MTN targets Nigeria’s lending market as it seeks fintech licences
MTN plans to expand into lending across key African markets, including Nigeria, as Africa’s biggest telco seeks regulatory approvals that would allow its fintech arm to offer a broader suite of financial services. “We’ve expanded access to credit for more people, but we also want to move further up the lending value chain,” Serigne Dioum, MTN Group Fintech CEO, said at the company’s capital market event on Wednesday. “Where appropriate, we will seek licences that allow us not only to facilitate loans but also to lend directly to customers and deploy our own balance sheet.” MTN’s strategy underscores its ambition to capture a larger share of Africa’s underserved credit market, where access to formal lending remains limited despite growing demand. According to a 2025 report by the National Credit Guarantee Company (NCGC), nearly 80% of Nigerian Macro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) lack access to formal credit, while a Stears report estimates the sector faces a $236 billion funding gap. The challenge extends beyond Nigeria. According to Dioum, only 4% to 5% of adults across Africa currently have access to formal credit, leaving a vast market largely untapped by traditional financial institutions. Nigeria sits at the heart of MTN’s expansion plans. MTN Group CEO Ralph Mupita said the company is pursuing additional licences in Nigeria and other markets to deepen its financial services offerings, declining to disclose the specific licences being sought. “We are pursuing additional licences that will allow us to offer a broader suite of financial products and services to customers,” Mupita said. “Nigeria is a key market in this regard, but the opportunity extends across several of our markets.” The move comes as MTN continues to build out its fintech business, which has become one of the group’s fastest-growing divisions. In 2025, MTN Fintech generated approximately $2.8 billion in revenue, processed more than $500 billion in transaction value, and handled over 23 billion transactions across its markets, according to the company. The company says it now serves more than 70 million active MoMo users, works with over 2 million merchants, and supports an agent network of more than 1.4 million people across Africa. For MTN, lending represents the next major growth frontier. The company already facilitates access to credit through partnerships in several markets. According to Dioum, more than one million people access loans through MTN’s platforms every day, using them to finance small businesses, purchase inventory, or cover urgent expenses such as healthcare costs. However, moving from a facilitator role to becoming a direct lender could significantly increase MTN’s revenue opportunities while giving it greater control over the customer experience. The push also aligns with the group’s broader assessment of Africa’s fintech opportunity. MTN estimates that the continent’s fintech revenue pool could expand as much as 13-fold over the next five years, driven by the continued digitisation of financial services. Despite rapid fintech growth across Africa, more than 90% of transactions remain cash-based, according to the company. That presents opportunities not only in lending but also in payments and remittances. “Together, payments, remittances and lending will be the key drivers of fintech growth over the next five years,” Dioum said. In Nigeria, MTN has already begun laying the groundwork for a broader fintech play. In November 2024, MTN Nigeria applied for Payment Solution Service Provider (PSSP) and Payment Terminal Service Provider (PTSP) licences through its fintech subsidiary, MoMo PSB. Ralph said on Wednesday the licence process is still ongoing. The move reflected the company’s growing interest in controlling more of the payments value chain. The PSSP licence would allow MoMo PSB to offer payment gateway services, merchant aggregation, payment processing, and other financial technology solutions. It would also reduce MTN’s reliance on third-party payment processors. The PTSP licence would allow MoMo PSB to deploy and service POS terminals, develop POS applications, and offer training and support to merchants, agents, and users on the MoMo PSB platform. Beyond licencing, MTN is also awaiting regulatory approval for the structural separation of its fintech business in Nigeria. Mupita said shareholders have already approved the separation, with the process currently undergoing regulatory review by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). “These separations are complex,” Mupita said. “In Nigeria, the structure is relatively novel, and regulators are carefully assessing it to ensure it is completed in the most tax-efficient manner possible.”
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Everything you need to know about the just-launched OnePlus Turbo 6X and 6X Pro
Table of contents What is in the Turbo 6X series OnePlus Turbo 6X specs OnePlus Turbo 6X Pro specs The OnePlus Turbo 6X and Turbo 6X Pro price Availability OnePlus launched two new phones in China on Wednesday: the Turbo 6X and the Turbo 6X Pro. Both phones are built around one idea: big batteries, long-lasting performance, and displays that are easy on your eyes. If you have been looking for a mid-range phone that can last all day on a single charge, these two are worth your attention. The smartphones are only available in China for now, with sales opening on June 15, 2026, via the official Oppo online store. There is no confirmed global launch date yet, but this isn’t OnePlus first time. The Turbo 6 later launched globally as the Nord 6, and the Turbo 6V became the Nord CE 6. What is in the Turbo 6X series The series has two phones. The standard Turbo 6X is the more affordable option with a 7,000mAh battery and an LCD display. The Turbo 6X Pro steps things up with a bigger 8,000mAh battery, a sharper AMOLED display, faster charging, and stronger water resistance. Both run on Android 16 with ColorOS 16 on top, and both come with NFC, an IR blaster, and stereo speakers. OnePlus Turbo 6X specs Here is what you get with the standard Turbo 6X: Display: 6.72-inch FHD+ (2400×1080) LCD, 144Hz refresh rate, 1,000 nits peak brightness, hardware-level DC dimming Chipset: MediaTek Dimensity 7360 Super (4nm) RAM and storage: 8GB/128GB, 8GB/256GB, or 12GB/256GB; supports microSD card expansion up to 2TB Battery and charging: 7,000mAh, 45W SuperVOOC wired charging, plus reverse wired charging Cameras: 50MP main (OmniVision OV50D) + 2MP secondary on the back; 8MP front camera Durability: IP64 rated; military-grade durability Dimensions and weight: 165.85 x 75.85 x 8.55mm, 208g; plastic frame Colors: Black, Green, and White Fingerprint: Side-mounted, integrated in the power