IHS shares hit 20-month high as Nigerian telcos bounce back
IHS Towers, Africa’s largest independent telecom tower company, saw over 3 million shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on May 7, its highest single-day volume in nearly two years. The surge in trading activity, accompanied by a 9.7% jump in share price to $5.7, underscores how investor sentiment is shifting in favour of infrastructure enablers as Nigeria’s top telcos rebound from a turbulent stretch. The spike also has real implications for the future of internet connectivity in Nigeria and across IHS’s other African markets. With Nigeria contributing 58.3% of the company’s total revenue in 2024, and MTN Nigeria and Airtel Nigeria accounting for a combined 57% of that revenue, IHS’s business performance is deeply intertwined with the operational health of these telecom giants. As both telcos return to profitability in 2025 after navigating currency shocks and rising costs in recent years, investor interest in IHS Towers is growing in tandem. “In Nigeria, the NCC’s tariff increase is a positive development for mobile network operators that is expected to unlock investment in communications infrastructure,” IHS Towers said in a statement to TechCabal. IHS Towers’ share price has climbed over 51% year-to-date, outperforming the S&P 500 and the broader tech sector. Starting the year around $4.00, the stock reached $5.94 by May 7, its highest since September 2023. The company’s Q4 2024 earnings beat analyst expectations with $437.8 million in revenue and $0.73 earnings per share, fueled by strategic lease renewals with MTN and Airtel and a well-executed cost management plan. “Most analysts price us above the level of our current share price, and we remain confident in our long-term value proposition,” the company said. IHS’s stable revenue has been key to drawing investor interest. In 2024, the company locked in 72% of its revenue under long-term contracts, reducing risk and offering greater predictability for investors. These long-term agreements with MTN and Airtel assure continued demand for IHS’s towers, particularly as the telcos expand their 4G and 5G networks to support rising data consumption and a surge in new mobile subscribers. This financial stability matters for internet connectivity because reliable tower infrastructure is the backbone of mobile broadband delivery in emerging markets. The more stable and profitable IHS Towers becomes, the more aggressively it can invest in building more towers and other telecom infrastructure, particularly in underserved rural areas where connectivity gaps remain wide. IHS plans to build 500 new towers in 2025, many of which are expected to support 5G and mobile data traffic in Nigeria. The spike in IHS Towers’ share trading volume highlights a broader market shift: investors are increasingly valuing infrastructure firms that underpin large-scale digital transformation. As telecom operators prioritise profitability and cost efficiency, many embrace infrastructure-sharing models to reduce capital outlay. In March 2025, MTN Nigeria and Airtel Africa signed a landmark tower-sharing agreement that directly benefits IHS by allowing telcos to expand network coverage without fully funding new tower builds. Investor sentiment was further boosted by CEO Sam Darwish’s decision to increase his stake in the company, a move widely seen as a strong internal endorsement of IHS’s strategy and long-term growth trajectory. Darwish increased the value of his stake in IHS Towers by $7.75 million over the past month, with his holdings rising from $56.21 million to $64 million by early May 2025, driven by a 13.76% increase in the company’s share price. Still, IHS remains exposed to considerable risk as a telecom operator, particularly due to its deep operational footprint in Nigeria. The company is vulnerable to currency volatility, regulatory changes, and broader macroeconomic instability. In 2024, the naira’s steep depreciation and revised lease terms with MTN temporarily eroded margins. However, renewed agreements with Airtel Africa in February and MTN Nigeria in August 2024 have introduced more sustainable pricing structures that help cushion against foreign exchange and energy cost volatility. These renegotiations are now supporting margin recovery and enhancing IHS’s long-term financial stability. Operational challenges also persist. The company acknowledged ongoing issues with site security, vandalism, unauthorized shutdowns, and currency exposure. “As a TowerCo, we continue to face operational challenges, such as those related to site security, sabotage, illegitimate shutdown of sites, and exposure to currency fluctuations, but we are committed to delivering for our customers,” IHS said. Despite these hurdles, the company’s ability to adapt and secure long-term contracts with anchor tenants like MTN and Airtel appears to be resonating with global investors, which is now reflected in both its share price and trading activity.
