Regulatory Passporting and the Future of Cross-Border Fintech in Africa
Africa’s fintech giants are already regional, but regulation isn’t When Nigerian fintech companies expand across Africa, the technology often travels easily. Payments APIs integrate quickly, merchants understand the products, customers adopt digital wallets and online checkout tools without much friction. Regulation, however, does not travel as easily. A fintech that is licensed in Nigeria must often repeat the entire licensing process when entering another African market, navigating new capital requirements, compliance rules, reporting standards, and supervisory expectations. The result is a fragmented regulatory landscape that many fintech founders say slows expansion across the continent. This challenge sits at the centre of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Fintech Policy Insight Report, which explores the potential role of regulatory passporting in reducing duplication across jurisdictions. According to the CBN survey, 62.5% of fintech stakeholders already operate in or plan to expand into other African markets, and the same share supports the development of a regulatory passporting framework. The message from the ecosystem is clear: African fintech companies want to scale regionally. The question is whether the regulatory architecture of the continent is ready. Infrastructure matters as much as regulation Nigeria hosts one of Africa’s largest fintech ecosystems. Startups such as Flutterwave, Paystack, and Fincra now power payment infrastructure, merchant acquiring tools, cross-border settlement networks, and financial APIs used by businesses across multiple African markets. Yet each new market often introduces a different regulatory environment. Fintech operators expanding regionally must secure local licences, meet jurisdiction-specific capital requirements, and build relationships with local banking partners and regulators. These processes can take months and sometimes years. Passporting, Fincra argues, would also fundamentally reshape partnership models: by shifting relationships away from local intermediaries engaged purely for regulatory access toward partners focused on payment system connectivity, liquidity management, and settlement efficiency. But reducing licensing duplication, while necessary, may not be sufficient. Even operators who have cleared the regulatory hurdle find that the practical mechanics of cross-border payments introduce a separate layer of complexity. Expansion ambitions meet regulatory fragmentation Even when regulatory approval is secured, fintech companies must still navigate the practical mechanics of cross-border payments. These include foreign exchange constraints, liquidity management, settlement timing, and interoperability between payment systems. Nigeria’s domestic payments system offers an example of what coordinated infrastructure can achieve. The country’s instant payments network processed nearly 11 billion transactions in 2024, according to the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS). Nigeria’s scale is significant in global terms and has shown how large domestic payment rails can become foundational infrastructure for digital financial ecosystems. Yet, scaling such systems across borders introduces new coordination challenges: from fraud monitoring and dispute resolution to identity verification and settlement oversight. Transaction volume alone, however, does not define interoperability. In Paystack’s assessment, the gap between infrastructure progress and commercial reliability is where the most consequential work remains, particularly around data sharing, identity verification, and what merchants actually experience at the point of settlement. Passporting may start with bilateral corridors While passporting is often discussed as a continent-wide framework, the CBN report suggests that implementation may begin with smaller regulatory pilots. Survey participants proposed exploring bilateral cooperation between Nigeria and several peer regulators, including those in Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, and Senegal. Such pilots could test mutual recognition of licences while regulators coordinate supervisory standards and consumer protection frameworks. They could also allow countries to experiment with payments system interoperability, particularly between markets with strong digital financial ecosystems. One example mentioned in the report is the possibility of testing interoperability between Nigeria’s and Ghana’s payments systems to support real-time cross-border settlement. These experiments could complement continental infrastructure initiatives such as the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), which aims to enable instant cross-border payments in local currencies across participating African markets. For operators who have navigated Africa’s licensing landscape firsthand, passporting is less a destination than a foundation. Flutterwave, which has expanded across multiple African markets without a passporting framework in place, sees the bilateral corridor model as the right sequencing. How passporting works in other financial markets The idea of regulatory passporting is not unique to Africa. In the European Union, financial institutions licensed in one member state can operate across the bloc under passporting frameworks embedded in regulations such as MiFID II. This system allows banks, investment firms, and fintech companies to provide services across 27 EU countries without having to secure a licence in every country. The European Union’s Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (UCITS) framework, for example, allows investment funds authorized in one member state to be marketed across the entire bloc, while Singapore’s Monetary Authority has pursued cross-border regulatory cooperation agreements to support fintech innovation. These precedents matter for Africa, but they do not translate directly. The EU’s passporting architecture was built on decades of regulatory convergence across economies with comparable institutional maturity. African regulators are now exploring whether similar coordination models can work across a continent with far more diverse regulatory environments, deeper infrastructure gaps, and a much shorter history of cross-border supervisory cooperation. The operators and investors who have engaged most closely with this question are clear that the concept is sound, but that the conditions which made it work elsewhere will need to be deliberately constructed here, not assumed. Why regulatory alignment matters for Fintech capital Beyond operators and regulators, passporting also matters for capital. African fintech startups attracted $1.38 billion in venture investment in 2025 alone, yet investors continue to weigh regulatory complexity when assessing cross-border expansion strategies. Growth investors often evaluate markets not only on demand and revenue potential, but also on regulatory predictability and the cost of expansion. However, regulatory alignment alone does not determine fintech success.Market depth, customer adoption, and strong product execution remain decisive factors. In that sense, passporting may reduce friction in scaling across markets, but it does not replace the fundamentals that ultimately drive company performance. As Lexi Novitske, partner at Norrsken22, noted in response to the CBN report, the practical implementation of new regulatory frameworks will matter as much as the concept
