Kenya gives central bank powers to rescue banks during financial crises
Kenya has established a framework allowing its central bank to provide emergency funding to banks during financial crises. On Monday, President William Ruto signed the Central Bank of Kenya (Amendment) Bill, 2026, into law, introducing reforms that set out how Kenya will respond to future banking crises by establishing rules for emergency support to lenders and expanding the central bank’s role in preserving financial stability. Under the law, the CBK may provide emergency liquidity assistance where it considers intervention necessary to preserve financial stability. Eligible institutions must be solvent and viable, not under liquidation, and considered systemically important or likely to pose risks to the wider financial system if they fail. The support will be discretionary, temporary, and subject to conditions set by the central bank. Loans and advances issued under the framework will be repaid over up to 12 months, although the regulator may extend the period. The facilities must also be backed by collateral acceptable to the central bank and subject to valuation, margin, and risk management requirements. “Emergency liquidity assistance shall only be provided to an institution that is solvent and viable and whose failure may threaten the stability of the financial system,” part of the bill reads. The amendments also revise the central bank’s statutory objectives, requiring it to promote the liquidity, solvency, proper functioning, and integrity of a market-based financial system as well as the soundness, safety, and effective regulation of the banking sector. Another provision expands the range of reserve assets the central bank may buy, sell, import, export, transfer, hold, and refine. Beyond gold and foreign exchange, the law permits the regulator to deal in gold coins, bullion, silver, platinum, and other precious metals under terms it determines. The legislation also authorises the central bank to provide training and capacity building to its staff, public institutions, members of the public, and institutions from other jurisdictions. CBK may issue regulations to support these programmes. The law further updates the approval process for CBK deputy governors by replacing references to Parliament with the National Assembly, bringing the Act in line with the 2010 Constitution. The amendments are the latest in a series of updates to the Central Bank of Kenya Act, which was enacted in 1966. Recent changes expanded the regulator’s oversight of digital lenders in 2021 and non-deposit-taking credit providers in 2026, while the latest reforms strengthen the central bank’s role in crisis management and financial stability The reforms are intended to “strengthen the CBK’s capacity to safeguard financial stability, improve banking oversight, and modernise the country’s monetary policy framework,” Ruto said in a statement on Monday. True scale demands moving beyond surface-level integrations to robust execution. We’ve filtered the noise out of Moonshot 2026, optimising the conference strictly for high-calibre connections between startup founders, global financial operators, enterprise leaders and individuals rewiring Africa’s technical frameworks. Get 20% off Early Bird tickets for a limited time.
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The Miami startup building blockchain settlement rails for African governments
$56 billion. That was the amount that flowed into Sub-Saharan Africa as remittances in 2024, according to World Bank estimates. Yet, moving money across Africa still often means routing payments through correspondent banks, delays, foreign exchange (FX) costs, and fees that can reach double digits. Ryan Kirkley, co-founder and chief executive officer of Global Settlement Network (GSX), a US-based blockchain infrastructure company, believes those inefficiencies are creating an opening for a new generation of financial infrastructure built on blockchain. “Some African economies already run on stablecoin rails,” Kirkley told TechCabal in an interview in May. “The question now is whether countries build infrastructure to control that flow themselves.” African governments, fintechs, and central banks are increasingly seeking alternatives to fragmented payment rails and reliance on dollar-backed stablecoins. Uganda has emerged as one of the continent’s boldest experiments. Founded in Miami, the United States, GSX entered Africa in 2023, betting that governments building new payment infrastructure would adopt blockchain-based settlement rails faster than more mature markets. Uganda has since become its flagship project. In October 2025, GSX partnered with Diacente Group, a Uganda-based green industrial zones developer, on a proposed $5.5 billion project to build digital infrastructure linking the country’s farms, mines, power projects, and factories, including a pilot for a digital shilling. In April 2026, it acquired a majority stake in local capital markets firm AKIBA International to strengthen its infrastructure for real-world asset (RWA) tokenisation, cross-border settlement, and digital currencies. The US-based blockchain infrastructure company said it is developing technology for real-world asset (RWA) tokenisation, cross-border settlement, and, eventually, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) across Africa. Africa has become a testbed for tokenisation due to its perceived illiquidity across capital markets, shallow secondary trading, and restrictive foreign exchange (FX) controls in many countries that make it difficult to move money in and out. In 2022, impact investment firm Mercy Corps Ventures (MCV), backed by funding from Ripple, the US‑based blockchain payments company, launched a tokenised savings product in Cameroon with local fintech Ejara that fractionalised government bonds into digital units retail investors could buy in small amounts through an app. The project gave thousands of low‑income savers access to high‑yield, low‑risk government bonds for the first time, with more than 11,000 users collectively saving over $245,000, according to reported figures. Building on that, in April 2025, Ripple funded a Ripple Impact pilot with MCV, alongside Kenyan lender Fortune Credit, and DIVA Donate, a blockchain donation platform, to test blockchain‑powered parametric drought insurance for farmers in Laikipia, Kenya. The partners used satellite data to track vegetation and rainfall and set predefined thresholds that would automatically trigger payouts, so