Nigeria reviews 26-year telecom policy as networks face mounting pressure
Nigeria has begun reviewing its 26-year-old telecommunications policy, proposing 15 major changes that could affect everything from mobile tariffs and internet competition to network quality and online safety for millions of subscribers. The review is expected to go live before the end of the year. At a policy review workshop in Lagos on Wednesday, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) said the proposed National Telecommunications Policy 2026 is intended to address the everyday problems subscribers continue to face, including rising data costs, persistent network outages, weak connectivity, and growing exposure to online fraud and digital scams. Subscribers are facing worsening network disruptions as damage to telecom infrastructure continues across the country. Nigeria recorded 19,384 fibre-optic cable cuts in 2025, contributing to frequent service outages and unstable connectivity nationwide. The proposed reforms include restructuring telecom governance institutions, updating the Nigerian Communications Act, strengthening competition rules, promoting infrastructure sharing and national roaming, improving spectrum efficiency for 5G and future technologies, and introducing more transparent tariff regulation. The policy also seeks to integrate satellite broadband, support AI and IoT innovation, encourage local telecom manufacturing, and establish a Digital Innovation Fund for startups and research. The new framework places strong emphasis on consumer protection, affordability, and network reliability through measures focused on online safety, digital literacy, cybersecurity, and broader internet access. Telecom infrastructure, such as fibre-optic cables and towers, would receive stronger legal protection as Critical National Information Infrastructure (CNII), while a one-stop permitting system and harmonised Right of Way fees are expected to reduce multiple taxation and lower broadband deployment costs nationwide. The NCC has achieved only about 25% of its planned 2026 site upgrade targets, leaving the existing 4G infrastructure overstretched. With Nigerians consuming over 4 billion gigabytes of data in Q1 2026 alone, networks are increasingly experiencing congestion and speed throttling, particularly during peak usage periods. “When the National Telecommunications Policy 2000 was introduced, Nigeria’s telecommunications sector was at a very different stage of development,” NCC Executive Vice Chairman Aminu Maida said at the event. “The market has outgrown the assumptions of that period.” According to him, the sector has now entered what he described as “the era of advanced regulatory frontiers,” where regulators must contend with technologies such as artificial intelligence, 5G, satellite broadband, Internet of Things (IoT), cloud infrastructure, and critical national information infrastructure. “This is no longer a narrow telecommunications conversation,” Maida said. “Telecommunications is no longer just one sector within the economy; it is productivity infrastructure for the entire economy.” One of the most visible changes proposed in the review is a stronger focus on consumer protection and online safety. Unlike the 2000 policy, which largely focused on getting Nigerians connected, the revised framework introduces new directions around digital trust, cybersecurity, and the regulation of online platforms and services. For subscribers, this could translate into stronger measures against online scams, fraudulent digital platforms, harmful content, and other internet-related risks that currently operate with limited oversight. The policy review also comes as telecom operators grapple with worsening infrastructure and operational challenges that directly affect service quality. 5,934 fibre cuts were recorded in the first quarter of 2026 alone, vandalism, more than 50 taxes and levies imposed across the sector, persistent right-of-way bottlenecks, and rising energy costs, with diesel prices increasing from ₦1,770 to ₦1,850 per litre. “Fibre cuts, vandalism, high energy costs, multiple taxation, permitting delays, and persistent gaps between urban and rural connectivity are national development issues,” Maida said. As part of the proposed reforms, the NCC signalled plans to simplify infrastructure deployment through harmonised Right of Way (RoW) fees and streamlined permitting processes across federal, state, and local governments. Telecom operators have long argued that multiple taxation and inconsistent permitting systems significantly increase the cost of deploying fibre infrastructure, costs that are often passed on to subscribers through higher data and call prices. The revised framework also seeks to give stronger protection to telecom infrastructure designated as Critical National Information Infrastructure (CNII). For consumers, this could help reduce network blackouts caused by fibre cuts and vandalism, which continue to disrupt connectivity across the country. Another major shift is the move from simply providing “universal access” to ensuring what regulators describe as “meaningful connectivity.”. The policy review further introduces a stronger emphasis on digital literacy and inclusion, with regulators seeking to ensure that more Nigerians can effectively participate in the digital economy. This could lead to more government-backed digital training initiatives, smartphone affordability programmes, and targeted support for underserved communities. The NCC said the new framework would address the growing convergence between telecom networks and other sectors, including financial services, data protection, cloud infrastructure, and digital identity systems. Regulators are expected to work more closely with agencies such as the Nigerian Data Protection Commission (NDPC), the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), and state governments. “This new policy should not be too prescriptive on technology because technology changes so quickly,” Former NCC Executive Vice Chairman and current MTN Nigeria chairman, Ernest Ndukwe, said. “Good regulation is essential, but regulation must also remain adaptable.” The NCC said consultations on the proposed National Telecommunications Policy 2026 would continue as regulators seek to create a framework capable of supporting broadband expansion, AI infrastructure, consumer protection, cybersecurity, and long-term investment sustainability.
