Storipod strikes deal to distribute Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s books digitally
Storipod, a mobile-focused microblogging platform designed for African creators, has struck a deal with Narrative Landscape Press to bring books by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and other leading African writers onto its mobile reading platform, a move that could grow its local content push. The agreement will see titles from the Lagos-based publisher distributed digitally via Storipod, as both companies look to widen access to African literature in markets where readers are increasingly consuming content on their phones rather than in print. With weak distribution and high prices limiting print sales, many publishers, including media outlets, are turning to mobile platforms to reach readers who are already consuming most content on their phones. “This partnership represents our shared commitment to making African literature accessible to everyone, everywhere,” Eghosa Imasuen, co-founder of Narrative Landscape Press, told TechCabal. Storipod’s model seeks to increase access to African literature across the continent. Its platform allows readers to unlock books chapter by chapter, a micropayment approach designed to lower upfront costs and align with mobile consumption habits. Once accessed, chapters remain in a user’s digital library. The initial rollout will include several high-profile titles, among them Dream Count by Adichie, alongside works by Chude Jideonwo, Adorah Nworah, Pede Hollist, Suyi Davies Okungbowa, and Nikki May. The agreement gives Narrative Landscape a digital route to global audiences while retaining control over intellectual property, a sensitive issue in an industry where piracy and weak enforcement have historically undermined revenues. Beyond distribution, the partnership suggests a shift within African publishing towards prioritising digital rights management and alternative revenue models in response to shifting consumer behaviour. For Storipod, the partnership will add literary weight to a platform it claims already hosts more than 150,000 creators and is available in over 170 countries. “The completion of this agreement sets a new standard for the continent’s publishing infrastructure,” James Nelson, co-founder and chief executive of Storipod, told TechCabal. “Our model aligns with modern consumption habits while ensuring creators are compensated for every tap.”The deal bets on rising internet and smartphone use. In Nigeria—the two companies’ core markets—mobile devices account for more than 80% of web traffic, with roughly 100 million internet users. Across Africa, smartphone penetration is projected to reach 700 million by the end of 2026, according to GSMA’s Handset Affordability Coalition.
Read MoreAfrica can’t build 54 clouds, and importing one won’t fix it
I sat in on a cloud panel at GITEX Africa in Morocco on April 8, 2026, that was less about how countries and companies are adopting the cloud, but more about who is controlling it. The session, themed ‘Africa’s Cloud Moment – Build Regional or Stay Fragmented,’ brought together Kashifu Abdullahi, director-general of Nigeria’s National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), and Abderrahmane Mounir, chief executive officer, Maroc Data Centers, Morocco. The session was moderated by Adil Al Youssefi, CEO, Africa Data Centres Kenya. “If digital is a lifestyle to us, then cloud is the oxygen to sustain it,” Abdullahi said. “We need to own and shape and control the oxygen to sustain our lifestyle.” Africa has about 19% of the world’s population. Abdullahi highlighted that it only had 0.6% of the global data center and computing capacity. “We do not control our own digital future. We cannot survive without the cloud; we need to cloudify Africa. But nobody can do it for us; we need to do it ourselves,” the NITDA boss stated. The fragmentation problem The conversation about cloud sovereignty can quickly slip into protectionism, where governments push to keep data within their borders, favour local providers, and limit the role of foreign cloud companies in the name of control. Abdullahi argued that digital self-determination is more important. “It is about us as a sovereign continent having the capacity for digital self-determination. Therefore, we need to work together,” he said. Mounir argued that if every country tries to achieve self-sovereignty, it will come at a cost that can’t scale. “There is an economic challenge to build this fragmented cloud all around the country,” he said. “The effort needs to be done in as many countries on the continent.” Navigating the continent’s macroeconomic challenges is crucial to harnessing the potential of the digital economy, and the only way to do that is to build together, Youssefi noted. Demand for data centre capacity on the continent is expected to rise to two gigawatts by 2030, requiring at least $10 billion in investment, according to projections from McKinsey, a global management consulting firm. Currently, the combined installed capacity of the continent’s top five markets (Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, and South Africa) is under 500 MW, less than what France had in 2024 (about 800 MW). “Fifty-four African countries cannot build individually. But we also cannot import the solutions from outside. We have to craft our own solutions there,” Youssef said. The building ambition Abdullahi referenced Gaia-X as a template for the continent. The European Union launched Gaia-X in 2020, an initiative that aims to build an interoperable, secure data infrastructure that complies with its standards. The strategy aims to strengthen the EU’s digital sovereignty in the face of the hegemony of North American