Africa leads on private capital diversity, women still get less money
The narrative surrounding African venture capital has been defined by a disparity of female founders receiving only a fraction of the funding secured by their male counterparts. Per data from TechCabal Insights, women-led startups raised $48 million in funding in 2024, compared to over $2 billion by their male peers, and only 10% of female-founded startups in Nigeria secured funding between 2019 and 2023. The African Private Capital Association (AVCA), a pan-African organisation that promotes investments in Africa, released a new report in January 2026 that exposes a counter-narrative. The report reveals that while the recipients of capital remain predominantly male, the people writing the cheques on the continent are increasingly female, and at rates that outperform the rest of the world. The AVCA report, Gender Diversity in African Private Capital, draws from a dataset of 218 investors that manage nearly 2,000 portfolio companies to show that in Africa’s private equity ecosystem, women make up 44% of the total workforce and 38% of investment professionals. The figure exceeds the global average, where women account for about 35% of investment teams, as well as the regional average in Europe (24%). This diversity extends to the Investment Committees (ICs), the people who make final funding decisions, where women hold 33% of committee seats in Africa, nearly triple the global average of 12%. AVCA’s report shows a correlation between who sits on these committees and who ultimately receives funding. Firms with majority-female investment committees allocate capital to women-led companies at higher rates (48% of their portfolio companies), compared to the 8% among male-dominated firms. It begs the question: If Africa has achieved relative success in diversifying who allocates capital, why does the funding landscape remain so skewed? The report highlights a structural disconnect stemming from the firm’s size. The highest gender diversity in private equity and venture capital firms is concentrated in smaller firms, which manage less capital, limiting their influence on aggregate funding flows. Larger firms, which are still more likely to have male-dominated investment committees, deploy the lion’s share of capital on the continent, which continues to shape the broader funding environment. 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 TC Scoop Subscribe Beyond the moral argument for inclusion, AVCA’s data presents an economic case for gender-diverse leadership. The report found that between 2023 and 2024, female-led portfolio companies grew their revenue by 32%, while male-led peers saw a growth of 14%. The data also revealed that women-founded companies employ an average of 52% women, compared to just 30% for male-founded firms, showing that diversity at the decision-making level has measurable effects on employment and financial performance. The new data suggests that Africa has laid a foundation for gender diversity that is stronger than many developed markets. As the industry matures, the challenge will be ensuring that the strategies championed by a cohort of female-led firms leading the charge to close the funding disparity gap will be adopted by the continent’s largest capital allocators. Among this cohort of female-led firms are: Aruwa Capital Management The Lagos-based equity fund, founded in 2019 by Adesuwa Okunbo Rhodes, invests in businesses that provide essential goods and services to women or are founded by women. In April 2025, the firm raised $35 million and has invested in 11 companies, including an $11 million Series A funding round by cold-chain logistics provider, Koolboks, a $1.5m investment in safety footwear manufacturer Yikodeen, a $2m investment in Fastizers, a Nigeria-based biscuits and snacks manufacturer, and a $20 million Series A funding by OmniRetail, a Nigerian B2B e-commerce startup. Ingressive Capital Maya Horgan Famodu founded Ingressive Capital in 2017 as a seed-stage venture fund that connects African startups with global capital and business development opportunities. Ingressive Capital has backed some of the continent’s most successful startups, including participating in a $15 million Series A round for fintech Mono, a $1.8 million pre-seed funding round in Cameroonian fintech REasy, and leading a $1.1 million seed round for Egyptian insurtech SehaTech. In 2020, the firm unveiled a $10 million fund for high-growth tech startups, doubling the size of its investments. Alitheia Capital Alitheia Capital, co-founded in 2007 by Tokunboh Ishmael and Olajumoke Akinwunmi, invests in growth-stage small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that are women-led, women-owned, or serve the women’s economy. Alitheia Capital manages the $100 million Alitheia IDF fund, which stands as the largest gender-lens private equity fund in Africa that invests in and grows SMEs led by gender-diverse teams. The firm has led significant financing rounds, including an $11 million investment in South African home services platform SweepSouth and a $3 million Series A round for Nigerian agri-processor Reelfruit. Alitheia also led the $3 million seed round for logistics platform Haul247 in 2023. Janngo Capital Fatoumata Bâ’s Janngo Capital, founded in 2018, is one of Africa’s largest gender-equal venture capital funds, having closed its second fund at approximately $78 million in 2024. The firm has a strong track record of backing market-leading companies, including Sabi, a B2B e-commerce platform, in a $38 million Series B funding round and Expensya, a fintech startup, in a $9 million seed round for its subsidiary, Thunder Code. Most recently, it led the funding round for Moroccan HR-tech startup Jobzyn in an undisclosed pre-seed round, continuing its mandate to invest 50% of its capital in women-led businesses. Sahara Impact Ventures Based in Ghana, founded in 2020, and led by managing partners Yvonne Ofosu-Appiah and Mandy Nyarko, the firm is an investment advisory and venture fund that backs early-stage African
