👨🏿🚀TechCabal Daily – Mega Terra
In partnership with Lire en Français اقرأ هذا باللغة العربية Wazzup. It’s Tuesday. Africa’s startup ecosystem has apparently decided that seed funding should no longer be small. Nigerian defence-tech startup Terra Industries has closed a $52 million seed round, one of the continent’s biggest early-stage bets yet. We talk about it in today’s dispatch. Let’s dive in. Become smarter about tech and commerce in Francophone Africa, and the policies shaping them. A new edition drops today. Read previous editions here first and subscribe below. Subscribe Terra raises Africa’s largest seed round EBRD, IFC eye Egypt’s Banque du Caire Egypt’s e-finance acquires 8% stake in Wilzy Are ATMs making a comeback in Nigeria? World Wide Web 3 Opportunities Funding Terra raises Africa’s largest seed round Image Source: Tenor On Monday, Terra Industries, the Nigerian defence-tech startup, announced its third raise of the year, closing what has become the largest and most covered seed round in Africa’s tech ecosystem. With $18 million raised, the two-year-old company is now the seventh most-funded startup in Africa in 2026, after closing its seed round at $52 million. Why this matters: Raising that much this early signals real investor confidence in Africa’s biggest defence tech startup, particularly in a funding market that has seen companies like GoLemon and Gigbanc shut down. But it also sets a bar. Money raised at this scale eventually has to come back to investors through an exit. While talks of exits are premature given that Terra just closed its seed round, it is worth talking about because with great capital come great responsibilities. What will it use the money for? Terra says it will use the money to open a London office, and with this much capital available, the company is well placed to hire experienced people who can open doors in international markets. This can be particularly useful for the startup that has to acquire relationships and contracts in a sector dominated by billion-dollar incumbents, where credibility and the right introductions often decide who gets a hearing. The startup will also expand its manufacturing capacity, deploy its products across the Global South, and hire engineering, operations, and business development staff. What does this mean? It is tempting to look for one reason Terra has raised so much this year, but several things set it apart. It builds both the hardware and the software. It already protects critical commercial and government assets across West Africa. It allows African governments to use a system where the security data stays inside the country—an argument that won Terra its first Nigerian federal contract and edges it over international competition. Every business owner needs to watch this. The business questions you Google, answered by experts. Watch for free. Banking EBRD and IFC want a slice of EgyptBanque du Caire Image Source: Tenor Egypt is preparing to sell part of Banque du Caire, one of its oldest and largest state-backed financial institutions, to public investors, and investor interest is circling. Two international development institutions, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), want in; both investors are eyeing a combined 10% stake in the state-owned bank when it lists on the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) in November 2026. The stake could be split roughly down the middle, with EBRD taking up to 5%, while IFC mops up the rest, according to local publication EnterpriseAM. Wait, who are these guys? The EBRD is a multilateral bank that invests in emerging economies to build up their financial markets, and the IFC is the arm of the World Bank Group that bankrolls private-sector projects in developing countries. Explain like I’m new here: This is part of Egypt’s effort to increasingly privatise its economy, bringing in more private and foreign investors as the state reduces its stakes in those institutions. For the country, the name of the game is to raise money, attract foreign currency, deepen the local stock market, and give private investors a bigger role in companies that have traditionally been controlled by the state. The government has been doing this by selling stakes in existing companies and listing others on the Egyptian Exchange. In 2021, Egypt sold a 51% stake in Arab Investment Bank, the first time it privatised a bank in over a decade. In October 2024, it listed United Bank—which was heavily state-owned—selling a stake to public investors. More recently, in April 2026, Egypt temporarily listed six state-owned companies on its stock exchange to broaden the market and attract investor interest. The country is looking to raise between $3 billion and $4 billion from initial public offerings (IPOs) and stake sales by the end of 2026. A long time coming: The government had been considering selling up to 49% of Banque du Caire as of April, but the latest plan puts the IPO in November. The real reason could be that the banks running the deal asked for extra time to widen the pool of investors before going back out to pitch it. The new plan is to restart the investor roadshow in September or October and complete the listing in November. Why does this matter? For Banque du Caire, an IPO means fresh capital and a broader shareholder base. Having EBRD and IFC potentially buy in could make the offering easier to sell to other investors who may be wondering whether they want a piece of an Egyptian state-owned bank; it makes the IPO attractive to everyone else. Naira Life 2026 is here! The Naira Life Conference 2026 is bringing together Nigeria’s top finance minds, industry leaders, creators, and business strategists for a full-day of specialised sessions and masterclasses designed for ambitious Nigerians who want to make, keep, grow, and pass on real wealth. Happening on August 22 at the Jewel Aeida, Lekki, Lagos. Secure a seat in the room. Fintech Publicly listed e-finance acquires 8% stake in Wilzy, an Egyptian retail investment company Image Source: Tenor Days after it acquired Egyptian micro-lender Tamweely, e-finance, the Egyptian-listed fintech
Read MoreNigerians are returning to ATMs as PoS transactions fall 20%
After years of losing ground to Point-of-Sale (PoS) agents, Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) are making a comeback as transaction volumes rise while PoS volumes decline. In the first quarter of 2026, Nigerians made 438.6 million ATM transactions, up 6.6% from the previous year, according to data released on Friday by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Transaction value grew 64.6% year-on-year to ₦26.3 trillion ($19.4 billion). PoS transaction volumes fell 19.9% year-on-year to 2.92 billion in Q1 2026, while transaction value fell 16.4% to ₦59.3 trillion ($43.7 billion). These changes could redraw Nigeria’s cash-access network. PoS agents spent years filling the gaps left by scarce and unreliable ATMs, becoming the preferred way for millions of Nigerians to get cash. But as ATM transactions rise and PoS volumes decline, banks are beginning to reclaim a role agents had steadily taken from them. ATMs are making a comeback Nigeria’s first ATM was installed in 1989 by Société Générale Bank, a French commercial bank, and through the early 2000s, commercial banks and independent ATM deployers accelerated growth. By 2021, there were about 22,600 ATMs across the country. But years of underinvestment, out-of-service machines, empty cash trays, and network problems had reduced the number of active ATMs to 16,714 by mid-2024. As ATM availability declined, PoS terminals, led by fintechs like Moniepoint and OPay, increasingly filled the gap. In March 2025, Nigeria had 8.36 million registered PoS terminals, with 5.90 million active or deployed. With an estimated population of 237 million, Nigeria has about one PoS terminal for every 28 people, compared with 13 ATMs per 100,000 adults in 2024, according to the World Bank. Nigeria’s cash crisis in 2023, triggered by the CBN’s currency redesign and cash withdrawal limits, turned PoS agents into a crucial part of the country’s cash network. As Nigerians struggled to withdraw money from banks and ATMs, agents became the more accessible option for getting cash, transferring money and carrying out other basic financial transactions. At the height of the crisis, there were 2.32 million PoS terminals in the country. But a new set of CBN rules is changing the operating environment for both channels. How much will it cost to get cash? Enter what you need and compare the cost of an ATM with what your local PoS agent charges. 