- May 13 2025
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TechCabal Daily – A for Access. B for Bank. C for consequence
In partnership with Lire en Français اقرأ هذا باللغة العربية Howdy! How much do you know about technology in Francophone Africa? What are the region’s most important startups or crucial policy developments around tech innovation? We’re excited to partner with Lina Kacyem, Investment Manager, Launch Africa Ventures to introduce a web-only newsletter about tech in Francophone Africa. Lina has almost twenty years of experience in various sectors of the financial industry and is the co-founder of the angel network, Next Millennia Angels. As an investment manager, Lina leads investments in Francophone Africa and will bring decades of first-hand experience, insider insights and analysis of the region’s technology landscape into curating a newsletter that will help you and our wider audience learn about the tech innovation, policy, culture, and economy as it unfolds in Francophone Africa. Expect a dispatch every two Tuesdays, beginning later today. Access Bank Kenya and ABC in regulator crosshairs MTN Group grew its revenue by 10.4% in Q1 2025 IHS shares hit 20-month high Egypt’s Nawy raises $75 million World Wide Web 3 Opportunities Banking Access Bank Kenya and ABC could get fined by the CBK over non-compliance on loan rate cuts Image Source: Zikoko Memes/TechCabal Bank ABC and Access Bank Kenya—the subsidiary owned by Nigeria’s largest bank by assets—could get fined by the regulator, Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), for refusing to comply with the loan rate cuts. The two banks top a list of five lenders that raised lending rates in March, despite warnings from the Central Bank of Kenya. Access Bank pushed its average rate to 20.5%, up from 20.39%, while ABC moved from 17.42% to 17.54%. Others—DIB, Kingdom, and Guardian Bank—also nudged their rates higher, putting them in the regulator’s crosshairs. This showdown has been brewing for months. Since August 2024, the CBK has been cutting its benchmark policy rate to make loans cheaper. But some banks, rather than follow suit, have held firm—or raised rates altogether. Frustrated, the CBK now plans to start fining non-compliant lenders from June: KES 20 million ($155 million) upfront or three times the gain, plus daily penalties. Bank executives, too, could be personally fined. So why the standoff?Banks argue that the CBK’s new pricing formula—pegging rates to its benchmark rate plus a lending margin—is too rigid. They prefer using the interbank rate, which they say reflects market realities better. Yet, Kenya is not an isolated case, even in Africa. In 2018, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) and commercial banks in the country went through the same dance. The BoG had cut its key rate by 550 basis points to 20% for nearly two years, but banks didn’t pass on the lower rates to borrowers—largely due to a high volume of bad loans. Elsewhere, in South Africa and Morocco, regulators have also struggled with banks to rein in lending rates, as lenders remain wary of credit risk. What the CBK has going for it is the Supreme Court’s June 2024 ruling, which stated that banks must seek approval from the Cabinet Secretary before raising interest rates on loans. This decision cleared the path for the CBK’s push to enforce compliance with rate cuts. And it seems determined to win this one. Whether through fines, pressure, or more inspections, it wants rates to come down—and fast. Because if credit doesn’t flow, the economy won’t either. In this tug-of-war, it’s borrowers who are still paying the price. Seamless Global Payments With Fincra. Issue accounts in NGN, KES, EUR, USD & more with one integration. Send & receive funds seamlessly across borders; no more banking hassles or complex conversions. Create an account for free & go global today. Companies MTN Group grew its revenue by 10.4% in Q1 2025 as fintech drives growth for the company MTN head office/Image Source: TechCentral On May 12, MTN Group, Africa’s largest homegrown telecom operator, reported a 10.4% year-on-year (YoY) increase in Q1 2025 revenue—from R42.90 billion ($2.34 billion) to R47.37 billion ($2.6 billion)—accounting for the currency devaluations across several of its markets. Nigeria reclaimed its title as MTN’s top-earning country—after Q4 2024’s slump. The country generated R13 billion ($710 million) in revenue, slightly ahead of South Africa’s R10.7 billion ($584 million). Regionally, the group’s’s West and Central Africa (WECA) operations led the charge, raking in a combined R15 billion ($819 million) to become MTN’s most profitable region this quarter. Data revenue increased by 17.9% as the demand for data reached 5,677 petabytes in the quarter. However, voice, which has historically been a top money-spinner for MTN, surprisingly fell, declining by 0.1%. Fintech was the standout performer. MTN’s mobile money platform (MoMo) handled $95.3 billion in transaction value—up 48.9% from $72.7 billion. The number of transactions also rose from 4.8 billion to 5.5 billion, with an average transaction size of $17.3. Put plainly: users transacted more often, and with fatter wallets. This high-octane activity helped fintech revenue climb from R4.9 billion ($268 million) to R6.2 billion ($339 million)—a 25.2% increase in constant currency terms. Uganda remained the fintech crown jewel, driving the lion’s share of growth. Meanwhile, Nigeria’s MoMo user numbers continued to decline, likely affected by delayed regulatory approvals and licence bottlenecks. MTN’s Q1 shows a company leaning heavily—and smartly—into digital services, driven by the increasing appetite for data services among subscribers. High data purchases lead to more smartphone use; more smartphone use exposes users to fintech adoption, which MTN plays in. The telecom operator benefits on both ends. It already has partnerships with satellite companies Lynk Global, Starlink, Eutelsat OneWeb, and AST & Science in different markets as it plans to strengthen its broadband reach. MTN’s digital bets are what’s keeping the engine humming—and shareholders smiling. Or at least, not frowning. Power Your Business With Paga Engine Join businesses already building smarter with Paga Engine. Get started today. Telecoms IHS shares hit 20-month high as Nigerian telcos bounce back Image Source: Google What is good for the goose is good for the gander. As Nigeria’s telecom operators—MTN and Airtel—bounce back from a
Read More- May 12 2025
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Ask an Investor: Why is local capital important for Africa’s tech ecosystem?