Read MoreWhy Shell Foundation and 500 Global built an accelerator for Africa’s climate startups
The transition to a net-zero economy, which balances the greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere with those removed from it, is often told as a story of Western policy and technology. But the sharper test is unfolding far from the West. Across Africa, Latin America, and much of Asia, countries that will account for most future energy use, city building and job creation are making decisions that will shape the world’s carbon footprint for decades to come. The same countries also account for a rising share of global emissions due to industrialisation, urbanisation, and energy demand. Manufacturing has also shifted from the North, leading to a greater share of global emissions at about 63%. However, the task here is not to cut consumption but to expand it without locking in carbon-heavy systems. This is where climate startups have struggled. Local accelerators in these markets are small, thinly funded and often limited to one country. Global venture firms tend to avoid seed-stage climate companies in emerging economies, citing long payback periods, policy risk and low margins. Impact capital steps in, but usually with grants or short programmes that stop before commercial scale. Last week, I spoke with Juliette Keeley, chief impact officer at Shell Foundation (SF), which supports clean energy solutions, and Carrie Liauw, executive director at 500 Global, a US venture capital firm, to understand how both firms are backing African climate tech startups. They broke down how the Sustainable Innovation Program (SIP), an accelerator initiative led by the two firms, is making these sustainability-focused startups investable before they reach the hardest part of the capital stack. The effort sits at the intersection of grant funding and early venture capital. In Nairobi, startups in 500 Global’s Sustainable Innovation Seed Accelerator typically raise about $150,000 for 6% equity, with roughly $37,500 deducted as programme fees. Shell Foundation, which does not take equity, has backed early-stage agri-energy pilots in Africa with cheques ranging from $15,000 to $50,000. In parallel programmes elsewhere, Shell has gone further up the risk curve; its 2025 Shell E4 cohort in India received between €100,000 and €500,000 per startup. The African programme was launched in August 2025 with backing from the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, targeting startups in energy, agriculture and mobility. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. How does the Sustainable Innovation Seed Accelerator connect emerging market startups to global mentors, investors and customers? Carrie Liauw: Many accelerators in emerging markets operate within a single country. Startups often have limited exposure to global investors, customers, and operating experience beyond their home market. The Sustainable Innovation Seed Accelerator is structured to give founders access to global mentors and 500 Global’s international network, rather than short, market-specific support. What does the Shell Foundation actually pay for in this programme? Juliette Keeley: Shell Foundation provides grant funding to support a 12-month accelerator model. The funding covers enterprise support delivered locally, including market validation, product-market fit, capital planning and fundraising support. The programme is non-equity. It focuses on business support, with 500 Global providing mentorship, networks, and toolkits to help companies grow revenue. The programme supports companies from Seed through Series B, reflecting where Shell Foundation sees the largest gaps in the market today. How do you avoid crowding out local capital or local accelerators when you step in with global funding and brand power? Keely: Many local accelerators operate at a small scale and for short programme durations. This programme is designed to complement, rather than replace, local efforts by extending founders’ access to global investors and customers. In Kenya, the startup ecosystem includes organisations such as Baobab Network, iHub, KCIC, Delta 40, Savannah Fund and Catalyst Fund. 500 Global is exploring collaboration with existing ecosystem players. The accelerator is being delivered in partnership with the timbuktoo Africa initiative led by UNDP, with a focus on strengthening local capabilities alongside global exposure. How much influence does the Shell Foundation have over a company’s strategy during the programme? Where is the line between support and steering? Keely: 500 Global provides mentorship and guidance on strategy and execution, but founders retain decision-making authority. From the Shell Foundation’s perspective, we focus on whether companies are serving our core customer groups and tracking income and gender outcomes. We monitor this through selection criteria and KPIs. Beyond that, we do not direct company strategy. How do you decide which risks you absorb and which risks you leave with founders or follow-on investors? What does that look like in practice? Keely: Shell Foundation accepts that impact risk is inherent at early stages, since income and climate outcomes only materialise as companies scale. We manage this through aligned KPIs, selection criteria, and reporting requirements, while founders and future investors continue to carry commercial risk. How do you price the cost of failure? When a startup does not scale, what signals do you track to decide whether the model failed or the market was misread? Keely: We set milestones and stop criteria tied to customer reach, income uplift, and gender outcomes within defined timeframes. These signals help us assess whether challenges stem from execution, market assumptions, or the model itself. What parts of the value chain do you intervene in most aggressively? Product design, unit economics, governance or market access. Why those layers? Keely: Shell Foundation works across innovation, scaling partnerships, and capital mobilisation. The accelerator reflects this by supporting companies on market validation, product-market fit, expansion, fundraising, and network access, rather than focusing on a single intervention point. What data do these startups flow back to the Shell Foundation during and after the programme? How is it used to shape future investment theses? Keely: Companies report on customer numbers, capital mobilised, and emissions avoided. A third-party evaluator assesses income impacts on customers. This data informs future decisions on investing in similar accelerators and funds. Lastly, at what point does the Shell Foundation step back? What conditions trigger a clean exit from active involvement? Keely: After the accelerator ends, we review results related