players. America’s Amazon AWS owns 28% of the global cloud market, followed by Microsoft’s Azure at 21%, and Google Cloud at 14%. In the fourth quarter of 2025, global cloud infrastructure service spending grew to $119 billion, and thanks to the AI boom, the cloud market is expected to keep growing year-on-year. Africa has the Smart Africa Trust Alliance, a cross-border data exchange guideline. The African Continental Free Trade Area also has protocols for digital trade. But experts had noted that the implementation has yet to meet its ambition. “We need to build digital highways between African countries so that we can start creating and capturing value from the data we are creating,” NITDA’s boss said. “We need to look at all those regulations and policies.” Owning the cloud will also entail harmonising data laws. “If you want to push things across the borders, there is the regulation aspect that also has to be cross-border, with all the concepts of data indices to give guarantees and to basically harmonise the regulation between countries,” Mounir said. So, who builds? Shared cloud infrastructure will continue to remain a dream without execution, Youssefi said. On who should take the lead, Abdullahi noted that both the private and public sectors have roles to play. The government has regulatory roles, while the private sector has capital expenditure expectations. Mounir noted that governments must put their skin in the game. “They need to put a piece of investment. That is how it is going to work. It is to have an anchor within the country, to have some sort of institutional investor,” he said. Much of the cloud infrastructure on the continent is currently private sector-led. MTN Nigeria completed the first phase of its $235 million data centre and cloud infrastructure in 2025. Cassava Technologies has launched Africa’s first AI factory in South Africa, where it is deploying thousands of GPUs, Youssefi said. “A couple of thousand GPUs is a drop in the ocean, as we said briefly earlier, compared to what is required across the continent for us to reach the ratio of one in five that we have at the macro level,” he said. Failure to act now will keep Africa out of the fourth industrial age, NITDA’s boss argued, especially with rising AI deployment making the ownership of cloud infrastructure expedient. “We know that who owns our data controls us,” he added.
Read MoreNigeria’s NIGCOMSAT says it earned $1.6 million amid satellite dispute
Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT), the country’s state-owned satellite company, earned ₦2.2 billion ($1.6 million) in revenue in 2025, chief executive Jane Egerton-Idehen said. The growth—up from ₦650 million ($470,854) in 2024— comes as questions linger over the future of Nigeria’s only working communications satellite, amid a dispute over $11.4 million in unpaid fees to a Chinese company. Egerton-Idehen described the growth as part of a deliberate trajectory rather than a one-off spike. “It’s not going to be a flat line; it’s a growth curve,” she said during a press briefing in Lagos on Friday. Broadcasting remains the backbone of NIGCOMSAT’s earnings, accounting for more than 50% of total revenue. The company supports over half of Nigeria’s licenced broadcasters, according to Egerton-Idehen. Its next phase of growth will rely on broadband capacity, which she says remains significantly underutilised. “Our biggest opportunity is broadband,” she said. “That’s where the journey to ₦8 billion ($5.8 million) will come from.” The ambition is significant for a company that spent years rebuilding customer trust after the loss of its first satellite in 2008 and years of declining confidence in its services. NIGCOMSAT says it is targeting multiple segments within the broadband market, including consumer internet, enterprise connectivity, and infrastructure support for telecom operators. The growth targets sit against an unresolved operational risk. NigComSat-1R, Nigeria’s only working communications satellite, was built for a 15-year lifespan and has been extended to 2028 through technical upgrades. The government plans to replace it with a new satellite that year, followed by another in 2029. But an ongoing financial and operational dispute with China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC), which manages the satellite, has raised questions about its reliability in the interim. Egerton-Idehen acknowledged the gaps the company has had to close. “We had to win customers back,” she said. “Some left and never returned because of past experiences. Now we are fixing those gaps—service quality, awareness, and technology upgrades.” A crucial growth area for NIGCOMSAT is cellular backhaul, where satellite capacity is used to connect remote mobile base stations to core networks, particularly critical in rural Nigeria, where laying fibre infrastructure is often uneconomical. State governments have also emerged as a meaningful customer segment, with Adamawa, Gombe, Cross River, and Imo already using NIGCOMSAT’s services for connectivity and digital infrastructure projects. Beyond commercial services, NIGCOMSAT plays a strategic role in Nigeria’s defence and security architecture. Satellite technology enables secure, real-time communication in areas without terrestrial network coverage, such as forests and offshore waters. Egerton-Idehen explained that military operations rely on satellite-enabled systems installed on moving assets like armoured vehicles and naval ships, allowing them to transmit voice, video, and data back to command centres. “In environments where there is no mobile coverage, satellite becomes the only option,” she said. “It can be deployed on anything that moves—or doesn’t move—and that’s critical for national security.”
