- March 20 2025
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Mysten Labs co-founder launches $1.3 million fund to train African software engineers
Adeniyi Abiodun, co-founder of blockchain infrastructure firm Mysten Labs, and his wife, Gloria Abiodun, have launched a $1.3 million endowment fund to train African software engineers, addressing a critical talent shortage in the region’s growing tech ecosystem. The five-year fund, managed by Inurere Foundation, will offer student loans to aspiring software engineers enrolled in the Techpreneurship programme run by Semicolon Africa, a Nigerian workforce development company, where participants will learn advanced programming languages, including Move, used for smart contract development. Meedl Africa, a fintech company, will facilitate the loans. The fund will provide loans of approximately ₦5 million ($3,300) at 12% annual interest, with repayments recycled to support new students, ensuring the programme’s sustainability. Semicolon Africa, which has trained over 800 software engineers through the Techpreneurship programme, will place graduates into jobs after completing their training. “Funds are recycled, meaning many more learners can be trained over time,” Ashley Immanuel, Semicolon COO told TechCabal. “This fund, which isn’t seeking a financial return, can attract other funding sources to offer affordable interest rates. Nigerian financial providers are interested in student loans, but with MPR at 27.5%, their rates are too high. Blending that ‘expensive’ capital with endowment funds can make loans more affordable.” The initiative is a response to Africa’s shortage of blockchain engineering talent, which threatens to slow the growth of the region’s startup ecosystem. For Abiodun, the fund is personal. Before co-founding Mysten Labs, he held engineering roles at JP Morgan, HSBC, Oracle, and Meta’s Novi, the now-shuttered digital wallet project that allowed users to hold the Libra stablecoin. “Supporting Nigerian students while inviting more builders to learn the programming language that has defined my career is immensely rewarding,” he said. “With the rise of AI and blockchain, we are committed to ensuring African students are high-level contributors to the global tech workforce.” The demand for skilled tech talent in Africa is rising as the digital economy expands with a projection to reach $712 billion by 2050. Sam Immanuel, CEO of Semicolon Africa, said the initiative could serve as a model to bridge the education financing gap. “We hope that more individuals—and companies—will follow in the Abioduns’ footsteps and invest in funds, like this endowment, that will engender sustainable talent development across the continent,” he said.
Read More- March 20 2025
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Safaricom’s M-PESA decline continues as Airtel Money gains
M-PESA, Safaricom’s mobile money service, has declined for the fifth consecutive quarter, weighed down by increased interoperability and Airtel Money’s aggressive promotions, including transaction fee refunds as airtime. M-PESA’s market share fell by 2.3 percentage points to 91% in Q4 2024 compared to Q3, while Airtel Money grew from 7.6% to 8.9% in the same period, according to data from the Communication Authority of Kenya (CA). The sustained decline in M-PESA’s market share signals a shifting competitive landscape in Kenya’s mobile money ecosystem. Increased interoperability since 2022 has made it easier for customers to switch service providers. Airtel Money’s aggressive promotions, lower fees, and increased agent networks are drawing more customers. The growth in Airtel Money’s customers suggests that many new mobile money accounts have joined its platform. “Subscription to mobile money services grew by 4.1 percent to 42.3 million translating to a penetration rate of 82.1 percent during the reference period,” CA said in its sector report. Airtel Money remains the more affordable option for transactions, which could also explain why it’s eating into M-PESA’s market. Sending KES 1,000 ($7.7) to other networks costs KES 11 (0.085) on Airtel Money, compared to M-PESA’s KES 13 ($0.093), while withdrawing the same amount costs KES 29 ($0.22) on Airtel Money—KES 2 less than M-PESA. Airtel has also strengthened its agent network, partnering with supermarket chains like Naivas to host points where customers can deposit and withdraw cash. M-Pesa has over 160,000 agents spread across the country, giving it an edge over Airtel. The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) ‘s plan to implement agent interoperability, which would allow users to access mobile money services from any agent, regardless of the provider, remains unfulfilled despite the regulator’s commitment to roll it out by 2024. With over 34 million customers, M-PESA is still the dominant mobile payments platform, handling over 30 billion transactions with an estimated KES40 trillion ($308.8 million). Airtel Money has an estimated eight million registered users. CBK’s planned rollout of a new Fast Payment System (FPS), which will allow instant transactions across all financial institutions, including banks and payment service providers (PSPs), could further challenge M-Pesa’s dominance in the market.
