Kenya empowers investigators to seize crypto wallets tied to financial crime
Kenyan investigators have never had much trouble spotting suspicious crypto transactions. Getting their hands on them has been the problem. The country’s new cryptocurrency regulations close that gap. With court approval, the rules empower authorities, including financial crime investigators, to seize devices, seed phrases, and hardware wallets that unlock digital assets, allowing the government to control cryptocurrencies linked to fraud, money laundering, corruption, and terrorism-financing investigations. Existing Kenyan laws, including the Proceeds of Crime and Anti-Money Laundering Act and the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act, already let investigators freeze traditional bank accounts and trace suspicious transfers. A crypto wallet whose owner kept the private keys offline, however, was difficult to access using general asset‑seizure powers. The Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASP) Regulations, 2026, gazetted on July 24, establish a freezing and seizure framework for virtual assets within Kenya’s broader asset‑seizure regime. “A licencee served with a seizure order shall grant an authorised officer access to any premises where the virtual asset devices are suspected to be and the authorised officer may seize and detain any physical device, hardware wallet, seed phrase backup or electronic system necessary to access the virtual assets,” the regulations read. A seed phrase is the 12- or 24-word recovery code that helps a user regain access to their crypto assets. Whoever controls it can move the funds, which is precisely why investigators now have explicit legal grounds to seize it. The regulations form part of Kenya’s broader effort to strengthen monitoring of money laundering, terrorism financing, and other illicit financial flows as the country works to exit the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list. In April, Kenyan authorities froze several Binance accounts linked to suspected fraud, money laundering, terrorism financing, and the movement of stolen public funds. Binance told affected users that some restrictions had been imposed at law enforcement’s request. The new framework gives future freezes a much clearer footing. Under the Regulations, a freezing order is an order by a competent court or lawful authority directing a virtual asset service provider “to prohibit any dealing, transfer, conversion, withdrawal or disposal of a specified virtual asset,” giving investigators room to lock down assets before any seizure or forfeiture. The April operation highlighted the limits of Kenya’s existing enforcement processes. Centralised exchanges could be pressured to restrict accounts, but self-custodied wallets sitting outside regulated platforms posed a harder problem: investigators could identify the wallet without being able to touch the assets inside it. Crypto volatility is another target of the new rules. A token worth millions of shillings when frozen could lose a substantial portion of its value before a prosecution is completed. The regulations now allow authorised officers, with court approval, to convert frozen virtual assets into fiat currency during an investigation to preserve their value. “The authorised officer may, upon approval of the competent court, convert virtual assets into fiat currency to preserve value,” the regulations read. Once an order is issued, exchanges and wallet providers must preserve the affected assets, halt withdrawals and transfers, and give investigators access to relevant systems and records. Seized assets must then be transferred to a secure digital wallet controlled by the competent authority, creating a formal custody chain for recovered crypto assets. The regulations apply to any provider operating “in or from Kenya.” A platform is deemed to meet that threshold if it actively solicits or targets Kenyan users or earns income from Kenya, even without a physical office in the country. Failure to comply with a freezing or seizure order is a criminal offence. Licenced crypto operators that refuse to freeze assets, grant investigators access to premises where the suspected assets could be, or assist with the seizure and transfer of virtual assets can face fines of up to KES 5 million ($38,640), up to five years in prison, or both. Companies can be fined up to KES 8 million ($61,800). The framework forms part of Kenya’s broader effort to align with global anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorism financing standards as it works to exit the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list. Bringing crypto exchanges, wallet providers, and stablecoin issuers into a licencing and reporting regime supports one of FATF’s key recommendations: improving risk-based AML/CFT supervision of financial institutions by extending oversight to sectors that have historically operated outside the traditional banking space. Kenya’s crypto market grew largely through peer-to-peer trading with limited regulatory visibility. Licencing exchanges and taxing digital assets is only part of the shift. Investigators can now treat the physical backups behind a wallet as evidence in their own right—searched for, seized, and used to secure the assets behind them—pushing Kenya toward one of the more aggressive crypto-enforcement regimes on the continent. 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.
Read More
Kenya’s new crypto rules could force exchanges to delist foreign stablecoins
Kenya could force local cryptocurrency exchanges to stop offering foreign-issued stablecoins—such as Tether’s USDT, Circle’s USDC, and Mento Labs’ USDm—after the central bank was granted authority to restrict access to offshore stablecoins, tightening oversight of the dollar-backed tokens that dominate crypto trading across Africa. The Kenyan Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASP) Regulations, 2026, published on July 24, prohibit licenced cryptocurrency exchanges from offering any stablecoin that has not been approved by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) and issued by a licenced stablecoin issuer. The new provision, added to the gazetted version of the rules, could force offshore stablecoin issuers such as Tether and Circle to seek CBK approval and work through licenced Kenyan entities if they want their tokens to remain available on regulated Kenyan exchange platforms. It also gives the central bank direct oversight to cut off local access to foreign stablecoins without having to regulate the offshore issuers themselves. “A virtual asset exchange shall not list any stablecoin unless that stablecoin has been approved by the Central Bank of Kenya and is issued by a duly licenced stablecoin issuer,” the policy read. A stablecoin is a cryptocurrency pegged to the value of a real-world currency, such as the US dollar. Kenyan traders widely use tokens such as USDT and USDC to move money between exchanges, hold dollar exposure, settle peer-to-peer (P2P) trades, and access international crypto markets. The final regulations go significantly further than earlier draft proposals, which contained only general powers that allow regulators to halt or delist stablecoin issuance. The gazetted version introduces a much more specific restriction aimed at foreign-issued tokens. “Where a stablecoin is issued outside Kenya, the Central Bank of Kenya may exercise its powers under this regulation by directing licenced intermediaries operating in Kenya to restrict access to, or trading of, such stablecoin,” the policy read. The move comes as regulators worldwide increase scrutiny of stablecoins following concerns about reserve backing, consumer protection, illicit financial flows, and the growing role of dollar-linked tokens in cross-border payments. The European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework imposes authorisation requirements on stablecoin issuers. Regulators in the United States, Singapore, and Hong Kong have also moved toward stricter oversight of fiat-referenced digital tokens. Kenya’s approach is notable because it targets market access rather than the offshore issuer itself. The CBK would not need direct jurisdiction over Tether or Circle to affect their availability in Kenya; it could order licenced local exchanges and wallet providers to stop offering the tokens to Kenyan users. The rules could have significant implications for local crypto businesses. Most retail trading activity in Kenya is conducted through P2P channels and dollar-backed stablecoins, which are often preferred over volatile cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ether for payments, remittances, and savings. Under the rules, stablecoin issuers will now be required to hold KES 300 million ($2.3 million) in paid-up capital, a 40% reduction from the KES 500 million ($3.85 million) requirement proposed in the draft regulations released in March. The lower capital threshold could make it easier for firms seeking to issue stablecoins under Kenyan regulation. However, the new rules make clear that access to foreign stablecoins in Kenya will no longer be determined solely by existing on global blockchains, but by whether the CBK permits licenced local intermediaries to continue offering them to Kenyan users. 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.
