South Africa wants more African trade. Stablecoins could help make it happen.
When a South African business pays a supplier in Malawi, the money often takes a detour through the global financial system. Instead of moving directly across the continent, the payment is often routed through correspondent banks and the United States (US) dollar before reaching its destination. It’s a paradox at the heart of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), Africa’s flagship trade pact. While the agreement seeks to boost trade across Africa, the continent’s payment infrastructure still reflects an era when African economies traded more with Europe, the United States and Asia than with one another. That disconnect is fuelling renewed interest in stablecoins, led by Nigeria and South Africa, not as speculative crypto assets, but as digital settlement infrastructure that could make cross-border African trade faster, cheaper and more predictable. The shift comes as South Africa continues to trade far more with markets outside the continent than within it. Only about 15% to 18% of South Africa’s trade is with African countries, highlighting how much work remains before AfCFTA can achieve its ambitions. “Payments become the friction that businesses feel every single day,” Ifelade Ayodele, chief executive officer (CEO) of Blaaiz, a cross-border remittance platform, told TechCabal in an interview on Tuesday. “Once goods have crossed the border, invoices still need to be settled, suppliers need to be paid, currencies need to be converted, and liquidity needs to move efficiently. If those processes remain slow, expensive or unpredictable, the commercial benefits of trade are significantly reduced.” According to Ayodele, Africa’s payment infrastructure still reflects a continent built to trade with the rest of the world rather than with itself. For decades, African economies exported commodities to Europe, Asia and the US, so banks, payment networks and settlement systems evolved to support those trade routes. As a result, payments between neighbouring African countries often still pass through correspondent banks and intermediary currencies, usually the US dollar. “The challenge isn’t moving information quickly,” he said. “It’s moving value efficiently across fragmented markets.” That is where stablecoins are beginning to reshape the conversation in Africa. Fintechs such as South Africa’s Onafriq, pan-African stablecoin infrastructure provider Yellow Card and Nigeria’s Flutterwave are increasingly using stablecoins behind the scenes to settle cross-border transactions. The result is that businesses can move money across Africa almost instantly while customers often remain unaware that blockchain technology is powering the payment. “Stablecoins are already being used for cross-border payments and settlements,” Dr. Wiehann Olivier, Partner and Global Co-Head of Digital Assets at Forvis Mazars, a digital assets advisory firm, also told TechCabal on Tuesday. “In many cases, customers aren’t even aware that stablecoins are being used behind the scenes to facilitate their transactions.” Olivier said the attraction lies in dramatically lower costs and near-instant settlement. “A payment from South Africa to Malawi can be converted into a US dollar-backed stablecoin, transferred in seconds, and exchanged for local currency at a fraction of the cost of correspondent banking,” he said. “Stablecoins remove friction from cross-border payments. You are moving from one currency to a stablecoin and then into another currency within seconds.” Neither expert believes stablecoins will replace banks or existing payment infrastructure. Ayodele maintains that the real opportunity is interoperability, not speed. He stated that businesses trading across Africa still contend with fragmented banking systems, multiple currencies and disconnected payment rails, making cross-border commerce slower and more expensive than it should be. Connecting those systems would reduce settlement costs, free up working capital and make it easier for businesses to trade across the continent. “The bigger opportunity is improving interoperability between financial systems,” he said, “reducing reliance on intermediary currencies where appropriate, enabling more efficient liquidity management, and giving businesses greater transparency and predictability when moving money across borders.” Olivier agreed that stablecoins are another settlement layer rather than an alternative financial system. “The biggest remaining challenge is interoperability,” he said. “Stablecoins offer an efficient settlement layer that can connect fragmented payment ecosystems.” The big obstacle, however, may not be technology but regulation. While South Africa has introduced a regulatory framework for crypto asset service providers, several African countries, including Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, and Mauritius, are following suit. Olivier believes exchange control laws, not crypto regulations, remain the biggest barrier to wider adoption. “The bigger challenge lies beyond crypto regulation,” he said. “It lies in exchange control legislation.” Both Ayodele and Olivier agree that AfCFTA’s success will depend as much on how money moves as how goods move. Stablecoins may not replace banks, but they could become the invisible infrastructure that finally makes African trade feel truly borderless. True scale demands moving beyond surface-level integrations to robust execution. We’ve filtered the noise out of Moonshot 2026, optimising the conference strictly for high-calibre connections between startup founders, global financial operators, enterprise leaders and individuals rewiring Africa’s technical frameworks. Get 20% off Early Bird tickets for a limited time.