Read More
Radhika Bhachu left BlackRock and returned home to rethink wealth
On the 10th floor of ABC Place in Nairobi’s Westlands, Radhika Bhachu doesn’t offer you tea. No small ceremony to ease you in. She’s already mid-thought when you sit down, like you’ve walked into a conversation she’s been having with herself all morning. If we weren’t doing this interview, she says, she’d be on investor calls. Properly in it. Updating her pipeline, responding to questions, and nudging conversations forward. In between, she’d be with her team—sales, marketing, client service—trying to get a feel of things on the ground. Are customers complaining? What’s slowing them down? Where can AI help? Then maybe coffee, but not the relaxed kind. The kind where you’re still half-working, just without your laptop open. She speaks quickly, but not nervously. There’s a rhythm to it. Before this, she was at BlackRock for five years as a relationship manager, helping investors build wealth quietly, predictably, over time. There are systems, structures and a lot of long-term thinking. Then she came back to Kenya in 2020 and found something else: people saving, hustling, building, but not quite investing in the way she had seen elsewhere. Now she’s trying to build that bridge through Ndovu, a Nairobi-based wealth management startup. Lately, what’s been sitting with her is a tension she doesn’t try to dress up. Last year, the company found that most of its revenue was coming from a small group of customers. The obvious move was to lean into that, middle income and above, the ones already closest to investing. It makes sense. It’s business. But that’s not why she started. “The vision is still everyone,” she says. “But you can’t do everything at once.” She pauses, briefly, then shrugs it off. “It’s just sequencing.” I spoke to Radhika about the path the BlackRock alumni took from the corridors of global finance to the messy, unpredictable business of getting Africans to invest. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. If we weren’t doing this interview, what would a perfect afternoon look like for you? Right now, I’m fundraising, so a perfect afternoon would involve investor calls, updating my investor pipeline, and responding to questions. I also oversee the distribution team, so I’d be working with sales, marketing, and client service to understand how business is going—are we getting customer complaints? How can we use AI to streamline tasks? So, really, thinking about distribution strategy and fundraising. It would probably end with coffee with a client or an investor. What’s been occupying your mind lately, something you keep coming back to? Last year, we realised that, like many businesses, 80% of our revenue comes from 20% of our clients. Our vision is that in a decade, every African will be a capital market investor. But the reality is that as an African startup, there’s not enough funding to go after the entire value chain—middle income, high net worth, and low income all require significant resources. Last year, we had to make a difficult decision: with our current funding and team, we needed to focus on the low-hanging fruit, middle-income and above. But as a founder, I started this to help everyone participate in wealth creation. We’ve partnered with banks and telcos to embed our solutions, but it’s disappointing that as a chief executive office (CEO), the right business decision is to move toward momentum—because that helps us grow revenue faster, increase our cash, and eventually serve smaller holders. It’s just sequencing. But it weighs on me. That, and cybersecurity. Radhika and a section of her staff. Image source: Ndovu You grew up between cultures. How did that shape your earliest understanding of money, security, and ambition? I’m a Kenyan-Indian, and that’s been amazing. Kenyan culture is very kind and community-led; people help each other. Indian culture thinks more about the future: you build wealth not just for this generation, but for your children’s children. What I think our culture could do better is talk about money at the dinner table. We didn’t, but we knew our parents had a business. They’d say, “Go have coffee with someone, see what they do, talk to that uncle at a party.” That helped you figure out what to study. But no one teaches you what to do once you have money. We’re launching a custodial product for children—parents manage it, but kids can research and see how their investments perform. That teaches budgeting, decision-making, and opportunity cost. Unfortunately, that’s taking a lower priority right now due to capital constraints. Was there a defining moment growing up when you realised money, or the lack of it, shapes how people move through the world? An unfortunate lesson about the world is that if you have money, you matter to somebody; if you have no money, you matter to nobody. And that’s just a really sad reality of the world. And I think growing up, not so much, but now, living in a social media age, it’s so apparent. For me, it was when I was younger. I lost my mom, and so my dad sent me to school, and I started doing the paper round (delivering newspapers). I was in Canada, and we used to do the paper round to make money. I’m very fortunate; everything was painful, but we started learning that to make money, you have to work really hard. And there’s a saying in our culture, actually: making money is the easy part, but keeping it, you know? Doing the paper round, then actually getting a job at 16; that’s when I was like, “wow, okay, making money is really hard.” That’s why, when you have money, there is some childhood stuff that kind of links back to saying I have to be successful because I want to be able to give my family everything they need. And you have to make sure that you’re working hard for money. And now it’s changed into: how can you be more valuable, and how can you create money not the
