👨🏿🚀TechCabal Daily – Age-gating social media
In partnership with Lire en Français اقرأ هذا باللغة العربية Good morning. Egypt may have found a way to keep more of its fintech value at home. MNT-Halan has been in talks since June to list its Egyptian-only business on the Egyptian Exchange, while keeping its operations in markets—such as the UAE, Turkey, and Pakistan—private. Nigeria, meanwhile, is facing the opposite situation: fintechs including OPay and PalmPay are looking at foreign listings. The Nigerian Exchange Group is now asking the government to encourage major fintechs to list locally, or at least alongside foreign listings, arguing that Nigerian investors should also have a chance to benefit from companies built on the country’s market. What would it take for Nigeria to make staying home as attractive as going abroad? Let’s dive in. Become smarter about tech and commerce in Francophone Africa, and the policies shaping them. Read our newsletter here first or subscribe below. Subscribe NCBA’s Multiple Hauliers takeover hits a court roadblock South Africa wants YouTube and TikTok to check your age Nigeria wants to bring its cloud computing back home Kenya says receipts alone won’t beat a KRA tax bill World Wide Web 3 Opportunities Banking NCBA tried to take over Multiple Hauliers. A Kenyan court has stopped it—for now Image Source: Tenor Kenya’s High Court has temporarily stopped NCBA Bank Kenya, one of the country’s largest lenders, from taking control of troubled logistics company Multiple Hauliers (EA) Ltd. Here’s what happened: NCBA says the transporter owes it KES 7.2 billion ($55.7 million). The bank appointed two administrators from consulting firm PwC to take over the company and rescue it or recover money for creditors. Under Kenyan insolvency law, administration is similar to putting a company under external management: the administrators can run the business, control assets, and decide whether it can be saved or should be sold. Multiple Hauliers challenged the appointment in court. A judge has now issued a temporary order blocking the PwC administrators from acting as administrators or taking charge of the company until the case is heard on September 25. Why does this matter? The dispute is much bigger than a single bank loan. Multiple Hauliers reportedly has more than KES 31 billion ($240 million) in claims from various Kenyan lenders and creditors, while its assets are estimated at KES 17 billion ($131.5 million), according to local publication Business Daily. Major banks including KCB, Co-operative Bank, I&M Bank, and others are also exposed. Between the lines: NCBA has not acquired Multiple Hauliers and does not currently control its operations or assets. The court has merely paused the takeover attempt while it decides whether the bank’s appointment of administrators was lawful. The bigger signal is about Kenya’s credit market. When a large logistics company spends years moving between restructuring talks, administration attempts, and liquidation proceedings, lenders recover their money more slowly, which can make banks more cautious about financing transport and logistics businesses across the economy. Zoom out: NCBA is in the middle of a KES 116.3 billion ($794 million) takeover by South African lender Nedbank. On July 21, Nedbank confirmed that it had secured a 66% stake in the Kenyan bank, clearing its path to take control of NCBA. The Multiple Hauliers case shows that one of the bank’s largest corporate debt disputes is still unresolved as the takeover process moves forward. Getting paid in cedis just got easier for African businesses operating in Ghana. Fincra now issues dedicated GHS virtual accounts to enable businesses to collect payments. See how Fincra GHS virtual accounts work. Social media South Africa wants YouTube and TikTok to start checking your age Image Source: Tenor When it comes to policy drafting, South Africa seems to be putting the bigger battles—such as regulating AI—on hold and focusing on a problem that affects far more people every day: what children can watch online. The country is drafting rules that could force social media platforms, such as YouTube and TikTok, to introduce age-verification systems for content deemed harmful or distressing to children. What happened? The proposal is part of a draft online safety framework being developed by the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT), the South African government ministry responsible for communications, broadcasting, telecommunications, and digital policy. The same framework would also create an online content ombudsman to handle complaints involving misinformation, harmful content, and material considered unsuitable for minors. Explain like I’m new here: The government is not banning YouTube and TikTok for children. It is saying that platforms may need stronger systems to decide who is old enough to view certain content. The draft draws heavily from the United Kingdom’s Online Safety Act and Australia’s social media restrictions for under-16s. Those models go well beyond the familiar “Yes, I am over 18” checkbox. The UK framework, for example, allows measures such as facial age estimation, ID uploads, or credit-card checks for restricted content. Between the lines: The proposal would also encourage age ratings on uploaded videos and stronger parental control tools. The interesting part is the scope creep. The white paper is not only about child safety; it is also examining whether global streaming services such as Netflix and Disney+ should face a regulatory and tax treatment closer to that of South African broadcasters. The policy is not law yet. The government is still reviewing submissions from industry groups, media organisations, and digital rights advocates, and the consultation process remains open. Zoom out: South Africa is joining a growing list of countries trying to answer an uncomfortable question: how do you protect children online without exposing every other user to the same rigorous ID checks? The technology industry has not found an answer yet, and South Africa is about to test whether regulators can do any better. Download PalmPay. Bank smarter. With PalmPay, you can bank with confidence. Enjoy seamless everyday banking with security features designed to help protect your money. Send money, pay bills, and manage your finances all in one app. Learn more. Digital Sovereignty 85%
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85% of Nigerian workloads run on public clouds as government pushes localisation