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Rank launches community finance products to expand access to capital
Rank, the Nigerian fintech formerly known as Moni, has launched three community-powered financial products, betting that digitising Africa’s traditional savings groups can provide a new route to zero-interest capital for individuals and small businesses. Starting in Nigeria, the company unveiled Money Circles, a digital version of rotating savings groups; Tribe, which enables existing communities to manage shared finances; and Rank Perks, a payroll product offering salary-backed credit and workplace savings circles. The launch targets a persistent financing gap in Nigeria, where only 4% of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) have access to formal bank loans. Rank is betting that digitising community-based finance can widen access to capital for entrepreneurs and workers who remain underserved by traditional lenders. The launch comes eight months after Rank acquired group savings platform AjoMoney and Zazzau Microfinance Bank, now known as Rank Microfinance Bank. The acquisitions gave the company a regulated banking licence and strengthened its push beyond credit into savings, payments, and wealth management products centred on collective finance. The company said it has paid out more than $100 million to users across various communities in the past year. “For generations, Africans have relied on communal financial structures to build wealth and acquire assets,” said Femi Iromini, CEO and co-founder of Rank. “We are bringing these trusted traditions into the modern age by layering cutting-edge technology, solving structural trust issues and turning collective financial habits into a modern, institutional-grade engine for generational wealth.” Money Circles, one of its flagship products, digitises rotating savings schemes such as ajo, esusu, and other rotating savings and credit associations (ROSCAs). According to the company, users can join a savings circle, contribute monthly, and receive a lump-sum payout when it is their turn. Rank noted that it charges a fixed service fee based on when a user receives their payout and guarantees payouts even if another member defaults. The second product, Tribe, is aimed at existing communities such as families, friends, colleagues, and cooperatives. Rank said the product enables groups to manage rotating contributions and shared financial goals in one place while tracking every contribution and payout in real time. Rank Perks, the last of the product launches, extends financial access into payroll. It allows employers to offer their staff salary-backed credit and company-wide savings circles, with repayments and contributions deducted automatically from monthly salaries. Rank added that it introduced new features alongside the product launches, including everyday bank accounts, digital payment handles, and flexible and fixed savings options. The company enters a competitive consumer finance market with players such as PiggyVest, Cowrywise, and other digital savings and wealth management platforms. However, its new products are community-focused, while other players focus on helping individuals save or invest. With these new products, Rank is attempting to digitise the informal savings systems that predated the rise of fintechs in the ecosystem. “By combining our cultural heritage with digital-first security, we are giving young Africans the collective leverage they need to outpace inflation and securely build long-term equity,” Iromini said. True scale demands moving beyond surface-level integrations to robust execution. We’ve filtered the noise out of Moonshot 2026, optimising the conference strictly for high-calibre connections between startup founders, global financial operators, enterprise leaders and individuals rewiring Africa’s technical frameworks. Get 20% off Early Bird tickets for a limited time.
Read MoreSASSA August 2026 payment dates: Full schedule, grant amounts and SRD
Table of contents SASSA payment dates for August 2026 Why some people get paid on August 7 SRD R370 payment dates for August 2026 SASSA grant amounts for August 2026 Does National Women’s Day affect payments? How to collect your grant What to do if your money does not arrive Watch out for scams FAQs The South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) has confirmed its grant payment schedule for August 2026, with millions of beneficiaries set to receive their monthly grants during the first week of the month. SASSA will pay the Older Persons Grant on Tuesday, August 4, 2026, the Disability Grant on Wednesday, August 5, 2026, and Children’s grants on Thursday, August 6, 2026. Friday, August 7, 2026, has been set aside for beneficiaries undergoing grant reviews or eLife Certification, while the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) R370 grant will follow a separate payment schedule later in the month. The payment dates are based on the official 2026/27 grant payment calendar published by the Department of Social Development and approved by the National Treasury. Here’s what each payment date means, how much beneficiaries will receive, and what to do if your grant is delayed. SASSA payment dates for August 2026 Grant-in-Aid is paid together with the main grant it is attached to, so it lands on the same day as your Older Persons, Disability, or War Veterans payment. Some websites claim the Older Persons Grant pays on Monday, August 3. That is false. SASSA never pays grants on a Monday, on the first day of the month, or over a weekend. The official date is Tuesday, August 4. Your money stays in your account once it is paid. You do not have to withdraw it on the payment date; waiting a day or two can help you avoid the longest queues. Why some people get paid on August 7 Friday, 7 August is a review day rather than a general payday. It only applies to you if SASSA has flagged your grant for a review or eLife Certification, which is the process the agency uses to confirm beneficiaries are still alive and still qualify. SASSA National Spokesperson Dr Paseka Letsatsi explained that the agency sends bulk SMS notifications to affected beneficiaries before moving their payment to the fourth day. If your money did not arrive on your usual date, check your messages before you panic. If you have been flagged, here is what you need to do: Visit your nearest SASSA office as soon as possible. Take your South African ID and any documents listed in the SMS. Complete the review or eLife Certification with the officials there. Keep your phone number and home address up to date with SASSA so future notices reach you. Skipping the review has consequences. SASSA can suspend your grant in the next payment cycle, and if the issue stays unresolved, the grant can be canceled. The agency has stepped up these checks, with more than 291,000 beneficiaries identified for review and over 34,600 grants canceled by December 2025, according to figures from the 2026 Budget. SRD R370 payment dates for August 2026 The SRD R370 grant does not follow the early month schedule. SASSA processes it in rolling batches during the final week of the month, expected to run from around 24 August to month-end. Your exact payday depends on your batch and your payment method. SASSA does not publish a single fixed SRD date for everyone, so the only date that matters is the one on your profile. Here is how to check it: Visit srd.sassa.gov.za and enter your 13-digit ID number and registered phone number. Message the official SASSA WhatsApp line on 082 046 8553. Dial the USSD code *134*7737# from your registered number. Call the toll-free line on 0800 60 10 11. Bank account payments usually reflect within one to three business days after your batch runs. If you collect at Shoprite, Pick n Pay, Boxer, or Checkers, wait for the confirmation SMS before traveling to the store. The SRD amount stays at R370 monthly. Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana confirmed in the 2026 Budget that the grant will remain at R370 until March 31, 2027, with no increase this year. SASSA grant amounts for August 2026 The amounts below took effect on 1 April 2026 for the 2026/2027 financial year. The increases apply automatically, so you do not need to reapply. Does National Women’s Day affect payments? National Women’s Day falls on Sunday, August 9, 2026, so the public holiday is observed on Monday, August 10. Your payments are safe either way. The main grant dates fall before the holiday, and the SRD batch runs after it, so neither cycle is affected. Expect longer queues at ATMs, stores, and Post Office branches around the long weekend. If you can, withdraw before Friday, August 7, or wait until the following week. How to collect your grant You can receive your grant through your bank account, withdraw it at any ATM, or collect it at retail pay points inside Shoprite, Pick n Pay, Boxer, and Checkers. If you still use the old SASSA Gold Card, you have until August 31, 2026 to swap it for the new Postbank Black Card. Postbank has said the deadline will not be extended, and Gold Cards stop working after that date. Around 600,000 beneficiaries had not yet switched when the final replacement drive began in April. Swapping the card is free and quick: Go to a Postbank service point inside Shoprite, Checkers, Usave, Pick n Pay, Boxer, or Spar. Take your ID. You do not need to fill in any forms or visit a SASSA office. Your balance moves across automatically, and the new card works immediately. Check the card says Postbank on the front. Anything else is a scam. What to do if your money does not arrive A missing payment does not mean your grant has been canceled. Work through these steps first: Confirm your grant type’s payment date has actually passed.