Read MoreNigerian fintech Sycamore wants $29 million in deposits after MFB acquisition
Sycamore, a Nigerian fintech, wants to build a deposit base that could exceed ₦40 billion ($29.13 million) as it expands from digital lending into banking and payments following its acquisition of a microfinance bank licence. The digital lender acquired the MFB licence through the acquisition of an undisclosed Kano-based microfinance bank. The company’s chief executive officer, Babatunde Akin-Moses, told TechCabal in an interview on Tuesday that deposit mobilisation would become one of its biggest priorities now that it can hold funds. “Deposit mobilisation is going to be very critical,” he said. The move reflects a broader shift among Nigerian fintechs that are increasingly acquiring microfinance banking licences to gain direct access to deposits and cheaper capital. In April, Flutterwave, the Nigerian fintech unicorn, secured an MFB licence after acquiring open banking startup Mono. In January, Paystack acquired Ladder Microfinance Bank, as fintechs try to convert payment users into banking customers. For Sycamore, the MFB acquisition marks a transition from operating primarily as a digital lender to becoming a broader regulated financial services group with three business lines: Sycamore Integrated Solutions Limited (SISL), its flagship lending business; Sycamore Investment and Asset Management Limited (SIML); and now, Sycamore Microfinance Bank. “So SISL will become Sycamore Capital Group (SCG), with an AUM of ₦60 billion ($43.69 million), to reflect the new structure of the business,” Akin-Moses said. The MFB licence also removes the company’s dependence on third-party banks for wallets and fund settlements while giving it direct access to payment rails and customer deposits. “We are already using third-party wallets today,” Akin-Moses said. “It is just that we do not control those wallets right now.” The acquisition will allow Sycamore to integrate directly with the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) Instant Payment platform to offer real-time transfers and traditional deposit account services to customers. More importantly, deposits could significantly reduce Sycamore’s cost of capital. The startup has historically relied on commercial papers and institutional debt to fund lending operations. Deposits, however, offer a much cheaper source of funding. “Every single sort of money that comes to the platform comes with a significant lender cost,” Akin-Moses said. “But now for deposits, we will be able to have those at cheaper costs.” According to him, the lower funding costs could eventually translate into cheaper loans for customers. “And the whole idea is that we should be able to eventually pass those cheaper costs on to our borrowers as we grow,” he said. The company is targeting between ₦40 billion ($29.13 million) and ₦50 billion ($36.41 million) in loans this year, according to Akin-Moses, who said Sycamore would need deposits that exceed that figure to support its lending ambitions. According to him, the company is targeting deposits that could eventually reach between 30% and 50% above projected loan disbursements. In 2025, Sycamore disbursed close to ₦20 billion ($14.56 million) in loans, according to Akin-Moses. This year, the company is aiming to at least double that figure as demand from businesses increases. Its average loan ticket size has also grown. While Sycamore previously issued average loans of around ₦10 million ($7,282), with a maximum limit of ₦20 million ($14,563), its average ticket size has now risen to between ₦30 million ($21,845) and ₦40 million ($29,126). The company has also increased its maximum loan size to ₦100 million ($72,815). “Apart from increased capacity of our balance sheets, which is part of why we raise money in commercial paper, the whole idea is that people need more,” Akin-Moses said. “Businesses need more.” The company’s expansion mirrors broader trends in Nigeria’s digital lending market. FairMoney Microfinance Bank said it disbursed more than ₦150 billion ($109.22 million) in loans in 2025. Moniepoint said it disbursed over ₦1 trillion ($728.15 million) in loans to small businesses during the same period. Sycamore currently serves more than 400,000 users across its lending, investment, and savings products and operates digitally in more than 22 Nigerian states. The company also maintains physical presence in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Kano, and Ibadan. Akin-Moses said Sycamore believes its existing customer base gives it a starting point for deposit mobilisation. “This is also driven by customer demand,” he said, adding that some users wanted to use cash flows already existing within Sycamore’s ecosystem as collateral for loans. Northern Nigeria is also becoming an increasingly important part of the company’s growth strategy, which partly influenced its decision to acquire a Kano-based microfinance bank. According to Akin-Moses, many consumers in the region are still unfamiliar with digital investment and savings products that have become more mainstream in cities like Lagos. But unlike Lagos, where many fintechs scaled largely through digital distribution, Sycamore believes expansion in northern Nigeria will require physical operations, stronger local trust, and products adapted for more Islamic-compliant financial structures. “We are looking to modify some products to be more Islamic-compliant,” Akin-Moses said. “We do have a physical office in Kano to make that agenda a reality. We bought a Kano-based MFB because of the opportunity there.” Beyond Nigeria, the startup is exploring diaspora opportunities, particularly in the United Kingdom and Canada. It sees a lending opportunity in the UK and an investment one in Canada. “We see that as a potential opportunity to partner with some UK-based companies, even have some sort of UK presence,” he said. “Canada will be looking at it like the market for investments for diasporas.” The company says it is also open to future acquisitions as it expands into additional financial services, particularly cross-border products. “One of the trends we are seeing this year is acquisitions,” Akin-Moses said. “If there is some capability we are trying to build, we do not always have to build from scratch.” For now, however, Sycamore’s immediate challenge is convincing customers to trust a fintech lender with tens of billions of naira in deposits.
