New platform connects visually impaired people needing assistive devices with donors
Access Tech Innovation and Research Center, a Lagos-based non-profit focused on digital inclusion for blind individuals, has launched GiveTechToTheBlind, a new platform designed to connect blind people who need assistive technology with donors willing to fund these devices. The platform, launched on Tuesday, enables blind users to request assistive tech products from talking wrist watches to smart canes and donors to pay directly for items, ensuring transparency and tailored support. According to the Nigeria Optometric Association (NOA), there are about seven million blind Nigerians, making the country home to one of the largest populations of blind individuals in Africa. As a stepping stone to better living, Nigeria has the Discrimination Against Persons With Disabilities Prohibition Act. Yet, many face significant barriers to independence. Persons with disabilities in Nigeria often experience high levels of unemployment and limited access to income, which makes it difficult to afford even basic assistive tools. A white cane now costs at least $12, while software like the JAWS screen reader, which enables blind people to use computers and access the internet, ranges between $350–$450. Many blind Nigerians cannot access the devices that would enable them to participate fully in everyday activities. Akinola said this challenge inspired the creation of GiveTechToTheBlind, adding that while many visually impaired people cannot afford assistive devices, willing donors often don’t know where to find those in need or where to purchase the right tools. “There are many people who would love to support visually impaired persons by providing assistive tech devices, but they don’t know how to reach them or even where to get these devices,” he said. “The platform bridges that gap, connecting willing donors directly to verified needs.” Here’s how it works: A visually impaired person registers on the platform and submits a request for a specific assistive device. Access Tech professionals then verify the request to ensure it is genuine and matches the person’s needs. Once a donor pays for the item, the recipient is notified and invited to collect it at an Access Tech center, where they must present a valid national ID before receiving the device. Although GiveTechToTheBlind is built to scale across Africa, Akinola said Access Tech chose to launch in Nigeria first to test the model and refine it before expanding elsewhere. “We thought about other African countries, but we need to start from home first to gain traction before scaling to other parts of Africa,” he said. “Assistive technology is essential for every visually impaired person, but the structure we have on ground right now can only support Nigeria. With partnerships and support, we know we will scale quickly to other African countries.” GiveTechToTheBlind is Access Tech’s flagship initiative and builds on its other programs, including digital skills training and an Assistive Technology Experience Center, where visually impaired people can explore and learn to use different devices. Since its launch, the platform has attracted over 50 blind people who have registered. Mark your calendars! Moonshot by TechCabal is back in Lagos on October 15–16! Join Africa’s top founders, creatives & tech leaders for 2 days of keynotes, mixers & future-forward ideas. Early bird tickets now 20% off—don’t snooze! moonshot.techcabal.com
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KrosAI is building for Africans without smartphones
In a village in Nigeria, where poor internet connectivity makes access to most apps difficult, a phone call to a local number could connect users to an AI assistant. In turn, real-time information, healthcare, and banking services become accessible in a few seconds. That’s the future Joshua Firima is chasing with his startup, KrosAI. For years, Nigeria’s startup space was dominated by fintech promising to ‘bank the unbanked’ and solve payment problems for businesses. This era led to the rise of players like Opay, Moniepoint, and Paystack. Still, by 2023, financial inclusion in the country was still at 64%, well below the 95% target set by the Nigerian government. Firima believes the next frontier in banking and other industries is making artificial intelligence accessible to Africans overlooked by Silicon Valley’s English-first products. “A decade ago, Africa’s biggest challenge for businesses was payments,” Firima said. Now, these businesses want to expand across emerging markets, but language barriers hold them back from reaching markets where attracting customers requires knowing local languages. “Without the tools to connect with customers in their local languages, growth stalls and opportunities are missed,” Firima says. KrosAI’s bet is that voice is the main way to bring AI tools into everyday life on the continent. Its flagship product, Oracle, is designed to help banks, telcos, e-commerce players, healthcare providers, and other businesses speak directly to customers in their own accents and native languages. The entrepreneurship journey “I’ve been an entrepreneur all my life,” he says. Firima’s entrepreneurship journey began when smartphone brands like Infinix and Tecno started gaining prominence in Africa. He would help people install applications and games on their phones. Then, in 2019, he decided to build a team to make and sell software products. The team launched a drag-and-drop website builder to help non-coders build their own websites. The business was eventually acquired after 10 months. “That was my first exit as an entrepreneur,” he said. Firima still liked the challenge and lessons of entrepreneurship and continued building. In 2022, he launched a tool called Moosbu, which was intended to be a ‘super business app for SMEs.’ 