Nigeria is moving to bring more of its cloud infrastructure within the country, in a push to reduce reliance on overseas systems and keep more of the digital economy’s value at home. More than 85% of Nigerian workloads now run on public clouds, according to Kashifu Inuwa, director-general of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA). Nigeria also hosts only 22% of its 1,000 most-accessed websites locally, below the Sub-Saharan Africa average of 34%. Nigeria wants to bring more of its cloud infrastructure onshore, betting that localising the systems that run its digital economy will reduce exposure to foreign infrastructure, keep more technology spending in the country and make critical services more resilient. The push is being formalised through the National Sovereign Cloud Initiative, whose regulatory instruments were signed with Galaxy Backbone Limited, a government-owned ICT infrastructure and shared services provider, on August 5, 2026. The framework sets out the policy, technical and quality requirements for hosting more digital services in Nigeria. Inuwa said the move builds on Nigeria’s 2019 Cloud First Policy, which sought to move government institutions away from standalone server rooms and data centres with high operating costs and towards cloud-based services. “The idea then was, how can we encourage government agencies to stop spending money on building technology and let them patronise data centre providers, both local and international providers,” Inuwa told TechCabal in an interview in Abuja on Wednesday, on the sidelines of the two-day summit where the National Sovereign Cloud Initiative was signed. But the policy also produced an unintended outcome: government and businesses moved rapidly to public clouds, without a corresponding expansion of local cloud infrastructure. “People just started going to public cloud,” Inuwa said. “Yes, it’s easier to move to public cloud, but also we need to encourage building the local ecosystem.” That has raised concerns about how much of the economic value generated by Nigeria’s digital economy is being captured outside the country. “Imagine localising and keeping all that content locally,” he said. “The kind of innovation and economic activities you can create.” The government’s argument is partly economic. Over 90% of Nigeria’s digital data and enterprise workloads are currently hosted on offshore servers, resulting in an estimated $850 million in annual capital flight as local banks, fintechs, and enterprises pay foreign cloud providers in US dollars. This foreign-currency exposure leaves domestic businesses vulnerable to severe foreign exchange volatility and geopolitical risks. Expanding Nigeria’s domestic cloud and data-centre market—projected to reach $782 million by 2031—would allow companies to pay in local currency (Naira), retaining hundreds of millions of dollars locally while creating high-value jobs in network engineering, software, cybersecurity and content delivery. “Imagine if you are paying in naira, jobs will be created in Nigeria,” Inuwa said. “Nigerians will be building content locally,” while investment in large data centres would create additional employment and business opportunities. Inuwa said the push to localise cloud infrastructure is also about making Nigeria’s digital services more resilient. As more critical services move online, heavy reliance on infrastructure and connectivity outside the country can leave businesses and essential services exposed when international links are disrupted. In March 2024, four major undersea cables serving West Africa—MainOne, WACS, SAT-3 and ACE—were damaged simultaneously in waters off Côte d’Ivoire. The outages disrupted internet connectivity across the region, exposing the risks of Nigeria’s reliance on international infrastructure and triggering widespread disruptions for businesses and essential services. “For us, sovereignty is not about protectionism,” Inuwa said. “It’s not about closing our doors against the big cloud service providers, but it’s about asking them to come and build with us in Nigeria.” The objective is to create a more resilient domestic infrastructure network capable of maintaining services even when individual locations or connections fail. “The big picture is how can we build like a digital triangle in Nigeria, where we create resilience and service assurance,” Inuwa said. “Even if there is an earthquake in one location, everything can seamlessly fall over to another location.” Nigeria could also strengthen its position as a regional cloud hub for West and Central Africa, using its large internet market and growing subsea cable capacity to attract hyperscale cloud facilities and carrier-neutral data centres. NITDA said the policy is not intended to displace public cloud services or exclude global providers from the Nigerian market. Instead, the agency wants major cloud providers, or hyperscalers, to deploy and operate more infrastructure locally. Inuwa said the government had previously granted waivers allowing institutions to use public cloud services, but it eventually began pressing providers for clearer localisation plans. “We can’t continue giving you waivers,” he said. “We need to have a roadmap on when you are going to localise some of this infrastructure in Nigeria.” One obstacle was the argument from some hyperscalers that Nigerian data centres did not meet the technical requirements needed to support their infrastructure. It was to address these concerns that NITDA brought hyperscalers and local data-centre operators together at the summit to discuss the technical and regulatory barriers to local deployment. The discussions led to a technical working group comprising local providers and global cloud companies, which developed the framework for the sovereign cloud initiative. The framework includes guidelines covering data classification, technical requirements for cloud service providers and digital quality assurance. Providers will have to meet defined standards and certifications to host certain categories of services. The initiative also seeks to address cost, a major barrier to local adoption, as cloud infrastructure in Nigeria has historically been more expensive than hosting workloads abroad, making overseas public cloud providers more attractive to startups and other businesses. NITDA and Galaxy Backbone are working on a plan to offer startups cloud services at lower costs and allow them to pay in naira, according to Inuwa. He expects greater local capacity to increase competition and put downward pressure on prices. “Today, because of lack of competition, that’s why the hyperscalers choose their own price,” Inuwa said. “But if there is competition in terms of capacity and availability
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What African investors think about the funding squeeze killing early-stage startups
