CBN revokes 47 microfinance bank licences as Sycamore cites legacy issues
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has revoked the operating licence of Sycamore Microfinance Bank, but the fintech says the decision relates to legacy issues tied to the Kano-based tier-2 MFB whose licence it acquired as part of its expansion into banking. Sycamore appeared on the CBN’s list of 46 microfinance banks whose licences were revoked on Wednesday. The company said the regulatory action affects the acquired entity and stems from historical compliance issues that predate the acquisition rather than its current operations. The revocation means Sycamore’s planned expansion beyond digital lending into regulated banking services now faces fresh uncertainty. It comes barely two months after the lender told TechCabal it planned to build a deposit base exceeding ₦40 billion ($29.13 million) in 2026. “Sycamore had acquired the entity as part of its planned expansion into deposit-taking and payments,” the company said in a statement shared with TechCabal on Wednesday. “The company was in the process of establishing its integration into its group and operational infrastructure for the entity when the licence was captured in the CBN’s sector-wide compliance review.” The company added that its existing businesses remain fully operational. Its consumer lending platform continues to operate under the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC)’s approval, while Sycamore Investment and Asset Management Limited (SIAML) remains licenced by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). “All customer funds and investments are secure and fully accessible. The company will provide further updates as things progress,” the company said. Like several Nigerian fintechs, Sycamore entered banking by acquiring an existing microfinance bank rather than applying for a fresh licence. The strategy allows fintechs to gain access to deposit-taking capabilities, payments infrastructure, and lower-cost funding while avoiding the lengthy licensing process. The CBN did not single out Sycamore in its Wednesday announcement. It has revoked the operating licences of 47 microfinance banks in the last two days. According to the regulator, the affected institutions failed to meet the conditions required to continue operating as licenced financial institutions. The latest action affects a mix of Tier 1, Tier 2, and state microfinance banks spread across more than a dozen states, including Lagos, Kano, Abuja, Ogun, Kaduna, and Rivers. Among the affected institutions are NowNow Digital MFB, Creditville MFB, Safegate MFB, Sycamore MFB, Gold MFB, and Entrepreneur MFB. The central bank said the revocations were triggered by one or more breaches, including “insufficient assets to meet liabilities, closure of operations without the approval of the CBN, inactivity and cessation of financial intermediation, failure to commence operations within 12 months of licence approval, and failure to maintain minimum capital funds unimpaired by losses.” National MFBs must maintain a minimum paid-up capital of ₦5 billion ($3.62 million); state MFBs require ₦1 billion ($724,150); tier 1s require ₦200 million ($145,729); and tier 2s need ₦100 million ($72,865). Goldman Microfinance Bank’s case was more severe. The bank had already entered liquidation and voluntarily applied to be wound up. The CBN also said the lender was critically undercapitalised, lacked enough assets to meet its liabilities, and breached provisions of the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA), 2020. The revocation of Goldman’s licence took effect on May 21, while the other 46 revocations became effective on July 1. The sweeping enforcement action comes as the regulator tightens oversight of Nigeria’s banking industry following the completion of commercial banks’ recapitalisation exercise earlier this year. It also underscores that the CBN’s scrutiny extends beyond commercial lenders to microfinance institutions that no longer satisfy licensing requirements. The clean-up could also reshape how fintechs acquire MFBs going forward. As dormant and non-compliant microfinance banks disappear from the market, acquisition targets are likely to become scarcer, raising the premium on compliant institutions while reinforcing the CBN’s willingness to scrutinise licences even after ownership changes. True scale demands moving beyond surface-level integrations to robust execution. We’ve filtered the noise out of Moonshot 2026, optimising the conference strictly for high-calibre connections between startup founders, global financial operators, enterprise leaders and individuals rewiring Africa’s technical frameworks. Get 20% off Early Bird tickets for a limited time.