Read MoreDon’t agree with your tax bill? Nigeria’s new law gives you 30 days to object
This is Follow the Money, our weekly series that unpacks the earnings, business, and scaling strategies of African fintechs and financial institutions. A new edition drops every Monday. Nigeria’s new tax laws are designed to move money faster from the economy to the government. But that process does not start with payment; it begins with self-assessment. Once a tax authority issues an assessment, a taxpayer must pay within 30 days or object, according to the Nigeria Tax Administration Act (NTAA) 2025. This 30-day rule is central to the government’s plan to raise at least ₦17.85 trillion ($12.59 billion) in tax and customs revenue in 2026. By making taxpayers either challenge an assessment within a month or accept it as settled, the system shifts the burden of accuracy from the state to the individual, accelerating how money flows into public coffers. For example, a freelancer earning between ₦4 million ($2,820.97) and ₦6 million ($4,231.46) monthly who is assessed above actual income and fails to object within 30 days is bound by that figure. They must pay, or face penalties and recovery actions. For freelancers, remote workers, and content creators, many of whom will pay income taxes for the first time in 2026, the deadline may matter more than the tax rate itself. Once an assessment is issued, they must respond within a month or accept the bill as final. Controversies have trailed the implementation of Nigeria’s new tax laws, but states have begun to align with them, and the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS) has started work as the country’s central tax authority. The reform aims to lift Nigeria’s tax-to-GDP ratio from around 10% to 18% in 2027, largely by pulling more people into the tax net. Freelancers, remote workers, and content creators are central to this expansion. Globally, objection windows vary widely. In South Africa, taxpayers have 80 days. It is 90 days in Canada, four years in Australia, and 30 days in the United Kingdom. How assessment works Unlike salaried workers, whose taxes are deducted before salaries ever hit their bank accounts, this new class of taxpayers must assess themselves. Under the law, a taxable person is required to voluntarily declare income, file returns, and pay taxes due. The tax authority can then do one of three things: accept the return as filed; accept it but raise an additional assessment; or reject it entirely and issue its own assessment to the best of its judgment. If a taxpayer fails to file at all, the tax authority will, to the best of its judgement determine the amount of the tax due. While the law gives tax authorities broad discretion to determine what someone should pay, it also offers taxpayers an objection window of 30 days. The 30-day window Once an assessment is served, the taxpayer has 30 days to challenge it. To be valid, the objection must be detailed and precise. It must spell out: the exact errors or disputed issues, with monetary values; the amendments requested; justification for those amendments; amount of assessable and total profits; the income or transaction values the taxpayer admits; and the amount of tax admitted, or a declaration that none is payable. This layer of objection is largely evidence-based and often requires professional tax advice. After receiving the objection, the tax authority can demand documents, summon witnesses, and request further evidence. If both sides agree, the assessment is revised and reissued, and a revised notice period, usually 30 days, is given. In cases where the tax authority and the taxpayer disagree on the outcome of the objection, the taxpayer can appeal. The tax authority has 90 days to respond to all valid objections. If it fails to do so, the objection automatically succeeds. NTAA Objection Tracker Don’t let the 30-day window close on you. Date Assessment Notice Received: — Days to Object Validity Checklist (Legal Requirements): Precise monetary value of disputed amount Justification/Evidence (Receipts, Invoices) TIN and formal written notice Select a date above to see your deadline. Data Source: Nigeria Tax Administration Act (NTAA) 2025. When does a tax bill become final An assessment becomes legally binding when no valid objection or appeal is filed within 30 days; the taxpayer agrees to the assessed income or profit; or the amount is confirmed after objection or appeal. Failure to pay attracts penalties, including at least 10% interest on tax owed, and gives the tax authority power to appoint the taxpayer’s bank as a recovery agent. After assessments, tax authorities are required to maintain assessment lists containing the names and addresses of the taxable persons assessed to tax. The name and address of any person in whose name any such taxable person is chargeable; the amount of the total profits of each person; the amount of tax payable by the person; and any other documentation determined by the tax authority. Taxes depend on proof. Taxpayers are taxed not just on what they earn, but on what they can document. For millions of first-time taxpayers in 2026, the difference between a fair assessment and an inflated one is a paper trail: bank statements, invoices, contracts, and receipts.