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Paystack’s first Dashboard rebuild in a decade brings AI into merchant operations
When Paystack launched in 2016, it positioned itself as a cheaper and faster alternative to Nigeria’s existing online payment processors. Over the next decade, the Stripe-owned fintech layered on commerce tools and other financial workflows for businesses across multiple African markets. Much of that activity lived on the Paystack Dashboard, the product surface designed for merchants to monitor transactions, track revenue, manage customers, and perform payment operations. On Thursday, Paystack launched the first full rebuild of that Dashboard in 10 years, introducing a redesigned interface, simplified navigation structure, mobile parity, and an AI-powered Command Centre that lets merchants ask questions about their business activity. The redesign arrives at a moment when artificial intelligence (AI) is beginning to reshape how businesses interact with software. A PwC report found that 82% of African organisations are running AI pilots in their operations, and with the African market projected to reach $16.5 billion by 2030, companies are racing to integrate AI into business workflows. In with the new Internally called Canvas, the centre of the redesign is an AI-native Command Centre, a conversational interface built directly into the Dashboard that uses a merchant’s own transaction and operational data to answer questions about their business activity. Rather than navigating different pages to piece together information, the AI interface allows merchants to ask questions and receive responses as text, tables, or charts, according to the company. Because the system handles sensitive financial information, Paystack said parts of the rebuild focused on reliability and accuracy. The company said every response generated by the Command Centre is grounded in actual merchant data rather than generic model outputs, using what it described as a deterministic harness designed to reduce hallucinations and keep responses tied to verified operational records. The company noted that it also introduced automated evaluation systems that continuously test the quality of responses against predefined baselines and designed the system in a way that every request that goes through the Command Centre is evaluated against safety and compliance criteria before a response is generated. “We built a simple framework for how the system handles different kinds of requests, Dara Assim-Ita, the senior product designer who led the rebuild, said. “Valid requests within the system’s capability get fulfilled. Valid requests outside the system’s capability are declined with suggested alternatives, so merchants know what else might help. Harmful requests are refused entirely.” According to the company, the system is powered by a combination of GPT models, structured data retrieval, and an internal orchestration layer called Project Canvas API, which connects the interface to Paystack’s existing infrastructure. Paystack’s new dashboard. Image source: Paystack Another major part of the rebuild was navigation, which Paystack described as the most visible change in the new Dashboard. Over the past decade, the Dashboard has expanded to accommodate Paystack’s growing list of products and workflows. In 2016, Paystack introduced Payment Pages, which allowed merchants to duplicate a live Payment Page and then modify it. In 2019, it introduced User Permissions, which allowed merchants to invite different members of their team to their Paystack Dashboard, and Audit Logs, which gave merchants full visibility into what their teammates were doing on their Dashboard. Research conducted during the redesign showed that merchants understood what they wanted to do, but often struggled to predict where those functions existed inside the product. To solve this, Paystack reorganised the product into two primary sections: Payments and Products. Payments now houses operational workflows such as transactions, customers, refunds, disputes, and settlements, while Products serves as the home for newer modular offerings like transaction splits and future services the company plans to add over time. The last of the Dashboard’s latest design is full parity between mobile and web, meaning that every feature and screen available on desktop can also be accessed on mobile devices. Out with the old Assim-Ita told TechCabal that the redesign was partly a response to changing merchant behaviour and a reflection of Paystack’s growth over the past decade. “As we layered in more capabilities, the structure of the Dashboard began to reflect how the product had evolved, rather than how merchants think about their work,” she said. “Navigation expanded, paths multiplied, and what was once straightforward took more effort to move through. We’d seen these patterns over time, both in how the product evolved and in what merchants told us. Eventually, it became clear this wasn’t something we could fix with small improvements.” According to Assim-Ita, internal research showed that merchants arrived at the Dashboard with specific operational questions, such as why revenue dipped during a particular week, which customers were driving growth, or what caused a dispute, but often had to navigate multiple pages or interpret results themselves before finding answers. Paystack’s old dashboard. Image source: Paystack According to Paystack, its research also showed that merchants who originally used the Dashboard from desktops had begun running some parts of their operations from smartphones, even though the original product was not designed with mobile-first usage in mind. The rebuild began as something smaller. Paystack said it initially intended to give the Dashboard a visual refresh before deciding that a more fundamental redesign was necessary. The company noted that research and design for the project ran from November 2025 to early January 2026, while engineering development lasted from mid-January to mid-April 2026. Paystack said the redesign took roughly five months from the first design decision to launch. Across industries, companies are layering conversational AI into existing software products and workflows rather than launching standalone AI tools. Financial institutions such as TymeBank and LemFi have explored AI-powered assistance in financial service workflows. Paystack is taking a similar approach with its Dashboard. The company said the current release focuses on core payment workflows, with more of Paystack’s products expected to migrate to the new architecture over time. “This Dashboard is just the foundation,” Assim-Ita said. “We think the companies that win in this next era of fintech will be the ones who treat AI not as a feature, but as
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👨🏿🚀TechCabal Daily – New tax chief, old problem
In partnership with Lire en Français اقرأ هذا باللغة العربية Happy pre-TGIF. Disney+ has officially joined the “we’re raising prices” club, and unlike the six-month gym membership you signed up for this January, you actually use this one. The streaming platform has hiked its subscription price in South Africa, following other digital platforms Netflix and Spotify, all of which have raised prices this past year. Let’s dive in. Get smarter about Francophone Africa with our newsletter, Francophone Weekly—the startups, tech policies, and institutions building the pipelines for ecosystem growth. Subscribe Kenyans file petitions to block new tax chief Lagos targets 250MW data centre capacity US backs West Africa 1,500 base station study Kenya Airways to use AI World Wide Web 3 Events people Kenyans sign petitions to block new KRA chief over age controversy Image Source: Tenor Kenya’s new tax chief hadn’t even settled in before the seat got hot. Adan Abdulla Mohamed wasappointed Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) Commissioner General on May 18, gazetted the same day by Treasury Cabinet Secretary (CS) John Mbadi, andsworn in two days later at the Supreme Court. He replaced the ousted Humphrey Wattanga. He hadn’t even settled in before the petitions arrived. On May 19, Bernard