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Why Google is building Africa’s AI future from South Africa
Google, the technology global giant, used its first-ever Cloud Summit on African soil to signal that South Africa is becoming the company’s launchpad for building the continent’s artificial intelligence (AI) economy. Held in Johannesburg on Wednesday, the summit brought together President Cyril Ramaphosa, Google executives, business leaders including Econet founder Strive Masiyiwa, policymakers, startups and investors to showcase how AI, cloud infrastructure and digital public infrastructure are reshaping Africa’s technology landscape. The announcements marked a notable shift in Google’s Africa strategy. Rather than focusing primarily on expanding internet access, a priority that defined much of the past two decades, the company is now investing across the AI value chain, from cloud infrastructure and computing capacity to startup funding, university research, creator tools and workforce development. The strategy reflects a broader change in how global technology companies view the continent. Africa is becoming a market where AI infrastructure, computing power, local talent, and homegrown companies will determine future competitiveness. For Google, South Africa has emerged as the natural base from which that ecosystem can scale across the continent. The summit showcased a series of investments aimed at strengthening that position. Google announced a new South African Digital Exchange point in the Eastern Cape connected to its Umoja subsea cable. The company also launched what it described as Africa’s first applied AI lab, unveiled a new AI-focused accelerator for South African startups and expanded AI education programmes for universities across six African countries. Google also partnered with Akuna Group, the creative media venture founded by British actor Idris Elba, to launch an AI storytelling initiative for creators across sub-Saharan Africa. James Manyika, Google’s senior vice-president for research, labs, technology and society, said Africa risks facing a new form of inequality if it fails to build AI capabilities locally. “The AI opportunity for Africa is significant, and Google is committed to doing our part working with Africans to help Africa realise it,” said Manyika. “Building on our past commitments, we are making new investments in critical areas: infrastructure, African-led innovation, and education and skill building.” Manyika stated that Google had already surpassed its $1 billion commitment to Africa’s digital transformation ahead of schedule and is now directing investment toward the infrastructure and institutions needed to support an AI economy. That includes expanding partnerships with universities such as the University of Pretoria and the University of the Witwatersrand, supporting AI research labs in Kenya and Ghana, and giving more than one million eligible university students across Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa and Zimbabwe free access to Google’s advanced AI tools. President Cyril Ramaphosa used the summit to position Africa as a continent determined to become a producer of globally competitive AI businesses and intellectual property. “For far too long, Africa has had to play digital catch-up with the world’s leading and most industrialised economies,” Ramaphosa said. “We are now presented with a unique opportunity to be in the driving seat of our own industrialisation and growth.” Speaking via video link, Elba announced a partnership between Google’s philanthropic arm and his Akuna Group to train creators across sub-Saharan Africa using AI, backed by more than $1 million in funding. “Africa is bursting with untold stories. We have creators with raw talent, unique voices, and perspectives that the world desperately needs to see and hear,” he said. “But too often the barrier isn’t a lack of vision, it’s a lack of access.” The movie star said the initiative will equip creators with AI skills and access to Google’s storytelling tools, which Elba said would help transform creative talent into sustainable businesses. True scale demands moving beyond surface-level integrations to robust execution. We’ve filtered the noise out of Moonshot 2026, optimising the conference strictly for high-calibre connections between startup founders, global financial operators, enterprise leaders and individuals rewiring Africa’s technical frameworks. Get 20% off Early Bird tickets for a limited time. “This is more than just about making content; it’s about delivering real impact. The talent is already here. Now we are giving them the tools to build a real future in storytelling,” he stated.
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How to get the most out of Google’s AI Mode in Search
Google Search doesn’t look the way it did two years ago. Type a question into the search bar today, and you may not get a page of blue links at all. What you might get instead is a conversational, fully reasoned answer with sources attached, an interactive comparison tool, or even a mini-app built on the spot. That’s AI Mode, and if you’re not using it deliberately yet, you’re leaving a lot of Search’s capability on the table. A screenshot of the AI mode feature in Google Search. Image source: TechCabal Here’s a practical guide to what AI Mode actually is, how it works, and how to use it well. What is Google’s AI Mode? Screenshot of the AI Mode user interface. Image source: TechCabal AI Mode is a conversational search experience built into Google Search and powered by Gemini 3, a Gemini model. Rather than returning a single set of results when you search, it uses a query fan-out technique. This enables