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What you should know about the Infinix HOT 70 Pro
Table of contents Release date Price Full detailed specs Infinix HOT 70 Pro vs the HOT 70 Where you can buy it Infinix has launched the HOT 70 Pro, an upgraded version of the HOT 70 released earlier this year. The new phone brings 5G, a faster chipset, and a screen that changes color depending on the temperature. If you want to know when it launched, what it costs, and everything it can do, this guide covers it all. Release date Infinix unveiled the HOT 70 Pro on July 16, 2026, through an official release from Hong Kong. The phone is already available in Nigeria, as Infinix announced nationwide availability on the same day as the global launch. The rollout is tied to the brand’s “Be Seen. Be Hot.” campaign, fronted by music star Qing Madi. In Kenya, retailers such as Phone Place Kenya, Gadgets Leo and Phones Store Kenya already have the phone in stock. If you’re in India, you may have to wait a bit longer. Beebom reports the phone is likely to arrive in India by the end of July 2026, though Infinix has not confirmed an exact date. The Philippines launch date also remains unclear, as outlets there say pricing and rollout details are still coming. Price Infinix has not announced an official price for the HOT 70 Pro in any market yet, including Nigeria. The official release simply states that price and availability vary by market and sales channel, and directs buyers to check the Infinix website for updates. A few price points have surfaced, but you should treat them with caution: In Nigeria, a Jumia marketplace seller listed the phone at ₦484,000, though this is not an official Infinix price. Some blogs list figures like ₦399,000 and ₦479,900, but these numbers come from pages with other spec errors, so they are not reliable. In Kenya, prices are more consistent. Phone Place Kenya has it at KES 36,500, Phones Store Kenya at KES 37,999, and Gadgets Leo at KES 35,999 for the 8GB/256GB version, which works out to roughly $280. In Europe, one outlet mentioned a price around €220, though UK and US prices are still unconfirmed. Infinix’s decision to hold back on a single global price is linked to the ongoing memory chip shortage driven by AI data center demand, which has pushed up DRAM and NAND costs worldwide. We’ll update this page once Infinix or an authorized retailer confirms an official Nigerian price. Full detailed specs 1. Chipset and performance The HOT 70 Pro runs on the MediaTek Dimensity 7100, a 6nm chip built for 5G. Infinix says it supports gaming at up to 90 frames per second. It pairs with a Mali-G610 GPU, and RAM options range from 4GB up to 8GB, with an extra 8GB of virtual RAM available on top. Storage comes in 128GB or 256 GB capacities. 2. Display You get a 6.76-inch FHD+ LCD screen with a refresh rate that adapts up to 144Hz. Touch sampling runs at 240Hz, and brightness can reach 950 nits. Keep in mind this is an LCD panel, not AMOLED. 3. Battery and charging Depending on your market, the phone ships with either a 6,000mAh single-cell battery or a 5,600mAh dual-cell battery. Both support 45W fast charging and up to 10W reverse wired charging. Infinix says the 6,000mAh version charges fully in about 63 minutes, while the 5,600mAh version takes around 53 minutes. 4. Cameras The main camera is a 50MP Sony IMX882 sensor with 2x lossless zoom. For the front camera, there’s some conflicting information. Infinix’s official specs list an 8MP front camera, but some Kenyan retailers advertise a 13MP selfie camera. Since Infinix hasn’t clarified this, treat it as something that may vary by market. 5. Design and build The HOT 70 Pro comes in six finishes. Thermo Orange changes color with temperature, Mirage Green glows like a starry sky when exposed to light, Silk Glow Purple has a nano-crystal texture, and Depth Ring White creates a 3D floating effect. If you prefer something more classic, Night Pulse and Dive Blue are also available. The phone weighs 205 grams. Thickness ranges from 7.85mm on the Thermo Orange, Dive Blue and Night Pulse versions, to 7.95mm on the other three. 6. Software and AI features The phone comes with a One-Tap AI Button on the side. A short press opens AI FlashMemo, which reads what’s on your screen and suggests useful actions, like adding an event to your calendar or saving a contact. A long press brings up Folax AI, which gives you access to multiple AI models, including ChatGPT and Gemini. Other features include: Active Matrix Cube, an LED display built into the camera housing that shows alerts, lets you play mini-games, and lets you draw and share pixel art. Pure Voice, which filters out background noise during calls. UltraLink, which lets you communicate over Bluetooth for up to 1.5km when there’s no cellular signal. XGuard, for extra privacy and app protection. The phone runs Android 16 with XOS 16 on top. Infinix promises up to 3 major OS upgrades and 5 years of security patches, though this applies only to models with 6GB of RAM or more. 7. Connectivity and durability Image source: Fisayo Fosudo on YouTube You get 5G, 4G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, GPS, and dual-SIM support. The phone also carries IP68 water and dust resistance, rated for up to 2 meters underwater for 30 minutes, along with MIL-STD-810 durability certification. Infinix HOT 70 Pro vs the HOT 70 Here’s how the Pro model stacks up against the standard HOT 70 it’s replacing at the top of the lineup: The standard HOT 70 is sold in Nigeria for ₦189,900 (128GB) and ₦299,900 (256GB). Infinix has not yet published an equivalent Nigerian price for the Pro model. Where you can buy it In Nigeria, the HOT 70 Pro is available through authorized Infinix retail stores and online platforms like Jumia and Konga. You can also check the official Infinix
