When every call leaves a trail: Why can’t Nigeria still find kidnappers?
On the morning of October 23, 2025, Gbolahan Olaniyi was settling into what seemed like another routine day on the farm he manages at Oke Ako Village at Ikole Local Government, Ekiti State, southwestern Nigeria. From his small office, he worked through reports from the previous day’s harvest while, outside, more than 250 hectares of maize, soybeans, and cassava stretched toward the horizon. Workers moved across the fields, tractors rumbled along dusty tracks, as the harvest season was in full swing. Then a tractor operator failed to return. At first, it seemed like a minor delay. Olaniyi tried calling him, but the call would not connect. Concerned, he climbed onto his office-assigned motorcycle and headed into the fields to find out. What he found was unsettling. The tractor stood at an odd angle, half-turned into the bush, as though it had been abandoned in a hurry. Olaniyi got off his bike, picked up a cutlass, and walked toward it. He called the driver’s name once. Then again. Silence. A whistle suddenly pierced the stillness. Seven armed men emerged from the trees on either side of the path, AK-47 rifles in hand. The tractor driver had already been captured. He had been shot in the hand and tied to a tree. The abandoned tractor was bait. Olaniyi had walked straight into an ambush. “The kidnappers took everything from me—my phone, face cap, nose mask and even my customised farm boots,” Olaniyi recalled. The boots, supplied through a state government programme, carried identifying marks. “They cut out the markings before wearing them themselves.” Within minutes, the two men were being marched deeper into the forest. “There were about 15 local vigilantes and security personnel assigned to the farm, yet the kidnappers still took us into the bush,” he said. Escape from kidnapper’s den Day: Left Picture -Olaniyi Gbolahan Emmanuel at Ifaki-Ikole-Omuo Road, Ikole, Ekiti at 09:12AM, December 2; Right Picture: At Federal Road F215 Owo-Tegina, Yagba, Kogi State, Nigeria, AT 06:13 PM, December 2, 2026. Image source: Gbolahan Olaniyi. What followed was a 42-day ordeal through remote forests spanning multiple states. Olaniyi and other captives were forced to trek for hours, sleep in makeshift camps, and endure constant threats and the instant execution of four kidnapped victims who tried to run away from the heavily armed kidnappers. In one case, Olaniyi said he was forced to dig a shallow grave to bury one of the victims. Throughout the ordeal, one thing stood out: the men holding them captive relied heavily on mobile phones. They beat hostages while forcing them to speak to their families on video calls, using the scenes of violence to pressure relatives into paying ransoms. In one conversation with Olaniyi’s employer, the gang demanded ₦100 million ($73,566) for his release. They constantly requested airtime and mobile data to keep their phones active. At one point, a kidnapper handed Olaniyi a phone and instructed him to buy ₦10,000 ($7.36) worth of data for two mobile numbers. For a fleeting moment, Olaniyi held something investigators often struggle to obtain: a direct line to one of the men holding him captive. Yet even with phone numbers, calls, and other digital footprints, the kidnappers remained beyond the reach of authorities. No rescue came for Olaniyi or the other captives. Gbolahan’s mother and relations were forced to pay ₦30 million ($21,955) in ransom on the pretense of his release. After the ransom arrived in cash, the kidnappers refused and demanded more money. Their freedom only arrived on December 2, 2025, when Olaniyi said he and four others escaped after a dispute over ransom proceeds prompted their guards to abandon their post. “Once we were free, we avoided the front of the camp, where the kidnappers were sleeping, and slipped out through the back of the hill instead. Then we ran into the forest,” Olaniyi said. “We were incredibly fortunate that night because there was a bright full moon. It was December 2, and the moonlight helped us find our way as we escaped through the bush.” That contradiction lies at the heart of one of Nigeria’s most enduring security puzzles. Kidnappers rely heavily on telecommunications networks to run their operations. They call victims’ families, negotiate ransoms, send messages, make video calls, buy airtime, and increasingly use digital payment channels. Each interaction generates data. Every call leaves a trace. Yet despite this growing digital footprint, hundreds of kidnappings occur every year, and relatively few perpetrators are identified or prosecuted through telecommunications evidence alone. Research firm SBM Intelligence recorded 7,568 people abducted in 1,130 kidnapping incidents between July 2023 and June 2024. The report estimated that kidnappers demanded about ₦10.9 billion ($7.98 million) in ransom during the period. For many Nigerians, that reality is difficult to reconcile. In a country where SIM cards are linked to National Identification Numbers (NINs), telecom operators collect extensive subscriber data, and many people believe that security agencies have legal authority to access call records and location information, tracking kidnappers should seem straightforward. The gap between what technology can theoretically enable and what happens on the ground is often far wider than it appears. “Effective tracking relies heavily on seamless coordination between military intelligence, civil security agencies, and telecommunication providers, which can introduce bureaucratic or technical delays when time is of the essence,” Edward Buba, former Director of Defence Military Operations at Defence Headquarters, told TechCabal on the telephone. The myth of the instantly traceable phone call Image source: Wunmi Eunice/TechCabal When kidnappers call victims’ families, many Nigerians assume security agencies can simply trace the number and locate them within minutes. Popular movies, crime dramas, and years of telecom expansion have reinforced the belief that every phone call leaves an immediate digital trail leading directly to a suspect’s location. The reality is far more complicated. TechCabal Toolmaker The Tracking Circle Simulator See exactly why a kidnapper’s phone call doesn’t hand security forces a neat GPS pin. Lagos (Dense City) Zamfara (Sparse Forest) The Decoy Trick Initiate Trace Awaiting operator input.
