Africa’s PR costs are soaring; ex-CNN anchor Zain Verjee has an AI fix
The Rundown Studio, a communications technology company co-founded by former CNN anchor Zain Verjee, has launched an AI-powered prompt library designed to help communications teams in emerging markets cut the cost of traditional public relations services. The platform gives users direct access to newsroom-tested frameworks without relying on expensive agency retainers. It includes 12 specialised tools for corporate communications teams, newsrooms, and investors. These tools cover Tier 1 media pitches, newsroom standard press releases, full 30-minute television scripts, and best practice frameworks for communications teams working across Africa. The platform launched with free and paid tiers. The launch comes at a time when traditional PR services remain costly and out of reach for many organisations across Africa. In several African markets, small businesses spend up to $1,500 monthly on basic media retainers, while more established firms pay between $5,000 and $15,000 monthly. Larger international campaigns can cost upwards of $20,000 monthly. These high costs, combined with staffing and structural challenges within many agencies, mean startups, nonprofits, and growing companies are often unable to access professional communications support. The Rundown Studio says its system is designed to close this gap by offering cheaper, structured alternatives powered by AI. Image Source: The Rundown Studio. “This addresses a fundamental market failure,” Verjee said. “Communications teams in Nairobi, Lagos, and Accra have the same deadline pressures as teams in New York or London, but they do not have the same access to world-class expertise. Traditional agencies charge enterprise rates for work that can now be systematised through frameworks that keep humans in control.” She added that the tools are not designed to replace professionals but to support them. “These are not generic AI prompts. They are workflows built from 20 years of combined newsroom and corporate communications experience, designed specifically for the resource constraints and cultural contexts of emerging markets,” Verjee said. Cofounder and product strategist, Thomas Brasington, said the product challenges the traditional billable-hours model used by many PR agencies. “We are testing whether you can deliver the strategic thinking of a senior communications consultant through structured frameworks, with the professional still making every final decision,” he said. The tools were developed by former journalists from organisations including CNN, BBC, and Sky News. The company said the system analyses source material against current news cycles and generates newsroom-calibrated outputs. The launch follows The Rundown Studio’s earlier release of The Newsroom Blueprint, an AI verification handbook developed with security and intelligence researcher Candyce Kelshall and the Canadian Association for Security and Intelligence Studies, as well as its Embedded podcast series featuring LinkedIn executive Aneesh Raman and Mastercard AI counsel Rashida Richardson.
Read MoreMTN South Africa to increase subscription and voice charges next year
MTN South Africa will increase its consumer contract prices from February 1, 2026, by an average of 5.4% across monthly bills. The adjustments will primarily affect subscription and voice costs. Subscription fees will rise by an average of 9.7%, while voice rates will increase by about 8%. The company said the decision is necessary to maintain investment in network capacity, protect infrastructure, and continue delivering high-performance connectivity as the country’s demand for data accelerates. The increase reflects the growing cost pressures facing telecom operators in South Africa, where mobile networks underpin everything from fintech to online retail. For MTN, these price adjustments are positioned as a response to rising operational costs, even in a period where general inflation has eased. “Although general consumer inflation has eased, MTN and the telecommunications sector in South Africa continue to face steeper increases in operational costs, including electricity and measures to protect and restore network infrastructure from vandalism,” MTN said. Device repayments, insurance fees, value-added services, out-of-bundle data rates, and top-up bundles will remain unchanged. Although consumers will feel the higher charges, MTN is also introducing new benefits to select plans to offset the impact. MegaFlex customers will receive up to 17% additional airtime, Yellow Plans will include 20% more voice minutes, and MTN’s Home Internet 5G and LTE customers will see speed upgrades of up to 50%. In October, MTN held talks with the country’s communications regulator, Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), as part of efforts to tackle persistent challenges in the telecoms sector, from high data costs to uneven digital access. But the subscription includes data plans. Read: MTN South Africa, ICASA hold talks to make data cheaper and expand digital access The timing of the increase will vary depending on each customer’s billing cycle. Out-of-bundle charges will change on February 1, 2026, but the updated subscription fees will appear only when a customer’s monthly bill resets. Most billing cycles fall on the 1st, 5th, 11th, 12th, 17th, or 27th of the month. Customers can confirm their specific billing date by checking their latest invoice in the MTN app. MTN’s price adjustments highlight a broader challenge of balancing affordability with the high cost of keeping networks modern, resilient, and fast. As data consumption continues to grow, infrastructure pressures intensify, and customers require affordable networks, the industry will increasingly need to navigate this tension. Read: MTN South Africa to invest $17 million in Gauteng network upgrade