Read MoreNomba and Globus Bank say they built a loan book with sub-1% defaults
Defaulting on a loan with some digital lenders can turn into relentless phone calls, frozen accounts, office raids, threats, and, in some cases, public shaming. In 2025, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) introduced fines of up to ₦100 million ($72,000)—or 1% of annual turnover—for lenders who resort to harassment and intimidation as loan recovery tools. Those defaults, when they pile up, become the bad loans quietly eating into a lender’s balance sheet. Nomba and Globus Bank say their credit model is built to stop that from happening, and the numbers, so far, back them up. The Nigerian fintech and tier-3 commercial bank said their 18-month credit partnership has disbursed ₦21.3 billion ($15.3 million) to Nigerian businesses, with less than 1% of those loans classified as non-performing. That figure covers lending across wholesale and retail, professional services, food and hospitality, oil and gas, and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG). Bad loans are rising across Nigeria’s banking system Loans are built on the premise that they should be repaid on schedule, and when repayments are delayed beyond the standard 90 days, the loan is classified as non-performing. Non-performing loans (NPLs) affect how much banks can lend: the higher the share of bad loans, the more capital is tied up, and the more cautious lenders become about extending new credit. NPLs in Nigeria’s banking industry have been rising. In early 2023, the figure stood at 4.2%, but was estimated to reach 7% by the end of 2025. These increases in NPLs are often tied to currency devaluations, inflation, and other economic pressures that make repayment harder for borrowers. Nomba and Globus Bank said their lending model looks nothing like that. The companies said their portfolio is performing differently because of how their loans were structured and managed. Instead of relying on traditional methods of assessing creditworthiness that use financial statements and fixed collateral, the partnership said it used a different approach to assessing businesses and tracking loan performance. “That number did not happen by accident,” said Yinka Adewale, chief executive Officer of Nomba, referring to its NPL ratio. “It happened because we built underwriting infrastructure that actually works, data that is real, collateral that is meaningful, and borrowers who have genuine skin in the game.” How Nomba and Globus’ credit model works Under this model, businesses eligible to apply for loans are selected based on how much of their financial activity runs through Nomba. “Of the over 600,000 businesses we bank in Nigeria today, we internally cap the credit-eligible universe at approximately 20,000,” Adewale said. He explained that eligible businesses must be formally registered, generate steady transaction volumes, have sufficient history on the platform, and understand debt obligations. Even within that pool, lending is limited. Nomba said it currently serves roughly 10% of those eligible merchants. Crucially, merchants do not need to submit financial statements when applying for loans. Instead, they are assessed continuously on the transaction data they already generate on Nomba’s infrastructure. “Nomba underwrites against what businesses actually do, not what they report,” Adewale said. “Nomba sits at the centre of its merchants’ daily transaction activity; it has direct, real-time visibility into revenue flows, settlement patterns, operational cycles, and cost structures.” That data forms the basis of its credit decisions, replacing the financial audits and credit histories that traditional lenders rely on. Credit facilities in this model are sized to about 1% of a business’s annual revenue, keeping repayment obligations within a range that should not strain daily operations. Once loans are disbursed, merchants are continuously monitored on a rolling 30-day basis with the same infrastructure that determined their creditworthiness to monitor changes in revenue that may affect loan repayment. “The system flags deterioration automatically, before it materialises into a missed payment, and triggers the appropriate response, whether that is a restructure, a borrower conversation, or a recovery action,” Adewale said. A second pillar of Nomba and Globus’ lending model is what they described as digitised collateral, a mix of inventory tied to the specific loan use case, digital assets such as stocks or stablecoins, and semi-liquid physical assets. “The mechanism is contractual. Assets are pledged at origination and tied to the credit facility through legal documentation. In a default scenario, those assets form part of the recovery pathway,” Adewale said. Because digital assets are volatile, borrowers must also provide a 30% cash collateral cover upfront, creating a buffer against sudden value drops. In a default scenario, the pledged assets and the cash cover form the primary recovery pathway. A model built on visibility The model’s strength is also its most obvious weakness. Assessing creditworthiness and managing digital collateral works best when a merchant’s financial activity is primarily run on Nomba. “If we cannot underwrite with confidence, we do not extend credit,” Adewale said, explaining that this forms a major reason why its credit model is capped. The sub-1% performance of its loans may also be shaped by what it excludes. With only about 20,000 out of over 600,000 businesses considered eligible, and even fewer actually receiving loans, the model is applied to a narrow segment of businesses. Cash-heavy businesses or those operating across multiple platforms are less likely to qualify because they present thinner data trails for Nomba to track. Even within a tightly controlled model, defaults are not eliminated. If loans go bad in this model, Nomba said its first response is restructuring the loan to align with the business’s current capacity. Where restructuring fails, recovery of the 30% cash cover and pledged digital assets follow. The structure of Globus Bank’s and Nomba’s partnership is split along institutional strengths. Globus Bank provides capital and operates within its lending licence, while Nomba controls the credit layer, from identifying borrowers to underwriting, real-time monitoring, collateral management, and managing repayment. Risk is also shared between both partners, although Adewale said Nomba carries most of it. Nomba is presenting this as a blueprint rather than a ceiling. It plans to expand the credit model to other sectors through additional partnerships.