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Koko Networks administrators begin sale of collapsed clean cooking startup’s assets
Administrators have begun marketing the assets of Koko Networks, the clean cooking startup that served more than one million Kenyan households, in the first major step toward winding down the company after its collapse in January. The sale advances Koko’s insolvency after the company shut down operations and laid off more than 700 employees when the Kenyan government declined to approve a Letter of Authorisation needed to unlock carbon credit revenues. Administrators are seeking buyers capable of transactions exceeding $15 million, signalling a preference for a strategic sale of the business rather than a breakup of individual assets. An insolvency notice seen by TechCabal invites expressions of interest by July 17 for Koko’s integrated ethanol cooking technology and manufacturing platform. PwC, which is overseeing the administration of Koko Networks Limited, is expected to shortlist bidders after the deadline. The assets include the company’s intellectual property portfolio, comprising patents, hardware designs and software technologies developed over more than a decade. They also include Koko’s stove and canister manufacturing plant in Sanand, Gujarat, India, and the fuel distribution and retail platform that supported more than 3,000 automated fuel stations across Kenya. While PwC is administering Koko Networks Limited, affiliated Indian entities Saarus Innovations Pvt Ltd and Koko Networks Pvt Ltd are being wound up through voluntary liquidation. Prospective buyers must demonstrate the financial capacity to complete deals exceeding $15 million before receiving detailed sale documents, according to the notice. The sale follows Koko’s collapse after the Kenyan government rejected the Letter of Authorisation required for the company to sell carbon credits internationally. Without that approval, Koko lost access to the revenue stream that subsidised ethanol fuel prices for more than one million households using its smart cooking system. Founded in 2013 by Gregg Murray, Koko was backed by undisclosed equity and debt rounds from investors including Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund, Mirova, Verod-Kepple, and Rand Merchant Bank. The World Bank’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) also backed the business with a $179.6 million guarantee. 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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Starlink pauses new subscriptions in parts of Kenya after demand surges
Starlink has stopped accepting new customers in seven Kenyan counties after demand outstripped available network capacity, a sign of the strains facing the satellite internet provider as it expands faster than its infrastructure can support. New customers in Nairobi, Kiambu, Mombasa, Machakos, Murang’a, Kirinyaga, and Kwale are now redirected to a waiting list instead of being allowed to complete orders. “Starlink service is currently at capacity in your area,” the company tells customers attempting to subscribe. “You can still place a deposit now to reserve your spot on the waitlist. We cannot provide an estimated timeframe for service availability, but our teams are working as quickly as possible to add more capacity.” Screenshot showing a Starlink message informing a customer that the service is at capacity in Kenya. The waiting lists suggest that demand in some of Kenya’s largest population centres has overtaken the network capacity that the company has allocated to the country, presenting Starlink with a new challenge as it seeks to sustain its growth. The suspension comes after a year of rapid subscriber growth fuelled by lower equipment prices and cheaper service plans. Communications Authority (CA) data shows Starlink had 24,999 subscribers at the end of March, more than three times the 8,063 customers it reported nine months earlier. Although that represents less than 1% of Kenya’s fixed internet market, it is one of the fastest growth rates among licenced internet service providers. The company has steadily reduced the cost of joining its network since launching in Kenya in July 2023. Hardware that initially cost KES 89,000 ($688.8) now sells for KES 49,900 ($386), while customers can rent the equipment for KES 1,950 ($15) monthly instead of buying it outright. It has also introduced lower-priced broadband packages, including a 50GB monthly plan costing KES 1,300 ($10), widening its appeal beyond affluent early adopters. Those price cuts have helped Starlink gain customers in rural areas where fibre networks remain scarce, while also attracting households and small businesses in cities looking for an alternative to terrestrial broadband providers. 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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How state tech agency became South Africa’s biggest digital transformation bottleneck
South Africa’s digital transformation is stalling because the government agency responsible for buying and delivering technology is struggling to do its own job. Findings of a Public Service Commission (PSC) investigation, released on Monday, have revealed systemic failures at the State Information Technology Agency (SITA), the country’s digital backbone, where procurement delays and leadership instability have slowed the delivery of critical Information and Communications Technology (ICT) systems across government. The probe, commissioned by Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Solly Malatsi in December 2024, paints a picture of an institution whose operational failures have become a national digital transformation risk. While more than R2 billion ($123 million) in irregular expenditure over four audited financial years has attracted attention, the report revealed that the bigger problem is an organisation unable to consistently procure, manage and deliver technology for the government. “This report is difficult reading, but it is necessary reading,” Malatsi said on Monday when releasing the findings alongside PSC chairperson Professor Somadoda Fikeni. “SITA is the state’s central ICT engine. When SITA fails, departments wait longer for the systems they need, budgets are placed under pressure, and citizens ultimately experience the consequences through poorer public services.” The damning report concludes that SITA’s problems extend far beyond financial irregularities. Instead, it identifies a systemic failure of execution in which governance, procurement, and