CBN restricts BVN phone number changes to once in a lifetime to curb fraud
The Central Bank of Nigeria has restricted how often Nigerians can update the phone number linked to their Bank Verification Number (BVN), capping it at once in a lifetime. In a circular issued to banks and other financial institutions on Thursday, the apex bank said the new rules will take effect from May 1, 2026. The restriction is part of new safeguards designed to reduce fraud risks tied to Nigeria’s rapidly growing digital payments ecosystem, where mobile numbers are central to authentication and account recovery. Phone numbers linked to BVNs play a critical role in Nigeria’s banking infrastructure. They are used for one-time passwords (OTPs), transaction alerts, and account recovery processes, making them a key point of vulnerability for fraudsters attempting to hijack bank accounts. Introduced in 2014, Nigeria’s BVN system is the foundational identity layer for the country’s financial services sector. As of March 2026, BVN enrolment count stood at 68.59 million. By limiting how often these numbers can be changed, the CBN aims to reduce the risk of identity manipulation and SIM-related fraud that can enable unauthorised access to financial accounts. While there is no isolated estimate of the financial cost of SIM fraud in Nigeria, the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System says SIM-related compromises often play a role in social engineering schemes, the country’s leading cause of fraud, which accounted for 62,901 cases in 2023. Alongside the restriction, the CBN has also directed financial institutions to establish a temporary watchlist for BVNs linked to suspicious activity. Under the new framework, a flagged BVN can remain on the watchlist for up to 24 hours while the bank contacts the customer to verify the transaction. During this period, the watchlist acts as a pause mechanism, giving financial institutions time to investigate potentially fraudulent activity before funds are moved across the banking system. The measure reflects a growing regulatory clampdown on fraud in Nigeria’s payment ecosystem. The circular reiterates that BVN enrolment remains restricted to individuals aged 18 and above, and that access to BVN database information is limited strictly to financial institutions licensed by the CBN. The latest directive forms part of a broader set of measures, including stronger Know Your Customer (KYC) measures, introduced by the regulator in recent months to tighten fraud controls across Nigeria’s banking and fintech ecosystem.
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11 billion transactions and 26% exclusion: The infrastructure gap the CBN wants to close
With 11 billion payments processed and a clear-eyed view of who still sits outside the system, the CBN is laying the groundwork for inclusion at scale and opening up one of Africa’s most significant untapped markets in the process. Nigeria’s payments infrastructure is among the most advanced in the world. But the digital rails powering that system tell only part of the story. According to the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Fintech Policy Insight Report, released in February 2026, nearly 11 billion transactions were processed through the NIBSS Instant Payment (NIP) platform in 2024, more than double the roughly 5 billion transactions recorded in 2022. The scale places Nigeria among the most active real-time payments markets globally and underscores the strength of its financial infrastructure. Yet even as digital payments expand rapidly, financial access remains uneven. The report notes that 26% of Nigerian adults remain financially excluded, with exclusion rising to 37% in rural areas and nearly 47% in northern Nigeria. For policymakers, that contrast reveals the next challenge for Nigeria’s fintech ecosystem: building the infrastructure around payments that allows innovation to reach the people who need it most. Nigeria’s payments rails are already world-class Nigeria was an early mover in real-time payments. In 2011, the country rolled out a nationwide instant payments system years before similar infrastructure appeared in markets like the United States. Today, the NIP platform processes a growing share of Nigeria’s electronic transactions and has become the backbone of everyday financial activity. This infrastructure has helped power the growth of Nigeria’s fintech sector, as fintech startups attracted over $215 million in venture funding in 2025, and the country continues to host one of Africa’s largest fintech ecosystems. But while payments have scaled, structural bottlenecks still limit the reach of digital financial services. The report highlights four major constraints: The cost and accessibility of digital identity verification Gaps in system interoperability Infrastructure stress during peak transaction periods Regulatory constraints affecting inclusive lending Each affects how effectively fintech companies can serve underserved communities. The infrastructure problem behind financial exclusion Digital identity remains one of the biggest barriers to financial inclusion. Fintech firms rely on identity systems such as the Bank Verification Number (BVN) and the National Identification Number (NIN) to verify customers and meet anti-money laundering requirements. While these systems exist, the report notes that integration costs and system reliability can still pose challenges for fintechs trying to scale services. Stakeholders participating in the CBN’s fintech survey cited digital identity integration and limited credit history data as key obstacles when trying to reach excluded populations. Interoperability presents another challenge. While Nigeria’s payments infrastructure is robust, fintechs still face fragmented connections across APIs, data-sharing systems, and credit infrastructure. Without reliable interoperability, services such as credit scoring, account aggregation, and cross-platform payments become harder to deploy at scale. The result is a system where payments work well, but the broader financial ecosystem still faces friction. Survey responses highlight where improvements in public digital infrastructure could have the greatest impact. Open banking APIs and national digital ID authentication were each identified by 37.5% of fintech operators as the most important infrastructure enablers. Unlocking the next phase of fintech growth Another policy debate centres on lending. Payment Service Banks (PSBs), many backed by telecommunications companies, are currently restricted from offering credit. Some ecosystem participants believe easing these restrictions or introducing a dedicated digital banking licence could help fintech firms extend credit to underserved individuals and small businesses. This reflects a broader shift in Nigeria’s fintech ecosystem. As payments infrastructure matures, the next frontier for innovation is moving beyond transactions toward savings, credit, and financial tools that support economic growth. This article was written by the TechCabal Insights team.