button Other: NFC, IR blaster, stereo speakers, USB-C OnePlus Turbo 6X Pro specs Image source: IZ TECH on YouTube The Pro model upgrades almost everything. Here is what you get: Display: 6.78-inch 1.5K (1,272×2,772) Samsung AMOLED, 144Hz refresh rate, 6,500 nits peak brightness, full-range DC dimming, co-developed eye-protection tech Chipset: MediaTek Dimensity 7400 Super (4nm), 360-degree surround antenna design RAM and storage: 8GB/128GB, 8GB/256GB, or 12GB/256GB; no microSD slot Battery and charging: 8,000mAh silicon-carbon battery, 80W SuperVOOC wired (up to 55W with third-party chargers), plus reverse wired charging. OnePlus claims up to 29 hours of video playback, 17 hours of navigation, or 8 hours of gaming on a single charge Cameras: 50MP main with OIS + 8MP ultrawide on the back; 16MP front camera. Features include Live Photo, Soft Light Portrait, and film filters OS: ColorOS 16 on Android 16; OnePlus promises six years of smooth operation and six-year battery health Durability: IP66, IP68, IP69, and IP69K rated; passed seven military-grade endurance tests Dimensions and weight: approx. 162.6 x 77.6 x 8.8 mm, 213 g Colors: Black and Orange Fingerprint: In-display optical sensor Other: NFC, IR blaster, stereo speakers, AI writing and translation tools, gaming features OnePlus Turbo 6X and Turbo 6X Pro price Every variant of both phones comes in under CNY 2,400 (~$354). Here is the full breakdown: Turbo 6X: 8GB + 128GB: CNY 1,899 (~$280) 8GB + 256GB: CNY 1,999 (~$295) 12GB + 256GB: CNY 2,299 (~$340) Turbo 6X Pro: 8GB + 128GB: CNY 1,999 (~$295) 8GB + 256GB: CNY 2,099 (~$309) 12GB + 256GB: CNY 2,399 (~$354) One thing worth noting: the base Turbo 6X Pro (8GB/128GB) starts at CNY 1,999, just CNY 100 more than the standard Turbo 6X at the same storage tier. For that small difference, you get AMOLED over LCD, 80W charging over 45W, a bigger battery, and much stronger water resistance. The Pro is hard to ignore at that gap. Availability Both phones are China-only for now. Pre-orders are live through the official Oppo online store in China, with open sales and deliveries starting June 15, 2026. A global launch under the OnePlus Nord name is expected but not officially confirmed. OnePlus followed this same path with the Turbo 6, which launched globally as the Nord 6, and the Turbo 6V, which became the Nord CE 6 in India and other markets. If that pattern holds, you can expect a rebranded version of the Turbo 6X series to arrive globally in the coming months, running OxygenOS instead of ColorOS. Until OnePlus makes an official announcement, any pricing estimates for India or other global markets are speculative.
Read MoreNigeria’s Roqqu joins race to bring tokenised US stocks to retail investors
Roqqu, a Nigerian cryptocurrency exchange, has partnered with Ondo Finance, a US-based tokenised asset manager, to offer blockchain-based versions of US stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to retail investors. The product is expected to launch at the end of June, according to Roqqu. For Nigerian retail investors, the product offers access to US stocks without going through traditional brokers. “We have set the end of June as the launch date; we’re looking at June 29 to roll this product out so it can be available to all users,” Emmanuel Peter, Roqqu’s head of trading and markets, told TechCabal in an interview. “We’re in the final phase of testing and ensuring it meets the standards required for public use.” The move underscores a growing shift towards tokenisation in Nigeria’s digital asset sector. Several crypto platforms, including Luno Nigeria, the subsidiary of the UK-based exchange, and Blockchain.com, introduced tokenised stocks in 2025 as they race to bring traditional financial assets onto blockchain networks. The partnership also marks Ondo Finance’s first direct collaboration with a Nigerian cryptocurrency exchange. The company previously integrated with Blockchain.com in October 2025, extending access to its tokenised stocks and ETFs across more than 100 markets where it operates, including Nigeria. Tokenised stocks allow investors to buy exposure to shares of publicly traded companies through digital tokens. They are typically backed one-for-one by the underlying shares held by a custodian, but can be traded and transferred using blockchain technology. Tokenised stocks enable trades to settle faster, even outside of traditional market hours. Ondo Finance is one of the world’s largest issuers of tokenised real-world assets, with about $2.72 billion worth of tokenised assets on its platform, according to data from US-based tracking platform RWA.xyz. Over 18,000 users currently hold tokenised assets issued by Ondo Finance, including dollar-yield products, stocks, and ETFs. “Expanding access to tokenised real-world assets across emerging markets is a key priority for us, and partnerships like this one with Roqqu are part of how we’re making that happen,” Min Lin, managing director of global business development at Ondo Finance, said. “We look forward to bringing Ondo tokenised stocks and ETFs to their users and growing participation in the tokenised economy.” For investors in markets such as Nigeria, where access to foreign securities can be restricted by geography, regulation and foreign exchange (FX) constraints, these companies are pitching tokenised assets as a simpler route into global markets. “Before now, access to the world’s best financial products has been limited by geography, infrastructure and regulation; tokenisation is changing that,” Benjamin Onomor, chief executive officer of Roqqu, said. “We have entered a new era where financial assets can move with the speed of the Internet, settle around the clock, and become more accessible to investors globally.” Yet, the industry’s emphasis on faster settlement comes as traditional exchanges are also modernising their post-trade infrastructure. Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has shortened the capital market settlement cycle twice in the past seven months, moving from T+3 to T+2 in November 2025 and, from June 1, to T+1, allowing equity trades to be completed one business day after execution. While the initial rollout will focus on US equities, Peter said the company ultimately hopes to support tokenised assets issued across African markets, including Nigeria, Kenya, and Ghana, subject to regulatory approval. The global scale of tokenisation is gaining momentum. Over $360 billion worth of real-world assets have now been tokenised on blockchain networks, including stocks, asset-backed credit, and real estate, according to data from RWA.xyz. For crypto firms, the next challenge is extending that growth beyond developed markets and bringing blockchain-based versions of traditional financial assets to a wider pool of investors.