Read More- March 19 2025
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Nigeria records largest global drop in cash usage as digital payments surge
Nigeria recorded the steepest decline in cash transactions to surpass six cash-reliant economies in the past decade thanks to the rapid adoption of digital payments and rising fintech partnerships, according to a report by global payment processing company Worldpay. From 2014 to 2024, cash transactions in Nigeria fell by 59%, the largest drop among the seven major economies analysed. The Philippines followed with a decline (43%), while Indonesia (44%), Mexico (41%), Japan (31%), Germany (24%), and Colombia (22%) also saw drops in cash usage. The decline comes as electronic transactions hit record highs in Nigeria, driven by increased partnerships between banks and fintech companies to promote digital payments. The report—which analysed 40 markets representing 88% of global GDP—projects that cash usage in Nigeria will drop further to 32% by 2030 as digital payment adoption continues to grow. Digital payments in Nigeria surged in 2023, fueled by the Central Bank of Nigeria’s naira redesign policy aimed at curbing cash hoarding and money laundering. However, the controversial policy led to severe cash shortages, causing a 29.2% drop in currency circulation to ₦982.1 billion by February 2023—the lowest since 2008. As traditional banks struggled to manage the spike in online transactions, fintech companies like OPay and PalmPay seized the moment, offering reliable alternatives for money transfers and bill payments and emerging as the biggest winners of the cash crunch. “Nigerians now have an increasing appetite for non-cash transactions,” said Uchenna Uzo, a professor of marketing at Lagos Business School. Data from the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) shows that the volume of electronic transactions surged by 16-fold (1,514.2%) between 2018 and 2024, rising from 793 million to 11.3 billion respectively. The Worldpay report noted that while Nigeria remains a cash-heavy economy, the rate of cash has slashed by more than half from 91% since 2019, noting that “Mobile devices are playing a central role in the transformation.” According to Enhancing Financial Innovation & Access (EFInA), the financial inclusion rate rose to 64% in 2023 from 56% in 2020. In November 2024, the Central Bank of Nigeria projected the 2023 rate to increase to 80% by 2026. “Collectively, these innovations streamline payment processes, reduce reliance on cash, and improve the overall efficiency of financial transactions in Nigeria,” said analysts at Euromonitor International in a recent report. Fueled by fintech partnerships and innovation, Nigeria is rapidly solidifying its position as the dominant digital finance powerhouse in Africa. If the current pace holds, the country won’t just lead the continent in financial inclusion, it will set a blueprint for the future of money in Africa.
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- March 19 2025
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How Ruth Ikegah went from Microbiologist to leading open source advocacy in Africa
In April 2021, 21-year-old Ruth Ikegah was a fresh microbiology graduate from the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT) just one month away from relocating to Lagos for her National Youth Service (NYSC). She was scraping by on a one-off management gig that earned her ₦70,000 ($170*). Her fortunes changed in a flash, by way of a technical writing job that paid $5,000 a month (over ₦2 million). She recalls letting out a scream during the hiring call. “It came at the lowest point of my life,” she said in our virtual interview. Today, Lagos-based Ikegah has built an award-winning career and earns over $70,000 annually. She is a leading advocate for African participation in open source initiatives that seek to promote and protect open-source software. Her work has taken her to 14 countries and led to a 2024 United Nations speaking engagement. Trained as a developer, she rarely writes code. In an industry where non-coding roles are often dismissed as lightweight, Ikegah proves that success belongs to those bold enough to rewrite the rules. Ruth Ikegah at a UN Conference in 2024 Seeds of curiosity Ikegah grew up in a broken home, with separated parents and a stepmother whose discipline bordered on cruelty. Her childhood was marked by sadness and self-doubt, she recalls. “It was so overwhelming that I shrank into myself and became extremely introverted,” she said. Boarding school jolted her awake—watching public displays of affection between her classmates and their parents made her realise her circumstances weren’t normal. “It made me think I could dream bigger and have a different life,” she said. This paradigm of self-reinvention followed her into her undergraduate studies at UNIPORT, where she struggled academically. “If I failed, I’d just think, ‘I won’t kill myself over this,’” she admitted. That changed when a friend joked that her flunking grades might end their relationship. It was a wake-up call, Ikegah told me. She read tens of pages of lecture notes, condensing them into bite-sized summaries, and even formed a reading group. Two friends from the group, Peace Ojemeh and Alabo Briggs, soon