Read MoreKenya’s CarePay names Moses Kuria acting CEO in leadership shake-up
CarePay Group, a Kenya-based healthtech connecting insurers, healthcare providers, and members via mobile technology, has appointed Moses G. Kuria as acting CEO of Care International and M-TIBA. Irene Nafula has been named acting managing director of M-TIBA Kenya. The leadership changes follow the departure of Pieter Prickaerts, who stepped down after nearly seven years in the company, serving as Group CEO for two years. The company said Prickaerts played a key role in shaping its growth and expanding its presence across the region. “The Board thanks Pieter for his remarkable leadership and contribution to building the organisation and the foundation for its next phase of growth,” CarePay said in a statement on Wednesday. Kuria, a 10-year CarePay veteran and former Group CFO, previously served as managing director of M-TIBA and holds an MBA from the University of Nairobi. He will oversee the group’s strategy and the regional expansion of its health insurance technology platform, according to the company. Nafula, previously Commercial Director at M-TIBA, brings more than 15 years of experience in healthcare operations, product development, and delivery. She holds an MSc in Organisational Development from the United States International University and will manage Kenya operations, including strategic partnerships, operational performance, and client delivery, CarePay said. CarePay, which started in Kenya in 2015 as M-TIBA, connects individual members to payers and providers in the healthcare ecosystem. It also operates in Nigeria and Tanzania. Last year, TechCabal reported that M-TIBA was hit by a cyberattack that went undetected for 10 days, exposing the personal and medical information of nearly five million Kenyans.
Read MoreAfrican startup funding hits $575M in early 2026 as logistics and energy gain ground
Fintech dominated Africa’s startup funding landscape in 2025. But early data from 2026 suggests investors may be widening their focus. African startups raised $575 million across 58 deals between January and February 2026, according to TechCabal Insights, with logistics, transport, and energy startups capturing a growing share of the capital as investors increasingly back companies building mobility and infrastructure systems. In January, fintech maintained its lead, raising $131.6 million, with major rounds from Egypt’s ValU and NowPay helping drive funding activity during the month. The logistics and transport sector followed with $27.1 million. The turning point, however, came in February 2026. The logistics and transport sector emerged as the top-funded sector for the month, raising $119.6 million. The surge was driven by notable rounds from Spiro, an e-mobility startup that raised $57 million, and GoCab, which secured $45 million. Fintech dropped to the fourth most-funded sector, raising $54.1 million, as energy and water startups overtook it with $94 million in funding, largely driven by SolarAfrica’s $94 million raise. The shift in momentum, highlighting growing investor interest in these sectors, appears to be intensifying in 2026 compared with the same period in 2025, where early signs of this trend were already visible. In January 2025, fintech led funding activity while energy and water came a close second, raising nearly half of fintech’s total for the month. By February 2025, fintech still held the lead, but logistics and transport emerged as a stronger contender, raising more than half of fintech’s funding that month. So far in 2026, Africa’s funding landscape has seen the presence of deep-tech startups in the investment mix. Nigerian defence-tech startup Terra Industries raised over $33 million across two deals so far this year alone to scale its advanced manufacturing operations. The continued fundraising suggests a growing willingness among investors to back startups building technology-driven industrial infrastructure. Meanwhile, the agritech sector, which struggled to hold investor interest in 2025, is beginning to show tentative signs of recovery. Funding in agritech startups across Africa declined to $168.1 million in 2025 from $206.9 million in 2024. The slow pace continued into January 2026, when agritech startups collectively raised $200,000. February brought renewed activity. Egypt’s Breadfast raised $50 million, while Lovegrass Ethiopia secured $5 million, pushing total agritech funding for the month to about $55 million. While still modest compared with sectors such as logistics, fintech, or energy, the rebound suggests investors may be reassessing opportunities in agriculture. The first two months of 2026 paint a picture of a more diversified funding environment where fintechs continue to attract capital, but other sectors tied to mobility, energy, infrastructure, and food are gaining ground. If this momentum continues through the rest of the year, Africa’s venture capital ecosystem could see a gradual rebalancing across sectors. While the fintech sector is unlikely to lose its importance, funding may begin to favour startups operating in other sectors, particularly at this time when investors are concentrating capital across fewer deals. Get The Best African Tech Newsletters In Your Inbox Select your country Nigeria Ghana Kenya South Africa Egypt Morocco Tunisia Algeria Libya Sudan Ethiopia Somalia Djibouti Eritrea Uganda Tanzania Rwanda Burundi Democratic Republic of the Congo Republic of the Congo Central African Republic Chad Cameroon Gabon Equatorial Guinea São Tomé and Príncipe Angola Zambia Zimbabwe Botswana Namibia Lesotho Eswatini Mozambique Madagascar Mauritius Seychelles Comoros Cape Verde Guinea-Bissau Senegal The Gambia Guinea Sierra Leone Liberia Côte d’Ivoire Burkina Faso Mali Niger Benin Togo Other Select your gender Male Female Others TC Daily TC Events Next wave Entering Tech Subscribe