Read MoreFor Kenyan stablecoin issuers, reserves must be kept close to home
Kenya is drawing a tight circle around who can issue stablecoins in the country and how those digital currencies must be built. The National Treasury’s draft Virtual Asset Service Providers Regulations, published in March and now out for public comment until Friday, lay out reserve rules, capital thresholds, and disclosure standards that together try to pull stablecoin value, data, and control firmly onshore. Under the proposed regulations, any firm issuing a stablecoin to the public in Kenya must hold local fiat‑backed reserves at all times in high‑quality liquid assets, such as cash or deposits with commercial banks or the central bank. Those reserves must be kept separate from the issuer’s own funds, free from third‑party claims, and always available for redemption. At least 30% of customer funds backing a stablecoin must sit in segregated accounts at commercial banks domiciled in Kenya, while the rest is limited to high‑quality liquid assets like cash or government securities with maturities of 90 days or less, anchoring a meaningful slice of stablecoin float in the domestic banking system. Tokens must be redeemable at par value on demand, and issuers are banned from paying interest or yield on stablecoins, including “indirect yield routed through other licenced virtual asset businesses.” It is a direct shot at yield‑bearing products that have powered much of global stablecoin adoption. Kenya’s draft rules are built to encourage well‑capitalised, heavily scrutinised stablecoin issuers whose fully backed, segregated reserves must stay ring‑fenced and available so holders can redeem at par and have a claim against the issuer if things go wrong. Yet, high capital and compliance demands risk pushing smaller issuers—and much of the informal mix of digital tokens that circulate in Kenya today—out of the licenced market altogether, narrowing the range of digital tokens that users can access through regulated channels. Stablecoin issuers “in or from Kenya” would need at least KES 500 million ($3.85 million) in paid‑up capital, and core or liquid capital of KES 100 million ($773,700) or 100% of current liabilities for at least 30 days, whichever is higher. The draft also proposes recurring proof‑of‑reserves checks, annual independent reviews, and robust internal controls around custody and operations, alongside the licencing and renewal fees that apply across the sector. Boards of directors would be held accountable for the accuracy of disclosures, and issuers would have to file updates with regulators and include clear warnings that these products are not covered by investor compensation schemes. The draft also establishes a “Coordination Committee,” chaired by the National Treasury, with members from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK); the Capital Markets Authority (CMA); the Financial Reporting Centre (FRC); the Asset Recovery Agency (ARA); the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI); the National Intelligence Service (NIS); the Nairobi International Financial Centre (NIFC); the National Computer and Cybercrimes Coordination Committee (NC4); the Communications Authority of Kenya (CAK); the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC); the Office of the Attorney General; and any other agency the Cabinet Secretary may designate. The 13-member committee’s mandate will be to coordinate supervision of virtual asset service providers, share supervisory and enforcement information, harmonise regulatory approaches, support joint inspections and risk assessments, and issue joint advisories where issues cut across multiple agencies. That structure means decisions about where reserves sit, which custodians are acceptable, when an issuer is too risky, or whether a coin should be halted or delisted are unlikely to rest with a single authority. Kenya’s approach mirrors moves in the United States and the European Union (EU) to tighten standards for stablecoins without banning them. In the US, the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, signed in July 2025, requires permitted payment stablecoin issuers to hold 100% reserves in specified liquid assets—cash, deposits at regulated institutions, short‑term Treasuries, and certain money market funds—and to make regular public disclosures on how those reserves are composed. In the EU, the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) rules require smaller stablecoins to hold at least 30% of their reserves at commercial banks and “significant” stablecoins 