Opere filed before Milimani High Court, arguing that Mohamed, 62, exceeds the mandatory retirement age of 60 underRegulation 70 of the Public Service Commission (PSC) Regulations, 2020. The Consumers Federation of Kenya (COFEK) filed a second challenge at the Employment and Labour Relations Court (ELRC), adding violations of Articles 73 and 232 of the Constitution. Both are seeking conservatory orders. The High Court has scheduled a hearing for May 27. Between the lines: This is not the first time the KRA has faced a dispute like this. In 2017, a petition challenged then-Commissioner General John Njiraini on identical grounds. The court ruled thatKRA Act Section 11(1) governs the Commissioner General’s appointment independently of public service retirement rules. The government will likely make the same argument. In January 2021, the PSC declared that it wouldno longer approve extensions past 60, anda near-identical dispute at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) earlier this year showed the government doesn’t always win this argument. Whether the 2020 regulations override the KRA Act will be decided on May 27. Zoom out: Mohamed was sworn in before the courts could act. The KRA is targeting KES 2.97 trillion ($22.9 billion) in revenue this fiscal year. We Have Secured the Bank of Ghana EPSP Licence. Fincra has officially secured its Enhanced Payment Service Provider licence. This regulatory milestone authorizes Fincra to directly collect, process, and settle payments in Ghanaian Cedis, offering a highly streamlined financial pipeline for businesses operating within the region. Start here. infrastructure Lagos plans to expand data centre capacity by 2030, says Commissioner Image Source: Tenor Olatubosun Alake, Lagos State Commissioner for Innovation, Science, and Technology, is making a big bet: that Lagos will stop being known only as Nigeria’s startup capital and become one of Africa’s most important digital infrastructure cities. At the launch of the Kasi Cloud LOS1 data centre facility in Lekki, Lagos, Alake said that the state will push its data centre capacity to over 250 megawatts (MW) by 2030. State of play: Lagos currently hosts nearly 77% of Nigeria’s 26 data centres, producing about 83.3 megawatts. Companies like MTN Nigeria, Airtel Africa, Rack Centre, and Kasi Cloud are building and maintaining data centres all over the state, with additional projects worth 146MW already in progress, said Alake. Africa already has a data centre king, and it is not Lagos. South Africa still leads the continent with its 56 data centres, courtesy of stronger electricity infrastructure and investment from global players like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. Lagos is playing a bigger game than its power grid can currently support. Data centres are hungry for power, and Nigeria’s grid is notoriously unreliable. Cooling systems alone eat up a significant chunk, about an estimated 40%, of a facility’s energy. Operators also have to deal with foreign exchange swings and patchy policy coordination around AI and cloud infrastructure. We Empower Your Ambition Telecoms The US funds feasibility study for 1,500 base stations across West Africa Image Source: Innovation Village Thousands of communities across West Africa could soon get better mobile connectivity, as the US government, through the United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA), funds a feasibility study to deploy 1,500 base stations across Nigeria, Benin, Ghana, and Côte d’Ivoire. Vanu Inc, a US company focused on low-cost telecom systems designed specifically for rural and difficult-to-reach areas, will be in charge of conducting the study. Rural expansion tends to happen much more slowly because building towers in low-income or sparsely populated areas is expensive and often less profitable. This project aims to flip the narrative. Internet usage is growing in Africa. The overall number of Internet users on the continent jumped to around 646 million from close to 181 million in 2014. Among these, West Africa has among the highest connectivity rates, with around 38% of people online, as of 2024. A pattern, not a one-off attempt: In 2022, the USTDA awarded a grant to Nairobi-based Internet service provider Poa Internet for a feasibility study to help expand affordable internet connectivity to low-income urban areas. That same year, it deployed a grant to the Western Cape Provincial Government (WCG) for a feasibility study to expand broadband infrastructure in the Western Cape province in South Africa. What’s the US’s play? The agency noted it aims to address West Africa’s urban-rural connectivity gap, but it could also be part of a much bigger geopolitical story, especially as Chinese companies like Huawei and ZTE continue dominating parts of Africa’s telecom infrastructure. Naira Life 2026 is here! Join 2,000+ in Lagos on August 22 for unfiltered wealth strategies, investment clinics, pitch competitions, and real talk about building long-term financial power. Get 15% off early bird tickets. companies Kenya Airways wants to use AI to set ticket prices Image Source: Kenya Airways Anyone who has
Read MoreJoshua Adewolu chose to build for medical doctors, instead of becoming one
Most people who grew up with doctor parents either follow the medical path or reject it entirely. Joshua Adewolu did neither. Raised in Benin City, the Edo State capital, southern Nigeria, with an elder brother who studied medicine, he spent his childhood as the one person in the house who could not keep up with the medical conversations. “I was the odd one out, not understanding what was being communicated,” Adewolu says. For a while, the path seemed obvious: medicine. But in 2009, his interests shifted. “I told my parents that I would rather be the one to make the devices that you use to treat people,” he recalls. “That was the beginning of my career”. He completed his secondary education in 2013, and in the same year, enrolled at Afe Babalola University (ABUAD), a private university in Ekiti State. He chose to study Mechatronics Engineering, a multidisciplinary field combining mechanical, electrical, and computer engineering. “There were only two universities in Nigeria that were offering the course— Afe Babalola University and one other university,” he says. Real systems, real stakes In 2016, in his third year as a student, Adewolu secured a three-month internship, the student work experience program (SWEP), which was a mandatory part of his program. He interned at Sidmach Technologies, a Nigerian IT-solutions company that was in charge of designing the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) portal. “I was working on some of the screens and the user interface,” Adewolu recalls. “That was my first real tech role.” At Sidmach, he learnt more about programming languages such as Java and C#. His next internship demanded something different entirely—not screens and interfaces, but physical systems, buildings, and the infrastructure that keeps them running. In 2017, during his fourth year in the university, he undertook a six-month student industrial work experience scheme (SIWES), a mandatory program designed to bridge the gap between classroom theory and practical workplace skills. He said he interned at Chrema Technologies, a Lagos-based firm specialising in building automation and security systems. At Chrema, the work was hands-on in a way that textbooks and lecture notes in schools rarely are. “I remember I was part of a team of three that was responsible for installing a smart access control technology in Reckitt Benckiser [a consumer goods company],” Adewolu says. “I was also involved in the installation of building management technologies at Guaranty Trust Bank, which had a contract with Chrema Technologies to install some building management systems like thermometers”. On one installation at Reckitt Benckiser, he recalls his team spent an entire day troubleshooting fingerprint scanners that had faults, and eventually resolved the issue that night. “It really showed me perseverance on the job,” he says. Apart from learning perseverance, Adewolu overcame his dislike for heights at Chrema. He