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IFF 2026: Why Africa’s financial future may not belong to banks
It’s been two days of back-to-back panels at the Inclusive Finance Forum (IFF) in Kigali, but Wednesday’s main event, a panel session that featured James Mwangi, the managing director and CEO of Equity Group Holdings, Mary Ellen Iskenderian, the CEO of Women’s World Banking, and Serge Dioum, the CEO of MTN FinTech Group, tried to deliver an answer to one of the most pressing questions in African fintech: Who will own Africa’s financial future and build the rails? While the three executives laid out competing visions for Africa’s next financial era, they all agreed on one thing: that financial inclusion alone is no longer enough. They also agreed that the next phase for African finance is about wealth creation, independence, and infrastructure. The infrastructure argument Mwangi opened with a sweeping thesis. The future of financial services, he argued, will not be defined by apps or products, but by the digital public infrastructure on which everything else sits. Digital IDs will replace physical passports. Remote account opening is already replacing branch visits. Finance is embedded so deeply in daily life that it functions less like a service and more like a utility. “I see digital public infrastructure as a new business airport and port that we will have in the future as the hub of economic development. The modern economy will be built on digital public infrastructure,” said Mwangi. He argued that for this infrastructure to function, two things must follow: interoperability standards that allow systems to trust each other across borders and a citizen-owned digital wallet not tethered to a bank or a telco, but one that belongs to the individual, allowing them to connect to whatever services they choose. The implication of his statement was clear: whoever controls the wallet controls the relationship, and Mwangi was suggesting that neither the banks nor the telcos should. Iskenderian, who leads the world’s largest nonprofit focused on women’s financial inclusion, brought the conversation back to a stubborn reality. Africa has the highest percentage of women entrepreneurs globally, with over 58% of the continent’s self-employed population being women. Despite this, access to credit for these women has barely budged, even as technology has advanced dramatically. The problem, she said, is structural. Banks are still making lending decisions based on 19th-century ideas about collateral, which women have historically never owned. The data that could transform credit decisions—transaction histories flowing through mobile money platforms, repayment patterns, and business activity—is sitting right there, largely unused, she said. “Why isn’t what you know about the way women pay back, the way rural people pay back, and how their businesses are structured being incorporated into credit decisions?” said Iskenderian. She also flagged a regulatory bottleneck that she said was quietly undermining progress. Credit guarantees have expanded across Africa, enabling banks to lend more freely to small businesses, but in many countries, banks still don’t get capital charge relief for loans backed by those guarantees—a technical gap that effectively cancels out the policy’s intent. Image Source: IFF 2026. The small business finance gap in emerging markets and developing economies stands at $5.7 trillion, rising to $8 trillion when informal enterprises are included. This gap grew by over 27% between 2015 and 2019, more than double the rate of GDP growth over the same period. Dioum, who oversees MTN’s fintech operations across 14 African markets, pitched a different model altogether. Where Mwangi spoke about public infrastructure and Iskenderian about policy reform, Thiemele spoke about the language of platforms. MTN FinTech, he said, has connected 70,000 partners to its platform through an Open API system. Anyone with an idea can build on top of MTN’s infrastructure, access its customer base, and launch services without requiring any direct intervention from the company. The result: a partner who connects to MTN’s platform gets access to 70 million customers from day one. “Financial inclusion is not enough,” said Dioum. “We need to create wealth for our people so that they can be independent financially and they can have a good life.” Dioum’s vision follows a