Tecno Spark 40 review: TDV certification, price and full specs
The Tecno Spark 40 is the latest addition to Tecno’s Spark lineup, a lineup tailored for buyers who want budget-friendly smartphones with a long battery life, a big display, and a decent camera. The Spark 40 delivers reliable day-to-day performance, a smooth interface, and features that offer value for its price. Buyers get a 50-megapixel primary rear camera with dual flash, an 8-megapixel front camera with flash for clean pictures, a big 6.67-inch display, a 120Hz refresh rate for smooth transitions, and a big 5200 mAh battery that lasts a whole day. Announced on July 2, 2025, the Tecno Spark 40 ships with Android 15 and HiOS 15.1, so you’re getting the latest software after purchase. Tecno Spark 40 price in Nigeria The 4 GB RAM and 128 GB storage option usually sells between ₦132,531 ($91.40) and ₦150,000 ($103.45). The higher model with 8 GB RAM and 256 GB costs around ₦270,000 ($186.21). The additional ₦70,000 ($48.28) is the added charge for improved performance and extra storage. Tecno Spark 40 full specifications The Tecno Spark 40 delivers a lot of value to budget users. It focuses on a big display, a reasonable refresh rate, and a strong battery. Model build The phone measures 165.6 mm in height, 77 mm in width, 7.7 mm in thickness, and weighs 188 grams. A Corning Gorilla Glass protects the screen. The frame is plastic and contributes significantly to its light weight. It has an IP64 rating, which gives protection against dust and water splashes. It is also drop-resistant up to 1.5m. It is available in Ink Black, Titanium Grey, Veil White, and Mirage Blue. Display Buyers get a 6.67-inch IPS LCD screen with an 84.2% screen-to-body ratio. The resolution is 720 x 1600 pixels, and the pixel density is up to 263ppi. Its 120Hz refresh rate keeps scrolling and transitions smoothly. Performance and software The budget-friendly smartphone runs on the Mediatek Helio G81, built on a 12 nm process, for the non-NFC version, while the NFC version runs on the Mediatek Helio G91, also built on a 12 nm process. The processor features two Octa-core 2.0 GHz and six Cortex-A75 at 1.8 GHz. The Mali-G52 MC2 handles the graphics. The software delivers enough power to run at 120Hz without paying a higher price. It also ships with Android 15 and HiOS 15.1 and features an Ella voice assistant. Memory and storage Buyers can choose between 4 GB, 6 GB, or 8 GB of RAM, with storage options of 128 GB and 256 GB. For buyers who need more space, the smartphone supports a microSDXC card. Cameras The rear camera system features a 50MP wide-angle PDAF camera with an Auxiliary lens and a dual-LED flash. The front camera is an 8 MP wide-angle and supports Dual-LED flash for better low-light imaging. The rear camera records at 1440p@30fps and 1080p@30fps. The front camera records at 1080p@30fps. Battery and charging Tecno Spark 40 comes with a 5200 mAh battery. Charging is 45 W and takes approximately 55 minutes to reach 100%. Connectivity and sensors The phone supports dual Nano SIMs with GSM/HSPA/LTE. Buyers get Wi-Fi, and selected markets get NFC. Ports include an infrared port and a USB Type-C port. Security options include a side fingerprint sensor and Face Unlock. Tecno Spark 40 4-year lag-free promise The Tecno Spark 40 is officially advertised as offering a 4-year lag-free guarantee, meaning users will get optimal performance from the device 4 years after purchase. The phone is designed for outstanding durability, reducing the need for frequent replacements over the 4 years. Other models of the phone, such as the Tecno Spark 40 Pro and the Tecno Spark 40 Pro+, are marketed with a 5-year lag-free guarantee. Why budget phones usually lag after a year Budget phones’ performance drops after a year because they mostly use less powerful components, such as processors, and are made from less durable materials. They receive fewer software/security updates to justify their low prices. Budget phone users often experience battery degradation, lag, and frequent hardware replacements after a year of use. Why is the Tecno 40 Spark different? What is TÜV SÜD certification? TÜV SÜD (Technischer Überwachungsverein Süd, meaning Technical Inspection Association South) is a globally recognised independent testing, inspection, and certification organisation based in Germany. The certification is for fluency ratings of Android mobiles with touchscreens, meaning the device has undergone inspections and meets specific safety, quality, and sustainability criteria. The certification process is in two phases: 60-month fluency rating: Used to evaluate how smoothly the product operates after ageing, based on a 60-month model. 