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Why the Tecno Pop 10 might be the smartest budget phone buy in 2026
Table of contents 1. 120Hz high-refresh-rate 2. Four-year fluency guarantee 3. IP64 dust and water resistance 4. Strong battery life with a 5000mAh battery 5. AI productivity features 6. FreeLink offline calling and messaging 7. Dual stereo speakers 8. Unisoc T7250 chipset 9. Wet Touch display technology 10. Excellent value-for-money pricing A few years ago, the decision to buy a budget smartphone was simple. If a phone was cheap, you already knew what you were giving up: smooth performance, durability, long-term usability, sometimes all three. Budget phones were stopgaps, not devices you expected to rely on every day. That assumption doesn’t quite hold anymore. I noticed this shift the first time I spent a full day with a Tecno Pop 10. Scrolling felt unusually smooth. The phone didn’t lag when switching between apps. It survived light rain without panic. And by the end of the day, the battery still had enough charge to get me through the night. At some point, it stopped feeling like a “budget phone” and became a phone that simply did its job well. That moment is what this article is about. The Tecno Pop 10 represents a new category of smartphones in 2026: devices that sit in the ₦100,000 ($68) to ₦150,000 ($101) range but borrow ideas, features, and design philosophies that used to belong exclusively to more expensive phones. If you’re considering the Tecno Pop 10, or you’re just curious why it keeps showing up in conversations about value phones this year, here are 10 reasons why it might be one of the smartest buys you can make in 2026. 10 reasons to buy the Tecno Pop 10 120Hz high-refresh-rate display at a budget price Four-year fluency guarantee for long-term performance IP64 dust and water resistance with 1.5m drop protection Strong battery life with a 5000mAh battery and AI charging optimisation AI productivity features built directly into the operating system FreeLink offline calling and messaging without a network or internet Dual stereo speakers with DTS sound tuning Reliable everyday performance powered by the Unisoc T7250 chipset Wet Touch display technology for use in rain or humid conditions Excellent value-for-money pricing in the ₦100,000–₦150,000 range 1. 120Hz high-refresh-rate display at a budget price Image source: Edima Akpan on Youtube The Tecno Pop 10 changes what you expect from a budget phone screen. The Pop 10 challenges this legacy by integrating high-refresh-rate displays, sophisticated artificial intelligence, and proprietary communication protocols that were, until recently, reserved for flagship hardware. You interact with a 6.67-inch IPS LCD panel that represents a big step forward for the Pop series. The resolution stays at 720 x 1600 pixels (HD+), with a pixel density of approximately 263 ppi, but the key upgrade is the 120Hz refresh rate. This is described as a transformative inclusion for a device in this price bracket. That 120Hz refresh rate means system animations, social media scrolling, and UI transitions move smoothly. According to Tecno, this “minimises visual stutter, thereby reducing eye strain during prolonged use.” In simple terms, your screen feels smoother and easier on your eyes during daily use. The spec summary makes it clear: Refresh Rate: 120Hz Provides flagship-level scrolling smoothness in the budget tier 2. Four-year fluency guarantee for long-term performance The Tecno Pop 10 is built with long-term use in mind. The Tecno product sheet explains that “the structural and internal composition of the Tecno Pop 10 reflects a shift toward ‘long-cycle’ engineering,” which focuses on extending how long budget hardware stays usable. This approach is evident in the TDV-certified four-year fluency guarantee. This guarantee means the hardware-software integration has been optimised to resist the system ‘rot’ typically associated with entry-level Android devices after 12 to 18 months of use. For you, this matters financially. The 4-year fluency guarantee is a critical benefit in markets like Nigeria, where buying a smartphone is a serious household investment. You get confidence that your phone will not slow down badly within a year. The result is simple and measurable. It reduces the ‘total cost of ownership’ by extending the replacement cycle from the typical 18 months to 48 months. You keep your phone longer and replace it less often. 3. IP64 dust and water resistance with 1.5m drop protection Image source: Edima Akpan on Youtube Durability is one of the Tecno Pop 10’s strongest points. The most notable engineering achievement in the build is the IP64 rating. This rating means the device is fully protected against dust ingress and resistant to water splashes from any direction. In a budget phone, this matters a lot. In a budget context, IP64 resistance is a major differentiator. You can use the Pop 10 in dusty construction sites, in the rain, or in humid environments without worrying about internal corrosion or short-circuiting. Physical strength goes beyond water and dust. The phone includes a reinforced internal structure that provides drop resistance of up to 1.5 meters. This places it among the more rugged non-specialised phones in the 2026 market. The IP64 rating and 1.5m drop resistance provide peace of mind engineering for everyday use. 4. Strong battery life with a 5000mAh battery and AI charging optimisation Battery life sits at the core of the Tecno Pop 10’s appeal. Battery endurance remains the cornerstone of the Pop 10’s value proposition. You get a 5000mAh lithium-polymer battery, paired with an efficiency-focused Unisoc chipset and a 720p display. This combination is said to provide exceptional longevity. The endurance figures are clear and practical: Up to 20 hours of continuous video playback Up to 60 hours of music listening on a single charge In everyday mixed use, the phone typically lasts up to 2 days for light-to-moderate users. When it is time to recharge, the Pop 10 uses 15W fast charging via a USB Type-C port. While 15W is described as conservative compared to flagship speeds, it is still an improvement over older 10W budget standards, cutting full charge time to about 2.5 to 3 hours. The battery system also gets smarter over
Read MoreDay 1-1000 of Muvment by Autogirl: The ₦20 million lesson in why “vibes” don’t replace insurance