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Access Bank, ABC top five lenders risking CBK penalties for raising loan rates
Access Bank Kenya and ABC Bank top the list of commercial banks risking penalties from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) for raising lending rates despite warnings from regulators to align loan pricing with benchmark rate cuts. The two banks recorded the steepest average interest rates among the five commercial lenders that increased interest rates in March. According to CBK data, Access Bank raised its weighted average lending rate to 20.5% in March, up from 20.39% in February, while ABC raised its rate to 17.54% from 17.42%. DIB Bank followed with an increase to 17.07% from 16.58%, Kingdom Bank to 14.42% from 14.28%, and Guardian Bank to 13.94% from 13.68%. The rate increases place the banks in breach of the CBK directive. In February, the regulator warned that it would begin imposing daily penalties from June on banks that fail to adjust credit pricing in line with the central bank’s benchmark rate cuts. Since August 2024, the CBK has steadily lowered its policy rate, most recently trimming it in April from 10.75% to 10%. Access Bank, ABC, DIB, Kingdom, and Guardian Bank did not immediately respond to requests for comments. According to Kenya’s Banking Act, the CBK can impose fines of KES 20 million ($154,619) or three times the monetary gain on banks that fail to comply with industry regulations. Lenders also face a daily penalty of KES 100,000 ($773) per violation, while bank officials may be fined up to KES 1 million ($7,730). Other commercial banks, including KCB Group, Equity Group, Cooperative Bank, I&M, NCBA, and DTB, have cut interest rates by one to four percentage points. The CBK launched on-site inspections in February following growing frustration over banks’ resistance to adjusting credit pricing despite successive rate cuts. Governor Kamau Thugge said in April that the regulator had completed inspections of 13 out of 38 licensed banks and would finish all reviews by the end of June. “We will soon start having discussions with the boards of institutions with complete inspections. Following that, decisions would be made as to what kind of penalties, if any, that will be brought on board,” Thugge said. Since August 2024, the regulator has held multiple meetings with bank CEO and boards to urge them to pass monetary benefits to borrowers. “All we are asking is for banks to be fair and to act in the same way that they were quick to raise lending rates when the policy rate was increasing and the treasury rates were increasing,” Thugge said in December. CBK is also scrapping the risk-based credit pricing model in favour of pegging lending rates to its benchmark policy rate, which it hopes would improve the transmission of monetary policy decisions to borrowers and push for transparency in a market that has been criticised for opacity. However, the Kenyan Bankers Association (KBA) has rejected the proposal by the CBK to use the Central Bank Rate (CBR) as the benchmark for pricing credit, paired with a lending premium known as “K”. Instead, they are backing the interbank rate— the rate at which banks lend to one another—as a more market-sensitive benchmark.
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The Next Wave: Rethinking what banks are for
Cet article est aussi disponible en français <!– In partnership with –> <!–TopBanner Join us for TechCabal Battlefield, Moonshot’s startup competition where you can showcase your startup idea to a global audience and an esteemed panel of judges and stand a chance to win up to 2.5 million naira in funding for your business! Click to register for TC Battlefield First published 11 May, 2025 Rethinking what banks are for Image | TechCabal African economies are growing, fintech is booming, and mobile money has changed how millions handle cash. But behind all the progress lies a stubborn problem: we’ve copied banking systems that aren’t working even in the places they came from. Global banks keep failing. Big ones like Credit Suisse collapse or get absorbed. In the US, new regulations haven’t stopped scandals. In Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa, banking is still shaped by colonial-era models, even as digital platforms leap ahead. That raises a basic but loaded question: what should a bank actually do? Financial systems are not neutral. They shape who gets credit, who holds risk, and who controls the flow of money. Get it wrong, and you either fuel inequality or crash the economy. Right now, the structure of African banking is caught between two extremes. On one side, licenced banks are slow, cautious, and risk-averse. On the other hand, fintechs and mobile money platforms move fast, but often lack the stability and safety nets of traditional finance. Next Wave continues after this ad. AfriLabs Annual Gathering 2025 lands in Nairobi, Oct 7–9, spotlighting Africa’s innovation future through policy, partnerships, and progress. Find out more here! Most African banks still mix different roles. They hold deposits, move payments, lend to governments, and dabble in corporate finance. That sounds efficient, but it creates hidden risks. If a bank uses customer deposits to chase high returns and loses the bet, who picks up the tab? In many cases, the public does. That’s what happened with collapsed banks like Chase Bank and Imperial Bank in Kenya, and the massive bailout of Union Bank in Nigeria years ago. Regulation tightens, but the model stays the same. A growing number of economists argue it’s time to split banking functions. This idea isn’t new. In the 1930s, the US introduced the Glass-Steagall Act, which separated commercial banking (deposits and payments) from investment banking (risk-taking and capital markets). It was repealed in the 1990s. Since then, global banks have become bigger, more complex, and harder to regulate. The 2008 crisis showed what happens when the line between safe and risky finance disappears. Next Wave continues after this ad. Moonshot is back, and this year, it’s about moving from resilience to results. With the theme Building Momentum, the 2025 edition explores how Africa’s digital economy can shift gears into scale, structure, and long-term growth. Expect more honest reflections, sharper insights, closed-door roundtables, and conversations that don’t end when the panels do. Watch the 2024 highlights. Early bird discount now available Reserve your spot here! One proposal that’s making a quiet comeback is “narrow banking”. Think of it this way: one kind