human resource frameworks existed on paper but repeatedly failed in practice. “The overall consolidated finding is that SITA maintained formal governance, procurement, human-capital, ethics, risk and oversight frameworks during the period under review, but that these frameworks were not consistently implemented, enforced or monitored in practice,” the report noted. That implementation gap has become a bottleneck for South Africa’s digital state. The PSC found that of the 1,443 procurement processes reviewed, one in four never resulted in an award. A total of 278 tenders were withdrawn, 52 cancelled, and another 34 closed without any recorded reason, resulting in a procurement attrition rate of 25.2%. The delays were equally severe. The investigation found 529 procurement matters still sitting in the pipeline, while 203 procurement processes took longer than a year to move from work order to completion. Some contracts remained stuck in adjudication and contracting for more than 400 days. According to the report, procurement backlogs have affected the government’s ability to acquire critical ICT infrastructure and digital services, forcing departments including the South African Police Service, the Department of Home Affairs and the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development to seek exemptions from SITA procurement processes to meet operational requirements. The report concluded that procurement delays “affected client departments, service continuity, project delivery, budget utilisation and confidence in SITA’s role as a central ICT procurement and service-delivery entity.” Beyond procurement, investigators found SITA lacked a reliable, integrated, and automated contract management system. Contract expiry dates were tracked manually, supplier performance monitoring was fragmented, and the agency could not consistently demonstrate value for money across technology procurement. “The evidence does not support a finding that SITA maintained a fully reliable, integrated and automated central contract repository,” the report stated. For an organisation responsible for enabling digital government, investigators found an institution still heavily dependent on manual processes, fragmented records and incomplete automation. The findings also link procurement failures to years of leadership instability. Between 2020 and 2025, repeated changes in ministers, board leadership, managing directors and executive teams weakened institutional memory, accountability and decision-making. “The evidence indicates that leadership instability was a central driver of institutional weakness,” the report said. “Repeated leadership changes disrupted implementation cycles and made sustained corrective action difficult.” Rather than treating the findings as isolated governance failures, the PSC concludes they represent interconnected weaknesses that threaten the government’s broader digital transformation agenda. “SITA’s weaknesses affect more than internal governance compliance,” the report noted. “They bear directly on SITA’s ability to perform its public-sector ICT role with credibility, efficiency, accountability and service-delivery reliability.” Malatsi said the PSC’s findings provide the government with a practical roadmap rather than simply documenting institutional failures. “The value of this report is that it does not leave us with vague concerns. It gives us a clear diagnosis, a set of practical reforms and hard deadlines,” he said. The minister and the PSC have given SITA’s board 30 business days to submit a board-approved stabilisation and recovery plan, including a verified procurement backlog baseline. 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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Wahala App thinks public safety deserves its own app
If you are Nigerian and on social media, your timeline this week is probably flooded with videos of car rooftops barely visible above floodwater stretching for blocks, or of someone’s living room overtaken by flowing brown water. Keep scrolling, and you will probably find someone warning others to avoid a route because of traffic congestion. Whether it’s flooding in Lagos, election violence, a car accident, a building collapse, or a fuel tanker explosion, social media has become the country’s unofficial public alert system. Three young Nigerian founders believe that this behaviour deserves its own platform. Oriekaose Agholor, Adetunji Adewoye, and Kosi Kabiri launched the Wahala App in April 2026, a public incident-reporting mobile and web platform where users can report and receive real-time incident alerts about crime, flooding, election irregularities, and infrastructure failures. “What we wanted to put in the hands of people is simply an ability to report anything in real time,” Agholor, the startup’s chief executive officer, told TechCabal in a June interview. “Not just crime. It could be infrastructure or issues about elections… basically report data in real time so that everybody has access.” Wahala App joins a crop of civic technology platforms that use software to solve public-facing problems, including Citizens’ Gavel, which improves access to justice; BudgIT, which makes public budgets easier to understand; and Tracka, which allows communities to monitor public projects. It is betting that the same instinct that sends Nigerians to X during emergencies can power a platform built specifically for public incident reporting. How the Wahala App works Wahala App offers a live incident map that has robberies, fire incidents, road accidents, and other reported incidents appearing as scattered pins. According to the founders, users can narrow the incidents they see by distance or timeframe, filtering reports from within a kilometre of their location or expanding their view to incidents across the country. Wahala App incident mapping feature. Image source: TechCabal “Within the app, when you (users) create a report, people within that vicinity, a 1km or 5km radius, they all get real-time alerts,” said Agholor. “If everybody knows there’s a big pothole, or there’s flooding taking place in Lagos, people know they can avoid that route.” Reports on the platform are generated from two sources. According to the founders, users can make reports by uploading photos, videos, and a description of the incident. The report could also originate from Wahala AI, the platform’s in-house tool that scrapes reputable news sources for incidents and publishes them on the map. Such reports are tagged as AI-generated posts and include links to their