Read MoreBeyond financial inclusion, Nigeria’s central bank is chasing regional payments leadership
In the first half of 2007, Nigerians processed ₦946.22 million ($695,469) in point-of-sale (PoS) transactions. In the first quarter of 2025, that figure grew to ₦10.51 trillion ($7.73 billion). The growth was the product of a series of policy decisions by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), which has spent nearly two decades trying to reduce the country’s reliance on cash and build a digital payments ecosystem through successive Payment System Vision (PSV) frameworks. The first of those frameworks, (PSV) 2020, was launched in 2007 and focused on expanding electronic payments and modernising the country’s payment infrastructure. A second iteration, PSV 2025, followed in 2022, with a much stronger emphasis on financial inclusion, agent banking, interoperability, and the rails needed to support a digital economy. PSV 2025 pushed formal financial inclusion to 64% from 56% in 2020. According to the CBN, agent banking networks expanded to more than two million agents nationwide, and electronic payment value has jumped by 203.51% since 2022 to ₦1.2 quadrillion ($880.51 billion) in 2025. The Bank Verification Number (BVN) system has also become a foundational digital identity layer with over 66 million unique IDs, the CBN noted. However, approximately 26% of bankable adults remain financially excluded, and many Nigerians lack the know-how and confidence to use digital payment tools safely and effectively, the CBN said in the new PSV document. Despite the growth in electronic transactions, only 52% of adults actively use digital payments. Those shortcomings partly formed the basis of PSV 2028, launched on June 1. It seeks to push financial inclusion to 95%, and also reveals a regulator increasingly focused on positioning Nigeria as a regional payments infrastructure hub, connecting African markets, supporting cross-border trade, deploying emerging technologies such as stablecoins and artificial intelligence, and strengthening cyber resilience across an increasingly interconnected financial ecosystem. The strategy rests on five pillars: infrastructure, interconnectivity and interoperability; digital financial inclusion, consumer protection and financial literacy; innovation, digital assets and emerging technologies; cross-border payments and central bank digital currency integration; and regulation, risk management and cybersecurity. Together, they offer a clear picture of how the CBN sees the future of payments in Nigeria. TechCabal Tools CBN PSV 2028 Impact Simulator Interact with the data to see how the central bank’s new policy targets shape cash, cross-border flows, and tech access. Remittances Startup TAM Cyber Security Sub-Saharan Africa has some of the world’s highest remittance costs, averaging 8.46%. PSV 2028 aims to deploy stablecoins, eNaira corridors, and PAPSS to bring costs down to ≤ 5%. Transfer Amount (USD): $500 Current Cost (8.46%) $42.30 2028 Target Cost (5.00%) $25.00 System Insight: This policy shift would retain $17.30 per transaction inside the local economy rather than losing it to correspondent banking fees. Currently, 52% of adults actively use digital payments. The CBN wants to push formal financial inclusion to 95% by 2028. Here is how that expands a startup’s Total Addressable Market (TAM). If your app captures this % of the market: 1.0% Your User Base Today (at 52% inclusion) ~676,000 users Your User Base in 2028 (at 95% inclusion) ~1,235,000 users *Calculations based on an estimated bankable adult population of 130 million. As open banking and CBDCs expand the attack surface, fraud becomes a systemic risk. The CBN is aiming for a 70% drop in fraud losses by 2028 through an AI-powered National Payment SOC. 2024 Actual Loss ₦52.27 Billion 2025 Base Year ₦25.85 Billion 2028 Target Cap ??? Simulate AI SOC Impact System Insight: Hitting this target requires banks to adopt common API standards and real-time biometric tracking to catch bad actors across interconnected networks. Data Sources: CBN PSV 2028 Document, Chainalysis TechCabal.com Nigeria’s next payment opportunity is outside Previous payment visions were largely domestic. The priorities were expanding electronic payments, increasing financial inclusion, reducing cash usage, and improving local payment infrastructure. “CBN reforms (National Financial Inclusion Strategy 2022, eNaira, Open Banking, Regulatory Sandbox, and PSV 2025) have modernised domestic payments and interoperability, while Nigerian Fintech firms have expanded digital solutions across Africa,” the CBN said. The regulator noted that the regional integration for payments remains limited. The PSV 2028 repeatedly highlights the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), regional interoperability, cross-border settlements, CBDC corridors, regional liquidity pools, settlement banks, and digital trade infrastructure. It proposes strengthening Nigeria’s integration with African payment systems while reducing dependence on foreign settlement currencies in regional trade. “Cross-Border Settlements and PSV 2028 set out to close these gaps by harmonising regulatory standards within ECOWAS/AU, advancing bilateral CBDC corridors, upgrading digital infrastructure for secure real-time settlement, and deepening partnerships,” the CBN said. “By aligning NIBSS and the eNaira with PAPSS and AfCFTA and leveraging over $20 billion in annual diaspora remittances, Nigeria can emerge as a core regional hub for trade settlement and remittances.” Nigeria already possesses one of Africa’s most sophisticated payment ecosystems. Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Instant Payments processes billions of transactions annually, fintech adoption is among the highest on the continent, and digital payments have become deeply embedded in everyday commerce. At the same time, Africa’s cross-border payments market remains fragmented, expensive, and heavily dependent on correspondent banking relationships outside the continent. Businesses trading across African markets often face multiple currency conversions, lengthy settlement times, and high transaction costs. By positioning Nigerian infrastructure alongside PAPSS and AfCFTA initiatives, the CBN appears to be pursuing a role for Nigeria that goes beyond being Africa’s largest payments market. The CBN intends to leverage stablecoins and CBDCs to navigate the currency hurdles. Because dollar-backed stablecoins such as USDT are pegged to the U.S. dollar, they can serve as a common settlement asset between countries with different currencies. Instead of routing payments through multiple correspondent banks and foreign exchange conversions, participants can convert local currency into a stablecoin, transfer the value across borders almost instantly, and convert it into the recipient’s local currency. According to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, stablecoins accounted for 43% of all crypto transaction volume in Sub-Saharan Africa in 2024. Many fintech companies,