72-month fluency rating: Is used to evaluate how smoothly the product operates after ageing based on a 72-month model. By passing the third-party certification process, the Tecno Spark 40 demonstrates its quality despite being a budget phone. However, buyers should know that the certification is a lab-controlled test and doesn’t guarantee that the battery won’t degrade if charged with a bad charger, or that the screen won’t break if dropped with considerable force. Tecno Spark 40 comparison with other Spark versions The Tecno Spark 40 is a budget-friendly smartphone that offers value to buyers with a strong battery, a 120Hz refresh rate, 4G LTE, and a 50MP camera that delivers clean pictures. Tecno Spark 30 The Tecno Spark 30 offers a slightly different focus than the newer Spark 40. It uses the Helio G91 chipset (found in the NFC version of the Spark 40) but stands out with a 64 MP Sony IMX682 primary camera. While the Spark 40 focuses on speed and durability with its 45 W charging and IP64 rating, the Spark 30 prioritised raw camera resolution, offering a sharper sensor than the 50 MP found on the newer model. Tecno Spark 30C The Spark 30C is the direct blueprint for the Spark 40. It introduced the 120 Hz refresh rate on an HD+ screen and used the Helio G81 chipset, just like the standard Spark 40. However, the Spark 30C charges more slowly with 18
Read MoreDay 1-1000 of Travella: “We are the future of decentralised logistics”
Moses Ogunranti knew when the Nigerian logistics system stopped making sense for him. In 2016, after partnering with GreenLab Microfactory, a social innovation hub, to build robotic kits for kids, delivering these same kits across the nation was impractical. For kits built on the premise of affordability, domestic shipping was costly and digging deep into his profit margins. Even sourcing components from local suppliers as a small business had challenges of its own. “We would buy components from Lagos for about ₦1,500 ($1.03)…and then we end up delivering it to our office for ₦4,500 ($3.08).” The problem was, no one was truly solving it. Not the key players in the logistics industry offering high prices with slow delivery times, or bus drivers with swift delivery and no way to be held accountable. For Ogunranti, it certainly wasn’t logistics and transportation startups that aggregated delivery prices of more popular logistics companies to determine theirs. By 2018, a light bulb went off in his head. What if travellers picked up packages as they commuted across states, and earned money while they did? He did not know it yet, but that was the beginning of Travella, a consumer-driven logistics company, redefining the status quo of logistics in Nigeria. Day 1: Where the journey begins Ogunranti and his co-founder, Olufemi Christopher Agboola, launched Travella in January 2021. “We allow everybody to be able to get involved in the delivery process,” Ogunranti says of the company’s operations. “That means, if you’re travelling, you can pick a package, whether you’re going as a passenger in a public transport system or you own your own vehicle,” Ogunranti says. Travellers can pick up a maximum of five parcels less than 3kg each and make, on average, ₦10,000 per trip. To determine what each parcel weighs, senders declare the weight and value of the parcels they want delivered. Hundred users and three months later, Ogunranti wanted to scale. He signed up for Lion’s Den, a pan-African pitching show modelled after the American TV series, Shark Tank. The then 23-year-old student of the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), secured funding for his ‘peer-to-peer’ logistics company with the buy-in of three investors. A critical challenge with the peer-to-peer logistics system that Ogunranti was building was trust. On the pitch show, investors said as much. He recalls, “One popular question asked on the show was, how are you guys going to handle trust?” Just like drivers on ride-hailing apps, Travella approached its travellers as independent contractors: conducting background checks and appraising them with a rating system. Every traveller is registered on Travella’s system and verified by their Bank Verification Number (BVN), which allows Travella to know their name, state of origin and other important details. Travella implemented geo-tracking to know where travellers were at all points during their commute times. The company makes sure all items are covered in case of an unforeseen loss financially protecting its customers. But verifying the travellers and tracking their journey was half the problem solved—how do the senders know to reach travellers delivering packages for them? Day 300: The voyage for better visibility Lion’s Den aired in January 2022, and leveraging social media, word began to spread about Travella. For many businesses who were “looking for the cheapest, the fastest system,” Travella began to spread through word of mouth advertising. And so, capturing the B2B market became easier. It was truly logistics for the people, by the people. Ogunranti says. “We sell to clients, affordability and 24-hour service delivery, which is hard for centralised delivery services to do. Affordability and speed don’t often come together in the same scope.” To determine the pricing for goods sent, Travella operated under a negotiation-based pricing system, where customers set prices that were comfortable for them. But as time passed, this became impractical. 