Read More
Why trust has become Nigeria’s next digital payments challenge
Nigeria no longer has a payments problem. It has a trust problem. That is the central argument of a new report by Bridgforte, a policy research institute, published in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Innovation Hub in Lagos, which argues that confidence in Nigeria’s financial system is now determined less by how quickly money moves than by how reliably the system responds when something goes wrong. The country processed more than ₦1.2 quadrillion ($880.51 billion) worth of transactions in 2025, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), making it one of the world’s busiest real-time payment markets. But as digital payments become the default way millions of Nigerians move money, a different challenge is emerging. Success has exposed the system’s weakest point: trust. “Service reliability and dispute resolution are the primary drivers of confidence erosion, far outweighing concerns about fraud, data privacy, and artificial intelligence,” the report stated. After decades of expanding access to financial services, policymakers are now asking a different question: not whether Nigerians can make digital payments, but whether they trust the system enough to keep using it. Since establishing the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc in 1993, Nigeria has invested in payment rails, digital identity, fintech regulation and real-time settlement infrastructure. Those investments have helped create a financial ecosystem that processes billions of transactions each year. Formal financial inclusion has risen alongside that infrastructure. According to Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access (EFInA)’s 2023 Access to Financial Services Survey, 64% of Nigerian adults now use formal financial services, reflecting years of expansion by banks, fintech companies and mobile payment providers. Aishah Ahmad, founder of Bridgforte and former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), told TechCabal that infrastructure alone cannot produce confidence. “One of our essential ideas is that trust in financial services is an architectural outcome of the system,” she said. “We have to create governance frameworks that produce and sustain trust consistently because of how interconnected the financial system has become.” As transaction volumes increase and more consumers depend on digital finance for everyday activities, failures become more visible and more costly. “The fundamentals of banking are about trust,” said Uzoma Dozie, chief executive officer of Sparkle, a Nigerian fintech, during a panel discussion at the report’s launch on Tuesday. Consumers relate with one financial system One of the report’s central arguments is that trust failures are operational before they become technological. A single digital payment can pass through identity verification services, payment switches, banks, fintech applications, payment gateways, merchants and application programming interfaces (APIs) before reaching its destination. To consumers, it is only a single transaction. “Customers experience the financial system not as an institution, but as a collective,” Ahmad said. “If they engage with one institution and are unhappy, it erodes their confidence in the entire system.” Whether a failed payment originated from a bank, payment switch, fintech platform or network provider matters little to the consumer. What remains is the memory of a failed transfer, delayed reversal or unresolved complaint. The report argues that this explains why operational failures increasingly shape public confidence more than emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence. CBN is making trust a policy objective The regulator has reached a similar conclusion. The CBN anchored its payment vision for 2028 on six guiding principles, including trust. The regulator argues that Nigeria’s challenge is no longer just expanding digital access but also strengthening consumer confidence in the systems people already use. An Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) survey published in 2024 found that 84% of consumers experienced at least one challenge while using digital financial services. Poor network quality affected 44% of respondents, while unexpected charges and fraud each affected 23%. “In all, Nigeria’s PSV 2025 expanded digital access but exposed weaknesses in redress, literacy, and high fraud losses, showing that inclusion without trust is fragile,” the PSV read. To address that challenge, the regulator has set an ambitious target of achieving an 80% trust index score by 2028. It also plans to introduce quarterly public scorecards alongside a National Payments Trust Index to measure confidence in the financial system. Trust has become an economic issue Ahmad notes that if trust is not fixed, everyone in the financial ecosystem pays for it. “Access has advanced,” she said. “But as you succeed, you start to see patterns in your success. People are engaging with the system, but they are not doing that consistently, and usage could be better.” Diane Karusisi, chief executive officer of Bank of Kigali, Rwanda’s largest commercial bank, argued that trust is ultimately built during moments of failure rather than success. “Access to finance is not an end in itself. What we want is outcomes. We want people to grow, to start building wealth,” she said during the panel discussion. “Trust is earned when there is a failure, and you are able to walk through the failure with your customers.” Trust determines whether digital finance becomes habitual. Consumers who expect failed transfers or lengthy dispute resolution are more likely to keep cash, avoid unfamiliar financial products or revert to physical channels. Over time, that weakens transaction volumes, slows financial inclusion and reduces the return on years of investment in digital infrastructure. “When it goes wrong, we see a lot of wasted investments,” Ahmad said. “Who pays for a lack of confidence? Today, we all do. In some of the challenges we see about cash usage and the lack of confidence.” To fix some of the trust issues existing in the financial space, she argues that collaboration must now extend beyond building shared infrastructure to include fraud intelligence, cybersecurity, operational resilience and dispute resolution, areas where failures at one institution increasingly affect confidence across the entire ecosystem. “The coordination that got us here has to evolve with the interconnected system we see today,” Ahmad said. Bridgforte also recommended creating a longitudinal trust barometer that tracks what strengthens and weakens consumer confidence over time. “We have recommended that we do a longitudinal barometer