Africa’s mobility tech is no longer about growing at all costs; it is now a battle for unit economics and risk management. No one knows this better than Chinazom ‘Chi-Chi’ Arinze, the founder of Muvment by Autogirl, a Nigerian peer-to-peer (P2P) mobility marketplace that wants to be the “Airbnb for vehicles” in Africa. When a car that was rented out via her platform was involved in a car crash, Arinze was looking at a ₦20 million ($14,000) hole in her business. This raised an existential question: “What if this happens every week? What if this kills my company?” Muvment survived the loss, with Arinze learning lessons the hard way that insurance was non-negotiable. Today, if you asked her about building in Africa’s tech ecosystem, she’d tell you it’s exhausting. But between the law school hustle where she flipped her first car and her current expansion into Ghana and Kenya, Arinze has built a formidable system out of thin air. She started with zero capital, a Google Sheet, and a flurry of WhatsApp messages. Today, she is building a system that tries to change the way African mobility works. Day 1: The accidental entrepreneur Arinze didn’t set out to build a company. She wanted to make money while in university. “I started selling cars for people, car dealers, and I was able to make income from those commissions,” she recalls. “I gathered this cash together and bought the first vehicle that I flipped and sold.” She bought it, resold it, and got her capital back. Then she kept flipping cars. But car sales were cash-intensive and not very lucrative. She needed something that generated more money with less capital. The pivot came from observation. Corporate clients and consultants needed cars for short periods—three months to a year. Buying and reselling after three months made no sense. Ride-hailing wasn’t reliable enough for daily corporate use. Traditional rental companies existed, but options were limited. Meanwhile, Arinze knew parents who only used their cars during morning and evening commutes, and the rest of the day, vehicles sat idle. “What if I tell these people that they could make money through their vehicle?? she thought. That question became Autogirl in 2019, a peer-to-peer car rental marketplace connecting car owners with renters. Day 500: The manual era For the first few years, Autogirl ran entirely manually. “There were a lot of calls, DMs, and WhatsApp messages to take bookings. A lot of Google Sheets, even paper to record bookings,” Arinze says. The breaking point came when scale demanded automation. You can’t manage dozens of cars, hundreds of trips, and multiple revenue streams on WhatsApp and Google Sheets. That’s when Autogirl evolved into Muvment—a technical product with proper infrastructure. Car owners could see their bookings in real-time, track earnings, and monitor pending payments. Customers could book without calling anyone. Live chat handled complaints. By 2024, Muvment said it had completed over 12,000 rides, served over 3,000 customers, and paid out over $530,000 to car owners. The average car owner earns ₦7 million ($4,230) per vehicle annually. The company expanded to Ghana and is eyeing Kenya, Côte d’Ivoire, and Benin. Arinze even has plans for cross-border rentals—rent a car in Lagos, drive to Cotonou for the weekend, and return it to Lagos. But growth revealed cracks in the foundation. Specifically, in insurance. The ₦20 million wake-up call Arinze’s first wakeup call to fix a loophole in her system was a ₦20 million ($14,000) car crash. The customer was driving under self-drive rental—Muvment’s premium service, where customers drive themselves instead of using a driver. The car owner didn’t have comprehensive insurance, which meant Muvment would have to cover the full cost of the crash. “Usually we tell car hosts to have comprehensive insurance, but this one did not,” Arinze said. “We did not even know how to handle the case because this was a new car that was completely totaled, and fixing it was like over ₦20-something million.” The fear wasn’t just the money; it was the precedent it could set. “I was just like, wait, what if this happens every other week?” Muvment had to negotiate a payment plan with the car owner. The owner covered some liability because he hadn’t followed the company’srules (comprehensive insurance is mandatory). Muvment covered the rest, and the car got fixed. But the lesson burned in Arinze’s head: Don’t play with insurance. “If I could go back in time and tell the person who decided to start renting cars, I’d say, don’t play with insurance, please. Incredibly important in this business. I learned it the hard way.” Now Muvment personally verifies every insurance policy document that car owners submit. Because when there’s liability, there can be no question of who’s taking it. “It hasn’t happened since then,” Arinze notes. But the scare changed how she thinks about risk. Trust in a low-trust market Operating peer-to-peer car rentals in Nigeria means asking strangers to hand over car keys worth millions of naira. Building that trust requires systems. Most Muvment rentals come with drivers. For self-drive—the riskier service—there’s extensive KYC: driver’s license, international passport, verifiable home address, office ID. Plus the same details for the customer’s guarantor. Muvment works with verification partners like Prembly and IdentityPass to confirm identities. Once customers pass KYC, they can rent. The system mostly works. Except when customers decide rules don’t apply to them. In December 2023, a customer rented a car for self-driving and violated the cardinal rule – to not leave Lagos. The customer knew this and agreed to it. Then he drove to Imo State in Eastern Nigeria—over 400 kilometers away. “By the time we found out with the tracker, I was scared. Everybody was worried,” Arinze recalls. But Muvment had done proper verification. They knew his details and, to some extent, had their fears abated. “We were sure that if anything happened, we’d be able to retrieve the car.” The customer stayed in Imo State for two weeks. He kept in daily contact. “We
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5 African startups reimagining stores, services, and storytelling