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Francophone Africa’s smallest shops could become its biggest business opportunity
21 juillet 2026 Hello , Welcome back to Francophone Weekly by TechCabal, your weekly deep dive into the tech ecosystem across French-speaking Africa. For readers who want to understand Francophone Africa beyond headlines—through markets, startups, and systems. New editions of the newsletter will land directly in your inbox every Tuesday at 12 PM WAT. By default, this newsletter is in French. If you’re reading this in your email inbox, click the “Read in English” button below to switch to the English version. If you’re reading on our website, you can either click the button below or toggle the language selector at the top right-hand side of the page to view the English edition. Read in English Le secteur de la distribution informelle en Afrique n’est pas un problème à résoudre ; c’est un marché à conquérir. Nulle part cela n’est plus évident qu’en Afrique de l’Ouest francophone, où la boutique de quartier, l’épicerie du coin et l’étal de marché constituent le canal dominant par lequel des centaines de millions de personnes accèdent chaque jour aux biens de grande consommation essentiels. Une nouvelle génération d’entreprises de commerce électronique business-to-business (B2B) et de distribution parie que la numérisation de cet écosystème est l’une des opportunités commerciales les plus durables du continent. Les preuves, jusqu’ici, sont convaincantes — même si le chemin n’a pas été de tout repos. Entrons dans le vif du sujet. 1. Un marché qui se cache à la vue de tous Source de l’image : Retail Brief Africa. Le marché de consommation africain était estimé à environ 1 400 milliards de dollars en 2015 et devrait atteindre 2 500 milliards de dollars d’ici 2030, la majorité de ces dépenses continuant de transiter par des canaux de distribution informels tels que les marchés à ciel ouvert, les kiosques et les petites boutiques de quartier. Le canal informel concentre jusqu’à 90 % des transactions de biens de consommation sur le continent — et en Afrique de l’Ouest francophone, cette proportion est encore plus marquée : entre 80 et 95 % des transactions commerciales de la région se déroulent encore dans des circuits informels. L’Afrique de l’Ouest francophone est un marché régional de taille intermédiaire à l’échelle du continent, mais qui surperforme nettement au regard de ses fondamentaux. La Côte d’Ivoire contribue à elle seule à près de 40 % du produit intérieur brut (PIB) de l’Union Économique et Monétaire Ouest-Africaine (UEMOA) et affiche une croissance proche de 6 % depuis plus d’une décennie, faisant d’Abidjan sa plus grande ville et son centre économique, le siège régional de référence pour les multinationales et les investisseurs. L’ensemble du bloc UEMOA a enregistré une croissance de 6,3 % en 2024 et devrait se maintenir au-dessus de 6 % en 2025 et 2026, selon les estimations du Fonds Monétaire International (FMI) et de la Banque Centrale des États de l’Afrique de l’Ouest (BCEAO), surpassant la moyenne continentale d’environ 3,8 %. Le Sénégal, porté par le port de Dakar et son positionnement stratégique de carrefour commercial de l’UEMOA, s’impose comme un pôle complémentaire. Ces vents macroéconomiques favorables rendent la numérisation des chaînes d’approvisionnement de plus en plus viable commercialement. Par rapport aux autres sous-régions africaines, l’Afrique de l’Ouest francophone accuse un retard face à l’Afrique de l’Est (dominée par le Kenya) et à l’Afrique de l’Ouest anglophone (dominée par le Nigeria) en matière de capital-risque investi dans ce secteur. Si les startups de tech de distribution, en particulier les acteurs B2B, ont levé plus d’1,07 milliard de dollars entre 2019 et 2025, une grande partie de ces financements est allée de manière prédominante vers des plateformes égyptiennes et kenyanes comme Wasoko, MaxAB et feu Copia Global. Toutefois, la région francophone suscite une attention croissante précisément parce qu’elle reste sous-pénétrée : les avantages du premier entrant y sont encore accessibles, la concurrence demeure naissante, et le franc CFA — arrimé à l’euro — offre une stabilité monétaire que les investisseurs exposés au naira ou au cedi ne peuvent pas tenir pour acquise. À l’échelle mondiale, le modèle de numérisation du commerce de détail informel B2B a émergé en Asie du Sud et du Sud-Est — Udaan en Inde,Wahyoo en Indonésie — avant de s’implanter en Afrique à partir de 2018 environ. L’opportunité