Read More
How to file tax on the LIRS eTax portal: A step-by-step guide for Lagos residents
Table of contents Why was the deadline moved to April 14? What counts as “income” under the Nigeria Tax Act 2025? Who needs to file taxes in Lagos? What you need before you start filing on the LIRS eTax portal How to file taxes on the LIRS eTax portal: Step by step Penalties for not filing your tax return by April 14 What happens after you file? Getting your Tax Clearance Certificate Frequently asked questions about filing taxes on the LIRS eTax portal What Nigeria’s 2025 tax reform changed If you have been trying to figure out how to file taxes in Lagos, this guide covers everything you need. The Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (LIRS) eTax portal at etax.lirs.net is the only approved platform for filing your annual personal income tax return, with a deadline of April 14, 2026. Every Lagos resident earning income must file, including salaried employees. Even if your company deducts PAYE from your salary every month and remits it to the government, you are still legally required to file your own individual return. Your employer’s payment does not cover your filing obligation. This is the first filing season under Nigeria’s sweeping 2025 tax reform laws, which introduced new tax bands, abolished the old Consolidated Relief Allowance, and made electronic filing the only acceptable method. Below is everything you need to know, from required documents and step-by-step portal navigation to exact penalty figures and post-filing steps. Why was the deadline moved to April 14? On March 31, 2026, LIRS Executive Chairman, Dr Ayodele Subair, announced a two-week extension of the individual annual income tax return deadline, pushing it from the statutory March 31 to April 14, 2026. The press statement, signed by Head of Corporate Communications, Monsurat Amasa-Oyelude, described it as a one-off measure to ease compliance and give taxpayers additional time to complete and submit accurate tax returns. The official statement did not mention portal problems. But Technext broke a story on March 30: the LIRS eTax portal at etax.lirs.net had experienced widespread technical difficulties just one day before the original deadline. Users reported hours of failed access attempts, submission errors, and an inability to complete filings. One user noted: “This is what’s expected of a platform likely designed for a few thousand users per day, suddenly needed to be accessed by millions.” Since manual filing has been completely phased out, taxpayers had no alternative. This was not an isolated event. Earlier in 2026, LIRS also extended the employer annual returns deadline from February 1 to February 7, signalling a pattern of administrative flexibility under the new tax regime. LIRS described the extension as a one-off measure. After April 14, penalties under the Nigeria Tax Administration Act (NTAA) 2025 kick in: N100,000 for the first month of default, plus N50,000 for each subsequent month. What counts as “income” under the Nigeria Tax Act 2025? The NTA 2025 defines ‘income’ broadly. Section 4 of the Act spells out every category of income, profits, or gains that are chargeable to tax. The law does not limit income to your salary or your business profit. It captures almost every way money can come to you. Here is what counts as taxable income: Employment income — your salary, wages, fees, allowances, bonuses, commissions, gratuity, and any other benefit your employer gives you, including things like a company car or rent-free accommodation Business and trade income — profit from any trade, business, or commercial activity. This includes selling perfume from home, baking and selling food, running a logistics operation from your phone, or any buying-and-selling activity, no matter how small Professional income — fees earned from professional services. This applies to lawyers, doctors, consultants, photographers, makeup artists, event planners, and any person who earns money by rendering a service Investment income — interest from savings accounts, dividends from shares, rent collected from property you own, and royalties Digital and virtual asset gains — profit from buying and selling crypto, NFTs, or any other digital asset Other sources — prizes, winnings, honoraria, grants, awards, discounts, rebates, and income from selling personal property or fixed assets The threshold is N800,000 per year. If your total income from all the sources above is N800,000 or less annually, your tax is 0%. But you are still required to file a return. Who needs to file taxes in Lagos? One of the biggest misconceptions in Nigerian tax compliance is the belief that salaried employees whose employers deduct Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) tax do not need to file annual returns. This is wrong. Section 14(3) of the NTAA 2025 explicitly resolves a long-standing ambiguity in the old Personal Income Tax Act: employees must file their own annual returns of income from all sources, notwithstanding the employer’s separate filing obligation under Section 14(1)-(2). LIRS has stated this directly: “Filing annual tax returns is not optional; it is a legal requirement under the NTAA 2025. While many employees believe their tax obligations end with PAYE deductions by employers, the LIRS clarifies that individuals must still file returns.” Taiwo Oyedele, Minister of State for Finance and Chairman of the Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee, reinforced the point, noting that “the tax reforms clarify that employees cannot assume their obligations end once employers deduct taxes from their salaries.” Here are the categories of people legally required to file taxes in Lagos, under Section 13 of the NTAA 2025: Salaried/PAYE employees – Even if your employer already files PAYE returns and deducts tax monthly, you must file an individual annual return declaring all income sources. This includes your salary, any side businesses, freelance work, rental income, and dividends. Self-employed individuals, freelancers, and gig workers – This includes digital creators, consultants, and anyone earning from online platforms. The NTA 2025 expressly brings digital/virtual asset gains, prizes, honoraria, and nontraditional income into the tax net. Business owners – Sole proprietors file as individuals under personal income tax. Partnerships are addressed under Section 15 of the NTA 2025. Professionals – Lawyers, doctors, accountants,
Read MoreKenya’s AI bill creates a new digital sheriff with sweeping powers