60% or more, with the remainder in other high‑quality liquid assets. Kenya’s proposal echoes those trends on full backing and bank deposits but goes further in two ways: it ties a fixed slice of reserves specifically to Kenyan banks and assets, and it bans yield outright, where the US and EU frameworks focus more on reserve safety and disclosures than on how much return a holder can earn. The yield ban and licencing model narrow what licenced virtual asset companies in Kenya can do with yield‑bearing stablecoins. Since issuers are barred from paying interest on these coins, including indirectly through other licenced virtual asset businesses, a Kenyan‑regulated platform is unlikely to launch its own yield‑bearing token or wrap staking returns into a local product. The Kenyan Stablecoin Anchor Simulate the reserve requirements under Kenya’s 2026 draft VASP regulations. Proposed Stablecoin Supply (KES) KES Current Kenya stablecoin supply is approx. KES 18.8M ($145k). 30% Local Bank Anchor KES 300,000 Must be held in segregated accounts at commercial banks in Kenya. 70% High-Quality Liquid Assets KES 700,000 Cash or government securities with < 90 days maturity. The Barrier to Entry Fixed Paid-up Capital Required: KES 500M This is ~26x the size of Kenya’s entire current stablecoin market ($3.85M). Share on X Based on Kenya’s draft VASP Regulations 2026. $1 ≈ KES 130. Calculations assume a 1:1 local currency peg as mandated by the Treasury draft. Stablecoins now sit at the heart of digital markets, and the numbers show how concentrated that market has become. As of March 2026, global stablecoin supply stood at $320.1 billion, with US dollar‑linked coins making up 99.76% of that supply, according to research firm Artemis. By comparison, African currencies barely register stablecoin supply activity, accounting for a combined $665,300 in value, well below 1%. Within that tiny sliver, South Africa leads with roughly $426,400 in rand‑linked coins such as ZARSC and ZARP, followed by Kenya with around $145,300 (including KESm), Nigeria with about $67,800 (cNGN and NGNm), and Ghana with
Read MoreM-KOPA unlocks $22.5 million in credit in South Africa as women drive uptake
M-KOPA, a Kenyan asset financing startup, says it has extended more than ZAR 370 million ($22.5 million) in credit to low-income consumers in South Africa since its 2023 launch, pointing to the growing role of device financing in expanding access to the digital economy. Nearly half of that uptake has been driven by women, who account for 49% of the company’s 105,000 customers, according to its 2025 impact report. 36% of female customers are first-time smartphone users, compared with 24% of men, the report said. The report, based on a survey of 452 customers and sales agents conducted by Caribou, found that 64% of users rely on their devices to generate income. About 35% reported increased earnings, while 39% said they could invest more in their children’s education. In South Africa, where cost keeps millions offline, M-KOPA is testing whether flexible credit can do what infrastructure investment alone has not by closing the gap between owning a smartphone and being able to afford one. According to the Global Findex 2025 Digital Connectivity Tracker, just 74% of adults in Sub-Saharan Africa own a mobile phone, compared with 86% globally, and 77% of those without one cite cost as the main barrier. “South Africa’s unemployment crisis demands bold, inclusive solutions, and when Every Day Earners gain access to fair and flexible financing, they use it to unlock income, stability, and opportunity,” M-KOPA South Africa general manager Cameron Perumal said. Overall, 84% of customers reported an improved quality of life, and 66% said they were better able to meet household financial goals. Customers are largely urban (77%) and earn an average of ZAR 185 ($11.25) per day. Beyond consumer credit, M-KOPA said it contributed ZAR 24 million ($1.45 million) in taxes and ZAR 155.5 million ($9.46 million) in local procurement in 2024, while employing 155 people, 55% of them women. Founded in 2010, the company has now served more than 7 million customers across Africa and extended over $2.5 billion in credit across Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, and South Africa, including ₦231 billion ($170.34 million) in Nigeria. In South Africa, M-KOPA plans to expand nationwide and introduce refurbished smartphones in 2026, betting that lower-cost devices and flexible financing will deepen its reach among “everyday earners” still priced out of the digital economy.