caught her attention. “They weren’t stressing over classes, yet they had expensive things. I often wondered how they afforded them,” she recalled. When she asked, Ojemeh explained she was a designer volunteering for open source organisations in exchange for stipends, often paid in dollars. She resolved to join them after graduation. In early 2020, when the COVID-19 lockdown delayed her NYSC service, she turned to her friends, who encouraged her to pursue tech-related skills she found personally appealing. She chose data analysis with Python. She recalls spending a lot of time at a Rivers State digital hub—a state government initiative for tech literacy where free electricity and internet allowed her to study for months. She took tutorials on platforms like DataCamp and DevCareer and even joined Twitter, where she encountered like-minded enthusiasts like Samson Goddy and Adaora Nwodo, and tech communities like She Code Africa. Soon she began volunteering for open source projects, including those by Linux, an open source operating system that serves as the foundation for many servers, desktops, and embedded systems worldwide. A volunteer spirit takes root Despite being unpaid, Ikegah jumped at several volunteer opportunities, including an open-source challenge organised by Open Source Community Africa (OSCA) and She Code Africa (SCA). These experiences accelerated her learning, enabled community building, and provided opportunities to develop her resume without traditional work experience. In addition, through SCA’s 2020 mentorship programme, Ikegah was paired with a mentor. The mentorship programme included weekly check-ins and challenges that also required technical writing. “I started producing articles weekly or biweekly,” she said, realising she enjoyed explaining complex topics far more than writing code. “I realised coding wasn’t my passion—I didn’t enjoy it.” Ikegah Ruth and one of her GitHub Stars Recognition and reward Months after taking her friend’s advice, Ikegah became the first African woman to win a GitHub Star award. The recognition was a turning point, bringing both job and speaking opportunities her way including the technical writing role at U.S.-based Animalz, that came with a $5,000 monthly salary. Earning that first paycheque changed everything, but it came with a heavy workload, and after 11 months, she left the role with over $10,000 in savings and an optimism that she could redefine her career. “It was tough to leave, but necessary as I have learnt to not overthink or overstay in situations that do not work for me,’ she said. “But first I took a three-month break, including a trip to Dubai—my first real holiday.” Advocating for open source for Africa After Animalz, Ikegah determined that supporting developers through documentation and community management aligned best with her interests and skills. So she transitioned into open source programme management full-time. Despite researching the field and upskilling, Ikegah found that living outside the U.S. posed a barrier to landing a full-time role and went back to volunteering. Some volunteering roles came with monetary rewards while others did not, but they positioned her as a thought leader in promoting inclusivity and diversity in open source. Despite growing awareness of open source in Africa, sustained contributions remain a challenge. Many African developers view it as an unpaid stepping stone to better job prospects rather than a long-term commitment, one of several things she hopes to change through her advocacy work. Ruth Ikegah with some of the Namibian students she mentors. Her biggest breakthrough came with the CHAOSS Project under the Linux Foundation. When she started contributing in 2020, African participation was minimal. Ikegah increased African participation in the Chaos Project by advocating for more developers to join, helping new contributors find meaningful roles, effectively communicating the project’s value to a wider audience, and conducting diversity and inclusion audits. Her efforts didn’t go unnoticed. The project’s co-founder invited her to lead a regional chapter, which she continues to lead today. Beyond community-building, Ikegah consults for African companies who want to monetise open source software through support services, subscriptions, or enterprise solutions, models
Read More- March 19 2025
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MTN and Airtel drive 57% of IHS Towers’ revenue in 2024
MTN Nigeria and Airtel Nigeria accounted for 57% of IHS Towers’ revenue in 2024, highlighting its heavy reliance on a handful of key customers in its largest market. Nigeria, which contributed 58.3% of IHS Towers’ total earnings, remains the dominant revenue driver for the world’s fifth-largest multinational tower company. IHS Towers’ revenue fell to $1.7 billion in 2024 from $2.1 billion in 2023, with a staggering 98.5% of its earnings tied to just three mobile network operators: MTN Nigeria, Airtel Africa, and MTN South Africa Any downturn affecting these key customers—including economic instability, currency devaluation, or regulatory changes—could substantially negatively impact IHS Towers’ financial performance. Nigeria’s economic challenges, particularly the sharp devaluation of the naira since 2023, have intensified