For five consecutive editions of Ask an Investor, we’ve asked Africa-focused investors the same core questions: how can local capital fund the continent’s startups, how do those backers add value, and what makes money? This week, our recap of the past five episodes pulls hard-won lessons from every interview: Marge Ntambi (Benue Capital), Axel Peyriere (serial angel & founder), Fisayo Durojaye (Immerse VC), Biola Alabi (Delta 40/angel syndicates), and Alexandre Lazarow (Fluent Ventures). The importance of local capital and local knowledge When Uganda-based Benue Capital invited dozens of Kampala high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) to a closed-door summit, Ntambi’s team started with a blunt provocation: “Every missed Series A is someone else’s yield farm.” She then pulled up a simple bar chart showing how a $100k cheque into Ugandan startups could already be worth 10× after a couple of years. “True ecosystem ownership starts with local investment,” she told TechCabal. Ntambi’s larger thesis is that local capital is not charity but risk arbitrage. A Kampala landlord most likely has information about land registries, boda traffic patterns, and parish-level politics that a Palo Alto associate might never acquire quickly enough to price. That knowledge compresses uncertainty, and local investors, if properly organised, can buy the same venture upside at a meaningful discount because they can diligence faster and support better. Peyriere echoed the point from an operator’s chair. After 14 years writing cheques across Africa and Asia as an angel investor, he backs only sectors he has operated in: mobility and marketplaces. His wins—Julaya, Termii, Grey—grew out of pain points he has lived through. “The best solutions are built ground up for local realities,” he said. By staying in sectors he’s familiar with, he avoids the tourist trap Lazarow warns about: importing a Valley checklist into markets that do not care about Valley heuristics. For Immerse VC’s Durojaye, local domain mastery is his first filter; it let him spot Shuttlers and OnePort early and walk away from financial-inclusion pitches that made people download apps. “If I know more about your industry than you do, I’m out.” Biola Alabi’s journey underscores the same psychology. Her first cheque—into Big Cabal Media—was tiny by today’s standards, but it snowballed because she paired cash with crisis-time mentorship. Local insight as a competitive moat Each investor gave a case where local context, not capital, was decisive. Durojaye only invested in Shuttlers because he had spent years in yellow buses and BRT queues. When a structured commuter-bus platform was pitched, he instantly saw the market others dismissed. Lazarow, on the other hand, recognised OffBusiness’s Indian model but only funded Matta after its founders proved they could underwrite credit in naira without bureau data, something a Brazilian or US team could not replicate. Designing exits in a market short on IPOs Every investor acknowledged an uncomfortable fact: Africa still lacks deep public-market or private equity demand for $200 million tech companies. They offered three ways to generate returns, like secondaries, exit-first deal design, and valuation discipline. Peyriere, Durojaye, and Alabi have each sold portions or all of their positions, sometimes grudgingly, when later-stage investors wanted cleaner caps or when they wanted to exit from their investment. These partial exits returned capital to LPs and angels without strangling upside. Their rules of thumb: if a secondary offers 5–10X on an early cheque, take at least some chips off; bake secondaries into term sheets: 10–15% of any Series B or C can be allocated to liquidity for earlier holders; keep founders above a threshold stake post-secondary. Lazarow will not enter a deal unless at least one of three paths feels realistic today: a strategic acquirer list with precedent multiples, local or regional private equity buyout appetite, or an active secondary market with discount parameters understood. Ntambi pushes founders to prepare governance artefacts—data room hygiene, board minutes, clean option pools—from the seed round. “Exit blockers seed themselves at incorporation,” she warned. Durojaye’s harshest critique: funds marking companies at $100 million at Series A in markets where banks or telcos rarely pay over $40 million. The inevitable down-round kills morale and dilutes everyone. What value-add looks like when cash is only 50% of the need Across all five conversations, value-add meant time-consuming, sleeves-rolled work: cap table surgery, hiring CFOs, co-founder matchmaking, and regulatory hand-holding. This is what often separates a good investor from a great investor. At Benue Capital, the value-add is geared towards local investors as the firm walks HNWIs through real exit case studies like Asaak and SafeBoda and offers co-investment vehicles so first-timers learn without too much risk. Peyriere, on the other hand, has an operator hotline for his portfolio startups where he offers advice, brokers warm intros to Series A investors, and pressure-tests founders’ market strategy using his AUTO24 playbook. Alabi operates as a crisis manager and syndicate shepherd. She helped engineer Big Cabal Media’s CEO transition, and in other deals, she structures paperwork, mediates disputes, and once even helped an angel liquidate their investment to handle mid-life emergencies. The common thread across these six stories is that investors insist that Africa’s biggest competitive advantage is context-specific execution. “If we want startups solving problems that matter to African communities, we need African investors at the table,” Ntambi said. Local money brings patience and accountability, local knowledge turns global playbooks into profit, and locally engineered exits recycle cash back into the next cohort of startups.