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 Day 700: Stop signs and sour negotiations By late 2023, Ogunranti and his team realised that consumer-driven pricing came with challenges they could not look away from. What was once a unique value proposition started to raise friction between the senders and the travellers. “We figured the bargaining wouldn’t work.” Ogunranti says, “It was…stressful. [One person] charging a lot, and then [another] debating and debating. It wasn’t going to work, so we scrapped it.” Ogunranti particularly considered that for the small businesses who comprised a large portion of his client base, running a business and having to constantly bargain logistics prices at a car park was unnecessarily complicated. By early 2024, Travella transitioned from a negotiation pricing model to a standard pricing model, charging a flat rate of ₦ 4,500 ($3.08) for packages up to 3 kg, a percentage of which the company earns as revenue. DAY 1000 and the miles after: Coverage, expansion and security With 10,000 successful deliveries across Nigeria, Travella is inching closer to its operational sweet spot and earning invaluable trust from its customers. Ogunranti’s promise is that Travella will always deliver: Customers will receive their packages in 36 hours. And if the time elapses, Travella’s recovery team steps in to speed up the process, issuing the sender a full refund while still delivering their package as agreed. This is the last mile hurdle that remains in Travella’s operations. On Lion’s Den, as a young founder, Ogunranti had shared plans to have Travella’s staff situated at every park to handle hand-offs to the last mile. Travella established offices in key locations within its operational routes
Read MoreThe Antigua gambit goes bust: The mobility shortcut that African nomads just lost
Antigua and Barbuda, the twin-island Caribbean state with 98,000 people, occupied a strategic position in the global mobility market for years. It was neither a financial centre nor a major migration destination. Yet it played a crucial role in how capital, talent, and ambition from the Global South navigated the world’s most restrictive borders. The country’s citizenship-by-investment (CBI) programme functioned as infrastructure. It was not designed for settlement, but for movement. Applicants did not buy into Antigua because they intended to relocate there, build companies there, or even visit frequently. They bought it because the passport travelled far. Antigua’s passport, which opens visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 144 countries, travels farther than Nigeria’s 51. Nigeria’s passport has long been a bottleneck for its wealthiest and most globally oriented citizens. Entrepreneurs and senior professionals with legitimate business in Europe or North America routinely encounter lengthy processing times, high rejection rates, and opaque decision-making at foreign consulates. Access to capital and markets often hinges on the discretion of visa officers. A Caribbean citizenship offered a way to rebalance that asymmetry. An Antiguan passport dramatically expands visa-free access, moving its holder from the margins of the global mobility system closer to its centre. While it does not guarantee entry into the US, it allows Nigerians seeking mobility opportunities to approach US consulates without the automatic suspicion attached to a Nigerian passport. In mobility terms, it was a hedge. However, on December 16, that hedge collapsed. US President Donald Trump signed a proclamation placing Antigua and Barbuda and Dominica, another Caribbean state, under partial US entry restrictions beginning January 1, 2026. Nationals of both countries are now barred from obtaining all immigrant visas, including family-sponsored, employment-based, and diversity visas. The White House cited Caribbean CBI programmes as tools used to “conceal identity and bypass vetting requirements.” Mobility as a business infrastructure Wealthy Nigerians have been among the