of institution handles your everyday payments and savings. It holds only safe assets like government bonds and doesn’t make risky loans. Another type of institution raises money for investment, like housing or infrastructure, but does so without leaning on insured deposits. The two don’t mix. If the investment bank goes bust, it doesn’t bring down the payment system with it. It sounds neat, but it’s far from simple. Narrow banking could make it harder for banks to fund private sector growth, especially in places where public spending is weak. That’s a big deal in African markets, where credit is already tight and expensive. If banks can’t lend as freely, will governments pick up the slack? Will central banks become the main providers of credit? Or do we risk a new kind of financial drought? Next Wave continues after this ad. The Lagos Startup Expo returns on June 18–19, 2025, at Landmark Centre, Victoria Island, with the theme “Connect, Invest and Innovate.” This year’s edition will host over 200 startups across fintech, healthtech, AI, and more, offering live demos, founder meetups, and networking with investors. Open to the public, the expo features regular and VIP passes—with VIPs gaining access to expert-led masterclasses and investor lounges. Register here! Some might argue we’re already there. In Kenya, mobile money wallets like M-PESA dominate transactions but don’t directly fund business growth. In Nigeria, fintech lending apps are everywhere, but few can scale sustainably. In Ghana, the banking clean-up shrank the sector and left a vacuum for informal lenders. Without a rethink, we’ll keep patching a broken model. The next wave of banking in Africa won’t just be about who builds the best app, but about who dares to ask: should banks still do everything, or is it time to draw clear lines? And if we separate safe money from risky money, who gets left out? There’s no easy answer, but the time for lazy fixes is long gone. Next Wave ends after this ad. Save the Date! We’re taking over Art Hotel, VI on May 16 for an exclusive gathering of tech leaders. Expect: Insightful panels, Live demos, Real connections Limited seats available! Kenn Abuya Senior Reporter, TechCabal. Feel free to email kenn[at]bigcabal.com, with your thoughts about this edition of NextWave. Or just click reply to share your thoughts and feedback. We’d love to hear from you Psst! Down here! Thanks for reading today’s Next Wave. Please share. Or subscribe if someone shared it to you here for free to get fresh perspectives on the progress of digital innovation in Africa every Sunday. As always feel free to email a reply or response to this essay. I enjoy reading those emails a lot. TC Daily newsletter is out daily (Mon – Fri) brief of all the technology and business stories you need to know. Get it in your inbox each weekday at 7 AM (WAT). Follow TechCabal
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👨🏿🚀TechCabal Daily – Safaricom reaches for the sky
In partnership with Lire en Français اقرأ هذا باللغة العربية Good morning. Moonshot is back! Last year, we hosted 4,000 visitors from across the globe at the Eko Convention Centre, where we had an awesome experience discussing AI, the creative economy, cleantech, emerging tech, big tech, digital commerce, and lots more. This year we have even bigger content tracks, new formats, more depth, and a sharper focus on execution. If you need convincing to attend, watch the 2024 highlights. Early bird discount now available. We have a lot of telecom stories in today’s dispatch. Let’s dig in. PS: If you do one thing this week, let it be this: end your meetings on time. Don’t be like ChatGPT, which still hasn’t mastered the art of brevity. Your colleagues will thank you. Safaricom wants a piece of satellite tech MTN’s ₦1 trillion quarter: Nigeria’s telco titan is just getting started Bayobab unveils fibre optic route linking Uganda to Kenya Safaricom Ethiopia cuts losses by 65% in 2024 World Wide Web 3 Job Openings Telecoms Safaricom wants a piece of satellite tech Peter Ndegwa, Safaricom chief executive/Image Source: Safaricom In Kenya, the scorned has become the MVP every telecom operator wants to get a deal with. On May 9, Safaricom, Kenya’s largest telecom operator, told investors that it is exploring partnership options with satellite operators in the country. Who wants to wager a few dollars that Starlink is top of that list? Starlink has gone from foe to friend in months, after Safaricom tried to get regulators to kick out the US-based satellite internet company in September 2024, citing its lack of physical presence in the country. Shortly after, Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa told Bloomberg that it was open to a partnership with Starlink, but that deal never happened. Instead, its competitor Airtel Africa got there first. For a satellite deal to happen, Safaricom has three options other than Starlink: Eutelsat OneWeb, AST SpaceMobile, and Globalstar. OneWeb is currently B2B-focused; Globalstar doesn’t provide consumer broadband; and SpaceMobile—which Safaricom ironically partnered with in 2023—is still testing its technology, making Starlink the most viable option. Is a deal with Starlink still possible for Safaricom? The devil is in the details. Safaricom signed on to be a backhaul service provider for Airtel. The deal allows Starlink to connect Airtel’s cell towers to the internet via its satellites. This allows Airtel to bypass the regular fibre and radio wave (wireless) methods of backhauling that telecom operators typically use. It also helps Airtel provide internet in remote areas without erecting new cell towers—or it can connect existing ones in these areas to satellites to strengthen its network. This makes Starlink a technical partner for Airtel. But does it complicate a deal for Safaricom? Unless there’s a signed exclusivity with Airtel, Starlink can still work with Safaricom as a wholesale infrastructure provider (if Elon Musk is not angry about the stunt Safaricom pulled). Telecom operators like Airtel and Safaricom are looking to satellite technology to increase their reach to remote areas, but they lack the technical and engineering expertise to build and launch satellites. This is why they are going for partnerships. While other satellite operators may not be out of the picture for Safaricom, it will likely be trying to woo Starlink, hoping Airtel does not mind a double date. Seamless Global Payments With Fincra. Issue accounts in NGN, KES, EUR, USD & more with one integration. Send & receive funds seamlessly across borders; no more banking hassles or complex conversions. Create an account for free & go global today. 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Day 1–1000: How Tunde Akin-Moses built Sycamore from his living room