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- May 12 2025
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What MTN’s first ₦1 trillion quarter says about the future of Nigerian telcos
This is Follow the Money, our weekly series that unpacks the earnings, business, and scaling strategies of African fintechs, telcos, and financial institutions. A new edition drops every Monday. In the first quarter of 2025, MTN Nigeria made more money than any telecommunication company has ever made in a single quarter on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX). The record performance was not by accident but as a result of rising data demand, strategic fintech expansion, tariff hikes, and sustained investment in infrastructure, according to MTN’s latest earnings report. As the broader telecom industry grapples with slowing momentum—GDP growth fell to 6.25% in 2024, the lowest in at least six years—such gains could offer a much-needed boost to the sector’s growth in Q1. MTN’s total revenue—which includes income from services as well as non-service items like SIM cards and device sales—jumped by 40.5% year-on-year, reaching ₦1.06 trillion ($658.4 million) in Q1 2025, up from ₦752.9 billion ($467.7 million) in the same period last year. Compared to Q4 2024, MTN’s total revenue grew by 6.8% from ₦990.6 billion ($615.3 million). In February 2025, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) approved a proposal to raise tariffs on voice and data services after a decade, a move it justified as necessary to offset foreign exchange losses and inflationary pressure. MTN attributed the increase to its ability to sustain investments, with ₦202.4 billion ($125.7 million) spent on capital expenditure in Q1, up 159% year-on-year. “The tariff empowered us to accelerate network investments, boost capacity, and improve user experience,” Karl Toriola, MTN Nigeria CEO, said in its earnings report. Data remains MTN’s most bankable product MTN’s total revenue from data services rose by 51.5% year-on-year to ₦529.4 billion ($328.8 million), driven by a 46.4% surge in data traffic and the addition of 2.6 million new active data users in Q1. MTN now serves 50.3 million data subscribers, out of a total of 84.1 million. The company’s data revenue is higher than Airtel Africa’s revenue of $139 million for the same period. Data usage per subscriber jumped by 29.5% to 12.8 gigabytes (GB), even with higher tariffs. NCC data revealed that national data spending surged to ₦585.08 billion ($363.4 million) in March 2025, nearly double the ₦287.77 billion ($178.2 million) recorded in January. “Approximately 4.0 million smartphones were added to the network during the quarter, raising smartphone penetration to 60.7%,” Toriola added, attributing the growth to rising demand for high-speed mobile internet. According to the GSMA, a non-profit trade association that represents the interests of mobile network operators worldwide, 58 million Nigerians are active internet users, with 85% using mobile internet for video calls, 75% for free online video streaming, and 54% for free music streaming. MTN also continues to build enterprise services for corporate clients, offering broadband (FibreX), mobile engagement suites, bulk SMS, cloud services, and IoT connectivity, ensuring that wholesale contracts remain a stable revenue stream. MTN’s primary revenue source is not retail consumers but rather wholesale agreements with large companies, says a Lagos-based analyst at a major investment firm who asked not to be named to speak freely. “These big companies generate significant income for MTN through their high data consumption. Therefore, even if retail consumer spending decreases, MTN’s total revenue remains stable due to its reliance on these major corporate clients,’ he said. Fintech: Fewer users, more value MTN’s fintech play, often overshadowed by its core telco business, is beginning to pull more weight. Revenue from its financial services arm rose by 57.9% to ₦36.1 billion ($22.4 million) in Q1, largely due to growth in airtime lending (Xtratime) and increased float income. However, the number of active wallets declined by 25.7% to 2.1 million. MTN explained that this drop was strategic; it focused on acquiring high-value users who contribute more significantly to float balances and transaction volumes. “Since Q3 2024, we revamped our customer acquisition strategy, optimising incentives and engagement, resulting in stronger qualitative performance and deeper service penetration,” the company noted. Rising operating expenses Operational discipline helped MTN sustain profitability despite Nigeria’s tough macroeconomic environment. After taking a major forex hit in 2024, MTN returned to profit in Q1 2025 for the third straight quarter. Operating expenses grew modestly by 4.2% to ₦408.7 billion ($253.8 million), much lower than the 25% increase recorded in Q1 last year. Key drivers included renegotiated tower leases—especially with IHS Towers—and ongoing cost-efficiency initiatives. “Cost efficiency supported the containment of overall operating cost growth,” MTN stated in its earnings report. Gains for MTN but woes for consumers The 50% tariff hike means increased monthly spending for cash-strapped consumers. In an economy grappling with double-digit inflation, higher connectivity costs are biting into household budgets. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, headline inflation in Nigeria rose for the first time this year to 24.2% in March. Mobile and internet access are now essential services, making their cost a significant aspect of the cost of living. Although Nigeria meets the United Nations’ affordability standard (1GB of data costing no more than 2% of average monthly income), the total spending on internet services is still a burden for many Nigerians. Research by Utility Bidder, a United Kingdom-based business energy consultancy, shows that Nigerian households spend over 67.7% of their monthly income on utilities, comprising water, gas, electricity, broadband, and mobile data. “Data costs have significantly increased, nearly doubling my expenses. This data also depletes quickly,” Peace Michael, a Lagos-based freelance journalist, told TechCabal over a phone call. Before the tariff increase, she would buy 75GB for one month at ₦18,000 ($11.2) from a 15GB plan, which was ₦6,000 – ₦7,000 ($3.74 – $4.37) To manage this, Michael had to remove some social media apps like Facebook and TikTok from my phone. “It’s frustrating to deal with poor network service alongside rising tariffs,” she added. Another MTN user, Femi, who asked only for his first name to be used, said he typically purchases around 75GB of data, twice a month, due to heavy usage. However, sometimes he buys it only once
Read More- May 12 2025
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IHS shares hit 20-month high as Nigerian telcos bounce back