Early-stage African startups have found it difficult to raise money this year. In July, GoLemon stopped taking orders after two years and tens of thousands of deliveries, with an average basket of about ₦43,700 ($32). The company said it made money on every delivery, but when it sought capital to scale, it could not raise enough to continue. Its explanation for shutting reflects a position that more African startups have found themselves in as venture funding has tightened. FoodCourt paused orders after failing to raise new capital, while Gigbanc shut down after also struggling to secure funding. The headline funding figures suggest the African tech market has remained relatively resilient. TechCabal Insights’ State of Tech in Africa report puts funding in H1 2026 at $1.44 billion, up 1.4% year on year. But the number of deals fell from 252 to 174 over the same period, while funding that reached early-stage startups dropped to $9 million from $25 million. Africa: The Big Deal, which tracks the market using a different methodology, found that only 190 startups raised at least $100,000 in the first half of 2026, the lowest half-year count since 2021. The number of startups raising between $100,000 and $1 million fell from 179 in H2 2025 to 100 in H1 2026, a 44% drop in six months. If you read this together, the figures suggest that capital is still flowing into African startups but is reaching fewer companies and becoming increasingly concentrated among larger, later-stage businesses. The pipeline of smaller rounds has contracted particularly sharply, narrowing one of the key funding routes for startups trying to move from early experimentation to a more established business. For this week’s Ask an Investor, we asked investors three questions: what has changed in what startups must demonstrate to raise their first cheque? Who should fund the stage that is increasingly being left behind? And what would give more of these companies a better chance at surviving? The responses offer a view into how investors are assessing risk, traction and capital efficiency in a market where simply having a promising idea is no longer enough to attract funding. It is important to note that the views expressed are those of the individual investors and analysts who responded and do not necessarily represent the positions of their respective firms. The interviews have been edited for length and clarity. What changed between 2022 and now in what an early-stage African startup has to show to raise its first cheque? Samuel Frank: In 2022, an early-stage African startup needed to show innovation around an idea and how big a market could be for that idea. What has changed is that you now have to show that a market actually exists for that idea. You have to execute on your idea in some shape or form. Pre-seed investing has changed over the last three or four years. Now, at pre-seed, people expect a startup to be doing maybe $1,500 to $2,000 a month and growing that at 10% to 20% month on month. What they are trying to validate is that you can execute on the idea you developed and that you are proving there is a business around it. Amarachi Nwachukwu: The biggest change is the amount and type of capital available. Between 2019 and 2022, there was a lot of dry powder coming out of Silicon Valley, and investors were willing to deploy into new markets. We saw the likes of Y Combinator and Techstars start investing in our markets. They were willing to underwrite potential, but that appetite has changed. Cheques have slowed, and some investors have stopped deploying into Nigerian markets completely. The bar is now very high. Every investor is asking for evidence like traction, a proven business model, revenue quality, and unit economics. They also evaluate your path to scale. In the early days, investors mostly looked at the team, the market opportunity, and the potential size of the market. Beyond traction, investors look at founder-market fit (who you are as a founder and what assets you have). Then, in this market winter, investors look closely at how a company is going to survive. If we are going to invest $100,000 into your company today, I want to understand how many months of runway that gives you, the runway you already have, and your current burn. We give you a milestone: based on your current product roadmap, can $100,000 unlock a new revenue milestone that makes you more fundable? If we see risk in your business model that could affect the outcome of the investment, we say no, even with traction. We also do the exit maths – what would need to be true for us to generate a return? Another factor is product defensibility. The easier it is to build a product today using AI, the more I want to see what nobody else can replicate over a weekend. That could come from a regulatory angle, such as a licence you have or are working towards that is not easy to get. It could come from the quality of the technology itself. Investors have moved from underwriting possibility to underwriting evidence. Mercy Ndubueze: The bar has shifted from potential to proof. In 2022, investors were more willing to back a compelling founder, a large market opportunity, and early traction. Today, founders need to demonstrate stronger evidence of product-market fit, revenue quality, customer retention, unit economics and, importantly, capital efficiency. Investors are asking not just how big this can become but also what you can achieve with this capital and how efficiently you can get there. Pius Bankong: Fundamentals have been recentred. Most of the funding abundance in 2020-2022 was a result of the global monetary policy at the time (zero interest rate policy). Cheap capital was available, and that reflected in how it was deployed across a number of circumstances. As rates rose and capital tightened, investor priorities recalibrated. Greater emphasis was laid on things that demonstrated likely venture-scale outcomes,
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Nigeria is making crypto companies collect taxes for the government
This is Follow the Money, our weekly series that unpacks the earnings, business, and scaling strategies of African fintechs, financial institutions, companies, and governments. A new edition drops every Monday. Nigeria’s new virtual asset tax guidelines do more than tax crypto traders. They turn cryptocurrency exchanges, brokers, custodians, wallet operators, and peer-to-peer (P2P) marketplace operators into extensions of the country’s tax collection network. Under the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS) framework, a Nigerian virtual asset service provider (VASP) may have to deduct withholding tax on qualifying virtual asset sales, withhold stamp duty in Bitcoin or USDT, charge value-added tax (VAT) on exchange and service fees, file multiple tax returns, maintain transaction records for six years, and pay up to 30% company income tax on its own profits. The rules come as Nigeria seeks to strengthen non-oil revenue collection. Company income tax collections fell 8.08% quarter-on-quarter in Q1 2026 to ₦1.37 trillion ($1 billion), according to the National Bureau of Statistics, adding pressure on authorities to improve tax compliance across emerging sectors. “VASPs, like every other company, shall bear their own corporate income tax liability on their revenues,” the NRS said in the guidelines. “This is separate from their deduction of tax at source obligations.” That distinction is important. A virtual asset company is not simply remitting taxes it collects from users; it is also a taxpayer in its own right. Beyond paying company income tax on their own profits, VASPs must build systems to identify