inflation and increased financial uncertainty for tower businesses operating in the country. With 58.3% of IHS Towers’ revenue tied to its Nigerian operations, further economic deterioration could hinder its growth and profitability. The company has acknowledged these risks particularly the potential impact on its key customers’ ability to meet lease obligations and sustain demand for tower infrastructure. IHS Towers is grappling with rising operating costs, driven mainly by rising fuel expenses, site maintenance, and security. Power generation remains its largest expense, making up 39.2% of the company’s cost of sales in 2024, up from 33.5% in 2023. The company spent $348 million on power generation in 2024 compared to $396 million in 2023. To save costs, the company has invested in hybrid energy solutions, combining diesel generators with solar and battery systems. As of December 2024, 41% of its sites ran on hybrid power, 33% used grid electricity with backup generators, and 18% relied solely on generators. The remaining 8% operated on direct grid connections or alternative energy sources like solar power “We, or third-party contractors we have engaged for certain sites, are responsible for monitoring the diesel levels of our generator tanks and scheduling diesel deliveries,” IHS said in its financial report. “ Given the importance of diesel for the operation of our sites in many of our African markets, we may purchase diesel in large quantities, which is then stored at our facilities.” Beyond energy costs, the financial burden of expanding its network remains significant. As of December 2024, the cost of building a new tower ranged between $50,000 and $100,000 in Africa, while in Latin America, it ranged from $40,000 to $80,000. These high costs pose a challenge for further expansion, especially in an economic environment where access to financing and foreign exchange remains restricted. Despite securing long-term Master Lease Agreements (MLAs) that typically last five to ten years, IHS Towers’ revenue remains highly dependent on the financial health of its key customers. Many of these mobile network operators rely on substantial debt or external funding to sustain operations. If they struggle to secure financing, they may cut back on infrastructure investments, reducing demand for IHS Towers’ services and impacting its revenue. However, CEO Sam Darwish remains optimistic about growth opportunities, particularly in Nigeria. The recent approval of a tariff increase by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), now being implemented by major operators like MTN Nigeria and Airtel Nigeria, is expected to boost investments in telecom infrastructure. “We are extremely bullish on Nigeria at the moment,” Darwish said, expressing confidence that the tariff adjustments will positively impact the industry in 2025 as telcos expand their networks to enhance service delivery. IHS Towers continues to maintain its Africa dominance in the telecom infrastructure industry, managing 39,229 towers across six African and two Latin American countries as of December 2024.It is the largest independent tower operator in six of its eight markets and the only independent scale operator in four. While its market leadership is undisputed, the company’s heavy reliance on Nigeria and a narrow customer base means it will need more than just towering ambitions to weather the storms ahead.
Read More- March 19 2025
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How to build a credit score in South Africa, the Pokkit way
In South Africa, borrowing money has traditionally been the primary way to build a good credit score. But a startup called Pokkit Score (Pokkit), founded in 2023, is providing a new way. Instead of relying on debt, Pokkit helps people improve their credit scores using their savings. This approach seeks to address the pressing financial inclusion challenge in a society with widespread income inequality and limited access to credit. In South Africa’s mainstream banking, building a good credit score requires borrowing money, often at very high interest rates. This approach does not work well for millions of low-income earners in a country where 63% of people live below the upper-middle-income poverty line as stated by the World Bank. South Africa’s banking sector is dominated by five major banks, which together hold 77% of the market. Despite this, about 7 million South Africans lack adequate access to credit, while 21 million have no credit access whatsoever, according to the TransUnion report. This means millions of South Africans do not have a credit score – ratings that show how likely they are to repay loans. This limits access to essential loans for homes, vehicles, or even education. “We believe that it is wrong that people first need to incur debt to get a credit score,” says Pokkit’s CEO, Johan Koornhof. “By enabling savings to serve as a pathway to credit, unlike traditional methods, this system encourages financial discipline and avoids the potential pitfalls of high-interest debt.” Instead of incurring debt, Pokkit allows customers to purchase savings vouchers, ranging between $5.55 and $220.60, which are redeemable after a set period. These contributions are securely invested in the Allan Gray Money Market Fund (MMF) and