What does it really take to build a startup in Africa—from the first idea to the thousandth day? In Day 1–1000, we follow founders through the raw, unfiltered journey of company-building: the early scrambles, the quiet breakthroughs, the painful pivots, and the milestones that shape what a business becomes. In this inaugural edition, we sit with Tunde Akin-Moses, co-founder of Sycamore, to unpack how a simple lending idea grew into one of Nigeria’s quietly resilient fintech stories. Day 1: A loan, a list and a leap Tunde Akin-Moses didn’t set out to become a fintech founder. But ever since his days working in credit at a consulting firm, he had noticed a persistent gap in Nigeria’s lending system—one that seemed to punish the people who needed credit most. Before Sycamore, he was comfortably employed at a major consulting firm and moonlighting as a small laundry business owner. But the Nigerian credit system treated those two roles very differently. “As a nine-to-five employee, banks lined up to give me loans. But when I needed a loan for my side hustle, even with similar revenue, it was impossible,” he recalled. The disparity nagged at him, but it was not enough to quit his job. That push came later, at Lagos Business School, where he was enrolled in an MBA program that would alter the trajectory of his life. During a case study on African fintechs serving SMEs, Akin-Moses discovered a stat that stunned him: SMEs accounted for just 1% of all bank credit in Nigeria. Along with his classmates—Mayowa Adeosun and Onyinye Okonji—who would later become his co-founders, Akin-Moses began testing ideas for a solution. Akin-Moses and his cofounders first explored about three ideas. First, they thought to give out educational loans to MBA students, but the capital required for such large ticket sizes was prohibitive. “It didn’t make sense to fund two students when we could help twenty small businesses instead,” he said. The team pivoted early. Inspired by Lending Club and Prosper in the U.S., they stumbled upon peer-to-peer (P2P) lending and realized its promise: a tech-enabled platform where individuals could pool their money to lend directly to others—typically small businesses or consumers—without relying on banks or traditional financial institutions. The model was radical but lean. It sidestepped the need for a banking license, required minimal capital, and thrived on the power of distributed trust and digital efficiency. So they launched Sycamore from Akin-Moses’ living room. Sycamore’s co-founders, Onyinye Okonji (L) and Mayowa Adeosun (Center) in Tunde Akin-Moses’ (R) living room where the startup launched. Akin-Moses and his co-founders used their combined savings and raised around $50,000 from friends, family, and LBS classmates to start issuing microloans to SMEs. While the company couldn’t afford engineers at the beginning to build its own custom tool, it modified a third-party platform and began lending in 2019. Sycamore disbursed its first loan—about ₦1.5 million, or ~$4100—in 2019. The company would get its first 100 customers from its Lagos Business School Network. “We had a lot of goodwill when we started. You know people were always using us as a point of reference. And being from LBS also really helped,” Akintunde recounted. Sycamore’s major validation came in 2020. A lender who had been watching the company quietly approached to invest ₦100 million ($260,000 at the time)—ten times the size any previous investor had committed to the company. “That was when we knew the scale of the business had changed,” Akin-Moses said. 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Read MoreWhy Glovo thinks Nigeria is its biggest African bet yet
After exiting Ghana in 2024, citing profitability issues, Glovo is placing its next big bet on Nigeria. The country now represents the food delivery giant’s most promising growth market in Africa, as it shifts focus to regions showing stronger traction. When Glovo launched in Morocco in 2018, its first African market, the goal was simple: test the waters and move fast if things clicked. It did, and by 2019, the Spanish food delivery giant began rapidly expanding into new African cities. Today, Africa accounts for 25% of Glovo’s global footprint, and the company has invested more than €206 million ($220 million) on the continent. As competition tightens and funding pressure mounts, Glovo is doubling down on markets that show a clearer path to profitability. “If you look at the economics, the number of cities, and the complexities around urban logistics, all the indicators show Nigeria can be a really great market for us,” said William Benthall, Glovo’s global public affairs lead, in an interview on the sidelines of GITEX Africa in Marrakech. A big bet on Africa While global delivery platforms have slowed or halted their ambitions in Africa, Glovo is taking the opposite approach. The company, which was acquired by Germany’s Delivery Hero in 2022, sees Africa as a strategic pillar of its growth ambitions. Glovo operates in six African countries: Nigeria, Kenya, Morocco, Tunisia, Uganda, and Ivory Coast. Since entering the continent in 2018, Glovo says it has provided 60,000 riders with income opportunities and onboarded over 45,000 shops and restaurants across the continent, 90% of which are small- and medium-sized businesses. The company claims those vendors have earned more than €1 billion ($1.07 billion) in direct economic value through Glovo in the past four years alone. The company has onboarded around 3,000 vendors and works with 2,000 active riders in Nigeria. Its quick commerce segment, which includes groceries and non-food retail shops, has become its fastest-growing vertical in Nigeria, with gross merchandise value (GMV) surging 76% year-over-year in 2024. However, the company declined to share specific numbers. Why Ghana didn’t work Glovo’s expansion into Ghana was always a bet with some risk. The launch came at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, during which Ghana imposed some of the continent’s strictest travel and testing rules, Benthall said. “It was the only country where you had to be tested to leave your home country, when you entered, and again when you left,” he recalled. That severely disrupted the international community in Accra, one of Glovo’s target user bases. Add to that Ghana’s steep inflation, currency