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 Rica Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Côte d’Ivoire Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Dronning Maud Land East Germany Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories French Southern and Antarctic Territories Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Heard Island and McDonald Islands Honduras Hong Kong SAR China Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Isle of Man Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jersey Johnston Island Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macau SAR China Macedonia Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Metropolitan France Mexico Micronesia Midway Islands Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar [Burma] Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles Neutral Zone New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island North Korea North Vietnam Northern Mariana Islands Norway Oman Pacific Islands Trust Territory Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territories Panama Panama Canal Zone Papua New Guinea Paraguay People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen Peru Philippines Pitcairn Islands Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russia Rwanda Réunion Saint Barthélemy Saint Helena Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Martin Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands South Korea Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Svalbard and Jan Mayen Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Syria São Tomé and Príncipe Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tokelau Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu U.S. Minor Outlying Islands U.S. Miscellaneous Pacific Islands U.S. Virgin Islands Uganda Ukraine Union of Soviet Socialist Republics United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Unknown or Invalid Region Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican City Venezuela Vietnam Wake Island Wallis and Futuna Western Sahara Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe Åland Islands ?> Gender Male Female Others TC Daily Events TC Scoop <!– Next Wave –> <!– Entering Tech –> Subscribe Moosbu was a banking-as-a-service platform that enabled small businesses to set up online stores, manage logistics, access payments and accounts, and utilise AI-powered marketing tools. However, during Nigeria’s 2023 cash crunch, when digital payments slowed, players like Moniepoint and Opay overtook the market. Dependent on partner banks, Firima realised they couldn’t compete on speed and began to lose customers quickly. “We started looking for other external ideas and how we can still add value to businesses, both in terms of revenue and impact.” They pivoted, setting the stage for KrosAI. Filling language gaps When ChatGPT gained prominence in 2023, Firima noticed a blind spot in AI tools developed by Big Tech. “Most AI tools were designed for high-resource languages,” he says. The problem hit him while freelancing on Fiverr. A client in The Gambia dropped him because their conversations, filtered through Google Translate, never quite made sense. “We were talking,” he recalls, “but we weren’t understanding each other.” That experience pushed him towards fine-tuning open-source models with local language data and building a text-generation prototype. But he soon realised the bigger opportunity: voice. “Before you even learn how to write, you already know how to speak,” he says. KrosAI is building voice and
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Lelapa AI’s Jade Abbott is building AI that speaks African languages
The first computer Jade Abbott ever touched was not new. It was a patched-together machine her father had rescued piece by piece, a boxy hardware that buzzed loudly and crashed often. Abbott remembers sitting for hours in front of the flickering screen, not to play games, but to ask questions no one around her could answer. “It fascinated me. I am like, how? I know it’s made of zeros and ones. How can it do all these things? When she was not tinkering with the family computer, Abbott was losing herself in the world of science fiction. Shows like Star Trek fed her curiosity about machines that could talk back. It was not fantasy for her; it was about possibility. At first, her dream was to build a robot pal, but as she grew older, Abbot realised what she really wanted was to understand how language and intelligence could live inside a machine. “At some stage, I pivoted from building a robot friend to building tools that could help us communicate better. And that became my passion in a very deep way,” she says. That curiosity has positioned Abbott as a leading voice in Africa’s race to build local language artificial intelligence. Today, she is the co-founder and CTO of Lelapa AI, the South African startup building language models for African languages, tools she believes can bridge one of the continent’s deepest divides, communication. 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 Rica Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Côte d’Ivoire Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Dronning Maud Land East Germany Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories French Southern and Antarctic Territories Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Heard Island and McDonald Islands Honduras Hong Kong SAR China Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Isle of Man Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jersey Johnston Island Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macau SAR China Macedonia Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Metropolitan France Mexico Micronesia Midway Islands Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar [Burma] Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles Neutral Zone New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island North Korea North Vietnam Northern Mariana Islands Norway Oman Pacific Islands Trust Territory Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territories Panama Panama Canal Zone Papua New Guinea Paraguay People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen Peru Philippines Pitcairn Islands Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russia Rwanda Réunion Saint Barthélemy Saint Helena Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Martin Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands South Korea Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Svalbard and Jan Mayen Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Syria São Tomé and Príncipe Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tokelau Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu U.S. Minor Outlying Islands U.S. Miscellaneous Pacific Islands U.S. Virgin Islands Uganda Ukraine Union of Soviet Socialist Republics United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Unknown or Invalid Region Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican City Venezuela Vietnam Wake Island Wallis and Futuna Western Sahara Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe Åland Islands ?> Gender Male Female Others TC Daily Events TC Scoop <!– Next Wave –> <!