taxable transactions, calculate and withhold different taxes, reconcile token-denominated collections with fiat VAT obligations, maintain detailed records, file multiple returns, and respond to regulatory requests. The requirements could increase compliance costs and force companies to expand their finance and compliance teams. They could also require changes to internal systems for onboarding, settlement, custody, and reconciliation. The accounting advantage Not every aspect of the guidelines is unfavourable to crypto businesses and investors. One potentially significant provision is how the NRS wants taxpayers to account for gains on virtual assets when the naira depreciates. The guidelines indicate that taxpayers should not be taxed simply because a virtual asset’s naira value increased as a result of currency depreciation. Consider an exchange that buys Bitcoin worth ₦1 million when the exchange rate is ₦1,000 to the dollar. If it later sells the Bitcoin for ₦1.97 million, but the naira has weakened to ₦1,500 to the dollar by the time of the sale, a simple naira comparison would suggest a ₦970,000 gain. The NRS approach instead requires the transaction to be converted to dollars. The purchase would be valued at $1,000, while the sale would be worth roughly $1,313 at the new exchange rate applicable at the same time. The underlying gain would therefore be about $313, rather than the entire ₦970,00 increase in naira terms. That $313 gain would then be converted into naira for tax purposes. The principle is straightforward: the taxpayer should be taxed on the real increase in the value of the asset, rather than on an increase caused solely by the depreciation of the naira. The guidelines contain another important provision for VASPs: when a company buys Bitcoin, the 1.5% stamp duty is deducted from the Bitcoin received rather than from the cash paid. Suppose a company pays ₦1 million for Bitcoin and, before the deduction, would have received 1 BTC. After the 1.5% stamp duty, it receives 0.985 BTC. The NRS treats the company as having paid ₦1 million for 0.985 BTC, not for 1 BTC. In effect, the stamp duty forms part of the acquisition cost of the Bitcoin rather than being treated as a separate deduction when the asset is sold. TechCabal Interactive Explainer The VASP Corporate Tax Shield Visualizer See how the NRS USD-conversion method (Paragraph 9.1) calculates taxable gains and shields VASPs from paying tax on Naira devaluation. 1. Acquisition (When Crypto Was Bought) Fiat Cost (₦) NAFEM Rate (₦/$) 2. Disposal (When Crypto Was Sold) Fiat Proceeds (₦) NAFEM Rate (₦/$) Step 1: How the NRS Converts the Trade to USD USD Purchase Value: $1,000.00 (₦1.0M ÷ ₦1,000) USD Sale Value: $1,313.33 (₦1.97M ÷ ₦1,500) Real Underlying USD Gain: +$313.33 Step 2: Assessing Tax Liability (Direct Naira vs. NRS Rule) Direct Naive Method (Incorrect ₦-to-₦ Comparison) Apparent Gain: ₦970,000.00 CIT Tax (30%): ₦291,000.00 NRS USD-Referenced Method ($313.33 USD Gain × ₦1,500) Assessable Gain: ₦470,000.00 CIT Tax (30%): ₦141,000.00 Tax-Free Inflation Shield (Gain Excluded): ₦500,000.00 Actual VASP Corporate Tax Saved (30% CIT): ₦150,000.00 Why This Rule Matters for VASPs Data source: Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS) Information Circular No. 2026/21 (Paragraph 9.1 & Illustration 2). Applies to Category 1 assets. Corporate Income Tax calculated at standard 30% CIT rate. The bigger operational challenge, however, falls on exchanges. A ₦1 million Bitcoin trade can trigger several tax obligations: stamp duty when the Bitcoin is acquired, VAT on the exchange’s trading fee, withholding tax where applicable when the Bitcoin is disposed of, and tax on any taxable gain realised by the user. The exchange may be responsible for collecting and remitting several of those taxes even though only the trading fee is its own revenue. The compliance burden becomes more complicated because the taxes may be accounted for in different forms. Stamp duty and withholding can be remitted in the relevant virtual asset, while VAT is remitted in the currency used for the transaction. An exchange could, therefore, be holding Bitcoin collected as stamp duty, another virtual asset collected as withholding tax, USDT received as service fees, and naira reserved for VAT remittance, while simultaneously managing price volatility, custody, reconciliation, and regulatory reporting. And after all of that, the company remains liable for company income tax on its own taxable profits. P2P trading doesn’t escape the tax net Peer-to-peer (P2P) trading has become one of the most popular ways for Nigerians to buy and sell crypto. Years of restrictions on direct bank-to-crypto deposits pushed retail users toward P2P platforms. The new guidelines bring that market firmly within the tax framework, although the compliance obligations
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The Next Wave: The mechanics of buying your own company
Cet article est aussi disponible en français <!– In partnership with –> First published on August 9, 2026 There is a standard, expected lifecycle for a serial technology entrepreneur. A founder builds a startup, scales it, and eventually experiences a liquidity event, either an acquisition, a public offering, or, more often, a quiet shutdown. Following this, the founder takes some time off, brainstorms a new idea, and starts the cycle again. But occasionally, the timeline folds in on itself. A founder starts a company, leaves to start a second company, and then uses the second company to acquire the first company. To an outside observer, this looks like a glitch in the corporate matrix. Buying a company from oneself sounds like the sort of infinite loop that ought to violate the laws of financial physics. This exact manoeuvre occurred in the African technology ecosystem this week. Cloud9, a Kenyan digital banking platform targeting businesses and young consumers, acquired Chpter, an AI-powered conversational commerce startup. The detail that captured the market’s attention is that Tesh Mbaabu founded both of them. The founder launched Chpter in 2024 after their previous venture-backed e-commerce platform, MarketForce, shut down its core operations during the global funding winter. By September 2025, Mbaabu and another co-founder, Mesongo Sibuti, stepped away from the daily operations of Chpter, leaving co-founder Mark Kiarie to run it. Weeks later, they launched Cloud9. Less than a year after that, Cloud9 returned to acquire Chpter in an all-stock transaction. When a transaction like this occurs, the immediate questions are structural and ethical: How does this happen? Is it legal? Is it right or wrong? Understanding the answers requires examining the underlying plumbing of corporate governance, venture capital incentives, and the concept of related-party transactions. Next Wave continues after this ad. The best builders don’t just shape the future – they stay informed. Series V by Ventures Platform brings you the insights, perspectives, trends, and