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Cypherock wants more Africans to use cold storage crypto wallets
Storing digital assets (read: cryptocurrencies) demands the same level of security-consciousness as traditional finance. Yet crypto’s promise of “sovereignty” places the burden of protection squarely on users, turning them into sole guardians of their own purses. The digital asset industry began with non-custodial wallets, which gave users total control over their holdings without third-party interference. They simply had to hold onto their “private keys,” a string of 12–24 random words that only the user is privy to. Once they lose access to, forget, or if those keys get into the wrong hands, their crypto assets could get lost forever or wiped out. According to CoinLedger, a global crypto tax reporting and asset tracking platform, an estimated 3–4 million Bitcoins (up to 20% of total supply) are permanently lost; that’s about $367.8 billion in value—using Bitcoin’s price as of 3:03 p.m. UTC on December 10, 2025—lost to human error, forever putting a strain on market liquidity. It is this fragility of human memory that birthed the custodial wallet industry—where crypto exchanges hold the keys on users’ behalf—and subsequently, the hardware wallet market. Trezor Model One, created in 2014, is widely credited as the first crypto hardware wallet. Now, Cypherock, a Singapore-headquartered company registered as “HODL Tech PTE Limited” with Indian operations, is attempting to disrupt the incumbents, Ledger and Trezor, by eliminating the single point of failure that has plagued crypto self-custody. Founded in 2019 by Rohan Agarwal and Vipul Saini, Cypherock has sold over 15,000 crypto hardware wallets globally. Most of its customers are in the US, where the company plans to open a warehouse to ease distribution bottlenecks, as well as in Germany. Its next frontier is Africa, one of the world’s fastest-growing crypto regions, but also one of the toughest hardware markets to penetrate. How Cypherock’s sharded wallet works Most mainstream hardware wallets secure assets by generating a seed phrase—a private key—stored on a single chip within the device. If that device is compromised or the backup of the seed phrase is found, funds can be lost or stolen. Cypherock’s pitch is that its “sharded,” seedless design removes that conventional single‑seed failure point. The Cypherock team provided me with the “Standard” X1 wallet at no cost. The standard retail price for this model is $179, excluding delivery. Cypherock’s X1 hardware wallet replaces that single point with five independent pieces. The wallet comes with a vault (that resembles a flash drive) and four near-field communication (NFC)-enabled smart cards. Using a cryptographic technique known as Shamir’s Secret Sharing (SSS), the private key is split into five shards, preventing a single point of failure in case a component is lost: One is stored in the X1 Vault itself, and the remaining four are embedded in the NFC-enabled cards that accompany the device. This cryptographic algorithm allows a “secret” (the private key) to be divided into unique parts, or “shards,” where some of the parts, but not all of it, are needed to access the key. To authorise a transaction, the user would need the X1 Vault plus any one of the four cards; the full key is never stored or exposed in a single place. A closer look at the Cypherock X1 “Vault”; it resembles a flash drive and contains a four-way joystick for navigation. It comes on when connected to a desktop device and needs to sync with Cypherock’s cySync app/Image Source: TechCabal Cypherock X1 NFC-enabled smart cards come in four/Image Source: TechCabal “The architecture is designed so that the private key never exists in a single location effectively until the moment of transaction signing, which happens offline,” said Aditya Rawat, growth manager at Cypherock. This “1-of-5” storage but “2-of-5” authentication model shifts the security paradigm. It mitigates the risk of a “wrench attack“—a situation where a user is physically coerced into giving up their private keys—because stealing just the Vault or just a card yields nothing. These stickers came with the Standard X1 wallet/Image Source: TechCabal From a cybersecurity perspective, this hardware isolation is critical. The Vault contains dual chips: an STM32L4 microcontroller and an ATECC608A secure element. Both chips generate a unique pairing key; if an unauthorised person attempts to replace or tamper with one of the chips, the device bricks itself, a feature Keylabs, a blockchain security firm, validated as a robust defence against supply chain attacks in a 2022 audit. The private key never exists in memory in full until a user deliberately initiates a transaction. Transactions are signed offline. The moment the user taps a card on the Vault, the device reconstructs the key just