says he was assigned with some colleagues to install CCTV cameras at a hangar at the domestic wing of Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos. “I needed to get on a cherry picker to go all the way to the roof of the hangar to install the cameras,” he says. “It was very nerve-wracking at first, but after two times I got used to it.” Thanks to both internships, he came to understand the structure of a large organisation and the hunger of a smaller one. The experience, he says, gave him a sense of how the real world of engineering actually runs. “At Sidmach, I only knew what was happening in my division and didn’t really have close relationships with the senior leadership. At Chrema, I got to know how the whole organisation was doing,” Adewolu recounts. After completing the internships, Adewolu returned home to Edo State in 2017. Back at his father’s Life Hospital, he watched doctors press Pinard horns—trumpet-shaped tubes—against the bellies of pregnant women, counting foetal heartbeats the old-fashioned way, by ear and by patience. “We are now in the gadget world,” he says. “I was determined that I was going to innovate this process.” He then started building. Adewolu started his undergraduate research on an Internet of Things (IoT) device for foetal heart rate monitoring, which was supervised by one of his lecturers in school. “With all the knowledge I gained from studying mechatronics, I designed a device,” he recalls. In 2018, he developed a prototype of the device. The handheld tool read a foetus’s heartbeat and transmitted the data and visual graphs to the cloud, allowing authorised medical personnel to monitor clinical data remotely. “I got all the knowledge from Sidmach [when] designing web portals,” he admits. According to Adewolu, the device was tested on five women at Life Hospital. He would go on to publish his findings in a co-authored 2022 research paper, “Performance Evaluation of an IoT-Based Fetal Heart Monitoring Device.” Upon completing his bachelor’s degree in 2018, Adewolu was named the best graduating student in both the Mechatronics Engineering program and the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering. Building far from home By 2019, Adewolu’s academic record as best graduating student earned him a scholarship from the Stephen Oluwole Awokoya Foundation for Science Education, a Nigerian non-profit providing support for the postgraduate education of students with a record of academic excellence in the sciences. The scholarship funded his Master’s programme in Mechatronics and Robotics at New York University (NYU), a private research university in the United States. At NYU, he specialised in medical robotics and assistive mechatronics. Then the COVID-19 pandemic arrived, and with it, a new obsession. The world was suddenly hyper-aware of coughs: of its presence, its absence, and what it sounded like. That collective anxiety translated into a research question: what if a device could learn to read a cough? Not just detect it, but classify it—distinguish a respiratory infection from the reflex of an irritated throat. He built a smart neckband that sat against the throat and listened, not to sound exactly, but to vibration. “It was a sole project under the supervision of one of the NYU professors that had taught me,”
Read MoreGoTyme heats up South Africa’s fintech talent war with employee ownership plan
GoTyme Bank, the South African digital bank backed by billionaire Patrice Motsepe, has launched a long-term employee ownership programme for staff across the business, deepening its push to attract and retain fintech talent. The bank’s CEO Cheslyn Jacobs on Tuesday told TechCabal that employees are participating through a Long-Term Incentive Programme (LTIP) designed to align workers across the digital banking group with its long-term growth and success. “The programme gives qualifying employees the opportunity to participate in the value created over time and reflects our belief that the people building the business should share in its success,” he said. The move is part of a broader shift in South Africa’s fintech sector, where employee ownership is increasingly being used to attract and retain talent, moving beyond Silicon Valley-style perks. In a sector defined by aggressive growth, mounting competition and rising pressure to prove profitability, the digital race is increasingly about keeping the people building billion-dollar businesses invested in the outcome. As digital lenders mature and Initial Public Offering (IPO) ambitions come into focus, equity is fast becoming less of a Silicon Valley pay package and more of a strategic retention tool. Employee share ownership plans (ESOPs) have gained momentum in South Africa, benefiting more than 211,000 workers since 2019 and paying out about R3.3 billion ($201 million) in dividends, according to the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition. The department says telco giant Vodacom and Old Mutual are among the 98 ESOPs established in recent years, with another 27 underway. Similarly, Jacobs underlined that the employee shareholding scheme is intended to support long-term alignment, retention, and shared-ownership thinking across the organisation. Early reactions from employees suggest the programme is already reshaping how staff view their role within the digital bank. “Being shareholders has given us a whole new perspective on the business. We’re no longer simply contributing to GoTyme Bank’s growth; we’re sharing in it,” said Lindelani Nxumalo, a customer service representative. “That sense of ownership has made us more engaged, more committed, and even prouder to be part of the GoTyme Bank family.” For senior employees, the initiative is also reinforcing a sense of long-term purpose and belonging within the business. “It’s incredibly motivating to work at a company such as GoTyme Bank that sees employees as part of its long-term future,” said Lee-Anne Kalam, Head of Marketing. “Becoming a shareholder makes me feel trusted and valued, and reinforces the sense that we are all contributing to something meaningful together.” Crucially, the empowerment scheme, which extends participation to employees with more than six months’ tenure, reflects a broader evolution in how African fintechs think about incentives as they grow from startup disruptors into mature financial institutions. “We have reached a scale where it is important to deepen long-term alignment between employees, customers and shareholders. The programme was fundamentally created to reinforce our ownership culture and recognise the contribution employees are making to the company’s growth,” Jacobs said. While GoTyme is not disclosing how much of the business has been allocated to employees, Jacobs underlined that the LTIP was designed to allow workers to “participate in the value created over time” while strengthening retention and long-term alignment. The strategy reflects a growing reality in African fintech that digital talent has become one of the industry’s most valuable currencies. Across Africa, high-growth startups, banks and fintechs, including Lesaka, have joined established players such as Absa Bank and Capitec in experimenting with equity or share-linked incentives, though these programmes have often remained largely limited to senior executives. The timing is also notable for GoTyme, which serves more than 21 million customers across South Africa and the Philippines. The digital bank is targeting significant long-term growth and has publicly discussed the possibility of an eventual public listing. Although the Philippines remains GoTyme’s main growth engine due to its larger population and more mature scale, Jacobs said South Africa is punching above its weight, with strong customer adoption reinforcing its importance in the bank’s long-term expansion strategy despite a highly competitive banking market. Jacobs stopped short of linking the employee scheme directly to IPO ambitions, but noted that the bank was entering a more mature stage of growth. “The timing reflects the maturity and momentum of the business more than any single future event,” he said. “We are building for the long term.”