opportunities shaping Africa’s innovation ecosystem. It’s an essential monthly asset for founders, operators, investors, and anyone building the future of the continent. Subscribe now! Related-party transaction In corporate law, when a buyer and a seller share the same key decision-makers, it is known as a “related-party transaction.” It is not inherently illegal, nor is it automatically unethical, but it is structurally highly suspicious. The bedrock of market capitalism is the arm’s-length negotiation. A buyer wants to pay the lowest possible price, and a seller wants to extract the highest possible price. The friction between those two competing desires creates a fair market value. When the buyer and the seller are closely linked—or are literally the same people—that friction disappears. The risk is that a controlling shareholder might use a healthy company they control to overpay for a struggling company they also own, effectively bailing out their bad investment with other people’s money. The textbook modern example of this dynamic involves Elon Musk. In 2016, Musk was the CEO and largest shareholder of Tesla. He was also the chairman and largest shareholder of SolarCity, a financially struggling solar panel company founded by his cousins. Musk proposed that Tesla buy SolarCity for $2.6 billion in stock. Aggrieved public shareholders immediately sued. They argued that Musk used a compliant board of directors to overpay for an insolvent company to save his own equity. The legal defence in these situations relies on objective procedural protections. To cleanse a related-party transaction of its conflicts, a corporate board must typically establish a special committee of completely independent directors, exclude the conflicted founders from the vote, and hire outside financial advisors to draft a “fairness opinion”. The Delaware Chancery Court eventually ruled in Musk’s favour, applying a rigorous standard known as “entire fairness.” The judge concluded that, despite procedural flaws, the price paid was fundamentally fair and the acquisition was strategically beneficial to Tesla’s evolution into a vertically integrated clean energy company. However, the court explicitly noted that the gruelling, expensive litigation could have been avoided with stricter adherence to independent governance procedures. More recently, this dynamic reappeared when Musk’s private space exploration company, SpaceX, acquired his private artificial intelligence startup, xAI. When related-party transactions happen in the private market, they bypass the procedural drag and public disclosure obligations that public companies face. A private market merger allows founders to set relative valuations and negotiate terms within a controlled ecosystem, avoiding immediate retail shareholder lawsuits. Cap tables and all-stock deals The Cloud9 acquisition of Chpter operates in this less regulated private sphere. Because there are no public shareholders to file derivative lawsuits, the arbiters of fairness are the venture capitalists sitting on the capitalisation tables (cap tables) of both startups. Chpter was not a bootstrap operation; it raised a $1.2 million pre-seed round in 2024 from investors including Ventures Platform, Future Africa, Launch Africa, and Techstars. Cloud9 is similarly backed by early-stage venture capital. For Cloud9 to acquire Chpter, the investors on both sides had to agree on a valuation. Because the transaction was an all-stock deal, no cash actually changed hands. The investors and remaining founders of Chpter simply swapped their shares in the standalone commerce company for newly issued shares in Cloud9. Why would venture capitalists agree to this arrangement, especially knowing the founders sit on both sides of the history? The answer lies in the unforgiving math of the current technology market. Venture capital in Africa has experienced a severe contraction, heavily penalising standalone point-solutions that struggle to monetise. Chpter is a software platform that helps merchants sell products and automate conversations on WhatsApp and Instagram. That is a useful software layer, but software-as-a-service (SaaS) is notoriously difficult to scale profitably without massive injections of growth capital. Digital banking, by contrast, monetises the actual flow of funds, foreign exchange, and credit. The logic dictates that an all-stock buyout is a rational risk-mitigation strategy. The venture investors in Chpter are trading a larger ownership percentage of a smaller, potentially stalled asset for a smaller ownership percentage of a larger, more ambitious financial ecosystem.
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How Medwaka rebuilt itself into an emergency response platform
Rest Essence never expected to watch a family friend come close to dying while giving birth. It was around 1 a.m. when she went into labour, and she was taken from one hospital to another. The first hospital refused to admit her for reasons that remain unclear, while the second had no electricity. Under the glow of handheld flashlights at the third hospital, she delivered her second child by caesarean section. She then began haemorrhaging, and for a moment, Essence feared she would not survive. She did, but that experience changed the course of his own life. At the time, Essence had challenged himself to spend a year searching for a problem worth solving in Africa. That night gave his search a direction, he told TechCabal. “That experience opened my eyes to how big of a problem medical emergencies are in Nigeria and across Africa,” he said. “That was when it dawned on me that this is a problem worth solving. I had known how 911 operated outside of the country, but I kept questioning why it wasn’t functional in Nigeria.” Around the same time, he joined the Fishbowl Challenge, where participants formed teams to solve real-world problems. There, he met Dr Muyiwa Oluwatobi, Dr Glennise Ayuk and Abakar Mahamat, who joined the team through the challenge. The four founders realised that, rather than solving just one part of the emergency care puzzle, they wanted to build the infrastructure that could get people help faster when every second mattered. Together, they set out to build Medwaka, an emergency response platform that connects patients experiencing medical emergencies with nearby hospitals, ambulances, and trained first responders through a mobile app. Day 1: Rebuilding what already existed Before the Fishbowl Challenge, Dr Oluwatobi had begun piloting an early model in Ondo State, south-western Nigeria. The platform focused on blood donation and emergency support for pregnant women by connecting expectant mothers with blood donors during medical emergencies. When Essence and the other co-founders joined the project through the Fishbowl Challenge, they saw a bigger opportunity. The problem, Essence believed, was that people did not know where to go during emergencies and no coordinated system could get someone from the point of distress to the care they needed. “The