IHS Towers, Africa’s largest independent telecom tower company, saw over 3 million shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on May 7, its highest single-day volume in nearly two years. The surge in trading activity, accompanied by a 9.7% jump in share price to $5.7, underscores how investor sentiment is shifting in favour of infrastructure enablers as Nigeria’s top telcos rebound from a turbulent stretch. The spike also has real implications for the future of internet connectivity in Nigeria and across IHS’s other African markets. With Nigeria contributing 58.3% of the company’s total revenue in 2024, and MTN Nigeria and Airtel Nigeria accounting for a combined 57% of that revenue, IHS’s business performance is deeply intertwined with the operational health of these telecom giants. As both telcos return to profitability in 2025 after navigating currency shocks and rising costs in recent years, investor interest in IHS Towers is growing in tandem. “In Nigeria, the NCC’s tariff increase is a positive development for mobile network operators that is expected to unlock investment in communications infrastructure,” IHS Towers said in a statement to TechCabal. IHS Towers’ share price has climbed over 51% year-to-date, outperforming the S&P 500 and the broader tech sector. Starting the year around $4.00, the stock reached $5.94 by May 7, its highest since September 2023. The company’s Q4 2024 earnings beat analyst expectations with $437.8 million in revenue and $0.73 earnings per share, fueled by strategic lease renewals with MTN and Airtel and a well-executed cost management plan. “Most analysts price us above the level of our current share price, and we remain confident in our long-term value proposition,” the company said. IHS’s stable revenue has been key to drawing investor interest. In 2024, the company locked in 72% of its revenue under long-term contracts, reducing risk and offering greater predictability for investors. These long-term agreements with MTN and Airtel assure continued demand for IHS’s towers, particularly as the telcos expand their 4G and 5G networks to support rising data consumption and a surge in new mobile subscribers. This financial stability matters for internet connectivity because reliable tower infrastructure is the backbone of mobile broadband delivery in emerging markets. The more stable and profitable IHS Towers becomes, the more aggressively it can invest in building more towers and other telecom infrastructure, particularly in underserved rural areas where connectivity gaps remain wide. IHS plans to build 500 new towers in 2025, many of which are expected to support 5G and mobile data traffic in Nigeria. The spike in IHS Towers’ share trading volume highlights a broader market shift: investors are increasingly valuing infrastructure firms that underpin large-scale digital transformation. As telecom operators prioritise profitability and cost efficiency, many embrace infrastructure-sharing models to reduce capital outlay. In March 2025, MTN Nigeria and Airtel Africa signed a landmark tower-sharing agreement that directly benefits IHS by allowing telcos to expand network coverage without fully funding new tower builds. Investor sentiment was further boosted by CEO Sam Darwish’s decision to increase his stake in the company, a move widely seen as a strong internal endorsement of IHS’s strategy and long-term growth trajectory. Darwish increased the value of his stake in IHS Towers by $7.75 million over the past month, with his holdings rising from $56.21 million to $64 million by early May 2025, driven by a 13.76% increase in the company’s share price. Still, IHS remains exposed to considerable risk as a telecom operator, particularly due to its deep operational footprint in Nigeria. The company is vulnerable to currency volatility, regulatory changes, and broader macroeconomic instability. In 2024, the naira’s steep depreciation and revised lease terms with MTN temporarily eroded margins. However, renewed agreements with Airtel Africa in February and MTN Nigeria in August 2024 have introduced more sustainable pricing structures that help cushion against foreign exchange and energy cost volatility. These renegotiations are now supporting margin recovery and enhancing IHS’s long-term financial stability. Operational challenges also persist. The company acknowledged ongoing issues with site security, vandalism, unauthorized shutdowns, and currency exposure. “As a TowerCo, we continue to face operational challenges, such as those related to site security, sabotage, illegitimate shutdown of sites, and exposure to currency fluctuations, but we are committed to delivering for our customers,” IHS said. Despite these hurdles, the company’s ability to adapt and secure long-term contracts with anchor tenants like MTN and Airtel appears to be resonating with global investors, which is now reflected in both its share price and trading activity.
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- May 12 2025
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Access Bank, ABC top five lenders risking CBK penalties for raising loan rates
Access Bank Kenya and ABC Bank top the list of commercial banks risking penalties from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) for raising lending rates despite warnings from regulators to align loan pricing with benchmark rate cuts. The two banks recorded the steepest average interest rates among the five commercial lenders that increased interest rates in March. According to CBK data, Access Bank raised its weighted average lending rate to 20.5% in March, up from 20.39% in February, while ABC raised its rate to 17.54% from 17.42%. DIB Bank followed with an increase to 17.07% from 16.58%, Kingdom Bank to 14.42% from 14.28%, and Guardian Bank to 13.94% from 13.68%. The rate increases place the banks in breach of the CBK directive. In February, the regulator warned that it would begin imposing daily penalties from June on banks that fail to adjust credit pricing in line with the central bank’s benchmark rate cuts. Since August 2024, the CBK has steadily lowered its policy rate, most recently trimming it in April from 10.75% to 10%. Access Bank, ABC, DIB, Kingdom, and Guardian Bank did not immediately respond to requests for comments. According to Kenya’s Banking Act, the CBK can impose fines of KES 20 million ($154,619) or three times the monetary gain on banks that fail to comply with industry regulations. Lenders also face a daily penalty of KES 100,000 ($773) per violation, while bank officials may be fined up to KES 1 million ($7,730). Other commercial banks, including KCB Group, Equity Group, Cooperative Bank, I&M, NCBA, and DTB, have cut interest rates by one to four percentage points. The CBK launched on-site inspections in February following growing frustration over banks’ resistance to adjusting credit pricing despite successive rate cuts. Governor Kamau Thugge said in April that the regulator had completed inspections of 13 out of 38 licensed banks and would finish all reviews by the end of June. “We will soon start having discussions with the boards of institutions with complete inspections. Following that, decisions would be made as to what kind of penalties, if any, that will be brought on board,” Thugge said. Since August 2024, the regulator has held multiple meetings with bank CEO and boards to urge them to pass monetary benefits to borrowers. “All we are asking is for banks to be fair and to act in the same way that they were quick to raise lending rates when the policy rate was increasing and the treasury rates were increasing,” Thugge said in December. CBK is also scrapping the risk-based credit pricing model in favour of pegging lending rates to its benchmark policy rate, which it hopes would improve the transmission of monetary policy decisions to borrowers and push for transparency in a market that has been criticised for opacity. However, the Kenyan Bankers Association (KBA) has rejected the proposal by the CBK to use the Central Bank Rate (CBR) as the benchmark for pricing credit, paired with a lending premium known as “K”. Instead, they are backing the interbank rate— the rate at which banks lend to one another—as a more market-sensitive benchmark.