1. Amount needed ₦ 2. ATM you’re using My bank’s ATM Another bank’s ATM — on-site Another bank’s ATM — off-site 3. What does your PoS agent charge? ₦ Enter the fee your agent quoted you.We’ve pre-filled an estimated market rate. Replace it if your agent charges differently. Your options ATM PoS One thing to know: PoS cash-outs are subject to CBN limits. An amount above the permitted cash-out limit cannot be completed as one transaction. ATM fees are based on CBN rules. PoS fees are user-entered and can vary by agent. Powered by TechCabal. up to ₦500 surcharge ₦${baseAtm.toLocaleString()}–₦${maxAtm.toLocaleString()} possible cost `; posBreakdownEl.innerHTML = ` ₦${posFee.toLocaleString()} agent’s fee `; } else { atmBreakdownEl.innerHTML = ` Base withdrawal fee ₦${baseAtm.toLocaleString()} `; posBreakdownEl.innerHTML = ` Your agent’s fee ₦${posFee.toLocaleString()} `; } // 4. Calculate and Render The Verdict const verdictTitle = document.getElementById(‘tc-verdict-title’); const verdictReason = document.getElementById(‘tc-verdict-reason’); if (atmType === ‘other-off’) { if (posFee > maxAtm) { let maxSavings = posFee – baseAtm; verdictTitle.innerText = `ATM could save you up to ₦${maxSavings.toLocaleString()}`; verdictTitle.style.color = ‘#151515’; } else if (posFee < baseAtm) { let minSavings = baseAtm – posFee; verdictTitle.innerText = `PoS saves you at least ₦${minSavings.toLocaleString()}`; verdictTitle.style.color = ‘#EA2D2E’; } else { verdictTitle.innerText = `The cheaper option depends on the ATM surcharge`; verdictTitle.style.color = ‘#151515’; } verdictReason.innerHTML = `Why: Your selected ATM costs ₦${baseAtm.toLocaleString()}, with a possible surcharge of up to ₦500, while your agent charges ₦${posFee.toLocaleString()}.`; } else { if (posFee > baseAtm) { let savings = posFee – baseAtm; verdictTitle.innerText = `ATM saves you ₦${savings.toLocaleString()}`; verdictTitle.style.color = ‘#151515’; } else if (baseAtm > posFee) { let savings = baseAtm – posFee; verdictTitle.innerText = `PoS saves you ₦${savings.toLocaleString()}`; verdictTitle.style.color = ‘#EA2D2E’; } else { verdictTitle.innerText = `Costs are equal`; verdictTitle.style.color = ‘#151515’; } verdictReason.innerHTML = `Why: Your selected ATM charges ₦${baseAtm.toLocaleString()} for this withdrawal, while your agent charges ₦${posFee.toLocaleString()}.`; } // 5. Enforce Regulatory Context Rules const regulatoryAlert = document.getElementById(‘tc-regulatory-alert’); if (amount > 100000) { regulatoryAlert.style.display = ‘block’; } else { regulatoryAlert.style.display = ‘none’; } // 6. Show Output outputSection.style.display = ‘block’; }
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Africa is building a single payments market but its currencies remain divided
Africa is building regional payment systems that could make cross-border money transfers faster and cheaper, but its fragmented currencies remain a problem that payment rails alone cannot solve. The continent has more than 40 currencies, many of which are not directly convertible, forcing banks and payment providers to rely on settlement banks, correspondent banking and pre-funded accounts to move money between markets. Cross-border payments already work despite Africa’s currency fragmentation. A payment can appear instant to the sender while banks and payment providers handle currency conversion and settlement in the background. When currencies cannot be exchanged directly, those extra steps make transactions more expensive. Sabine Mensah, deputy chief executive officer of AfricaNenda, a pan-African organisation working to expand instant and interoperable payment systems, says the answer is not necessarily a single African currency. Regional payment systems are already emerging across the East African Community (EAC), West Africa, Central Africa and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Connecting these systems could eventually extend interoperable payments to more than 60% of African countries. But payment infrastructure is only part of the problem. Mensah says regulators also need to harmonise rules around payments, licencing and settlement if Africa wants to reduce its reliance on hard currencies such as the dollar and make intra-African trade cheaper. This interview has been edited for clarity and length. Can interoperability succeed if African currencies remain fragmented? The fact that countries have different currencies does not stop cross-border transactions from happening. Take Kenya and Tanzania. Someone in Kenya can send money to someone in Tanzania even though the Kenyan shilling and Tanzanian shilling are different currencies. Cross-border transactions are already happening across Africa. There are two levels of interoperability involved. The first is technical interoperability. This allows the payment message to move from the provider being used in Nairobi to the provider being used by the recipient in Dar es Salaam. Information and technical communication between the two systems can function even when the countries use different currencies. The second layer is settlement. This is what happens in the background to actually move the money. If a provider in Kenya is sending money to a provider in Tanzania, a settlement bank between them can convert Kenyan shillings into Tanzanian currency. The private sector has already taken up much of this work. Several providers are making cross-border payments and have established arrangements with various commercial banks to handle settlement. Typically, these providers hold pre-funded accounts with banks in different countries and in different currencies. Those accounts allow them to settle cross-border payments. The same principle applies at a higher level when countries and central banks are involved. Central banks can act as settlement agents for large-value transactions, while commercial banks also participate in the settlement process. Different currencies can still be settled through arrangements such as pre-funded accounts on both sides. So I would not say that because Africa has multiple currencies, it cannot have cross-border payments. That argument is not really valid. Cross-border payments are already happening in large-value systems through banks and the correspondent banking ecosystem. They are also happening at the retail level through private-sector cross-border providers that have built hubs and connected with multiple mobile money providers. What we are saying is that having more than 40, or around 42, currencies in Africa makes the process more difficult. If those currencies aren’t convertible with one another, providers need settlement arrangements to complete transactions. This means cross-border transactions become more expensive. Are policymakers solving the wrong problem by focusing on payment rails rather than currency markets? I absolutely agree that policymakers and regulators, and particularly central banks, are focused on enabling cross-border payments, especially at the retail level. Systems already work at the high-value level through the correspondent banking ecosystem, so one gap is making retail cross-border payments easier. We are seeing a lot of investment in regional instant payment systems that are designed to enable cross-border payments at a sub-regional level. In East Africa, the East African Community has released a master plan to enable interoperability within the region, including work toward