Decide targets workplaces with enterprise AI rollout through CafeOne
Decide, the Nigerian AI startup that lets users analyse data in spreadsheets using prompts, has launched Decide for Work, an enterprise deployment arm to distribute its spreadsheet AI agent through universities, co-working spaces, and other professional communities. As part of the launch, Decide has entered its first major deployment partnership with CafeOne, a co-working network with over 30 locations across Nigeria. Through the partnership, CafeOne members with an active subscription will receive premium access to Decide as part of their membership, providing AI tools for spreadsheet analysis and research. The launch comes as African businesses and workplaces increase adoption of AI in their everyday work. By the end of 2025, 64% of African workers reported using AI at work over the previous year, ahead of the global average of 54%, according to a PwC survey. A separate KPMG report noted that 65% of West African CEOs expect AI to drive efficiency improvements in 2026. “AI agents are improving rapidly, but their adoption and integration into everyday work have not caught up,” Abiodun Adetona, founder of Decide AI, said in a public post. “We want Decide to be embedded wherever work happens online, inside spreadsheets, inboxes, and existing business tools, and physically, through the companies, co-working spaces, universities, and communities where people work and learn every day.” Decide for Work will use the same AI agent currently available to individual users, but package it for organisational deployments, Adetona noted. Instead of signing up individual employees, Decide will work directly with organisations to provide access, onboard users, and integrate the software into existing workflows. Adetona said pricing will vary based on deployment size, number of users, support requirements, and any custom integrations. Launched in 2025 by Adetona, a former Flutterwave software engineer, Decide helps users analyse spreadsheets and business data using natural language prompts instead of formulas. The startup said it has completed more than 41,000 analysis runs and helped users create and analyse over 21,000 spreadsheets since its launch. It said it is used by professionals across more than 10 countries and has achieved 82.5% verified accuracy on SpreadsheetBench, a benchmark for AI spreadsheet agents, placing it alongside models from leading AI companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic. CafeOne is the first major rollout under Decide for Work. The co-working company will make Decide available to eligible members across its subscription tiers, ranging from ₦8,525 ($6.15) daily to ₦109,950 ($79.36) monthly. Adetona said eligible CafeOne members will receive premium credits that unlock Decide’s products, with access lasting as long as those credits remain available based on individual usage. “CafeOne has built a nationwide community of professionals, founders, freelancers, operators, analysts, and growing teams,” he said. “Many of them work with spreadsheets, reports, research, and business data every day. It was a natural fit because their members closely match the people Decide was built for.” He noted that CafeOne would send members instructions on how to activate their Decide access, and they could also request activation directly from staff at any CafeOne location. Adetona said the CafeOne rollout is only the first step for Decide for Work, with discussions already underway with additional co-working spaces, universities, professional communities, and companies interested in deploying AI tools across their teams. “Our goal is to make Decide available wherever knowledge workers spend their day working with spreadsheets, reports, and business data,” he added. True scale demands moving beyond surface-level integrations to robust execution. We’ve filtered the noise out of Moonshot 2026, optimising the conference strictly for high-calibre connections between startup founders, global financial operators, enterprise leaders and individuals rewiring Africa’s technical frameworks. Get 20% off Early Bird tickets for a limited time.
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Why Kenya’s revived golden visa matters for venture investors and founders
Kenya is considering offering permanent residency to foreign investors to strengthen Nairobi’s position as East Africa’s investment hub. The Kenya Investment Authority (Invest Kenya) is working on proposals for a residency-by-investment programme that would grant long-term residency to investors who commit substantial capital and create jobs, reviving a plan first floated in 2019 but never implemented. Kenya joins a growing list of countries competing for globally mobile investors with immigration incentives besides tax breaks. The proposal could prove attractive to venture capital firms and startup founders, who need senior investment staff and entrepreneurs to spend years building businesses in the markets where they invest. Unlike traditional foreign direct investment (FDI), venture capital relies heavily on local presence, with partners expected to sit on boards, recruit executives and work closely with portfolio companies. “We are exploring residency by investment,” Invest Kenya chief executive John Mwendwa told Business Daily in an interview on Thursday. “Directionally, that’s the way investors would like it.” The agency has yet to determine investment thresholds or qualifying sectors, and Mwendwa said any programme would require legislation because immigration policy falls outside Invest Kenya’s mandate. “We have to have parameters that make commercial sense,” he said. The move is part of a shift in how governments compete for capital. Rather than relying solely on tax holidays, countries are now using residency rights to attract investors whose businesses—and tax contributions—are expected to remain for decades. A win for VCs and startups For venture investors, immigration certainty has become an important consideration. Fund managers frequently relocate across markets as they source deals and support portfolio companies, while founders need long-term residency to scale businesses after raising capital. Kenya already hosts regional offices for several international venture capital firms—including Antler, Capria Ventures, Delta40, and Enza Capital—aided by one of Africa’s largest startup ecosystems and a pipeline of fintech, climate and enterprise software companies. But investors continue to navigate work permit renewals and immigration processes that can complicate long-term expansion. Kenya currently requires foreign investors to obtain a