Startups On Our Radar spotlights African startups solving African challenges with innovation. In our previous edition, we featured five game-changing startups pioneering artificial intelligence, e-commerce, and legaltech. Expect the next dispatch on January 23, 2026. This week, we explore five African startups in the e-commerce, cryptocurrency, cleantech, and creator economy sectors and why they should be on your watchlist. Here are our picks for today: Vyre Africa wants to eliminate P2P crypto scams (Cryptocurrency, Nigeria) Vyre Africa, founded in 2025 by Harvey Anafuwe and Alex Amatobi, is a blockchain-based financial platform focused on reducing fraud and friction in peer-to-peer (P2P) crypto trading, particularly within Africa’s high-volume but scam-prone crypto market. Although cryptocurrency transactions in sub-Saharan Africa reached $205 billion between 2024 and 2025, Chainanalysis, a blockchain data analysis company, estimates that up to $17 billion was stolen in crypto scams and fraud in 2025. The idea behind Vyre Africa grew directly out of Anafuwe’s personal experience losing money to P2P crypto scams, and similar incidents affecting friends and other users in Nigeria. Vyre Africa’s dashboard. Image source: Vyre Africa Vyre Africa is a web-based platform built for instant, trustless, peer-to-peer exchanges between crypto and fiat, without requiring both parties to be registered users. Its flagship product is Vyre Africa’s P2P trading system, where a market maker creates a buy or sell order (for buy orders, the user sends crypto and receives fiat directly into their bank account; for sell orders, the user sends fiat and receives crypto into a provided wallet address) by locking funds in their Vyre wallet. Each order generates a shareable trade link that can be sent to anyone, anywhere, and recipients can complete a transaction anonymously by opening the link, entering their contact details, and selecting a payout method. Vyre Africa does not rely on manual confirmation flows. Instead, funds are locked when the order is created and released automatically once transaction conditions are met. Trades are processed instantly, without direct communication between counterparties. Vyre currently supports USDC-based trades and enables payouts to bank accounts across multiple African countries, including Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, and Egypt. The platform enforces minimum trade limits (for example, a minimum of 3 USDC on certain orders) and allows market makers to set exchange rates and order sizes. Vyre Africa also includes a cross-border remittance product that allows users to send stablecoins such as USDC or USDT and have them automatically converted and deposited into foreign bank accounts. The company says its system supports about 45 currencies across Africa, Europe, and parts of Asia. It also has an internal wallet-to-wallet transfer feature that lets users send crypto to other Vyre users using only an email address, dubbed Vyre Transfers. These transfers are instant and incur no transaction fees. Vyre Africa charges a percentage-based fee to the users who create buy or sell orders on the platform. Anonymous traders do not pay fees at this stage, though the startup plans to introduce additional revenue streams for other user categories in the future. Vyre Africa conducted a pre-launch in September 2025, initially rolling out its cross-border remittance and wallet transfer features before activating P2P trading. Why we’re watching: Vyre Africa is tackling the trust issue in crypto’s peer-to-peer transactions, a persistent problem in emerging markets. By enabling anonymous link-based trades and automating fund release, the startup positions itself as a safer alternative. This link-based model also allows the platform to facilitate trades for users who haven’t yet signed up, effectively expanding its reach beyond its registered user base. Ulo Helps wants to make finding trusted domestic workers easy and fast (Services, Nigeria) Founded in 2025 by Chiamaka Igwe, Ulo Helps is a digital platform designed to replace the often unreliable process of hiring domestic staff through traditional agents. Born from Igwe’s personal frustration with finding nannies and a desire to replicate the ease of care platforms she used in the United States, Ulo Helps connects households with verified caregivers, cooks, nannies, and housekeepers and functions as a self-serve marketplace. Employers register on the web app, select the type of domestic service they need, filter by location, and browse worker profiles that include photos, short bios, availability status, age, work history, and other relevant details. To contact a worker directly on their mobile phone number, email, or WhatsApp, employers must subscribe to a service-specific subscription plan. The basic plan costs ₦15,000 ($10.53) monthly, giving access to all profiles within a selected service category, with unlimited replacements during that period. Ulo Helps’ landing page. Image source: Ulo Helps. For users who prefer a more hands-off approach, the assisted plan costs ₦30,000 ($21.06) monthly. Under this option, Ulo Helps pre-screens candidates, shortlists five workers based on the employer’s requirements, and sends them for final interviews. The company also offers an optional premium verification service after employment, which includes police reports, fingerprinting, and address verification to ensure safety for employers. For domestic workers who want to be onboarded on the app, they pay a ₦5,000 ($3.51) one-time registration fee, which covers identity checks, facial verification, and guarantor verification. Ulo Helps does not take a percentage of workers’ salaries and does not manage payroll or wages, as compensation negotiations are left entirely between both parties. However, compensation benefits are usually communicated and agreed upon by both parties before the domestic worker shows up for the task. The platform says it currently lists over 100 fully verified domestic workers, and maintains a broader pool of about 700 unverified workers in its outreach channels. Verified workers have paid the one-time registration fee and has undergone identity checks, while unverified workers have not undergone identity verification. Why we’re watching: Ulo Helps differentiates itself in Nigeria’s informal labour market by prioritising ethical treatment of workers. Unlike traditional agents who often confiscate a part of or half of a worker’s first-month salary, Ulo Helps charges zero commissions on wages, in a bid to attract higher-quality talent. The startup is also laying groundwork for scale across Africa and the Middle East