establishing a regional instant payment system for the EAC. We are seeing the same thing in other parts of the continent. In West Africa, the West African Economic and Monetary Union has put out a regional instant payment system connecting eight countries. In Central Africa, GIMAC Pay is connecting six countries in the Central African Economic and Monetary Community. In SADC, the Transactions Cleared on an Immediate Basis (TCIB) ecosystem aims to provide the infrastructure for cross-border payments across the region’s 16 countries, with roughly six to eight countries already onboarded. So the investment is happening. More central banks are looking at how to enable instant cross-border payments. If we can connect those four systems, we could already reach more than 60%, and potentially 70%, of African countries. That would create much wider interoperability. Someone sitting in Kenya could transact with someone in Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire and other countries through connected systems. Our advocacy is therefore at a continental level, so to fast-track the path towards seamless cross-border transactions in Africa, there needs to be regulatory harmonisation. Regulators need to come together to identify the roadblocks, particularly around payment system regulation, instant payment systems, interoperability, and the licencing of different stakeholders in different countries. There is also an opportunity to passport licences across countries. That could help fast-track the process towards a level playing field where, regardless of where you are in Africa, you can use one tool on your phone to send money across different African countries. Think about what that could mean for the African Continental Free Trade Area. AfCFTA aims to increase intra-African trade from around 15% today to roughly 50% or 60%. If we make it easier to pay across borders, the economic impact could be significant. Will cross-border payment systems reduce dependence on the dollar, or simply mask it? I think that is the pathway we are moving towards because we recognise that the current system adds
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Oui Capital’s Olu Oyinsan on why African VC remains in an existential crisis
In January 2025, Oui Capital, an Africa-focused venture capital firm, told its investors that it had returned its $4 million debut fund in full, putting it among the small group of African fund managers to have returned capital to investors during the current cycle. Oui Capital achieved this feat largely through a $150,000 investment in Moniepoint in 2019. When the Nigerian fintech crossed a $1 billion valuation five years later, Oui Capital’s stake was worth roughly $8 million, generating a 53x return on a single investment and one of the most-cited outcomes in African venture capital. It is the kind of result that can define a firm. But according to Olu Oyinsan, Oui Capital’s general partner, it is not the reason the first fund worked. Even without Moniepoint, Fund I would have returned twice the fund’s size, according to Oyinsan. With Moniepoint included, the fund returns stand at 4x. That distinction matters because a large exit can sometimes obscure an otherwise average portfolio. The first fund also had a second exit from AMOpportunities, a US healthcare company acquired by a private equity group. Oui Capital led pre-seed rounds in Duplo and Akiba Digital in South Africa. Those companies remain in the portfolio and are still performing well, Oyinsan told TechCabal. Founded in 2018 by Oyinsan and Francesco Andreoli, Oui Capital backs pre-seed and seed-stage technology companies across Africa, primarily in digital commerce, enterprise software, fintech, and human capital. The founders studied the market before developing the firm’s investment thesis and looking for companies to fit it. With Moniepoint, they bet that offline payments were being held back by high transaction-failure rates and that the company’s founders had the operational experience to solve the problem. Fund II, which the firm began deploying in 2022, is a deliberate fix for what Fund I could not do. Cheques now go up to $750,000, averaging around $400,000 to $500,000, and can reach $1 million across two rounds. Ownership targets have moved from 2% to 3%, up to 5% to 10%. The portfolio is getting smaller, too. Fund I held about 20 companies, while Fund II is expected to close with 10 or 11. That decision followed the firm’s own post-mortem, which found that five of the six companies it wrote off early were its smallest investments: deals made with lower conviction to keep an option open. In this conversation, Oyinsan explains why he believes no African seed fund should be larger than $50 million, the deal he still regrets passing on, how returning a fund changes the conversation with investors, and why he believes African venture capital is facing an existential crisis that the industry must address before investors stop coming back. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. What type of companies are you turning down now that you would have funded when you started? SaaS companies that AI prompts can build. Why was Oui Capital able to identify companies like Moniepoint before most of the market? I feel like we approached this very differently. Francesco and I are basically entrepreneurs. We are hustlers. We did not approach building a fund the way most people do, which is a financial institution. We approached it as getting money to back entrepreneurs. We actually studied the market before we built a thesis on what we thought the market needed. For example, we had a hunch that the major problem for payments at the time was transaction failure rates. That was a huge hunch, and when we met the company, it aligned with the same hunch they had. What was added to it was that they also had the experience to take a decent stab at fixing it. I will not tell you that we knew exactly how it was going to turn out, but we knew that if it went well, it would turn out this way. The most important thing is understanding the market for yourself as an investor, as a player in the market, and then figuring out who you think might be able to solve those problems. If you solve those problems, you become a successful company. That is how we went about it. And it was not just Moniepoint; we went about it the same way in several industries and sectors, figuring out what we thought would be a successful business. In Fund I you wrote $150,000 cheques. In Fund II you go up to $750,000 or higher. Can the same approach still work at that size? The short answer is yes. By the way, in Fund I, $150,000 was our highest cheque — there was a range, and that was the top of it. In Fund II, we can go up to $750,000, but our average cheque is around $400,000 to $500,000. We can go up to $750,000, or even $1 million, over two funding rounds. It is yes and no on the approach because it is not cookie-cutter. It is not an accelerator where you just decide the cheques you are writing. What we found is that in Fund I we were constrained by fund size. Even then, we would have loved to write $500,000 cheques; the fund size limited which companies we could go into and where we could play. Fund II was fixing what we wished we could do in Fund I. If I had a bigger fund in Fund I, I would not have written $150,000 into Moniepoint; it would have been bigger. That is why we wrote the maximum we could, which shows you how much conviction we had. We maxed it out. There were other companies we wrote $25,000 and $50,000 cheques to. Moniepoint and maybe three other companies were the ones we wrote the full $150,000 into. What really changed is that we wanted to fix what we could not do the first time. We wanted to lead pre-seed rounds and participate meaningfully in seed rounds. We wanted to shrink the size of our portfolio, because when you write bigger
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Nigeria is not trying to stop crypto. It wants to know where the money goes.