Read More
Nigeria tests investor appetite with sale of former telecom monopoly ntel
Nigeria’s plan to sell a controlling stake in ntel, formerly Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL), is shaping up to be more than just another state divestment. The transaction will test whether investors are willing to back a turnaround built around digital infrastructure rather than mobile subscribers, while navigating a tougher regulatory approval process for telecom acquisitions. The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), the state-owned agency that took full management control of ntel in 2024, announced on Monday that it has begun divesting its 55% stake in the company. The eventual buyer will inherit one of West Africa’s largest portfolios of telecom spectrum, fibre infrastructure and legacy real estate, alongside the capital-intensive task of transforming the successor to the former NITEL into a modern digital infrastructure company. The process remains in its early stages. No investors have emerged yet, AMCON spokesperson Jude Nwauzor said, adding that the agency is still securing the regulatory approvals required before a formal sale process can advance. “We are still going through the regulatory stage, where we get all the necessary approvals,” he told TechCabal in an interview. For AMCON, the sale marks the next step in its statutory mandate rather than a strategic retreat. The agency’s role is to stabilise ntel after years of distress, rebuilding its governance, restructuring legacy debt, protecting strategic assets such as its spectrum holdings, and backing an initial recovery strategy built around its Beam, Eden and Titan (BET) business pillars. The next phase, however, demands a different kind of investor. Expanding fibre networks, deploying next-generation mobile technologies and modernising telecom infrastructure require sustained, capital-intensive investment that AMCON, as a state-backed asset recovery agency, was never designed to provide. Transferring control to a long-term strategic investor is intended not just to recover value for the government, but to give ntel access to the capital needed for its next stage of growth. “AMCON is not a long-term investor in these kinds of businesses,” ntel Chief Executive Officer Soji Maurice-Diya said in an interview with TechCabal. “Their job is to stop the haemorrhaging, protect critical assets like this, restructure, and ultimately sell. It doesn’t stop the day-to-day running of the business. It’s business as usual while we begin the process of ultimately divesting.” The sale follows a two-year restructuring aimed at repositioning ntel beyond Nigeria’s crowded retail mobile market. Rather than competing directly with MTN Nigeria, Airtel Africa and Globacom for subscribers, the company has reorganised itself around three business units: Beam, which provides enterprise connectivity and digital services; Titan, which manages tower infrastructure and colocation assets; and Eden, which seeks to monetise the company’s extensive real estate portfolio inherited from the former NITEL. AMCON says that repositioning has increased the company’s attractiveness to long-term investors. “The repositioning effort is designed to maximise value, strengthen operational competitiveness and prepare the business for long-term sustainability under new investment,” Managing Director Gbenga Alade said in a statement announcing the divestment. Maurice-Diya argues that it would make little commercial sense for a new buyer to abandon ntel’s strategy of restructuring the business into three core verticals. “We’ve planted the seeds. We’ve seen success. We’re generating revenues on all three of our pillars today,” he said. “I think a smarter, savvy investor will simply double down on that strategy.” Potential buyers, however, face a more complicated acquisition process than previous telecom transactions. Under new rules introduced jointly on June 18, 2026 by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), any acquisition involving 10% or more of a licenced telecommunications company requires prior NCC approval before ownership changes can be registered. The regulator will review outstanding spectrum fees, annual operating levies and other regulatory obligations, while assessing whether a transaction could reduce competition or concentrate spectrum holdings. That scrutiny could prove particularly significant if an incumbent telecom operator emerges as a bidder. Ntel controls valuable spectrum in the 900MHz and 1800MHz bands, as well as access to the SAT-3 submarine cable system and other infrastructure that would be difficult and expensive to replicate. “The NCC has released a code of corporate governance, as well as a requirement that any change of ownership above the 10% threshold needs to be approved,” Maurice-Diya said. “You’ve got the NCC, you’ve got the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), you’ve got several agencies involved.” The additional approvals mean a buyer cannot simply complete a share purchase agreement and assume control. Regulatory reviews could extend the timetable by several months, particularly if competition concerns arise. The transaction also involves only AMCON’s majority holding. The remaining shareholders have not indicated intention to sell, meaning any buyer would initially acquire operational control rather than outright ownership. For Maurice-Diya, that should not deter strategic investors. “I don’t think they absolutely need a significant majority all the time,” he said. “What they need is operational control, and 55% more than gives that to you.” Ultimately, he said, the company’s future depends less on who buys it than on whether the new owner is prepared to invest. “The visions that we’ve laid out are going to need a significant amount of capital,” Maurice-Diya said. “It’s not just enough for AMCON to change the ownership structure. They need to make sure whoever buys it has significant working capital to deploy.” 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.
Read More
Toheeb Popoola found Photoshop by accident. It changed his life.