farmers could receive compensation in RLUSD, Ripple’s dollar‑backed stablecoin, instead of waiting weeks for traditional insurance settlements. But unlike those tokenisation pilots, GSX wants to build sovereign financial infrastructure, starting with Uganda. Kirkley said the company is not positioning itself at the consumer layer of financial services, but lower down the stack, where settlement rails, issuance, and transfer infrastructure are defined. He argued that Africa’s next financial infrastructure race will not be fought over consumer apps or mobile wallets, but over who controls settlement itself. Investors are betting the opportunity is big. In May, GSX closed an $11 million pre-seed funding round, which the company said will support the expansion of its blockchain-based settlement network. The interview has been edited for length and clarity. You’ve argued that Africa’s next financial infrastructure race will be fought over settlement. What led you to that conclusion? As I went deeper into the space through venture capital investing, I noticed two things. First, US dollar-backed stablecoins were becoming widely used globally, but many countries wanted alternatives that preserved more local control. Second, every institution was building on a different blockchain, settlement network, or financial ecosystem, with very little interoperability between them. In the United States, you had networks like Canton. In Africa, Binance Blockchain (BNB) and TRON were gaining traction alongside US dollar-backed stablecoins like Tether. Every ecosystem was solving problems locally, but very few were focused on interoperability between them. Connecting those fragmented systems became the core idea behind Global Settlement. What exactly is the solution you provide to financial institutions and governments? Our primary focus is central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and government-backed stablecoins. Around that, we have built a compliance infrastructure that includes identity verification, sanctions screening, know-your-customer (KYC), anti-money laundering (AML) controls, and Travel Rule compliance—everything regulators and central banks require to operate securely. Africa and the broader Global South present a major opportunity because many financial systems are still developing. With political support, countries can modernise large parts of their financial infrastructure relatively quickly. In Uganda alone, we believe digital financial infrastructure could eventually help bring formal financial access to roughly [8.7 million Ugandans—about 19% of the unbanked population]. Lower remittance costs, cheaper mobile money transfers, and access to more stable stores of value can have a meaningful economic impact. What differentiates us is that institutions do not need to adopt our blockchain specifically to work with us. We can integrate with almost any existing system. When did you first find real resonance with the market you were trying to build for? Finding product-market fit was probably the hardest part of building this company. In many ways, we started almost two years too early. At the time, most people in crypto believed one blockchain ecosystem would eventually dominate everything. Our view was the opposite: every bank, institution, and government would eventually run its own blockchain infrastructure. Starting early turned out to be a blessing because it gave us time to build the technology and do the research before the market caught up. Momentum really accelerated after [US President] Donald Trump’s election [in 2024], when the regulatory conversation around crypto became much more serious. Large financial institutions eventually realised digital asset infrastructure was no longer optional. For my co-founder, Kyle Sonlin, and me, starting early ultimately became an advantage because it gave us time to build the technology before the market
Read MoreWhy African crypto startups are getting into the lending business
This is Follow the Money, our weekly series that unpacks the earnings, business, and scaling strategies of African fintechs, financial institutions, companies, and governments. A new edition drops every Monday. Owning Bitcoin and Solana no longer means selling them when cash runs out. Across Africa, digital asset startups are borrowing another idea from traditional finance: lending to consumers who are crypto-rich but cash-poor. Crypto-backed loans, a form of lending tied to cryptocurrencies, allow users to obtain credit—in fiat, stablecoins, or other digital assets—by pledging their crypto holdings to these startups. It is a form of lending that is gaining momentum in Africa’s largest crypto markets, including Nigeria and South Africa. In January, Busha, a Nigerian fintech startup that allows users to buy and sell digital assets and pay bills, launched crypto-backed loans as an additional product to its stack. The product offers up to 50% loan-to-value (LTV), allowing users to borrow up to half the value of their Bitcoin and Solana holdings and access the loans in Naira. Busha said it charges a 2% monthly interest. Busha is one of several African startups offering crypto-backed loans. The emerging product, which borrows some features from the traditional finance sector where lending is a profit centre, could expand core services to crypto users that are overlooked in the broader secured lending market. It could signal a maturing crypto market, especially if the startups are actually deploying their own capital into loans, rather than simply intermediating and sourcing liquidity from other global lending protocols, such as US-based Morpho. But as some African crypto lenders target the broader mass market, they face a bigger challenge: expanding the product beyond people who already hold crypto. John Babodor, the African lead for Blend, a US-based startup that provides infrastructure to enable businesses to offer stablecoin yield, said that since the start of the year, he has received between $2,000 and $5,000 in crypto-backed credit from global lending platforms, including Aave, Kamino Finance, Hyperlend, MarginFi, Hyperliquid, and HypurrFi. “I use crypto-backed loans to avoid selling my volatile assets like Bitcoin, Ether, Solana, and the $HYPE token,” Babodor told TechCabal. “For example, I deposited ETH into Aave and borrowed stablecoins against it. I then used those [stablecoins] to pursue additional yield opportunities, trade, buy meme coins, and occasionally off-ramp [withdraw] funds when needed. At one point, I had more than $5,000 