devaluation, and smaller overall market size, and the exit became inevitable. “We could have done it better. Or maybe we were unlucky. Probably both,” he said. “It became clear that even if we weathered the short-term pain, the long-term picture still looked uncertain.” While Glovo’s reasons are valid, a closer look reveals a more complex picture. Even pre-pandemic, Ghana’s food delivery market had been competitive with established players like Jumia Food and Bolt Food. While e-commerce giant Jumia discontinued its food delivery business in Ghana and other countries, citing poor financial performance in those specific markets, Bolt Food has thrived in Ghana, relying on wide vendor selection, high service quality, and affordable but viable pricing. Nigeria’s Chowdeck, with over 1 million users in three years, is also expanding to Accra, becoming the latest entrant in a market projected to reach $291 million by 2029. Benthall leaves the door open. “If circumstances change, we’d certainly consider going back,” adding that Glovo will launch in new African markets, though he declined to share which ones. All-in on Nigeria If Ghana is a cautionary tale, Nigeria is Glovo’s next big test. The company was relatively late to launch in Africa’s largest economy, and has had to contend with its economic volatility, including naira devaluation, rising inflation, and infrastructure gaps. Yet Glovo sees Nigeria as its most important long-term play on the continent. Executives visited in January to assess market conditions, and the consensus, Benthall said, was unanimous: invest more. That investment is taking several forms. The company runs a customer service center in Nigeria, enabling users to speak with local agents familiar with their needs and context. Glovo has also deployed sales teams to onboard local restaurants to repeat orders. “We’re not going to succeed there just by having Chicken Republic and really big names, we’re going to succeed by really understanding people’s local food preferences and local store preferences,” Benthall said, referring to the company’s strategy to build a hyper-localised marketplace. Brand visibility is another major focus. “If you drive around Lagos, you’ll see billboards across the city,” Benthall noted. “It’s all part of building top-of-mind awareness.” From food to everything When Benthall joined Glovo in 2019, quick commerce—ultra-fast delivery typically within one hour of placing an order—was less than 10% of the company’s African order volume. Today, it makes up 30% to 50% of all orders, depending on the market, and it’s still growing. While Glovo declined to disclose exact GMV figures, the shift underscores what Benthall sees as the real opportunity. “This is the future,” he said. “I didn’t join Glovo to just deliver burgers. I joined because I saw that quick commerce was where the opportunity was.” That opportunity is increasingly visible in Nigeria, where delivery platforms that started as restaurant aggregators are now adding non-food items—including personal care, electronics, and pharmaceuticals—to their inventory. Chowdeck lists beauty and wellness items from vendors like Zaron and Medplus. Bolt Food also recently added convenience items in select areas, including beverages and packaged snacks. Why food delivery isn’t always fast Delivering food fast proved difficult for the global company used to working with restaurants with advanced cooking technology and less time-consuming recipes. Early on, Africa had the longest delivery wait times across Glovo’s global operations, Benthall said. Glovo’s average delivery time in Lagos is around one hour. Every 10-minute delay in delivery cuts reorder rates by 20%. In Africa, where poor road infrastructure and
Read MoreEverything I heard at the AVCA Conference
Last week, the African Venture Capital Association (AVCA) brought its flagship VC Summit back to Lagos, the home of Africa’s unicorns, for the first time in a decade, and the timing could hardly have been more charged. Against a backdrop of painful FX devaluations and a global capital-raising cooldown that has hit the continent hard, Africa’s biggest investors drilled into the continent’s toughest questions: how to unlock follow-on capital, where the next exits will come from, and who will underwrite growth outside the “Big 4” tech markets. In case you missed the insightful panels, in-person conversations, and the food and drinks, not to worry; here’s everything I heard at the AVCA Conference. From Calendly’s future plans straight from the CEO’s mouth to how Africa’s newest unicorn, Moniepoint, wants investors to earn dividends before a possible IPO. Calendly’s $3 billion lesson: Price, distribution, data Before the investors even started discussing solutions to Africa’s problems, Tope Awotona, the founder of Calendly, talked about how three elements—price, distribution and data—made his company a success. “I didn’t invent online scheduling,” Awotona told a packed opening-keynote fireside, “I just made it accessible.” Awotona explained at the AVCA Conference that his three-step playbook: price (freemium), distribution (viral links), and product (data-driven iteration) now looks prescient in an era when cash-burn tolerance has evaporated. The pandemic, he noted, merely “pulled demand forward.” Virtual meetings took off, Calendly’s user data exploded, and revenue began landing within 99.9% of the company’s forecast. Awotona argued that bottom-up PLG (product-led growth) can be as predictable as enterprise sales if the volume is big enough. Calendly’s next act? Embedding AI to “nurture” customers and keep churn negligible over the next five to seven years. Life Below 0 °C: Fundraising when the music stops Khaled Ben Jilani of AfricInvest set the tone for the first panel—Life Below 0 °C—reminding delegates that the firm has survived four macro meltdowns in 30 years by treating each as “part of a cycle, not the end.” Panelists converged on three survival rules: 1. Local asymmetry matters. Africa is a mosaic; regulatory fluency, particularly in payments, has become a non-negotiable moat. 2. Stablecoins are functional now. With 20% of global stablecoin volume already touching Africa, cross-border trade finance is being repriced “from days to milliseconds”. 3. Unit economics outrank narratives. “We’re running from models that only work at unsustainable scale,” said Mareme Dieng, partner at 500 Global, doubling down on AI-healthcare hybrids where proprietary data cuts training costs. Bridging the missing-middle The Unlocking Scale panel at the AVCA Conference tackled Africa’s yawning late-Series A/B capital gap. Walter Baddoo of 4DX fame offered the bluntest remedy: “By Series A, you need to look like a Series B company in the U.S.