problem we were solving initially wasn’t large-scale enough,” he told TechCabal. “We realised the actual problem we needed to solve was much bigger.” The team went back to the drawing board, speaking with healthcare professionals, ambulance providers and emergency responders to understand how emergency care worked. The end result was Medwaka, turning the blood drive platform into an emergency response network. Through a mobile app, people experiencing medical emergencies could be connected to nearby hospitals and ambulances. With that vision in place, the team developed the first prototype and officially launched Medwaka in 2024. By February that year, the rebuilt Medwaka was ready for its first pilot in Ondo State. Day 500: When reality set in When Medwaka began its pilot in Ondo State, it had a clear plan: train first responders, partner up with hospitals, and give people a number to call during emergencies. However, the team faced challenges it did not anticipate, including low awareness of emergency response services, the difficulty of building a reliable first responder network, and the lack of ambulance infrastructure. The team started by training healthcare workers and local volunteers as first responders in Ondo State while onboarding public and private hospitals to the platform, Essence said. He explained that they recruited people with motorbikes who knew their neighbourhoods well enough to reach a patient before an ambulance could. The goal was that if an emergency occurred, Medwaka should already have someone nearby who could respond before a patient reached the hospital. By the end of 2024, Medwaka had trained 10 first responders and brought 5 hospitals onto the platform. But a bigger obstacle lay ahead of them. The founders had envisioned Medwaka as a 911-style emergency response system, Essence noted, but they realised that such ambition depended on infrastructure they did not control. Buying ambulances was beyond the reach of an early-stage startup, and relying on hospitals’ existing fleets meant dealing with delays and inconsistent availability. “It was either you bought your own ambulance, or you partner with hospitals that currently have ambulances,” he said. “We had a lot of challenges navigating that model.” Day 1000: Rethinking emergency response Due to the ambulance problem, Essence and his co-founders made a decision that would reshape Medwaka’s entire strategy. They decided to stop trying to run an independent 911-style system without the ambulances to back it up, and lean fully into partnerships instead. “Instead of trying to run this 911 system when we knew we couldn’t get ambulances, we decided to just continue with partnerships,” Essence said. “That was the biggest thing we did.” From then on, he noted that the company began shifting its partnership focus away from public health institutions and toward private hospitals and health maintenance organisations (HMOs), governments, emergency agencies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and community organisationsincluding University of Medical Sciences, Ondo. According to Essence, the partnership model changed how Medwaka created impact, allowing it to focus on strengthening existing emergency response systems. The company also expanded its offerings to include emergency response technology, first responder capacity building, digital emergency coordination tools, and healthcare system integration, he said. Today, Medwaka says it has grown to a team of 20, trained 11 first responders, and facilitated more than 550 emergency requests through its platform and partner network. For Essence, however, the company’s ambition remains unchanged from the night he watched a family friend fight for her life: to build an integrated emergency response ecosystem that connects patients, healthcare providers, first responders, and public health institutions through technology. True scale demands moving beyond surface-level integrations to robust execution. We’ve filtered the noise out of Moonshot 2026, optimising the conference strictly for high-calibre connections between startup founders, global financial operators, enterprise leaders, and individuals rewiring Africa’s technical frameworks. Get 20% off
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IHS exits Latin America as MTN takeover moves closer
IHS Towers has completed the sale of its Latin American tower operations to Macquarie Asset Management, exiting the region as the company reshapes its portfolio ahead of MTN Group’s planned acquisition. IHS Mauritius BR Limited, a subsidiary of IHS Holding Limited, completed the transaction on August 7, 2026, following an agreement announced in February. The deal covers IHS Brazil and IHS Colombia, comprising approximately 9,000 tower sites. The sale marks IHS Towers’ complete exit from Latin America, leaving the company focused on its African operations, where it has more than 28,000 towers across Nigeria, South Africa, Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon and Zambia. The divestment also aligns with MTN’s plan to acquire the remaining shares in IHS and take the tower company private. In a statement to shareholders, note-holders, and the media, including TechCabal, MTN said the completion of the sale “aligns with the intention by MTN to acquire only IHS’s African assets as part of the Transaction.” MTN announced the proposed acquisition in February. On August 5, IHS shareholders approved the merger at an extraordinary general meeting, satisfying one of the conditions required for the transaction to proceed. With the Latin American assets now divested, the proposed acquisition is focused solely on IHS’s African tower portfolio, simplifying the transaction structure and aligning it with MTN’s strategic priorities. JP Morgan advised IHS on the transaction. Macquarie Asset Management, the buyer, manages approximately $477 billion in assets globally. For IHS, the sale marks a significant strategic retreat as the company narrows its focus to emerging African markets. For MTN, it removes IHS’s Latin American operations from the proposed acquisition and strengthens its focus on African digital infrastructure. The broader acquisition, however, is still pending. MTN said the deal remains subject to regulatory approvals, which are still being processed. IHS shareholders approved the MTN Group acquisition on Wednesday, August 5, 2026. The acquisition remains subject to regulatory approvals. Once completed, it will give MTN full ownership of IHS’s remaining African tower business, strengthening its control over one of the continent’s largest independent telecommunications infrastructure portfolios. True scale demands moving beyond surface-level integrations to robust execution. We’ve filtered the noise out of Moonshot 2026, optimising the conference strictly for high-calibre connections between startup founders, global financial operators, enterprise leaders and individuals rewiring Africa’s technical frameworks. Get 20% off Early Bird tickets for a limited time.