worth of ETH deployed in this strategy.” Crypto-backed loans are digital products originally built for digital asset traders. But Olayinka Omoniyi, co-founder of Monierate, a currency price-tracking platform, sees a larger market beyond traders. Unlike Babodor, who prefers borrowing stablecoins and other digital assets, Omoniyi prefers borrowing in Naira. He said he regularly uses global exchange Binance or Bitmonie—a crypto-backed lending product he co-founded—to access liquidity without selling his Bitcoin holdings. “If most of my income is in Naira, it makes sense for me to borrow in Naira,” he said. “You don’t want FX [foreign exchange] volatility becoming another problem when you’re trying to repay.” The contrast between the two users captures a question at the centre of Africa’s emerging crypto credit market: is crypto-backed lending primarily a trading tool, or can it become a mainstream credit product? That question reflects a broader opportunity. While crypto-backed lending remains nascent in Africa, Galaxy Research, a US-based crypto research firm, estimated that the global crypto-collateralised lending market stood at $67.4 billion in outstanding loans at the end of Q1 2026, after reaching a record $78.7 billion in Q3 2025 before pulling back amid market volatility. As more Africans accumulate Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, startups are building lending products that let users unlock liquidity without selling their assets, filling a gap left by traditional banks, which generally do not accept digital assets as collateral. The startups building Africa’s crypto lending market Nigeria is beginning to emerge as a market for crypto-backed lending. The African Crypto-Credit Matrix Compare LTV limits, interest rates, and loan structures across the startups defining Africa’s digital asset lending landscape. Filter by: All Markets Nigeria Focus South Africa Focus Global / Multi-region All Loan Currencies Fiat (Naira/Cash) Crypto / Stablecoins Platform Core Market(s) Loan Currency Max LTV Reported Rate / Terms Source: TechCabal Reporting. Terms subject to platform volatility controls, risk profiling, and market changes. `; return; } data.forEach((row) => { const rowDiv = document.createElement(‘div’); rowDiv.className = ‘tc-grid-row’; let formattedLTV = row.ltv; if (row.ltv === “50%” || row.ltv === “60%”) { formattedLTV = `${row.ltv}`; } // Div-based cells injected with data-labels for mobile stacking rowDiv.innerHTML = ` ${row.name} ${row.markets} ${getCurrencyBadge(row.currency)} ${formattedLTV} ${row.terms} `; tbody.appendChild(rowDiv); }); }; const filterData = () => { const countryVal = countryFilter.value; const currencyVal = currencyFilter.value; const filtered = platforms.filter(p => { const matchCountry = countryVal === “all” || p.filterMarket === countryVal; const matchCurrency = currencyVal === “all” || p.filterCurrency === “all” || p.filterCurrency === currencyVal; return matchCountry && matchCurrency; }); renderTable(filtered); }; countryFilter.addEventListener(‘change’, filterData); currencyFilter.addEventListener(‘change’, filterData); // Initial Render renderTable(platforms); });
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👨🏿🚀TechCabal Daily – FoodCourt pauses operations
In partnership with Lire en Français اقرأ هذا باللغة العربية Good morning. Happy new week, if you insist. Did I finish The Legend of Vox Machina? No. Instead, I spent the weekend emotionally invested in season 12 of a 1990s medical drama. Somebody hand me a scalpel. I have opinions now. You know that friend who can’t keep a secret to save their life? That’s Amazon Leo. Every few weeks, it pops up to remind everyone how many satellites it has launched—now over 390 after another batch of 29 last week. Chris Weber, VP of Amazon Leo Business, said the satellite Internet service will launch this year, but didn’t specify what markets would get first dibs (spoiler: it’s likely the United States). Is it good or bad? Well, Starlink has spent long enough hogging the satellite Internet spotlight to itself. A little competition never hurt anyone, except perhaps Starlink’s pricing power. —Zia Get smarter about Francophone Africa with our newsletter, Francophone Weekly—the startups, tech policies, and institutions building the pipelines for ecosystem growth. Subscribe FoodCourt pauses operations Nigeria expands its crypto sandbox Kenyan government loses ‘block first’ powers South Africa eyes AI campaign labels World Wide Web 3 Job Openings Food Delivery No more food for FoodCourt customers Image Source: TechCabal If you were a FoodCourt customer in Lagos in early March and suddenly couldn’t place an order, you weren’t imagining things. The app didn’t crash. It was switched off, deliberately, because the people cooking the food had stopped showing up. They hadn’t been paid in months. Explain like I’m new here: FoodCourt wasn’t a delivery app in the Uber Eats mould. It owned the kitchens, cooked the food, packed the orders, and handled delivery under several virtual restaurant brands. The model gave it more control and, in theory, better margins. In 2024, CEO Henry Nneji told TechCabal the business was profitable and generating $4.3 million in annual recurring revenue. Two years later, a financial strain that started before March was visibly affecting the business. What happened? Things unravelled quickly. Kitchen staff missed their February salaries. Workers at FoodCourt’s kitchen in Lekki, Lagos, went on strike in March. The company shut down all three locations in Lagos and Abuja, Nigeria, while waiting for a funding facility, which it said was close to being finalised. It never came. By April 19, the last kitchen had closed, and the app went offline. Who loses? Employees are still owed salaries. Suppliers are chasing unpaid invoices. Delivery riders have lost a source of income. Investors, including Future Africa, are now trying to restructure the business. Zoom out: FoodCourt’s collapse is another reminder that running a cloud kitchen means owning every expensive part of the food business: kitchens, staff, inventory, and logistics. That can work when growth is strong. When funding dries up, and costs keep rising, there’s nowhere to hide. Modern Rails for Africa’s Economy: How Fincra is helping businesses collect, pay out, convert, and settle across African markets. Read more here. Regulation Nigeria has admitted nine more companies into its regulatory sandbox Dr. Emomotimi Agama, Nigeria’s SEC Director General. Image Source: Regtech Africa In June 