Read MoreKenya replaces tax chief Humphrey Wattanga in surprise leadership shake-up
Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has replaced its Commissioner General, Humphrey Wattanga, in an abrupt leadership change that comes at a delicate moment for the government’s revenue drive. In a statement on Wednesday, the tax agency said its board would not renew Wattanga’s contract, sending him on terminal leave with immediate effect and bringing to a close a tenure closely tied to President William Ruto’s push to tighten tax compliance. The board, chaired by Ndiritu Muriithi, offered no reasons for the decision but praised Wattanga for “dedicated service and leadership,” citing his role in organisational restructuring reforms at the authority. Dr Lilian Nyawanda, currently Commissioner of Customs and Border Control, has been appointed acting Commissioner General pending a competitive recruitment process. “The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) Board informs the public that it will not be renewing Mr. Humphrey Wattanga’s Contract of Service as Commissioner General,” the KRA board said in a statement. “Consequently, and in accordance with his Contract of Service, he is proceeding on terminal leave effective immediately.” A technocrat exits under pressure Wattanga, a Harvard-trained tax expert who took office in 2023, was brought in to fix underperforming tax collection, one of Kenya’s most persistent fiscal challenges, amid rising public debt. His appointment signalled a shift toward data-driven enforcement and internal restructuring at KRA. He pushed through changes aimed at streamlining operations and improving efficiency, particularly in customs, a key revenue stream vulnerable to leakage. But his tenure also coincided with mounting political and economic pressure on the authority. The government has leaned heavily on KRA to finance an ambitious budget, even as businesses and households grapple with high taxes, sluggish growth, and rising living costs. In recent months, the taxman has faced criticism from the private sector over aggressive enforcement tactics, while missing some revenue targets has sharpened scrutiny from the National Treasury and Parliament. The appointment of Nyawanda suggests a preference for continuity from within KRA’s senior ranks. As head of customs and border control, she oversees one of the authority’s most critical and complex departments, responsible for a significant share of tax revenues and trade facilitation. Her interim leadership will be closely watched for signals on whether KRA will maintain its current enforcement posture or change amid growing concerns over the tax burden on businesses.
Read MoreZazu taps Visa to launch online business accounts in Morocco
Zazu, a pan-African digital bank that serves small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), has partnered with Visa to launch a digital business account for Moroccan entrepreneurs and small businesses. The partnership embeds Visa into Zazu’s rebundled financial operating system for SMEs that offers the core utility of a bank, including accounts, cards, and transfers. Zazu can now issue Visa Business cards to Moroccan SMEs while plugging into its global payments infrastructure. The partnership comes four months after Zazu raised $1 million in pre-seed funding to support its rollout in South Africa and Morocco and lay the foundation for broader pan-African expansion. “Too many entrepreneurs waste time chasing their advisor, navigating overly complex interfaces, or disputing surprise fees. Zazu simplifies their day-to-day banking,” said Germain Bahri, co-founder of Zazu. “What this unlocks is the ability for us to issue Visa business cards to SMEs across Morocco and build a complete expense management layer around them,” The new digital business account is designed to collapse separate tools into one. A business can open an account online through know-your-customer (KYC) checks, access a dashboard that combines invoicing and payment links, and immediately begin issuing cards for team expenses. The company claimed payments made through invoices or links are automatically reconciled, giving businesses real-time visibility of inflows and outflows without needing separate systems. Zazu said it allows companies to issue multiple business cards across teams, each with its own limits and controls, which can be tracked in real time. The company said it has onboarded over 300 businesses into this ecosystem, including AI recruitment platform Jobzyn, Auto24, an online marketplace for buying and selling cars in South Africa, and Moroccan proptech startup, Yakeey. Founded in 2024 by Rinse Jacobs and Germain Bahri, Zazu is positioning itself as a “Mercury-style” banking experience for Africa, built around Application Programming Interface (API)-driven integrations to connect with finance tools, such as bookkeeping, tax management, payroll, and cap-table management. The company is built on a partnership with Chari, a Moroccan fintech that provides access to technological infrastructure, a payment licence, and market expertise. Zazu is backed by international investment funds, notably Plug and Play, Bell Ventures, and Ryad Ventures, as well as business angels from Solarisbank, Qonto, and Paymentology, alongside recognised figures from the Moroccan ecosystem: Ismael Belkhayat (Chari), Mohamed Benmansour (Binga / Nuitée), and Youssef Koun (Wonderful & Co.).