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- May 12 2025
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The Next Wave: Rethinking what banks are for
Cet article est aussi disponible en français <!– In partnership with –> <!–TopBanner Join us for TechCabal Battlefield, Moonshot’s startup competition where you can showcase your startup idea to a global audience and an esteemed panel of judges and stand a chance to win up to 2.5 million naira in funding for your business! Click to register for TC Battlefield First published 11 May, 2025 Rethinking what banks are for Image | TechCabal African economies are growing, fintech is booming, and mobile money has changed how millions handle cash. But behind all the progress lies a stubborn problem: we’ve copied banking systems that aren’t working even in the places they came from. Global banks keep failing. Big ones like Credit Suisse collapse or get absorbed. In the US, new regulations haven’t stopped scandals. In Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa, banking is still shaped by colonial-era models, even as digital platforms leap ahead. That raises a basic but loaded question: what should a bank actually do? Financial systems are not neutral. They shape who gets credit, who holds risk, and who controls the flow of money. Get it wrong, and you either fuel inequality or crash the economy. Right now, the structure of African banking is caught between two extremes. On one side, licenced banks are slow, cautious, and risk-averse. On the other hand, fintechs and mobile money platforms move fast, but often lack the stability and safety nets of traditional finance. Next Wave continues after this ad. AfriLabs Annual Gathering 2025 lands in Nairobi, Oct 7–9, spotlighting Africa’s innovation future through policy, partnerships, and progress. Find out more here! Most African banks still mix different roles. They hold deposits, move payments, lend to governments, and dabble in corporate finance. That sounds efficient, but it creates hidden risks. If a bank uses customer deposits to chase high returns and loses the bet, who picks up the tab? In many cases, the public does. That’s what happened with collapsed banks like Chase Bank and Imperial Bank in Kenya, and the massive bailout of Union Bank in Nigeria years ago. Regulation tightens, but the model stays the same. A growing number of economists argue it’s time to split banking functions. This idea isn’t new. In the 1930s, the US introduced the Glass-Steagall Act, which separated commercial banking (deposits and payments) from investment banking (risk-taking and capital markets). It was repealed in the 1990s. Since then, global banks have become bigger, more complex, and harder to regulate. The 2008 crisis showed what happens when the line between safe and risky finance disappears. Next Wave continues after this ad. Moonshot is back, and this year, it’s about moving from resilience to results. With the theme Building Momentum, the 2025 edition explores how Africa’s digital economy can shift gears into scale, structure, and long-term growth. Expect more honest reflections, sharper insights, closed-door roundtables, and conversations that don’t end when the panels do. Watch the 2024 highlights. Early bird discount now available Reserve your spot here! One proposal that’s making a quiet comeback is “narrow banking”. Think of it this way: one kind of institution handles your everyday payments and savings. It holds only safe assets like government bonds and doesn’t make risky loans. Another type of institution raises money for investment, like housing or infrastructure, but does so without leaning on insured deposits. The two don’t mix. If the investment bank goes bust, it doesn’t bring down the payment system with it. It sounds neat, but it’s far from simple. Narrow banking could make it harder for banks to fund private sector growth, especially in places where public spending is weak. That’s a big deal in African markets, where credit is already tight and expensive. If banks can’t lend as freely, will governments pick up the slack? Will central banks become the main providers of credit? Or do we risk a new kind of financial drought? Next Wave continues after this ad. The Lagos Startup Expo returns on June 18–19, 2025, at Landmark Centre, Victoria Island, with the theme “Connect, Invest and Innovate.” This year’s edition will host over 200 startups across fintech, healthtech, AI, and more, offering live demos, founder meetups, and networking with investors. Open to the public, the expo features regular and VIP passes—with VIPs gaining access to expert-led masterclasses and investor lounges. Register here! Some might argue we’re already there. In Kenya, mobile money wallets like M-PESA dominate transactions but don’t directly fund business growth. In Nigeria, fintech lending apps are everywhere, but few can scale sustainably. In Ghana, the banking clean-up shrank the sector and left a vacuum for informal lenders. Without a rethink, we’ll keep patching a broken model. The next wave of banking in Africa won’t just be about who builds the best app, but about who dares to ask: should banks still do everything, or is it time to draw clear lines? And if we separate safe money from risky money, who gets left out? There’s no easy answer, but the time for lazy fixes is long gone. Next Wave ends after this ad. Save the Date! We’re taking over Art Hotel, VI on May 16 for an exclusive gathering of tech leaders. Expect: Insightful panels, Live demos, Real connections Limited seats available! Kenn Abuya Senior Reporter, TechCabal. Feel free to email kenn[at]bigcabal.com, with your thoughts about this edition of NextWave. Or just click reply to share your thoughts and feedback. We’d love to hear from you Psst! Down here! Thanks for reading today’s Next Wave. Please share. Or subscribe if someone shared it to you here for free to get fresh perspectives on the progress of digital innovation in Africa every Sunday. As always feel free to email a reply or response to this essay. I enjoy reading those emails a lot. TC Daily newsletter is out daily (Mon – Fri) brief of all the technology and business stories you need to know. Get it in your inbox each weekday at 7 AM (WAT). Follow TechCabal
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- May 12 2025
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TechCabal Daily – Safaricom reaches for the sky