2024, Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) launched the Accelerated Regulatory Incubation Programme (ARIP), a regulatory sandbox for virtual asset companies. This came shortly after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had lifted its ban on banks working with crypto firms in December 2023, a restriction that had been in place since 2021. One month after ARIP launched, crypto startups Busha and Quidax became its first entrants. It felt like the beginning of something. Instead, almost two years passed with little to show for it. The two companies never graduated to full licences, and no new firms were admitted. Then, in 48 hours, everything changed. On July 2 and 3, the SEC admitted nine companies into ARIP. The first batch included Luno, GetEquity, Koinkoin, WrappedCBDC, Trovotech, Blockvault, and Bitbarter. A second batch, admitted on Friday, included GIGX Technologies and KuCoin. Why the SEC is moving now: Nigeria’s crypto market has become too big to leave in regulatory limbo. The country received about $92.1 billion in crypto value between July 2024 and June 2025, making it one of the world’s largest crypto markets. Yet, participation in the country’s capital markets remains relatively low. SEC Director-General Emomotimi Agama told Bloomberg in October 2025 that while millions of Nigerians are willing to take financial risks through gambling and cryptocurrencies, fewer than three million invest in the capital market. “An appetite for risk clearly exists,” he said, “but not the trust or access to channel that energy into the productive sector.” ARIP is part of the regulator’s attempt to bring that appetite inside the rulebook. Regulators have become alert to the volume of these digital currencies, including stablecoins, that pass through informal channels. The CBN, in its Payments System Vision 2028, proposed a licencing framework for stablecoin issuers. The SEC, overseeing securities-like virtual assets, will regulate companies that facilitate adoption in the country. Zoom out: Getting into ARIP is like receiving a learner’s permit, not a driver’s licence. The bigger question is whether Nigeria’s regulators can move as quickly as the market they’re trying to regulate. Busha and Quidax have spent almost two years waiting to graduate. If this latest batch moves through faster, the SEC won’t just have approved nine more companies. It will have shown that its regulatory pipeline finally works. Naira Life 2026 is here! The theme for this year’s Naira Life Conference by Zikoko is “All About Wealth.”Join 2,000+ in Lagos on August 22 for a day of practical money conversations and workshops designed to move you from simply earning an income to building lasting wealth. Get 15% off early bird tickets. Regulation Kenya’s government can’t block websites on its own anymore Image Source: Tenor Governments love emergency powers. Courts, every so often, ask them to slow down. Kenya’s High Court has just done exactly that. What happened: The court struck down part of Kenya’s cybercrime law that
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Digital Nomads: The AI engineer who left Nigeria for Germany and quadrupled his income
The year was 2013. During his second year studying computer science at the University of Ibadan, in Oyo, southwestern Nigeria, John Robert stumbled on a pattern that changed the course of his life. He had been reading about Nigeria’s biggest banking chief executives and business leaders, trying to understand how they built companies that stretched beyond the country’s borders. He kept noticing one detail: nearly all of them had spent part of their lives abroad. Some had studied overseas. Others had worked there. A few had built careers before returning home. Whatever the route, international exposure seemed to be a recurring advantage. At 19, that trend became Robert’s biggest motivation for wanting to leave Nigeria. “The only way to do business in multiple countries, and have the knowledge to do so, is [to] actually [leave] my country, I thought, and to learn with people from other countries, to understand how they think,” Robert said. He began saving, scraping pennies from his daily allowance, to gather enough money to travel. At the time, Robert had no destination in mind. But he knew he wanted to take his chances abroad. In March 2018, he moved to Germany. In the thirteen years since Robert first desired to become globally mobile, the AI engineer has found a home and stability in Germany, where he said he holds permanent residency. Robert said he is living his dream. Yet, that dream began from a strong desire to become a globally mobile business leader, which still drives him to this day. Turning a plan into a visa By the time Robert graduated from the University of Ibadan in 2015, Germany had become more than an idea. It was now a project with a price tag. He spent months researching universities and eventually applied for a master’s degree in Data Analytics at Stiftung Universität, a public university in Hildesheim in Lower Saxony, northern Germany. Getting admitted was only the first hurdle. Long before Germany introduced newer immigration pathways, such as the Opportunity Card, most international students entered the country through a traditional route: secure admission, prove they could support themselves financially, obtain a student visa, and only then board a flight. The financial requirement was often the hardest part. Back then, German authorities required prospective students to deposit about €8,000 ($9,400) into a blocked account (Sperrkonto) before issuing a visa. The money remained theirs, but it could only be withdrawn gradually after arrival to cover living expenses, Robert said. Today, the country requires prospective students to hold €11,904 ($13,600) in a blocked account—€992 monthly over twelve months—before they can obtain a standard student visa. Fresh out of university, Robert had little margin for error. He secured a software engineering job before proceeding to the compulsory one-year National Youth Service Corps (NYSC). During his service year, he earned about ₦150,000 ($349) monthly and moved in with his cousin instead of renting his own place, reducing his living expenses enough to save a larger share of his income. To earn extra income, he took on extra freelance projects to increase his earnings, saving even more money. His parents also financially supported his move, Robert said. “I’ve had this idea since my 200-level,” he said. “So it’s not something that I just woke up and said, ‘I want to study abroad.’ Every time I got money, anytime I had a gig, I was already saving for a long time.” Money alone did not secure a place. Robert said he spent months emailing professors, introducing himself, asking about research opportunities, assistantships, and scholarships. Most never replied. Some declined. A few conversations progressed. “I wrote to a lot of professors and a lot of schools about scholarships, about their research, and about their courses,” he said. The admission eventually came through. Once the blocked account had been funded, he bought the mandatory health insurance required for a German student visa, submitted proof of funds alongside his admission documents, and received approval to leave. Robert landed in Germany in 2018. Nothing about the move felt familiar. He had left behind family, friends, and everything he understood about daily life in Nigeria for a country whose language he was still learning, where punctual trains, orderly streets, and colder winters quickly replaced the organised chaos of home. The adjustment was immediate, but so were the opportunities. Within months of arriving in Hildesheim, Robert had secured a scholarship and an internship at Mercedes-Benz, the German car manufacturer. More than a higher salary As a data science intern at Mercedes-Benz, Robert said he began earning €1,600 ($1,888 ~ ₦683,000) in his first salary abroad, which instantly quadrupled what he was making back home as an entry-level software engineer. According to him, the salary was only part of the financial equation. His scholarship covered a significant portion of his living costs, while Germany’s tax rules for students meant he paid relatively little tax on his internship income. At one point, he said he was saving close to €1,000 ($1,180) monthly. Yet, beyond the instant stability, Robert noted the biggest gain resulting from his move to Germany came from something else entirely: access. Living and working in Europe’s largest economy placed him much closer to the people, companies, and conversations emerging in artificial intelligence. “In 2018, I was already curious about artificial intelligence,” he said. “Everybody talks about AI now, but back then, I knew it was going to be big. I used to read a lot about it and pray. Now, things have changed.” Robert now works as an educator and lead AI engineer at Sunnic Lighthouse, a German digital trading platform for electricity and renewable energy. He said he has been to about 50 countries—mostly in Europe, the United States, and Canada—frequently travelling for leisure and attending conferences first as a participant and later as a speaker, researcher, and technology professional. “I can imagine how difficult it is for founders without the same opportunities to apply for visas every time,” he said. “Today, I can go to
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A Zimbabwean developer built a bride price calculator that went global
When Zimbabwe went into lockdown in 2020, some people turned to baking, binge-watching television, or scrolling social media. Courage Nyoni taught himself how to code. The civil engineering graduate spent months watching online tutorials before building his first app, a study aid for sociology students at Zimbabwe’s Bindura University. But it was his second project, an Android app that calculates lobola/dowry, the bride price traditionally negotiated between two families before marriage in many Southern African cultures, that unexpectedly travelled much further than he ever imagined. Nyoni’s Lobola Calculator, housed on the Google Play Store, has attracted users across Southern Africa, Europe, and even Japan, where it was featured on national television. The Calculator may look like a novelty app, but it reflects a broader trend. Across the continent, developers are increasingly building software rooted in African traditions and languages. From digital ancestry platforms to indigenous language apps and now a Lobola Calculator, culture itself is emerging as a competitive advantage, one that only African founders can authentically encode into software. That is exactly what happened with the 26-year-old Zimbabwean developer’s app. “The concept actually originated from a light-hearted conversation with my brother, Charisma,” Nyoni told TechCabal in an interview. “We laughed about it initially, but quickly realised it was a fun and doable project.” He said he deliberately avoided building another fintech or delivery app. “Coming from a Civil Engineering background as a self-taught developer, I wanted to be strategic with my early projects,” he said. “A conventional delivery or finance app would have required massive backend infrastructure and investment. The Lobola Calculator was the perfect project to tackle. It solved a unique, real-world cultural need, didn’t require major funding to publish, and allowed me to build my development confidence without overextending myself.” More than a joke Lobola is a customary marriage practice observed in many Southern African communities in which the groom’s family presents gifts, cattle, or money to the bride’s family during marriage negotiations. While often simplified as a “bride price,” families generally view it as a symbolic expression of appreciation, respect, and the joining of two families rather than a commercial transaction. Nyoni’s app doesn’t attempt to replace that process. Instead, it turns it into an interactive experience. Users answer questions ranging from educational qualifications, country of origin, and totem to deliberately playful questions about childhood breakfasts, footwear preferences, and whether weekends are spent at church or at clubs. Behind the scenes, an algorithm adjusts a fictional lobola amount using weighted variables. The Lobola Calculator. Image Source: Supplied. “I didn’t just want a random number generator,” Nyoni said. “I wanted it to reflect the actual conversations happening in our communities.” He said he researched common cultural considerations and consulted elders before building the algorithm. “The app essentially gamifies those real-life dynamics,” he stated. “It’s a fun, digital mirror held up to the real negotiation room.” What began as lockdown entertainment soon became something else. “When I first built it, it was definitely just for fun,” Nyoni said. “The lockdowns had taken a toll on everyone. Dropping something light-hearted like the Lobola Calculator into the mix seemed like a great way to spark conversation.” Then the app began attracting attention far beyond Southern Africa. Emails