Class G Investor Permit, available to those investing at least $100,000 in an active Kenyan enterprise, before becoming eligible to apply for citizenship after several years of residence. Permanent residency would offer a faster, more predictable route for investors seeking to establish long-term operations. Permanent residency would remove much of that administrative burden, potentially making Nairobi a more competitive base against rival investment hubs such as Cape Town, Kigali, and Mauritius, all of which have introduced investor-friendly policies. South Africa introduced its permanent residence route for investors under the Immigration Act in 2002, allowing foreigners investing at least R12 million ($729,000) to apply for residency. In 2020, Mauritius lowered the minimum investment required for residency from $500,000 to $375,000 to stimulate foreign investment following the pandemic. The proposal comes as Kenya is reinforcing its position as one of Africa’s leading destinations for venture capital. Kenyan startups attracted $984 million in funding in 2025, the highest on the continent and about a third of all startup investment into Africa, driven largely by climate and energy technology deals. Kenya has retained its lead into 2026, remaining the continent’s largest startup funding destination in the first half of the year despite a broader slowdown in dealmaking. 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 MoreQuick Fire 🔥 with Helina Bischoff
Helina Bischoff is Deputy Managing Partner at Africa Collective, where she leads engagement across the organisation’s platforms and oversees partnership development, flagship convenings in Davos and Geneva, and core activities including network management and B2B facilitation. She works at the intersection of business, policy, and international cooperation, convening senior leaders from the public and private sectors. Her work focuses on priority areas structured through Africa Collective’s thematic “Circles,” including healthcare, infrastructure, ventures, commodities, and the arts. She also oversees the Swiss-African Business Circle, an independent association fostering commercial exchange between Switzerland and African markets. Before joining Africa Collective, Helina held roles at Novartis across Global Diversity & Inclusion, the Malaria Initiative, and the Africa Cluster, specialising in communications and public affairs. She holds a BA in International Relations and French from Rhodes University and an MA in African Studies from the University of Basel. Explain your job to a five-year-old. I bring people together so that they can find ways to work together. What’s the most contrarian bet you’ve made professionally that paid off? My role at Africa Collective can be considered contrarian by definition; we create platforms and convenings within global events that give greater visibility to African topics and perspectives, especially in spaces where they are underrepresented or absent altogether. That is not always easy, but it has paid off. Through Africa Collective and the Swiss-African Business Circle, the business association we manage, we have built trusted platforms that bring people together, create space for concrete discussions, and facilitate meaningful collaborations. Your path went from Novartis, working across Global Diversity & Inclusion, the Malaria Initiative, and the Africa Cluster, to Deputy Managing Partner at Africa Collective. What’s the thread connecting those roles? Most of my roles have had a strong focus on the African continent. The thread connecting them—from Diversity & Inclusion to the Malaria Initiative and now Africa Collective—is that they have all involved bringing together people from different parts of the world and creating opportunities through those relationships. Africa Collective works through healthcare, infrastructure, ventures, commodities, and the arts. Which one gets the least attention but deserves the most? The most interesting part of approaching these sectoral topics is often where ecosystems and thematic areas intersect. For instance, bringing together large pharmaceutical companies, tech companies, and venture capital funds to exchange perspectives on global health. This way of looking beyond existing networks and ecosystems is often overlooked. Africa Collective provides a platform through its “Africa Collective Circles,” thematic communities where members can discuss topics within a specific area while also taking conversations beyond a narrow sector focus. This creates even more space for novel and innovative partnerships and collaboration. What’s a belief about Africa-Switzerland trade that most people get wrong? The depth of the ties between Switzerland and the African continent is often underestimated, as are the opportunities to leverage them. Switzerland is a global hub for many key sectors, including commodities, banking, tech, and life sciences. It is also home to large pools of capital and major impact investors with an interest in Africa. Several Swiss multinationals are active across the African continent, but there are also many Swiss SMEs and startups operating in African markets. On the flip side, African companies and organisations are looking to establish and strengthen ties with Swiss counterparts as technical or knowledge partners and, in some cases, to set up entities or subsidiaries in Switzerland. What’s something you believed strongly about African tech five years ago that you’ve since changed your mind about? Five years ago, I would have thought about African tech solutions mainly in their own right. Since then, I have also come to appreciate the role of African tech as an enabler of lower-tech businesses that are critical to the global economy. African tech solutions are not only being developed for local markets, but for the world, too. What’s one career win you’re most proud of and why? Being part of the rapid growth of the Africa Collective platform has been a highlight. We started with one lunch in Davos in 2023, and the size of the convening more than doubled the following year. It has been incredible to be part of something that has grown so quickly in such a short period. Making it happen with limited resources has been challenging, but it has also provided invaluable learning experiences. What would you do differently if you were starting your career over? In hindsight, I would have approached my roles and responsibilities in my early career with more confidence, to get even more out of the experience. I am grateful for every opportunity I have been given and for the people who have supported me along the way. I wouldn’t change a thing.