– Entering Tech –> Subscribe Encounters with the internet Abbot’s early encounters with the internet, back when it was “still a really cute place,” gave her a sense of unbounded possibility. She read passionately, experimented constantly, and developed a deep sense of curiosity. But what drew her most powerfully was language. As she grew older, she realised her work was not only technical, it was deeply personal. “I grew up without being able to speak our own languages,” she says. Her work at Lelapa AI is a response to that absence, driven by questions that still haunt her: Why did I not learn this? Why was it never taught? What does that say about the society we live in? For Abbott, building Lelapa AI is more than innovation. She is creating the tools she once needed herself, and bridges for others to connect, reclaim, and belong. Building Lelapa When Lelapa AI was founded, Abbott and her co-founders had to decide where to place their bets. All had backgrounds in AI, but Abbott also brought her co-founder experience at Masakhane, a grassroots research collective advancing natural language processing (NLP) for African languages. Her conviction was that if Africa could solve language barriers, it could unlock every other application of AI. “Language is the enabler,” she says. “If we get it right, we improve quality of life across the continent.” Lelapa AI builds language tools that make African tech more accessible and inclusive, with real-world impact in education, healthcare, and civic engagement. Their models support translation, voice interfaces, and local-language access to digital services, helping people navigate systems in their own tongues. As CTO, Abbott does not just oversee engineers and researchers. She also works closely on data, identifying, collecting, and curating the linguistic raw material needed to train models that can handle the complexities of isiZulu, Yoruba, Twi, or Amharic. But stepping into leadership demanded new muscles. “The hardest part has been letting go of code,” she
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Interopérabilité en Afrique de l’Ouest et du Centre : une nouvelle ère pour le secteur financier
2 septembre 2025 Welcome to The Next Wave: Francophone Africa, your weekly look at the tech ecosystem in French-speaking Africa. This newsletter is in French by default, but you can click the button below to read an English version. Bonjour , Cette semaine, nous nous intéressons aux paiements et à l’interopérabilité en Afrique de l’Ouest et du Centre. Un changement est en cours, susceptible de transformer la façon dont les gens transfèrent de l’argent entre la CEMAC (Communauté économique et monétaire de l’Afrique centrale) et l’UEMOA (Union économique et monétaire ouest-africaine). Pendant des années, l’adoption de l’argent mobile a connu une croissance fulgurante, mais chaque opérateur a maintenu son système fermé. Envoyer de l’argent d’Orange à Wave, ou de Moov à MTN, impliquait souvent des coûts élevés, voire aucune option. Les banques centrales interviennent désormais. Grâce à de nouvelles règles, les portefeuilles et les banques seront connectés entre les pays et les opérateurs. Cela promet des transferts moins chers, une concurrence accrue et un système financier plus ouvert. Qu’est-ce que cela signifie pour les banques, les fintechs et les opérateurs d’argent mobile comme Wave, dont l’avantage initial résidait dans la construction d’un réseau solide et fermé? À travers une étude de cas sur la licorne fintech, cette édition explore les répercussions de l’interopérabilité sur le commerce électronique, l’agritech et les transferts de fonds, et pose la question: s’agit-il vraiment d’une nouvelle ère pour la finance numérique en Afrique francophone? Allons-y. Read in English 1. Interopérabilité : qu’est-ce que c’est et pourquoi est-ce crucial ? Dans le secteur de la finance numérique, l’interopérabilité désigne la capacité des acteurs financiers (banques, fintechs, opérateurs de mobile money) à effectuer des transactions fluides et instantanées entre leurs systèmes. Cela signifie qu’un utilisateur de Wave, Orange Money, Moov Money ou de toute autre plateforme mobile peut désormais envoyer de l’argent instantanément et en toute sécurité à un utilisateur d’une autre plateforme, sans frais de transfert supplémentaires, et ce quel que soit le pays ou l’opérateur d’une zone donnée (nous nous concentrerons ici sur les zones CEMAC et UEMOA). Ce concept est essentiel en Afrique, où le mobile money a explosé ces dix dernières années. Mais cette croissance s’est souvent produite au sein d’écosystèmes fermés, contrôlés par des opérateurs dominants, créant ainsi des silos. Pourquoi c’est important : Elle favorise l’inclusion financière, surtout en zone rurale. Elle réduit les coûts pour les consommateurs. Elle stimule la concurrence et l’innovation. Elle pose les bases d’une économie numérique unifiée à l’échelle régionale. Les deux grandes zones CFA en Afrique sont gérées par deux banques centrales: La BEAC et la BCEAO, qui chacune à leur tour avait lancé des initiatives vers l’interopérabilité. 2. L’interopérabilité imposée par la BEAC et la BCEAO Dès 2018, la BEAC a publié l’instruction 001/GR/2018, définissant l’interopérabilité des paiements monétiques (mobile money, cartes bancaires, virements) à travers le système GIMAC. En avril 2020, le gouverneur Abbas Mahamat Tolli a annoncé que l’interopérabilité mobile au sein de la zone CEMAC est désormais opérationnelle. Le GIMACPAY, système monétique intégré, est commercialisé depuis juillet 2020, avec 79 participants (opérateurs, banques, PSP). Pour la zone en Afrique de l’ouest, dans l’espace UEMOA, la Banque Centrale des États de l’Afrique de l’Ouest (BCEAO) a lancé en 2021 un vaste projet d’interopérabilité régionale. En 2024, ce projet a débouché sur un cadre réglementaire obligatoire pour tous les opérateurs, obligeant tous les acteurs du mobile money et de la finance numérique à devenir interopérables. La mise en place de GIMACPAY rend désormais possible l’envoi d’argent entre utilisateurs de différents comptes (wallets ou bancaires), dans toute la zone CEMAC, comme au sein de l’UEMOA. À la différence de l’UEMOA où Wave dominait, en CEMAC, ce cadre est centralisé dès l’origine via BEAC, ce qui structurerait un terrain de jeu plus régulé dès le départ. Un communiqué du 1er août 2025 de la BCEAO a annoncé le lancement officiel de la Plateforme Interopérable du Système de Paiement Instantané (PI-SPI) pour le 30 septembre 2025. Cette plateforme permettra des transferts instantanés, sécurisés et interopérables dans toute l’UEMOA, peu importe la banque, le compte ou l’émetteur. Ceci