from users in Europe started landing in Nyoni’s inbox, not about bugs or new features, but with a simple question. “A few months after release, I started getting feedback from users in Europe asking what Lobola actually was,” he said. “That was a turning point.” He responded by adding educational content explaining the custom. Today, the main goal is simply to preserve our tradition, help people across the globe learn about Lobola, and still have a bit of fun with the calculations.” African culture as software Nyoni believes the app points to a much larger opportunity for African developers. “I absolutely believe African traditions are an untapped opportunity,” he said. “As the world becomes more digitised and people spend more of their lives on screens, there is a massive opportunity to build software that reflects how we actually interact offline.” Lobola Calculator is part of a wider movement across African tech. In Ghana, language-learning platform Kukarella helps users learn African languages through interactive lessons and conversation practice. African Storybook, developed in South Africa, has created a free digital library of thousands of children’s stories in dozens of African languages. Similarly, developers are building African language keyboards, genealogy platforms, digital ancestry tools, traditional medicine apps, and local naming applications, products whose value comes from cultural knowledge rather than technological novelty alone. He argues that Africa’s social systems are full of products waiting to be built. “Imagine fully digitising the popular Stokvel system in South Africa to make it more secure and scalable,” he said. “That is a massive untapped market. We have a rich cultural heritage, and if we pause to think in other terms, we can see vast digital opportunities right in front of us.” A stokvel is an informal community-based savings group in which members contribute a fixed amount of money weekly or monthly, and the funds are either paid out to one member on a rotating basis or pooled for a shared purpose. Curiosity travels further than code The biggest surprise for Nyoni was not Zimbabwean users. “Most of the active users are based in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, which makes perfect sense,” he said. “However, the demographic that surprised me the most was people with little to no connection to Africa. The way they interacted with the app was purely driven by curiosity.” On June 10, the curiosity reached Japan when Nyoni’s app was featured on Nippon TV, one of the country’s largest commercial broadcasters. “Taking a deeply rooted African tradition and packaging it into a modern mobile app makes it incredibly accessible,” Nyoni said. “It allows someone thousands of kilometres away to safely and interactively explore a piece of our heritage right from their smartphone.” In a statement celebrating its alumnus, Zimbabwe’s National University of
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Nigerian startup takes top prize at UNDP’s pan-African edtech accelerator
Data Entry Academy, a Lagos-based edtech platform, has won first place in the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Get Ready 4 timbuktoo EdTech accelerator, taking home a $10,000 prize after topping a field of 1,429 applicants from across Africa. The startup, founded by Chioma Ifeanyi-Eze, beat finalists from Egypt and Senegal during a July 1 pitch event in Dakar, Senegal. Another Nigerian startup, Varsity Scape, placed sixth among the top 10 winners. The award underscores the growing prominence of Nigeria’s edtech ecosystem, particularly startups building digital skills and workforce development solutions, at a time when development finance institutions and ecosystem builders are expanding support for education technology across Africa. As venture funding becomes more selective, accelerator programmes such as timbuktoo and the Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship are increasingly helping startups refine their products, access mentorship, and build investor readiness. According to UNDP, the 2026 Get Ready 4 timbuktoo EdTech accelerator attracted 1,429 applications from across Africa, with 1,099 startups meeting the eligibility criteria. Fifty startups were selected for the 12-week programme after nearly 2,850 blind evaluations by 19 independent experts. Twenty startups advanced to the final pitch, where 10 emerged as winners. Data Entry Academy took the top prize, followed by startups from Egypt and Senegal in second and third place, respectively. Founded in 2020, Data Entry Academy operates a 30-day online training programme that teaches workplace software skills, including spreadsheets, cloud accounting, invoicing, inventory management and payroll tools. The startup says it has trained more than 17,000 learners across Africa through courses delivered on Telegram and Teachable. Participants require only basic computer literacy to enrol, with learners ranging from job seekers and entrepreneurs to employees being upskilled by their organisations. Data Entry Academy and Varsity Scape previously participated in the Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship, which provides selected startups with $100,000 in equity-free funding and advisory support. Data Entry Academy joined the programme’s second cohort in 2024, while Varsity Scape participated in the third cohort. The award caps a 12-week accelerator in which startups received support to strengthen their business models, improve their products, develop market traction, and prepare for investment through the broader timbuktoo pipeline. The accelerator is part of UNDP’s broader timbuktoo initiative, launched at the 2024 World Economic Forum in Davos with a goal of mobilising $1 billion over 10 years to support 10,000 startups and generate $10 billion in economic value across Africa. The initiative describes itself as a platform that brings together governments, investors, universities, and private sector organisations. It currently runs six pan-African thematic hubs, has trained 3,480 innovators, and operates 16 University Innovation Pods across the continent, with another 12 in the pipeline. True scale demands moving beyond surface-level integrations to robust execution. We’ve filtered the noise out of Moonshot 2026, optimising the conference strictly for high-calibre connections between startup founders, global financial operators, enterprise leaders and individuals rewiring Africa’s technical frameworks. Get 20% off Early Bird tickets for a limited time.