If you ask Toheeb Popoola what he does, he won’t give you the one-word answer people expect. “I like to just call myself a creative,” he says. Popoola traces that identity back to his childhood, when his parents wanted him to become an engineer. “That was when I started asking, ‘Why should I study this? Why should I become an engineer?’” After secondary school, he applied to study Mass Communication at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) in 2012 but was not admitted. He tried again the following year, but when that attempt proved unsuccessful, he decided not to delay his education any longer. Instead, he accepted admission to study Business Management at the same university. Before he could begin, however, financial realities pushed him in a different direction. As his family’s financial situation worsened, earning an income became just as important as pursuing a university education. Around that time, his father came home with a laptop installed with Adobe Photoshop 7.0, unaware that it would shape his son’s career. Curious, Popoola says he searched online to find out what Photoshop was, then began teaching himself through trial and error. Internet access was limited, and tutorials were scarce, but his father encouraged his growing interest by bringing home other creative software, including Cinema 4D and 3ds Max. As he experimented with motion design, he discovered something he had not expected: a sense of purpose. “I think this was where I went from zero to 90,” he says. “I realised I want to be solving problems.” By November 2013, the family’s financial pressure had become impossible to ignore. When a friend working at the e-commerce platform Jumia could not confirm whether the company was hiring, Popoola searched online for the email address of its design lead and sent a cold email. “I sent him an email telling him, ‘I can do this and that. I would like to work with you guys,’” he says. He expected nothing in return but received a reply that same evening inviting him for an interview the following morning. He travelled to Lekki, a commercial and residential district in Lagos, where the interview ended with an immediate job offer. In November 2013, Popoola joined Jumia in his first professional design role. Although he enjoyed the work, he quickly realised the salary would not be enough to sustain him. “I wasn’t there to have fun,” he says. “I was there to work and make money.” Around the same period, Popoola says he feared he would lose his job after his manager warned that either he or a struggling colleague whose workload he had been helping to manage would be laid off. Before his manager announced who would be leaving, he says he received a phone call from digital pay-TV company Montage Cable TV, which was looking for a 3D animator. He was invited to interview immediately. At the interview, he says he used Cinema 4D, which he had taught himself, to recreate a tutorial he had studied the previous week. “They were quite shocked,” he recalls. “They were like, ‘We’re going to hire this boy.’” He says the company offered him a monthly salary of ₦150,000 ($110)—more than double what he was earning at Jumia. “In my mind, I was screaming,” Popoola says. “But I smiled and said, ‘Let’s make it ₦200,000 ($147)’” The company declined his counteroffer but assured him it would support him as he continued his education. he accepted the offer. Rather than wait for Jumia to announce who would be laid off, he resumed work at Montage. Looking back, he says he wishes he had handled his departure differently. “It was my first time resigning,” Popoola says. “I don’t think I handled that very well. I should have done better.” At Montage, Popoola became the company’s first designer, building its visual identity from the ground up while sharpening his skills in 3D design and visual effects. “It was a really nice time for someone like me that liked to experiment,” Popoola says. “I had a computer that was really fast, so I became really good at 3D.” Using his first salary from Montage, Popoola says he was finally able to pay the fees for the Business Management admission he had secured earlier and enrolled at university in 2014, graduating in 2018. Finding a place in advertising Outside work, Popoola spent much of his free time creating personal projects and sharing them on Facebook. One of those posts caught the attention of the creative director at Centre Spread, a Lagos-based advertising agency. It led to a job offer. “I was told I would be the digital executive. The word ‘executive’ to me then was like, ah, something very big. So I was so excited,” Popoola recalls. Centre Spread ushered Popoola into the advertising industry, where he says he worked on campaigns for brands including Kia Motors Nigeria and earned a reputation as the “Pitch Doctor.” “I was in charge of pitching. That was how I slowly started building this whole ‘Pitch Doctor’ name. Anytime we wanted to win a new account, they would say, ‘Let’s bring this guy in.’ I would jump on it, do my magic, and then go back to my normal work,” he says. Popoola says he first applied to X3M Ideas, a Nigerian creative agency, while he was still at Montage Cable TV but was unsuccessful. After leaving Centre Spread, he applied again and joined the agency, which he had long admired, in September 2015. “X3M was where I sharpened my design and thinking skills,” Popoola says. “I had to step up my design game and my thinking game.” At X3M, he worked on campaigns for brands across a range of industries, including Dangote, Chivas Regal, Jameson and Martell, further cementing his reputation as the Pitch Doctor. “I wanted to do work that would compete with the guys outside Nigeria. I didn’t want to just do design,” he says. In 2017, Popoola joined DDB Lagos, the Nigerian affiliate of
Read More
👨🏿🚀TechCabal Daily – Crypto winter at Luno
In partnership with Lire en Français اقرأ هذا باللغة العربية Happy midweek. Standard Chartered Kenya is about to become a tenant in its own headquarters. Business Daily reported that the lender is working through bids to sell the Westlands property while leasing back the space it still needs, another sign that many banks are deciding they don’t need to own as much real estate as they once did. Let’s look at the key events across African tech yesterday. Become smarter about tech and commerce in Francophone Africa, and the policies shaping them. Read our newsletter here first or subscribe below. Subscribe Layoffs at Luno Airtel Money Kenya appoints acting MD Sport powers DStv comeback Kenya drafts labour policy around AI World Wide Web 3 Opportunities Layoffs UK-headquartered crypto firm Luno cuts global workforce by 20% Image Source: Tenor There was a time when crypto exchanges were obsessed with getting everyone to buy Bitcoin. Luno is still very much in the retail trading business, but it is trying to build additional revenue streams beyond individual crypto traders; its staff is the price to pay for that restructuring. What happened? Luno, the UK-headquartered crypto firm operating a regional base in South Africa, is cutting 20% of its global workforce as it reorganises the company. According to local publication TechCentral, part of Luno’s South African team was affected. Why now? The company said it is restructuring after investing heavily in automation, and wants to build products and infrastructure for banks and other large businesses. Explain like I’m five: Luno makes money every time people buy or sell crypto on its platform. When Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are rising, excitement pulls more people into the market and trading volumes climb, but when prices fall, most people fold their hands. So, no trading. Luno pointed to that as its reason for the cuts. Bitcoin slipped below $59,000 in June, its lowest level since September 2024, while Ethereum, Solana, XRP and Dogecoin all posted steeper weekly declines. Those price drops tend to reduce trading activity, making it harder for exchanges that depend on transactions. Not the first time: In 2023, after Bitcoin crashed from nearly $69,000 to below $17,000, the company cut 35% of its workforce during the crypto winter. This time might be different, though. The 2023 layoffs were about surviving a market crash, while the 2026 layoffs are about changing the business itself. 