vient après une série « de tests en conditions réelles utilisations » faites depuis le 5 Juin 2025. Ceci a évidemment eu un impact sur plusieurs secteurs et startups. Par exemples, sur les acteurs concernés : Opérateurs de mobile money (MTN MoMo, Orange Money, Airtel Money, etc.) : soumis à la même interopérabilité imposée. Banques traditionnelles, MFIs, et établissements de paiement : intégrés dans le même réseau. Fintechs & PSP : désormais régulés, avec obligation de licence pour accéder à GIMAC Plusieurs conséquences sont à noter, donc les suivantes : Fin du cloisonnement propriétaire : l’avantage concurrentiel fondé sur un réseau fermé disparaît. Égalisation des chances : comme dans l’UEMOA, les retardataires peuvent entrer sur le marché via GIMAC sans construire une infrastructure coûteuse. Commoditisation de l’innovation basique (transfert instantané) : valeur repoussée vers services à plus haute valeur ajoutée. Charge réglementaire initiale pour les acteurs en place, mais un terrain plus structuré pour tous à long terme. 3. Étude de cas : Wave, victime de sa propre innovation ? Image Source: Wave En Afrique de l’Ouest, Wave a redéfini les règles du jeu avec son application simple, des frais à 1 %, et un contrôle total de la chaîne de valeur. Résultat ? Une adoption fulgurante dans plusieurs pays, et maintenant une entrée (certes timide) sur l’Afrique centrale en commençant par le Cameroun. Puis vint l’interopérabilité. Le projet d’interopérabilité imposé bouleverse le modèle de Wave : Fin des écosystèmes fermés : Le principal avantage compétitif de Wave disparaît vu qu’est éliminé la fidélisation forcée de l’utilisateur à une seule plateforme Effet d’aubaine pour les concurrents : Le marché a été éduqué par Wave, mais les autres en profitent sans le coût initial. Standardisation de l’innovation : Le transfert instantané n’est plus un différenciateur. Double effort réglementaire : En tant que pionnier, Wave doit s’adapter en premier aux nouvelles normes. Malgré une anticipation probable, la régulation nivelle le terrain et
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Luno draws 10,000 South Africans to tokenised US stocks in first month
In early August, Luno, the UK-based crypto company operating in four African countries, became one of the first startups to offer South Africans tokenised US-listed stocks. One month later, over 10,000 users have bought tokenised shares through the platform, according to Marius Reitz, Luno’s general manager for Africa and Europe. The early surge suggests that South Africans are quick to adopt digital assets that ease longstanding barriers in the financial system, such as high fees, foreign-exchange hurdles, and settlement delays. Tokenisation, by contrast, offers lower costs, instant access, and round-the-clock trading. “We launched with 44 stocks,” said Reitz. “Since launch, we have added 15 more stocks, and we have also added exchange-traded funds, including the S&P 500, which is one of the favourites among our customers. Customer interest has grown week-on-week, and the feedback has been positive.” While the adoption indicates strong demand for digital assets, it raises questions over investor protection, taxation, and how far regulators can keep pace with digital asset innovation. What tokenisation means Tokenisation refers to creating digital representations of real-world assets (RWAs) such as equities, property, or vehicles. In Luno’s case, customers are buying blockchain-based tokens that reflect the value of US-listed shares rather than the equities themselves, leaving them without the investor rights associated with traditional securities. The advantages lie in convenience and liquidity. Tokenised Apple shares (xAPPL), for instance, can be traded at any hour and transferred between wallets without intermediaries. Locally, stock exchanges are trying to compete with the always-on level of trading that tokenised stocks provide. In August, Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) CEO, Mary Vilakazi, told Bloomberg that the bourse is considering a move to round-the-clock trading. Globally, tokenisation is gaining momentum. Goldman Sachs, BNY Mellon, and several asset managers are experimenting with digital versions of money market funds and other securities to reduce costs, accelerate settlement, and reach new investors. Tokenised assets can also be used in decentralised finance (DeFi) protocols as collateral for loans. Why Luno moved first Luno rolled out tokenised US equities in partnership with xStocks, the tokenisation product of Kraken, the global crypto company. This gave South Africans access to tokenised shares of more than 60 public US companies and ETFs, such as Apple, Tesla, and the S&P 500. The actual shares are bought and held by regulated brokers and banks, while the digital tokens that represent them are handled by cryptocurrency providers, said Reitz. “There’s a separation of duties when it comes to [asset custody],” he added. “Kraken has been around for more than ten years, they’re a trusted brand, and they enabled us to bring this product to market in a way that is safe, transparent, and easy to use.” When a customer buys Luno tokenised stocks, the money first goes through Kraken’s regulated payments arm, Payward Digital Solutions. The funds are then sent to Backed, which converts them into US dollars and passes them to its broker in the United States. The broker buys the actual shares, which are held in regulated custody. Backed then creates a digital version of those shares on the blockchain and delivers them to partners such as Kraken and Luno. The real shares are held separately from company assets in regulated custody accounts, so they remain safe if a partner were to fail. But if the digital tokens are stored on an exchange that goes bankrupt, customers may lose access until administrators resolve the claims. However, since tokenised assets are digital tokens, users can move them into self-custody wallets. Luno charges a flat 1% fee on trades, which, according to Reitz, was designed to be transparent, compared to the hidden conversion costs and spreads that South Africans face when buying tokenised stocks offshore. The product also positions Luno against rivals such as VALR. But in the wider $341 million tokenisation market in South Africa, it competes with players like ReFi Cape Town and Salient Yachts offering tokenised access to other physical assets. “Our competitor [South Africa’s VALR] only offers five stocks,” said Reitz. “So our offering is much deeper and puts much more choice in the hands of customers.” Regulatory