action from everyone involved in the ecosystem. Must startups have AI at the core of their products to join the programme? No, being an AI company is not a requirement to join the accelerator. That said, AI is an important area for us because we believe it can help startups build solutions faster, scale faster, optimise their operations and reach markets more effectively. We’re encouraging founders to understand how AI can be integrated into their businesses, whether through their workflows, products or business models. That’s why AI training is a key part of the programme. We want companies to understand how they can use the technology to accelerate growth. At the same time, I think we need to demystify AI. It’s not some mystical technology. It’s a tool that helps organisations process information more quickly, analyse large amounts of data and identify opportunities more effectively. For us, technology will play a major role in solving many of the continent’s challenges, and AI is one of the tools that can help make that happen. That’s why we’re continuing to invest in AI skills development. In 2024, we announced a $5.8 million grant programme across Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa to help civil servants and nonprofit leaders build AI capabilities. Through Google.org, we’re also focused on AI skilling across Africa, and
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