long enough to authorise the action, and then dissolves it again. Cypherock X1 Vault comes on when connected to a power source/Image Source: TechCabal Cypherock’s wallet has a built-in “1-of-4” redundancy, which means that if a user loses one card, it is inconsequential, and even the Vault on its own is useless, as access relies on the Vault and at least one of the four smart cards. The company argues that in a world where keys can be lost, stolen, compromised, or forgotten, security redundancy becomes a necessity. Preparing for worst-case scenarios For crypto users in emerging markets, especially those who have been burned by crypto exchanges going bankrupt, the “bus factor” matters. If a hardware wallet company disappears, users need assurance that the device does not become an unusable brick. Cypherock has built several layers for that scenario. The X1 is compatible with BIP39, the industry standard for seed-phrase generation. The device allows users to view the full seed phrase by connecting the Vault to a power source (even a simple power bank) and tapping one card. This allows the user to transfer their crypto holdings to any external wallet of their choice. The company has also open-sourced its codebase, allowing developers to build recovery tools independent of the company’s servers, said Rawat. Interface of the cySync app. Its wallet can hold over 9,000 cryptocurrencies/Image Source: TechCabal “We are preparing to release an open-source mobile application that will
Read MoreGlobal web host Hostinger enters Nigeria with AI tools and Naira payments
Hostinger, a global web hosting and website-building company, has launched in Nigeria, offering AI-powered website and business tools alongside Naira-based payments as it seeks to attract small businesses and entrepreneurs building an online presence. The Lithuania-headquartered company will offer website building, hosting, and an AI assistant capable of automating content creation, domain registration, and e-commerce management. Hostinger’s launch comes as Nigeria’s digital economy continues to expand, contributing about ₦7 trillion to GDP in Q1 2025 and supported by over 39 million micro, small, and medium enterprises. Many of these businesses still face hurdles such as limited digital skills, unreliable infrastructure, and high operational costs, which have slowed the adoption of dedicated websites. Hostinger says it will lower these barriers by offering automated tools, clearer pricing, and localised support. “Nigeria is an important milestone for us,” said Eiviltas Paraščiakas, Head of communications at Hostinger. “Our goal is simple – give people fast, reliable, and fair tools so they can build and grow online with confidence. Our integrated suite of AI-powered products makes it easier for small business owners and creators to get online in minutes and stay focused on what matters: building their business.” Nigerian users will have access to Hostinger’s website builder, WordPress, and VPS hosting, and AI tools, including Hostinger Reach, an automated email marketing platform, and Hostinger Horizons, an AI-powered website and web app builder. Its AI agent, Kodee, can automate technical tasks such as website migration, content generation, and managing the products of a customisable, open-source e-commerce platform called WooCommerce, reducing the need for developer expertise. Hostinger said Kodee handled about 855,000 customer conversations in September 2025, resolving 76% of them automatically and saving the company more than €750,000 ($873,000) that month. Hostinger now joins a growing market of web‑hosting companies serving Nigerian businesses and freelancers. Existing players in the space include telaHosting, GO54QServers, HostAfrica, and Truehost Nigeria, many of which offer local‑currency payments, domain registration, and hosting plans tailored to Nigerian SMEs.
Read MoreHow this fintech moves money where freelancers live
Exact numbers are hard to come by, but estimates suggest around 80 million Africans work for global companies. A correspondent in Nigeria files stories for a European newsroom, while a policy analyst in Kenya delivers research to several consulting and legal firms across London and Berlin. These freelancers earn in multiple foreign currencies but spend locally. The work often moves smoothly, depending on employment terms, but the pay rarely follows. Traditional banks rely on correspondent networks that delay transfers, charge high foreign-exchange fees, or treat irregular income as risky. For gig workers in emerging markets, getting paid can be frustrating. Payd, founded in 2023, has been building a financial platform to address that gap. The company’s CEO, Benaiah Wepundi, who spoke to me on Monday, frames the app as an aggregator for fragmented payment rails. If a client in Europe sends USDC, Payd’s treasury receives it and instantly releases equivalent local currency to the freelancer’s bank account. The last-mile problem Cross-border payments aren’t hard until you reach the final destination. Most global systems stop at a traditional bank account, but in Africa, where mobile money dominates and informal economies are large, banking connectivity alone is insufficient. According to Wepundi, Payd integrates directly with mobile money ledgers, cash-in/cash-out networks and local banking corridors across 35 markets. Freelancers can convert US