Read MoreCroatia’s Media King picks Nigeria to test its cloud-powered public WiFi model
Media King Group, a Croatian smart public WiFi provider, is setting its sights on Nigeria, one of Africa’s most challenging connectivity markets, to test a new public WiFi model that could reshape how cities stay online. Founded in 2017 by Darko Kraljević, the company has spent nearly a decade building what it calls a “smart WiFi” system designed to fix a familiar problem: networks that buckle under heavy demand. Now, through a local partnership led by Nigerian entrepreneur and film producer Charles Okpaleke, Media King is preparing its first large-scale African rollout, with Nigeria as the launchpad for a broader continental push. “We don’t want to just be local in Nigeria,” Kraljević told TechCabal in April 2026. “Nigeria will be the starting point for the entire African market.” Media King is betting that a cloud-managed WiFi architecture can succeed where earlier public access efforts have stalled. Big Tech-backed initiatives, including Meta, Google, and Microsoft-linked deployments via Tizeti, have all struggled to make free public WiFi viable at scale in Nigeria. Unlike earlier attempts to “blanket” areas with standard Wi-Fi protocols, which struggled with Nigeria’s high user density and power instability, Media King’s approach rethinks the architecture. Instead of relying on access points that both connect users and process traffic, it shifts the heavy lifting, traffic management, routing, and bandwidth allocation into the cloud. The company claims that the approach makes networks cheaper to deploy, easier to scale, and more resilient in high-density environments where demand typically overwhelms infrastructure. Traditional systems rely on access points that both connect users and handle computing tasks. But as more users pile on, those systems quickly overload, leading to the familiar experience of slow speeds or complete failure in crowded areas like airports, malls, or city squares. Media King shifts that computing burden away from the hardware into a centralised cloud-based system. In Kraljević’s telling, access points become little more than “antennas,” while the heavy lifting, traffic management, bandwidth allocation, and routing are handled remotely and dynamically. The result, he claims, is a network that can support an unlimited number of concurrent users without degrading performance. Instead of rationing bandwidth equally, the system allocates resources in real time, prioritising users with heavier data needs while maintaining overall stability. That promise has already been tested in Croatia, where Media King was born and deployed what was described as Europe’s fastest public WiFi network along Split’s busy waterfront. The system has since been used in shopping malls, public transport systems, hospitals, and government buildings, often in high-density environments where conventional networks struggle. For the Nigerian partners, the appeal lies not just in the technology but in its potential to succeed where previous public WiFi efforts in the country have failed. “The challenge was that existing infrastructure couldn’t reliably deliver quality service,” said Afam Anyika, CEO of Media King Nigeria. “With 60–70% of budgets going into infrastructure, we’ve partnered with Media King Global to cut upfront costs while still rolling out our systems nationwide.” Nigeria has seen multiple attempts at public connectivity, from government-backed initiatives to experiments by global tech giants. Still, most have struggled with sustainability, high infrastructure costs, and poor service quality. In many cases, networks deteriorated quickly or failed to scale beyond pilot phases. “The real issue has always been that traditional infrastructure cannot meet real-world demand,” said Anyika. “Even when you solve for access, the quality drops as more people connect.” Media King believes its model addresses both the technical and commercial challenges. By partnering locally, the company avoids the heavy upfront costs typically associated with infrastructure deployment, instead focusing on operations, workforce development, and market expansion. Crucially, the service will be free for end users, a non-negotiable, according to Kraljević. “It must be free, because someone else pays,” he said. That “someone” is expected to come from a mix of advertisers, government use cases, and data-driven services built on top of the network. Media King’s platform includes an integrated digital layer that turns each WiFi hotspot into a communication and advertising channel. When users connect, they can be directed to targeted content, public service announcements, or brand campaigns. Beyond advertising, the system also offers anonymised data insights, such as foot traffic and dwell time, to help businesses and governments make decisions about urban planning, service delivery, and customer engagement. The company says it has already deployed the model in Croatia, where its network supported public health messaging during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is now exploring similar use cases in Nigeria, spanning education, healthcare, and local government services. However, expanding into Nigeria comes with notable execution risks, particularly on the regulatory front. As of 2026, the introduction of the Internet Code of Practice has tightened oversight, clearly defining the obligations of Internet Access Service Providers, including those offering public WiFi hotspots. Under NCC guidelines, commercial or public WiFi is no longer plug-and-play—operators must obtain a valid ISP licence, typically renewable every five years, and register each hotspot location with the Commission. Media King, however, maintains that it does not require additional licencing because it operates on existing public WiFi frequencies and partners with local internet service providers. The company also plans to fully localise its deployment, from data infrastructure to operational teams, to reduce latency and better align with regulatory expectations. Initial rollouts are expected later this year to target high-density urban areas and underserved communities with limited broadband access. In some cases, the company says it could combine its system with satellite connectivity, such as Starlink, to extend coverage to remote locations without traditional fibre infrastructure. For now, the focus is on getting the first deployments off the ground. The company says it is already in discussions with government and private sector partners, with early rollouts expected this year. “We spent years proving this system works,” Kraljević said. “Now we are ready to take it global, and Africa starts with Nigeria.”