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All Apple Intelligence features you should expect in iOS 27
Table of contents Siri AI: Apple’s rebuilt assistant Apple Intelligence: All the new features in iOS 27 Other Apple Intelligence features in iOS 27 Which features come to iPadOS 27 and macOS 27 Which iPhones get Apple Intelligence in iOS 27 When iOS 27 arrives Apple used WWDC 2026 to lay out what iOS 27 will look like when it arrives this fall. The update comes with a rebuilt Siri, bigger AI tools across your apps, and a long list of upgrades to Photos, Messages, Wallet, and more. This article covers everything Apple announced, split into two parts: the new Siri AI and the broader Apple Intelligence platform. Siri AI: Apple’s rebuilt assistant Siri AI is Apple’s most significant change to the feature since it launched in 2011. Apple describes it as an entirely new version of Siri, built from the ground up with AI at its core. The company built it in partnership with Google, using the technology behind Google’s Gemini models to power a new generation of Apple Foundation Models. The result is an assistant that can hold natural back-and-forth conversations, take multi-step actions across apps, and answer open-ended questions. Apple says it is designed to compete directly with ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. What Siri AI can do Personal context: Siri AI can read your messages, emails, photos, and notes to give you answers based on your actual life. You can ask it to find the restaurant a friend mentioned last week, pull up a hotel booking from an old email, or surface photos from a specific trip. Personal context also works with some third-party apps when developers build support for it. On-screen awareness: Siri AI can see what is on your screen and respond to it. If you are reading a message about a potluck, you can ask Siri to brainstorm what to bring and then add a recipe directly to Notes, all without switching apps. Conversational follow-ups: You can extend almost any Siri AI response into a longer conversation and ask follow-up questions. You do not have to restart from scratch each time. Writing help: Siri AI can write, edit, and proofread across your apps, including most third-party apps. In Mail and Messages, it matches the tone you normally use with each person. If you usually send your manager short bullet points, Siri will draft in that style. If you write casually to friends, it adjusts accordingly. Siri also proactively checks your spelling and grammar as you type. The new Siri app iOS 27 adds a dedicated Siri app that stores your conversation history and lets you pick up where you left off. Your conversations sync across your iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Vision Pro via iCloud, so switching devices does not break the flow. On iPhone, you can open Siri using the wake phrase, the side button, or a swipe down from the Dynamic Island. New voices and dictation On iPhones with Apple’s most advanced on-device model, Siri AI offers more expressive voices, with options to adjust pace and tone. Systemwide dictation also gets a significant accuracy boost on these devices. The devices that qualify for these advanced features are: iPhone Air iPhone 17 Pro iPhone 17 Pro Max iPad M4 and newer, and Mac M3 and newer with at least 12GB of unified memory also qualify, along with Apple Vision Pro M5. Which iPhones get Siri AI Siri AI requires Apple Intelligence hardware. Here is how the tiers break down: Baseline Siri AI: iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and all iPhone 16 and 17 models Advanced Siri AI features (expressive voices, better dictation): iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro, iPhone 17 Pro Max only iOS 27 with no Siri AI or Apple Intelligence: iPhone 11 through iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus The iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus have a different chip from the Pro models, which is why they miss out on Apple Intelligence despite running iOS 27. Privacy Apple processes simple requests on your device. More complex tasks go through its Private Cloud Compute servers, where Apple says your data is not stored or shared with anyone, including Apple. For the heaviest requests, a Gemini-powered cloud model handles the work. Apple says outside experts can verify its privacy promises at any time. Availability Siri AI launches in English first as a waitlisted beta. You can join the waitlist by going to Settings and opening Apple Intelligence. More languages will follow after the initial rollout. Siri AI is blocked on iPhone and iPad in the EU at launch for regulatory reasons and is unavailable in China. EU users on Mac and Vision Pro can access it. watchOS 27 also does not include Siri AI in the EU because it requires a paired iPhone to enable the feature. Apple Intelligence: All the new features in iOS 27 Apple Intelligence is the broader AI platform that powers everything from photo editing to smart shortcuts. Here is what is new in iOS 27. 1. Photos Photos gets four AI-powered editing tools: Spatial Reframing lets you shift the perspective of a photo after you have taken it, as if you moved the camera. You drag to adjust, and the app generates only what is needed to fill the new angle. It works on old photos too, not just new ones. Image source: @theapplehub on X Extend: expands the edges of a photo to give subjects more room, straighten a crooked horizon, or change the aspect ratio. The AI fills in whatever is missing. Reframe: the in-app button name for Spatial Reframing, found under Edit, then Tools. Clean Up (upgraded) removes objects from photos with more realistic results, even in complex scenes. Every photo you edit with Apple Intelligence will automatically carry a hidden SynthID watermark, a technology developed by Google DeepMind. The watermark is invisible to the eye and is designed to identify the image as AI-edited. Apple has not confirmed whether the watermark survives screenshots, social media compression, or exports to other
Read MoreThe eNaira struggled as a wallet. Now the CBN wants it to power payments.