In partnership with Lire en Français اقرأ هذا باللغة العربية Good morning. Moonshot is back! Last year, we hosted 4,000 visitors from across the globe at the Eko Convention Centre, where we had an awesome experience discussing AI, the creative economy, cleantech, emerging tech, big tech, digital commerce, and lots more. This year we have even bigger content tracks, new formats, more depth, and a sharper focus on execution. If you need convincing to attend, watch the 2024 highlights. Early bird discount now available. We have a lot of telecom stories in today’s dispatch. Let’s dig in. PS: If you do one thing this week, let it be this: end your meetings on time. Don’t be like ChatGPT, which still hasn’t mastered the art of brevity. Your colleagues will thank you. Safaricom wants a piece of satellite tech MTN’s ₦1 trillion quarter: Nigeria’s telco titan is just getting started Bayobab unveils fibre optic route linking Uganda to Kenya Safaricom Ethiopia cuts losses by 65% in 2024 World Wide Web 3 Job Openings Telecoms Safaricom wants a piece of satellite tech Peter Ndegwa, Safaricom chief executive/Image Source: Safaricom In Kenya, the scorned has become the MVP every telecom operator wants to get a deal with. On May 9, Safaricom, Kenya’s largest telecom operator, told investors that it is exploring partnership options with satellite operators in the country. Who wants to wager a few dollars that Starlink is top of that list? Starlink has gone from foe to friend in months, after Safaricom tried to get regulators to kick out the US-based satellite internet company in September 2024, citing its lack of physical presence in the country. Shortly after, Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa told Bloomberg that it was open to a partnership with Starlink, but that deal never happened. Instead, its competitor Airtel Africa got there first. For a satellite deal to happen, Safaricom has three options other than Starlink: Eutelsat OneWeb, AST SpaceMobile, and Globalstar. OneWeb is currently B2B-focused; Globalstar doesn’t provide consumer broadband; and SpaceMobile—which Safaricom ironically partnered with in 2023—is still testing its technology, making Starlink the most viable option. Is a deal with Starlink still possible for Safaricom? The devil is in the details. Safaricom signed on to be a backhaul service provider for Airtel. The deal allows Starlink to connect Airtel’s cell towers to the internet via its satellites. This allows Airtel to bypass the regular fibre and radio wave (wireless) methods of backhauling that telecom operators typically use. It also helps Airtel provide internet in remote areas without erecting new cell towers—or it can connect existing ones in these areas to satellites to strengthen its network. This makes Starlink a technical partner for Airtel. But does it complicate a deal for Safaricom? Unless there’s a signed exclusivity with Airtel, Starlink can still work with Safaricom as a wholesale infrastructure provider (if Elon Musk is not angry about the stunt Safaricom pulled). Telecom operators like Airtel and Safaricom are looking to satellite technology to increase their reach to remote areas, but they lack the technical and engineering expertise to build and launch satellites. This is why they are going for partnerships. While other satellite operators may not be out of the picture for Safaricom, it will likely be trying to woo Starlink, hoping Airtel does not mind a double date. Seamless Global Payments With Fincra. Issue accounts in NGN, KES, EUR, USD & more with one integration. 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- May 10 2025
- BM
Day 1–1000: How Tunde Akin-Moses built Sycamore from his living room
What does it really take to build a startup in Africa—from the first idea to the thousandth day? In Day 1–1000, we follow founders through the raw, unfiltered journey of company-building: the early scrambles, the quiet breakthroughs, the painful pivots, and the milestones that shape what a business becomes. In this inaugural edition, we sit with Tunde Akin-Moses, co-founder of Sycamore, to unpack how a simple lending idea grew into one of Nigeria’s quietly resilient fintech stories. Day 1: A loan, a list and a leap Tunde Akin-Moses didn’t set out to become a fintech founder. But ever since his days working in credit at a consulting firm, he had noticed a persistent gap in Nigeria’s lending system—one that seemed to punish the people who needed credit most. Before Sycamore, he was comfortably employed at a major consulting firm and moonlighting as a small laundry business owner. But the Nigerian credit system treated those two roles very differently. “As a nine-to-five employee, banks lined up to give me loans. But when I needed a loan for my side hustle, even with similar revenue, it was impossible,” he recalled. The disparity nagged at him, but it was not enough to quit his job. That push came later, at Lagos Business School, where he was enrolled in an MBA program that would alter the trajectory of his life. During a case study on African fintechs serving SMEs, Akin-Moses discovered a stat that stunned him: SMEs accounted for just 1% of all bank credit in Nigeria. Along with his classmates—Mayowa Adeosun and Onyinye Okonji—who would later become his co-founders, Akin-Moses began testing ideas for a solution. Akin-Moses and his cofounders first explored about three ideas. First, they thought to give out educational loans to MBA students, but the capital required for such large ticket sizes was prohibitive. “It didn’t make sense to fund two students when we could help twenty small businesses instead,” he said. The team pivoted early. Inspired by Lending Club and Prosper in the U.S., they stumbled upon peer-to-peer (P2P) lending and realized its promise: a tech-enabled platform where individuals could pool their money to lend directly to others—typically small businesses or consumers—without relying on banks or traditional financial institutions. The model was radical but lean. It sidestepped the need for a banking license, required minimal capital, and thrived on the power of distributed trust and digital efficiency. So they launched Sycamore from Akin-Moses’ living room. Sycamore’s co-founders, Onyinye Okonji (L) and Mayowa Adeosun (Center) in Tunde Akin-Moses’ (R) living room where the startup launched. Akin-Moses and his co-founders used their combined savings and raised around $50,000 from friends, family, and LBS classmates to start issuing microloans to SMEs. While the company couldn’t afford engineers at the beginning to build its own custom tool, it modified a third-party platform and began lending in 2019. Sycamore disbursed its first loan—about ₦1.5 million, or ~$4100—in 2019. The company would get its first 100 customers from its Lagos Business School Network. “We had a lot of goodwill when we started. You know people were always using us as a point of reference. And being from LBS also really helped,” Akintunde recounted. Sycamore’s major validation came in 2020. A lender who had been watching the company quietly approached to invest ₦100 million ($260,000 at the time)—ten times the size any previous investor had committed to the company. “That was when we knew the scale of the business had changed,” Akin-Moses said. 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