—or you won’t clear diligence.” Dr. Omobola Johnson, the first Nigerian minister of communications and technology and TLcom partner, urged founders to craft global stories early, while Brian Odhiambo of Novastar called venture debt the “untapped bridge” but warned that Africa still lacks the predictable revenue curves lenders crave. Titans of Industry: Inside Moniepoint and QED Tosin Eniolorunda traced Moniepoint’s rise from an InterSwitch spin-out to a platform that now processes $1.2 billion in monthly transactions. The secret? “Great fundamentals—top-line growth, EBITDA margins, ROE—then exits take care of themselves.” Nigeria’s anaemic stock market means the company is eyeing sovereign wealth or leveraged buyouts before any IPO, Eniolorunda said. Across the Atlantic, Nigel Morris of global fintech investors, QED Investors, distilled a fintech investment checklist: do no harm, price in risk, master fraud and collections, never build on loopholes, and stay intellectually humble. Half of QED’s capital now sits outside the U.S., yet 90% of its Limited Partners’ (LP) money is still American—evidence, Morris said, of “a perception lag that a single African breakout could erase.” No pressure on Moniepoint, I guess. What LPs really want in 2025 Limited partners really matter. They give fund managers money, and without them, there would be no venture capital and definitely no startups, so hearing what they want at the AVCA Conference was something most investors needed. DFI heavyweights from British International Investment, Proparco, Visa Foundation and FSD Africa Investments lined up for the LP Mindset session. The headline: discipline and differentiation beat vintage-year internal rate of return. Here are the other takeaways from the panel: Team over track record for first-time managers—but only if cohesion is ironclad. Exit thesis first. “Start with who’s buying,” urged Visa Foundation’s Najada Kumbuli. Distributed to Paid-In Capital (how much of the invested capital has been returned to investors) is king. With IPO windows shut, secondary sales and mergers and acquisitions are the new scoreboard. Venture debt: Cautious optimism Returns look “very good”, said Rosanne Whalley of AHL Venture Partners, but African venture debt will stay niche until founders accept that profitability, not the next equity round, secures loans. Convertible notes drew near-universal scorn for misaligning interests when startups stumble. Beyond the Big 4: Betting on Addis, Kigali and Dar-es-Salam Only 30% of Africa’s people live in Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt and South Africa, (the Big 4) but those four markets swallow 80% of VC dollars. Panellists argued that the imbalance cannot persist. Henok Assefa, the co-founder of Addis Ababa Angels, called Ethiopia “Nigeria ten years ago—raw talent, zero hype.” Sissi Frank, an investment officer at BIO, said deals are cheaper outside the Big 4 but warned scarcity of exit data scares LP committees. The Next Wave: Fintech (still), B2B SaaS and asset-backed plays Late-afternoon debate pivoted to sectors that could mint the next “soonicorns.” The consensus picks on the promising fund returners were: Embedded fintech everywhere. Fintech is no longer a vertical; it is the plumbing beneath others. Enterprise software for Africa’s real economy. From supply-chain ERPs to climate tech, B2B adoption is finally catching up, and investors are excited. Asset-backed finance. Future Africa’s Iyinoluwa Aboyeji is backing models that “take 20% of every productive asset they fund” as a hedge against weak discretionary spending. For all the hand-wringing about liquidity droughts and FX pain, the
Read MoreDespite record profits, Nigeria’s biggest banks see weak brand equity growth
Nigeria’s largest banks posted record earnings in 2024, but that financial strength hasn’t translated into brand momentum. A new report shows they recorded the weakest brand equity growth among Africa’s top banking markets, trailing peers in Kenya, South Africa, and Egypt. Brand equity, a measure of perceived trust, loyalty, and reputation, is not a financial metric but often influences consumer behavior and market share. Access Bank, GTCO, Zenith Bank, UBA, and First Bank of Nigeria collectively earned ₦4.14 trillion ($2.58 billion) in 2024, yet their combined brand value grew just 5.37% to $1.57 billion, according to the 2025 African Banking report by Brand Finance, a London-based brand valuation consultancy. That sluggish growth contrasts with double-digit brand equity gains in Kenya and South Africa, where digital innovation and stronger customer trust drive value. In Nigeria, the gap is increasingly being filled by fintechs, which outpaced traditional banks in customer satisfaction ratings last year, according to a report by KPMG Nigeria. “Despite significant profits reported by banks, their brand value hasn’t seen a corresponding increase, as the expansion of digital banking has not yet translated into a comprehensive impact,” Babatunde Odumeru, managing director at Brand Finance Nigeria, said. He said banking brands in Kenya, South Africa, and Egypt outperform Nigeria because they have been able to use their digital infrastructure much more effectively to achieve financial inclusion, “thus creating stronger brands in the process.” Odumeru added that the impact of inflation and naira devaluation also contributed to the slow growth in brand value by increasing operating costs and reducing operating earnings. Kenya’s Equity Bank, Commercial Bank (KCB), and Co-Operative Bank saw brand value rise by 25.1% to $1.18 billion. South Africa’s major banks, including Standard Bank, First National Bank, and Absa, followed with a 23.6% surge to $8.86 billion. Egyptian banks grew more modestly — 8.03% to $1.48 billion — but still outpaced Nigeria. The report revealed that on the top 22 African banking list, Zenith Bank and UBA were the only banks that saw a decline in their brand value, dropping by 16% and 26% respectively. In contrast, Access Bank, GTCO, and First Bank of Nigeria recorded brand growth, with increases of 17.8%, 31.6%, and 25.4%. How Kenya, Egypt, and South Africa are boosting banking brands In Kenya, commercial banks have integrated with platforms like M-Pesa to provide real-time loans, savings, and insurance to millions of previously unbanked users. Equity Bank and KCB, which posted combined profits of over $850 million (KSh110.6 billion) in 