africaine se distingue de manière structurelle : la densité de très petits détaillants, les contraintes aiguës en matière de fonds de roulement, des réseaux de distribution fragmentés et peu transparents, et le mobile money comme rail de paiement prêt à l’emploi, créent un environnement opérationnel singulier. Ces obstacles ne sont pas propres aux marchés francophones, mais ils y sont amplifiés dans une région où l’infrastructure numérique est encore en construction. Il convient toutefois de souligner qu’il n’existe pas de données de marché sous-régionales précises et documentées publiquement pour l’Afrique de l’Ouest francophone spécifiquement. La recherche sectorielle agrège généralement au niveau continental ou national (Nigeria, Afrique du Sud, Égypte). Pour cet article, les données africaines sur les biens de grande consommation (FMCG) au sens large et les indicateurs macroéconomiques de l’UEMOA ont été utilisés comme proxys d’analyse. Les spécificités du marché francophone Plusieurs caractéristiques structurelles distinguent la distribution FMCG B2B en Afrique de l’Ouest francophone des autres contextes régionaux. La langue est la première d’entre elles. La majorité des logiciels d’entreprise, des plateformes logistiques et des systèmes de planification des ressources d’entreprise (ERP) déployés sur le continent ont été conçus en anglais. Servir les détaillants ivoiriens, sénégalais ou maliens — ainsi que les agents et équipes commerciales terrain qui les accompagnent — exige a minima des interfaces, un support client et une documentation en français. Cela réduit sensiblement le champ concurrentiel et protège efficacement les acteurs locaux d’une réplication facile par des concurrents est-africains ou sud-africains. L’effet est encore plus décisif quand les services sont disponibles dans les langues transfrontalières réellement utilisées au quotidien, comme le peul ou les langues mandé telles que le bambara et le dioula. L’architecture de distribution est également distinctive. Contrairement au Nigeria, où le commerce moderne de grande surface a
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Safaricom’s financial services chief joins wave of senior executive exits
Safaricom’s chief financial services officer, Esther Waititu, will leave the company at the end of July, becoming the third senior executive to exit Kenya’s largest telecommunications company in five months. “I wish to announce that Esther Waititu, our chief financial services officer, will be leaving Safaricom to pursue other opportunities,” Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa said in an internal email to employees seen by TechCabal. Waititu’s last day will be July 31, according to the email. Safaricom has appointed Boniface Mungania, its Director of Public Sector Digital Transformation, as interim chief financial services officer. The departure marks another leadership change at the executive level overseeing Safaricom’s financial services ambitions. In late March, Sitoyo Lopokoiyit stepped down as managing director of M-PESA Africa, while chief business development and strategy officer Michael Mutiga is leaving to become CEO of Stanbic Bank Kenya and South Sudan from August 1. The three executives held roles central to Safaricom’s strategy of expanding beyond telecommunications into digital financial services. Their departures come as the company expands M-PESA beyond payments into savings, credit, and investments, while building the technology needed to support more transactions and third-party financial services. Safaricom typically communicates executive departures internally unless they involve the chief executive, while publicly announcing senior appointments. Waititu joined Safaricom in 2023 after more than a decade in banking. During her tenure, the company completed Fintech 2.0, the biggest overhaul of M-PESA’s core infrastructure since Safaricom moved the platform in-house in 2015. Completed in September 2025, the migration moved M-PESA to a cloud-native architecture capable of processing 6,000 transactions per second at launch, replacing a system that was approaching its limit of 4,500 transactions per second. The upgrade also made it easier for Safaricom to introduce new services and for banks and fintech companies to connect to M-PESA. In February, Safaricom launched Ziidi Trader, an M-PESA service that allows users to buy and sell shares listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE). The product gave M-PESA’s more than 37 million users a direct route into the stock market and marked another step in Safaricom’s expansion into investment products. Before joining Safaricom, Waititu served as KCB Group’s Director of Corporate Banking from September 2021 to February 2023, and previously held several roles at Standard Bank. True scale demands moving beyond surface-level integrations to robust execution. We’ve filtered the noise out of Moonshot 2026, optimising the conference strictly for high-calibre connections between startup founders, global financial operators, enterprise leaders and individuals rewiring Africa’s technical frameworks. Get 20% off Early Bird tickets for a limited time.