In February 2026, Kenya took a decisive step toward regulating one of the most transformative technologies of the modern era. The Artificial Intelligence (AI) Bill (2026), sponsored by Nominated Senator Karen Nyamu, marks the country’s first comprehensive attempt to bring order, accountability, and structure to its rapidly growing AI ecosystem. For years, Kenya has been described as Africa’s “Silicon Savannah” due to the global success of homegrown innovations like M-Pesa (mobile money) and Ushahidi (crowdsourced crisis mapping). It thrived on innovation powered by startups and global tech firms experimenting with everything from fintech algorithms to health diagnostics. But this growth has largely existed within a patchwork of laws, including the Data Protection Act of 2019 and the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act of 2018. The new bill seeks to unify and modernise this fragmented approach. Borrowing heavily from the European Union’s AI Act of 2024, Kenya’s proposal aims to strike a delicate balance between enabling innovation and protecting citizens. At the heart of this effort is a powerful new institution that could redefine how technology is governed in the country. The most consequential feature of the bill is the creation of the Office of the Artificial Intelligence Commissioner, an independent authority tasked with enforcing AI rules. In policy circles, this office has already earned a nickname: the “digital sheriff.” This is not merely symbolic. The Commissioner, according to the bill, will wield sweeping powers to inspect AI systems, access training data, investigate complaints, and issue enforcement notices. The office, TechCabal learnt, will also maintain a public register of high-risk AI systems operating in Kenya, bringing a new level of transparency to technologies that have often operated in the shadows. Appointed by the President and approved by the National Assembly, the Commissioner will serve a five-year renewable term. The role is structured to ensure autonomy, positioning it alongside other key state offices. However, the qualifications required for the position are unusually stringent. Similar positions in other government agencies are filled by government appointees, with little emphasis on advanced qualifications. For the AI commissioner role, the bill specifies that candidates must have advanced academic credentials and a minimum Master’s degree in AI, Computer Science, Law, Ethics, or Engineering. They must also have at least 10 years of experience in AI governance and institutional leadership, raising questions about whether such expertise is readily available in a still-emerging field. Beyond enforcement, the bill noted that the office will also shape the broader AI ecosystem. It will develop ethical guidelines, promote AI literacy among citizens, and oversee regulatory sandboxes where startups can test new technologies under relaxed rules. A risk-based approach? Central to the bill is a four-tier classification system that regulates AI based on its potential for harm. This framework reflects a growing global consensus that not all AI systems should be treated equally. At the highest level are systems deemed to pose an “unacceptable risk.” These include technologies designed for cognitive manipulation, government-led social scoring, or intrusive surveillance. Such systems are banned outright, with their development or deployment considered a criminal offence. The next category, “high-risk” AI, covers applications that influence critical aspects of life, such as healthcare, banking, education, and law enforcement. These systems will face strict requirements, including human rights impact assessments, mandatory registration, and continuous human oversight. The aim is to ensure that decisions affecting livelihoods and freedoms are not left entirely to algorithms. “Limited risk” systems, such as chatbots and AI-generated media, must meet transparency obligations. Users must be clearly informed when they are interacting with AI or viewing synthetic content. Meanwhile, “minimal risk” applications, including spam filters and video game algorithms, will remain largely unregulated to encourage innovation. This tiered approach allows regulators to focus resources where the stakes are highest, while giving developers room to experiment in lower-risk areas. Tackling digital harm One of the most immediate concerns addressed by the bill is the rise of deepfakes and AI-driven misinformation. With Kenya’s 2027 general elections on the horizon, lawmakers are particularly wary of how synthetic media could be used to manipulate public opinion. The bill introduces strict penalties for non-consensual deepfakes, including fines of up to KES 5 million and prison terms of up to two years. It also criminalises the use of AI-generated content for political interference, signalling a proactive attempt to safeguard democratic processes. These provisions build on existing laws like the Data Protection Act of 2019, but go further by explicitly targeting AI-enabled harm. They reflect a broader recognition that the risks posed by AI are no longer theoretical but already shaping real-world events. Beyond enforcement and penalties, the bill places a strong emphasis on protecting individual rights. One of its most notable provisions is the “right to explanation,” which allows citizens to demand clear, plain-language justifications for automated decisions that affect them. Whether it is a rejected loan application or an unsuccessful job screening, individuals will have the right to understand how an algorithm reached its conclusion and to request human review. This provision aims to counter the opacity of AI systems, often described as “black boxes.” Developers are also required to adopt human-centric design principles, ensuring that their systems prioritise safety, fairness, and non-discrimination. In doing so, the bill aligns Kenya’s AI governance with global ethical standards. Innovation vs regulation While the bill introduces significant oversight, it also recognises the need to nurture innovation. Regulatory sandboxes are a key part of this strategy, offering startups a controlled environment to test new AI products without facing the full burden of compliance from the outset. This approach reflects lessons from other jurisdictions, where overly rigid regulations have sometimes stifled emerging industries. By providing flexibility, Kenya hopes to maintain its reputation as a leading tech hub in Africa. However, not everyone is convinced the balance is right. Critics argue that the compliance requirements for high-risk AI, combined with steep penalties, could place an undue burden on smaller startups. For companies operating on limited budgets, the cost of audits, documentation, and oversight may prove prohibitive.