highest buyers of Antigua and Barbuda citizenship since 2020. In H1 2024, Nigerians accounted for 9.07% of all applications, behind only China and the US. Sixty-six Nigerian applicants received Antiguan passports during that window, paying over $6.6 million into the country’s National Development Fund (NDF). Morocco (2.84%), Egypt (2.57%), Tunisia (1.22%), and South Africa (1.22%) were the only other African countries on the list. Antigua and Barbuda’s citizenship programme raised tens of millions of dollars annually through its NDF, even as overall demand cooled from its 2018 peak. Nigerians increasingly filled part of that demand, particularly as access routes through Europe tightened, and traditional visas became more unpredictable. It is helpful to pause here and consider how foreign capital actually flows into African markets. It is no secret that a significant share of investor money flowing into African startups originates outside the continent, particularly from the US. For founders seeking that capital, access often requires showing up. Building relationships, gaining entry to Silicon Valley hubs, and participating in pitch meetings still depend heavily on physical presence, repeated interactions, and trust built over time. Mobility, in this sense, becomes part of the business stack. An Antiguan passport was never a guarantee of entry into the US. Holders still applied for business or student visas, appeared for interviews, and still submitted to the discretion of consular officers. Yet its value lay elsewhere: it eased the burden of proof. Applications were less likely to stall on nationality alone, and travel histories read as lower risk within systems designed to triage passports before people. Trump’s proclamation strains that plausibility from multiple directions. Nigeria, a major African economic and tech hub out of the ‘Big Four,’ was partially banned, with the White House citing high overstay rates. New applicants approaching US consulates with Nigerian passports will now encounter tougher bureaucracy in proving their intent to return home. Those attempting to apply through Antiguan citizenship will face scepticism that the proclamation explicitly anticipates, causing a double whammy for the average traveller. Even applicants who acquired Caribbean passports earlier in the year have already seen their efforts stall, according to a local media publication, as US scrutiny intensified following the administration’s clampdown beginning in June. When the route narrows In recent years, Antigua and Barbuda’s citizenship programme has been regaining momentum. After a quieter period earlier in the decade—before its previous 2018 peak—the country’s visa application volumes picked up through 2023 and into 2024. In H1 2024, the tiny island country recorded 739 applications, exceeding the total number received in the whole of the previous year. It signalled renewed confidence in the passport as a mobility tool. Now, as one route narrows for Nigerian entrepreneurs who’d sought easier access through the passport, others come into focus. Professionals seeking mobility could turn their focus to residency pathways—though they take time and serious commitment—rather than investment visas that are coming under scrutiny from other countries in the world. Residency programmes in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) provide stable bases for global work without relying on access to the US visa system. European visas, such as Portugal’s D7, appeal to founders whose operations or investors are EU-facing. The broader implication is not about one passport losing value. It is about how digital nomads and globally oriented professionals adapt when policy removes friction in one place and introduces it in another. What shifts when access tightens For years, Caribbean citizenship offered Nigerian founders, professionals, and digital nomads a way to participate in global circuits without relocating their lives entirely. It allowed them to move between markets, capital, and networks while remaining anchored at home. That balance is now harder to maintain. As access tightens, mobility decisions become more consequential. Some professionals will remain in Nigeria and absorb additional friction, treating visa delays and denials as an unavoidable cost of operating globally. Others will redraw their personal maps, choosing jurisdictions that offer predictability even if they demand permanence. Antigua and Barbuda’s programme succeeded because it recognised a gap between where ambition originates and where opportunity concentrates. It sold access, not belonging. The US has now signalled that this
Read MoreIn 2025, Nigerian creators use AI to scale. Yet they fear its flaws.