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For businesses tired of saying no to crypto payments, CoinCircuit has an answer
Chidubem Ogbuefi, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and founder of CoinCircuit, a Nigerian crypto payments startup, carries more money in crypto than he does in cash. For him, paying with digital assets is often simpler than converting to naira, waiting on bank transfers, or dealing with point-of-sale (PoS) withdrawals. Yet, that ‘crypto convenience’ does not translate to real-world use cases. In Lagos stores, restaurants, and retail outlets, the answer is usually the same when he asks to pay with crypto: no. It frustrated him. “That friction is what pushed me to build CoinCircuit,” said Ogbuefi. “Not because people don’t have crypto, but because businesses don’t want to deal with it.” CoinCircuit, which launched in December 2025, is a Nigerian startup building payment infrastructure that allows businesses and individuals to accept crypto payments without becoming crypto businesses themselves. The product sits between customers who want to pay with digital assets and merchants who would rather receive naira or stablecoins without worrying about wallets, volatility, or compliance. Ogbuefi describes it as a Paystack-esque product if the Nigerian payments giant focused entirely on digital assets. Paystack enables businesses to accept payments from customers in different local currencies. 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 TC Scoop Subscribe Carrying crypto, living in fiat Ogbuefi’s habit of spending crypto is unusual in Nigeria, where fiat naira still dominates daily transactions. He does not dispute that reality. What he argues is that the way crypto is used in Nigeria is often misunderstood. A large volume of crypto activity already exists, but it rarely shows up at supermarket tills or restaurant counters. Payments happen privately, peer-to-peer, or outside formal merchant environments. When customers want to spend crypto in public spaces, the infrastructure is missing. “A lot of times, people walk into stores and ask if they can pay with crypto,” said Ogbuefi. “When the answer is no, they just leave. I do that too.” The problem, from his perspective, is not demand. It is design. Most existing crypto payment tools either exclude Nigeria altogether or assume merchants want to custody digital assets themselves. Global platforms like CoinPayments or Binance Pay often do not support African countries, or they restrict local currency invoicing. “You can’t generate invoices in naira or Ghanaian cedis,” he said. “So I wanted to solve everything in one product.” How CoinCircuit works, without forcing merchants into crypto CoinCircuit’s design begins with a compliance-first approach. Once onboarded, users identify themselves either as individuals—such as solopreneurs, freelancers, or content creators—or as registered merchants and businesses. Business users are required to submit Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) documents or equivalent regulatory filings. Individuals submit personal identification. All users complete know-your-customer (KYC) checks to allow transaction monitoring. Once approved, users connect two things: a local fiat bank account and, optionally, a crypto wallet. Then CoinCircuit becomes a layer that sits between customers and merchants, translating one payment preference into another. A merchant can create a payment page for use in-store or online. The page is branded with the business name and logo and can be accessed through a link or a printed Quick Response (QR) code. When customers scan the code, they are taken to a checkout page where they enter the amount they want to pay. What matters is how the amount is quoted. A merchant can choose to quote prices in naira or in United States dollars. If the page is set to naira, the customer sees naira. If it is set to dollars, the customer sees dollars. CoinCircuit handles everything else. Working with service providers, the startup enables settlement to happen in real-time. If a customer pays using crypto or stablecoins, the merchant can receive naira directly into a bank account or receive stablecoins like Tether (USDT) in a wallet, depending on their preference. “The logic behind this is that you’re quoting your customers in a currency they understand, while you receive a currency you understand,” said Ogbuefi. “We will be adding more currencies like Ghanaian cedis, Kenyan shillings, and South African rand, to help merchants expand their payment collection to a wider market.” Beyond local and foreign currency settlement, CoinCircuit supports payments in a range of cryptocurrencies and stablecoins, including Ether (ETH), Solana (SOL), TRON (TRX), Binance Coin (BNB), USD Coin (USDC), and Tether (USDT). CoinCircuit merchants and even creators can create invoices and send to customers, who can choose to pay in crypto or fiat currencies. Image Source: TechCabal. These payments run across multiple blockchain networks, including Ethereum, Binance Chain, Solana, and TRON, with transaction fees typically below $1. Ogbuefi said the startup plans to expand support for additional crypto assets and networks over time, as it adapts the product to the payment preferences of different markets. This flexibility of the product swings for both sides: Crypto-native merchants who prefer to hold digital assets can quote customers in naira or dollars and still receive cryptocurrencies or stablecoins. Merchants can accept payments from crypto-paying customers and receive only local currency. CoinCircuit does not hold customer funds, according to Ogbuefi. When a payment is made, the crypto asset is automatically swapped through a crypto financial service provider that supplies liquidity and regulatory cover. The service provider earns money from exchange spreads, while CoinCircuit charges a 1% take rate from customer transactions. For example, when a customer completes a $10 transaction, CoinCircuit charges $0.1 in fees. Ogbuefi said the structure allows CoinCircuit to operate without touching deposits while still offering immediate settlement, a feature he considers essential for trust. “Business
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Starlink rolls out instalment payments for internet kits in Kenya