Read More33 banks raise ₦3.37 trillion from Nigerians as CBN ends recapitalisation
Nigeria’s banking sector has wrapped up one of its biggest capital-raising exercises in recent history, with lenders pulling in a combined ₦4.65 trillion to meet new regulatory thresholds set by the Central Bank of Nigeria. The capital raise drew heavily from local investors, who accounted for 72.55% (₦3.37 trillion) of the total, while foreign investors contributed 27.45% (₦1.28 trillion), a split the CBN says signals sustained confidence in Nigeria’s banking system despite macroeconomic headwinds. In a press statement on Wednesday, the regulator said the over 24-month recapitalisation programme, which began in March 2024, has now been concluded, strengthening banks’ balance sheets and positioning the sector to better absorb shocks and fund economic growth. “The recapitalisation programme has strengthened the capital base of Nigerian banks,” said CBN governor, Olayemi Cardoso. “Reinforcing the resilience of the financial system and ensuring it is well-positioned to support economic growth and withstand domestic and external shocks.” The recapitalisation exercise, first announced in 2024, was meant to strengthen banks’ balance sheets amid rising inflation, currency volatility, and growing credit risks, while positioning lenders to finance Nigeria’s long-term ambition of becoming a $1 trillion economy. Under the new regime, banks must meet minimum paid-up capital based on their operating licences: international banks to ₦500 billion ($370.58 million), national banks to ₦200 billion ($148.23 million), regional banks to ₦50 billion ($37.06 million), merchant banks to ₦50 billion ($37.06 million), non-interest banks with national authorisation to ₦20 billion ($14.82 million), and non-interest banks with regional authorisation to ₦10 billion ($7.41 million). Most banks clear the bar According to the CBN, 33 banks have met the revised minimum capital requirements. A handful of institutions remain entangled in regulatory and judicial processes, which are being addressed through established supervisory and legal frameworks. The regulator stressed that all banks are still fully operational. With the recapitalisation phase now closed, the CBN is shifting focus to supervision. Banks are now required to run regular stress tests and maintain capital buffers under a strengthened risk-based framework. The regulator also signalled that prudential guidelines and supervisory rules will be reviewed periodically to keep pace with evolving risks. The CBN noted that banking services remained uninterrupted throughout the capital raise, preserving access for individuals and businesses, a critical factor in a period of economic adjustment. According to the apex bank, the successful completion of the programme establishes a stronger and more resilient banking system, better positioned to support lending, mobilise savings, and withstand domestic and global shocks.
Read MoreTechCabal: Four-point-oh
How we’re thinking about 2026 and beyond. Here’s the thing about two speeds. Over the last few years, the African tech ecosystem has been moving at a pace that feels almost contradictory: consolidation at the centre and new ideas flickering relentlessly at the edges. Capital tightened, regulation grew heavier. Scale began pooling around fewer, stronger players. Meanwhile, out past the headlines, new ideas continued to form — quieter now, less theatrical, yet persistent. If you’re only watching one speed, you’re half-blind. Technology stopped being a standalone sector. These shifts are showing up everywhere — in how people work, move money, access services, and navigate daily life, often far from anything labelled ‘tech’. In moments like this, the signals that matter most are easy to miss if you’re only watching the surface. TechCabal has lived through multiple cycles of this ecosystem, which is why we recognise this moment for what it is. And it’s why Q1 looked the way it did. We launched Headlines By TC A weekly newsroom conversation that interrogates the most important technology headlines and explains what they actually mean for people living and working in Africa. The tone is casual; the journalism is rigorous. It’s not a recap show. It surfaces the non-obvious insight and resolves confusion. We also shipped TC Predictions 2026 An annual outlook collecting evidence-based predictions from industry leaders across African tech. Not gut feelings. Theses grounded in data, explicit in their claims, and specific enough to be evaluated at year-end. Both are early signals of what we’re building toward. That direction has a name now: Four-Point-Oh. Shaped by experience. Guided by judgment. Focused — more deliberately than ever — on helping you see beyond what’s trending to what’s happening, and what it means. In practice, this means investing in our newsmaking system: our ability to tell you what happened, fast, when it matters. A fintech acquires a competitor, a policy drops, a platform goes dark, a founder raises a round — we want to get it to you first. Speed still counts, but with context. The analysis, the features, the profiles, the deep dives—they follow, building on the headline to show you what it actually means and where it leads. We’ve organised our coverage around four verticals, each designed to track specific forces shaping the ecosystem: Startups tracks who’s building and what new technologies emerge before they’re obvious; Money follows how capital moves; Enterprise & Policy covers what regulators and platforms decide; and Life & Work captures how all of it shows up in everyday life. Over the next few weeks, you’ll see this reflected more visibly on the site and across our platforms. Four-Point-Oh What’s Happening. What It Means. + Startups Who’s Building, How, Why? + Money Capital, Funding, Returns + Enterprise & Policy Regulation, Infrastructure + Life & Work People, Platforms, Access Founders, Products AI, Hardware, Crypto New Frontiers Growth Signals Venture Rounds Revenue Models Transaction Economics Who Profits, How Telcos, Government Platform Decisions Regulatory Shifts Ecosystem Ripple Effects Work Culture Service Access Digital Daily Life Human Stories Signals Over Surface. · Context Over Speed. All of Four-Point-Oh will be anchored by a registration layer — signing up to get unlimited access to all of TechCabal’s reporting, for FREE. Beyond access, it marks the beginning of a deeper relationship: early access to events, from mixers and roundtables to Moonshot in October. The ability to contribute your perspective to our reporting — through tips, feedback, and direct input into the stories we tell. And where relevant, your work could get featured for what you’re building inside the ecosystem. It’s started out as a busy year, and it’ll only get busier. But here’s the commitment: we’ll be paying attention, asking the questions as the answers become less obvious.