sources. Wahala App also allows users to update a report submitted by other users with additional evidence to confirm details of the report or dispute what happened, and change how severe they believe the incident is. The founders described this as a consensus algorithm designed to improve the accuracy of reports over time. “We want everybody to have a say in what is going on,” Adewoye said. “But because anybody can say anything, we want to be sure everybody is getting the most accurate piece of data.” Wahala App alerts feature. Image source: TechCabal Behind the scenes, the consensus system is supported by an algorithm that works alongside the app’s update and dispute features, Kabiri noted. He explained that the algorithm averages how different users rate an incident’s severity before adjusting the final score displayed on the platform. Wahala App also allows individuals to subscribe to hashtags tied to specific issues, such as terrorism or elections, according to the founders. Subscribers receive alerts whenever a new report carries that tag, regardless of where it happened in the country. “There are situations where you want to pay attention to a particular issue,” Kabiri said. “Maybe terrorism. It doesn’t matter whether it happens close to you or far away. Once you subscribe to that hashtag, you keep getting that information.” The platform also includes an SOS feature that allows users to notify pre-selected emergency contacts and dial emergency services. For now, emergency contacts must be registered on the Wahala App to receive those alerts; however, the founders noted that they intend to expand the feature to integrate SMS and phone call notifications. Wahala App emergency number feature. Image source: TechCabal Under the hood Wahala App is free for individual users, and its founders intend to keep it that way. Instead, they plan to monetise the platform through partnerships with organisations that embed it into their operations. The initial target is community development associations and estates, which they believe could use the Wahala App to coordinate incident reporting and respond to emergencies more efficiently. They also intend to partner with vigilante groups, security bodies, emergency responders, and eventually government agencies. Since its launch in April, the platform has crossed the 100-user mark, the founders said. They envision the Wahala App being used to document real-time voter intimidation and electoral malpractices during the upcoming elections in the country. Wahala App is bound to face the challenge of convincing people to change their habit of sharing real-time information about incidents on social media platforms. The founders acknowledged that challenge, but argued they are not trying to replace social media. They see Wahala App as a platform built to organise information scattered across timelines and social media platforms into a database of public incidents. For now, Wahala App’s vision is being financed by the founding trio, who continue to work their full-time jobs while pooling their salaries to fund development and keep the platform running. “We’re running at a loss, but we don’t care. We believe in the vision; we believe that this is something that needs to be done,” said Agholor. 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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TechCabal’s Road to Moonshot brings Africa’s startup debate to Nairobi
TechCabal brought its Road to Moonshot series to Nairobi on July 2, gathering more than 120 founders, investors, operators, and executives for an evening that felt less like a conference warm-up and more like a temperature check on the direction of the East African technology industry. Hosted at venture studio Delta40 and supported by Safaricom, PawaPay, Watu, and HoneyCoin as the media partner, the event is part of the buildup to Moonshot 2026, TechCabal’s flagship conference scheduled for October 28-29 in Lagos. A heavy evening downpour threatened to disrupt the gathering, but organisers moved the networking session indoors, which extended well past 9 p.m. TechCabal’s decision to bring Road to Moonshot to Nairobi reflected Kenya’s growing influence in African technology conversations and its status as a regional hub. Kenyan startups raised nearly $1 billion in 2025, more than any other African market, accounting for almost a third of the continent’s total startup funding. “The idea behind Moonshot is that we’re not where we’re going. We’re just starting. There are big companies still to be built and big problems still to solve,” Tomiwa Aladekomo, chief executive of Big Cabal Media, TechCabal’s parent company, said during his opening speech. Big Cabal Media CEO Tomiwa Aladekomo. Image source: TechCabal. TechCabal has covered Kenya’s technology industry for several years, but Aladekomo said the company is renewing its commitment to the East African market, with an expanded team that includes two reporters, a partnerships lead, and a fourth member joining soon. “It’s a market that’s important to us. We’ve had reporters here for the last three years covering the innovation and tech ecosystem here,” he said. Aladekomo pushed back against the notion that Africa’s startup scene is a single market, arguing that “the Kenyan ecosystem is quite different from Nigeria’s. It’s quite different than Cape Town or the rest of the ecosystem. It’s a very distinct one.” That distinction was evident in both the guest list and the conversations. Founders, investors, startup operators, and corporate executives from companies including Safaricom, PawaPay, Watu, Delta40, DOB Equity, Giraffe Bio Energy, PowerUp, Farmsky Ventures, and Flowt spent the evening discussing the realities of building businesses in East Africa, away from formal presentations and panel discussions. Some of Delta40’s portfolio companies Big Cabal Media CEO Tomiwa Aladekomo (left) during an interview at Delta40 A HoneyCoin banner at the mixer. A section of attendees at the mixer at Delta40 A section of attendees at the mixer at Delta40 A section of attendees at the mixer at Delta40 Sam Mbugua – Portfolio director at Delta40 A section of attendees at the mixer at Delta40 A section of attendees at the mixer at Delta40 While the businesses represented different industries, many of the challenges sounded familiar. Conversations moved between fundraising, regulation, talent, agriculture, clean energy, and consumer behaviour, revealing how founders often spend as much time adapting to local market conditions as they do building products. Elana Laichena, founder