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I built a product in 20 minutes with Projectmaven
In my short life on earth, I have started many businesses. In 2020, I was making face masks. One year later, I was convinced skincare was my calling, so I started making black soap. Now, that idea never made it off the ground because I never quite mastered the craft, but for a while, I was all in. Then there was the online restaurant, freelance gigs, a brief attempt at making clothes, and a handful of other ideas that felt just as promising at the time, but sometimes, translating those ideas into a product that actually worked was difficult. Recently, I found myself once again sitting on a product idea that felt exciting but slightly out of reach. This time, I wanted to try something different instead of letting it sit in my notes like many others before it, and that was how I ended up on Projectmaven. Founded in March 2026 by Olaotan Towry-Coker, a serial entrepreneur who previously founded AfriTickets, a ticketing platform, and Cranium One, a Coworking space, Projectmaven is designed to turn an idea into a product. “I have been building in the tech space since 2011,” Towry-Coker told me when we spoke last Friday on the phone. “Non-technical founders who are trying to build technical products typically run into a layer of friction, which is that if you don’t understand the technical aspect of what you’re building, you’re going to run into problems when you have to describe it to your developer.” Projectmaven is his attempt to remove that friction. The platform uses artificial intelligence (AI) to take a rough idea and turn it into a structured plan with proposed features, target users, third-party integrations, technical architecture, timelines, and cost estimates. How Projectmaven works I get a lot of messages—emails, SMS, WhatsApp—sometimes simultaneously. To reduce the overwhelm and make responding easier, I dreamt of an app that could notify me of a message with a summary of what the sender said and three possible replies I could tap to send. That was the idea that I took into Projectmaven. When I loaded the website, it started with a single prompt asking for my idea, and I typed it in as it was in my head. Typing my idea into Projectmaven. Image source: TechCabal From there, Projectmaven began a nine-step process to help me figure out what my product was. The first step is product description, where the AI agent reflected my idea to me in a more structured format. It broke down what it understood I was trying to build and how it would work. It also highlighted the parts of the app I had not thought about, such as access to third-party messaging apps, privacy concerns, and difficulties in accurate message summarisation. It showed me similar existing products and suggested ways my version could stand out. Towry-Coker explained that Projectmaven uses a mixture of OpenAI and Gemini frontier models for its tasks. “We’ve implemented fine-tuned prompts, custom prompts that allow the system to understand the client’s request,” he told me. “What it’s doing is that it takes the idea, does a web search, crunches all the data points, and then it presents the data in a fixed format.” Projectmaven’s breakdown of my idea. Image source: TechCabal The next step is selecting the product scale, where the AI agent prompted me to choose if I wanted the product to be extra small, small, medium, or large, depending on my goal. I selected a small-scale product, basically a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). According to Olaotan, every choice a user makes at each step determines the result in subsequent ones. “Every step has an output that we’re trying to achieve… when you’re speaking to an AI agent, the prompt essentially dictates the outcome that it gives you,” he said. “We fine-tuned our prompts to specifically focus on each step that we’re building upon.” After selecting the scale of my product, the website prompted me to choose my target audience for the app. The AI agent recommended options based on my idea, which included busy professionals, business owners, customer support agents, gig workers, and visually impaired users. In the next step, I had to select features, out of a curated list, that made sense for the product I described. It allowed me to either accept them or tweak them. I didn’t have to do either because I hadn’t thought that far. I selected the agent’s recommendations and moved to the next step, integrations. Step 5: Integration. Image source: TechCabal At this stage, it was getting more technical as I had to select the external tools and Application Programming Interface (APIs) the product would need to function, such as Gmail APIs, AI models for summarisation, and messaging systems. After integrations, it moved into design preferences, where it displayed different visual directions the app could take, prompting me to pick one. The next step was technical integration. This is where users start seeing things like React Native, Firebase, Flutter, and native iOS—mobile app development and backend service platforms. The user could either choose themselves or let the platform decide for them. On any other day, this is where I would check out, but I let Projectmaven choose. From there, it moved to the developer experience, which required me to select what level of developer I needed and showed estimated hourly rates. I chose a junior developer. I then selected a timeline, determined by how complex a product is and how fast a user wants it built. Twenty minutes and nine steps later, Projectmaven generated a full project summary detailing cost estimates, a statement of work, a product requirements document, design direction, technical stack, and integrations. Product summary by Projectmaven. Image source: TechCabal For my app, it estimated a cost of about $5,720 over 160 hours, and broke the cost estimate down by feature, hours required, and the developer rate I had selected. Projectmaven goes a step further, allowing users to start building the app on rapid AI app builders
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