Read MoreThe $600 million asset manager that tracked a startup for three years before investing $1.2 million
Angola is not a market that often comes up in African venture capital conversations. It does not appear in the funding trackers or the ecosystem rankings, nor is it typically represented on the conference panels. BFA Asset Management is trying to change that. The Luanda-based firm, a spin-off from Banco de Fomento Angola (BFA)—the country’s second-largest private bank by assets—manages $600 million across public and private markets. Last year, BFA’s parent completed a $239 million IPO on the local stock exchange, the largest in Angolan history, drawing demand five times the shares available. In 2024, Angola’s sovereign wealth fund, FSDEA, anchored the firm’s Kimbo Fund with a $5 million commitment, making it Angola’s first private credit vehicle focused on small and mid-market companies. The fund’s first deployment went into FoodCare, an agri-food processor exporting to Europe and North America. Its second, announced this month, is a $1.2 million investment in Anda, a mobility startup that has raised $3.4 million from Breega, Speedinvest, and 4DX Ventures to formalise Angola’s motorcycle taxi market through a drive-to-own financing model. Rui Oliveira, the firm’s chief executive officer (CEO) and co-chief investment officer, does not call Kimbo a venture fund, despite seeking venture-scale returns. Its due diligence on Anda took three years as it went through bank statements transaction by transaction, interviewed suppliers and employees, and then cross-referenced its findings with Anda’s international investors. Some of them, Oliveira says, had not looked at the things his team had, an advantage of local context. In our conversation, Oliveira and Pascoa Faria, the fund’s alternative investment analyst, lay out why they believe Angola’s information asymmetry is an opportunity rather than an obstacle, why they track companies for years before writing a cheque, and why international investors who want to deploy capital in Angola cannot do it alone. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. How does a bank invest in startups? We are not your traditional private equity or venture capital firm. We play in both public and private markets. Kimbo Fund is just part of our alternative strategies. We have been in business since 2016. We have raised over $600 million since then. Our investor base ranges from institutional clients to high-net-worth individuals. Since last year, we have expanded to include wealth management services and other capital solutions strategies. Kimbo Fund is our private equity vehicle. We are not the first private equity fund manager in Angola, but we are the first to deploy, at least the way we are doing it. Nobody has done it before. Anda is our second deal. Our first was last year with Foodcare, a mid-size food processing company. For us, this fund is more out of love because we truly believe in what we are trying to achieve here: supporting where the actual growth is locally in the mid-market and growth-market segments. Angola barely receives any startup funding, and $1.28 million is a meaningful cheque in Angola, but outside of that, in larger ecosystems like Nairobi, it’s not that much. Is this a function of where Angolan startups are in their lifecycle, or a reflection of how much risk Kimbo is willing to take? This is a reflection of a market that is just appearing. We are opening up a new pathway, and this is unprecedented for the country. We were the first to actually deploy. Then, last year, another private equity firm deployed. We are the first to deploy at this level, with the way that we are structuring the deals. The short answer is it’s a function of the market and the stage of the market, not a function of our limitations as a fund. You describe Kimbo as a “private impact fund.” When many hear the word “impact,” they automatically think lower return expectations. What type of return profile are you targeting? We are not looking at lower returns. The reason we call it impact is that we are not just writing cheques for these companies. We are supporting them all along the way. As soon as we write a cheque, we put them in touch with the different networks we have. With Anda specifically, we are going to provide support in building their impact strategy and impact measurements, including impact accounting standards. With our first deal last year, we are doing a lot more. We are recruiting people for them, reviewing their accounts, improving how they report their numbers, and helping them expand their business. There is a lot that goes into the work we do beyond writing cheques. The sole reason we call it impact is that we are not just providing capital—we are directly impacting the business, not just with money. In terms of returns, for a deal like this, we are looking at the 20s. Not even the mid-teens. These are high returns, not lower returns. What other types of support do you give startups apart from what you just mentioned? One of the things we are working on now is helping startups get ready for investment. We partner with local accelerators (not in an official sense) and participate in workshop sessions where we interact with startups and the ecosystem to give them a sense of what is necessary to be ready to receive investment, whether it’s local, regional, or international. We try to clarify that our investment is not pre-seed or seed. It is for the next stage, which I would say is growth. A big focus for us is market development and preparing startups in our ecosystem to attract the right investment for their stage. The Angolan tech ecosystem is really young. How do you think about helping these startups move from the early stage to the growth stage? When we were building the strategy for this fund, we realised our commitment should not be passive. When we are writing a cheque, we want a company that has a lot of intrinsic value but has not yet realised that value. And then, is that company neglected, not just
Read MoreNiger State replaces tech ministry with new agency to cut bottlenecks