2024, have deployed mobile lending tools and scaled agent networks that make banking available, even in rural communities. Those efforts boosted Kenya’s formal financial inclusion rate to 84.8% in 2024, up from 75% in 2016, according to the Central Bank of Kenya. South African banks are leveraging digital-only offerings to drive scale and trust. TymeBank, launched in 2019, is Africa’s first digital bank to break even, with nine million users. Capitec Bank’s brand value skyrocketed by 81% in 2025 after a 21% spike in digital app adoption and savvy use of AI for customer engagement. Between 2011 and 2021, Southern Africa improved financial inclusion from 53.7% to 85.4% through the rapid adoption of digital financial services, including mobile money. In Egypt, the Central Bank has aggressively pushed digital transformation, resulting in a 181% rise in financial inclusion between 2016 and 2024. State-owned Banque Misr is launching the country’s first digital-only bank in the second half of 2025, while Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank Egypt is investing over EGP 1 billion ($19.6 million) in digital infrastructure and cybersecurity. A strong digital banking offering (online and/or mobile) is crucial for building brand strength, according to Jenny Moore, strategy & insight consultant at Brand Finance Africa. “It is no longer just a functional feature or a competitive advantage; it has become an essential part of any banking offering and key to building brand love, brand reputation, and credibility,” she said. A recent report by The Engagement Banking Platform, a Dutch financial technology company, said around 76% of banks in Africa rank digital transformation as either their top priority or among the top three, and about 60% of African banks have now digitally transformed most of their operations. Financial inclusion remains key Despite initiatives like the Bank Verification Number (BVN) and National Financial Inclusion Strategy, about 37% of rural Nigerians remain outside the formal banking system in 2023, compared to just 17% in urban areas. Financial inclusion in Nigeria improved from 56% in 2020 to 64% in 2023, but progress remains uneven and urban-centric. Traditional banks still prioritise high-net-worth individuals, middle-income families, and salaried urban workers, leaving vast informal and rural sectors underserved, unlike Kenyan banks, which scaled agent banking and mobile platforms to penetrate rural and underserved areas, deepening brand visibility and trust. In 2023, Nigerian banks significantly increased their agent banking networks to promote financial inclusion nationwide. According to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), agent banking touchpoints grew by 47%, reaching 1.47 million in 2022, up from 1.02 million in 2021. In response to growing competition from fintech companies and improving customer service, banks have increased their investments in technology. In 2024, six of them collectively spent ₦268.7 billion ($171.5 million) on IT upgrades, a 74.5% increase from ₦153.8 billion ($98.2 million) in 2023. “The most effective path to brand growth today is through digital innovation,” Babatunde of Brand Finance said. “Nigerian Banks must embrace deeper collaboration with fintechs to stay relevant and competitive in a rapidly evolving financial landscape.” Nigeria’s largest banks must keep innovating or risk becoming financially rich but brand-poor, losing relevance, market share, and customer trust to more agile rivals across Africa.
Read MoreTheir careers no longer paid well, so they joined Zimbabwe’s gig economy
When ride-hailing service, Rida, launched in Harare, Zimbabwe in 2023, it not only brought convenience to commuters, but also attracted professionals who are leaving their jobs to supplement their meagre salaries as gig workers. Though Zimbabwe’s literacy rates are comparably higher than the rest of the continent, according to a 2014 Labour Force and Child Labour Survey, only 4.9% of the working population are professionals. Many Zimbabweans in this demographic, however, are increasingly unable to meet their cost of living needs as inflation and currency changes continue to worsen the country’s economy. In 2014, average private sector wage was US$340, below the Poverty Datum Line (PDL) for a family of five. To survive, the majority moonlight, embark on side hustles, or seek out a source of livelihood in other sectors, like ride-hailing. One such professional, Talkmore*, 34, who asked for anonymity for professional reasons, graduated in 2015 with a degree in accounting from the University of Zimbabwe (UZ), and has worked at a local accounting firm, earning US$400 monthly after nearly a decade. “For me, it was no longer viable to continue working as an accountant at a local firm, and getting paid around US$400 a month, when I could drive a taxi, and make almost double that amount, at the same time, making enough for my family,” Talkmore told TechCabal. On average, in 2025, a single individual’s monthly expenses can range between $500 and $800, excluding rent. Including rent, especially in urban areas like Harare, the total can rise to $1,200 or more, depending on lifestyle and housing choices. Making ends meet Talkmore says when he graduated, he had high hopes for a successful career. But over the years, the corporate world grew more demanding yet less rewarding, his salary barely enough to cover basics, like rentals and transportation. He took interest in the ride-hailing sector after a friend mentioned it to him and began saving to purchase a car. The goal was to join a service and supplement his income. In 2024, he withdrew his lifetime savings—amounting to US$3,000—and with an additional US$2,000 loan from a friend, purchased a second-hand car. 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After a rigorous vetting process and background checks, he was onboarded onto the platform and began taking ride requests during his lunch breaks and after work hours. In a few days, he was making three to four rides a day, earning an extra US$50-US$60 per day. “At first, I had to sneak out of my workplace and sometimes got into trouble with my superiors,” Talkmore said. “Since then, I have gained a regular clientele, especially those working at night.” Like Talkmore, Emassy Tawanda Ndorodzavashe, 30, an IT technician by training, said he joined the ride-hailing sector to supplement his income. “What motivated most of us to join inDrive is because it is flexible, I can work at my own time and pace, and I don’t have a fixed timetable. If I get five to six clients a day, on a good day, I can easily make $50-$60,” Ndorodzavashe said. For 40-year-old Davidson* (not real name for professional reasons), a former professional sports instructor, fewer available opportunities to coach school children drove him into joining the ride-hailing gig economy. “The interest in sports and