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👨🏿🚀TechCabal Daily – Uber takeover
In partnership with Lire en Français اقرأ هذا باللغة العربية TGIFSYNW. And just like that, my week on lede duty comes to an end. I shall now retreat to my cosy little corner where I only have to write blurbs while my colleague, Emmanuel, worries about how to open the newsletter. Until next time, adieu! Before you disappear, too, fill out our tech salaries survey. —Yemi Get smarter about Francophone Africa with our newsletter, Francophone Weekly—the startups, tech policies, and institutions building the pipelines for ecosystem growth. Subscribe Quick Fire with Helina Bischoff Uber to take over Delivery Hero Stanbic Bank Kenya appoints new CEO Who secured the bag? World Wide Web 3 Job Openings features Quick Fire with Helina Bischoff Image: Helina Bischoff, Deputy Managing Partner at Africa Collective Helina Bischoff is Deputy Managing Partner at Africa Collective, where she leads engagement across the organisation’s platforms and oversees partnership development, flagship convenings in Davos and Geneva, and core activities including network management and B2B facilitation. She works at the intersection of business, policy, and international cooperation, convening senior leaders from the public and private sectors. Her work focuses on priority areas structured through Africa Collective’s thematic “Circles,” including healthcare, infrastructure, ventures, commodities, and the arts. She also oversees the Swiss-African Business Circle, an independent association fostering commercial exchange between Switzerland and African markets. Before joining Africa Collective, Helina held roles at Novartis across Global Diversity & Inclusion, the Malaria Initiative, and the Africa Cluster, specialising in communications and public affairs. She holds a BA in International Relations and French from Rhodes University and an MA in African Studies from the University of Basel. Explain your job to a five-year-old. I bring people together so that they can find ways to work together. What’s the most contrarian bet you’ve made professionally that paid off? My role at Africa Collective can be considered contrarian by definition; we create platforms and convenings within global events that give greater visibility to African topics and perspectives, especially in spaces where they are underrepresented or absent altogether. That is not always easy, but it has paid off. Through Africa Collective and the Swiss-African Business Circle, the business association we manage, we have built trusted platforms that bring people together, create space for concrete discussions, and facilitate meaningful collaborations. What’s a belief about Africa-Switzerland trade that most people get wrong? The depth of the ties between Switzerland and the African continent is often underestimated, as are the opportunities to leverage them. Switzerland is a global hub for many key sectors, including commodities, banking, tech, and life sciences. It is also home to large pools of capital and major impact investors with an interest in Africa. Several Swiss multinationals are active across the African continent, but there are also many Swiss SMEs and startups operating in African markets. On the flip side, African companies and organisations are looking to establish and strengthen ties with Swiss counterparts as technical or knowledge partners and, in some cases, to set up entities or subsidiaries in Switzerland. What’s something you believed strongly about African tech five years ago that you’ve since changed your mind about? Five years ago, I would have thought about African tech solutions mainly in their own right. Since then, I have also come to appreciate the role of African tech as an enabler of lower-tech businesses that are critical to the global economy. African tech solutions are not only being developed for local markets, but for the world, too. 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. companies Prosus’ forced Delivery Hero exit turned into a $2.4 billion payday Image Source: Tenor A forced sell-down, a decisive stake in one of Germany’s most important food delivery companies, and an impeccably timed takeover bid that is set to bring a huge payday, the folks at Prosus, the investment firm of South Africa’s Naspers, were grinning from ear to ear yesterday. On Thursday, Uber, the US-based ride-hailing giant, offered to buy Germany’s Delivery Hero (DH) at €41.50 ($47.48) per share, valuing the company at $14.8 billion. State of play: Uber has been eyeing Delivery Hero for months. In May, while competing with fellow US delivery company DoorDash, it explored a €10 billion ($11.6 billion) bid. Today, it is paying more than 25% extra for the same company. Delivery Hero shareholders look set to accept the offer. Prosus, which has signed an unconditional agreement to sell its remaining 16.83% stake once the deal closes, will receive €2.1 billion ($2.4 billion). Explain like I’m new here: Prosus first invested €387 million ($434 million) for a 10% stake in Delivery Hero in 2017. Over the next eight years, it spent over $4 billion through initial public offering (IPO) participation, acquisitions, private placements, and open-market purchases, eventually building a 29.95% stake. By 2025, Delivery Hero remained one of its biggest investments. Together with iFood and Swiggy, Prosus said its food delivery businesses served nearly half the world’s population and generated $1.3 billion in revenue. Then regulators forced its hand. After announcing its acquisition of Just Eat Takeaway.com, a Dutch food delivery company, Prosus was ordered by the European Union to reduce its Delivery Hero stake over competition concerns. It sold 4.5% to Uber in April and another 5% to Aspex Management, an investment firm, in May for €605 million ($713 million). Prosus wasn’t trying to exit Delivery Hero because it had lost faith in the business. It was being forced to sell because of regulators, while trying to maximise the return on nearly a decade of backing one of Europe’s largest food delivery companies. Prosus even asked the European Commission to pause the sell-down, believing that takeover interest from Uber and DoorDash could drive a much higher valuation. But the jury is still out on whether it made a fair value gain on Delivery Hero, but one