familiar arc — loans first, then savings, then insurance — with the telco as the enabling layer throughout. The playbook is not new; it is the logic that built mobile money across Africa. The ambition, though, is a full-stack financial ecosystem. He also addressed cross-border interoperability directly: a customer using mobile money in Zambia should be able to pay for goods in Rwanda in real time while in transit. That kind of seamlessness, he argued, is what the next generation of infrastructure must deliver. Will banks survive? Mobile money and fintech have helped to revolutionise African finance, but one pertinent question has been, will banks be part of the future of finance? Mwangi’s response was notably candid. Financial services will always be needed, he said. But who provides them is a more complicated question. The bulk of mobile money, arguably Africa’s most transformative financial product, was not built by banks. Mwangi said Equity Group has been asking itself the same question. On the IFF stage, he announced that the lender is launching an innovation studio in Rwanda, bringing together a team of about 10 innovators at the intersection of capital, technology, and entrepreneurship. The group, Mwangi said, is backed by Equity’s $16 billion balance sheet and designed to co-create with African innovators and stakeholders. “The future is the intersection of knowledge, creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship, and capital, where they meet opportunity, and that’s what we are seeing Rwanda provide us with,” he said. The panel surfaced a tension that runs through Africa’s financial services landscape right now. Banks, telcos, and development institutions all agree on a financially empowered African population transacting seamlessly across borders, but the route is contested. Mwangi wants citizen-owned infrastructure. Iskenderian wants gender-responsive policy reform. Thiemele wants open platforms anchored by telcos. What they all agreed on, and this may be the most consequential shift, is that the language of inclusion is giving way to the language of wealth creation. The question is no longer whether
Read MoreNigeria’s tech regulator targets 37 innovation hubs for fifth iHatch cohort
The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), the country’s tech regulator, through its subsidiary, the Office for Nigerian Digital Innovation (ONDI), has partnered with the Japan International Cooperation Agency to open applications for the fifth cohort of the iHatch Startup Incubation Programme. The iHatch programme is seeking 37 innovation hubs, one from each of Nigeria’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), to serve as state-level hub managers to implement incubation programmes across the country. “Nigeria’s startup ecosystem has grown rapidly over the past decade, but access to structured support remains uneven outside major tech clusters,” said Victoria Fabunmi, National Coordinator, ONDI. “Rather than focusing only on startup recruitment, iHatch adopts a systems-level approach: build stronger hubs, standardise incubation quality, and improve investment readiness outcomes across all 36 states and the FCT.” The move comes at a time when Africa’s startup ecosystem is experiencing growth, raising $3.42 billion in 2025. In Nigeria, however, much of this innovation is concentrated in large cities like Lagos and Abuja, leaving founders outside those cities without structured incubation or mentorship programmes. This is the gap that the iHatch programme intends to fix. Selected hubs will serve as implementation partners responsible for delivering the incubation programme within their states for at least one year. During that time, each hub will recruit and manage about five startups, guiding them through a structured incubation process that will improve their readiness for growth and funding. While a specific monetary grant has not been disclosed, selected hubs will receive operational support and resources to enable them to effectively support participating startups. High-performing hubs may also receive rewards based on their performance during the programme, according to NITDA. “The programme’s primary focus, however, is building strong ecosystem leaders who are committed to developing their local startup ecosystems, rather than positioning the programme primarily as a financial incentive,” Fabunmi said. Eligible innovation hubs must have been in operation for at least a year and must show active engagement within their local ecosystems. They must also possess infrastructure capable of hosting incubation activities. Applications for iHatch Cohort 5 close on March 16. The iHatch incubation programme’s focus on innovation hubs rather than startups places it in a position to address structural gaps, related to geographic location, in Nigeria’s startup ecosystem. NITDA intends to strengthen support for founders at the local level and expand opportunities for founders to scale. “By equipping hubs with structured tools, curriculum frameworks, and coordinated oversight, iHatch aims to create more consistent founder outcomes across regions,” Fabunmi said.