dollars to M-PESA instantly or withdraw cash at agents without delay. “Competitors offer faster, cheaper payments,” Wepundi said, adding that Payd offers local compliance and customer support. Wepundi’s statement is important because I wanted to understand what Payd is doing differently from others. Payd relies on this local integration to differentiate itself, as anyone can copy a digital wallet, but few can replicate a network of compliant payout corridors and treasury operations across multiple countries. A stablecoins play Around 60% of Payd’s transaction volume is now processed using stablecoins on blockchain networks (on-chain), which allows payments to settle instantly and without relying on traditional banks. Wepundi claims that payments from the US, Europe, and global platforms can reach wallets in Africa and Latin America in seconds, replacing the days-long delays typical of traditional banking rails. Stablecoins cut intermediary fees and reduce foreign exchange costs by bypassing correspondent banks. Behind the scenes, Payd combines on-chain settlement with local treasury operations and partnerships with providers such as Yellow Card and Bridge. This hybrid structure ensures funds are always available and mitigates the risk of downtime or crypto volatility. Payd aims to ensure consistent payouts without forcing users to interact with crypto directly by linking global liquidity with local payment corridors. How does Payd work around unstructured income? Freelancers rarely fit the risk models banks use because their irregular income can trigger frozen accounts or outright application rejections, so Payd built its onboarding to account for this. Its verification system goes beyond basic ID checks. It scans global blacklists (sanctions screening) and analyses device locations to filter out bad actors in real time. This precision allows Payd to approve legitimate freelancers with irregular income rather than flagging them as high-risk. The platform pairs this with tools that align with how freelancers work, like multi-currency accounts, invoicing, reverse billing, and stablecoin receipts. Wepundi adds that the fintech’s compliance approach meets global standards but adapts to local market realities. This compliance-first approach allows Payd to approve accounts that traditional banks often flag as high-risk. How does Payd handle liquidity? Payd’s liquidity engine blends local payment rails and stablecoin settlement to manage the flow of funds across multiple markets. According to Wepundi, each corridor has several providers that allow the system to reroute payments automatically if one fails. To prevent money from getting stuck in limbo, a common headache with cross-border transfers, Payd has an auto-reversal feature. If a local network is down or a transaction fails, the system immediately returns the funds to the user’s wallet rather than freezing them while the technical issue is resolved. The system also monitors banking and mobile money networks to spot outages early and automatically reroute payments to other providers to avoid delays. Currently, Payd operates largely as a payroll engine for companies rather than just a wallet for individuals. About 70% of its transaction volume comes directly from US and European remote-work agencies and talent networks paying their African teams in bulk. Payd allows freelancers to access international income instantly, while businesses cut costs and gain transparency on FX. The platform also enables internal transfers between users, which adds a collaboration layer for cross-border teams. The largest receiving markets, including Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa, reflect where digital talent is concentrated, but the model also shows how fragmented global payroll still is, and how much operational complexity Payd handles for platforms and freelancers alike. 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 TC Scoop Subscribe How does Payd earn revenue? Payd operates on a three-part revenue model: a 1.5% fee on transactions, a 1% margin on foreign exchange (FX) conversions, and a 4% yield generated from liquidity held within the system. Beyond these core fees, the company plans to introduce lending products, including credit lines and equipment financing, to diversify its income. While external payouts generate revenue, Payd keeps internal transfers between users free. This incentivises teams to keep capital circulating within the Payd ecosystem rather than cashing out immediately. “Over time, Payd intends to internalise even more of the last-mile infrastructure, including treasury management and regulated local payment capabilities to further reduce costs and dependency on external providers,” Wepundi added. The team
Read MoreHere are the 82 CBN-licenced Bureaux De Change operators in Nigeria