For most Nigerian content creators, staying online is often the easiest part of the job. The real struggle happens in the background: creators wrestle with erratic data connections and the daunting task of tailoring global technology to a local audience. For years, the solution was simply to work harder, but in 2025, the game changed. This year, artificial intelligence (AI) moved from a playground for the curious to the engine room for the productive. With limited infrastructure, rising data costs, and intense competition for attention, efficiency is no longer optional but essential to survival and growth. AI offers creators practical ways to compress time, reduce costs, and compete on a global stage without expanding their teams or budgets. These tools are reshaping how Nigerian creators sustain their work, scale their output, and remain visible in an increasingly crowded creator economy. I spoke to some top Nigerian content creators, including Fisayo Fosudo, Mercy Thaddeus, and Akunne Emmanuel, to understand how they are integrating AI into their creative workflow to improve efficiency and output, as well as the creative decisions they refuse to hand over to machines. Scripting and narrative architecture The most immediate impact of AI this year has been the death of the “blank page” syndrome, a common challenge where creators stare at an empty page or screen, struggling to turn ideas into structured content. For many creators, the process of moving from a raw idea to a structured narrative has been compressed from hours into a matter of minutes. Akunne Emmanuel, the tech creator who breaks down product design to his audience on his BuildWithDudu Instagram page, often starts his creative process with a rough personal script. He uses AI to refine the angle and ensure the message flows naturally. “Once I have an idea, I can generate a strong first-pass outline in under ten minutes, then spend my time refining tone and insight instead of staring at a blank page,” Emmanuel says. Mercy Thaddeus, an AI content creator who breaks down Artificial Intelligence for her audience and is known as Mercythaddeus_ on Instagram, says she uses Gemini for “refining my scripts. Refining scripts with Gemini is part of a wider shift in how creative work is being produced globally. Generative AI tools are increasingly used not just for grammar or tone, but for structuring ideas, tightening narratives, and speeding up production cycles. According to findings from research presented by Adobe MAX, which surveyed over 16,000 creators across the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, South Korea, Japan, India, and Australia to examine the mindsets, behaviours, and expectations shaping the future of creative work and the creator economy. The study found that a significant majority of creators now integrate AI into their workflows, particularly for writing, editing, and ideation, seeing these tools as collaborators that help them work faster and push their ideas further rather than replacements for human creativity. TechCabal’s content creator, Ayodeji Aboderin, turned to AI in 2025 to build what he calls “content engines. By feeding frameworks into models like ChatGPT, he can deconstruct complex technical topics into simple, relatable stories. Aboderin explains the shift in his process: “It makes it very, very easy to break down ideas and make [them] into simple ways the audience can understand.” Technical prototyping and visualisation In a market where high-quality stock footage or a dedicated design team can be prohibitively expensive, creators are using AI to “show” rather than just “tell.” Beyond the written word, AI has become a silent partner in the production of visual assets and technical demonstrations. Thaddeus leverages her background in software engineering to use AI coding assistants to change how she presents products. “I know how to build products, but it is time-consuming and often requires a team,” she says. “ Before, building a landing page or a simple tool would take a full day of coding. Now, I can use AI coding assistants to spin up a functional prototype or a clean UI in about 20 minutes. This allows me to show rather than just tell in my videos.” Aboderin has adopted a similar approach for visual storytelling, noting that he no longer spends hours scouring sites like Unsplash. He now generates bespoke visual assets to illustrate specific narratives. “It [is] easy to visualise with AI, as opposed to looking for imagery or visuals that will tell [a] story. I [don’t] have to go and search for it. I just generate it from scratch,” he says. Research and deep exploration Research has traditionally been the most time-consuming part of the creative cycle, but in 2025, AI agents have taken over the heavy lifting of data gathering. Fisayo Fosudo uses tools like Gemini to explore different angles for his famous gadget reviews. Rather than relying on AI for the “news” itself, he uses it to figure out how to “attack” a topic or discover which elements of a new device are most relevant to his audience. “We do our research [by ourselves]. We just use [AI] to explore different angles of how to tackle stuff, rather than rely on it like ‘this is the news,” Fosudo explains. Aboderin takes this a step further by deploying AI agents to scan patterns and recurring conversations across the web. “I can automate that process and send agents on errands to learn about it while I do other stuff,” he says. However, this efficiency comes with a caveat; Fosudo warns that AI-driven research can often present outdated information as current fact: “Websites may have an article from 2003, but the date [on the AI-researched article] says 2025, so I don’t rely on information given to me.” Strategic outreach and monetisation The impact of AI has also bled into the business side of content creation, specifically in how creators manage their professional relationships. While AI doesn’t replace the networking required to land a big deal, it has significantly reduced the friction of communication. Creators now use AI tools to draft outreach emails to brands, generate personalised pitch decks, and summarise