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How Pause Point on Android 17 works and why it matters
You unlock your phone to reply to a text message. Before you know it, you’ve spent half an hour scrolling through short videos, memes, or social media posts you never intended to see. It’s a familiar experience for smartphone users, and one Google wants to address with a simple but deliberate interruption. Pause Point is a new Digital Wellbeing feature Google unveiled during its Android announcements ahead of Google I/O 2026. Although it is closely tied to Android 17, Google says the feature is coming later this year. Rather than locking you out of distracting apps or imposing strict screen time limits, Pause Point introduces a brief pause before you open apps you’ve identified as distracting, giving you a moment to reconsider whether you really want to continue. The feature reflects Google’s broader effort to make Android not just smarter, but more intentional. As smartphones become increasingly powered by AI, the company is also looking at ways technology can help users build healthier digital habits instead of encouraging endless scrolling. This article explains what Pause Point is, how it works, and why it could become one of Google’s most useful Digital Wellbeing features. What is Pause Point? Pause Point is a new Digital Wellbeing feature designed to help users reduce mindless phone use. Instead of preventing access to social media or entertainment apps, it inserts a short pause before those apps open, encouraging users to think about why they’re launching them. Think of it as a speed bump rather than a roadblock. If you decide Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, X, or another app tends to distract you, you can mark it as a distracting app. The next time you try to open it, Android briefly interrupts the experience before letting you continue. Google says existing Digital Wellbeing tools often fall into two extremes. App timers can be easy to dismiss, while completely blocking access to apps may not be practical for everyday use. Pause Point is designed to sit between those approaches by encouraging users to make a conscious choice without preventing them from using the app. Unlike app timers that cut you off after you’ve already spent time scrolling, Pause Point intervenes before the habit takes over. How does Pause Point work? 1. You choose which apps are distracting Pause Point isn’t enabled for every app on your phone. Instead, you decide which apps should trigger the pause. That means productivity apps, messaging platforms, or work tools remain unaffected unless you choose otherwise. The feature is designed around personal habits rather than assuming every user finds the same apps distracting. 2. A 10-second pause before the app opens When you launch one of your selected apps, Android displays a 10-second pause screen instead of opening it immediately. During those few seconds, you’re prompted to ask yourself a simple question: “Why am I here?” Google designed the delay to interrupt automatic app-opening habits and encourage users to pause before continuing. 3. It offers healthier alternatives The pause isn’t just a countdown. During those ten seconds, Android can offer a short breathing exercise, setting a timer for your app session, looking at favourite photos, or jumping to another activity such as reading a book. These suggestions are designed to gently redirect users instead of forcing them away from the app altogether. 4. It’s deliberately harder to turn off Google has also added friction to disabling Pause Point. If users decide they no longer want the feature, Android requires them to restart their phone before they can switch it off. The extra step is meant to discourage impulsive decisions made in the middle of a scrolling session. Why did Google introduce Pause Point? Pause Point is Google’s latest attempt to help users reduce mindless scrolling and other habitual phone use. Modern apps are designed to capture and hold attention. Recommendation algorithms, infinite scrolling, and autoplay features can make it easy to spend far more time on a phone than originally intended. Traditional Digital Wellbeing tools already allow users to monitor screen time or set daily limits, but many people simply ignore or dismiss those notifications. Pause Point takes a different approach. Instead of restricting access, it introduces a brief interruption at the exact moment a habit begins. The idea is simple: creating a small moment of reflection before an app opens may help users make more intentional decisions about how they spend their time. The feature also arrives as governments, researchers, and regulators continue examining the effects of addictive app design and excessive screen time, particularly among younger users. Pause Point vs App Timers Interrupts you before opening an app vs limits how long you can use an app. Encourages reflection vs restricts access after a set time. Focuses on preventing automatic habits vs reducing overall screen time. Allows you to continue immediately after the pause vs locks the app when your daily limit is reached. For many users, Pause Point may feel less restrictive because it doesn’t stop them from using an app. Instead, it encourages more intentional choices before scrolling begins. Will Pause Point actually help reduce screen time? Whether Pause Point changes behaviour will vary from person to person, but the feature is built around a simple idea: interrupting automatic habits with a brief pause may help people make more deliberate choices. Many of us unlock our phones almost instinctively. We tap familiar apps without thinking, often out of habit rather than necessity. By adding just ten seconds of friction, Pause Point aims to break that automatic loop. Of course, the feature won’t eliminate distractions overnight. Users can still choose to open the app once the countdown ends. But even if it helps people avoid a handful of unnecessary scrolling sessions each day, those saved minutes can add up over time. Rather than relying on willpower alone, Pause Point makes mindful phone use a little easier. Which phones will get Pause Point? Android 17 is rolling out first to supported Google Pixel devices, with other Android manufacturers expected to
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Naira-backed stablecoin cNGN launches on Celo network to ease cross-border payments