customers receive 100% of the interest earned, currently at 8.16% per annum. Pokkit shares customers’ savings behavior with credit bureaus, allowing them to establish or improve credit scores. With Pokkit, if a customer saves $220.60 every month for 24 months at the current Allan Gray MMF interest rate of 8.16% per annum (as of March 14, 2025), they would have saved about $5292.61 and earned $474.23 in interest bringing the total value at the end of 24 months to $5 766.84. Customers also benefit from low monthly fees and a money-back guarantee if no improvement in their score is observed within a year “Monthly fees range between $0.25 and $0.41 and if your credit score does not improve within 12 months (assuming all else remains constant), we will refund all fees. While early redemptions incur higher fees, customers can access their savings after three months for a flat fee of $0.50,” notes Koornhof.. Pokkit measures its success through the tangible financial empowerment of its users. “The best number is that 100% of customers without credit scores get one within two to five months; 80% of customers with low credit scores start improving within 5 months of regular payments,” says Koornhof.. Beyond addressing South Africa’s financial inclusion gaps, Pokkit has set its sights on expansion across the African continent, where credit scoring systems often fail to reflect the true financial behavior of consumers and credit bureaus operate dismally. . Koornhof notes that one of the challenges Pokkit faced was gaining the trust of individuals without access to credit. The company has overcome this challenge by reliable reporting and efficient management of payments and payouts. Technology plays a crucial role in Pokkit’s operations. “Our entire system is housed on AWS powering a sophisticated dashboard that handles registration, transactions and reconciliations entirely online with savings contributions directly linked to credit score updates,” says Koornhof. Pokkit collects personal data voluntarily for financial services, credit assessments, and personalised offers. Koornhof notes that all data is protected through secure storage, incorporating encryption and strict access controls, while ensuring compliance POPIA (Protection of Personal Information Act) and other relevant laws. In the long term, Pokkit envisions becoming a “leading data aggregator, that also reports alternative data – payments that are not being reported currently,” says Koornhof.
Read More- March 19 2025
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Quidax joins Busha to list SEC-regulated cNGN stablecoin amid crypto push
Quidax, the Nigerian crypto startup that received a provisional licence in August 2024, has listed cNGN, the country’s first regulated stablecoin pegged to the naira. The move, which comes a month after another provisionally-licenced crypto startup Busha listed the cNGN, underscores Nigeria’s evolving approach to crypto regulation, balancing oversight with the growing adoption of digital currencies. The March 12 listing will allow Quidax users to send and receive cNGN between wallets with the potential for wider use in payments, transfers, and digital currency exchanges. With Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) overseeing cNGN’s rollout, the government seems focused on integrating crypto into the financial system rather than restricting it. Quidax declined to comment. After three years of development, the African Stablecoin Consortium (ASC), comprising Convexity, Alpha Geek Technologies, Digital Currency Coalition, and Interstellar, launched the cNGN stablecoin in February 2024. When the SEC opened the Regulatory Incubation (RI) programme in June 2024, the consortium applied under “WrappedCBDC Ltd,” a joint venture created for blockchain-based digital currency projects and received approval in principle in August 2024. Convexity did not immediately respond to a request for comments. Digital Currency Coalition did not immediately respond to a request for comments. Interstellar did not immediately respond to a request for comments. Since its launch, the cNGN stablecoin has seen a gradual increase in adoption, with its website reporting 121.3 million tokens in circulation and 127 holders. Initially listed on Busha, the addition of Quidax expands its reach. WrappedCBDC vets exchanges seeking to list cNGN, assessing their reserve management capabilities to maintain supply stability. A ₦100,000 verification fee is also required to cover third-party service costs. However, some crypto users have questioned the necessity of cNGN, arguing that the Naira is already widely available on major crypto platforms. “There’s already fiat Naira existing in the crypto ecosystem,” said Chibunna Kingsley, a Lagos-based crypto trader. “So it is hard to see why traders need the cNGN.” Yet there is an opportunity for the cNGN to allow decentralised platforms that have previously delisted the Naira to adopt the stablecoin, allowing more Nigerians to trade on larger exchanges. The ASC aims to get the stablecoin listed on more crypto exchanges to solidify its case as a remittance tool. The real battleground will be user adoption, with cNGN’s fate resting on whether it can outpace existing Naira integrations and prove its distinct value proposition.