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Former Safaricom executive Michael Mutiga named Stanbic Bank Kenya CEO
Stanbic Bank Kenya has appointed former Safaricom executive Michael Mutiga as its chief executive, bringing in a telecom and banking veteran to lead the lender as Kenya’s financial sector increasingly converges with digital financial services. Mutiga will assume the role on August 1, subject to regulatory approval, the bank said in a statement on Thursday. He succeeds Abraham Ongenge, who has served as acting chief executive since March and will return to his substantive role as Head of Private & Personal Banking. The appointment underscores how banks are increasingly looking beyond traditional financial institutions for leadership as competition with fintechs and mobile money operators intensifies. Mutiga joins Stanbic after serving as Chief Business Development and Strategy Officer at Safaricom, Kenya’s largest telecommunications company and operator of the M-PESA mobile money platform. “The Board is confident that Mr. Mutiga’s proven track record in the banking sector, strategy execution and transformation will position Stanbic Bank for its next phase of growth,” the bank said in the statement. Before joining Safaricom, Mutiga built a career with more than two decades of leadership experience spanning banking, telecommunications, and digital financial services. He holds a Master of Laws degree from Temple University and a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Nairobi. According to Stanbic, he has received multiple industry accolades, including five Corporate Banker of the Year awards. The appointment comes as the lines between banking and telecommunications continue to blur in Kenya. Safaricom has steadily expanded M-PESA into lending, savings, and retail investing, while banks have accelerated investments in digital banking to defend market share against fintechs and mobile money providers. Absa Bank Kenya will spend up to KES 3 billion ($23.2 million) annually on technology to deepen its digital strategy. Stanbic Bank Kenya is part of South Africa’s Standard Bank Group, one of the continent’s largest banking groups, making the appointment one of the most closely watched leadership changes in Kenya’s banking sector this year. In June, Abdi Mohamed stepped down as chief executive of Absa Bank Kenya, ending a three-year tenure atop one of Kenya’s largest lenders. He joined rival I&M Group as the next CEO of its Kenyan banking business. 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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Amazon found the formula for entering South Africa that Starlink refused
Amazon Leo, a global satellite broadband service, is entering South Africa with a strategy that goes beyond connectivity. Instead of seeking its own licence, it partnered with a local operator, testing a different formula for expanding into Africa’s regulated telecoms markets. Amazon Leo, formerly known as Project Kuiper, will launch in South Africa in 2027 through a partnership with Herotel, one of the country’s largest fixed internet service providers. Instead of applying for its own electronic communications licence, Amazon will provide the satellite network while Herotel manages installations, customer support and sales through a new service called evry. The approach contrasts with Starlink, a rival satellite broadband service, which has been unable to launch commercially in South Africa after refusing to comply with the country’s 30% local ownership requirement. Amazon’s entry suggests global technology companies do not always need regulators to change policy before expanding into African markets. By working with licenced local operators instead, they can enter faster while relying on partners that already understand the regulatory environment and customer needs. “Amazon has really shown the way that foreign operators, ideally, should operate in South Africa,” Arthur Goldstuck, founder and CEO of World Wide Worx, a technology research firm, and a veteran telecommunications analyst, told TechCabal on Thursday. “Rather than literally dropping into the country, they are entering through the existing ecosystem.” Goldstuck said Amazon’s strategy benefits both the company and the local market. “The significance is not only the business arrangement itself, but also the smooth entry of the operator into the country,” he said. “Instead of being a disruptive entity that could create chaos in both the customer experience and the business environment, Amazon is strengthening what already exists.” The strategy also reflects how Amazon has built other businesses. Like Amazon Web Services (AWS), which provides infrastructure to companies rather than competing with them directly, Amazon Leo is designed to sit behind local operators instead of replacing them. “What we are really seeing is not a battle between Amazon Leo and Starlink,” Goldstuck said. “Amazon is avoiding the battle altogether by strengthening the offerings of operators already on the ground.” Customers are unlikely to buy Amazon Leo directly. “They will buy services from Herotel, telecommunications companies like Vodacom, or other local providers,” Goldstuck said. “Through those relationships, customers will receive more versatile and resilient connectivity powered by Amazon Leo.” For Herotel, the partnership will extend its broadband to areas where fibre remains too expensive to deploy. “Our goal is to connect homes and small businesses across South Africa,” Herotel CEO Van Zyl Botha said at Wednesday’s launch. “In the South African environment, it’s always difficult to reach people, especially where there is no backhaul fibre or power. With the Amazon Leo product, we can have a national reach beyond the existing telecoms infrastructure, and we can truly try and connect every South African and business.” Goldstuck stated that Herotel serves more than 350,000 customers across over 550 towns, cities, and suburbs. “Its existing installation teams and support network allow Amazon to enter the market without building its own retail operation,” he said. Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Solly Malatsi welcomed the partnership at Wednesday’s launch, saying collaborations between global technology companies and South African operators can help expand broadband access while supporting the country’s digital economy ambitions. The deal also raises fresh questions for Starlink. According to Goldstuck, the company has already worked with local internet providers in other countries, suggesting a similar approach could unlock the South African market. “We have already seen Starlink partner with local entities in other countries, where it provides the satellite service while local internet service providers sell it to customers,” he said. “So there is little reason why that cannot happen in South Africa.” If Amazon Leo succeeds, its biggest advantage won’t be its satellites. Instead, Amazon will decide to work with local partners rather than challenge the rules. True scale demands moving beyond surface-level integrations to robust execution. We’ve filtered the noise out of Moonshot 2026, optimising the conference strictly for high-calibre connections between startup founders, global financial operators, enterprise leaders and individuals rewiring Africa’s technical frameworks. Get 20% off Early Bird tickets for a limited time.
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How teaching AI your career could become the smartest job search strategy
Every new technology promises to save people time. Artificial intelligence is beginning to promise something more ambitious: memory. Instead of asking chatbots to answer questions or draft emails from scratch, a growing number of professionals are spending hours – sometimes days – teaching AI who they are. They are feeding it years of curriculum vitae, portfolios, writing samples, work histories, career decisions, and personal preferences until the software can represent them almost as consistently as they can. The goal is not to write better prompts, but to build an AI that understands the person behind the prompt. For Olanrewaju Habeeb, a Lagos-based communications professional, that shift began with frustration. Finding remote work had become almost a full-time job. After finishing his day job in public relations, he spent his evenings searching job boards across the United States, Canada, and Europe, researching companies, tracking down hiring managers’ email addresses, and rewriting his CV and cover letter for every application. Most applications disappeared without a response. “You cannot have just one source of income because of how the economy is,” he says. “Not every company will pay you well. You have to find another way to make money.” Like millions of professionals, Habeeb initially turned to ChatGPT to speed up the process. Then he experimented with Claude. The chatbots helped him write faster, understand unfamiliar tasks, and tailor his applications to different employers. Copy-paste But over time, he noticed something else. As AI-generated applications became commonplace, they also began sounding remarkably alike. “If ten people use the same prompt and apply for the same job,” he says, “the HR person is reading almost the same thing over and over.” The problem, he realised, was no longer access to AI. It was differentiation. Rather than searching for a better prompt, Habeeb decided to build something more personal. Over several days, he uploaded his work history, CV, portfolio, writing style, career milestones, and professional biographies into a Claude Project, a persistent workspace within Anthropic’s Claude AI that lets users store documents and long-term instructions. He taught the system to distinguish between two different versions of himself: the communications professional he presents to organisations in Nigeria and the SEO writer he introduces to overseas clients. He even trained it to recognise which tone, experience, and CV belonged to each audience. “I told it to differentiate the two personalities,” he says. “If I ask for the offline person, it gives me that. If I ask for the online one, it gives me that.” The result is a personalised career assistant. When Habeeb finds a vacancy, he pastes the job description into a simple web interface he built with Claude’s help. The application sends the request to Claude through its API, rewrites his CV for the role, drafts a tailored cover letter and application email, then estimates how closely his experience matches the position before he decides whether to apply. His experiment reveals an evolution in how people are using AI. The first wave of generative AI centred on discrete tasks that people once turned to search engines for. Users asked chatbots to write emails, summarise meetings, explain unfamiliar concepts, or generate ideas on demand. The next wave is becoming far more personal. Rather than treating AI as a tool they consult occasionally, workers are turning it into a permanent fixture in their professional life—one that remembers years of experience, understands individual working styles, and carries out repetitive tasks with increasing context and consistency. In that future, the competitive advantage may no longer come from knowing how to prompt AI but from teaching AI who you are. Started with ChatGPT like everyone Habeeb’s introduction to generative AI was much like everyone else’s. During a three-month internship with a United Kingdom company, unfamiliar assignments regularly landed on his desk. Rather than admit he did not know where to begin, he turned to ChatGPT. “There was a time during my internship when they would give me a task and expect me to finish it in record time,” he says. “I couldn’t say I didn’t know how to do it. I would just go and disturb the hell out of ChatGPT until I got what I wanted.” ChatGPT became as much a tutor as an assistant. “It was like AI was holding my hand.” By early 2026, he had switched much of his workflow to Claude, whose writing style he preferred. At first, he used it like millions of other people: to edit copy, answer questions, and draft job applications. Then he noticed something unsettling. Advice on writing the “perfect AI prompts” had become a cottage industry across Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. The same templates circulated endlessly: paste in a job description. Ask the chatbot to rewrite your CV. Generate a tailored cover letter. Repeat. The results were efficient and increasingly indistinguishable. Generative AI has dramatically lowered the cost of producing good writing. But when everyone relies on similar models, trained on similar data and guided by similar prompts, quality alone becomes a weaker differentiator. The scarce resource shifts from writing ability to originality. Habeeb