grey zones The growth of tokenised assets is forcing regulators to confront difficult questions.. Unlike traditional equities, tokenised stocks do not come with the same level of investor protection stop-gaps that securities laws provide. In South Africa, securities are taxed under capital gains and dividend withholding rules. Crypto and digital assets are treated differently; they are taxed as capital gains for long-term holders or as income for active traders. Yet the South African Revenue Service (SARS) has struggled to enforce compliance for crypto disclosures. As of August 2025, only 17,000 out of six million crypto holders in South Africa have declared their crypto assets and filed the required taxes. Applying existing tax regimes to tokenised assets could be more complicated, since they sit in a grey area between securities and digital tokens. The cross-border, digital nature of tokenised stocks further complicates oversight of trading and money flows. While Luno stresses that it applies stringent know-your-customer and anti–money laundering checks to curb illicit flows on the blockchain, it remains unclear whether such systems are sufficient to address products that mimic traditional securities. “We are a regulated financial service provider in South Africa,” Reitz said. “Any product that we offer to our customers must be compliant with regulations, else we risk losing our licence. There must be a balance between investor protection, which is of paramount importance, and innovation.” Industry sceptics are unconvinced. The World Federation of Exchanges (WFE), the trade association of publicly regulated stock, futures, and options exchanges, has warned that tokenising traditional assets undermines the ability of regulators to do their jobs and safeguard consumers. Still, the early traction of Luno’s product suggests tokenisation addresses real market gaps. For the sector to move from a niche experiment into mainstream finance, however, regulators will need to create clearer frameworks around investor protection and taxation at a pace that matches rising adoption. Mark your calendars! Moonshot by TechCabal
Read MoreLife in Nigeria runs on data, and it now costs ₦721 billion monthly
This is Follow the Money, our weekly series that unpacks the earnings, business, and scaling strategies of African fintechs and financial institutions. A new edition drops every Monday. Whether it is football, prayer meetings, or Nollywood marathons, life in Nigeria now runs on data. That shift, plus a long-overdue tariff hike, has increased the country’s monthly data bill by 307.74% to ₦721.18 billion in July 2025 from ₦176.87 billion in July 2023. For Peter Adebiyi, a fashion entrepreneur, data has replaced cable. His 40-inch TV has never seen a satellite dish. “I use a smart TV, so I just stream whatever I want to watch,” he told TechCabal. That shift has driven an 83% surge in data consumption in just two years, boosting telecom revenues but leaving Nigerians to shoulder a far steeper monthly bill. According to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), one hour of video streaming consumes about 350 MB in standard definition and 1 GB in high definition. More streaming has meant more data usage. Monthly consumption has surged 83.88% to 1,131,255.90 terabytes (1.13 billion GB) in July 2025, up from 615,207.39 TB (615.21 million GB) in July 2023. The math By TechCabal’s calculations, Nigeria’s monthly internet spend rose to ₦721.18 billion in July 2025, based on an average cost of ₦637.5 per GB. Two years earlier, it stood at ₦176.87 billion when 1 GB averaged ₦287.5. This calculation was based on findings that revealed the average cost of 1GB in the country (using prices on the telcos’ websites). 1GB on Airtel was ₦350, ₦200 on MTN, ₦300 on Glo, and ₦300 on 9mobile, bringing the average cost of 1GB to ₦287.5 in 2023. In July 2025, 1GB on Airtel was ₦800, ₦500 on MTN, ₦750 on Glo (for 1.1GB), and ₦500 on 9mobile, bringing the average cost of 1GB to ₦637.5 in 2025. Average monthly data consumption per subscriber has risen to 8.15 GB in July 2025 (with 138.75m subscriptions), from 3.86 GB in July 2023 (with 159.54m internet subscriptions). Win for telcos MTN’s data revenue has risen by 379.63% since 2020 to ₦1.59 trillion in 2024, and stood at ₦1.23 trillion in the first half of 2025. Airtel’s data revenues are up 50.35% since 2020, hitting $654 million as of its fiscal year ended March 2024. Airtel’s average data usage per customer has jumped 232.14% since March 2021, hitting 9.3 GB in June 2025, while MTN’s rose by 53.49% since December 2023 to 13.2 GB per customer in June 2025. This surge has pushed Nigeria above the regional average for internet usage, with around 29% of the population using it 85% of Nigerians on the mobile internet use it to make or receive video calls, 75% use it to watch free-to-access online videos, and 54% use it to stream free music, according to GSMA. YouTube takes the screen YouTube has been one of the biggest winners. Aside from being the primary streaming platform of choice for many religious leaders, it has become a home for Nollywood movies. Watch time in Nigeria grew more than 55% year-on-year as of October 2024, with more than 2 million Nigerians now watching YouTube on connected TVs at home, the company disclosed at its TV/Film Day in Lagos in August. The number of Nigerian channels making eight figures in revenue grew by 100% in 2024. “As filmmakers, the screen no longer means only the cinema or television set,” said Nollywood producer Bolaji Ogunmola at YouTube’s event. “For many Nigerians, YouTube is the new TV.” Tarek Amin, director for YouTube in the Middle East, Africa, and Turkey, added, “The old gates are coming down. We are in the midst of an ever-evolving media landscape, and Nigerian creators are at the heart of it.” Drawbacks As the internet becomes more central to everyday life, costs are also biting harder. In January, telcos implemented a 50% tariff hike after a decade of price stability, citing rising operational costs. Adebiyi told TechCabal that his monthly data bill has tripled since January from about ₦10,000 to close to ₦30,000. Temiloluwa Toluwase, a digital marketer, now spends no less than ₦20,000 monthly from ₦10,000. Adeolu Ogunbanjo, president of the National Association of Telecoms Subscribers (NATCOMS), said the hike has imposed untold hardship on many Nigerians. “Some people were forced to cut back on use.” Affordability and digital literacy remain the biggest barriers to broader adoption, GSMA noted. Internet subscriptions have already fallen by 3.41 million since January, dropping to 138.75 million by July 2025. Complaints about data depletion have also risen, with many subscribers accusing telcos of overbilling. According to the NCC, much of this usage is down to background app updates and heavy screen time. “It is important that telecom subscribers are equipped with the knowledge of how to monitor, control, and optimise the usage of their mobile data bundle allowance, be it daily, weekly, or monthly plans,” Freda Bruce-Bennett, director of Consumer Affairs Bureau at the NCC, said during a media briefing in August. Even with rising consumption, broadband penetration — availability of high-speed internet access — remains below 50%. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) estimates that only 38% of Nigerians (and Africans) used the internet in 2024, far below the global average of 68%. About 20 million Nigerians remain completely unconnected, according to Bosun Tijani, Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy. Lack of internet usage cuts many from digital technologies, which are crucial for economic growth, innovation, job creation, and inclusion, according to Andrew Dabalen, World Bank Chief Economist for Africa. To close some of these gaps, Nigeria is rolling out 90,000 km more of fibre optic cables at $2billion. Despite these challenges, internet usage is expected to grow in the country, with 32 million new unique mobile internet subscribers expected in the country between 2025 and 2030. Karl Toriola, the CEO of MTN Nigeria, captured this in a TV interview in January 2025: “We are positioning ourselves to capture the opportunities of growth for the next 10 years. The demand for
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Kola Aina on AI in Africa, local capital, and exits
Kola Aina needs no introduction. As the founding partner of Ventures Platform, a $46 million early-stage fund, he has been a central figure in African venture capital for the past decade. His firm has backed more than 90 startups across the continent, including Paystack (exited in 2020), PiggyVest, Omniretail, Lemfi, Raenest, Thrive Agric, and MaaD. The firm has also returned four of its six investment cohorts. Before he founded Ventures Platform, Aina had already been active as an investor, backing startups like Moniepoint early. He also founded Emerging Platforms, a tech firm that built custom edtech, enterprise, and security products. It’s probably why he told me he would be an edtech founder if he were not an investor. As a sector-agnostic firm, Ventures Platform (VP) invests in companies that tackle non-consumption, close infrastructure gaps, and expand prosperity in Africa by lowering access barriers and cutting the cost of delivering goods and services. The firm can invest up to $1 million across the pre-seed, seed, and Series A stages, and has portfolio companies in all of Africa’s four regions. Outside of investing, Aina helped champion the Nigeria Startup Act process with the Presidency and other ecosystem leaders like Iyin Aboyeji and Adia Sowho. He is also the pioneer advisory board chair of the Yemisi Shyllon Museum of Art (YSMA) and an art patron. For this week’s Ask an Investor, I spoke to Aina about how Africa’s tech ecosystem has matured in recent years, why his firm’s thesis has not changed, the rise of local investors on the continent, his firm’s exits, the future of his firm and exits, why he wished he invested in Moove, what early-stage founders should never do, his preference for former operators as colleagues and why his firm is investing in Francophone Africa. There’s also some advice for founders based on the art industry. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 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The past year has been good, really good. I think, generally speaking, with the slowdown in the markets from the highs of 2021, we’ve seen a scenario where only the most clear-conviction, serious founders and investors are active. You know, there’s a lot more high-quality activity going on. The cream is rising to the top. There’s less herd behaviour, less capital blindly chasing deals. Everyone is showing up correctly. It’s also been good in the sense that encouraging folks to focus on capital efficiency and solid unit economics is now the standard. It’s been a season of growing up across the ecosystem, which makes our job easier, generally. You said there’s less herd mentality. Can you explain a bit more about that? What I mean is, the ecosystem is going back to what it was pre-2020. Building a startup is a very hard endeavour. Investing is difficult. It’s not about vibes. There’s less fanfare now, and folks are more focused on doing this for the right reasons. That’s leading to higher quality on both the founder side and the investor side. Has anything changed about your thesis in the last 24 months? No. Our thesis hasn’t changed. It’s always been focused on funding market-creating innovations that can capture Africa’s opportunities, make a significant impact, and deliver returns. That thesis has stood the test of time and remains evergreen. If
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Digital Nomads: A superbike accident was the breaking point for Oluwaleke Fakorede
Oluwaleke Fakorede’s story begins on a grim note. On a random weekend in July 2022, after visiting friends in Osogbo, southwest Nigeria, he rode home on his superbike, the sun warming his skin. Fakorede loved his superbike. For the Nigerian-born software engineer, the bike presented a regular rush of adrenaline break from sedentary work. But on this day in July, zooming through the asphalt tracks of the Osogbo highway, a car appeared out of nowhere and suddenly swerved in front of him. He skidded off the path, his body lurching forward, and in a blur, came crashing down helmet-first onto the hard floor. “I saw my life flash before my eyes,” recalled Fakorede. “I wasn’t going too fast, so I could still control where I dived to. Thankfully, I was wearing complete gear when [the accident] happened, but I still sustained bruises and sprained my ankle badly.” The accident occured right in front of a police station. The driver of the rogue car that hit him turned out to be a police officer who claimed his tyre had burst. Instead of holding the officer accountable, other officers turned on Fakorede and threatened to lock him up. Fakorede’s Kawasaki Ninja superbike after the accident/Image retrieved on August 25, 2025/Source: Fakorede “This is an insane country,” he remembers thinking after leaving the station in disbelief. The