Niger State, in Nigeria’s north-central region, has introduced a major shift in its tech governance structure, replacing its Ministry of Communications Technology and Digital Economy with a new agency tasked with driving digital initiatives more efficiently. The move signals a push by Nigeria’s largest state by land mass to cut through entrenched civil service bottlenecks and accelerate the execution of its technology and digital economy agenda. The overhaul means the state has replaced the position of the ministry’s commissioner with a director-general of the newly minted Niger State Information Technology and Digital Economy Agency (NSITDEA). Sulaiman Isah, the former commissioner of the ministry, will lead the agency as Director–General. “We decided not to go the ministry route because it wasn’t working for tech, given the bureaucracy and bottlenecks,” Isah told TechCabal in a telephone conversation on Friday, March 27, 2026. The move reflects a broader shift among governments toward more agile structures for driving digital transformation. Several states have already adopted this approach. Anambra State Information Communication Technology (ICT) Agency, established in 2019, leads Anambra’s “Everything Technology, Technology Everywhere” vision, while Kaduna State Information Technology Development Agency focuses primarily on expanding digital literacy in Kaduna State. Niger State’s own journey with ICT governance dates back to 2006, according to additional information shared by Isah, when it operated under the Planning, Research, and Statistics Department within the Ministry of Science and Technology. At the time, its role was largely administrative, limited to basic data processing, record-keeping, and minimal automation, positioning technology as a support function rather than a strategic driver. Today, those responsibilities remain fragmented across multiple ministries, including tertiary education and science and technology. The creation of the Ministry of Communications Technology and Digital Economy in August 2023 marked a turning point, signalling that ICT had grown too significant to remain embedded as a sub-unit within a broader ministry. Now, by transitioning from a ministry-led model to an agency structure, Niger State is betting on a more agile system, one designed to move faster, operate with greater flexibility, and better respond to the demands of an evolving digital landscape. Isah noted that at the core of the new agency’s mandate is the responsibility to shape and execute the state’s digital agenda. It will develop policies, strategies, and standards across information technology, innovation, and the broader digital economy, while also overseeing their implementation—positioning it as both policymaker and executor. Its enabling law, the Niger State Information Technology and Digital Economy Agency Law (2025), establishes it as an independent statutory body with a governing board and a director general appointed by the governor for a renewable four-year term. The law also creates a dedicated funding structure that draws on a levy on internally generated revenue, as well as donations and loans, ensuring the agency operates with a degree of financial autonomy. Beyond policy, Isah also noted that the agency will take on regulatory functions, including licensing and monitoring digital service providers and ICT operators within the state, in line with federal laws. This gives it significant oversight over the local tech ecosystem, from startups to established service providers, and signals a more structured approach to managing digital growth. He also highlighted infrastructure development as another key focus. The agency is expected to promote the deployment of secure, inclusive digital infrastructure across Niger State and lead efforts to improve digital literacy and skills. This includes coordinating training programs for citizens, public servants, and businesses, a move aimed at ensuring that the benefits of digital transformation are widely distributed. To support innovation, the agency will facilitate the creation of hubs, technology parks, and incubation centres, and maintain a startup and innovation registry aligned with the Nigeria Start-up Act. This could help position Niger State as a more attractive destination for tech entrepreneurs and improve the ease of doing business for ICT-related ventures, according to Isah. The agency will also play a central role in modernising public service delivery. It is tasked with developing e-government platforms, digital service portals, and interoperable systems that can streamline how citizens interact with the government. In parallel, it will provide technical support to ministries, departments, and agencies, helping them adopt digital tools and improve internal processes. Cybersecurity and data governance are also part of the agency’s mandate, according to Isah. The agency will promote awareness around cyber risks and encourage best practices across both public and private sectors, while advising the state government on investment priorities and potential partnerships. Importantly, the new structure gives the agency powers that go beyond coordination. It can issue regulations and guidelines, enter into partnerships, and enforce compliance through administrative sanctions where necessary. This combination of operational and regulatory authority is designed to give it the tools needed to deliver on its objectives. For Niger State, the shift represents more than an administrative change. It is an attempt to rethink how the government engages with technology, moving from a slower, policy-heavy ministry model to a more execution-focused institution. Isah said the state legislature is working on a legal framework to formally establish the agency as a statutory body backed by law.
Read More
Travelling is the easy part, finding shelter is where hell breaks loose. Coliving hubs are fixing this.
Being a digital nomad, not simply in name only, can feel like a dream. Barring the cost and effort it takes to plan, prepare, and travel on short notice, frequent trips offer plenty of chance encounters, but they also test your tolerance for misadventures. Shelter is where fantasy usually collides with reality. According to three digital nomads and frequent travellers I spoke to, accommodation regularly eats between 40 to 50% of a travel budget. Beyond the cost, Yinka Oke, a Nigerian nomad, said the hardest part of planning for housing in a country where you know nobody is how unpredictable it is. Unlike flights, there is no single accommodation fare you can lock in and forget. Amaka Amaku, a nomad who has now travelled to 30 countries, said when she goes somewhere she has friends, accommodation might take up to 20% of her travelling budget. When she lands in a city where she knows no one, that share can quickly climb to 50%. “I don’t think about accommodation as a percentage of the budget,” said Oghenerukevwe Odjugo, an equity analyst at Schroders Australia and a nomadic traveller. “I think about what is a reasonable dollar amount I can pay for the quality of accommodation I am comfortable with. The cost of shelter is a major factor when travelling, so I rent whatever makes the most sense.” For most nomads, that decision often narrows to three options: a hotel room, a short‑term rental on platforms like Airbnb, or a third path, coliving hubs. Many long‑term travellers I spoke with preferred Airbnbs or coliving for multi‑week stays and kept hotels for quick stopovers. This