concluded that the problem wasn’t Claude. It was that he was using it the same way everyone else was. So instead of searching for a better prompt, he decided to build a better memory. Habeeb’s Eureka moment The experiment required an unusual amount of patience. Over three days in May this year, he began constructing what he called My Personal Log, a Claude Project that would serve as a permanent record of his professional life. Into it went years of work experience, portfolios, biographies, writing samples, CVs, and examples of how he naturally introduced himself in different situations. Software template. Image source: Habeeb Olanrewaju One instruction appeared again and again. “Imagine you were me.” The distinction mattered because Habeeb was not trying to teach Claude a profession. He was teaching AI about a person. The distinction illustrates how AI is evolving from a conversational interface into something closer to professional infrastructure. Early chatbots behaved
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👨🏿🚀TechCabal Daily – Amazon finds space in SA
In partnership with Lire en Français اقرأ هذا باللغة العربية Happy pre-TGIF. I heaved a deep sigh this morning when I realised it wasn’t Friday yet (can capitalism let go of me?). Since we’re all in this together anyway, you should fill out our salary survey if you work in tech. It will help us build an independent report on compensation and career growth across Africa’s tech ecosystem. —Yemi Get smarter about Francophone Africa with our newsletter, Francophone Weekly—the startups, tech policies, and institutions building the pipelines for ecosystem growth. Subscribe Amazon Leo partners SA’s Herotel, to launch in 2027 Standard Bank backs Helios Towers with $29 million Absa wants more of its Kenyan bank Uganda is stepping up its anti-piracy fight World Wide Web 3 Opportunities connectivity South Africa is getting satellite Internet, just not from Starlink Image Source: Tenor There are two ways to enter a market: change the rules or change the strategy. Starlink, the Elon Musk-owned satellite Internet company, has spent years trying the first option—and failing—in South Africa. Amazon appears to have chosen the second. What happened? Amazon Leo, the e-commerce giant’s satellite Internet service, is coming to South Africa in 2027. Instead of applying for its own telecoms licence, Amazon partnered with Herotel, a South African fibre network operator that is being acquired by Vumatel. Explain like I’m new here: You may be wondering, “Wait… wasn’t this supposed to be Starlink?” You’re not wrong. Starlink has wanted to launch in South Africa since at least 2024, but the country’s telecoms licencing rules have stood in the way. Operators that hold an Electronic Communications Network Service (ECNS) licence must have at least 30% ownership by historically disadvantaged groups (HDGs). SpaceX, Starlink’s parent company, has argued against that requirement and has so far refused to restructure its ownership to meet it. Amazon looked at the same rulebook and chose a different path. So, how did Amazon do it? Instead of becoming a licenced telecom operator itself, Amazon partnered with one that already is. Herotel already holds the licences needed to provide Internet services. Amazon supplies the satellites, while Herotel handles regulation, customer support, installation, and local operations. Together, they’ll launch a satellite broadband service called Evry. What do you get? Pricing is still under wraps, but Evry says residential users can expect download speeds of up to 400 megabits per second (Mbps), while business customers using larger terminals could reach 1Gbps. What does this mean going forward? Amazon may have handed other satellite operators a blueprint for entering South Africa. Rather than spending years trying to change the country’s licencing rules, partnering with an existing telecom operator offers another route to market. But there are only so many operators with the right licences, and many already have ambitions of their own. Not every global satellite company will want to share customers, infrastructure, or branding with a local partner forever. Modern Rails for Africa’s Economy: How Fincra is helping businesses collect, pay out, convert, and settle across African markets. Read more here. banking Standard Bank is helping Helios Towers build more telecom towers Image Source: Tenor Every time you make a call or doomscroll on TikTok, there’s a chance that your network is traveling through a telecom tower that your network operator doesn’t own. That’s where Helios Towers comes in, and now it has secured a financing facility to help bring more towers online. What’s happening? Standard Bank, Africa’s largest bank by assets, has provided Helios Towers, an African telecoms tower operator, with a $29 million documentary credit facility to help import equipment for expanding mobile infrastructure across the continent. Helios builds and owns telecom towers and then rents space on them to operators like MTN, Vodacom, Airtel, and Orange. Several companies can share a structure to reduce costs and expand coverage rather than build individual towers. Explain like I’m new here: A document credit facility is not a loan in the traditional sense. The facility only comes into play when Helios orders equipment or services needed to build telecoms infrastructure. Standard Bank guarantees payment to suppliers, giving them confidence to ship the goods. Helios then repays the bank under the agreed trade terms once the equipment has been delivered. What’s notable is that Standard Bank has structured this facility as a social finance product because the equipment will be used to expand connectivity in underserved communities. Why not just get a loan? Helios could—and it already has. At the end of 2025, the company carried about $1.9 billion in debtraised through bonds, bank loans, and other financing to build towers across Africa. But financing long-term expansion is different from paying suppliers for equipment arriving next month. This facility gives suppliers confidence they’ll be paid while allowing Helios to preserve its cash until payment falls due. How does this affect you? Trade finance usually happens behind the scenes, but when tower companies can buy equipment more easily, mobile operators can expand coverage faster. Over time, that means better network