Read More- May 10 2025
- BM
Why Glovo thinks Nigeria is its biggest African bet yet
After exiting Ghana in 2024, citing profitability issues, Glovo is placing its next big bet on Nigeria. The country now represents the food delivery giant’s most promising growth market in Africa, as it shifts focus to regions showing stronger traction. When Glovo launched in Morocco in 2018, its first African market, the goal was simple: test the waters and move fast if things clicked. It did, and by 2019, the Spanish food delivery giant began rapidly expanding into new African cities. Today, Africa accounts for 25% of Glovo’s global footprint, and the company has invested more than €206 million ($220 million) on the continent. As competition tightens and funding pressure mounts, Glovo is doubling down on markets that show a clearer path to profitability. “If you look at the economics, the number of cities, and the complexities around urban logistics, all the indicators show Nigeria can be a really great market for us,” said William Benthall, Glovo’s global public affairs lead, in an interview on the sidelines of GITEX Africa in Marrakech. A big bet on Africa While global delivery platforms have slowed or halted their ambitions in Africa, Glovo is taking the opposite approach. The company, which was acquired by Germany’s Delivery Hero in 2022, sees Africa as a strategic pillar of its growth ambitions. Glovo operates in six African countries: Nigeria, Kenya, Morocco, Tunisia, Uganda, and Ivory Coast. Since entering the continent in 2018, Glovo says it has provided 60,000 riders with income opportunities and onboarded over 45,000 shops and restaurants across the continent, 90% of which are small- and medium-sized businesses. The company claims those vendors have earned more than €1 billion ($1.07 billion) in direct economic value through Glovo in the past four years alone. The company has onboarded around 3,000 vendors and works with 2,000 active riders in Nigeria. Its quick commerce segment, which includes groceries and non-food retail shops, has become its fastest-growing vertical in Nigeria, with gross merchandise value (GMV) surging 76% year-over-year in 2024. However, the company declined to share specific numbers. Why Ghana didn’t work Glovo’s expansion into Ghana was always a bet with some risk. The launch came at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, during which Ghana imposed some of the continent’s strictest travel and testing rules, Benthall said. “It was the only country where you had to be tested to leave your home country, when you entered, and again when you left,” he recalled. That severely disrupted the international community in Accra, one of Glovo’s target user bases. Add to that Ghana’s steep inflation, currency devaluation, and smaller overall market size, and the exit became inevitable. “We could have done it better. Or maybe we were unlucky. Probably both,” he said. “It became clear that even if we weathered the short-term pain, the long-term picture still looked uncertain.” While Glovo’s reasons are valid, a closer look reveals a more complex picture. Even pre-pandemic, Ghana’s food delivery market had been competitive with established players like Jumia Food and Bolt Food. While e-commerce giant Jumia discontinued its food delivery business in Ghana and other countries, citing poor financial performance in those specific markets, Bolt Food has thrived in Ghana, relying on wide vendor selection, high service quality, and affordable but viable pricing. Nigeria’s Chowdeck, with over 1 million users in three years, is also expanding to Accra, becoming the latest entrant in a market projected to reach $291 million by 2029. Benthall leaves the door open. “If circumstances change, we’d certainly consider going back,” adding that Glovo will launch in new African markets, though he declined to share which ones. All-in on Nigeria If Ghana is a cautionary tale, Nigeria is Glovo’s next big test. The company was relatively late to launch in Africa’s largest economy, and has had to contend with its economic volatility, including naira devaluation, rising inflation, and infrastructure gaps. Yet Glovo sees Nigeria as its most important long-term play on the continent. Executives visited in January to assess market conditions, and the consensus, Benthall said, was unanimous: invest more. That investment is taking several forms. The company runs a customer service center in Nigeria, enabling users to speak with local agents familiar with their needs and context. Glovo has also deployed sales teams to onboard local restaurants to repeat orders. “We’re not going to succeed there just by having Chicken Republic and really big names, we’re going to succeed by really understanding people’s local food preferences and local store preferences,” Benthall said, referring to the company’s strategy to build a hyper-localised marketplace. Brand visibility is another major focus. “If you drive around Lagos, you’ll see billboards across the city,” Benthall noted. “It’s all part of building top-of-mind awareness.” From food to everything When Benthall joined Glovo in 2019, quick commerce—ultra-fast delivery typically within one hour of placing an order—was less than 10% of the company’s African order volume. Today, it makes up 30% to 50% of all orders, depending on the market, and it’s still growing. While Glovo declined to disclose exact GMV figures, the shift underscores what Benthall sees as the real opportunity. “This is the future,” he said. “I didn’t join Glovo to just deliver burgers. I joined because I saw that quick commerce was where the opportunity was.” That opportunity is increasingly visible in Nigeria, where delivery platforms that started as restaurant aggregators are now adding non-food items—including personal care, electronics, and pharmaceuticals—to their inventory. Chowdeck lists beauty and wellness items from vendors like Zaron and Medplus. Bolt Food also recently added convenience items in select areas, including beverages and packaged snacks. Why food delivery isn’t always fast Delivering food fast proved difficult for the global company used to working with restaurants with advanced cooking technology and less time-consuming recipes. Early on, Africa had the longest delivery wait times across Glovo’s global operations, Benthall said. Glovo’s average delivery time in Lagos is around one hour. Every 10-minute delay in delivery cuts reorder rates by 20%. In Africa, where poor road infrastructure and