Read MoreNigerian AI startup Talksign launches real-time sign language translation models
Talksign, a Nigeria- and UK-based artificial intelligence (AI) research and product company, has launched two AI-powered models that enable real-time translation between American Sign Language (ASL) and text or speech. Palm 1.0 interprets ASL into text or speech with 84.2% semantic accuracy, while Echo 1.0 converts written or spoken language into photorealistic ASL video, generating avatars in real time with minimal delay. The two translators, launched on May 20, build on Talksign’s first foundation model, Talksign-1, introduced in February, which provided basic bidirectional communication by translating 250 ASL signs into speech or text and converting spoken or typed words into sign language video sequences. Talksign-1, however, was limited to isolated signs and could not interpret continuous sentences or fingerspelling, a limitation that Palm 1.0 and Echo 1.0 aim to overcome. The launch comes as part of a growing effort to address a global communication gap affecting millions of people with hearing loss. According to the World Health Organisation, over 430 million people worldwide have disabling hearing loss, and tens of millions use sign language as their primary mode of communication. Most digital tools—from video conferencing platforms to public service kiosks—still assume users can hear and speak, creating barriers to everyday participation in society. Palm 1.0 is Talksign’s sign-to-text model, designed to translate ASL into written or spoken language in real time. The company said the model achieves 84.2% semantic accuracy, meaning it captures the intended meaning of a signer’s gestures, and 79.6% word-level accuracy, approaching fluency for a visual language that has historically lacked large-scale training data. It was trained on over 71,000 ASL samples and was built on a transformer-based architecture with a system called SAGE (Spatial Attention Graph Encoder), which tracks 133 anatomical landmarks on the body, including hands, head, and shoulders. According to Talksign, this allows Palm 1.0 to interpret signing as a continuous, contextual conversation rather than as isolated gestures. “Palm 1.0 is the first model we are confident putting into the hands of Deaf users at scale,” said Edidiong Ekong, Talksign’s CEO and co-founder. “The next step is putting it everywhere a Deaf person needs to communicate: on phones, smart glasses, in classrooms and hospitals.” The company said Echo 1.0, the second product, was trained on 94,410 ASL sentence pairs, running through the dataset 15 times to improve accuracy and fluency. It converts written or spoken language into ASL video using photorealistic avatars. The company said it outputs 30 frames per second video with translation latency of approximately 29 milliseconds, making the signing appear in real time. The model translates English text into ASL gloss, preserving ASL grammar and word order rather than producing a literal, word-for-word transcription. Each gloss token is then matched to a high-fidelity 3D motion sequence and rendered by a neural engine. Echo 1.0 also allows personalised avatars to be generated from a single reference photo, which the company said helps make signing feel natural. The translation process for Echo 1.0 operates in three stages: speech recognition or direct text input, conversion of English text to ASL gloss, and rendering of gloss tokens into photorealistic video. This workflow allows the model to produce fluent, visually coherent signing rather than a word-for-word transcription of English. Kazi Mahathir Rahman, Talksign’s co-founder and CTO, said the models also open the door to “signing as a first-class interface” for human-computer interaction, enabling new ways for Deaf users to interact with AI systems without relying on speech or keyboards. Talksign said the new models are intended for contexts where professional sign language interpreters are scarce or unavailable, including emergency alerts and live news broadcasts. The company said both models were trained on datasets reviewed with Deaf advisors, educators, and accessibility advocates. Landmark extraction occurs on the user’s device, meaning only processed data points—not raw video—are sent to company servers. The company acknowledged that both models currently have limitations. Echo 1.0 accepts only English input, with Spanish, French, and Arabic planned for future versions. Specialised vocabulary in fields such as medicine, law, and engineering requires additional fine-tuning, and multi-word ASL phrases are only partially modeled. Palm 1.0, while capable of sentence-level interpretation, is not yet optimised for all continuous signing contexts. Talksign said it plans to expand the models’ capabilities in upcoming versions, including support for additional sign languages such as British Sign Language, Deutsche Gebärdensprache, and Nigerian Sign Language. The company said the full rollout of Palm 1.0 and Echo 1.0 on the desktop app and Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses is scheduled for August 20, 2026. With the launch of the 2 products, Talksign joins other AI-powered accessibility platforms, including SignVrse, whose flagship product Terp 360 provides real-time translation of spoken language into sign language using a hyper-realistic 3D avatar, using artificial intelligence to reduce communication barriers for people with hearing impairments.