On Monday, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) issued licences to 82 new Bureaux De Change (BDC) operators, allowing them to operate under the revised Regulatory and Supervisory Guidelines for BDC Operations (2024). The licences, effective from November 27, were granted across Tier 1 and Tier 2 categories, with the CBN stating that only BDCs listed on its website are authorised to operate going forward. The CBN advises the public to only initiate transactions with authorised BCDs, as more licenced operators are updated on its website. Here is a list of the newly approved BDCs: Tier 1 BCD operators Operators in this category can operate and set up branches in any state within the country, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Of the 82 newly licenced operators, only two have a Tier 1 licence, and they are: DULA GLOBAL BDC LTD TRURATE GLOBAL BDC LTD 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 TC Scoop Subscribe Tier 2 BCD operators Operators in this category are permitted to operate only in one state within the country, but can establish up to five branches, subject to approval of the CBN. The newly approved Tier 2 BCD operators include: ABBUFX BDC LTD ACHA GLOBAL BDC LTD ARCTANGENT SWIFT BDC LTD ASCENDANT BDC LTD BARACAI BDC LTD BERGPOINT BDC LTD BRAVO MODEL BDC LTD BRIMESTONE BDC LTD BROWNSTON BDC LTD BUZZWALLET BDC LTD CASHCODE BDC LTD CHATTERED BDC LTD CHRONICLES BDC LTD COOL FOREX BDC LTD CORPORATE EXCHANGE BDC LTD COURTESY CURRENCY BDC LTD DANYARO BDC LTD DASHAD BDC LTD DEVAL BDC LTD DFS BDC LTD EASY CASH BDC LTD ELELEM BDC LTD E-LIOYDS BDC LTD ELOGOZ BDC LTD ENOUF BDC LTD EVER JOJ GOLD BDC LTD EXCEL RIJIYA FOREX BDC LTD FABFOREX BDC LTD FELLOM BDC LTD FINE BDC LTD FOMAT BDC LTD GENELO BDC LTD GENTLE BREEZE BDC LTD GRACEFUL GLORY AND HUMILITY BDC LTD GREENGATE BDC LTD GREENVAULT BDC LTD HAZON CAPITAL BDC LTD HIGH-POINT BDC LTD I & I EXCHANGE BDC LTD IBN MARYAM BDC LTD JOURNEY WELL BDC LTD KEEPERS BDC LTD KHADHOUSE SOLUTIONS BDC LTD KIMMELFX BDC LTD KINGSOFT ATLANTIC BDC LTD M.S. ALHERI BDC LTD MASTERS BDC LTD MCMENA BDC LTD MKOO BDC LTD MKS BDC LTD MR J GOLF BDC LTD MUSDIQ BDC LTD MZ FOREX BDC LTD NEJJ BDC LTD LTD NETVALUE BDC LTD NEW WAVE BDC LTD NOTABLE AND KINGSTON BDC LTD PILCROW BDC LTD RAPID BDC LTD RIGHTWAY BDC LTD RWANDA BDC LTD SABLES BDC LTD SAFETRANZ BDC LTD SAMFIK BDC LTD SEVENLOCKS BDC LTD SHAPEARL BDC LTD SIMTEX BDC LTD SOLID WHITE BDC LTD ST. NICHOLAS GLOBAL BDC LTD TOPFIRST UNIQUE MULTICHOICE BDC LTD TOPGATE BDC LTD TRAVELLER’S CHOICE BDC LTD TUCA GLOBAL BDC LTD TURBOVA BDC LTD TURN-UP BDC LTD UNIGO BDC LTD VICTORY AHEAD BDC LTD WHITEWAY WWW BDC LTD YUND GLOBAL LINK BDC LTD ZAMAD FOREX BDC LTD
Read MoreNigeria’s Central Bank licences 82 BDCs in sweeping FX market cleanup
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has issued the first batch of final licences to 82 Bureau De Change operators under its 2024 Regulatory and Supervisory Guidelines, part of its move for a tighter FX market, aimed at shrinking the space for unregulated operators and restoring confidence after years of parallel-market distortions. It is also part of the CBN’s push for a tighter, compliance-heavy FX framework aimed at shrinking the space for street trading, sanitising the supply chain, and restoring confidence across the market. Under the revamped regime introduced in 2024, the CBN created two licence classes — Tier 1 and Tier 2 — with significantly higher entry thresholds. Tier 1 operators must maintain a minimum capital base of ₦2 billion ($1.38 million), while Tier 2 operators require ₦500 million ($344,385.82). The rules also shut out commercial banks, payment service banks, fintechs, IMTOs, and other regulated financial institutions from obtaining BDC licences. Of the newly licensed BCD operators, only two operate as Tier 1 BCDs, while the other 80 remain Tier 2 BCDs and must therefore be operational only in one state. This directive aims to clean up Nigeria’s informal foreign exchange (FX) market by reducing illegal operations and restoring confidence in retail FX transactions. In a statement signed by Hakama Ali, Acting Director of Corporate Communications, the CBN said the new licences became effective on November 27, 2025, issued pursuant to the Bank and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2020. “By this notice, only Bureaux De Change listed on the Bank’s website are authorised to operate from the effective date,” Ali said. “While the CBN will continue to update the list of Bureaux De Change with valid operating licences for public verification on our website (www.cbn.gov.ng), the Bank advises the general public to avoid dealing with unlicensed Foreign Exchange Operators.” Operating a BDC without a valid licence now attracts sanctions under Section 57(1) of BOFIA 2020, meaning that they are liable to a fine of up to ₦10,000,000 ($6,887.72) and an additional ₦200,000 ($137.75) for each day the infraction continues. The cleanup follows a turbulent period for the FX market. In 2024, the CBN revoked the licences of over 4,000 BDCs for failures ranging from non-payment of regulatory fees to non-compliance with AML/CFT reporting obligations. It was also the year the regulator deployed the EFCC to clear FX street traders, a practice the new guidelines have now expressly prohibited. “What we’re hoping to accomplish by this, frankly, is to bring some sanity to an industry that arguably no longer serves the interests of those whom it was meant to protect,” CBN governor Olayemi Cardoso said in 2024. The reforms come as the naira’s official and parallel rates converge at a little less than ₦1,500, an outcome the CBN hopes to solidify by tightening control over one of the most porous segments of the FX market. As the regulator continues to update the list of valid BCD operators on its website, the public is urged to verify the status of any BDC before initiating a transaction to ensure compliance with the new financial order.