Read MoreAga Khan’s exit hands East Africa’s largest news publisher to Tanzanian billionaire
The Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED) has agreed to sell its controlling 54.08% stake in Nation Media Group (NMG) to Taarifa Ltd, owned by Tanzanian billionaire Rostam Azizi, ending a 66-year ownership of East Africa’s largest independent news publisher. The stake, held through NPRT Holdings Africa, represents about 92.6 million shares in the Nairobi-listed company, which operates more than 30 media brands across four countries and reaches over 62 million digital users. AKFED owns NPRT Holdings Africa, an investment vehicle used to hold the fund’s media interests across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. The companies did not disclose the value of the transaction. The deal shifts control of one of East Africa’s most influential media groups at a time when publishers across the continent are racing to turn large online audiences into sustainable digital businesses. “We are confident NMG will continue to uphold the values of independent journalism and service to the public that have defined it for over six decades,” AKFED director Sultan Allana said in the statement announcing the sale on Tuesday. Nation Media Group built its reputation on flagship newspapers such as the Daily Nation, but like many global publishers, it has spent the past decade expanding digital platforms as print revenues weaken and readers move online. Its websites, mobile apps, and streaming services now reach tens of millions of users across Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda. The ownership change could influence how aggressively the company invests in those platforms. NMG reported revenue of KES 6.2 billion ($48 million) in 2024, down 12.5% year-on-year, and a pre-tax loss of KES 253.6 million ($2 million), even as digital revenue rose 11%. The transaction marks the end of a relationship that began in 1959 when the Aga Khan founded East African Newspapers, the company that later grew into Nation Media Group. The publisher expanded over decades into television, radio, and regional media operations. Today, the group runs news, broadcast, and digital platforms including NTV, Nation Africa, and multiple regional publications. With more than 62 million digital users, NMG operates one of the largest news audiences in the region. Azizi, the incoming majority owner, has prior experience in the region’s media sector. He co-founded Mwananchi Communications in Tanzania, publisher of Mwananchi, The Citizen, and Mwanaspoti. Nation Media later acquired the company during its regional expansion in the early 2000s. The new owner plans to support the company’s digital growth as part of the transition, according to the statement.
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Decide AI doesn’t want to be ChatGPT. It just wants to fix your spreadsheets
Spreadsheets can be humbling. They look simple on the outside, with their rows and columns. Type in a few numbers, arrange them in ascending or descending order, maybe use a summation equation to calculate a total, and that is ‘proficiency in spreadsheets’ going on my resume. Until the spreadsheet is one that has hundreds of rows and columns that spill across the screen, and then it starts to look like a puzzle. Abiodun Adetona noticed problems with spreadsheets and analysis during his four years as a software engineer at Flutterwave, Africa’s largest payments infrastructure startup. His colleagues from non-technical teams often needed help drawing insights from datasets or spreadsheets, which often required technical intervention. “I used to assist them [his colleagues] with pulling data from various sources every day for almost a year… it was hectic, and there was no easier way to do it than the technical way,” he recalled in an interview with TechCabal. In 2025, Adetona and his three-person team built Decide AI, an artificial intelligence (AI) spreadsheet analyst, to help users analyse data in spreadsheets via prompts. Inside Decide AI Decide AI landing page; Image source: TechCabal When I opened Decide AI for the first time, the interface felt really familiar, almost identical to modern AI assistants, such as ChatGPT or Gemini. The interface allowed me to choose between two AI agents to run my tasks. The Fast agent is designed for quick analysis that prioritises speed, while the Pro agent is intended for heavier tasks that require deeper analysis, such as performing complex calculations across multiple datasets. When I curiously clicked the ‘connections’ drop-down menu, I noticed that Decide AI is also designed to work with data that lives outside local spreadsheet files and allows for a connection to external sources such as Google Sheets, Metabase, Google Analytics, and Google Ads. Since I only have a Google Sheets account, I gave the AI agent permission to access my Google Drive upon request and connected my account. Connecting Google Sheets to Decide AI; Image source: TechCabal Use cases for the other connections could be a user managing marketing campaigns connecting their Google Ads account and asking the agent to analyse campaign performance, or a team using Google Analytics asking the agent to analyse traffic patterns or identify trends in user behaviour. Adetona said the agent can conduct basic tasks like cleaning datasets or performing calculations. It can also handle more analytical tasks, including scenario analysis, where users explore how different variables might affect a business outcome, and market size opportunity analysis, which involves estimating the potential value of a market based on available data. How Decide AI