coverage and capacity for people using those networks. Download PalmPay. Bank smarter. Join millions who trust PalmPay with their money every day. Download the app. Banking Absa wants a bigger slice of its Kenyan bank Image Source: Tenor When your business starts making more money, one question naturally follows: should you own more of it? That’s the question Absa Group is answering in Kenya. What’s happening? Absa Group, South Africa’s third-largest lender by assets, is in the middle of a KES30.9 billion ($240 million) tender offer to increase its stake in Absa Bank Kenya from 68.5% to 85% by buying shares from minority investors. It now says that once the offer closes, it could continue buying shares on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE), potentially taking its ownership even higher. Explain like I’m new here: Absa already controls the bank, owning 68.5% of it. But listed subsidiaries still have thousands of minority shareholders who own the remaining shares. By increasing its stake, Absa gets a bigger share of
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Why Nigeria’s ntel is pivoting from telecom operator to infrastructure company
ntel, formerly Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL), is making an unusual bet in Nigeria’s telecom market: its future lies less in selling phone calls than in leasing the infrastructure behind them. The former mobile operator and subsidiary of NatCom Development & Investment Limited said on Monday, during its relaunch, that it is transitioning into a digital infrastructure company, focusing on towers, fibre networks, power systems and real estate as operators increasingly look beyond subscriber growth for long-term profits. The move marks another chapter in the company’s long journey. NATCOM Consortium acquired NITEL and its mobile arm, Mtel, for $252 million in 2015, inheriting valuable assets including fibre infrastructure, spectrum licences and real estate. Launched as a 4G LTE operator in 2016, ntel struggled to compete with larger rivals and eventually fell into financial distress. Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), one of its largest creditors, later assumed control and is now backing the company’s latest turnaround. Under the new strategy, ntel has reorganised into three businesses: Beam, Titan, and Eden. Rather than relying primarily on consumer telecom services, the company wants to generate long-term revenue by commercialising its infrastructure assets, joining a growing global trend of telecom operators making more money from the networks they own than from the phone calls they carry. Beam will house the telecommunications business, including the rollout of WakaGo, a fixed wireless access service that uses eSIM technology and Tarana Wireless’ AirFibre platform to deliver broadband. The technology is supplied by US-based telecommunications company Tarana Wireless. “We’re simply using their technology, just as MTN buys network equipment from Huawei,” Soji Maurice-Diya, CEO of ntel, told TechCabal in a telephone interview. He said WakaGo is designed to serve frequent Nigerian travellers, allowing them to stay connected across 190 countries using eSIM-enabled devices and international roaming capabilities. Eden will manage ntel’s real estate business, including commercial office properties in Victoria Island, Lagos, one of Nigeria’s main business districts; residential developments in Wuse 2, Abuja, a high-end neighbourhood in the nation’s capital; and Nova Place, a mixed-use commercial and residential development in Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State and a major hub for Nigeria’s oil and gas industry. Titan, meanwhile, will commercialise ntel’s communications infrastructure, which includes more than 600 telecom towers and over 3,500 kilometres of fibre network, alongside its power assets. “Our towers connect people. Our digital services connect people. Through Eden, we will continue developing infrastructure and real estate that also supports connectivity,” Yvonne Alozie, Head of Business Operations at ntel, said at the event. The strategy reflects a broader shift across the global telecommunications industry. As traditional mobile revenues come under pressure from over-the-top (OTT) platforms such as WhatsApp, Zoom and FaceTime, operators are increasingly looking to monetise infrastructure rather than rely solely on consumer subscriptions. Across Africa, telecom operators have increasingly separated infrastructure ownership from retail mobile services. In October 2022, MTN Group launched Bayobab (formerly MTN GlobalConnect) as a standalone wholesale infrastructure business to commercialise its more than 100,000 kilometres of fibre network across Africa. Earlier, in June 2022, MTN South Africa sold and leased back 5,709 towers to IHS Towers in a deal worth about $412 million, freeing up capital while retaining access to the sites. In February 2026, the telco announced plans to acquire IHS Towers. The deal is now nearing completion, with IHS expected to operate as a separate entity after the acquisition. Airtel Africa has pursued a similar strategy over the past decade, selling thousands of towers across markets including Uganda, Rwanda, Malawi, Madagascar, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana and Tanzania to independent tower companies such as Helios Towers and American Tower Corporation (ATC). These transactions have allowed operators to unlock capital, reduce maintenance costs, and focus on delivering mobile services while specialist infrastructure companies manage the physical assets. For ntel, infrastructure sharing is not only a business opportunity but could also benefit consumers. As more operators share towers, fibre and power infrastructure, the cost of building and maintaining networks falls. Over time, those lower operating costs could translate into more affordable voice and data services for subscribers while improving network quality and coverage. “This is much more than a relaunch,” Alozie said. “It is a bold new beginning built around strategic partnerships, renewed ambition and the determination to move beyond traditional telecommunications into a broader future of connectivity.” 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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Can the AT50 Index convince Africa’s biggest startups to list at home?