Read More- March 19 2025
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“Transfers will be the future”: GTCO’s HabariPay expands fintech push with new licences
When fintechs like Paystack and Flutterwave gained prominence between 2016 and 2019 to disrupt Nigeria’s financial sector, traditional banks had to innovate—or risk falling behind. GTCO, one of Nigeria’s most profitable banks with a market capitalization of ₦2.07 trillion, was among the first to respond to the fintech disruption. In 2018, it launched Habari, a super-app that combined digital banking with lifestyle services like music streaming, e-commerce, social networking, and financial transactions. However, the platform struggled to carve out a niche in any category. Its all-in-one approach lacked a standout feature, making it difficult to attract and retain users. In 2022, GTCO pivoted the fintech business to launch HabariPay Limited a fintech subsidiary offering payments and digital financial services. Since its launch, GTCO has been working to establish HabariPay as a key player in Nigeria’s fintech sector, competing against well-funded giants like Paystack and Flutterwave and digital banks like Moniepoint and OPay. Despite the tough competition, HabariPay Limited contributed ₦4.926 billion in profits to GTCO between 2022 and H1 2024. HabariPay’s overall contribution to GTCO remains modest. In H1 2024, the fintech subsidiary reported a profit after tax of ₦1.7 billion, accounting for just 0.17% of GTCO’s total profit before tax. While CEO Eduofon Japhet acknowledges the company’s growth, she said HabariPay must scale further to solidify its position within GTCO’s portfolio. The company has acquired multiple payments and switched licences to focus on expanding POS terminal services for merchants and ensuring that mobile transfers are as seamless as card payments. TechCabal spoke to Eduofon Japhet in Abeokuta where the company held the second edition of Squad Hackathon teams on Saturday, March 15, 2025, to understand the company’s payment expansion plans in 2025. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. What has the journey been so far for HabariPay since launching as a fintech business under a major bank? We entered a market that seemed saturated and we needed to find a place for ourselves. We needed to find a product that was market-driven where we could add value—looking back at that journey. We wanted to focus on building local infrastructure that could support micro-payments because we saw many solutions that large companies could afford. The reason we didn’t see a lot of financial inclusion was that cash was still easier and more affordable for the bottom of the pyramid to transact in. That’s something we tried to address. We launched an NFC-based Point-of-Sale solution that allows people to tap and turn their phones into POS terminals. We launched our switch, which allowed us to process low-ticket transactions at what we felt was an affordable rate, produce those rails ourselves, and provide those rails to the fintech and payment ecosystem as a whole. Why did HabariPay take a different approach from competitors that relied on agency banking and POS terminals to reach the unbanked? It is how we looked at the market and where we wanted to add value. Like I said, that space was saturated. You had Moniepoint and OPay. They have flooded the market with cheap terminals. I don’t think it would have been the best idea for us to bring 3 million additional terminals. Maybe that’s not what the market needed at the time. We had to find a niche for ourselves where we could succeed and we could dominate. That’s why we took a different approach. How are you addressing financial inclusion, knowing that millions of unbanked people don’t have connectivity and your solutions are digital-based? We’re on a journey. We did two things: acquired two sets of licences from the Central Bank of Nigeria, the switching and processing licence, and the Value Added Service licence from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). It made us think that we were going to build those rails from scratch and to build those rails, we needed to have one foot into wherever connectivity was coming from. Whether it was USSD, internet, or whatever it was that would drive the payments and then begin to build our infrastructure. We built a switch. We have about 12 to 13 banks connected as well as major fintech companies. That creates a foundation for us to then begin to tackle what we think is at the lower end of the market. Today, if you tackle the problem with very expensive card transactions, it is hard to scale downwards. We are going to begin to build solutions. What will happen is we have placed ourselves in the role of an enabler. We are also enabling a lot of people-building solutions. I think that’s going to be a critical piece of what we do. Every fintech company out there is trying to solve financial inclusion but it never gets solved. Banks think it is expensive to bank the unbanked. What do you think is the most sustainable way to solve the problem? How do you make it less affordable? I always think that you