Nigeria is taking a front-door approach to regulating virtual assets. For years, the country’s crypto economy operated through a mix of offshore exchanges, peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, informal payment rails, and loosely supervised infrastructure. Regulators are now trying to pull that activity into the formal financial system without repeating the blunt restrictions that characterised earlier attempts to control the sector. Nigeria is prioritising two things in its regulatory approach: taxation and transaction monitoring. This aligns, in part, with the global Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF), to which Nigeria has committed to implementing from 2028. These capabilities could help the government monitor crypto-related activity, reduce risks associated with illicit financial flows and tax non-compliance, and bring more of the virtual-asset economy into the formal regulatory system. But creating a broad regulatory architecture also raises the risk of overlapping oversight if the responsibilities of individual agencies are not clearly defined. The monitoring component is gaining more teeth. In its Payments System Vision 2028 (PSV 2028) released on June 1, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) proposed allowing the bank to operate observer nodes in blockchain infrastructure supporting approved stablecoins. The proposal fits into the country’s broader direction of travel: Nigeria is not trying to eliminate crypto activity; it is trying to increase its visibility and bring significant virtual-asset activity touching the Nigerian economy within a framework of reporting, supervision and taxation. A regulatory consortium, not a single regulator Ultimately, regulating virtual assets requires coordination between regulators because digital assets can straddle different parts of the financial system. In traditional finance, payments-focused fintechs can operate under CBN oversight by providing technology and working with licenced financial institutions. Once those operations shift into investment activities involving customers’ money, however, they can cross into securities territory. Partnerships and owning or acquiring subsidiaries can become part of the regulatory structure. PiggyVest, the Nigerian savings and investment platform, warehouses user funds through PV Capital Limited, a subsidiary registered with the country’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as a fund/portfolio manager. The SEC’s revised capital market guidelines in March raised the minimum capital requirement for fund/portfolio managers from ₦500 million ($368,000) to ₦2 billion ($1.5 million). The SEC defines capital base as shareholders’ funds net of accumulated losses, while qualifying capital must be fully paid-up, freely available, unencumbered, and capable of absorbing losses on a going-concern basis. Virtual assets complicate this distinction. A virtual asset service provider (VASP) facilitating the buying and selling of digital assets may also hold customer assets, manage liquidity, match orders, and create exposures that resemble brokerage, custody, or investment activities. Digital asset exchanges and custodians therefore fall within a more consequential regulatory category under the SEC’s revised capital requirements. The SEC now sets minimum capital requirements of ₦2 billion ($1.5 million) for digital asset exchanges and custodians. Ancillary Virtual Asset Service Providers (AVASPs), which provide technical, operational, or infrastructure support services that power more consequential exchange and digital investment service platforms, face a lower ₦300 million ($220,600). The role of centralised exchanges and custodians in securing assets and facilitating token-to-fiat, fiat-to-token, and token transfers—which now dominate Nigeria’s virtual asset market—also makes them relevant to foreign exchange (FX) stability, giving them significance beyond the narrow trading of digital assets. The SEC’s regulatory incubation programmes offer a window into how the regulator is approaching the market. About 14 companies have been admitted into the Accelerated Regulatory Incubation Programme (ARIP). But admission to ARIP is not the same as receiving a final operating licence; the SEC says approval-in-principle remains conditional on continued compliance. Exchanges, such as Quidax, Busha, KuCoin—which registered in Nigeria in August 2024—fintech GIGX Technologies, stablecoin issuer Wrapped CBDC (which issues naira-backed cNGN), and over-the-counter (OTC) infrastructure company KoinKoin, are all being supervised through a securities-and-investment lens. The CBN, meanwhile, is looking at parts of the market through a payments and FX lens, which helps explain why stablecoins have become a policy focus. Lasbery Oludimu, Vice President of Operations at Yellow Card, the emerging-market-focused stablecoin company, said at a media briefing with journalists in Lagos on August 12 that the overlap reflects how virtual assets are used in practice. “If you look at traditional finance, the SEC is responsible for securities, the central bank is responsible for payments; but because there are [digital assets used for] payments, it’s only natural that when it comes to payments, [the CBN] should also be involved,” Oludimu said. “What we are saying as a player is that [we] need to get a licence from the SEC, and [we] need to get into the sandbox with CBN because [the regulator] is focused on payments.” On August 12, the CBN expanded its regulatory sandbox to virtual asset companies for the first time ever, underscoring the crucial payments and FX stability role some of these service providers play in Nigeria’s financial technology sector. Yet, the country’s evolution, when compared to the first time a regulator formally acknowledged digital and virtual assets, has been striking, and points to regulators that have had to rework and reassess their approach. In September 2020, the SEC released a statement. “The position of the Commission is that virtual crypto assets are securities, unless proven otherwise. Thus, the burden of proving that the crypto assets proposed to be offered are not securities and therefore not under the jurisdiction of the SEC is placed on the issuer or sponsor of the said assets,” the regulator said. Six years later, regulators have discovered that Bitcoin, stablecoins, tokenised securities, and decentralised finance (DeFi) tokens do not behave the same way. The result is a shift from a single-regulator approach to a regulatory consortium involving the CBN, the SEC, the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS), the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), and the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), with each agency supervising a different layer of the ecosystem. Nigeria’s tax-first strategy The clearest evidence of Nigeria’s priorities is that it developed specific virtual asset tax rules before creating a licencing framework—or at least before fully licencing operators. Should Nigeria have a
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Next Wave: The next media business will be a strange one