Read More
5 African startups transforming payments, programming, and pedagogy
Startups On Our Radar spotlights African startups solving African challenges with innovation. In our previous edition, we featured seven game-changing startups pioneering healthcare, transportation, education, and artificial intelligence. Expect the next dispatch on December 26, 2025. This week, we explore five African startups in the education, fintech, software development, and artificial intelligence sectors and why they should be on your watchlist. Let’s dive into it: CodeFundi is turning AI agents into a software teammate for global development teams (AI, Kenya) Felix Waweru, a software engineer with a decade of experience, founded CodeFundi in 2023 to solve the reliability and maintenance issues plaguing software development. He realised that while writing code is a part of the job, testing, documentation, debugging, and long-term maintenance are often slow, error-prone, and too complex to manage manually. CodeFundi addresses this with its all-in-one AI solution that automates coding, testing, and documentation to help teams maintain software faster and more reliably. Rather than have users copy and paste snippets into a chatbot, CodeFundi connects directly to a team’s codebase, such as repositories hosted on GitHub, to understand an entire software project. This allows users to interact with their codebase through a conversational interface to understand complex packages or generate new features. On the backend of this conversation, CodeFundi uses multiple specialised AI agents with different roles. One conducts research and deeply analyses the code, another maintains contextual memory of the user and organisation, and a third compiles results into actionable outputs. This setup allows the platform to automatically identify bugs, generate fixes, write tests to validate those fixes, and produce detailed technical documentation explaining how each part of the code works. The platform also includes analytics that show teams which programming languages or components dominate their projects. CodeFundi operates on a subscription model ranging from a $5 monthly starter plan to a $1,000 monthly enterprise tier that offers on-premise hosting for data security or region-specific deployments. The startup also offers credit-based usage and an API, currently in beta testing, that allows companies to embed CodeFundi’s AI agents directly into their own products. Why we’re watching: CodeFundi is modelling its system on how real engineering teams work. It breaks software development into discrete tasks handled by multiple collaborating AI agents, which mirrors the separation of responsibilities between frontend, backend, testing, and documentation teams. Waweru says that this approach improves reliability and reduces the forgetfulness that can occur when one AI handles everything. The startup competes with tools focused solely on testing, such as Zof AI, and other AI product development platforms like Kasa AI and Bolt AI. They have secured partnerships with Google Cloud, Microsoft for Startups, and Cognition AI, the team behind Devin. CodeFundi claims to have acquired 5,000 users across 47 countries since its launch, and says it has crossed $1,000 in monthly recurring revenue as a bootstrapped business. TalkPDF AI wants to turn PDFs into interactive tutors in local languages (Edtech, Nigeria) TalkPDF AI is an AI-powered learning assistant built to help students move from regular memorisation to real understanding. The idea came when founder Lukman Abimbola saw his younger sister struggle to prepare for her West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE). Despite spending hours rereading chemistry textbooks, she could not explain basic concepts because she was memorising words instead of trying to understand the concepts. Her breakthrough came when Abimbola asked her to explain the ideas back to him in Yoruba, as if she were teaching a younger cousin. That moment shaped Abimbola’s core insight: that many students fail because they are forced to learn complex ideas in a second language, with no way to validate whether they truly understand what they’ve studied. To solve this language-induced learning crisis, TalkPDF AI converts textbooks and PDFs into an interactive audio tutor in English, Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, and Pidgin. A student uploads a text-based study material, and the system instantly converts it into natural-sounding audio in the learner’s preferred language. As the student listens, the AI pauses at key concepts and activates what Abimbola calls an explain-back mode, asking the learner to