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This SaaS company wants Nigerian & African tailors to ditch ‘paper and pen’ operations
Consider for a minute, Stylebitt co-founder, Precious Aleaji, invites me over a video chat, how most industries have foundational software(s) with which they operate. In the service industry, a customer care agent must know their way around Zendesk; in writing and publishing, a range of software from Scrivener and WordPress to InDesign. A banker must know their way around Finacle or other similar software. The fashion industry, at least as it operates in Nigeria and most parts of Africa, though valued at around $31 billion, has no such distinct software. Aleaji knows this because he’s worked in the fashion industry for most of his young adult life. After learning to make leather footwear at 10, he later founded and ran Legendfitz, a leather shoe manufacturing company, until 2020, when it shut down due to pandemic-induced supply chain glitches and declining sales. After it shuttered, Aleaji went to work for several Lagos fashion houses, which exposed him to the operational gaps fashion designers faced. It was during this period that the idea for Stylebitt, a fashion business management software, was conceived. The first version was released in mid 2023. One of those fashion houses was Ngolongolo Couture, a high-end bespoke fashion business located in Victoria Garden City on the Lagos Island. He joined the business around Christmas time. If you’ve tried to have clothes made in Nigeria during a festive season, you’ve likely worried about or been at the receiving end of one of many inefficiencies of Nigerian fashion businesses; from delayed delivery timelines to inaccuracies in style or proportion. Aleaji said it was no different at Ngolongolo Couture: they were only able to fulfil about 47% of orders around that period due to some of those familiar issues, which inadvertently left some customers dissatisfied. The business, like the others he worked at, became “like a space of research,” Aleaji said, informing the features that Stylebitt offers tailors and other fashion entrepreneurs today. How many measurement books do you need? Though African fashion is increasingly taking centre stage globally, it is still largely informal, and thus plagued by infrastructural and operational deficiencies. Technology, like online marketplaces and e-commerce, has helped bridge some of those gaps, but the industry is yet to see tech adoption on the scale that transforms its backend operations: inventory and personnel management, cost of operations, invoicing, and other elements that scale a business and make it profitable. Photo by Ben Iwara on Unsplash For one, many Nigerian tailoring and fashion businesses rely heavily on manual tools for their operations. Fashion entrepreneur, Chidimma Owoh, whose Lagos-based bespoke tailoring outfit has been operational for about four years, said she keeps track of her operations manually. Owoh said that at the beginning of every month, she takes stock of what jobs the business has in the pipeline and whether her rotational staff of three to four tailors can accept more orders or not. Her tailoring business makes women and children’s clothing with prices starting at ₦150,000 ($94). Owoh’s continued use of manual tools isn’t due to a lack of trying to adopt technology tools. Owoh said she isn’t very tech-savvy and needs software that isn’t complex. In addition, “most times there’s no Nigerian version,” she said, and paying in dollars with a Naira card is always a hassle. “I definitely want to use a more automated system,” Owoh said. Hunt Couture’s Abiodun Ettu said on a call that his business, a bespoke menswear brand which he began in 2008, used a workflow notebook to keep track of customer information and production until about six months ago. Ettu said his decision to go digital resulted not only from the need for better oversight of multiple productions and deadlines but also the need to prioritise production of clothes for both high-end and average clientele equally (his outfit makes clothing that range in prices from ₦50,000 to ₦500,000 (~$31 to $311). At Ngolongolo Couture, where some of the ideas behind Stylebitt first started to take shape, owner Uche Njoku said that when he opened in 2010, he imagined a business that employed some digital tools for efficiency but could not find those solutions. A former professional football player, Njoku began his entrepreneurship journey in Aba, where he was born and raised. His mother owned a fashion business and he often helped out on breaks from school and football. He launched his own business there in 1988, buying fabric and employing tailors to make wears for his clients. He continued for several years in Europe, after his football career came to an end, and saw businesses employ tech tools in obtaining and storing customer information among other business operations. When Aleaji approached him with the idea for Stylebitt, he wasted no time in absorbing the tool into his business. Now, his brand, which caters to a wide range of clients utilises the software to collect and store customer information, among other things. “There are some clients I’ve known for seven, eight years,” Njoku said, who, after he’s collected their measurements, haven’t had to come into the business on the Lagos Island “unless they lost weight or they added weight” and who continue to patronise his business. For a brand that now caters to at least a thousand customers in Nigeria and abroad, it’ll require several thick measurement books to record customer information, he joked. A digitised tool that allows you to easily call up or update customer details has been game-changing. Get the best African tech newsletters in your inbox Country Afghanistan Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil British Antarctic Territory British Indian Ocean Territory British Virgin Islands Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Canton and Enderbury Islands Cape Verde Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Christmas Island Cocos [Keeling] Islands Colombia Comoros Congo – Brazzaville Congo – Kinshasa Cook Islands Costa
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