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Why Launch Africa keeps writing early-stage cheques despite market slowdown
At the start of 2026, Africa’s startup funding market appeared to be on firmer footing. Startups across the continent raised $711 million in the first quarter, up roughly 27% from the same period a year earlier, suggesting the recovery that began in 2025 was gathering pace. Beneath the headline features, however, the picture was less encouraging. The number of deals worth between $100,000 and $500,000 fell from 140 to 92, a decline of around 30%. The early cheques that help bring startups into existence dropped even more sharply, from 73 to 32. For the first time in recent quarters, debt financing also overtook equity funding. The data suggests many investors slowed down in their funding of early-stage startups. Launch Africa Ventures did the opposite. The pan-African venture capital firm, whose portfolio now spans more than 180 portfolio companies across 25 countries, says it completed 15 new investments in 2026, focusing on the very early-stage cheque sizes much of the market has retreated from. Launch Africa’s 2026 cohort spans AI, the future of work, B2B commerce, supply chain, and embedded finance across Francophone, North, West, and Southern Africa. The named investments are Udu Technologies, Fincart, Tayar, Khaime, Anavid, Mainstack, Growwr, Yamify, Legendary Foods, and Masunga. The firm also made follow-on investments in nine existing portfolio companies: Clarrio, Finverity, Agridex, Periculum, Recital Finance, Octavia Carbon, Itibari, Solarbox, and Awabah. So far, the strategy appears to be paying off. In June, Launch Africa returned $2.5 million to investors in its first fund after completing 11 exits, placing it among the small group of African managers that have handed cash back to limited partners in this cycle. The firm’s second fund reflects a shift in strategy. While Fund I pursued a high-volume approach, spreading capital across a large number of startups, Fund II is taking ownership stakes while reserving more capital for follow-on investments into its strongest-performing portfolio startups. I spoke with Uwem Uwemakpan, the head of investments at Launch Africa, to understand the reasoning behind the firm’s contrarian pace and how the firm plans to get money out again in a thinner market. This interview has been edited for length and clarity Everyone else is pulling back from early-stage right now. You just did the opposite and closed 15 deals. Walk me through the reasoning. What do you see in 2026 that the rest of the market doesn’t? The reasoning is contrarian by design, not by accident. We ran a sector-mapping exercise to identify where capital was underinvested relative to growth potential and impact on Africa’s trajectory, and where the global technology tailwinds actually apply. Two things converged in 2026. First, infrastructure: PAPSS is operational, data connectivity investment is accelerating, and regulation is catching up rather than lagging. Second, discipline: Q1 deal count was reportedly down roughly a third this year, and debt overtook equity as a funding source for the first time. Everyone reads that as a reason to wait. We read it as the moment the $100K–$500K cheque, the one that actually creates a company, nearly disappeared. If nobody writes that cheque in 2026, there’s no Series A class in 2029. We’d rather own that pipeline than inherit someone else’s gap in three years. You mentioned that without first checks in 2026, there is no Series A class in 2029. Your own liquidity depends on there being a well-capitalised growth-stage class in 2030. Are you underwriting Fund II on the assumption that layer recovers, and what happens to your exit timeline if it doesn’t? We’re not underwriting Fund II on the assumption that the growth-capital layer recovers on our timeline; that’s not a bet we get to make. Every deal has to pass what we call Exit Realism before we write a cheque. In practice, that means named acquirers across banks, telcos, global platforms, industrials, and DFIs, not exclusively Series A-and-up VCs. We are seeing African exits cluster in the $50–150M trade-sale range, and that pathway doesn’t depend on a well-capitalised Series A market existing on our schedule. If the Series A layer does recover, and the infrastructure argues it will, because demand for what these companies do isn’t going anywhere, that’s upside, not the base case. If it doesn’t, we still have a path through strategic acquirers and secondaries. We’re hedged against the scenario in your question, not hoping it doesn’t happen. What makes a company the kind of early bet you describe? Market and fund timing: why now, specifically, and does the exit timeline fit our remaining fund life? Unit economics: do the numbers actually work? FX resilience: does the model survive currency volatility, not just growth? Scalability: is multi-market architecture built in from day one, not retrofitted later. Exit realism: can we name three to five specific acquirers, not “we’ll figure it out.” And founder quality, which is where a lot of early-stage companies actually fail. Sector-wise, we try to avoid crowded spaces unless there’s a strong case for a specific company. The saturated end of the market has better brand recognition. The underserved end sometimes has better economics. In Fund I you did more than 100 investments and passed your follow-on rights to your LPs. In Fund II you’re taking 5% to 15% positions and following on yourselves. Those are two very different funds. Does that change how you evaluate and invest in companies? The substance of the question is right, it changes everything about how we evaluate. A fund built for volume is optimised to not miss outliers; the underwriting bar is lower because the portfolio math forgives individual misses. A fund built for concentration can’t afford that. Every company has to individually justify a 5-10% position, which means we’re doing Series A-grade diligence at seed: separate co-founder interviews, reference checks, unit economics that have to make sense before we write the cheque, not after. And even more rigorous analysis if the ownership is below our preferred threshold. It also changes our relationship to the company after we invest. At lower ownership, we are just
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South Africa wants every SIM card to become a trusted digital ID
A mobile number has evolved into one of South Africa’s most trusted digital identity credentials. It secures access to bank accounts, online payments and messaging platforms, making it a critical target for organised crime. Now, the government and the telecommunications industry want to overhaul the country’s SIM registration system for the first time since the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Act (RICA) introduced mandatory registration nearly two decades ago. The proposed reforms, developed by mobile operators and the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, introduce stronger identity verification using real-time checks against the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) database. The goal is to make SIM registration as reliable as the identity checks banks already use. The changes extend well beyond telecoms. A more trusted mobile identity system would reduce fraud on banking and fintech platforms while giving law enforcement a stronger tool to investigate cybercrime. “The enhanced verification measures operate through existing arrangements between the Department of Home Affairs and mobile