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23 startups laying the groundwork for Africa’s AI growth
Artificial intelligence (AI) remains one of the tipping points in 2025. Across Africa, the conversation shifted from adoption to ownership as startups trained new models, engineered data pipelines, and built hardware that reflects the realities of low-connectivity environments and scarce compute. Africa’s biggest constraint in AI development was not talent but the lack, or complete absence of, infrastructure. There are too few data centres, power constraints, insufficient regional datasets, and limited representation in global language models. Yet the founders leading this new wave have embraced those challenges. Africa’s AI movement has shifted from consumerism to foundational building. Startups are building language models that understand local context, while others are integrating the technology in hardware tools to improve efficiency, sovereignty, and innovation. How we selected them We used a framework which relies on four pillars: The “Builder vs. Wrapper” filter A startup must own core elements of its system. It must have proprietary models, datasets, hardware, or core infrastructure. If a product simply calls an OpenAI or Anthropic application programming interface (API), it does not qualify. Automatically, this disqualifies “AI-powered” startups and generative pre-trained transformer (GPT) wrappers. Ground truth test Startups must be generating or curating original data, especially in contexts where African ground-truth data is scarce. This includes dialectal audio (Lelapa AI), drone imagery (Charis UAS), medical scans (RxScanner), and infant cry datasets (Ubenwa). Contextual architecture The technology must be built for Africa’s infrastructure constraints. This includes offline-capable models, TinyML architectures, and compute-efficient systems optimised for low-connectivity settings and low-cost hardware. Ecosystem stack segmentation Our list reflects balance across the AI stack: Layer 1: Infrastructure (compute, MLOps, deployment rails) Layer 2: Model and data builders (language models, vision models, biologically inspired models) Layer 3: AI-based deep-tech applications solving mission-critical African problems Over 2,400 African startups are building AI infrastructure or leveraging existing systems to engineer their own AI-based infrastructure as of 2024, according to an AfriLabs report. It is not possible to list them all. TechCabal selected the startups named here through independent research and conversations with people familiar with Africa’s AI ecosystem, and did not rely on the AfriLabs report for the specific names. This list prioritises startups building infrastructure from scratch (Layer 1); startups training or fine-tuning models using proprietary datasets (Layer 2); and startups building AI-based hardware (Layer 3). Here are 23 companies that represent the strongest examples of African AI infrastructure builders. Layer 1 — Infrastructure from scratch Cerebrium (South Africa) Founders: Michael Louis and Jonathan Irwin. Jonathan Irwin, CTO (left), Michael Louis, CEO (middle), and Elijah Roussous, a founding engineer (right)/Image Source: Cerebrium Founded in 2021, Cerebrium is building Africa’s most significant serverless AI infrastructure platform. Its custom runtimes and GPU optimisation layer allow engineers to deploy machine learning models with near-instant cold start times. This is foundational work, reducing reliance on global cloud providers and giving African developers a compute-efficient alternative tailored to their environments. The startup is becoming a critical backbone for regional AI deployment. Synapse Analytics (Egypt) Founders: Ahmed Abaza and Galal El Beshbishy. L-R: Ahmed Abaza and Galal El Beshbishy/Image Source: Wamda Founded in 2018, Synapse Analytics built Konan, a platform that helps large companies, especially banks and financial institutions, run their machine‑learning models in the real world. Kona gives data teams one place to put models into production, monitor how they behave, catch problems early, and update them safely, so the AI systems behind credit scoring, fraud checks, and risk models stay accurate over time. Fastagger (Kenya) Founders: Mutembei Kariuki, Jude Mwenda, and Stephanie Njerenga. Mutembei Kariuki, Fastagger CEO/Fastagger Founded in 2019, Fastagger is an edge-AI engineering startup. Its TinyML models run on low-cost devices and smartphones without relying on the cloud. This approach supports offline deployments in rural and low-connectivity environments. Self-described as an “edge AI infrastructure partner for telcos,” the startup allows telecom companies to layer AI services like credit scoring and fraud detection directly onto user devices, reducing cloud costs and improving service in areas with uneven connectivity. Fastagger is proving that Africa can set the global benchmark for lightweight, efficient model