When the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) launched the eNaira in October 2021, it presented the project as a landmark step in Nigeria’s push towards a cashless economy. As Africa’s first central bank digital currency (CBDC) designed for everyday use, it was expected to make payments easier, reduce remittance costs, expand financial inclusion, and support economic growth. Nearly five years later, those ambitions remain largely unrealised. The eNaira struggled to gain widespread adoption because it offered little that existing bank apps, fintech wallets, and mobile money platforms were not already providing more conveniently. In its Payments System Vision (PSV) 2028 strategy, unveiled on June 1, the CBN signals a major rethink of the eNaira’s role. Rather than positioning it as a standalone digital wallet competing with banks, fintechs, and mobile money providers, the central bank wants the eNaira to become part of the infrastructure that underpins Nigeria’s digital payments ecosystem. The strategy places the CBDC alongside initiatives such as open banking, digital identity, cross-border payments, and emerging financial technologies. The shift reflects lessons from the eNaira’s slow adoption since its launch in 2021. As a consumer-facing payment product, it struggled to offer a compelling alternative to existing digital payment options. The eNaira’s early challenges are well documented. Access initially required a Bank Verification Number (BVN) or National Identification Number (NIN), making it difficult for many unbanked Nigerians to participate. Like most central bank digital currencies, the eNaira was designed with strict identity verification requirements to help prevent fraud, money laundering, and other illicit financial activities. However, those requirements also created barriers for many Nigerians who lacked formal identification or did not have bank accounts, limiting the CBDC’s reach among the very populations it was meant to include. For users who could access it, the platform offered few advantages over existing alternatives such as bank apps, USSD services, mobile money platforms, and fintech wallets that were already widely used and trusted. As a result, adoption remained limited. Despite subsequent efforts to introduce USSD access, merchant payment tools, and government-payment pilots, the eNaira accounted for only a small fraction of digital transactions. Its limited role during Nigeria’s 2023 cash shortage also raised questions about its practical value. Over time, the project became one of several examples frequently cited in discussions about CBDCs struggling to achieve mainstream adoption. The CBN acknowledges many of these shortcomings in PSV 2028. According to the document, the eNaira currently has “millions of wallets” and has processed about ₦22 billion ($16.02 million) in transactions. “Adoption has been slow, barriers include limited stakeholder engagement and buy-in in design and implementation, limited adoption and integration drive, limited resources and capacities for retail CBDC implementation, undertook awareness creation, onboarding, use case development, which are not core CBN functions, etc.,” the regulator stated in the document. Moving from product to infrastructure One of the clearest signals in PSV 2028 is that the CBN increasingly views payment systems as interconnected infrastructure rather than standalone products. Throughout the document, there is a strong emphasis on interoperability, digital identity, open banking, real-time payments, and regulatory innovation. The document identifies cross-border payments and CBDC integration as strategic priorities and calls for deeper collaboration with regional and global payment networks. Although the document does not provide a comprehensive roadmap for taking the eNaira beyond Nigeria, it indicates that future development of the digital currency will likely focus on supporting regional payments, remittance flows, and cross-border commerce. PSV 2028 also recognises that technology alone will not determine the eNaira’s success. Consumer trust, security, interoperability, and ease of use remain critical challenges. The strategy proposes stronger consumer-protection mechanisms, improved cybersecurity frameworks, enhanced fraud monitoring, and greater coordination across the payments ecosystem. These initiatives are intended to strengthen confidence in digital payments more broadly, creating an environment in which innovations such as the eNaira can gain greater acceptance. Whether the strategy succeeds remains uncertain. What is clear, however, is that the CBN is no longer treating the eNaira as a standalone experiment. Under PSV 2028, the digital currency is being repositioned as one element of a much larger effort to build a more connected, secure, and interoperable financial system. For a project that many had written off as a missed opportunity, that shift may offer the eNaira a second lifeline.