piece is about that third option. What are coliving hubs in Africa actually selling, how do they work as a business, and are they really worth swapping for a one‑bed in Nairobi or Cape Town? Get The Best African Tech Newsletters In Your Inbox Select your country Nigeria Ghana Kenya South Africa Egypt Morocco Tunisia Algeria Libya Sudan Ethiopia Somalia Djibouti Eritrea Uganda Tanzania Rwanda Burundi Democratic Republic of the Congo Republic of the Congo Central African Republic Chad Cameroon Gabon Equatorial Guinea São Tomé and Príncipe Angola Zambia Zimbabwe Botswana Namibia Lesotho Eswatini Mozambique Madagascar Mauritius Seychelles Comoros Cape Verde Guinea-Bissau Senegal The Gambia Guinea Sierra Leone Liberia Côte d’Ivoire Burkina Faso Mali Niger Benin Togo Other Select your gender Male Female Others TC Daily TC Events Next wave Entering Tech Subscribe What coliving hubs are, and how they make money Coliving, at its simplest, is shared housing with services built around people who work remotely. Instead of renting an entire flat, you take a room in a larger home or compound and pay for a package that usually combines accommodation, utilities, cleaning, internet, and a measure of community programming. Globally, the coliving market was worth nearly $8 billion in 2024, according to Grand View Research, a research firm, and is projected to at least double over the coming decade, helped by rising urban housing costs and the growth of remote work. In South Africa’s advanced coliving market, that figure sits around $79 million. In Africa, coliving is still young but spreading. Nairobi, Kenya, appears in many guides as one of the continent’s emerging hubs for remote workers, with neighbourhoods like Kilimani, Lavington, Karen, and Kileleshwa now home to a mix of coworking spaces, serviced apartments, and shared houses that market themselves directly to nomads. Cape Town, Windhoek, and parts of Morocco host similar experiments, from beachside houses for surfers in Blouberg to retreat‑style compounds in Namibia’s capital. Alejandra Wolf, co‑founder of AfricaNomads, a community-based coliving hub for digital nomads, has spent the past few years building coliving stays across East and Southern Africa. She describes coliving as “the difference between just having a place to stay and having a place to belong.” For guests, the idea is that you land in a home that is already ready for work, with a built‑in community and a curated experience of the destination. Planning, discovery, and the trial‑and‑error of figuring out where to live, who to trust, and what is worth your time are outsourced to the operator. Structurally, many African coliving outfits run a hybrid model. Wolf says her company both operates its own homes and partners with local hosts, boutique properties, and families, but keeps tight control over the experience. That control covers how the space is set up, the daily rhythm of the stay, the rules of the house, and the programming that brings people together. In some locations, the founders actually live in the houses alongside guests. Rather than acting as an open marketplace like Airbnb, they see themselves as curators and hosts. The non‑negotiables are predictable but demanding: reliable Internet with backups, comfortable workspaces, power solutions where public supply is unstable, and locations that feel plugged into daily life rather than sealed off in high‑rise blocks. Many operators avoid anonymous tower blocks and look instead for compounds or houses with greenery, shared kitchens, and layouts that make it easy to bump into people to truly lean into the philosophy of experiencing a new place. How the numbers compare in Nairobi The cost picture between short-term rentals, like Airbnb, and coliving arrangements is less obvious than it looks at the booking stage. Take Nairobi, which has become one of the most comfortable cities in sub‑Saharan Africa for expatriates and remote workers, thanks to solid infrastructure, strong schools and hospitals, and a growing startup ecosystem around what many call the Silicon Savannah. In upscale residential areas such as Lavington, a one‑bedroom Airbnb for a single guest typically ranges between $34 and $72 per night, depending on the season. In Karen, another lush city in Nairobi, prices start from $23 and climb to around $131. Kileleshwa tends to sit between $37 and $58, while Kilimani often ranges from $37 to $50 a night. In Kitsuru, where United Nations (UN) staff and other international officials often prefer to live because of its security, greenery, and easy access
Read MoreAfrica Bitcoin Corporation crosses 5 BTC mark as treasury strategy takes shape
Africa Bitcoin Corporation (ABC), the South Africa-based Bitcoin treasury and SME-finance company, now holds 5.0246 BTC in its corporate treasury, according to its real-time analytics dashboard. The SME lender and advisory firm has set an ambitious 2030 target of holding 21,000 BTC. Its 2030 target would make it the largest African-listed company holding Bitcoin on its balance sheet. At its current holding of 5.0246 BTC, the firm has only covered 0.02% of that goal. The gap between a growing yet limited stash and a sweeping long-term goal underlines how early ABC remains in this strategy, even as it pitches shareholders on gaining regulated stock-exchange exposure to Bitcoin across South Africa, Namibia, the US, and Germany. The company, which is listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), has accumulated its Bitcoin holdings at a weighted average purchase price of $100,574 per coin across seven transactions since 2024. Its cumulative Bitcoin yield—a metric that tracks the percentage growth in Bitcoin holdings over time—has reached 207%, driven largely by accelerated accumulation in the final quarter of 2025. The company’s Bitcoin net asset value (BTC NAV), which represents the total market value of all the Bitcoin it holds on its balance sheet, now stands at $359,140. Its market-to-net asset value multiple (mNAV), which compares the company’s enterprise value to the value of its Bitcoin holdings, stands at 46.29x. The figure underscores how small ABC’s Bitcoin treasury remains relative to the total value of its business. Africa Bitcoin Corporation remains one of the few crypto-focused firms publicly listed on a regulated stock exchange anywhere on the continent. It currently trades on the JSE and A2X Markets in South Africa, the Namibian Stock Exchange (NSX), the OTCQB Venture Market in the US, and Germany’s Börse Frankfurt (Deutsche Börse), including the Tradegate and Lang & Schwarz retail trading platforms. The company is continuing its multi-exchange expansion plans, broadening its African investor base and attracting pension funds and family offices seeking regulated, indirect exposure to Bitcoin.
Read More