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$1.44 billion raised in the first half of 2026
This article was originally published on TechCabal Insights and was written by Joseph Oloyede, Analyst at TechCabal Insights. The first half of 2026 is officially over, and the numbers show that African startups had it good funding-wise. Startups across the continent raised a total of $1.44 billion. This is a slight increase from the $1.42 billion raised during the first half of 2025. Even with a tough global economy, this steady growth is a clear sign that investors still believe heavily in African innovation. The H1 race This year is a story of resilience. While the total amount of money raised stayed strong at $1.44 billion, the way deals are happening has completely changed. The biggest story of H1 2026 is that although fewer deals are happening, companies are raising much bigger rounds. We tracked only 146 disclosed deals across the first six months of the year, which is a big drop from the 252 deals we saw in H1 2025. The momentum really picked up at the start of June. Pan-African electric mobility startup Spiro announced a massive $215 million mega deal on the very first day of the month. This single deal pushed the ecosystem’s total funding over the line, helping 2026 finish the half-year ahead of 2025. The quarterly mechanics: Equity vs. debt split A closer look at how startups raised money shows that debt has become a huge tool for survival. Funding was split evenly between the two quarters, with $749 million raised in Q1 and $692 million raised in Q2. Over the full six months, startups raised $818M in Equity, $614 million in Debt, and $9 million in Grants. This balanced mix shows that companies are choosing to take on loans instead of giving up company ownership, focusing more on stable businesses that own physical assets like electric vehicles and solar equipment. June’s top deals: Climatetech and big infrastructure stand out The half-year closed with a massive wave of activity, especially across green infrastructure and AI-backed solutions: Spiro is a pan-African electric motorbike manufacturer and clean energy provider that dominated the month by securing a $215 million equity round from Impact Fund Denmark and Equitane, alongside an additional $55 million equity injection from NewTrails Capital. Blnk is an Egyptian digital lending fintech platform that raised a combined $37.1 million ($12.5 million in Series A equity and $24.6 million in debt) to instantly finance point-of-sale customer purchases. AethexAI is an AI-driven services startup developing localised customer support automation for Africa and the Middle East that secured $3 million in pre-seed funding led by 4DX Ventures and Enza Capital. Zimi Charge is a South Africa-based electric vehicle charging infrastructure platform that raised $2.6 million in equity from the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) and Keyo Ventures. Agenz is a data-driven property valuation proptech platform in Morocco that secured a $5M seed funding round from Breega and Attijariwafa Ventures. Other notable June activities included major catalytic funding awards from Cascador to green and supply chain platforms, including Agriarche ($1.8 million), solar-freezer provider Koolboks ($1.5 million), and IoT-enabled clean cookstove builder Powerstove ($1.3 million) A record half for mergers & acquisitions (M&A) Because getting fresh equity was harder for early-stage startups, many companies chose to buy or merge with each other instead of shutting down. H1 2026 recorded an incredible 63 M&A deals. This is nearly double the 33 deals we tracked in H1 2025, making it the busiest half-year for mergers and acquisitions in African tech history. This wave of M&A is a major milestone: it creates healthier market leaders through consolidation and opens up vital exit opportunities for investors, proving the ecosystem can self-correct and mature during a funding slowdown. We saw mature market leaders buy smaller startups to quickly get licenses or enter new countries: The payments space: Flutterwave acquired banking platform Mono in an all-stock deal valued between $25 million and $40 million, while Paystack took over Brass and integrated Ladder Microfinance Bank. Going global: African startups are expanding outside the continent. Spiro bought UK engineering firm Coexlion, Nigeria’s Nomba acquired a Canadian payment firm, and Yassir bought French ad-tech company Kawarizmi. Big money deals: Major corporate moves made waves across the market, including nCino’s $75 million acquisition of South Africa’s DocFox and MNDR’s $119 million deal to buy insurtech pioneer Bima. The operational reality: Restructuring, shutdowns, and the AI paradox Behind the big funding numbers, day-to-day operations were all about cutting costs and working smarter. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has moved from a buzzword to a core part of how businesses run. We have tracked over 100 different AI use cases across Africa, mostly helping startups with credit scoring, fraud detection, and automated customer support. While AI helps companies work faster and cheaper, it has come with a high human cost. As these tools mature, they are moving from helper tools to replacing specific roles. This shift is clear in the numbers: so far in 2026, we tracked over 1,000+ layoffs across the continent, up from 698 layoffs during the same period in 2025. Companies are now openly citing AI as a reason for downsizing. For example, Jumia cut 200 jobs to integrate AI into its support team, and Zap Africa reduced its team by 44% through AI restructuring. Along with these layoffs, the tough economy caused 13 disclosed shutdowns, but pushed surviving startups to launch 46 product restructurings, 39 market expansions, and 117 company-to-company partnerships to stay afloat. Join the H1 2026 Report Waitlist here, to see the full list of active investors, average check sizes, regional breakdowns, and where venture capital funds are deploying money next. Join the waitlist for our upcoming State of Tech in Africa H1 2026 Report to get it first.
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Google Play to back 10 African game studios with $1 million fund
Google Play, Google’s digital marketplace for Android apps, has launched a $1 million equity-free fund for independent game studios across 32 African countries to help game developers grow their businesses and reach more players globally. The Indie Games Fund will award between $50,000 and $200,000 in capital to each of the 10 selected studios, alongside technical support and mentorship from industry experts. Applications are open until July 31, and the selected studios will be announced in September. Africa’s gaming industry continues to grow despite limited access to funding. According to the 2025 African Game Industry Report, the continent is home to about 250 game studios. Still, only 3% have ever received government funding, and 33.3% of game developers have participated in accelerators or support programmes. While the African gaming market size is estimated at $2.29 billion, many African studios still struggle to secure the capital needed to scale, highlighting a gap between the market’s commercial potential and the financing available to developers. “Bringing this fund to the continent underscores our commitment to unlocking the immense talent of local studios, providing the resources needed to scale businesses, refine creative visions, and share uniquely African stories with a global audience,” said Ben McOwen Wilson, managing director, Europe, the Middle East and Africa for Google Play. Google said the selected studios will also receive hands-on mentorship from industry experts and technical support to optimise their games, strengthen their development frameworks, and improve discoverability on Google Play. Applications are open on Google’s Indie Games Fund portal to privately owned game studios with 50 or fewer employees registered in one of the 32 eligible African countries, including Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Studios applying must also have already launched a mobile, PC, or console game, commit to publishing their game on Google Play, and participate in the Google Play Pass programme on a non-exclusive basis for two years. Large funding rounds remain a rarity in Africa’s gaming industry, as evidenced by the $27 million raise by South African gaming company Carry1st in 2023. While Google Play’s fund will support only 10 studios, it could help bridge that gap by providing developers with the capital and credibility needed to secure larger investments. True scale demands moving beyond surface-level integrations to robust execution. We’ve filtered the noise out of Moonshot 2026, optimising the conference strictly for high-calibre connections between startup founders, global financial operators, enterprise leaders and individuals rewiring Africa’s technical frameworks. Get 20% off Early Bird tickets for a limited time.