following day, still bandaged from the accident and walking cautiously with a limp, Fakorede headed out to drop his damaged bike parts at the mechanic’s. There, another unmarked police car pulled up, and officers jumped out with their guns drawn, demanded his papers, and tried to extort him. They detained him for nearly two hours until he called his father to intervene. Fakorede would spend weeks recovering physically, and several more years healing from the emotional scar. Until then, he had never seriously considered leaving Nigeria. But it was the accident, and the events that followed, that ignited a strong desire to move abroad and build his career in an environment where, as he puts it, “freedom of movement meant safety.” The man, his bike, and his dreams abroad Fakorede the biker, circa June 2022, before the accident/Image Source: Fakorede Fakorede is the founder of Proton Tech Lab, but is best known as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of GoWagr, a Nigerian ‘prediction market’ startup where over 400,000 users can win money from predicting real-life events. He co-founded the startup with longtime friends, Daniel Oladepo and Michael Okoko, in 2021. But they built their conviction two years later, during the country’s 2023 general elections, when they saw an opportunity to help Nigerians make money. They tested the idea by building a small spreadsheet to track people’s predictions on election outcomes and awarding winners a share of pooled contributions; a low-tech experiment that validated demand before they shipped the product. Before GoWagr, Fakorede had built his career across several high-profile Nigerian and foreign startups. An Andela-trained talent, he cut his teeth at Terragon as a data engineer before stints at Denmark’s Sports Compass, Nestcoin, Binance, and Yellow Card. But it was a remote job at Insomnia Labs, a US-based venture studio he joined in 2022, that gave him a real foretaste of life outside Nigeria. In his two-room apartment in Ife, Osun State, Fakorede built and scaled a tech team to deliver products for companies like Coca-Cola, ICC, Ava Labs, and Coinbase. Steadily, his importance to the team grew. He rose to VP of Engineering, then became CTO. The company decided it was time to meet the man in person. After his bike incident in July 2022, Fakorede travelled out of Nigeria to the UK for the first time to meet the top brass executives at Insomnia Labs. It left an impression on his employers, and soon, the company wanted him to move permanently. Fakorede in Scotland, United Kingdom, in 2023/Image Source: Fakorede “I thought, if I were physically closer to the team, we could get so much more done,” he said. Though he romanticised what life in the UK would look like, Fakorede also thought about Scandinavian countries to settle in. Yet his dream to build GoWagr, the desire that nudged him all along, drew him to the United States, where Insomnia Labs is headquartered. Moving to the US on an H-1B In April 2023, Insomnia Labs filed a petition for Fakorede’s H-1B visa, America’s tightly regulated work permit for specialty occupations. The application process was a gamble because the visa is awarded through a lottery. Every year, American companies file petitions for skilled foreign workers, but the demand is far higher than the supply. Hundreds of thousands apply, yet only about a minimum of 85,000 names are selected. Fakorede’s name did not make the cut at first. He waited with uncertainty, unsure if the door to his American dream had closed. Then, in August that same year, while still at home in Nigeria, he received the call that changed everything. His petition had been picked after all. It took four months. 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Busha, SEC partner to launch crypto course for financial leaders
One year since it issued provisional crypto licences to two startups, Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)—under the capital market institute (NCMI)—and Kenya School of Government (KSG) have partnered with crypto startup Busha to launch a cryptocurrency course. The module, to be developed and facilitated by the UK’s Cambridge Enterprise, part of the Cambridge University, will aim to teach financial institution leaders and decision-makers about digital assets and the role they play in creating financial access. The programme, “Digital Assets Innovation, Industry, Regulation and Compliance (DAIIRC),” will target regulators and enforcement professionals, financial sector executives, policymakers, legal and compliance professionals, innovators, and ecosystem leaders, in a major collaboration between regulators and industry operators, signalling a clear push for institutional crypto adoption. “This partnership with the University of Cambridge and Busha to deliver a world-class executive programme reflects our commitment to equipping regulators, policymakers, and market leaders with the tools they need to engage with digital assets from a position of confidence, not caution,” said Dr Emomotimi Agama, SEC director general, in the programme brochure seen by TechCabal. According to the SEC, the four-way collaboration is underway and has not been finalised yet. Launching on September 30, DAIIRC will be a six-week Africa-focused hybrid programme facilitated by an ensemble cast of experienced digital asset academics, including Simon Callaghan, former director of the Cambridge Digital Assets Programme; Dr Dee Allen, associate professor at the University of Bahamas; Dr Patrick Conteh, CEO of Africa Fintech Network; Loretta Joseph, advisor to the Financial Services Commission of Jamaica on virtual asset regulation; Dr Tanya McCartney, CEO of GEM Advisory, a US-based regulatory compliance firm; and Olaoluwa Samuel-Biyi, Busha co-founder. The programme will cost $1,500 and participating institutions will be required to sponsor executives in their ranks. 