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Trenderz’s Kim Tran says influencer marketing misses how Africa actually buys
9 juin 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 Kim Tran, directrice générale et co-fondatrice de Trenderz, une startup abidjanaise spécialisée dans la creator economy, passe près d’une décennie à travailler dans le marketing d’influence en Afrique francophone. Elle connaît les agences, les cycles de pricing, les clients. Quand elle a lancé Trenderz en 2024, elle construisait sur un terrain qu’elle maîtrisait bien. À la mi-2025, elle avait décidé de tout démolir. Aujourd’hui, Trenderz est une plateforme d’infrastructure de réservation et d’attribution qui trace la recommandation d’un créateur du premier clic jusqu’à la réservation confirmée et au versement d’une commission fixe. La couche agence a disparu. Le nouveau modèle est transactionnel, data-driven, et déjà déployé sur cinq marchés africains. Lina Kacyem, investment manager chez Launch Africa Ventures, s’est entretenue avec Kim Tran pour parler du pivot, de ce que trois mois avec le programme Creator Ventures de 500 Global lui ont appris, et pourquoi elle pense que l’économie de la recommandation en Afrique est cent fois plus grande que le seul marché influenceurs. 1. La création et la réorientation de Trenderz Kim Tran (à gauche) lors de l’Africa Creator Summit, Lagos, Nigeria, en janvier 2026. Source de l’image : Kim Tran. Lina Kacyem : Trenderz, c’était autre chose au départ. Peux-tu expliquer le pivot et ce qui t’a convaincue que c’était la bonne direction ? Kim Tran : Trenderz a démarré en 2024 à Abidjan, en Côte d’Ivoire, comme un modèle hybride agence et abonnement-en-tant-que-service (SaaS) pour le secteur du tourisme et des loisirs. Nous orchestrions des collaborations entre établissements et créateurs de contenu, et nous avions construit une plateforme SaaS avec une couche marketplace pour aider les hôtels, restaurants, spas et lieux d’activités à gérer leurs campagnes de marketing d’influence et à se connecter aux bons créateurs. Après un an et demi d’opérations, deux choses sont devenues claires. Premièrement, le business fonctionnait. Les établissements payaient ; la demande était réelle. Mais le modèle ne scalait pas. Chaque nouveau client demandait du temps humain, et nos unit economics étaient plafonnées par le nombre de campagnes que mon équipe pouvait orchestrer manuellement chaque mois. Deuxièmement — et c’est ce qui a tout déclenché — nous nous sommes rendu compte que nous résolvions le mauvais problème. Nos clients ne nous demandaient pas un outil de gestion d’influenceurs. Ils nous demandaient de la conversion : des réservations, des clients. Pas des impressions, pas des vues, pas des taux d’engagement. Des clients réels, attribuables au créateur qui les avait amenés. Chaque conversation avec un directeur d’hôtel finissait de la même façon : « Nous ne voulons pas voir des vues ou des likes. Nous voulons des clients — et savoir quels créateurs remplissent réellement nos chambres. » Ce signal a tout changé. Nous n’étions pas en train de construire un service marketing. Nous étions assis sur un vide beaucoup plus grand : l’infrastructure qui permet de transformer la recommandation sociale en transactions traçables et monétisées. La décision de tuer le modèle hybride agence/SaaS pour évoluer vers une infrastructure pure a été la plus difficile que nous ayons jamais prise. Elle impliquait d’arrêter une activité rentable pour tout reconstruire depuis zéro, sans aucune garantie que la nouvelle version trouverait son marché aussi vite. Mais le signal était constant. À la mi-2025, la conviction était prise. Au premier trimestre (T1) 2026, le système de réservation, la couche d’attribution et l’infrastructure de paiement créateurs sont passés en production. Aujourd’hui, chaque réservation générée par un créateur sur Trenderz est trackée de bout en bout : contenu, clic, acompte et paiement créateur — sur une seule plateforme. Kacyem : Qu’est-ce que vous avez dû abandonner en pivotant ? Et qu’est-ce que ça vous a appris sur la façon de construire dans ce marché ? Tran : Trois choses, chacune douloureuse à sa manière. Premièrement, nous avons abandonné un modèle de revenu qui marchait. La couche agence générait du chiffre d’affaires mensuel avec des marges correctes et des clients qui revenaient. La tuer, c’était accepter zéro revenu pendant toute la durée de la reconstruction, tout en continuant à payer l’équipe et à livrer le nouveau produit. Sans les 250 000 dollars de pré-seed apportés par Digital Africa, GIZ et un pool d’angels stratégiques, ce trou de trésorerie aurait été impossible à combler. Deuxièmement, nous avons renoncé à un terrain que nous connaissions bien. J’ai pratiqué le marketing d’influence en Afrique francophone pendant huit ans avant Trenderz. Je connaissais les agences, les clients, les cycles de pricing, les cycles de vente. Passer à un modèle d’infrastructure, c’était entrer dans un métier différent : développement produit beaucoup plus long, conversations commerciales plus complexes, investissement initial plus lourd. Mais c’est aussi un métier où ce qu’on construit reste — alors qu’en agence, chaque campagne se revend à zéro. Le troisième renoncement a été le plus contre-intuitif. Nous avons accepté de sortir d’une catégorie existante. Quand vous êtes une agence ou un SaaS, les acheteurs vous comprennent en cinq secondes. Quand vous êtes une infrastructure de réservation boostée par la creator economy, vous devez expliquer ce que vous faites à chaque conversation, parce que la catégorie n’existe pas encore. Plus difficile à vendre, plus difficile à pitcher aux investisseurs, plus difficile même à expliquer à votre propre équipe — jusqu’à ce que les premiers chiffres commencent à valider la thèse. Ce marché m’a appris trois choses.
Read MoreKenya’s new tax proposals threaten M-KOPA, Sun King phone assembly plants
Kenya’s Finance Bill 2026 has proposed a series of tax changes that could raise the cost of locally assembled smartphones while making imported handsets cheaper, threatening the viability of local plants built by M-KOPA and Sun King. The Bill removes the zero-rated VAT status enjoyed by locally assembled phones, imposes a 25% excise duty on domestically manufactured devices, and exempts imported finished phones from the Import Declaration Fee and the Railway Development Levy. A Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM) position paper, seen by TechCabal, said the measures will erase the competitive advantage that attracted investment into local assembly. The proposals have raised concerns that Kenya could undermine an industry it deliberately nurtured through the Finance Act 2022, which introduced zero-rated VAT on locally assembled phones to attract manufacturers and lower smartphone prices. “The foundational tax structure underpinning the creation, growth, and sustainability of the industry will be eroded,” the position paper said, warning that the proposals could lead to factory closures, job losses, and undermine Kenya’s digital economy ambitions. M-KOPA, one of the largest local assemblers, employs an estimated 500 workers at its assembly plant, which has a monthly production capacity of 300,000 smartphones. Since launching local production in 2023, the company has manufactured more than 3.5 million devices, supplying Kenya and regional markets through its pay-as-you-go financing model. Sun King also invested in local manufacturing; it opened a Nairobi assembly plant in October 2025 as it expanded beyond solar products into smartphone production, betting on Kenya’s ambition to become a regional electronics manufacturing hub. According to the position paper, the proposed VAT changes will prevent local assemblers from recovering tax paid on components, spare parts, electricity, and other production inputs. Those costs could be passed on to consumers, raising device prices. The changes to VAT will also require companies to reverse previously claimed input VAT on inventory already in stock, potentially putting pressure on working capital. The 25% increase in excise duty on locally manufactured phones will likely raise device prices by KES 2,500 ($20). Exempting imported finished phones from the Import Declaration Fee and the Railway Development Levy, without extending similar relief to imported components, will leave local manufacturers facing higher production costs than their foreign competitors, according to industry submissions to Parliament. Since 2023, the local assembly has created hundreds of manufacturing jobs, expanded access to affordable smartphones, and positioned Kenya as an emerging electronics production hub serving East Africa. Companies like M-KOPA are already exporting locally assembled devices to neighbouring markets.