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. Fintech Airtel Money Kenya replaces former managing director Bonke Michael, Airtel Money Kenya’s acting managing director. Image Source: LinkedIn. Airtel Money Kenya, the mobile money challenger to Safaricom’s M-PESA, is undergoing an important leadership transition as the broader Airtel Money business, which operates in 14 African markets, prepares for its anticipated London public listing this year. The mobile money operator, owned by the telco Airtel, has appointed Bonke Michael as its acting managing director, three days after former boss Anne Kinuthia-Otieno resigned from the role. What happened? Airtel Money Kenya has promoted Michael to acting managing director after nearly a decade at the company. The appointment comes at the moment Airtel Money is preparing for an initial public offering (IPO) on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) later this year. Between the lines: Under Anne Kinuthia-Otieno, the company’s total income rose to KES 1.68 billion ($12 million) in 2025 from KES 1.09 billion ($8.4 million) a year earlier, while profit after tax nearly doubled to KES 143 million ($1.1 million). Michael will now have to prove those gains weren’t a one-off and keep Airtel Money growing as it heads towards a London IPO. The bigger picture: This appointment says as much about Airtel’s IPO strategy. When Kinuthia-Otieno took over in 2021, Airtel Money controlled just 3.1% of Kenya’s mobile money market. By March 2026, that figure grew to 10.9%, while market leader M-PESA’s share fell from 96.8% to 89.1%. Kenya now has 53.4 million active mobile money subscriptions. Zoom out: Airtel Money Kenya likely also chose a veteran in the role because, with its upcoming IPO plans, it needs someone with institutional memory who can help steer the process in the near term. The mobile money operator is seeking a $10 billion valuation, hoping to convince global investors that it is building an investable business. Winning investor confidence will be Michael’s biggest test in the role. Download PalmPay. Bank smarter. Transaction Guard lets you set single, daily, or monthly transaction limits. Whenever a transaction exceeds your chosen limit, facial verification is required before it can be completed, helping to prevent unauthorised transfers. With PalmPay, you stay in control. Learn more. Streaming Canal+ is fixing MultiChoice with DStv Stream and sport Image Source: Tenor If you paid for a DStv subscription in the last ten months, congratulations, you’re a part of the company’s growth numbers. Ten months after taking over MultiChoice, Canal+, the French media giant, has posted numbers that suggest its turnaround is working. Subscriber acquisition across MultiChoice markets rose 40% year-on-year, while adjusted operating profit surged 160% to €143 million ($162 million). In South Africa, June just recorded the strongest month for new subscriber acquisitions in a decade. What’s happening? But this isn’t just a story of cheaper decoders. Canal+ has been pushing DStv Stream, a version of the service that needs no satellite dish, just an internet connection and a subscription. The company also slashed decoder prices for new subscribers by up to 40%, removing a big barrier to entry in African pay-TV. It also expanded its physical sales network by more than 15% since March, betting that in many markets, people still sign up for TV at a shop, not on a website. What else? On content, the French owner is doubling down on live sport: MultiChoice’s one category that still commands reliable paying audiences. It has locked in long-term rights to South Africa’s Premier Soccer League and
Read More
Africa no longer wants to import technology. It wants to write the rules
On Thursday, July 23, the International Conference Centre in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, was filled with the familiar language of telecommunications—spectrum, standards, cybersecurity, satellite networks—but underneath the technical vocabulary was something much larger unfolding. For perhaps the first time in decades, African ministers were not gathered to discuss how the continent could adopt the next wave of technology. They were debating how to influence it before someone else did. Over two days at the African Telecommunications Union’s Conference of Plenipotentiaries, officials from across the continent argued that Africa has spent too long importing not just digital infrastructure but the rules that govern it. Now, they said, the continent wants to help write those rules itself. “Our continent must not remain a passive consumer of technologies, standards and platforms developed without sufficient consideration for African priorities,” Sid Ali Zerrouki, Algeria’s minister of post and telecommunications, told delegates. “Africa must become a recognised architect of their design, governance and responsible use.” The statement captured a broader shift taking place across Africa. For years, conversations about the continent’s digital future centred on expanding internet access, building mobile networks and attracting investment from global technology companies. Those goals remain important. But as artificial intelligence, cloud computing, satellites and cybersecurity become instruments of economic power and geopolitical influence, African governments argue that the continent can no longer afford to simply implement rules written elsewhere. That sense of urgency drew ministers, regulators and technology leaders from across Africa to Abuja ahead of next year’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Plenipotentiary Conference in Doha, where countries will negotiate the standards and policies that increasingly determine how the world’s digital economy operates. Africa’s push reflects a broader shift in how governments around the world now view technology. Countries are no longer treating digital infrastructure as simply an engine for economic growth but as a strategic asset that underpins national competitiveness, security and global influence. India has invested heavily in developing its own digital public infrastructure, known as the India Stack. The European Union has become one of the world’s most influential digital regulators through legislation such as major laws like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act), and the Digital Services Act. The United States and China increasingly view semiconductors, AI and cloud computing as strategic assets as important as oil or military capability. African governments argue they cannot afford to remain spectators. “For too long, global technology policies have been developed without adequate representation of African priorities and perspectives,” Nigeria’s Vice President Kashim Shettima said in remarks