analyses a spreadsheet Upload files from local computer or Google Sheets; Image source: TechCabal To see how Decide AI behaves with a real spreadsheet, I uploaded a dataset from a course registration programme from my Google Sheets. This spreadsheet contained entries from participants across different parishes and deaneries in Lagos, along with other details such as when participants registered and whether they had uploaded proof of payment. Using the Fast agent, I asked the system to clean the dataset, count the number of participants who paid in each month, exclude certain entries, and group the results by benchmark. Once submitted, the agent displayed a reasoning trace that appeared as lines of its activity in a darker, code-like font. That visible execution trace reflects what happens behind the interface when an analysis is requested. Prompt given to Decide AI; Image source: TechCabal According to Adetona, the system runs a preprocessing stage that attempts to interpret the file structure to identify sheets, headers, tables, formulas, and relationships between parts of the dataset, which are then converted into a structured representation that the system can analyse more reliably. “The exact implementation is proprietary, but this step is critical because spreadsheet AI often fails when it misreads the structure of the file,” he said. He explained that once the document structure is mapped, it is passed to the AI agent along with the user’s request, which then plans how to carry out the analysis. The agent relies on frontier language models for reasoning, drawing on providers such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google. Adeotona said Decide AI is designed to be model-agnostic; the system can switch between models while its orchestration layer handles spreadsheet interpretation and computation. The system generates Python code for spreadsheet analysis and calculations, and runs it in a secure sandboxed environment. “We do not rely on prompt reasoning alone for calculations because that is more prone to hallucination,” Adetona added. Decide AI reasoning trace; Image source: TechCabal He further explained that the generated code runs against the dataset, executing tasks like filtering entries, grouping results, calculating totals, and reorganising the spreadsheet. If the initial output does not fully answer the prompt, Adetona said the system can iterate through additional computational steps until it produces a complete result. Once those calculations are complete, the platform runs a verification stage that checks the output against the provided spreadsheet data before returning the final response. For my prompt, the system produced a structured summary of the dataset in the chat window within two minutes. This summary highlighted the number of participants who had paid in January, grouped the results by deanery, and flagged registrations that did not include proof of payment. It also identified which deaneries had the highest number of incomplete payment records. Excel sheet generated by Decide AI showing categorisation of data by deanery; Image source: TechCabal Along with the summary, Decide AI generated an Excel workbook that can be downloaded, but I exported it to my Google Sheets. This workbook contained five different worksheets derived from the original dataset. One sheet summarised January registrations, another compiled a breakdown of the data as I requested, another isolated entries where proof of payment had not been uploaded, and the others listed detailed records of participants whose registrations were missing documentation. I pushed the analysis further by asking Decide AI to produce
Read MoreTwo funds, two continents: Why VC firm Satgana is doubling down on climate tech
Satgana, a venture capital firm that invests $570,000 each in African and European climate tech startups, is raising two new funds—one for each continent. The firm, named after the Sanskrit word for “good company,” has deployed capital into 30 startups across both regions, backing companies where climate efficiency drives the business model. “We are currently structuring two dedicated vehicles, one focused on Europe and one on Africa,” said Anil Maguru, a partner at Satgana. “We are not communicating final fund sizes publicly yet, as the process is still ongoing.” Maguru joined Romain Diaz, Satgana’s founder, as a founding member and partner when the fund was launched in 2020, and his unique perspective with Diaz helped build the firm’s Africa-European strategy. “The European and African positioning is less about geographic diversification and more a design principle: African markets often act as a strong filter that forces companies to build for resilience and real demand, while Europe provides industrial partners, capital depth, and exit routes,” said Maguru. Satgana invests in climate technology solutions across transportation, energy, food and agriculture, industry and construction, carbon abatement, and the circular economy. Crunchbase Some of Satgana’s portfolio companies include Orbio Earth, a Germany-based startup that uses satellite imagery and proprietary algorithms to track and quantify methane emissions from the oil and gas industry; Mazi Mobility, a Nairobi, Kenya-based mobility-as-a-service company electrifying the motorcycle taxi (“boda boda”) industry with electric bikes and battery swapping stations; and Revivo, a Nairobi, Kenya-based B2B marketplace connecting small repair shops with quality electronic spare parts, accessories, and repair tools to build a circular repair economy. For this week’s Ask an Investor, I spoke with Maguru about the fund’s strategy of backing climate-tech