of Flowt, an AI platform that helps businesses prepare for investment while giving investors tools to assess and monitor companies, said founders need to expect rejection rather than fear it. “You have to get used to hearing ‘no’ more than ‘yes’,” she said. Rather than treating rejection as failure, founders should use it as feedback to refine their businesses and keep building. Founders also carry the burden of convincing employees, investors, and customers to believe in ideas that, at least initially, exist only in their heads. Leadership, speakers said, often comes down to communicating the same vision to different audiences without losing clarity or trust. Obstacles become sharper depending on the sector Bonface Nyalwal of agritech startup Farmsky Ventures spoke about agriculture, noting that a single failed rainy season can send shockwaves through farmers, processors, distributors, and lenders. Payment companies expanding across Africa quickly discover that moving money across borders is often easier than navigating the regulations around it. Freddie Omany, managing director at PawaPay, a cross-border payments company, noted that payments businesses entering new markets often find themselves redesigning compliance processes country by country because regulators interpret money movement differently, even when the underlying transactions are identical. Freddie Omany, managing director at PawaPay. Image source: TechCabal. Bart-Jan ter Haar, head of commercial at PowerUp, a clean cooking company, pointed to another challenge that rarely appears in pitch decks: habit. Changing how households cook means competing against routines that have existed for generations. To persuade customers to abandon charcoal, products must do more than reduce costs or improve convenience. They need to produce better results. Investors also offered their own reading of how Anthony Mahira, investment manager at DOB Equity, a Dutch-backed investment firm focused on East Africa, said East Africa has long been shaped by development finance institutions and concessional capital. What interests him now is the emergence of investors approaching companies with stronger commercial expectations and clearer paths to sustainability. His work with founders often extends beyond capital. “50%of the founders’ time is spent fundraising,” Mahira said. Reducing that burden allows founders to spend more time with customers and products rather than on investor decks and due diligence requests. Finding talent still presents another challenge Many startups simply cannot afford the recruitment budgets or compensation packages needed to attract experienced hires, leaving companies with gaps in key roles during critical growth stages. The evening’s most ambitious discussion came from Delta40’s portfolio. Portfolio director Sam Mbugua pointed to Giraffe Bio Energy as one of the companies that excites him most, while praising chief executive Linda Davis for building a deeply technical business with national ambitions. The company is building a cassava-to-ethanol operation that stretches from farmers in Kwale County to cultivation and a planned biorefinery capable of producing fuel locally. The goal is not merely another agricultural business but an attempt to reduce dependence on imported fuel while creating demand for local production. Felix Kimura, Product Manager, My OneApp. Image source: TechCabal. Safaricom’s contribution pointed in a similar direction, albeit through digital infrastructure rather than industrial infrastructure. The telco highlighted My
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The new $50 million fund backing Senegalese startups
7 juillet 2026 Hello , Welcome back to Francophone Weekly by TechCabal, your weekly deep dive into the tech ecosystem across French-speaking Africa. For readers who want to understand Francophone Africa beyond headlines—through markets, startups, and systems. New editions of the newsletter will land directly in your inbox every Tuesday at 12 PM WAT. By default, this newsletter is in French. If you’re reading this in your email inbox, click the “Read in English” button below to switch to the English version. If you’re reading on our website, you can either click the button below or toggle the language selector at the top right-hand side of the page to view the English edition. Read in English Le 20 juin, sur la scène AfricaTech de VivaTech à Paris, Aida Mbodji, Déléguée Générale de la Délégation à l’Entrepreneuriat Rapide des Femmes et des Jeunes (DER/FJ) du Sénégal, a annoncé la création du fonds Catalyst DER/FJ : un véhicule de 50 millions de dollars dédié au financement de startups sénégalaises innovantes aux stades pré-seed et seed. L’annonce est intervenue lors d’une keynote intitulée « Combler le déficit de financement pré-seed en Afrique de l’Ouest francophone : comment le capital institutionnel construit les prochaines licornes africaines. » C’était aussi une vitrine pour l’écosystème startup sénégalais en plein essor. Quinze startups innovantes — dont Lafricamobile, Andakia, Baamtu, SenITI, FAJMA, Absar, Fossetic Ingénierie et Telluriq — représentaient des secteurs allant de la fintech et la healthtech à la cybersécurité. Plusieurs fondateurs ont pitché devant une salle d’investisseurs internationaux immédiatement après le lancement, offrant un aperçu en direct du pipeline que le fonds est conçu pour servir. L’événement a également produit une autre annonce notable : DER/FJ et Wave Sénégal ont signé un partenariat stratégique pour mettre en place un programme d’accélération local de startups et décentraliser le soutien à l’innovation numérique à travers le Sénégal. Le diagnostic derrière Catalyst DER/FJ n’est pas nouveau, mais les données continuent de plaider en sa faveur. Le financement au stade seed ne représente que 1,5 % du capital total investi en Afrique — environ trois à quatre fois en dessous de la part de 4 % à 6 % généralement enregistrée aux États-Unis, selon Africa: The Big Deal, un outil de suivi des levées de fonds. Ce déficit force les fondateurs à épuiser leur runway précisément au moment où ils valident encore un modèle économique, constituent une équipe, ou mettent un prototype entre les mains des utilisateurs. L’approche du Sénégal avec Catalyst DER/FJ est explicite sur les mécanismes : utiliser le capital public pour attirer les investisseurs privés, générer un effet de levier, et renforcer la compétitivité de l’écosystème startup domestique. Pour les lecteurs de cette newsletter, l’histoire la plus intéressante se situe toutefois sous le chiffre phare. 