it to run multiple related searches across subtopics and data sources at the same time and synthesise the findings into one coherent response. AI Mode is different from AI Overviews — the AI-generated summaries that already appear within standard search results. Screenshot of the AI Overview in Google search. Image source: TechCabal AI Mode is a deeper experience for questions that would normally take several searches to answer properly: comparing products, planning a trip, or working through a topic you don’t yet have the vocabulary for. Google began rolling out AI Mode in May 2025, and it has grown fast since. The company announced at Google I/O 2026 that AI Mode had passed one billion monthly users. Google extended AI Mode and AI Overviews to Yorùbá and Hausa, as part of a wider expansion that brought AI-powered Search to 13 African languages in total, including Kiswahili, isiZulu, Afrikaans and Wolof. How to access AI Mode On desktop, go to google.com, and you’ll find an “AI Mode” tab sitting alongside the usual All, Images, Videos, and News tabs. On mobile, open the Google app on Android or iOS and tap into AI Mode from within the search experience. Screenshot of the AI Mode, taken on an Android mobile. Image source: TechCabal Screenshot of the AI Mode in Google search, taken on an Android mobile. Image source: TechCabal To search in an African language, simply type or speak your question in that language once you’re inside AI Mode — Google says the system is built for genuine language understanding, not just translation. Getting the most out of Google’s AI Mode in Search 1. Ask the way you would ask a knowledgeable colleague, not a search box Instead of searching “best SEO tools,” you get better results asking something like “what are the best SEO tools for a small e-commerce business on a tight budget?” This is because AI Mode doesn’t match your query against an index of pages like traditional search. Traditional Search works by matching keywords to pages, so stripping your question down to bare terms like “best SEO tools” actually helps it find the right documents. AI Mode uses query fan-out to reason through your query. 2. Use follow-up questions instead of starting over AI Mode maintains context across a session, so your second, third, and fourth questions build on what came before without you needing to restate anything. This lets you compare products, add new context, or dig deeper into a topic without opening a fresh search each time. It is better to ask your broad question first, then narrow in. For instance, if you asked about sleep trackers, a natural follow-up would be something like “what happens to your heart rate during deep sleep?”. In this case, AI Mode carries the earlier context forward rather than treating it as an unrelated query. You can also revisit your AI Mode history at any point to pick up a previous session where you left off, which is handy for longer research projects. 3. Feed it more than text The redesigned AI Mode search box accepts text, images, files, video, and even open Chrome tabs as inputs to a single query. It reasons across all of them together rather than treating each as a separate search. If you’re comparing apartment listings, product spec sheets, or screenshots of a confusing bill, you can drop them straight in rather than typing everything out. 4. Let it build the comparison, not just describe one One of AI Mode’s more useful upgrades is that it can generate interactive interfaces. Ask it to compare three apartments across commute time, rent, and square footage, and it will build a comparison tool rather than just linking you to one. 5. Turn on Personal Intelligence if the context demands it Google has been expanding Personal Intelligence in AI Mode to more people across nearly 200 countries and 98 languages, with no subscription required. This lets you securely connect Google apps like Gmail and Google Photos so that AI Mode can factor in your own context. This feature is useful for things like trip planning or tracking a purchase, where the AI can reference your actual bookings or photos rather than working blind. You can choose if and when to connect each app, and you can disconnect at any time. 6. Try Search Live for hands-free or camera-assisted search Search Live enables you to search using your camera and voice at the same time. It is particularly useful for anything visual: identifying an object, working through a physical repair, or getting a live read on something in front of you. True scale demands moving beyond surface-level integrations to robust execution. We’ve filtered the noise out of Moonshot 2026, optimising the conference strictly for high-calibre connections between startup founders, global financial operators, enterprise leaders and individuals rewiring Africa’s technical frameworks. Get 20% off Early Bird tickets for a limited time.
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Oppo Reno 16: Price, release date, and full specs