explain the idea in their own words. If the student repeats textbook jargon or gives a memorised definition, the system pushes back and asks for a simpler explanation, prompting them to explain as if they were teaching a 10-year-old. Each chapter is graded with an understanding score, as users can earn bronze, silver, or gold badges. The system also schedules spaced repetition for concepts the learner has not fully mastered. TalkPDF AI is currently in beta and has sold 43 out of 50 paid beta slots, with full launch scheduled for early 2026. The startup operates a freemium model, with a limited free tier offering five minutes of audio per day, and a Student Pro plan priced at ₦40,000 ($27.47) yearly, which includes unlimited uploads, full explain-back mode, offline downloads, and all supported languages. Why we’re watching: TalkPDF AI stands out from competitors like uLesson, Gradely, and MyLesson for combining active learning with local-language support. By merging active validation, which refuses to let students fake understanding, with offline functionality and local language support, the startup addresses African infrastructure challenges of data costs and language barriers. TalkPDF AI is planning B2B licensing deals with universities, the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), and an expansion into K–12 exam preparation. The startup is preparing a pre-seed raise to fund product development, campus ambassadors, and university pilots. Ubuntu X wants to unlock global payments for Francophone Africa (Fintech, Cameroon) Founded by Manuel Songfack, Njinowo Brandon, Miamo Karl, and Fitzgerald Mouliom, Ubuntu X is a Cameroon-based cross-border payments and remittance startup building infrastructure to move money seamlessly across African countries and the rest of the world. The founders observed that global transactions from the U.S. or Europe are seamless. However, sending money from Cameroon to neighbours like Nigeria or Benin or to major trade hubs like China remains slow and expensive. Ubuntu X is building a mobile-native payment gateway
Read MoreHow we selected our inaugural Builders’ List
Building anything of value is hard anywhere in the world. In Africa, it is harder. The Builders’ List recognises people doing it anyway. Beyond shipping products, Africa’s technology ecosystem constantly navigates unreliable power, fragmented logistics, weak public infrastructure, and regulatory uncertainty—often all at once. Progress is rarely linear, and success is usually hard-won. Founders alone do not make the industry. It is sustained by people doing a variety of work, some of it invisible but critical to the industry’s success. To recognise them, TechCabal is launching The Builders’ List: an annual index of the most consequential people shaping Africa’s technology ecosystem in the calendar year. It is a record of who’s building, and what their work reveals about the system they are building within. For the inaugural edition, our selected Builders are grouped across five categories: Operators: Those who make systems work at scale. Innovators: Those creating new products, models, or technical possibilities. Enablers: The individuals and institutions lowering the cost of building for others. Organisers: Those connecting people, capital, and opportunity. Keepers: The stewards of trust, continuity, and institutional memory. Together, these roles offer a more complete map of how the ecosystem functions. The Builders’ List is an editorial project led by the TechCabal newsroom, informed by independent reporting and conversations with founders, operators, investors, policymakers, and long-time ecosystem observers across the continent and the diaspora. Our selections were based on our assessment of what materially changed within the calendar year, from infrastructure to policy or scale, rather than reputation or momentum alone. Where work is still emerging, progress was evaluated within the realities of the sector, market, and country in which it occurred. Candidates were assessed comparatively and contextually. Starting from over 600 deeply researched names spanning all 54 African countries, we weighed outcomes against each builder’s operating environment—geography, regulation, capital access, impact and institutional maturity. Context that applies in Lagos doesn’t automatically translate to Kigali or Dakar. Final decisions were made through editorial review. While external perspectives informed our reporting, the list reflects TechCabal’s independent editorial judgment. This process, as our first, has been a critical learning curve. It reminded us that Africa’s technology ecosystem is far broader than funding headlines suggest—spanning hardware engineers in Cairo, beekeepers in rural Kenya, ministers rewiring infrastructure, and documentarians building institutional memory. We learned that in 2025, the builders who matter most are no longer defined by capital raised or growth velocity, but by what they’ve made durable. This list revealed an ecosystem maturing past obsessions with scale and spectacle, toward the quieter work of building things that last—profitable businesses, regulatory frameworks, talent pipelines, and infrastructure others can build on. The Builders’ List will return in 2026, and the patterns will shift. But the commitment remains: to document not just who is building, but what their work reveals about the system taking shape.