Cet article est aussi disponible en français <!– In partnership with –> First published August 16, 2026 Something funny is happening in the media business today. The Internet spent 20 years teaching publishers to chase scale, and just as many of them got pretty good at it, the Internet decided that scale was no longer the prize. Google wants to answer the question instead of sending you to the article; AI wants to summarise the reporting instead of sending you to the homepage, and social platforms want your headline, your video and your journalist, but preferably not the bill for the newsroom that produced them. This sounds like a disaster for media, and in part it is. But there is another way to look at it. The Internet may finally be forcing publishers to answer a question they have been able to avoid for years: what, exactly, are people paying you for? This question gets more interesting when you look at what some media companies are doing about it. Puck News is giving journalists equity and tying their pay to the subscribers they attract. Defector Media has gone in the opposite direction, with its journalists owning the company. Hunterbrook has decided that readers are not necessarily the customers at all and is using financial markets to fund investigative journalism. These are very different businesses, but they are variations on the same idea. In this case, if distribution is becoming a commodity, the value has to move somewhere else. And that may be good news for journalism. The middle is where the trouble is Media has always had seasons, and I was reminded of that recently when a friend who works at Microsoft told me he has started thinking about his own career in exactly those terms. He is a software developer, but he joked that he might not be one forever, since he is now building tools that could eventually replace parts of his current work. I got a sense that he understood technology’s seasonality and knew the skills that made him valuable in one cycle might not be the ones that mattered in the next. Media has followed the same pattern. Print had its monopoly, then came digital publishing, when a website could reach a global audience without physical newspapers. Social media followed, with Facebook and Twitter (now X) becoming enormous free distribution systems, before publishers figured out search engine optimisation (SEO) and discovered there was money to be made by answering almost every question anyone had ever typed into Google. The arrangement worked by writing an article, Google finds it, someone clicks, an ad follows them around and everyone gets paid. The catch, as my friend’s story makes clear, is that every season eventually produces the technology that makes the previous season less valuable. Still, the problem was that publishers never really owned the most important part of that arrangement. Now, if Google can answer a search directly, there is less reason to click. If ChatGPT can explain a company, market or technology in a paragraph, there is less reason to open multiple tabs. If an AI-generated answer can absorb the work of tens of SEO articles, the publisher producing those articles has a problem that no amount of better headline writing can solve. Next Wave continues after this ad. The best builders don’t just shape the future – they stay informed. Series V by Ventures Platform brings you the insights, perspectives, trends, and opportunities shaping Africa’s innovation ecosystem. It’s an essential monthly asset for founders, operators, investors, and anyone building the future of the continent. Subscribe now! The publishers most exposed are the ones sitting in the middle, where the business requires a reasonably large newsroom but the journalism is not differentiated enough to command a direct relationship with the reader. It is important to take note of this because the problem is not that people have stopped wanting journalism. Rather, people still want someone to tell them what happened, what everyone else is missing and what might happen next. They just have more ways to get the first answer for free. The “awkward” part is that this could also make journalism a better business. The strange economics of being worth paying for Puck News believes people don’t subscribe because they need another article about whatever matters to them, but because they want to know what people inside those worlds know. Sounds like a small distinction, but it changes the economics because the platform has built its newsroom around personalities and expertise, with annual subscriptions ranging from about $100 to $250. Its journalists can receive equity in the company and earn bonuses linked to the subscribers their work generates. A reporter traditionally builds an audience, owns the subscriber relationship, and receives a salary and perhaps a raise. Puck is effectively arguing that if the reporter is the reason someone pays, perhaps the reporter should own some of the upside. The company has about 240,000 total subscribers, including roughly 40,000 paid subscribers, and raised $10 million in a Series B round that valued it at $70 million. Puck is treating journalism as a creator business without pretending journalism is just content creation. The approach may become more important as AI makes generic information cheaper. If a chatbot can tell you what happened, a journalist has to offer something the chatbot cannot easily manufacture, like access, judgement, sources, taste, accountability and a reason to believe that this particular person is worth listening to. Sounds suspiciously like a good journalist, right? Then there is the anti-VC argument Defector Media’s journalists did not want a venture-backed media company but to own the company themselves. Defector was founded in 2020 by former Deadspin journalists after they left the site following a dispute with its private equity owner. They created a worker cooperative, meaning the people producing the journalism also own the business. This is unusual in an industry where the standard sequence is founder, funding round, growth, another funding round, strategic
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Phones running Android 17 right now (2026)
Table of contents Why some phones have it before others Google Pixel phones running Android 17 Samsung Galaxy phones running Android 17 Motorola phones running Android 17 OnePlus, Xiaomi, OPPO, Vivo, and Honor status Full list at a glance What this means for you Android 17 has been available since June 2026, but only a small group of phones actually have it installed today. Google’s Pixel line leads the way, followed by three new Samsung foldables and one Motorola phone. Other brands, including the popular Galaxy S26 series, OnePlus, Xiaomi, OPPO, Vivo, and Honor devices, are still waiting for a beta or a confirmed release date. This list covers exactly what has shipped as of August 17, 2026, not what brands have promised. Find out whether your phone already has Android 17, and when it is coming if it doesn’t. Why some phones have it before others Google rolls out Android 17 in phases, so not every eligible phone gets the update on the same day. Where you live and which carrier you use both affect when the update reaches your phone. Samsung and Motorola follow the same pattern, and both companies have said their own rollouts depend on region and carrier. There is also a second layer to this