design. Awarri/N-ATLAS (Nigeria) Founders: Silas Adekunle and Eniola Edun (Awarri). Bosun Tijani, Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, listening to an Awarri staff member/Image Source: Awarri N‑ATLAS, developed with Awarri as a core technical engine, also straddles Layer 1 and Layer 2. As a model project, it is an open‑source multilingual and multimodal large language model (LLM) and speech stack fine‑tuned on hundreds of millions of tokens of localised data, including Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo and Nigerian‑accented English. It is also built with a text LLM (on Llama‑3‑class weights), and automatic speech recognition (ASR) models adapted to local speech collected via programmes like the national initiative, 3 Million Technical Talent (3MTT), and LangEasy. As infrastructure, N‑ATLAS is positioned as a national digital public good: checkpoints on Hugging Face, APIs, and software development kits (SDKs) that make it Nigeria’s language layer for chatbots, call-centres, citizen services, media transcription and accessibility tools, reducing dependence on foreign black‑box LLM APIs and giving local builders a shared foundation to extend. Lelapa AI (South Africa) Founders: Pelonomi Moiloa and Jade Abbott. L-R: Jade Abbott and Pelonomi Moiloa/Image Source: MIT Technology Review Lelapa is both a Layer 2 model builder and a Layer 1 language infrastructure provider. On the model side, its research team trains InkubaLM, a small multilingual language model built from scratch on roughly 2.4 billion tokens spanning five African languages plus English and French, and curates Inkuba‑Mono and Inkuba‑Instruct datasets for low‑resource African languages that others can pretrain and fine‑tune on. On the platform side (Layer 2), Lelapa turns its models into usable infrastructure through Vulavula, a multilingual API that offers speech recognition, translation, sentiment analysis and intent detection for African languages and code-switching. It packages its own models into tools like Transcribe, Converse, Analyse and Translate, with SDKs and hosting built in, so other African startups don’t need to rebuild the language stack from scratch. Lelapa uses Cerebrium to reduce cold-start times. Intella (Egypt) Founders: Nour
Read MoreCAC to shut down unregistered PoS operators from January 2026
Nigeria’s Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) has ordered all point-of-sale (PoS) operators to register their businesses before January 1, 2026, or risk having their terminals seized. The move marks the government’s most forceful attempt yet to formalise an industry that has grown rapidly but unevenly, and it places renewed pressure on fintech companies to tighten compliance across their agent networks. In the public notice dated December 6, 2025, the CAC said it had observed “the rising number of PoS operators running without registration,” describing the trend as a violation of the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA 2020) and the Central Bank of Nigeria’s agent banking regulation. “This reckless practice often enabled by some fintech companies puts Nigeria’s financial system and citizens’ investments at risk. This must stop.” “Effective 1 January 2026, no PoS operator will be allowed to operate without CAC registration,” the Commission said. In April 2024, TechCabal reported that the Nigerian government mandated all PoS agents to register with the CAC as part of regulatory efforts to improve transparency and reduce fraud. The crackdown follows months of policy shifts that show regulators are increasingly concerned about the size, reach, and vulnerability of Nigeria’s agent banking ecosystem, which boasts an estimated over 1.9 million PoS agents. PoS terminals processed ₦10.51 trillion in Q1 2025, a 301.67% increase from the previous year, according to data from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS). With PoS terminals now serving as the primary cash access point for millions of Nigerians, the CAC’s action signals a coordinated push to close compliance gaps. In August, the CBN ordered that all Point of Sale (PoS) terminals be restricted to a 10-metre radius of their registered address. The CAC is now directly targeting PoS operators, an industry previously overseen almost entirely by the CBN and the fintech companies that deploy agent banking terminals. It said security agencies will enforce compliance nationwide, and unregistered PoS terminals will be seized or shut down. Fintech companies enabling unregistered operators will be reported to the CBN and placed on a watchlist, it added. The directive intensifies the regulatory spotlight on fintechs, many of which have aggressively expanded their agent networks over the past five years. There were 8.36 million registered PoS terminals, with 5.90 million active/deployed as of March 2025. Fintech-led agent networks have been at the centre of conversations about fraud, KYC, and weak oversight.