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Every Google I/O 2026 feature Nigerians can use right now
Table of contents What you can use right now, for free What you can use right now, behind a subscription What is coming to Nigeria soon What Nigeria is locked out of, for now Google made over 20 announcements at I/O 2026. A good chunk of those features are US-only at launch, and the keynote did not always make that clear. This article cuts through everything and tells you exactly what you can open your phone and use today, what you need to pay for, what is coming your way soon, and what is simply off the table for now. What you can use right now, for free 1. Gemini 3.5 Flash Gemini 3.5 Flash is now the default model powering Google Search’s AI Mode and the Gemini app. Google confirmed this is a global rollout, so you are already using it every time you open Search or the Gemini app. You do not need to do anything to turn it on. Google says it performs at the level of much larger models on coding and other complex tasks, while being faster than its predecessor. 2. The Gemini app’s new look (Neural Expressive) The Gemini app got a full redesign. Google calls the new design language Neural Expressive. You will notice fluid animations, bolder typography, and a new way responses are formatted, with the most important information surfaced at the top, followed by inline images, timelines, and interactive visuals where relevant. This is rolling out now to Android, iOS, and the web globally. 3. The new Search box (Intelligent Search) Google redesigned the main Search box and is calling it the Intelligent Search box. This is the AI Mode upgrade, not an AI Overviews change. The box now expands dynamically for longer queries and accepts text, images, files, videos, and open Chrome tabs together in a single search. From the Google blog: the new Intelligent Search box is rolling out today in all countries and languages where AI Mode is available. Nigeria is included. 4. Ask Play in the Google Play Store Ask Play is a conversational AI overlay inside the Google Play Store. You can type questions like ‘what is the best offline puzzle game under 100MB’ and get an AI-generated recommendation with a summary of why each app fits your needs. It builds on AI-powered Q&A that already handles 95% of Play Store user queries, according to Google. Ask Play is rolling out globally. The companion Play Shorts video feed is US-only at launch, but Ask Play itself is available to you. 5. Gemini Omni in YouTube Shorts and YouTube Create Google’s new Gemini Omni model is now inside YouTube Shorts Remix and the YouTube Create app, and it is free for all YouTube users worldwide. You can use it to remix existing Shorts with AI-generated video layered in. Remixed clips come with SynthID watermarks and a link back to the original video. 6. Generative UI in Search (coming this summer, free) This summer, Google Search will start generating custom visual layouts directly inside your search results. Think interactive diagrams, tables, simulations, and graphs built on the fly in response to your query. A search about how a mechanical watch works, for example, might produce an animated explainer rather than a list of links. Google confirmed this is free for all users globally, including Nigeria, powered by Gemini 3.5 Flash. 7. Personal Intelligence in AI Mode (free, global, and Nigeria is included) Personal Intelligence lets AI Mode draw on your Gmail and Google Photos to give you answers specific to your life. Ask ‘when is my next dentist appointment?’ and it will find the confirmation email. Ask ‘what hotel did I stay at in Port Harcourt in February?’ and it will pull the booking. Before I/O 2026, this was a US-only, paid feature. Google expanded it at I/O to nearly 200 countries, in 98 languages, with no subscription required. You opt in; Google does not automatically connect your accounts. What you can use right now, behind a subscription 1. Google AI Ultra: two tiers, both available in Nigeria Image source: Google blog Google restructured its premium plans at I/O 2026. There are now two AI Ultra tiers: AI Ultra at $100/month: 5x the usage limits of AI Pro, Gemini Omni Flash, YouTube Premium, and higher Gemini Flow credits. Google caps cloud storage at 20 TB on this tier. AI Ultra at $200/month: 20x the usage limits of AI Pro, full access to Project Genie with Street View, the highest access to Gemini 3 Pro and Deep Search, and no storage cap. The previous $250 plan was reduced to this price while keeping the same features. Google confirmed AI Ultra is available in more than 150 countries. Nigeria is included. The Naira pricing was set when the top tier was $249.99 monthly. Expect Google to revise local pricing downward now that USD pricing has dropped. One thing both Ultra tiers include that you cannot access in Nigeria yet: Gemini Spark. That is US-only for now. More on it below. 2. Project Genie + Street View (AI Ultra $200) Project Genie is Google’s world-building model. The new Street View integration lets you pick a location on a map, choose a visual style like Ocean World or Stone Age, and then walk around an AI-generated version of that place at 720p and 24 frames per second, for sessions of around 60 seconds. The catch for Nigerian Ultra subscribers: the Street View imagery is only anchored to US locations at launch. You can use Genie globally, but you can’t yet drop into an AI-generated version of Lagos or Abuja. Google says it will expand the location coverage over time. 3. Gemini Omni in the Gemini app (AI Plus and above) Image source: Gemini Free-tier users get Gemini 3.5 Flash in the Gemini app, which is already a significant upgrade. But Gemini Omni, the model that can generate and edit video from any input, is locked to AI Plus and above. AI
Read MoreLagos wants to triple its data centre capacity by 2030 as AI demand surges
The Lagos State government plans to increase the city’s data centre capacity to more than 250 megawatts (MW) by 2030, said Olatubosun Alake, commissioner for innovation, science, and technology. Alake said Lagos already hosts nearly three-quarters of Nigeria’s commercial data centre capacity, but the state intends to significantly expand its infrastructure footprint over the next five years. “There are about 146 additional megawatt data centres planned in the pipeline,” he said at the launch of the Kasi Cloud LOS1 data centre facility in Lekki. “We envisage that by 2030, we would have over 250 megawatts of data centre capacity in Lagos, three times the current capacity growth.” The expansion comes as demand for cloud services, AI computing power, and local data storage continues to grow across Nigeria’s digital economy. Lagos is home to one of Africa’s largest startup ecosystems, valued at more than $15 billion. That growth is expected to drive a major increase in data centre investments. According to research firm Arizton Advisory & Intelligence, Nigeria is projected to become Africa’s fastest-growing data centre investment market, with annual investments expected to hit nearly $770 million by 2031. Alake said the Kasi Cloud facility represents Lagos’ entry into “large-scale hyperscale AI infrastructure,” signalling the state’s ambition to evolve beyond being known primarily as a startup hub into a major centre for digital infrastructure and AI computing. “Lagos is no longer simply a startup city,” he said. “It is an infrastructure city.” The Kasi LOS1 facility is designed as a 40MW hyperscale data centre campus, beginning operations with an initial 7.2MW IT load. According to Alake, the facility includes advanced GPU computing infrastructure powered by Nvidia H100 and H200 chips, alongside liquid cooling systems and cloud infrastructure services designed to support AI workloads. The Lagos government believes such infrastructure will become critical as AI adoption accelerates globally. Alake said the state is investing in fibre optic networks, smart city technologies, university innovation programmes, and digital government systems to prepare for the transition. “The AI economy is going to require hundreds [of megawatts],” he said. “The market has already made its decision about where digital infrastructure belongs.” Johnson Agbogun, co-founder and chief executive officer of Kasi Cloud, said the project was built to reduce Nigeria’s dependence on foreign cloud infrastructure and give African businesses more control over how their data and AI systems are developed. “Nigerian enterprises are currently spending $850 million every year on foreign cloud infrastructure,” he said. “Every naira spent abroad on cloud and AI infrastructure helps build capabilities somewhere else.” He added that the facility runs GPU-powered AI workloads from local enterprises and described the Lekki campus as “the beginning of Nigeria’s AI factory.” Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), the manager of Nigeria’s Sovereign Wealth Fund, invested in Kasi Cloud through a US$8 million convertible loan note. “As artificial intelligence reshapes economies globally, the nations that control their own compute infrastructure and data will be the ones positioned to lead,” Kolawole Owodunni, NSIA’s Executive Director and Chief Information Officer, said. But data centre operators still face major challenges, including energy costs that have surged by 64.1% since January 2026, unstable national electricity generation hovering between 3,000MW and 4,000MW, foreign exchange volatility, and cooling systems that consume nearly 40% of total energy costs. Building hyperscale facilities also requires significant long-term capital investments and stable connectivity infrastructure. Despite the hurdles, Lagos officials insist the city is already positioning itself as Africa’s next major digital infrastructure hub. “Lagos is not coming,” Alake said. “It is already here.”