update. Having Android 17 on your phone does not guarantee you get Gemini Intelligence, the AI features Google built into the release. Those features need at least 12GB of RAM, a recent flagship chip, and a newer AI engine called Gemini Nano v3. Many phones with plenty of RAM still miss this bar because they run an older version of Nano. The Pixel 9 Pro has 16GB of RAM, more than enough on paper, but it runs Gemini Nano v2 instead of v3. That single detail keeps it out of the Gemini Intelligence group even though it easily qualifies for Android 17 itself. The Galaxy Z Fold 7, the OnePlus 13, and the Galaxy S25 Ultra face the same limit. Devices confirmed to meet the Gemini Intelligence bar include the Pixel 10 series, the Galaxy S26 series, the OnePlus 15 series, and the OPPO Find X9 and X8 series. Google says Gemini Intelligence will reach more phones later this summer, but for now it stays limited to newer, higher-spec hardware. Google Pixel phones running Android 17 Every Pixel from the Pixel 6 onward already has Android 17. Google rolled the update out to these phones on June 16, 2026, alongside the June Pixel Drop, and it has been available ever since. Pixel 6, 6 Pro, and 6a Pixel 7, 7 Pro, and 7a Pixel 8, 8 Pro, and 8a Pixel 9, 9 Pro, 9 Pro XL, 9 Pro Fold, and 9a Pixel 10, 10 Pro, 10 Pro XL, 10 Pro Fold, and 10a Pixel Fold and Pixel Tablet Google announced the Pixel 11 series, including the Pixel 11, 11 Pro, 11 Pro XL, and 11 Pro Fold, at its Made by Google event on August 12, 2026. These phones ship with Android 17 already installed. The Pixel 11 Pro Fold arrives later, in October, while the rest of the lineup should reach stores around August 20, based on how Google timed the Pixel 10 launch last year. The Pixel 6 and 6 Pro are nearing the end of their update life. Google skipped them in the August 2026 security patch, and they will not receive Android 17 QPR2. Support for both phones ends in October 2026. The Pixel 6a has a longer runway and keeps getting updates until July 2027. If your phone is a Pixel 5 or older, it won’t receive Android 17. Google’s support window for that generation has already closed. Samsung Galaxy phones running Android 17 Samsung’s rollout is much narrower right now. Only three phones ship with Android 17 today: the Galaxy Z Fold 8, Z Fold 8 Ultra, and Z Flip 8. Samsung unveiled these at Galaxy Unpacked in London on July 22, 2026, and they reached stores on August 7 across 106 markets. The Galaxy S26, S26+, and S26 Ultra are still on the One UI 9 beta. Samsung opened the beta in May 2026 across six countries, and a fifth beta build was rolling out in August. The stable version has not landed yet, and Samsung has not given a firm date. Some reports point to late August, while others expect it to stretch into late September or October. Treat this window as an estimate until Samsung officially confirms it. Samsung has not published a full list of which older phones will get Android 17. Based on internal testing spotted by Samsung-focused outlets, the Galaxy S25 series, S24 series, S23 series, and older foldables like the Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7 are expected to get the update later. Samsung is also testing builds on around 50 devices internally. A few older Samsung phones will not get this update, including the Galaxy S22 series, the Galaxy S21 FE, and the Z Fold 4. If you own one of these, One UI 8.5 is the last major update your phone will receive. Motorola phones running Android 17 Motorola is ahead of most other brands except Google and Samsung. The stable rollout has already started with the Motorola Edge 2025, and Motorola’s parent company Lenovo confirmed more than 50 eligible devices in a blog post published around August 10, 2026. After the Edge 2025, Motorola plans to prioritise its newer flagship phones, the Razr 70 series and Edge 70 lineup, before working through the rest of the Moto G series over the coming weeks and months. Two popular models, the Edge 50 Neo and Edge 60 Neo, are missing from Motorola’s list even though they came with a 5-year update promise, and the Moto G56 is also absent. Motorola’s version of Android 17 brings a few new touches, including Live Updates styled like a floating island, a Moto AI assistant called Qira, lock-screen customisation, and a redesigned volume panel. OnePlus, Xiaomi, OPPO, Vivo,
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Android 17 QPR2 features confirmed so far
Table of contents What is Android 17 QPR2 Beta timeline so far Confirmed features in Android 17 QPR2 Which devices are getting Android 17 QPR2 How to try the Android 17 QPR2 beta What happens next Android 17 QPR2 Beta 3 was launched on August 14, 2026, and it is the biggest build in this update cycle so far. It brings a native App Lock, a redesigned Quick Settings editor, more lock screen blur, deeper colour customisation, and new protection against call-forwarding fraud. This quarterly release is nearing a stable launch in December 2026, alongside that month’s Pixel Feature Drop. Beta 3 is the newest version available as of August 17, 2026, and no Beta 4 has shipped yet. Here is a breakdown of every confirmed feature, which devices get them, and what to expect before the update goes stable. What is Android 17 QPR2 A Quarterly Platform Release, or QPR, is how Google updates Android between major versions. After Android 17 went stable in June 2026, Google planned three follow-up releases: QPR1, QPR2, and QPR3. QPR1 is expected to go stable in September 2026. QPR2 is expected in December 2026. QPR3 should follow in early 2027. Each one lands on Pixel phones as a Feature Drop, and each is also released to other Android devices through the Android Open Source Project. QPR2 works differently from a full Android version upgrade. Instead of introducing a major new SDK, it ships a minor SDK release with small API additions. Google says these changes should not affect how existing apps behave, so developers do not need to do extensive testing to stay compatible. Google also changed how it tests new builds. Instead of separate Developer Previews, Android 17 uses an always-on testing track called Android Canary. Some QPR2 features, like the Quick Settings editor and the new colour options, first appeared in Canary builds before they reached the QPR2 beta. Google has not confirmed an exact release date for QPR2, but December is the target. For comparison, Android 16 QPR2 went stable on December 2, 2025, so a similar date is likely this year too. Beta timeline so far Beta 1 arrived on July 20, 2026. It focused on stability rather than new features. Google fixed a handful of bugs, including Bluetooth pairing failures, media controls that flashed on the lock screen by mistake, a crash when you opened Gemini, and notifications that disappeared from the shade until you restarted your phone. Beta 2 arrived on August 3, 2026. It was a light release. Google did not publish a changelog, but testers found a redesigned Settings app icon and a quiet internal name change from “CinnamonBun” to “DEV.” Beta 3 arrived on August 14, 2026. This is the biggest build in the cycle. It introduced App Lock, lock screen blur, the Quick Settings editor, expanded colour theming, multitasking updates for foldables, and the new call forwarding protection. As of August 17, 2026, Beta 3 is still the latest version. No Beta 4 has shipped yet. Confirmed features in Android 17 QPR2 1. App Lock Beta 3 adds a native App Lock to Android for the first time. Long-press any app icon, and you will see an “App lock” option next to App info, Pause app, Widgets, and Remove. Once you lock an app, you need your fingerprint or PIN to open it. Notifications from locked apps stay hidden, and any widgets or shortcuts linked to that app disappear too. You manage this from Settings, then Security & privacy, then App lock. One thing to know: AI agents and services that already have permission to access a locked app can still read its data. The lock stops other people from opening the app on your phone. It does not block automated access you have already approved. 