1. Construire l’économie startup du Sénégal Source de l’image : DER Senegal Six mois avant l’annonce de Paris, je me suis entretenue avec Elena Dia, qui dirigeait à l’époque l’Unité d’Animation de l’Écosystème de DER/FJ, pour un article sur la façon dont l’institution repensait le soutien aux startups au Sénégal. Dia a depuis quitté ce rôle, mais la réflexion qu’elle a décrite mérite d’être revisitée maintenant que DER/FJ passe à un capital de type equity, orienté technologie. Son argument central était que l’écosystème sénégalais avait mûri au-delà du soutien générique à l’entrepreneuriat et avait désormais besoin de programmes délibérément construits autour de secteurs et de chaînes de valeur — créant des champions au sein de chaque verticale plutôt que de maintenir un paysage dispersé d’accélérateurs en compétition pour le même vivier peu profond de fondateurs investissables. Elle m’a également exposé quelque chose qui trouve rarement sa place dans les communiqués de presse de lancement de fonds : l’infrastructure de décaissement de DER/FJ. Pour les financements inférieurs à environ 3 570 dollars (2 millions de FCFA), l’institution peut contourner entièrement les exigences de la banque centrale et de compte commercial. Les candidats passent par un outil de scoring de crédit en ligne développé en interne, avec des fonds décaissés — et des remboursements collectés — via les portefeuilles mobile money Orange Money et Wave. Ces rails numérisés, natifs du mobile money, sont ce qui permet à une agence publique d’entrepreneuriat d’atteindre des fondateurs dans les 552 communes du Sénégal sans exiger que quiconque se déplace à Dakar simplement pour recevoir ou rembourser un financement. Ce contexte compte, parce que DER/FJ ne lance pas Catalyst DER/FJ depuis zéro. Un portefeuille construit avant le fonds Créée par décret présidentiel en 2017, l’institution opère déjà un portefeuille d’instruments qui combinent financement et soutien structuré et sectoriel. Building Entrepreneurship and Youth Employment for Senegal (BE YES), un programme national géré par DER/FJ et adossé à un engagement de 10 millions de dollars sur deux ans de la Fondation Mastercard, soutient les jeunes entrepreneurs et les groupements d’intérêt économique tout en construisant un réseau de hubs d’innovation et d’« espaces de créativité » satellites dans les 14 régions. Le programme cible explicitement les jeunes femmes, les personnes handicapées et les migrants de retour, en plus des fondateurs classiques. PAVIE (Projet d’Appui et de Valorisation des Initiatives Entrepreneuriales des femmes et des jeunes) est mis en œuvre avec la Banque Africaine de Développement (BAD) et l’Agence Française de Développement (AFD), et structure le financement autour des chaînes de valeur agricoles et artisanales. C’est le programme qui a, par exemple, canalisé environ 500 millions de FCFA (873 000 dollars) vers les associations professionnelles sénégalaises de réparation de pneus et de mécanique. PAAICE, co-mis en œuvre avec le Fonds de Garantie des Investissements Prioritaires (FONGIP), le Fonds Souverain d’Investissements Stratégiques (FONSIS), l’Agence de Développement et d’Encadrement des Petites et Moyennes Entreprises (ADEPME), et la Délégation au Financement du Partenariat Public-Privé (DFPPP), est axé sur l’accélération industrielle, la compétitivité et la création d’emplois. Il sert également de pipeline de formalisation. Une campagne associée, menée avec l’Agence de Promotion des Investissements et des Grands Travaux (APIX-SA), les chambres de commerce désignées, les municipalités et GAINDE 2000, vise à faire entrer 12 000
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South Africa’s Starlink licencing row becomes political battle over telecom reforms
Solly Malatsi, South Africa’s Communications Minister, has said the Starlink licencing controversy has evolved from a satellite broadband debate into a political battle over his reform agenda In a sharply worded letter, dated Sunday and addressed to Parliament’s communications committee chairperson Khusela Sangoni, Malatsi rejects suggestions that he was influenced into pursuing policy changes that could benefit Starlink, insisting the reforms predated any engagement with the satellite operator. “It is impossible to be unduly influenced to do something one is already doing,” he wrote, arguing that recognising Equity Equivalent Investment Programmes (EEIPs) in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector was already part of both the Democratic Alliance (DA) party’s 2024 election manifesto and the GNU’s Medium Term Development Plan. The letter marks a turning point in a dispute that has rapidly evolved from questions about Starlink’s market access into one of the GNU’s most politically charged technology controversies. Rather than merely responding to Parliament’s request for clarification, Malatsi, who is also the DA’s Deputy Federal Chairperson, sought to dismantle the narrative that private lobbying influenced government policy. His response came after Sangoni, a senior African National Congress (ANC) member, requested a detailed explanation following claims by former agriculture minister John Steenhuisen alleging that public affairs firm Resolve Communications facilitated engagements between government ministers and private clients, including Starlink. Resolve Communications, owned by former DA leader Tony Leon, declined to comment on the allegations but on Sunday rejected the allegations. In her letter to Malatsi on July 1, Sangoni said that while the allegations remain untested, they raise serious questions about the relationship between public office bearers and private interests in policy and regulatory decisions. “At face value, these allegations invoke concerning historical precedents in our country, where private interests sought to direct government policy and executive decisions during the State Capture era,” she wrote. At the centre of the dispute is South Africa’s effort to reform telecommunications policy to accommodate low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite operators while preserving the country’s black economic empowerment framework. Starlink, the SpaceX-owned satellite broadband service, has been unable to secure a licence in South Africa because the country’s Electronic Communications Act requires network operators to have at least 30% ownership by historically disadvantaged South Africans. Malatsi has proposed recognising Equity Equivalent Investment Programmes (EEIPs) as an alternative compliance mechanism, a move widely