startups across Africa and Europe, how Satgana evaluates startups, and why the firm prioritises solutions that work under imperfect market conditions. This interview has been edited for clarity and length. You’ve been investing in startups and helping to build companies for several years now. How have the past five or six years been for you, and what have you learned? Over the last six years, it has been an intense journey. When we started, everything was a first for us: first-time team, first-time fund, first-time investments together, really, first-time everything. But now, looking back over the past five or six years, we’ve built a record we are very proud of. We manage about $10 million in assets under management. We have backed 30 companies across 16 countries. We have more than 150 investors from 25 different countries. About 90% of our portfolio is still alive, which is a very high survival rate, and close to 50% of the portfolio has gone on to raise follow-on rounds. Of course, none of it would have been possible without the amazing founders we’ve met along the way. At the same time, we’ve also experienced our first failures; some companies have started to go down. But overall, things have gone very well. The team has also grown. We now have dedicated teams looking at both regions: Europe and Africa. The impact is growing, and we still see more opportunity ahead. You talk about opportunity. What is Satgana’s next chapter? From our first fund, we were fortunate to invest in 30 amazing companies and back exceptional founders, including female founders, across Europe and Africa. We saw firsthand how much both regions have to offer. For us, it was therefore very logical to double down on this strategy. We are now launching two new funds: one dedicated to Europe and one dedicated to Africa, each with a dedicated team. The goal is to source even more founders, become even more pan-African than we were before, and build dedicated vehicles for dedicated geographies. These funds will also be larger. We will be able to write bigger tickets and have more capacity to double down on the right companies. In Africa, especially, we are looking for companies that show strong signals early—companies with paying customers, companies that do not rely heavily on subsidies, companies where adoption spreads through trust and word of mouth, and companies led by founders with real financial discipline. That, for us, is real traction. So, for companies that see themselves in that description, we would very much encourage them to reach out. We need to find them because those are exactly the kinds of businesses we want to back with these new funds. Get The Best African Tech Newsletters In Your Inbox Select your country Nigeria Ghana Kenya South Africa Egypt Morocco Tunisia Algeria Libya Sudan Ethiopia Somalia Djibouti Eritrea Uganda Tanzania Rwanda Burundi Democratic Republic of the Congo Republic of the Congo Central African Republic Chad Cameroon Gabon Equatorial Guinea São Tomé and Príncipe Angola Zambia Zimbabwe Botswana Namibia Lesotho Eswatini Mozambique Madagascar Mauritius Seychelles Comoros Cape Verde Guinea-Bissau Senegal The Gambia Guinea Sierra Leone Liberia Côte d’Ivoire Burkina Faso Mali Niger Benin Togo Other Select your gender Male Female Others TC Daily TC Events Next wave Entering Tech Subscribe Climate tech is a very broad category. It can cover everything from carbon accounting software to nuclear fusion. What is Satgana’s own definition of climate tech, and where do you draw a hard line on what you would not invest in? For us, the hard line is drawn at businesses where climate is simply a story layered on top of a normal company, rather than the engine of the company itself. For instance, if a startup’s margins improve when emissions increase, or if the impact disappears the moment subsidies disappear, then the alignment is broken. We try as much as possible not to invest in green narratives. We invest in climate economics. Working in Africa made this very clear to us very early on. Customers do not buy climate because it is good for the planet. They buy reliability, cost savings, and productivity. If climate does not translate into real economic value for the user, it does not scale. That is why we avoid solutions that depend on perfect regulation, heavy
Read MoreFor every $1 Showmax made, it lost $2.50
This is Follow the Money, our weekly series that unpacks the earnings, business, and scaling strategies of African fintechs, financial institutions, companies and governments. A new edition drops every Monday. Streaming is widely seen as the present and future of television, and Africa was supposed to be the next frontier. With the continent still largely underconnected but home to a young, mobile-first population, global media companies saw a future in which millions of Africans would gradually shift from satellite television to streaming platforms as smartphone penetration and broadband access improved. For MultiChoice, Showmax was meant to capture that future. After more than a decade trying to build Africa’s answer to Netflix, the streaming platform is now being wound down as Canal+, the new owner of MultiChoice, restructures the company’s streaming strategy. The financial trail behind the experiment tells the story: between 2023 and 2025, Showmax generated $204.29 million in revenue but recorded more than $523.53 million in operating losses, while committing hundreds of millions more to rebuild its technology and content library. The platform lost $2.50 for every $1 it generated in revenue during that period Here is how the money moved. The money raised In 2023, MultiChoice brought in Comcast’s