can’t do financial inclusion without some kind of economic inclusion. Why people aren’t using digital systems, isn’t because they don’t want to. Sometimes they don’t have the money — there is no point. There are two ways we can tackle financial inclusion. Part of what I think agency banking did for us is that it created a new kind of business and gave some people new revenue streams and livelihood. That grew off the back of people saying “If I get that POS terminal, I can service my community. I can digitally include them and I can make money off it.” As we continue to find niches like that, I’ve seen companies that are going into the whole farming sector and are trying to digitalise that space by connecting them to the financial grid. We want to be able to support those kinds of initiatives. As long as there is a model that creates value for everybody participating in that initiative, then we’ll begin to see those numbers. What is HabariPay’s outlook for the payment market? What is
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- March 19 2025
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TechCabal Daily – Vendease puts payroll on a diet
In partnership with Lire en Français اقرأ هذا باللغة العربية Happy mid-week! Remember the two astronauts, Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore, who got stuck in space last year? It’s been nine gruelling months of waiting after their Boeing Starliner test flight went awry. They’ve been stuck at the International Space Station (ISS) since, but they’re home now. On Tuesday evening, the pair landed off the coast of Florida with two other astronauts, after the SpaceX capsule they were aboard set its course for Earth earlier that day. On a lighter note, it sucks to get used to gravity all over again. Telkom to increase telecom prices for South Africans Vendease restructures employee salaries Starlink becomes Kenya’s 7th largest ISP MultiChoice announce price increases in South Africa World Wide Web 3 Opportunities Telecoms MTN Nigeria loses top spot as telco’s highest revenue generator Image Source: Telkom South Africans are getting a double whammy from large government corporations. First, Eskom, the state-owned power company, is increasing tariffs again on April 1, 2025. Likewise, Telkom, the majority government-owned telecom operator, will also increase tariffs for its mobile subscribers by—you guessed it—April 1, 2025. Telkom will hike tariffs for its telephone and mobile internet services for both businesses and consumers by 12%. Customers will also see a 6% tariff increase for fibre services and voice plans. Telkom cited “increasing operational costs and external economic pressures” as a major problem. South Africa’s inflation has quickened by 40 basis points since October 2024 but remains within the Central Bank’s expectation. The telecom tariff hike, coupled with the electricity tariff increase, will add more pressure to the pockets of 24 million subscribers who use Telkom. South Africans are no strangers to tariff increases from Telkom. It has raised prices several times in the past, often in response to economic conditions. Other telecom providers, including MTN and Vodacom, have also made adjustments in previous years, and it remains to be seen whether they will follow Telkom’s lead this time. Given the economic climate, they might feel forced to—even if it risks customer dissatisfaction. For consumers, the new prices mean higher bills. A 50Mbps (megabytes per second) fibre plan that currently costs R629 ($35) will rise to R665 ($37), while a 100Mbps package will go from R909 ($50) to R965 ($53). These hikes will add up for businesses and households already struggling with rising costs. While Eskom’s price increases have pushed more South Africans toward solar energy, there is little alternative to Telkom’s services. However, competitors might see this as an opportunity to attract cost-conscious customers by stabilising their prices. There is an opportunity for internet service providers like Afrihost, Herotel, and MWEB—known for its affordability—to crash Telkom’s party. But how low can they go? Are you a freelancer or a remote worker? Fincra wants to understand the challenges and opportunities related to cross-border work payments for freelancers and remote workers in Nigeria. Please take just a few minutes to complete this survey. Startups Vendease restructures employee salaries Image Source: Vendease After two rounds of layoffs in five months, Vendease, a Y Combinator-backed Nigerian food procurement startup, is replacing traditional employee compensation with a performance-based pay system. Its new compensation model will see all its employees first receive equal salaries that will be increased overtime after performance reviews lasting five phases. The first increasing by 30% of their former salaries by May 2025. Employees will only start earning back 90% of their former salaries by November 2025, with the unpaid parts of their salaries converted to equity options. The stock option plan is enticing because if the startup grows in value, employees could cash out at a higher value when they sell