delivered on his behalf by Senator Ibrahim Hadejia, Deputy Chief of Staff to the President. “That must change.” The argument is becoming easier to make because Africa’s economic weight is growing. According to the GSMA, mobile technologies generated about $220 billion in economic value across Africa in 2024—roughly 8% of the continent’s GDP. Within five years, that figure is expected to climb to $270 billion. The continent is also becoming the world’s youngest digital market. More than six out of every ten Africans are under 25, creating what industry executives increasingly describe as the largest generation of digital consumers entering the global economy. Collectively, that should give Africa influence. Individually, however, most African countries remain small players in international negotiations. That is why unity became the recurring theme in Abuja. “We must continue to invest in technical preparation, strengthen regional cooperation and speak with one voice where our interests align,” Nigeria’s Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, said. Achieving that unity, however, will not be easy. African countries approach technology governance from very different starting points. Some prioritise privacy and data protection, while others focus on attracting investment, encouraging innovation or expanding digital inclusion. Legal systems differ, economic interests diverge, and even data protection frameworks vary significantly between countries such as Nigeria and South Africa. Economic priorities also divide the continent. Countries grappling with debt crises, including Zambia, Ghana and Ethiopia, pushed for more aggressive global debt restructuring, pressing both Western bondholders and bilateral lenders such as China for broader relief. By contrast, countries with stronger credit profiles, including Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire and Benin, adopted a more cautious stance. Keen to preserve access to international capital markets and avoid credit-rating downgrades, they resisted sweeping debt-relief demands that could unsettle investors. The contrast underscored how differing economic realities often make it difficult for African countries to present a unified position, even when they face common structural challenges. Yet speakers at the conference insisted the alternative—continuing to negotiate separately—would leave Africa reacting to rules written elsewhere. The conference ended with delegates adopting the Abuja Declaration on Meaningful Connectivity, a roadmap that commits member states to expanding affordable internet access, strengthening cybersecurity, improving digital inclusion and coordinating more closely on technology policy before the ITU conference in Doha. Nigeria also left the conference with a more prominent diplomatic role. The country formally assumed the chairmanship of the Conference of Plenipotentiaries for the next four years, while Zambia’s Kezias Kazuba Mwale was elected the next Secretary-General of the African Telecommunications Union. More than routine leadership changes, the appointments reflected Africa’s growing determination to speak with greater influence in shaping the global digital agenda. “Africa will not simply participate in the digital future,” Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Secretary-General of the ITU, told delegates. “Africa will help shape it—not only as a consumer of technology, but as a creator, an innovator, a standard setter and a trusted global partner.” Whether that ambition becomes reality remains uncertain. 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.
Read More
Egyptian startup Fincart raises $2.8 million to expand AI commerce platform
Fincart, an Egyptian startup building an AI-powered operating system for e-commerce merchants, has raised a $2.8 million seed round to expand across Africa and the Middle East after pivoting beyond logistics software into merchant finance and business automation. Launch Africa, a pan-African venture capital fund, and Antler MENAP, the early-stage fund focused on the Middle East, North Africa, and Pakistan regions, co-led the funding round, with participation from Yango Ventures, Five35 Ventures, Bluestream Capital, Hi2 Global, Kalahari Venture Labs, and other unnamed investors. The raise comes 18 months after Fincart’s undisclosed pre-seed round and coincides with the startup’s pivot from a logistics management platform into an AI-powered operating system for e-commerce merchants. Egypt’s e-commerce market is projected to grow to $20.15 billion by 2031, creating opportunities for startups building software and financial infrastructure for merchants. Fincart said it will use the funding to scale its commercial and tech teams, invest in product development, and forge new commercial partnerships to strengthen its position in its home market. “With our strategy focused on strengthening the e-commerce ecosystem, this investment will enable us to deepen our partnerships, enhance our AI-powered platform, expand our infrastructure, and accelerate our growth across Africa and the Middle East,” said Mostafa Masry, Fincart’s co-founder and chief executive officer. Founded in 2023 by Masry and Nihal Ali, Fincart began by helping online merchants manage last-mile deliveries and reconcile cash-on-delivery payments. Over time, the company has expanded into a merchant operating system that combines logistics management, embedded financing and AI-powered customer engagement. It noted that merchants on the platform can connect to more than 40 shipping providers and access short-term cash advances. According to Masry, the pivot was driven by merchants’ reliance on a myriad of software to manage shipping, customer support, marketing, and payments. That fragmentation, he noted, left valuable business data siloed across systems, which made it harder for merchants to automate operations. Fincart’s response was to consolidate those functions into a single AI-powered platform. “Everything we build starts with sitting down with merchants and understanding where they’re losing time, money, or customers,” said Ali. “We built Fincart to replace all of that with a single control panel where merchants can sell more, deliver faster, and manage their customers, without the friction of stitching tools together.” Fincart operates in a market where regional players such as MaxAB-Wasoko and global commerce platforms like Shopify provide merchant services to e-commerce platforms. The company said it has onboarded more than 450 merchants and enterprise customers and has processed nearly EGP 1 billion (nearly $20 million) in merchandise value through automated shipping and cash reconciliation workflows. Fincart generates revenue from shipping fees and tiered software subscriptions that range from EGP 1,584 ($31.2) to EGP 7,199 ($141.96) monthly, depending on the features merchants use. Fincart said part of the funding will finance its expansion beyond Egypt from 2027. For Launch Africa, the investment is a bet on the region’s commerce infrastructure rather than a single startup. “Egypt’s e-commerce market is one of Africa’s most compelling infrastructure opportunities: high volume, CoD-dominant, and deeply underserved at the SME level,” said Lina Kacyem, investment manager at Launch Africa. “The organic, referral-driven growth tells you everything about product-market fit, and we’re excited to support Fincart’s expansion across Egypt and into new African markets as co-lead investors in this round.” 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.