NBCUniversal, to rebuild Showmax. The partnership created a new entity, Showmax Africa Holdings Limited, incorporated in the United Kingdom and overseeing operations across the continent. NBCUniversal acquired 30% of the business for $29 million (ZAR536 million). Showmax has also received additional equity injections: $36 million (ZAR687 million) in 2024, and $85 million (ZAR1.55 billion) in 2025. These investments were meant to serve as working capital for the streaming platform. The money spent The biggest financial commitment was a seven-year technology licensing deal with NBCUniversal’s Peacock streaming platform. The agreement, signed in 2024, was worth ZAR6.8 billion ($405 million). Rather than build its own infrastructure, Showmax licensed Peacock’s global streaming technology to power its relaunch. The deal covered streaming infrastructure, recommendation algorithms, product engineering, and global platform architecture By March 2025, $59.56 million had already been spent, leaving $345.44 million still outstanding over the remaining six years. Content spending also surged. Showmax significantly expanded its African originals and content catalogue: 59 original films by 2024, and 82 by 2025. Content cost between both years totalled ZAR3.95 billion ($235.26 million). Staff cost stood at ZAR1.04 billion ($61.64 million), and sales and marketing totalled ZAR1.21 billion ($72.19 million). Miscellaneous spending stood at ZAR3.71 billion ($221.14 million) for both years. The $2.50 Problem Between 2023 and 2025, Showmax lost $2.50 for every $1.00 it generated. Tap the expenses below to see how individual costs completely dwarfed the platform’s revenue. Money In (Revenue) $1.00 MONEY OUT (PER $1 EARNED) Content Creation & Licensing $1.29 Total Nominal Spend: $235.26 Million Showmax rapidly expanded its catalogue, paying for licensing and producing 82 original African films and series by 2025. This single expense was larger than their total revenue. Miscellaneous $1.21 Total Nominal Spend: $221.14 Million Unspecified operational, distribution, and corporate overhead costs incurred while trying to bed down distribution partnerships across the continent. Sales & Marketing $0.40 Total Nominal Spend: $72.19 Million Aggressive customer acquisition campaigns to push the relaunch and drive a 44% growth in paying subscribers across new markets like Kenya and Nigeria. Staff Costs $0.34 Total Nominal Spend: $61.64 Million Payroll and human resources required to run the streaming unit across multiple African territories. Technology Infrastructure $0.32 Total Nominal Spend: $59.56 Million The initial payments for a 7-year, $405M licensing deal to use NBCUniversal’s Peacock platform architecture instead of building an in-house solution. Data: MultiChoice Disclosures TechCabal Tools The revenue generated Despite the heavy spending, Showmax’s revenues remained modest. Between 2023 and 2025, the platform generated ZAR3.43 billion ($204.29 million) in total revenue and ZAR2.44 billion ($145.35 million) in subscription revenue Revenue peaked in 2024, the year Showmax relaunched with its new platform, sports streaming expansion, and increased local content. MultiChoice said the platform also recorded 44% growth in paying subscribers, expanding beyond its core markets in South Africa and Nigeria into Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana, Uganda and Zambia through telecom partnerships. The losses accumulated The cost of building a streaming platform far outpaced revenue growth. Between 2023 and 2025, Showmax recorded operating losses of ZAR8.79 billion ($523.53 million). Losses peaked in 2025, which MultiChoice described as the platform’s “peak investment year.” “As a start-up business, Showmax focused on enhancing its content line-up, bedding down distribution partnerships, expanding payment channel integrations and refining its go-to-market strategy,” the company said in 2025. “As FY25 was the peak investment year, reflected by a step-up in content costs to attract viewers and platform costs to create capacity, trading losses increased by 88% YoY.” The strategy Showmax’s spending was tied to a long-term bet on Africa’s streaming future. In May 2023, the company told investors it planned to reach $1 billion in revenue within five years and break even by 2027. The strategy relied on aggressive expansion of African original content, partnerships with telecom operators and payment providers, and the Peacock technology platform to scale globally MultiChoice also planned to increase Showmax originals tenfold by 2033, betting that demand for African stories would continue to grow. “It remains clear that streaming represents the future of video entertainment,” Multichoice said in 2025. “Although the current levels of broadband and SVOD penetration across Africa are not yet at comparable levels to the rest of the world, they suggest significant long-term upside. However, data pricing would need to evolve further for this market segment to reach its full potential.” The lesson Showmax’s shutdown highlights a difficult financial reality in the global streaming industry. Streaming platforms require massive scale and continuous investment in both technology and content, and Africa’s market, however, still faces structural limits, including lower subscription purchasing power and limited broadband penetration. This has been shown in how global streaming companies have adjusted their African expectations. Netflix reduced production budgets in Nigeria, while Amazon Prime Video shut down its African operations in 2024. Streaming is still central to MultiChoice’s strategy,
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