For years, listing on Nasdaq or the London Stock Exchange (LSE) has been the ultimate ambition for many of Africa’s most successful startups. But at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) on Wednesday, a different vision took centre stage: Africa’s future tech champions should be built and eventually listed on African exchanges. Africa has produced a growing number of billion-dollar startups, but its capital markets have yet to keep pace. That gap dominated discussions at the JSE on Wednesday during the African activation of the AT50 Index, a new benchmark designed to make Africa’s largest private technology companies more visible to institutional investors before they pursue listings or other liquidity events. The rules-based benchmark, launched at the London Stock Exchange in January, is a market intelligence platform that measures the continent’s leading scaled private technology companies. After Johannesburg, the AT50’s next African activation will take place at the Egyptian Exchange in Cairo on September 23 as organisers continue engaging exchanges and investors across the continent. The underlying message from Wednesday’s event was that if Africa wants globally competitive technology champions, it must also build universally accepted capital markets. For Gbite Oduneye, Chair of the AT50 Index, that begins by changing where founders look when they start thinking about life after venture capital. “Many founders dream of ringing the bell at Nasdaq or the LSE without fully considering African exchanges,” Oduneye said during a fireside discussion. “The wealthiest people in almost every African country built listed businesses on their domestic exchanges. I’m not saying every technology company should list immediately, but we need more conversations.” Oduneye noted that African technology companies have matured dramatically over the past 15 years, but capital markets have struggled to keep pace. “We have built phenomenal companies across the continent,” he said. “What has been missing is a consistent way to measure them and benchmark them.” He said the AT50 was created to bridge that gap by helping institutional investors better understand fast-growing private technology companies before they become public issuers. For the JSE, attracting those companies is part of a broader strategy to strengthen Africa’s capital markets. Sam Mokorosi, the JSE’s Head of Origination and Deals, said technology companies eventually reach a point where raising another venture capital round is no longer enough. “As companies reach this level of scale, the conversation naturally begins to evolve,” he stated. “The focus shifts from simply building businesses to sustaining long-term growth, and increasingly from raising capital to accessing the right kind of capital.” He said the exchange has introduced reforms to simplify the listing process while preserving strong governance standards and expanding alternative funding routes through secondary listings, private placements and other capital-raising mechanisms. “Growth does not follow a single path, and neither does capital formation,” Mokorosi said. “We believe that efficient access to capital and strong corporate governance should go hand in hand.” South Africa’s government signalled that it sees deep capital markets as part of its broader digital economy ambitions. Khusela Sangoni, Chairperson of Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Communications and Digital Technologies, said governance remains central to building investor confidence. “Strong governance is far more than a compliance exercise,” she said. “It is a competitive advantage.” That emphasis on governance was echoed by fintech leaders participating in the discussions. Carsten Höltkemeyer, CEO of South African fintech Yoco, said scaling a fintech business is no longer just about acquiring customers. “It also requires the operational maturity expected by larger, long-term investors,” he said. Meanwhile, Fidelis Chiwara, Head of Global Expansion at payments giant Flutterwave, said companies must constantly balance launching new customer-facing products with investing in compliance, internal controls and operational resilience. “The challenge is deciding whether to invest in defence before you invest in offence,” he said. “Sometimes you simply have to let go of an opportunity because you first need to strengthen your underlying product, your systems, and your processes.” Whether African founders ultimately choose Johannesburg over New York or London remains an open question. Local Exchanges continue to face challenges around liquidity, analyst coverage, valuations, and investor appetite for high-growth technology businesses. Yet organisers of the AT50 believe those conversations need to begin now, before Africa’s next generation of technology companies reaches the public markets. 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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