cNGN, the Naira-backed stablecoin issued by private company WrappedCBDC, has launched on the Celo blockchain, opening a new channel for instant foreign exchange (FX) settlement and cross-border payments using digital tokens. The integration allows users to swap cNGN for dollar-backed stablecoins, such as Tether’s USDT, through Textile FX, a cross-chain liquidity network that said it had already onboarded 78 over-the-counter (OTC) traders and cross-border payment companies in Nigeria ahead of its launch. The move is intended to connect a naira-denominated digital asset with global stablecoin liquidity, potentially giving fintechs and payment companies a faster and cheaper way to settle international transactions than traditional banking rails. A stablecoin is a digital currency pegged to the value of a fiat currency, such as the US dollar or naira. WrappedCBDC was part of the Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Regulatory Incubation (RI) programme, which allows companies to test and pilot tokenised products under regulatory supervision. The company was also included in the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) anti-money laundering supervisory pilot on March 31, and was later admitted into the SEC’s Accelerated Regulatory Incubation Programme (ARIP) on July 2. According to the company, cNGN is backed one-for-one by naira reserves held in Nigerian commercial banks. WrappedCBDC said it also invests those reserves in treasury bills, money market funds, and fixed deposits. As of August 7, cNGN had a circulating supply of about ₦2.5 billion ($1.8 million), cumulative trading volume of approximately ₦214.2 billion ($157 million), and 8,216 holders, according to the issuer. “Nigeria is leading much of the world in stablecoin adoption,” Uyoyo Ogedegbe, cNGN’s managing director, said in a statement. “Our mission since launching cNGN has been to enable scalable, real-world use cases across Africa and beyond. Celo extends that work into one of the deepest stablecoin ecosystems, where cNGN now sits alongside more than 30 other stablecoins.” Textile FX said it processed more than $4 million in institutional trading volume in July. Stablecoins have become increasingly important in Nigeria’s digital economy as businesses and consumers seek alternatives to expensive and often delayed cross-border transfers. The country is one of the largest crypto markets in sub-Saharan Africa and has seen rapid adoption of dollar-backed stablecoins for payments, remittances, and savings. Celo said it will begin a governance process to allow cNGN to be used to pay transaction fees on the network, a feature that could make the token more practical for everyday transfers and merchant payments. The launch also expands Celo’s growing stablecoin ecosystem, which the company said now includes 32 fiat-backed stablecoins. “Local currency stablecoins have been a core focus of the Celo ecosystem since mainnet launch in 2020, and Nigeria is one of the corridors where the case is clearest,” Markus Franke, Global Head of Stablecoins at Celo Core, said in a statement. “Bringing cNGN to Celo puts the regulated Naira stablecoin on rails where transfers cost a fraction of a cent and settle in an instant, on a network powering payments for millions worldwide.” True scale demands moving beyond surface-level integrations to robust execution. We’ve filtered the noise out of Moonshot 2026, optimising the conference strictly for high-calibre connections between startup founders, global financial operators, enterprise leaders, and individuals rewiring Africa’s technical frameworks. Get 20% off Early Bird tickets for a limited time.
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South Africa is betting on WhatsApp to bring Gen Z back to the ballot box
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), South Africa’s electoral body, has taken voter registration to WhatsApp, the country’s most widely used messaging platform, in a bid to attract more young people to local elections. Launched on Tuesday ahead of Friday’s registration deadline, the service reflects a simple premise: that bringing voter registration to platforms young people already use could attract more of them to the democratic process. The strategy appears to be gaining traction. Nearly half a million voter registration transactions during the IEC’s final registration drive came from people aged 16 to 29, while 46% of all new registrations were by voters under 29. The figures suggest digital platforms may be lowering barriers to registration. The bigger question, however, is whether making registration easier can also overcome the political disengagement that has defined past local elections. The IEC introduced WhatsApp registration this week, allowing eligible citizens to register or update their voting details through a service that uses OTP authentication, ID document uploads, address verification and voting station confirmation. Sy Mamabolo, IEC Chief Electoral Officer, said the commission chose WhatsApp because it is already part of many South Africans’ daily lives. “By leveraging a platform used daily by millions of South Africans, the commission is expanding access to voter registration, improving convenience and ensuring that more eligible voters can register or update their details before the close of the registration period,” he said. Mamabolo added that the platform’s identity verification measures are designed to protect the integrity of the voters’ roll. IEC Chief Electoral Officer Sy Mamabolo says the commission’s new WhatsApp registration service is designed to make voter registration more accessible. Image Source: Business Day. For the IEC, WhatsApp is the latest step in a broader push to digitise voter services. While physical voting stations remain central to elections, the commission is experimenting with technology to reduce the friction of registering, particularly for younger citizens who are more comfortable interacting through mobile platforms than queuing at government offices. Kate Bapela, the IEC’s spokesperson, told TechCabal that digital services have played an important role in attracting younger voters during the registration campaign. “We have seen a significant increase in the number of young people participating, largely because of the digital platforms we’ve made available,” said Bapela. “Online registration has been successful, and the latest addition is the WhatsApp registration service.” She said the commission’s goal is to remove as many barriers as possible for first-time voters ahead of the November local government elections. “It’s looking good. We are pleased that we have been able to provide as many registration platforms as possible for young South Africans so that we don’t miss them. People like you and me have long been registered, but it’s the new generation we want to bring into the electoral process, and they’re really taking advantage of these opportunities,” she said. Demand has been strong. Speaking to TechCabal on Friday, hours before voter registration closed, Bapela said the IEC’s digital platforms were operating “at full capacity” as South Africans rushed to beat the deadline. The commission’s figures also point to strong digital engagement. During the final voter registration weekend, South Africans completed 1.7 million registration-related transactions, including 291,016 first-time registrations, with the online registration portal accounting for 238,000 transactions. WhatsApp may help the IEC register more young South Africans. Whether those new registrations translate into higher turnout is a different challenge altogether. Making registration easier removes one barrier to participation, but it does not necessarily address the political disillusionment that has depressed youth turnout in recent local elections. Ultimately, persuading newly registered voters to cast a ballot will depend less on technology than on whether political parties can convince them that voting is worthwhile. True scale demands moving beyond surface-level integrations to robust execution. We’ve filtered the noise out of Moonshot 2026, optimising the conference strictly for high-calibre connections between startup founders, global financial operators, enterprise leaders, and individuals rewiring Africa’s technical frameworks. Get 20% off Early Bird tickets for a limited time.
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