Starlink, the SpaceX-owned satellite internet service, has introduced instalment payments for its mini kits in Kenya, cutting upfront cost for users as it seeks to revive subscriber growth that has slowed over the past year. The new plan requires a KES 6,750 ($52.8) upfront payment, plus KES 16,250 ($125.8) in activation fees and KES 3,010 ($23.3) for shipping, with the balance spread over six months. It adds KES 4,500 ($34.8) a month for the kit over six months to the standard KES 6,500 ($50.3) residential subscription fee. The instalment plan cuts the upfront cost of Starlink’s equipment, which has been a barrier to adoption for most users. It is likely to increase access among price-sensitive users, particularly in rural and underserved areas where paying the full amount upfront has reduced uptake. Priced at KES 27,000 ($209.1), the mini kit now requires less upfront cash, with more of the cost spread across recurring monthly payments. A screenshot of a checkout for a Starlink mini kit. Image source: TechCabal The Starlink mini kit was introduced into the Kenyan market in September 2024, one year after the company launched to offer a cheaper alternative to the standard kit, which is KES 49,900 ($386.46). Since it entered Kenya in 2023, the company has expanded rapidly within the first six months, reaching a 0.5% market share. According to data from the Communications Authority of Kenya, the number of customers rose from 16,786 in September 2024 to 19,146 as of December 2025. However, growth was slowed after the company, in November 2024, halted new sign-ups in densely populated urban areas like Nairobi and Mombasa due to capacity challenges. The freeze, which remained in place until June 2025, reduced its momentum, with active subscriptions falling to 17,066 by March that year. The pause created an opening for competitors. Safaricom and Airtel, the country’s biggest telcos, moved to deploy 5G routers priced below KES 3,000 ($23), targeting the same rural users Starlink had aimed to reach. Safaricom controls 35.6% of Kenya’s fixed internet market, followed by Jamii Telecom (20.6%), Wananchi Group (12.7%), Poa Internet (12.5%), Ahadi Wireless (7.5%), and Mawingu Networks (3.6%). Starlink follows at a distant (0.8%).
Read MoreNigeria ends 2025 with inflation at 15.15% and fewer price shocks
Nigeria closed 2025 with headline inflation at 15.15% in December, down 19.65 percentage points from 34.80% recorded in December 2024, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). 2025 will be remembered as the year inflation numbers stopped being shocking, even though prices remained elevated. Unlike the wild swings that defined 2024, where inflation rose to record highs, 2025 was the year of more predictability. That stability came at a price. Nigerians adapted by cutting back, repricing their lives and businesses, and lowering expectations. Nigeria’s headline inflation stood at 24.48% in January 2025 after the methodology and base year were changed. Inflation stood at 34.80% in December 2024. According to the NBS, inflation was rebased, “to replace outgoing reference periods (2009). Rebasing aligns the price and weight reference periods with the current economic environment, ensuring methodological accuracy, updating the composition of the goods and services basket, revising item weights, and incorporating necessary improvements.” Since then, inflation has seen a steady drop, falling to 15.15% in December 2025. “The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose to 131.2 in December 2025, up by 0.7 points from the previous month (130.5),” the NBS said. “The December 2025 year-on-year Headline inflation rate stood at 15.15% relative to the November 2025 headline inflation rate (17.33%).” Beyond the headline number, the inflation figure directly impacts Nigerian paychecks, which have not moved at the same pace. For many tech workers and startup employees, transport costs now rival rent, and food bills have reset monthly budgets. In places like Lagos, Nigeria’s startup capital, where inflation of 17.5% is above the national average, startup workers are having to absorb shock quietly through side gigs, delayed life plans, or lower living standards. While the data may be signalling a turning point, with food inflation at 10.84% in December 2025, the reality for many startup workers is a change in living standards and an everyday life that is now indifferent to economic shocks.
Read MoreUS latest visa freeze puts African founders’ global mobility at risk
The United States is suspending all visa processing for applicants from 75 countries, including Nigeria, Egypt, Ghana, Algeria, and Somalia, Fox News reported on Wednesday, citing a State Department memo. Fox News reported that the Trump administration has directed consular officers from 75 countries to reject visa applications under existing laws while the State Department reconsiders its screening and vetting processes. The pause will begin on January 21. “The State Department will use its long-standing authority to deem ineligible potential immigrants who would become a public charge on the United States and exploit the generosity of the American people,” State Department spokesperson Tommy Piggott told Fox News. “Immigration from these 75 countries will be paused while the State Department reassess immigration processing procedures to prevent the entry of foreign nationals who would take welfare and public benefits.” Other African countries on the list include Cameroon, Cape Verde, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Libya, Morocco, Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, and Uganda. The suspension could have knock-on effects beyond immigration policy, particularly for startup founders from affected countries. African founders, particularly those from Nigeria and Egypt, may face disruptions to travel to the US for investor meetings, accelerators, conferences, and fundraising roadshows, at a time when access to global capital is already becoming more challenging. The suspension comes a week after the US announced a visa bond programme that could require applicants from more than 20 African countries, including Nigeria, to post refundable financial bonds of up to $15,000 as a condition for short-term business and tourist visas.
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