Read More10 exciting African AI products launched in 2025
Across Africa, artificial intelligence (AI) has evolved from the experimental phase of generic text generators into an engine shaped by the continent’s unique realities. 2025 saw a push toward large language models (LLMs) that understand the nuances of our markets, languages, and infrastructural challenges. As AI investment rose, governments in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, and other African countries also announced roadmaps to integrate AI into key sectors of the economy, and operators began building and activating new data centres across the continent, including MTN and Airtel. With each upgrade, Africa’s AI ambitions to leverage the technology for economic growth and social development in key sectors move closer to reality. Now, the continent is buzzing with AI products and prototypes that reflect different aspirations, and these are the exciting ones launched this year. Gebeya Dala (AI app builder, Ethiopia) Launched by Gebeya, an Ethiopian software company, in October 2025 and founded by Amadou Daffe and Hiruy Amanuel, Gebeya Dala is an AI app builder designed for the African context. Cofounder Daffe built this platform after realising that most global vibe coding tools are laced with language barriers, payment challenges, and device constraints. Gebeya Daya solves this by being a mobile-first platform that lets users describe the kind of app they want in plain language, including local languages like Hausa, Swahili, Amharic, or Arabic, and then automatically generates full-stack code. What makes it fun is that app creation is not limited to trained developers. A user can tell the AI they want an app to track local crop prices in any supported language, and it will generate a fully functional app optimised for low-data environments and can even integrate features like mobile money payment gateways. Curation AI (Authentication and opinion intelligence, Nigeria) Curation AI was launched in late November by MYai Robotics, an artificial and robotics engineering firm founded by Kayode Aladesuyi. This tool emerged as a response to the deluge of misinformation, deepfakes, and synthetic media content spreading across social platforms. Curation AI is an engine for real-time content authentication, built to scan news, videos, audio, and social media posts instantly, flagging AI-generated content and manipulation before users even have the chance to share them. Curation AI also has an ‘opinion intelligence’ engine that tracks live sentiment across the web, giving users an instant snapshot of what the world actually thinks about a topic at any given moment. This means that brands, media houses, public policy institutions, or even everyday users can monitor what people are actually saying online in real time, rather than relying on outdated datasets. YarnGPT (Multilingual AI dubbing and speech technology, Nigeria) Built by Saheed Ayanniyi in February 2025, a Nigerian AI engineer who began experimenting with machine learning models during his undergraduate years at the University of Lagos, YarnGPT is an AI tool that translates videos, generates voiceovers, and converts written content into audio with Nigerian-sounding voices. Ayanniyi built the model by extracting audio and transcripts from local movies to create a dataset that understands the rhythm and intonation of Nigerian speech. The result is a text-to-speech and translation engine that “yarns” them with the correct local cadence. Its standout feature is video translation, which allows users to upload an English-language video and dub it into Yoruba, Igbo, or Hausa in minutes. It also includes a URL-to-audio conversion tool that turns a written news article into a podcast. The service also offers an API for developers building voice agents or voice-powered features. 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 TC Scoop Subscribe YesCheff (Interactive cooking, Nigeria/UK) For anyone who has ever tried to pause a YouTube cooking video with flour-covered hands, YesCheff is the kitchen assistant you didn’t know you needed. Launched in October 2025 by product designer Deji Ajetomobi, YesCheff lets users search for any delicacy, fetch the best YouTube tutorial, transcribe it, and then reorganise the content into a structured recipe. This reorganisation includes the meal overview, ingredients, steps, tools, calorie count, serving sizes, and even potential allergens, all powered by a mix of Google’s API, YouTube transcript tools, and OpenAI. YesCheff makes the cooking experience interactive, allowing users to move through each cooking step with adjustable timers, heat indicators, serving-size controls, and ingredient checklists that reveal nearby grocery stores if something is missing. JobPilot AI (Careers, Ghana) JobPilot AI was launched in April 2025 by Kelvin Agyare Yeboah and Anthony Gudu as an AI-powered career companion that combines job listings, resume building, and interview coaching into a single dashboard. It has an AI Interview Simulator that creates a real-time simulation where a user can speak to a panel of AI judges who grade confidence, technical accuracy, and delivery on the spot. It also generates Applicant Tracking System (ATS)-friendly resumes and cover letters and uses AI-assisted matching to help users discover job opportunities that align with their skill sets. It has a community forum where users can swap advice, share experiences, and strengthen their professional networks. SmartSkin Africa (AI skincare analysis and recommendation, Ghana) SmartSkin Africa was launched in November by Accessplus Communications Limited, a Ghanaian telecommunications and ICT service provider, led by Kelvin Boateng. The platform uses AI to deliver personalised skin analysis and skincare guidance tailored to African skin types. Users upload a selfie on the platform, and the AI examines up to 15 skin parameters, including acne, uneven skin tone, dark spots, pigmentation, hydration levels, wrinkles, dark circles, and overall skin firmness. After the assessment, SmartSkin Africa generates a tailored skin report along with product
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