2. Lock screen blur Beta 3 brings a blur effect to more of your Pixel lock screen. Your notification list and the fingerprint icon now show a soft, see-through blur instead of a solid background. Two of your lock screen shortcuts get the same treatment. How strong the effect looks depends on your wallpaper. 3. A customizable Quick Settings layout You can now reorder your Quick Settings shade. Open Quick Settings, tap the edit icon, and go to the new Layout tab. From there, you can drag and reorder the brightness bar and the tiles inside your shade. The media player can be moved as well, though none of these sections can be removed, only rearranged. You can also choose which toggles show up as larger tiles. 4. More colour choices Android 17 QPR2 gives you more control over your phone’s colours. In Wallpaper & style, then Colours, tap the paint palette icon to open a colour slider and pick your own accent shade. A pencil icon in the corner adds four style options: Neutral, Soft, Bright, and Bold. 5. Call forwarding fraud protection This is the only Beta 3 feature Google confirmed in its own official changelog, which makes it the most reliable item on this list. Beta 3 adds new protection against call forwarding fraud. Scammers sometimes trick people into forwarding their calls, then use that access to intercept one-time passcodes from banks and other services. Here is how the protection works: Apps can no longer trigger call forwarding codes quietly in the background using only basic call permissions. If you manually dial a call forwarding code yourself, your phone now shows a confirmation screen before it goes through. Mobile money transfers still work normally. Account balance check codes are not affected either. This matters if you rely on mobile money, since your everyday USSD codes for transfers and balance checks are not affected by the new restriction. 6. Settings icon and other small changes Beta 2 brought a redesigned Settings app icon to everyone. Testers also noticed the internal codename quietly changed from “CinnamonBun” to “DEV.” Beta 3 also improved multitasking on foldable devices. Active windows now show a small handle you can
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What’s new with Samsung One UI 9 Beta 5 update
Table of contents Which phones are getting Beta 5, and where What Beta 5 actually fixes Is this the last beta before stable One UI 9 for your S26 A quick timeline of the One UI 9 beta program Older Galaxy phones are still waiting Should you install Beta 5? What’s next for Samsung’s software On August 12, Samsung released One UI 9 Beta 5 for the Galaxy S26 series, which includes bug fixes and the August security patch for enrolled testers. If you own a Galaxy Z Fold 8, Z Fold 8 Ultra, or Z Flip 8, you already have a stable version of One UI 9. Samsung launched the stable version with those foldables in July at Galaxy Unpacked in London. Your Galaxy S26 is still in the beta program, and Beta 5 is the latest step in that process. Which phones are getting Beta 5, and where Beta 5 is rolling out to the Galaxy S26, Galaxy S26+, and Galaxy S26 Ultra. It started in South Korea, India, and the UK, and it will expand to Poland, Germany, and the US as more testers get it. Firmware version: S94xBXXU4ZZH6 Download size: about 1.1GB Security patch: August 2026, covering 56 fixes Devices: Galaxy S26, Galaxy S26+, Galaxy S26 Ultra Samsung also delayed this beta by about a month. Beta 4 arrived on July 14, and testers were told to expect Beta 5 the following week. A Samsung Beta Operations Manager later apologised for the wait on the Samsung Community forum and said the extra time went into final reviews and quality checks. What Beta 5 actually fixes This update is about fixing bugs, not adding features. Samsung’s changelog lists these fixes. Fixed an issue where the Settings app freezes or shows a white screen in some menus Fixed slow loading and a black screen when you launch the camera widget on the lock screen Fixed the bottom floating bar not showing correctly in the Phone app Fixed a blank screen that appeared briefly when you open the recent files list in My Files Fixed an issue where 1×1 size shortcuts did not appear on the home screen bottom bar Fixed a misaligned or flickering preview screen in Video Editor and Photo Editor Fixed occasional screen flickering Fixed Wi-Fi connection errors and improved connection stability You will not find new features in this build. Most outlets that cover Samsung software, including SamMobile and Android Authority, describe Beta 5 as a cleanup release. Is this the last beta before stable One UI 9 for your S26 Nobody knows yet, and the reports point in two different directions. Tipster Tarun Vats spotted two new firmware builds on Samsung’s servers, one on the beta track and one on the stable track. Sammy Fans and SamMobile report that the beta build could be Beta 6, which would mean more testing before the stable release. A separate tipster, Kailash, spotted a possible stable build for the S26 series. Sammy Fans reports this could mean Beta 5 is the final beta before the stable rollout. Samsung has not confirmed either path. Sammy Fans estimates the stable update could arrive by mid-September, possibly around the same time as the Galaxy S26 FE launch, but that is not confirmed either. Treat both reports as leaks until Samsung says otherwise. A quick timeline of the One UI 9 beta program Here is how the Galaxy S26’s beta program has progressed since May. Beta 1: May 13, 2026, launched in six countries at once Beta 2: May 26, 2026 Beta 3: June 16, 2026 Beta 4: July 14, 2026 Beta 5: August 12, 2026 The first three betas landed roughly two weeks apart. The gap widened to about four weeks for Beta 4 and Beta 5. Older Galaxy phones are still waiting No device older than the Z Fold 8 and Z Flip 8 has stable One UI 9 yet. Reports from Sammy Fans and SamMobile say Samsung has started internal testing on the Galaxy S25 Ultra and Galaxy S24 Ultra, but a public beta for those phones had not opened as of mid-August. If your phone is an S25, S24, or an older model, you can expect to wait longer for the stable update. Should you install Beta 5? This is still beta software, so it comes with some risk. Keep these points in mind before you install it. Back up your phone with Smart Switch first. Samsung itself warns that beta software can cause data loss Skip this beta if you rely on sideloading apps. Some testers have reported that installing APK files does not work properly on this build Know that going back to stable software later usually means a full data wipe, so treat this as a one-way step Check for the update under Settings > Software update if you are already enrolled in the Samsung Members beta program What’s next for Samsung’s software While your Galaxy S26 is still on the One UI 9 beta, Samsung has already started work on One UI 9.5. Tipster Fahad Ali Javed spotted the first build in early August, and leaked screenshots point to a glass-style design with shinier borders and softer shadows. SamMobile and Android Central report that One UI 9.5 is expected to debut with the Galaxy S27 series in early 2027, with a possible beta for the S26 arriving before the end of this year. 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 Daily – ICASA rolls over