Read MoreEverything announced at the Google I/O 2026
Table of contents 1. AI and Gemini 2. Google Search 3. Google Workspace and Productivity 4. Shopping 5. YouTube 6. Android and Hardware 7. Developer Tools 8. Google Play 9. Google AI Subscription Plan Changes Release Dates at a Glance Google held its annual developer conference, Google I/O 2026, on May 19 and 20 at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California. The two-day event is where Google shares its biggest product updates and roadmap with developers and the public. This year was almost entirely about AI. From the first minute of the keynote, CEO Sundar Pichai made it clear that Google is now building every product around Gemini, its family of AI models. The theme he kept coming back to: AI that not only answers your questions but also takes action for you. Below is a breakdown of everything Google announced, organised by category, with a table of release dates at the end. What is Google I/O? Google I/O is Google’s annual developer conference. It started in 2008 and has grown into one of the biggest tech events of the year. Google uses it to show off new software, AI models, and hardware previews to developers first, before they reach the general public. This year, the keynote was watched live by tens of thousands of people around the world. Where was it held? Google I/O 2026 took place at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California, which is near Google’s main headquarters. The keynote kicked off on May 19 at 1 p.m. ET (6 p.m. BST / 7 p.m. WAT). On-demand sessions and codelabs will become available on May 21. Everything Google announced at I/O 2026 1. AI and Gemini Gemini 3.5 Flash is now the default model Google launched Gemini 3.5 Flash as its new default AI model across the Gemini app and AI Mode in Google Search. According to Google, it runs four times faster than comparable frontier models and costs less than half the price. It is available globally as of May 19, including in Nigeria, at no extra cost on the free tier. Gemini 3.5 Pro is coming next month Google confirmed that Gemini 3.5 Pro is in internal testing and will roll out in June 2026. Gemini Omni: a model that understands text, images, audio, and video Google DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis introduced Gemini Omni, a new multimodal model that accepts text, images, audio, and video and outputs video. It is available now in the Gemini app, Google Flow, and YouTube Shorts for AI Plus, Pro, and Ultra subscribers. Developer API access is coming in the next few weeks. Gemini Spark: your AI that keeps working while your phone is locked Pichai’s biggest announcement was Gemini Spark, a 24/7 personal AI agent that runs on Google Cloud and keeps working even when your phone is locked or your laptop is closed. It can: Parse your credit card statements for hidden subscriptions Monitor your inbox and flag deadlines from school emails Write up meeting notes into a Google Doc and email it out Draft project kickoff emails from a quick voice note It connects to Gmail, Docs, and Workspace at launch. Third-party app support via MCP (a standard for connecting AI to apps) is coming over the summer. Gemini Spark is rolling out to US AI Ultra subscribers ($100/month) as a beta next week. Daily Brief: your morning AI summary A new Gemini agent called Daily Brief creates a personalised morning digest from your Gmail, Calendar, and Tasks. It is rolling out to AI Plus, Pro, and Ultra subscribers in the US starting today. The Gemini app gets a full redesign The Gemini app on Android, iOS, and the web has been visually overhauled. Google is calling the new look ‘Neural Expressive.’ The new design includes a pill-shaped prompt box, fluid animations, haptic feedback, and inline images and videos instead of plain text walls. Gemini Live is now inline rather than full-screen. This is rolling out globally now. How usage limits are changing The Gemini app is moving away from daily prompt limits. Going forward, limits will reset every five hours until you hit a weekly cap. Complex prompts, such as videos or code, will use more of your allowance than simple text questions. Project Genie meets Street View Google DeepMind’s Project Genie can now connect to real Google Street View imagery and let you generate an interactive virtual world built around that location. This is available today for AI Ultra subscribers on the $200/month plan, for users aged 18 and above. For now, only US Street View imagery is supported. SynthID watermarking expands Google is bringing AI watermark detection to Google Search and Chrome. You will be able to right-click any image and check whether it was AI-generated. Pichai said SynthID has already watermarked over 100 billion images, videos, and audio files. OpenAI, Kakao, and Eleven Labs are now adopting SynthID too. Gemini for Science A new set of AI research tools that connects Google’s Antigravity platform to over 30 major life-science databases. Available today on GitHub and inside Antigravity as ‘Science Skills.’ Google’s new AI chips: TPU 8t and 8i Google announced its first dual-chip TPU generation. The 8t chip is built for large-scale AI training and delivers nearly three times the raw compute of its predecessor. The 8i chip handles inference. Both deliver up to two times better performance per watt. Google can now distribute AI training across more than one million TPUs globally. 2. Google Search The Search box gets its biggest upgrade in 25 years Google says the redesigned Search box is the biggest upgrade to Search in over 25 years. The box now expands as you type, predicts what you are looking for, and accepts images, files, videos, and Chrome tabs as inputs alongside text. This is live globally today, including in Nigeria. Information agents: Search that monitors topics for you New personalised agents will work in the background around the clock to track news, blogs, social posts, and
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