Read MoreARM-Harith is raising $200 million to tap African pension capital for infrastructure
ARM-Harith Infrastructure Investments, a pan-African private equity fund manager focused on sustainable energy and infrastructure, has raised $76 million at the first close of its Climate Transition Fund, a vehicle seeking to attract African pension funds into climate and energy projects. The fund, which is targeting $200 million at final close, combines US dollar and local currency investments within a single structure, an approach the Lagos-based fund manager said could help unlock domestic institutional capital that has remained on the sidelines of infrastructure investing. The first close is backed by $20 million from the African Development Bank’s Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA) and FSD Africa Investments, a UK-backed development finance investor, according to ARM-Harith. Such catalytic capital is often used to absorb part of the investment risk and encourage participation from private investors. ARM-Harith’s new fund is part of a broader effort to channel more African capital into financing the continent’s infrastructure that powers energy, telecoms, and logistics networks underpinning its digital economy. In the first quarter of 2026, European development finance institutions (DFIs), including DEG, Proparco, and British International Investment (BII), remained the most active investors in African private capital funds, according to research firm Stears, highlighting how dependent the sector remains on foreign capital. With African governments facing an estimated $400 billion development financing gap, fund managers are searching for ways to unlock domestic pools of capital, particularly pension assets. ARM-Harith is testing a bigger idea: whether African pension funds can become a meaningful source of capital for the infrastructure that powers the continent’s digital economy. For years, startups, telecom operators, and governments have depended heavily on foreign investors and DFIs to fund critical infrastructure. Yet, Africa’s pension industry and other collective investment schemes (CIS) now manage about $600 billion in long-term savings that, in theory, should be well suited to infrastructure investments. The problem has been getting that money into projects. Many infrastructure funds are structured in US dollars, while roads, power plants, fibre networks, and other assets generate revenues in local currencies. For pension funds, that creates a currency mismatch that can erode returns when local currencies weaken against the dollar. ARM-Harith’s new fund wants to address that challenge. By allowing local and hard-currency investments to coexist in the same vehicle, the firm is seeking to make infrastructure equity more attractive to domestic institutional investors while preserving dollar exposure for international backers. “With our first fund, we demonstrated that domestic institutional capital can be mobilised into infrastructure equity,” Rachel Moré-Oshodi, ARM-Harith’s chief executive officer, said. “With this successor fund, we are building on that foundation by bringing local and hard-currency capital together within a single platform.” The strategy reflects a broader shift taking place across African infrastructure finance. DFIs are increasingly positioning themselves as catalytic investors, focused on crowding in domestic and local capital, rather than serving as the dominant source of funding. In 2015, the African Development Bank (AfDB) launched Africa50 as an equity and project development platform that brings in African institutional investors alongside sovereign and development capital. It has supported projects such as Kigali Innovation City in Rwanda and the Benban solar complex in Egypt. In these deals, DFI capital helped de-risk early-stage project risks and enabled participation from pension funds and commercial lenders. By August 2025, it had crossed $1.4 billion in managed assets. In 2025, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) launched its Catalytic First Loss Guarantee (FLG) Facility under its MSME Finance Platform. The facility provides first-loss guarantees to financial institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa, aiming to expand lending into SMEs, agribusiness, and climate-linked sectors by absorbing early credit risk. The Emerging Africa and Asia Infrastructure Fund (EAAIF), managed by Ninety One, has also used AfDB and other development finance commitments as anchor capital to crowd in commercial lenders into African power and transport projects. This includes a $100 million AfDB facility structured to catalyse private investment into sustainable infrastructure. This shift has led DFIs to take minority positions in infrastructure funds and use concessional or anchor capital to de-risk deals for pension funds, insurers, and other long-term institutional investors. “The constraint has never been capital itself, but the absence of investment products structured to meet pension funds’ liability-matching needs, particularly around tenure, risk allocation, and currency alignment,” Anne-Marie Chidzero, chief investment officer at FSD Africa Investments, said. “Investment structure was designed to bridge that gap, enabling pension funds to participate in infrastructure equity.” That challenge matters beyond traditional infrastructure sectors. As Africa’s technology ecosystem matures, the conversation is gradually shifting from startup funding to the physical infrastructure needed to support digital growth. Data centres, telecom towers, fibre networks, embedded power systems, and renewable energy projects require patient capital with investment horizons measured in decades rather than years. Venture capital is rarely structured to finance those assets. Pension funds are. ARM-Harith believes the opportunity exists if investment structures are designed around the realities of local markets. The firm’s first fund, ARM-Harith Infrastructure Fund I, which first closed in 2015 and backed projects like the Lagos-based energy supplier Elecktron Power Infracom, invested in transport and energy assets across West Africa, including power projects in Nigeria and Ghana. According to ARM-Harith, the portfolio financed more than 700 megawatts of installed power capacity, supported roughly 22,500 jobs, and avoided an estimated 2.6 million tonnes of carbon emissions annually. Its more recent investments include distributed renewable energy platforms and embedded energy systems that reflect growing demand for decentralised power solutions, such as AD Power HoldCo’s mini-grid and commercial energy projects serving multiple Nigerian communities, and Prime Meridian, a port infrastructure project in Ghana aiming to strengthen regional maritime trade in West Africa. If ARM-Harith can convince more African pension funds to allocate capital to infrastructure equity, it could help establish a new source of financing for the power, transport, and digital infrastructure that the continent will need to sustain economic and technological growth.