Table of contents Oppo Reno 16 release date Oppo Reno 16 price Full specs Oppo Reno 16 vs Oppo Reno 15 Regions where the Oppo Reno 16 is available Should you buy the Oppo Reno 16? The Oppo Reno 16 series is now rolling out, and it brings a bold new design, a stronger camera setup, and a price that has jumped from the last generation. This guide covers the release date, regional pricing, and full specs for the Reno 16 series and shows you how it compares to the Reno 15 before you decide to buy. Oppo Reno 16 release date Oppo did not launch the Reno 16 series in a single event. The rollout is happening in tranches, market by market, so availability depends on your location. Already live China got the Reno 16 and Reno 16 Pro on May 29, 2026. Thailand, Spain, and the rest of Europe got the full lineup, including the Reno 16 F, starting June 25, 2026. Full sales across Germany and other European countries will open on July 3, 2026, after pre-orders went live on launch day. Coming soon (as of July 1, 2026) India launches the Reno 16 and Reno 16C on July 2, 2026. Indonesia gets the full lineup, including the Pro and F models, on July 3, 2026. The UK gets the same lineup on July 3, 2026. Malaysia rounds it off on July 8, 2026. The Philippines has also confirmed a local launch, though Oppo has not yet shared a date. South Africa and Nigeria do not have a confirmed launch date. The Reno 15 series arrived in South Africa on February 7, 2026, so a similar timeline for the Reno 16 is possible, but nothing is official at this point. Oppo Reno 16 price Prices for the Reno 16 series have increased compared to the Reno 15 series across almost every market. Here is what each region is charging, in local currency. Europe (EUR, Spain, and Germany) UK (GBP) At £899, the Reno 16 Pro costs £250 more than the Reno 13 Pro did at launch. That is a big jump, pushing the phone beyond its usual mid-range price bracket. India (INR), leaked ahead of the July 2, 2026 launch India pricing is not official yet. Tipsters expect the Reno 16 to start at around ₹61,999 for the 8GB/256GB model, with the Reno 16C starting near ₹51,999. For comparison, the Reno 15 launched at ₹45,999, so the new series could cost up to ₹15,000 more. Treat these figures as estimates until Oppo confirms them at launch. Nigeria and South Africa Nigeria and South Africa do not yet have official pricing, as Oppo has not confirmed a launch date for either country. Any naira or rand figures you see online right now are estimates from retailers, not confirmed prices from Oppo. Full specs Here is a full breakdown of what each model offers outside China. Where the China version is different, we have noted it. Oppo Reno 16 Pro (global) The screen is larger in China, at 6.78 inches with a 120Hz panel, compared to 6.32 inches with a 144Hz panel outside China. The chipset and battery differ too. China runs the Dimensity 9500s with a 7,000mAh battery and wireless charging. The global Pro uses the Dimensity 8550 Super, has a smaller battery, and lacks wireless charging. The Oppo Reno 16 (global) Oppo Reno 16 F (global) The Reno 16 FS is a Europe-only version of the F, with 8GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. Oppo Reno 16C (India) India gets a Reno 16C instead of the Pro model at launch. Early reports say it shares most of its specs with the Reno 16 F, including the display size, chipset, and camera setup. Oppo has not confirmed full specs yet, so treat these details as leaked until the July 2, 2026 launch. Accessories launching alongside the phones The Oppo Bubble is a small magnetic display that clips onto the back of the phone and serves as a wireless viewfinder or remote shutter. The Enco Air 5 and Enco Air 5s earbuds, both with active noise canceling and battery life that stretches past 48 hours with the case. Software and design All three phones run ColorOS 16 on top of Android 16. Oppo has promised 5 years of operating system updates and 6 years of security updates. The Pop White colorway on every model uses something Oppo calls HoloVerse 3D Technology. It creates a floating-planet effect on the back of the phone using a layered optical film. Other colors do not get this effect, so keep that in mind if the look is what draws you to the phone. Oppo Reno 16 vs Oppo Reno 15 The Reno 16 series brings genuine upgrades in some areas and steps back in others, especially outside China. What got better The main camera on the Pro jumps to 200MP as standard, up from a mix of sensors on the Reno 15 Pro. The Pro’s screen now runs at 144Hz outside China, up from 120Hz on the Reno 15 Pro. The China version has a larger battery than before, at 7,000 mAh on the Pro. Build quality is tougher, with an aerospace-grade aluminum frame and an IP69K rating. What got worse The standard Reno 16 keeps the same Snapdragon 7 Gen 4 chip as the Reno 15, so performance stays about the same. The global Pro model loses wireless charging, which the China version still has. Battery capacity outside China is smaller than what China gets, and smaller than the Reno 15 Pro’s battery in Europe. Prices have climbed sharply. The Reno 16 Pro costs around €300 more than the Reno 15 Pro in Europe, and up to ₹15,000 more in India. If you already own a Reno 15 Pro in Europe, it might be worth holding onto it for now. It currently costs less than the Reno 16 Pro and has a slightly bigger battery. Regions where the Oppo Reno
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M-PESA’s next act begins where banks still fall short: lending
This article is based on a conversation from Voices & Visions, a podcast produced through a partnership between Tutto Passa Agency and TechCabal, which explores the people and ideas shaping Africa’s innovation economy. The first problem M-PESA, the mobile money service owned by telco giant Safaricom, solved was moving money. The company now believes the harder one is lending. Nearly two decades after transforming how Kenyans pay, save, and transfer money, Safaricom is turning its attention to a credit market where banks are reluctant to lend beyond established borrowers, pushing millions of small businesses and households to expensive digital loans and shylocks. “There is pain. There is real pain,” says Peter Gichangi, Safaricom’s head of Super Apps, in a recorded conversation on Voices & Visions, a podcast backed by Tutto Passa Agency and TechCabal. “If there are people interested in partnering with us, from Europe or wherever it is, to provide accessible, affordable credit in the market, we are open to having those discussions.” Gichangi’s remarks point to what could be M-PESA’s next area of growth. Having built one of Africa’s largest digital payments platforms serving over 30 million customers, Safaricom is betting it can use the same playbook to expand access to credit, a market where traditional lenders like banks continue to treat as too risky. Credit gap While Kenya is one of Africa’s digitally connected financial markets, access to affordable business credit remains limited. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) account for more than 90% of businesses and employ millions of people, yet they consistently cite financing as one of their biggest constraints. Many operate without audited financial statements, formal collateral, or lengthy banking histories, making them difficult for traditional lenders to assess. In the past two years, lending has recovered, but cautiously. After successive interest rate cuts by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), private sector credit growth has recovered from a contraction of 2.9% in January 2025 to 8.1% in March 2026. Average commercial lending rates have fallen to about 14.7% from 17.2% in late 2024. Yet banks continue to carry bad loans, with the industry’s non-performing loan ratio rising to 15.6% in March, making lenders selective about where they deploy capital. Many households and small businesses opt for digital lenders charging steep interest rates. “The demand for money is there,” says Andrew Mutha, chief executive of Safaricom Money Transfer Services. “Banks are saying, ‘Look, you’re too risky.’ There’s a digital lender somewhere who is willing to give you credit. However, the risk is too high, so the interest rate is very high.” He says many borrowers end up paying annualised borrowing costs that can exceed the value of the original loan. “Quickly, that becomes 60%, sometimes even 100% plus over the year,” Mutha says. For Gichangi, the problem is not whether there is capital, but how most traditional lenders assess risk. “The banks still don’t believe there is enough data on these businesses to make correct credit decisions,” he says. “Most businesses end up having to get financing from informal areas.” Measuring risk differently The disagreement between banks and Safaricom is not really about lending, but about access to financial information. Kenyan banks have historically measured risk using collateral, audited accounts, employment records, and years of banking relationships. Those requirements work well for large companies but not for a kiosk owner, an online merchant, or a boda boda operator. With millions of transactions daily, M-PESA sees things differently. Every payment received, supplier invoice settled, salary paid, utility bill cleared, and customer purchase processed creates a history. It means the telco has accumulated one of the richest financial datasets on consumer and business behaviour, which makes it easy to lend. The company already uses that information to determine its Fuliza overdraft limits and other lending products like M-Swari and KCB-MPESA. It now plans to apply the same model to business finance. “We recently got a person joining the M-Pesa team to support on the credit side,” Gichangi says. “Defining how this will look like, what type of partners do we need, what type of loans do we want to get into, and how do we structure this going forward.” Safaricom believes that if digital payments can reveal how a business earns, spends and repays money, perhaps transaction history can become a more accurate measure of creditworthiness than collateral alone. It follows developments elsewhere. Companies such as Ant Group in China and Mercado Pago in Latin America have built lending businesses by analysing daily transactions rather than relying on conventional banking tactics. Safaricom thinks M-PESA has reached a similar level. The platform Interestingly, Safaricom and its money services subsidiary M-PESA Africa are not keen on becoming a bank. Instead, it wants to become the platform that connects capital with borrowers, and that distinction matters. Globally, banking is being unbundled. Tech firms own customer relationships and distribution, while licensed financial institutions provide capital and manage regulatory risk. Safaricom appears to be pursuing the same model. “We partner with financial institutions,” Gichangi says. “Banks bring in the financing, we bring in the platform, help with the credit scoring and collections.” The model also explains why Gichangi’s appeal was directed at international investors as much as Kenyan lenders. Rather than asking global funds to build lending operations from scratch, Safaricom is offering M-PESA as the platform. Investors bring capital while banks provide regulated balance sheets, then Safaricom contributes customer acquisition, behavioural data, collections infrastructure, and distribution. History repeating itself? There is a striking parallel between Safaricom’s ambitions today and M-PESA’s origins. When M-Pesa was conceived, banks viewed millions of low-income Kenyans as commercially unattractive. Opening an account often required minimum balances, employer letters, and referrals from existing customers. “You needed a referral. You needed to maintain a minimum account. Some banks were asking you to come with an introduction letter from your employer,” says Mutha. Those requirements effectively locked millions of informal workers out of the banking system. Safaricom’s response was to redesign financial services around the customer instead of
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