Read More- May 10 2025
- BM
Everything I heard at the AVCA Conference
Last week, the African Venture Capital Association (AVCA) brought its flagship VC Summit back to Lagos, the home of Africa’s unicorns, for the first time in a decade, and the timing could hardly have been more charged. Against a backdrop of painful FX devaluations and a global capital-raising cooldown that has hit the continent hard, Africa’s biggest investors drilled into the continent’s toughest questions: how to unlock follow-on capital, where the next exits will come from, and who will underwrite growth outside the “Big 4” tech markets. In case you missed the insightful panels, in-person conversations, and the food and drinks, not to worry; here’s everything I heard at the AVCA Conference. From Calendly’s future plans straight from the CEO’s mouth to how Africa’s newest unicorn, Moniepoint, wants investors to earn dividends before a possible IPO. Calendly’s $3 billion lesson: Price, distribution, data Before the investors even started discussing solutions to Africa’s problems, Tope Awotona, the founder of Calendly, talked about how three elements—price, distribution and data—made his company a success. “I didn’t invent online scheduling,” Awotona told a packed opening-keynote fireside, “I just made it accessible.” Awotona explained at the AVCA Conference that his three-step playbook: price (freemium), distribution (viral links), and product (data-driven iteration) now looks prescient in an era when cash-burn tolerance has evaporated. The pandemic, he noted, merely “pulled demand forward.” Virtual meetings took off, Calendly’s user data exploded, and revenue began landing within 99.9% of the company’s forecast. Awotona argued that bottom-up PLG (product-led growth) can be as predictable as enterprise sales if the volume is big enough. Calendly’s next act? Embedding AI to “nurture” customers and keep churn negligible over the next five to seven years. Life Below 0 °C: Fundraising when the music stops Khaled Ben Jilani of AfricInvest set the tone for the first panel—Life Below 0 °C—reminding delegates that the firm has survived four macro meltdowns in 30 years by treating each as “part of a cycle, not the end.” Panelists converged on three survival rules: 1. Local asymmetry matters. Africa is a mosaic; regulatory fluency, particularly in payments, has become a non-negotiable moat. 2. Stablecoins are functional now. With 20% of global stablecoin volume already touching Africa, cross-border trade finance is being repriced “from days to milliseconds”. 3. Unit economics outrank narratives. “We’re running from models that only work at unsustainable scale,” said Mareme Dieng, partner at 500 Global, doubling down on AI-healthcare hybrids where proprietary data cuts training costs. Bridging the missing-middle The Unlocking Scale panel at the AVCA Conference tackled Africa’s yawning late-Series A/B capital gap. Walter Baddoo of 4DX fame offered the bluntest remedy: “By Series A, you need to look like a Series B company in the U.S.—or you won’t clear diligence.” Dr. Omobola Johnson, the first Nigerian minister of communications and technology and TLcom partner, urged founders to craft global stories early, while Brian Odhiambo of Novastar called venture debt the “untapped bridge” but warned that Africa still lacks the predictable revenue curves lenders crave. Titans of Industry: Inside Moniepoint and QED Tosin Eniolorunda traced Moniepoint’s rise from an InterSwitch spin-out to a platform that now processes $1.2 billion in monthly transactions. The secret? “Great fundamentals—top-line growth, EBITDA margins, ROE—then exits take care of themselves.” Nigeria’s anaemic stock market means the company is eyeing sovereign wealth or leveraged buyouts before any IPO, Eniolorunda said. Across the Atlantic, Nigel Morris of global fintech investors, QED Investors, distilled a fintech investment checklist: do no harm, price in risk, master fraud and collections, never build on loopholes, and stay intellectually humble. Half of QED’s capital now sits outside the U.S., yet 90% of its Limited Partners’ (LP) money is still American—evidence, Morris said, of “a perception lag that a single African breakout could erase.” No pressure on Moniepoint, I guess. What LPs really want in 2025 Limited partners really matter. They give fund managers money, and without them, there would be no venture capital and definitely no startups, so hearing what they want at the AVCA Conference was something most investors needed. DFI heavyweights from British International Investment, Proparco, Visa Foundation and FSD Africa Investments lined up for the LP Mindset session. The headline: discipline and differentiation beat vintage-year internal rate of return. Here are the other takeaways from the panel: Team over track record for first-time managers—but only if cohesion is ironclad. Exit thesis first. “Start with who’s buying,” urged Visa Foundation’s Najada Kumbuli. Distributed to Paid-In Capital (how much of the invested capital has been returned to investors) is king. With IPO windows shut, secondary sales and mergers and acquisitions are the new scoreboard. Venture debt: Cautious optimism Returns look “very good”, said Rosanne Whalley of AHL Venture Partners, but African venture debt will stay niche until founders accept that profitability, not the next equity round, secures loans. Convertible notes drew near-universal scorn for misaligning interests when startups stumble. Beyond the Big 4: Betting on Addis, Kigali and Dar-es-Salam Only 30% of Africa’s people live in Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt and South Africa, (the Big 4) but those four markets swallow 80% of VC dollars. Panellists argued that the imbalance cannot persist. Henok Assefa, the co-founder of Addis Ababa Angels, called Ethiopia “Nigeria ten years ago—raw talent, zero hype.” Sissi Frank, an investment officer at BIO, said deals are cheaper outside the Big 4 but warned scarcity of exit data scares LP committees. The Next Wave: Fintech (still), B2B SaaS and asset-backed plays Late-afternoon debate pivoted to sectors that could mint the next “soonicorns.” The consensus picks on the promising fund returners were: Embedded fintech everywhere. Fintech is no longer a vertical; it is the plumbing beneath others. Enterprise software for Africa’s real economy. From supply-chain ERPs to climate tech, B2B adoption is finally catching up, and investors are excited. Asset-backed finance. Future Africa’s Iyinoluwa Aboyeji is backing models that “take 20% of every productive asset they fund” as a hedge against weak discretionary spending. For all the hand-wringing about liquidity droughts and FX pain, the
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