network operators, enabling ACT members to verify customer identities against the DHA database,” Nomvuyiso Batyi, chief executive officer (CEO) of the Association of Communications and Technology (ACT), a telecoms industry body, told TechCabal on Friday. Batyi said the industry concluded that RICA no longer reflects how digital crime has evolved. “It was driven by the rapid increase in sophisticated digital fraud from around 2019 onwards,” she said. Organised financial crime, identity theft and the widespread sale of pre-registered SIM cards have exposed weaknesses in the current system. Authorities have also linked improperly registered SIM cards to financial fraud and organised crime, leading to several crackdowns, including the 2024 arrest of suspects accused of selling pre-RICA’d SIM cards in Free State Province and the 2025 arrest of 48 people in KwaZulu-Natal province, for allegedly registering SIM cards using fraudulent identities. The industry also believes anonymous communications have enabled organised crime and money laundering, concerns that gained urgency after South Africa’s grey listing by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Today, RICA mainly requires customers to present identity documents when buying a SIM card. The proposed framework instead focuses on confirming that the person registering the SIM is the legitimate owner of that identity. ACT and the government have also proposed changes to RICA. “The proposals to the Department of Justice are in line with the industry-led solution in the framework agreement,” Batyi said. “They identify legislative and operational reforms that may further improve the effectiveness and enforceability of Section 40 of RICA.” The reforms follow an urgent meeting convened in March by Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi, who brought together telecom operators, regulators and law enforcement agencies to address weaknesses in South Africa’s SIM registration system. The Department of Justice said improperly registered SIM cards have been linked to banking fraud, cash-in-transit robberies, kidnappings, contract killings, and cybercrime. Officials also warned that loopholes in RICA and weak registration practices have allowed bulk SIM registrations using false identities, making it harder for investigators to trace suspects. Kubayi said the government would step up enforcement. “Given that the law already prescribes penalties of up to R5 million ($303,000) or imprisonment of up to 10 years for non-compliance, enforcement in this regard should commence from July 2026, supported by a dedicated and coordinated approach involving the police, the National Prosecuting Authority, and other relevant entities,” she said. Leon Schreiber, the Home Affairs Minister, also told delegates at the meeting that the department’s identity verification systems, already used by banks, could strengthen SIM registration and support South Africa’s developing digital identity framework. Consumers are unlikely to notice immediate changes. ACT has not disclosed how the new verification process will work. “We unfortunately cannot comment at this stage as this information will be communicated to consumers through a coordinated consumer awareness campaign,” Batyi said. Batyi noted the tougher checks will improve security without making mobile access more difficult. “The risks posed by SIM-enabled fraud now extend beyond individual consumers to the financial system and national security,” she said. “The measures do not create unjustifiable barriers to mobile access but simply ensure that the person obtaining the service is the legitimate holder of the identity presented.” The framework will still operate under the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA), which governs how personal information is collected and processed. Batyi said the industry’s long-term goal is to eliminate identity theft in SIM registration, remove pre-registered SIM cards from circulation, and restore trust in South Africa’s mobile identity system. True scale demands moving beyond surface-level integrations to robust execution. We’ve filtered the noise out of Moonshot 2026, optimising the conference strictly for high-calibre connections between startup founders, global financial operators, enterprise leaders and individuals rewiring Africa’s technical frameworks. Get 20% off Early Bird tickets for a limited time.
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Nigeria’s central bank is rewriting the rules for fintech growth
This is Follow the Money, our weekly series that unpacks the earnings, business, and scaling strategies of African fintechs, financial institutions, companies, and governments. A new edition drops every Monday. Over the past decade, the playbook for Nigerian fintechs has been remarkably consistent: build payment products, acquire merchants, scale transaction volumes, obtain microfinance bank licences, expand into lending, and eventually launch savings products. The result is an industry in which some of the country’s largest financial technology companies now operate across multiple layers of the financial system. They issue wallets, acquire merchants, process transactions, provide payment terminals, lend to businesses and, increasingly, operate regulated financial institutions. This strategy has helped drive rapid growth of Nigeria’s electronic payment industry, which processed ₦1.2 quadrillion ($880.51 billion) worth of transactions in 2025, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Now, the CBN wants to rewrite the rules that enabled that expansion. Between March and June, the regulator issued or exposed for consultation a series of policy documents covering market concentration, financial holding companies, operational ring-fencing, ownership disclosure, and anti-money laundering systems. Viewed individually, the proposals address distinct regulatory concerns. Taken together, however, they reveal a regulator’s intent on steering Nigeria’s payments ecosystem into a more mature phase. At the heart of the reform is a germane question: how should large payment companies be structured, and how much market power should any single operator be allowed to accumulate? Nigeria is not alone in asking it. India’s Reserve Bank imposed limits on market concentration in the Unified Payments Interface after PhonePe and Google Pay came to dominate digital payments. In Europe, the second Payment Services Directive (PSD2) sought to weaken incumbents’ control of payment infrastructure by requiring banks to open access to third-party providers. One group can no longer operate as a single business Nigeria’s payment companies are increasingly becoming banks. After building large payment infrastructure businesses, many are acquiring microfinance banks to move beyond transaction fees into lending, deposits, and other banking services. Flutterwave secured a microfinance bank licence in April following its acquisition of open banking startup Mono, while Paystack acquired Ladder Microfinance Bank in January. These deals allow fintechs to deepen customers relationship and generate revenue from multiple financial products instead of relying primarily on payment fees. As a result, many of these companies are evolving into financial groups, with several regulated businesses operating under one corporate umbrella. Paystack, the Nigerian fintech acquired by Stripe, restructured its operations under a new holding company, The Stack Group (TSG), in January. TSG now houses Paystack, its consumer payments app Zap, Paystack Microfinance Bank (MFB), and a venture