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Sim Shagaya’s Myka wants to do for insurance what agency banking did for fintech
“Why do so few Nigerians buy insurance?” That question naturally follows Nigeria’s insurance penetration numbers. With a population of more than 200 million people, over 70% of Nigerians have no form of insurance as of 2025, according to the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB). When Sim Shagaya, the entrepreneur who founded Konga, an e-commerce platform, and uLesson and Miva Open University, began looking for answers, he got the same answer: Nigerians do not believe in insurance. Yet that explanation never fully aligned with his observations. “It’s not that Nigerians don’t understand protection,” he told TechCabal in an interview on May 11. “The desire for protection is there. What has been lacking is the distribution of structured protection products to people who haven’t had it.” After more than a decade of building businesses that solved access and distribution challenges, he launched Myka, a licenced digital broker that enables consumers and businesses to purchase insurance products from multiple providers. Myka is backed by Ventures Platform, TLcom, Shola Akinlade, co-founder of Paystack; Ridwan Olalere, founder of LemFi; and Olumide Soyombo, founder of Voltron Capital, in an undisclosed pre-seed round. It launches with insurance products spanning motor, gadget, property, health, life, and travel insurance. Myka and Ventures Platform. Image source: Myka The billion-dollar industry with a retail problem Nigeria’s insurance industry recorded an aggregate sum of over ₦4 trillion ($2.9 billion) in total assets in Q4 2025, according to data from the Insurance Market Performance report published by the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), the country’s insurance regulator. Despite its size, the industry’s reach remains limited, with most insurance premiums coming from large corporate customers who typically provide coverage as an employee benefit, Shagaya noted. This leaves retail adoption lagging far behind the market’s scale. Low awareness, cost perception, limited distribution channels, and low trust in the industry have posed a challenge to insurance adoption by Nigerians. “One thing that has caused issues in the industry has been a lack of trust, which has happened because the claims payment process has not been great,” Shagaya said. “Nigerians have felt like they buy insurance, but when it’s time to claim, it’s cumbersome, it’s hectic, it’s difficult, and oftentimes they feel like they are treated unfairly.” According to him, that trust deficit was reinforced by a prevalence of fake insurance policies and fragmented records across the industry. Without reliable verification systems, consumers struggled to confirm that their coverage was genuine. However, over the past year, the industry has undergone reforms through the Nigeria Insurance Industry Reform Act 2025, which placed retail insurance and digitisation at the centre of the sector’s growth strategy. The reform was aimed at expanding access, strengthening consumer protections, improving claims settlement, and creating the infrastructure needed to bring insurance to Nigerians who have been excluded from the market. For Shagaya, the reforms create the conditions needed for Myka to bring retail insurance to more Nigerians. How Myka works Myka’s response to Nigeria’s insurance problem begins with a consumer app that lets users purchase insurance policies across multiple categories and receive their policy documents directly on WhatsApp, according to Shagaya. Myka operates as a digital broker, aggregating products from up to 17 insurance underwriters, including AIICO, emPLE, Cornerstone, Coronation, Leadway, Rex, and Tangerine, to allow customers to compare policies across providers. Insurance companies create and underwrite policies, while Myka distributes those products, handles customer onboarding, and manages customer experience, he noted. It integrates with insurers via Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). Shagaya noted that the platform is designed to reduce documentation errors that pose challenges during insurance claims. For motor insurance, Myka can verify vehicle information and match identities against regulatory databases, according to him. Myka takes a different approach to claims by building repair networks that connect policyholders, people who buy insurance policies, with service providers. He gave the example of a customer with gadget insurance and a damaged phone screen who can report the incident, receive directions to an approved repair centre, and have the device fixed without paying out of pocket. The same model is being extended to vehicle insurance claims to reduce downtime and remove friction. To support that system, Myka uses National Identification Number (NIN) identity verification, biometric checks, and AI-powered tools that compare policy information against claims data. However, Shagaya noted that selling insurance through an app is only one part of Myka’s vision. The Myka and emPLE team. Image source: Myka Agency banking, but for insurance While the insurance tech industry has focused on digital-first distribution, Shagaya argued that insurance adoption in Nigeria could be driven by a distribution strategy that makes insurance policies available where people already make purchasing decisions. “People have talked a lot about embedding insurance in checkout flows and in digital flows, but I think that that is a mistake. I think that doesn’t speak to our reality,” he said. “The truth is that the flows in Nigeria are very manual for a lot of businesses. Nobody has provided a channel for a car dealer to sell comprehensive or third-party insurance as the car is being sold. That is a role that Myka seeks to fill.” According to Shagaya, in May, Myka’s Structured Customer Referral Program was admitted into NAICOM’s regulatory sandbox designed to test innovative insurance products, services, and business models. The referral program, he explained, allows Myka to explore a community-based distribution model in which trusted individuals and organisations can refer insurance products within their networks. Under the model, a pharmacist could recommend or sell health insurance products, while a travel agent could recommend travel insurance when booking an international trip. Community associations and other local networks could also introduce insurance products to their members through Myka’s partner platform. The model drew inspiration from agency banking, which expanded access to financial services by relying on local agents. “This work would not be possible without the kind of regulatory engagement that NAICOM has shown,” he said. “That openness to exploring new models—while maintaining the consumer protection standards that should always
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