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 Rica Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Côte d’Ivoire Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Dronning Maud Land East Germany Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories French Southern and Antarctic Territories Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Heard Island and McDonald Islands Honduras Hong Kong SAR China Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Isle of Man Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jersey Johnston Island Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macau SAR China Macedonia Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Metropolitan France Mexico Micronesia Midway Islands Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar [Burma] Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles Neutral Zone New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island North Korea North Vietnam Northern Mariana Islands Norway Oman Pacific Islands Trust Territory Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territories Panama Panama Canal Zone Papua New Guinea Paraguay People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen Peru Philippines Pitcairn Islands Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russia Rwanda Réunion Saint Barthélemy Saint Helena Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Martin Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands South Korea Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Svalbard and Jan Mayen Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Syria São Tomé and Príncipe Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tokelau Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu U.S. Minor Outlying Islands U.S. Miscellaneous Pacific Islands U.S. Virgin Islands Uganda Ukraine Union of Soviet Socialist Republics United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Unknown or Invalid Region Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican City Venezuela Vietnam Wake Island Wallis and Futuna Western Sahara Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe Åland Islands ?> Gender Male Female Others TC Daily Events TC Scoop <!– Next Wave –> <!– Entering Tech –> Subscribe Crypto licences? One year later While the collaboration between regulators and a startup is a landmark occurrence, access to formal banking rails remains the biggest hurdle for crypto firms. When the SEC issued its first batch of provisional licences in August 2024 to Quidax and Busha as part of a sandbox programme, the move was billed as the beginning of a new era for the industry. The expectation was that both startups would transition to full operating licences within a year and that more operators would be admitted to the sandbox. But progress has been slower than anticipated. In April, the regulator paused new approvals, citing difficulties in its due diligence process. This has left dozens of applicants in limbo and put added pressure on the two provisional licence holders to demonstrate what regulated crypto activity should look like. “A lot has changed since August [2024],” said Samuel-Biyi. “We’ve been able to grow, hire more people, and interact more formally with the banking system. But it also means there are many things hundreds of other players are doing in this space that we cannot do by virtue of being regulated.” Busha has had to scale its compliance processes. According to Samuel-Biyi, about 30% of the startup’s operations are now tied to regulatory obligations, up from 10% before licencing. These routines include real-time reporting to the SEC through APIs, stricter Know Your Customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) checks, proof of sufficient reserves, and intensive transaction monitoring through global tools such as Chainalysis and Fireblocks for wallet security. The licencing regime has also nudged
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South Africans can now shop for home loans online
Getting a mortgage in South Africa is starting to look a lot like buying a fridge. Digital platforms are turning the long, paperwork-heavy process into something that can be done with a few clicks, and consumers are responding. The latest signal came last week when Takealot, the country’s largest e-commerce platform, launched a Home Loan Hub in partnership with MortgageMarket, the country’s online home loan marketplace. Within 48 hours, more than 1,000 people had applied, according to Tim Akinnusi, MortgageMarket CEO. They join a growing list of South Africans turning to online platforms like MTN, EasyEquities, and BetterBond to secure home financing, bypassing brokers and branch visits. With just one digital application on Takealot, users can receive instant pre-approval insights without affecting their credit score, compare offers from lenders such as Absa, FNB, Investec, RMB, and Standard Bank, and get loan proposals within 72 hours. Successful applicants even receive up to R20,000 (over $1,100) in Takealot vouchers once their bond is registered, a tactic reminiscent of e-commerce bundling logic designed to make online shopping stickier. “It’s a smart move by Takealot as they have established distribution and additional data from past purchases to help determine the credit risk,” said Michael Jordan, a chartered enterprise risk analyst. “I think it will be a success and would not be surprised if they expand into insurance next.” Davison Mudzingwa, an entrepreneur and business analyst, noted that accessing home loans through e-commerce platforms like Takealot speeds up the process of bond application and approvals. “I hope this will increase activity within the property and long-term loan market due to ease of access,” he said. This trend is unfolding as South Africa’s housing market shows signs of recovery from the pressures of high interest rates, rising costs of living, and post-pandemic economic strain. The recovery is driven by first-time buyers, who accounted for nearly 53% of the total applicants coming from this segment in Q1 2025, according to Absa’s Homeowner Sentiment Index. For BettaBond alone, loan approvals increased by 8.2% in the past 12 months ending in March 2025, compared to the same period the previous year Takealot’s move reflects a larger trend of digital platforms expanding into lifestyle services driven by surging internet, mobile, and social media use. Avo, an e-commerce run by Nedbank, bundles banking, shopping, and more in one digital interface. For younger, tech-savvy consumers, the ability to manage applications online without endless trips to banks is a major shift. Analysts say technology-driven distribution channels are well-positioned to ride this wave. “If getting a mortgage can be as seamless as buying a fridge, more people might finally buy both,” Mudzingwa added. “It’s a good development that shows technology as both an enabler and a frontier that takes down barriers for both business and consumers.” Mark your calendars! Moonshot by TechCabal is back in Lagos on October 15–16! Join Africa’s top founders, creatives & tech leaders for 2 days of keynotes, mixers & future-forward ideas. Early bird tickets now 20% off—don’t snooze! moonshot.techcabal.com
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