studio. TSG is jointly owned by Paystack’s chief executive officer, Shola Akinlade, Stripe, and existing Paystack employees known as Stacks. The structure creates powerful operational advantages. Customer data generated from payments can improve lending decisions. Banking products help retain customers within the ecosystem. Subsidiaries can also share infrastructure, technology, and management, lowering the cost of expansion. The CBN now wants to draw clearer boundaries around that model. Its draft ring-fencing framework introduces stricter separation between related entities, covering governance, customer funds, intra-group transactions, data sharing, and recovery planning. “The guidelines seeks to establish clear operational and functional boundaries among closely linked entities within the financial system as well as address regulatory arbitrage arising from the commingling of activities across different licence categories,” a part of the CBN’s guideline read. The ring-fencing rules also tighten ownership requirements, capital standards, and oversight of shared services. “Each regulated entity shall meet capital adequacy and liquidity standards individually, regardless of group-level resources,” the guideline read. Instead of operating like different departments within the same organisation, each regulated subsidiary would be required to maintain its own governance, capital, risk management framework, and regulatory accountability. This raises the cost of operating multiple regulated businesses and erodes some of the efficiencies that made licence accumulation attractive in the first place. Growth through acquisitions will still be possible. But integrating and running those businesses as part of a single group will become significantly more expensive. Scale is no longer enough Every successful fintech begins with a competitive edge. Moniepoint built its business by serving small businesses and developing payment infrastructure for merchants. In 2025, it processed more than ₦412 trillion ($294.03 billion) in transactions and, since 2023, has steadily expanded into retail banking. By first serving merchants, fintechs created a gateway to consumers, generating network effects that allowed them to expand simultaneously across consumer payments, merchant acquiring, banking, and lending. The CBN now wants to limit how far the strategy can go. Under a market structure circular issued in June, any institution that controls more than 25% of consumer issuing cannot simultaneously control more than 15% of merchant acquiring. The same restriction applies in reverse. Firms will also be required to submit monthly market-share reports and comply with the new thresholds by the end of 2026. The objective extends beyond promoting competition. It is about preventing a single company from dominating both sides of Nigeria’s payments market: where consumers keep their money and where merchants receive it. A business with significant market power on both sides can reinforce its own ecosystem, making it more difficult for rivals to compete while increasing the systemic consequences if its infrastructure fails. For fintechs, this changes the economics of scale. Rather than expanding into every adjacent segment of the payments value chain, companies may have to decide where they want to lead. Future growth is likely to depend less on controlling every layer of the ecosystem and more on improving profitability and efficiency within a chosen segment. Governance is the new moat For years, fintechs distinguished themselves by building products that were faster, simpler and more convenient than those offered by traditional banks. The CBN now expects those same companies to operate less like technology startups and more like mature financial institutions. Under its new anti-money laundering (AML) framework, the CBN is signalling that compliance is no longer simply a matter of deploying the right software or purchasing
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South Sudan’s $50 e-visa fee threatens East African labour mobility
South Sudan has imposed a $50 visa fee on citizens of Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, introducing a new cost for workers and businesses operating in one of East Africa’s most commercially important frontier markets. Under the revised charges, published on the country’s electronic visa portal on Monday, Somali and Burundian citizens will pay $100 to enter South Sudan. Tanzanians and Egyptians can enter visa-free, while South Africans can visit without a visa for stays of less than 30 days. Nigerians will pay $100. The fees implement an immigration policy introduced last week and mark a departure from the East African Community’s push to remove restrictions on the movement of people, labour, and services across the eight-member bloc. South Sudan joined the EAC in 2016. The regional grouping says citizens of its partner states should generally be able to travel within the bloc without visas, an ambition anchored in the Common Market Protocol and intended to support the free movement of workers and capital. The EAC describes free movement as a central pillar of the common market. The different treatment of EAC citizens is likely to raise questions over reciprocity and Juba’s compliance with those commitments. Tanzanians will continue to enter free of charge, while travellers from six of South Sudan’s seven other EAC partners face fees of between $50 and $100. The new charges will have their greatest impact on Kenya and Uganda, South Sudan’s main links to regional markets. Both countries supply the landlocked nation with food, manufactured goods, fuel, and professional services, while their citizens account for a significant share of the traders, drivers, bankers, and aid workers travelling to Juba. Kenyan transport companies move goods to South Sudan from the port of Mombasa through Uganda, with drivers and support staff routinely crossing the border. Although $50 is modest for large companies, repeated payments could increase operating costs for logistics businesses whose employees make several journeys every year. The rules could also complicate labour mobility. South Sudan has long drawn accountants, engineers, teachers, healthcare workers, and other professionals from neighbouring countries, particularly Kenya and Uganda. The fee adds to the cost of accepting assignments or taking short business trips to Juba. Kenyan lenders are among the most exposed companies. KCB Group, Stanbic Bank, and Equity Group operate subsidiaries in South Sudan, while other regional companies maintain employees, suppliers, and clients in the country. The banks rely on staff movement between Nairobi and Juba for roles in technology, risk management, audits, and compliance. Visa charges will not alter their balance sheets, but could add another layer of cost and administration in a market already affected by currency volatility, high inflation, and political uncertainty. Travellers are required to apply through South Sudan’s official e-visa portal, pay online, and download an approved document before travelling. The government says applications can be processed within 72 hours. True scale demands moving beyond surface-level integrations to robust execution. We’ve filtered the noise out of Moonshot 2026, optimising the conference strictly for high-calibre connections between startup founders, global financial operators, enterprise leaders and individuals rewiring Africa’s technical frameworks. Get 20% off Early Bird tickets for a limited time.
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