viewed as opening a pathway for multinational satellite operators that cannot meet local ownership requirements. In his letter, Malatsi argued that his engagement with Starlink was neither unique nor secretive. He said he has met a range of satellite operators and industry stakeholders, including Amazon LEO, China Satellite Network Company, Space24, Spacesail and Starlink, stressing that none of those meetings involved discussions about individual licence applications. “Such meetings are always about understanding each entity’s capabilities and sharing insights about the country’s current regulatory dispensation,” he wrote. The minister also distanced himself from claims involving Resolve Communications, the public affairs firm that advises Starlink on government relations and strategic communications in South Africa. According to Malatsi, Resolve approached his office only twice: once regarding Premium Ideas SA’s concerns over non-compliant SIM card registration and later over Hot 102.7FM’s licence amendment application, which was ultimately referred to the communications regulator. He also disclosed two telephone conversations with Resolve CEO Paul Boughey, describing one as a routine inquiry about accessing a government gazette. Crucially, Malatsi disclosed for the first time that his only meeting with a SpaceX representative, Ryan Goodnight, in September 2024, was facilitated directly by lawyer Robert Appelbaum rather than Resolve Communications. “It is important to clarify that the media interview on which you relied… alleges neither that I met with Resolve Communications nor that it facilitated any meeting with Starlink,” he wrote. Malatsi also broadened his defence beyond the immediate allegations, arguing that engagement between ministers and industry is an essential part of policymaking. “As Ministers, we are constantly approached by stakeholders,” he wrote. “Engagements with stakeholders may broaden my perspective on issues, but they do not dictate my decision-making.” In a pointed political comparison, Malatsi referenced President Cyril Ramaphosa’s own meeting with SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk, noting that the Presidency had publicly acknowledged Starlink would be among the topics discussed. The comparison appeared aimed at arguing that engagement with global technology companies is a routine function of government rather than evidence of undue influence. Parliament’s communications committee will now consider Malatsi’s response before determining its next steps. With the ANC demanding greater scrutiny and the DA insisting the controversy is politically motivated, the battle over Starlink has evolved into more than a licensing dispute; it has become an early test of how the Government of National Unity manages technology policy, foreign investment and political accountability. 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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Kenya gives central bank powers to rescue banks during financial crises
Kenya has established a framework allowing its central bank to provide emergency funding to banks during financial crises. On Monday, President William Ruto signed the Central Bank of Kenya (Amendment) Bill, 2026, into law, introducing reforms that set out how Kenya will respond to future banking crises by establishing rules for emergency support to lenders and expanding the central bank’s role in preserving financial stability. Under the law, the CBK may provide emergency liquidity assistance where it considers intervention necessary to preserve financial stability. Eligible institutions must be solvent and viable, not under liquidation, and considered systemically important or likely to pose risks to the wider financial system if they fail. The support will be discretionary, temporary, and subject to conditions set by the central bank. Loans and advances issued under the framework will be repaid over up to 12 months, although the regulator may extend the period. The facilities must also be backed by collateral acceptable to the central bank and subject to valuation, margin, and risk management requirements. “Emergency liquidity assistance shall only be provided to an institution that is solvent and viable and whose failure may threaten the stability of the financial system,” part of the bill reads. The amendments also revise the central bank’s statutory objectives, requiring it to promote the liquidity, solvency, proper functioning, and integrity of a market-based financial system as well as the soundness, safety, and effective regulation of the banking sector. Another provision expands the range of reserve assets the central bank may buy, sell, import, export, transfer, hold, and refine. Beyond gold and foreign exchange, the law permits the regulator to deal in gold coins, bullion, silver, platinum, and other precious metals under terms it determines. The legislation also authorises the central bank to provide training and capacity building to its staff, public institutions, members of the public, and institutions from other jurisdictions. CBK may issue regulations to support these programmes. The law further updates the approval process for CBK deputy governors by replacing references to Parliament with the National Assembly, bringing the Act in line with the 2010 Constitution. The amendments are the latest in a series of updates to the Central Bank of Kenya Act, which was enacted in 1966. Recent changes expanded the regulator’s oversight of digital lenders in 2021 and non-deposit-taking credit providers in 2026, while the latest reforms strengthen the central bank’s role in crisis management and financial stability The reforms are intended to “strengthen the CBK’s capacity to safeguard financial stability, improve banking oversight, and modernise the country’s monetary policy framework,” Ruto said in a statement on Monday. 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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The Miami startup building blockchain settlement rails for African governments