their shares. In February 2025, Vendease paid ₦140,000 ($90) to all employees—about 150 of them left—regardless of what they previously earned, according to TechCrunch. It is unclear whether this new structure also affects company executives. The jury is still out on whether the new plan will work as intended or lead to a high employee turnover. While it is easy to make a case for non-loyalty, the cost-of-living crisis is squeezing pockets, and for many of the employees, it could be hard to reconcile that they’ll part with a significant sum of their salaries for most of the year. There could also be downsides to the equity stock options experiment. In the past, companies like Bolt WeWork have experimented with similar models during financial crunches, leaving angry workers disappointed that their stocks became worthless when they left the company. Yet, if it works, Vendease will succeed in improving employee productivity while keeping runway and re-investing in the operational areas of its business that roll in revenue. Despite tripling its revenue in naira terms since its 2022 Series A, currency depreciation and inflation have eroded gains in dollar terms. The startup is looking for fresh capital. You can now integrate Paystack with Stub Stub makes it easy to manage your business with features like invoices and financial reports. With Paystack integration, you can securely accept payments online and track them in real time. Learn more here → Internet Starlink becomes Kenya’s 7th largest ISP Image Source: Starlink Elon Musk’s Starlink continues to shake up Kenya’s internet market. The satellite broadband provider is now the seventh-largest internet service provider (ISP), overtaking local heavyweights like Dimension Data and Liquid Telecommunications Kenya—just six months after cracking the country’s top ten. According to Kenya’s Communications Authority of Kenya (CA), Starlink grew its customer base to 19,146 users by December 2024 to secure 1.1% market share. While that’s still light-years behind Safaricom’s 36.1% and Jamii Telecommunications’ 23.6%, it’s a significant leap for a satellite provider in a fibre-dominated space. And it’s not just about the numbers, Starlink’s growth is also expanding satellite internet adoption. For context, its rivals including Viasat and Indigo Telecom serve a combined total of 257 customers. But rapid growth comes with a price: regulatory pushback. Kenyan telcos aren’t thrilled about Starlink’s rise. Safaricom and Airtel Kenya argue that
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Football fans hit hardest as MultiChoice raises prices, Showmax Premier League up by 43.5%
MultiChoice Group is increasing prices across its DStv satellite and Showmax streaming platforms in 2025, with football fans facing the steepest hikes. While most DStv satellite packages will increase slightly, staying around or below the inflation rate, some Showmax plans will rise sharply. The biggest change is the 43.5% price increase for the Showmax Premier League package, which will now cost around $5.45 per month instead of $3.80, marking the most significant increase as the company seeks to balance rising operational costs with consumer affordability. MultiChoice’s price adjustments come as the company faces increased competition in the streaming market while maintaining its dominance in the African pay-TV sector. Other Showmax streaming plans are also getting different price changes. Showmax Entertainment Mobile: Up 11.1%, from $2.48 to R2.75. Showmax Entertainment Mobile and Premier League: Up 21.2%, from $5.45 to $6.61. Showmax Entertainment and Premier League: Up 7.1%, from $7.71 to R8.26. Showmax: No price change. The DStv Access package is also seeing a rise, with its price going up by 7.9% to $8.26 per month instead of $7.66. This is the biggest percentage increase among all the DStv satellite packages. Other key DStv satellite price changes include: DStv Compact Plus: Up 6.5%, from $34.12 to $36.33. DStv Premium: Up 5.4%, from $51.21 to $53.97. DStv access fee: Up 4.2%, from $6.61 to $6.89. DStv EasyView: Up 3.4%, from $1.59 to $1.65. DStv Family: Up 3%, from $18.13 to $18.68. DStv Compact: Up 2.1%, from $25.85 to $26.40. DStv Stream packages: No price changes. MultiChoice South Africa CEO Byron du Plessis said the company is mindful of the financial pressures on South African households. He highlighted that DStv Stream packages, Box Office movies, and Showmax Entertainment will see no price increases. The Add Movies premium has been reduced to $2.70/month, a 38% decrease. Du Plessis also announced added value for Compact subscribers, including SuperSport Action, Africa Magic Showcase, CBS Justice, Curiosity, and the History Channel. The new SuperSport channel will feature mixed martial arts, international and local boxing, WWE, Adrenaline Sports, and UCI Cycling. It expands DStv Compact’s sports lineup, which already includes six SuperSport and two ESPN channels. With streaming rivals circling and fans feeling the pinch, MultiChoice will need more than just price hikes to keep viewers tuned in.
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