Read More
Cape Verde got the world’s attention. Francophone African tech still needs it.
28 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 Cap-Vert n’a jamais été facile à vendre. Dix îles volcaniques, 527 000 habitants, et une langue que presque personne d’autre sur le continent ne parle comme première langue. Puis les Requins Bleus se sont qualifiés pour leur première Coupe du Monde, et ce mois de juin, l’équipe est allée encore plus loin : un match nul sans but face à l’Espagne le 15 juin, un 2-2 contre l’Uruguay le 21 juin, un blanchissage de l’Arabie Saoudite le 26 juin, et un huitième de finale contre l’Argentine de Lionel Messi le 3 juillet. Le pays est devenu la plus petite nation à avoir jamais atteint un tour à élimination directe en Coupe du Monde. Tous ceux qui avaient ignoré le Cap-Vert pendant cinq décennies savaient soudainement exactement où le trouver. Les mêmes forces qui ont maintenu le Cap-Vert dans l’invisibilité jusqu’il y a trois semaines maintiennent en ce moment même l’économie bleue de l’Afrique de l’Ouest francophone dans l’invisibilité. L’Afrique francophone passe des années à faire face à un problème de visibilité similaire. La région abrite certaines des économies à la croissance la plus rapide du continent et un vivier de fondateurs en pleine expansion. Pourtant, les réseaux d’investisseurs, les écosystèmes d’accélérateurs et les médias tech qui façonnent les récits des startups africaines restent massivement anglophones. Comme pour le Cap-Vert avant son parcours en Coupe du Monde, beaucoup de marchés francophones ne sont pas invisibles parce qu’il ne s’y passe rien ; ils sont invisibles parce que les personnes qui allouent attention et capital regardent ailleurs en premier. Entrons dans le vif du sujet. 1. Une colonisation de marché conçue pour l’isolement Des supporters arrivent avant le match du groupe H de la Coupe du monde de la FIFA 2026 opposant l’Uruguay au Cap-Vert au Miami Stadium, le 21 juin. Photographe : James Jackman/Bloomberg Le Cap-Vert était inhabité jusqu’à l’arrivée des navires portugais au XVe siècle, qui ont transformé l’archipel en hub de ravitaillement pour les routes commerciales atlantiques. L’indépendance n’est venue qu’en 1975, après plus de cinq siècles de domination portugaise. Ce qui en a émergé est une nation créole : lusophone, profondément connectée à sa diaspora, et économiquement orientée vers l’Europe bien plus que vers ses voisins ouest-africains. Deux fois plus de Cap-Verdiens vivent aujourd’hui à l’étranger — principalement aux États-Unis, en Europe et au Brésil — que sur les îles elles-mêmes. Cette orientation vers l’extérieur continue de façonner la façon dont le pays s’insère dans les marchés africains. Le Cap-Vert partage un océan, des dynamiques migratoires et des défis de développement avec le Sénégal, la Côte d’Ivoire, la Guinée et le reste du littoral ouest-africain. Et pourtant, il opère dans un univers linguistique et institutionnel différent de presque tous ces pays. Il commerce à peine avec les pays qui lui sont les plus proches et utilise une langue officielle différente de presque tous ceux à sa portée. L’argent parle d’abord anglais, à l’échelle mondiale. Sur ce continent, les deux autres langues qui permettent à un investisseur d’entrer dans une salle de conseil d’administration sont le français et l’arabe. Le Cap-Vert n’a ni l’un ni l’autre. La taxe sur la visibilité Le portugais isole le Cap-Vert à peu près de la même façon que le français a isolé la zone de l’Union Économique et Monétaire Ouest-Africaine (UEMOA) à huit pays. Vingt-neuf pays africains utilisent le français comme langue officielle, faisant du continent le premier espace francophone au monde, et la zone économique francophone représente près d’un quart du produit intérieur brut (PIB) mondial, selon un rapport de 2022de l’Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie. L’UEMOA seule abrite plus de 140 millions de personnes et certaines des économies à la croissance la plus rapide du continent. Et pourtant, quand les investisseurs mondiaux pensent « tech africaine », la carte mentale par défaut reste remarquablement étroite : Lagos, Nairobi, Le Cap, Le Caire. Ce déficit ne tient pas uniquement au PIB ou à la population. Il tient aux effets de réseau. Les accélérateurs qui produisent les startups africaines reconnues à l’échelle mondiale, les fonds de capital-risque qui fixent les références de valorisation, les podcasts et newsletters qui façonnent les récits des fondateurs, et les conférences où se nouent les partenariats opèrent massivement en anglais. Un fondateur à Abidjan ou à Ouagadougou pitche souvent dans une deuxième langue à des investisseurs qui n’ont jamais eu à en apprendre une. C’est ce que j’appelle une taxe sur la visibilité : le travail supplémentaire exigé des fondateurs francophones pour devenir lisibles aux yeux du capital mondial. On la voit dans la façon dont beaucoup de startups francophones à succès constituent des équipes bilingues anormalement tôt. On la voit dans le nombre croissant de fondateurs qui s’incorporent en dehors de leurs marchés d’origine pour simplifier les conversations de levée de fonds. Et on la voit dans l’émergence d’opérateurs panafricains comme Wave, Djamo, Julaya et InTouch, qui ont dû construire des produits et des partenariats capables de traverser à la fois les environnements d’affaires francophones et anglophones. Pourtant, rien de tout cela ne s’est traduit par une échelle de financement plus large. Selon les données de Weetracker, les économies africaines francophones ont crû à un rythme annuel de 4,9 % entre 2012 et 2018, contre 2,9 % pour le reste du continent — et ont quand même perdu largement
Read More
Airtel Money wants a $1 billion IPO. Can London deliver?