In partnership with Lire en Français اقرأ هذا باللغة العربية Good morning. Welcome to another week. Let’s dive in. Become smarter about tech and commerce in Francophone Africa, and the policies shaping them. Read our newsletter here first or subscribe below. Subscribe ‘A shared understanding with Netflix’ ICASA takes back telco collusion accusation Kenyan exporters could get tariff refunds Airtel and Starlink partner in DR Congo World Wide Web 3 Events Streaming South African lawmakers want Netflix to share its lunch with the SABC Image Source: Tenor Imagine a local bakery that has served the neighbourhood for decades, only for a massive, high-tech franchise bakery to open next door and take all the customers. Instead of trying to close the bakery, the city council now wants both stores to start co-owning the bread they sell. That best describes the latest push by South African lawmakers to force a collaboration between the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), the struggling state-owned broadcaster, and the streaming giant Netflix. What happened? The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications and Digital Technologies, a group of South African lawmakers, is pushing for Netflix to partner with SABC to boost the local film industry. The committee said the “Netflixes of this world” have decimated the SABC’s advertising revenue while operating in a regulatory loophole. The proposal aims to have both parties collaborate on content production and business models, though Netflix and the SABC have reportedly clashed over intellectual property (IP) ownership in the past. Explain like I’m new here: The SABC is South Africa’s state-owned broadcaster, funded by TV licences and ads. Netflix is the global streaming king that doesn’t have to follow the same strict local content rules. Lawmakers believe that because Netflix is “winning” the market, it should help the SABC survive—either through shared production or a proposed “streaming levy” that could see international platforms funding the public broadcaster’s recovery. SABC is facing mounting pressure that is affecting its revenue, including a collapsed TV licence collection rate, the increasing need to shift advertiser spend toward online and pay-TV platforms, and other operational costs. In 2025, the broadcaster lost R253.3 million ($14 million), about 28% worse than the previous year. Lawmakers believe a deal with Netflix could reset SABC on course for a more sustainable future, but it could also force the streaming giant to shoulder some of the costs of the disruption it has helped create. Getting paid in cedis just got easier for African businesses operating in Ghana. Fincra now issues dedicated GHS virtual accounts to enable businesses to collect payments. See how Fincra GHS virtual accounts work. Telecoms ICASA goes back on its “collusion” accusation Image Source: Tenor South Africa’s communications regulator, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), suspected that MTN and Vodacom, two telecom operators within the country, joined forces to protest the new rules. It has now taken its word back. What happened? In a Parliament briefing in August, ICASA suggested that MTN and Vodacom might be colluding over their opposition to new data-expiry rules. Both operators have separately gone to court to challenge parts of the regulations, arguing that the regulator overstepped its authority and that some of the requirements are difficult to implement. On Friday, the regulator retracted its statement on the basis of no evidence. Explain like I’m new here: The row goes back to 2022 when ICASA proposed that telecom operators must allow customers to roll over unused data. After years of consultations and pushback from operators, the regulator eventually settled on a rule requiring unused data, voice, and SMS bundles to roll over at least once, free of charge, from January 2027. MTN and Vodacom weren’t thrilled. In July, the operators filed separate court applications asking the High Court to set aside parts of the rules. Which brings us to where we are now: South Africans currently lose eligible unused data when their bundles expire. ICASA wants to change that by requiring operators to roll over unused data, voice and SMS bundles at least once for free. MTN and Vodacom are fighting parts of the rules in court. MTN argues that the rules could reduce competition and push prices up by taking away operators’ ability to offer cheaper bundles without rollover or transfer features. It also argues that the rules create an uneven playing field because mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) aren’t subject to the same requirements. ICASA saw both operators file the same complaint and thought it was collusion. Because it had no evidence to support that, ICASA took back its statement. What happens now? The underlying dispute hasn’t disappeared. From January 2027, operators will have to roll over eligible unused data, voice, and SMS bundles at least once. MTN and Vodacom are still challenging parts of those requirements, while ICASA has withdrawn any collusion accusations; it is defending the regulations. Naira Life 2026 is here! The Naira Life Conference 2026 is bringing together Nigeria’s top finance minds, industry leaders, creators, and business strategists for a full-day of specialised sessions and masterclasses designed for ambitious Nigerians who want to make, keep, grow, and pass on real wealth. Happening on August 22 at the Jewel Aeida, Lekki, Lagos. Secure a seat in the room. Economy Kenya wants US tariffs refunded to exporters Image Source: Tenor Kenya is preparing to help Kenyan companies reclaim tariffs paid during the four months when the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) expired. Explain like I’m new here: AGOA is a duty-free trade pact linking the United States with eligible sub-Saharan countries, including Kenya. Since 2000, qualifying countries such as Kenya have shipped products, including textiles, tea, coffee, and fresh produce, into the US without the usual import duties. In September 2025, the AGOA expired, leaving Kenyan exporters to pay duties on shipments entering the US from October, the following month. The turnaround: Between October 2025 and January 2026, the Kenya Association of Manufacturers, an industry group, said exporters faced tariffs ranging from 15% to 42%. However, in February, the US government
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