$56 billion. That was the amount that flowed into Sub-Saharan Africa as remittances in 2024, according to World Bank estimates. Yet, moving money across Africa still often means routing payments through correspondent banks, delays, foreign exchange (FX) costs, and fees that can reach double digits. Ryan Kirkley, co-founder and chief executive officer of Global Settlement Network (GSX), a US-based blockchain infrastructure company, believes those inefficiencies are creating an opening for a new generation of financial infrastructure built on blockchain. “Some African economies already run on stablecoin rails,” Kirkley told TechCabal in an interview in May. “The question now is whether countries build infrastructure to control that flow themselves.” African governments, fintechs, and central banks are increasingly seeking alternatives to fragmented payment rails and reliance on dollar-backed stablecoins. Uganda has emerged as one of the continent’s boldest experiments. Founded in Miami, the United States, GSX entered Africa in 2023, betting that governments building new payment infrastructure would adopt blockchain-based settlement rails faster than more mature markets. Uganda has since become its flagship project. In October 2025, GSX partnered with Diacente Group, a Uganda-based green industrial zones developer, on a proposed $5.5 billion project to build digital infrastructure linking the country’s farms, mines, power projects, and factories, including a pilot for a digital shilling. In April 2026, it acquired a majority stake in local capital markets firm AKIBA International to strengthen its infrastructure for real-world asset (RWA) tokenisation, cross-border settlement, and digital currencies. The US-based blockchain infrastructure company said it is developing technology for real-world asset (RWA) tokenisation, cross-border settlement, and, eventually, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) across Africa. Africa has become a testbed for tokenisation due to its perceived illiquidity across capital markets, shallow secondary trading, and restrictive foreign exchange (FX) controls in many countries that make it difficult to move money in and out. In 2022, impact investment firm Mercy Corps Ventures (MCV), backed by funding from Ripple, the US‑based blockchain payments company, launched a tokenised savings product in Cameroon with local fintech Ejara that fractionalised government bonds into digital units retail investors could buy in small amounts through an app. The project gave thousands of low‑income savers access to high‑yield, low‑risk government bonds for the first time, with more than 11,000 users collectively saving over $245,000, according to reported figures. Building on that, in April 2025, Ripple funded a Ripple Impact pilot with MCV, alongside Kenyan lender Fortune Credit, and DIVA Donate, a blockchain donation platform, to test blockchain‑powered parametric drought insurance for farmers in Laikipia, Kenya. The partners used satellite data to track vegetation and rainfall and set predefined thresholds that would automatically trigger payouts, so farmers could receive compensation in RLUSD, Ripple’s dollar‑backed stablecoin, instead of waiting weeks for traditional insurance settlements. But unlike those tokenisation pilots, GSX wants to build sovereign financial infrastructure, starting with Uganda. Kirkley said the company is not positioning itself at the consumer layer of financial services, but lower down the stack, where settlement rails, issuance, and transfer infrastructure are defined. He argued that Africa’s next financial infrastructure race will not be fought over consumer apps or mobile wallets, but over who controls settlement itself. Investors are betting the opportunity is big. In May, GSX closed an $11 million pre-seed funding round, which the company said will support the expansion of its blockchain-based settlement network. The interview has been edited for length and clarity. You’ve argued that Africa’s next financial infrastructure race will be fought over settlement. What led you to that conclusion? As I went deeper into the space through venture capital investing, I noticed two things. First, US dollar-backed stablecoins were becoming widely used globally, but many countries wanted alternatives that preserved more local control. Second, every institution was building on a different blockchain, settlement network, or financial ecosystem, with very little interoperability between them. In the United States, you had networks like Canton. In Africa, Binance Blockchain (BNB) and TRON were gaining traction alongside US dollar-backed stablecoins like Tether. Every ecosystem was solving problems locally, but very few were focused on interoperability between them. Connecting those fragmented systems became the core idea behind Global Settlement. What exactly is the solution you provide to financial institutions and governments? Our primary focus is central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and government-backed stablecoins. Around that, we have built a compliance infrastructure that includes identity verification, sanctions screening, know-your-customer (KYC), anti-money laundering (AML) controls, and Travel Rule compliance—everything regulators and central banks require to operate securely. Africa and the broader Global South present a major opportunity because many financial systems are still developing. With political support, countries can modernise large parts of their financial infrastructure relatively quickly. In Uganda alone, we believe digital financial infrastructure could eventually help bring formal financial access to roughly [8.7 million Ugandans—about 19% of the unbanked population]. Lower remittance costs, cheaper mobile money transfers, and access to more stable stores of value can have a meaningful economic impact. What differentiates us is that institutions do not need to adopt our blockchain specifically to work with us. We can integrate with almost any existing system. When did you first find real resonance with the market you were trying to build for? Finding product-market fit was probably the hardest part of building this company. In many ways, we started almost two years too early. At the time, most people in crypto believed one blockchain ecosystem would eventually dominate everything. Our view was the opposite: every bank, institution, and government would eventually run its own blockchain infrastructure. Starting early turned out to be a blessing because it gave us time to build the technology and do the research before the market caught up. Momentum really accelerated after [US President] Donald Trump’s election [in 2024], when the regulatory conversation around crypto became much more serious. Large financial institutions eventually realised digital asset infrastructure was no longer optional. For my co-founder, Kyle Sonlin, and me, starting early ultimately became an advantage because it gave us time to build the technology before the market
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