Airtel Africa has finally settled on where it wants to take one of Africa’s biggest fintech businesses public. The bigger question is whether that market can still deliver what the company is looking for. The telecom giant has confirmed London as the preferred listing venue for its mobile money business, saying the exchange offers one of the world’s deepest pools of institutional capital. “We believe a London listing will provide access to a broad international investor base and support our ambition to unlock the long-term value of one of Africa’s leading fintech platforms,” Sunil Taldar, chief executive officer of Airtel Africa, said during the company’s earnings announcement on July, 23, 2026. The company is reportedly seeking to raise between $1 billion and $2 billion at a $10 billion valuation. On paper, London should be capable of financing a deal of that size. It remains one of the world’s largest financial centres, with thousands of listed companies and trillions of dollars in market capitalisation. Yet Airtel Money’s Initial Public Offering (IPO) arrives at a time when the London Stock Exchange is attempting to reverse years of subdued IPO activity. The exchange has spent years losing listings, liquidity, and prestige to rivals in New York, Asia and the Middle East. That raises a more difficult question than where Airtel Money will list: is London’s IPO market now too small for a billion-dollar African fintech offering, or has its recent decline been more about a shortage of companies than a shortage of capital? London’s IPO numbers On the surface, the numbers suggest Airtel faces an uphill battle. London’s IPO market has endured several years of decline. In the third quarter of 2025, it fell out of Bloomberg’s ranking of the world’s top 20 IPO markets, dropping to 23rd after being overtaken by exchanges in Mexico and Singapore. The weakness has not simply been about the number of companies choosing London. It has been about the size of the deals. Only 18 companies listed in London in 2024, raising a combined £777.7 million ($1.03 billion). Airtel Money is reportedly seeking as much as $2 billion, meaning its fundraising target alone could exceed the amount raised by every company that listed on the exchange throughout the previous year. Activity improved in 2025, with 23 IPOs raising £2.1 billion ($2.79 billion), according to EY-Parthenon, a global strategy consulting organisation and part of the Ernst & Young (EY) global network. That represented a 170% increase from the previous year, but the recovery was less broad than the headline suggests. Eleven companies accounted for almost £1.9 billion ($2.53 billion) of the proceeds in the final quarter alone, meaning the rebound was driven by a handful of large transactions rather than a sustained return of IPO activity. Even then, London struggled to produce truly blockbuster offerings. Fermi Inc., a Texas-based company focused on developing electric grids, was the largest IPO in London in 2025, raising $680 million at a valuation of almost $12.5 billion. Airtel Money is reportedly looking to raise at least $320 million more than Fermi while seeking a lower valuation, a reminder that investors would have to write one of London’s largest equity cheques in recent years if the IPO proceeds as planned. The decline has also become visible in where companies are listing. Wise, a UK fintech company, announced plans to move its primary listing to New York in July 2025; British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca said, in September 2025, that it intends to list its regular shares on the New York Stock Exchange. Bloomberg previously reported that Airtel Africa itself considered exchanges in the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere in Europe before settling on London. Yet London may have offered advantages beyond fundraising. Airtel Africa is already listed there, many institutional investors already follow the company, and spinning off Airtel Money on the same exchange reduces the need to introduce an entirely new issuer to the market. Listing on another exchange, while potentially attracting higher fintech valuations, would also expose the company to more demanding disclosure requirements and a different investor base. As companies leave, London’s share of European IPO fundraising has steadily eroded. In 2013, UK listings accounted for more than half of all European IPO proceeds. By the third quarter of 2025, that figure had fallen to just 3%, according to Bloomberg. A capital or confidence problem? Those figures paint a picture of an exchange that has become smaller, attracted fewer companies and lost ground to competing financial centres. But they do not necessarily prove London lacks the capacity to finance Airtel Money. Annual IPO proceeds measure how much companies collectively raised in a given year. They do not measure how much capital investors have available to deploy. London remains home to some of the world’s largest pension funds. UK pension funds have steadily reduced their exposure to domestic equities, with allocations falling from 53% in 1997 to just 4.1%, according to a November 2025 Reuters report. For Airtel Money, the challenge is therefore not simply attracting investors to London, but convincing them that an African fintech deserves capital they are sitting on. Airtel Money’s business model is built on mobile money, merchant payments and digital financial services operating on top of Airtel Africa’s telecommunications network. The platform now serves 56.5 million customers, processes more than $245 billion in annualised transaction value and generated $404 million in quarterly revenue, accounting for nearly 22% of Airtel Africa’s total revenue. Those numbers help explain why Airtel Africa wants to separate the fintech business from the broader telecom group. The IPO is as much about valuation as it is about raising fresh capital. If public market investors assign Airtel Money a valuation close to the reported $10 billion, Airtel Africa would unlock value that it believes is not reflected within its broader telecom business. If investors demand a substantial discount, the company could still complete the IPO while falling short of its larger objective. Airtel’s second London test Airtel Africa’s 2019 listing offers a reminder
Read More