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Alaa Hamadto on building through uncertainty and believing in Sudan again
Some people have an uncanny ability to complicate their own lives. Offer them the safe road, and they will somehow find the rougher one. Give them certainty, and they will start wondering what is on the other side of uncertainty. They do not do it because they enjoy suffering, but have a strong conviction that difficult things are worth doing. Alaa Salih Hamadto, the founder and CEO of SolarFoods, a Sudanese agritech startup that preserves agricultural produce using solar-powered drying technology, appears to be one of those people. Last Thursday, we met over Google Meet. She is currently based in Cairo, Egypt’s capital, where she has been living since Sudan’s civil war forced her to flee with her daughters. She tells me about driving back into Sudan while drones flew overhead. About travelling for 36 hours without food or water because the roads were too dangerous to stop. About arriving at her factory only to find that almost everything worth stealing had been stolen. She says all this with remarkable calm. Alaa Hamadto surrounded by debris of her destroyed factory at Khartoum. Image source: Alaa Hamadto It occurs to me that Hamadto has spent much of her adult life walking away from comfortable things. She left dentistry in 2014, a profession many spend years trying to enter, to build a business around solar-powered food dryers. She ignored relatives who thought she had wasted her education. When war came, she escaped like millions of other Sudanese. Five months later, she went back—not because it was safe, but because she could not imagine asking other people to rebuild a country she had abandoned herself. Over the next hour, we talk about inherited purpose, building a company in the middle of a civil war, why farmers have become her greatest teachers, and why she still believes Sudan’s future is worth betting her life on. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. You said they call you “Alaa the Brave.” Where did the title come from? When the war in Sudan started in April 2023, I initially fled to Cairo with my daughters. But after five months, I decided to stop running and return to Sudan, even though the war was still raging. Most business owners who left felt the same way; they were already in a safe place and wouldn’t return for any reason. But I decided to go back and reestablish. It was shocking to them. I think I was the first person to enter the industrial area in Khartoum North after the conflict intensified. That area had become a heavy conflict zone. When I entered, I started making videos and documenting what was happening to all the factories and businesses there. I felt a responsibility to bear witness. There was this group I was in with some factory owners, and they made comments like, “Do you feel like you’re more masculine than us?” It was strange and hurtful, especially when I was risking everything. During one of my trips, drones were flying over my head as I was running from one city to another. For 36 hours straight, I couldn’t go to the bathroom or drink water because the cities I was passing through were being hit. People found it strange that I refused to leave. They asked, “Does it really worth it? Why are you risking your life because of money?” But it was never about money. I kept documenting my journey, how they destroyed my factory and other people’s businesses. Eventually, people started saying, “You inspire us—you are Alaa the Brave.” And that name stuck. Alaa Hamadto with her Solar Foods team. Image source: Alaa Hamadto You said your factory was destroyed. What really happened? Yes, the factory was destroyed. I don’t know if it was bombed, but the roof and a large part of it were destroyed. They stole all the machinery, everything they could find inside. They even took all the electric cables and the transformer. Now, it’s very difficult to have electricity again. And it’s not just my factory alone; the majority of factories in that part of Khartoum were affected. To rebuild, you need to find another source of energy, either diesel or solar. I decided to reestablish the factory in another part of the country that is relatively safe. We are now in Kassala, close to the border with Eritrea in eastern Sudan. We built the factory there on rented land. Now that people are returning to the country as things look slightly better, I’m not sure what to do next. We still don’t know whether we will go back to Khartoum or stay. I chose Kassala for multiple reasons. First, it’s relatively safe for my staff, and the living costs aren’t too high. We did a quick mapping and realised we needed to be in a place where we could easily target the organizations that need our dryers. We do training for Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) that buy our dryers, and we have agro-processing hubs. Also, it’s close to the border, so I can easily travel out, and it’s quite close to the raw materials we use for our products. Alaa Hamadto and her team members. Image source: Alaa Hamadto Talking about where this all started, you saw your father building something like this in the past. As a little girl then, what did you think he was doing? I started out as a dentist. I made this career shift to keep his legacy; at least, that was what I thought. Now, it’s my life mission. Growing up, I didn’t really understand what he was doing. I just admired that he could do all this work, and people admired him and his students. Initially, we thought we could live in the UK and have another nationality, and life would be easier. But I really admire that he believed in his own people. My father was a senior scientist in the UK. He had it all—a prestigious job, status, respect. But in
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