Read MoreWhy a high-profile discrimination case against Kuda was dismissed
On October 21, a UK Employment Tribunal dismissed in full the claims brought by Rosemary Hewat, a former executive at Nigerian neobank Kuda, rejecting allegations of gender discrimination, wrongful termination, and retaliation after a detailed review of the evidence, ending a dispute first reported by TechCabal in February 2025. The decision delivers a rare, definitive outcome in an employment dispute involving a high-profile African startup operating in a global labour market. Discrimination and unfair dismissal claims in the UK are typically resolved before reaching a full hearing, often through settlement or early conciliation. “It’s a very positive ruling and one I fully expected because the accusations were not true,” said Babs Ogundeyi, Kuda’s CEO. When cases get to tribunals, they apply a high evidentiary threshold, requiring claimants to prove not just unfair treatment but a clear causal link between their claims and dismissal. In this case, the Tribunal found that the threshold was not met on any count, according to court documents seen by TechCabal. The burden of proof lay with the claimant to demonstrate that a pattern of discriminatory incidents contributed to the dismissal, and Hewat’s lawsuit was dismissed because it lacked evidence to support its claims. “I respect the Tribunal’s decision and the process by which it was reached,” Hewat, Kuda’s former chief people officer, told TechCabal. “Employment Tribunal proceedings are complex and adversarial by nature, and outcomes reflect the evidence and submissions before the court at the time.” “I do not intend to relitigate the matter through the media and remain mindful of the importance of respecting the Tribunal process and all individuals involved,” she added, bringing an end to a months-long legal battle with her former employers. Had Hewat won, she would have been entitled to compensation for lost benefits, emotional distress, and punitive damages for behaviour she described as egregious misconduct. The exact compensation Hewat demanded is not specified in court documents. “The ruling demonstrates Kuda’s resilience and our commitment to doing things the right way,” Ogundeyi told TechCabal. “The UK tribunal is known for its strict and trusted legal system, so a unanimous verdict speaks volumes.” Hewat said she had brought the claim in good faith and without legal representation. “I brought my claim based on my lived experience during my employment,” she said, adding that the process reinforced her opinion that litigation outcomes do not always capture the full context of workplace experiences. The now-dismissed allegations had stood in sharp contrast to Kuda’s public positioning as a champion of gender inclusivity. In March 2023, Hewat announced that the company had reached a one-female-to-one-male employee ratio. Ogundeyi told TechCabal that Hewat’s allegations have not changed the startup’s inclusivity benchmarks or beliefs. “Kuda is intentional about balance; we are roughly 50/50 male and female across over 700 staff globally,” Ogundeyi said. “Our Nigerian board has four men and three women.” In its findings, the Tribunal rejected claims that senior executives made derogatory remarks about Hewat, including alleged references to being “low class” or lacking “quality” or “luxury”. It concluded that the comments cited in the case were narrowly related to logistical issues surrounding accommodation for a corporate event and were not hostile or discriminatory. “Companies must be able to give honest, candid feedback — that’s how people grow and how businesses improve,” Ogundeyi said. “At Kuda, we have strong structures: periodic performance reviews, line-manager check-ins, and both formal and informal one-on-ones. Feedback isn’t an attack; it’s necessary.” The Tribunal also dismissed claims of targeted mistreatment in workplace relationships, finding that comments about improving colleague dynamics were part of a broader conflict-resolution approach applied to multiple employees and that the relationship in question later improved. On equity compensation, the Tribunal confirmed that Hewat was not promised a Series A stock option strike price and that the signed documentation correctly reflected a Series B price. It further ruled that the repricing of a male colleague’s options was based on his critical role in fundraising, not gender. The Tribunal also rejected claims that Kuda ignored a formal grievance or issued threats. It found that the email in question did not constitute a grievance and instead contained a conditional threat to pursue a discrimination claim if repricing demands were not met. It also concluded that the most likely source of leaked information about Hewat’s departure was Hewat herself. Finally, the Tribunal upheld Kuda’s decision to make Hewat redundant, finding that the chief people officer role was eliminated as part of a genuine organisational restructuring driven by cost considerations and was not replaced. “There’s always room for improvement, and hindsight is powerful,” Ogundeyi said. “The best thing you can do as a leader is to be sincere, thoughtful, and fair. Not everything will go your way, but if your intentions and actions are grounded in integrity, you can stand by them. The case didn’t change who we are or how we operate; we constantly review and improve anyway. What it did was reinforce why sincerity, fairness, and thoughtfulness matter.”
Read MoreIn Nigeria’s trust-starved domestic work market, Shaaré bets on instant matching
Finding reliable domestic help in Nigeria is often difficult. It is a trust-lacking, informal industry where users rely on word-of-mouth referrals to find competent home care agents. Shaaré, a Nigerian home service marketplace that connects households to vetted cleaners known on the platform as sparklers, was built in 2023 to fill that gap. Domestic work in Nigeria operates within the largely informal labour market. According to a 2025 report by the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), 93% of the nation’s workforce was employed in the informal sector in 2024. Unlike formal sectors that offer clear dispute mechanisms or legal backing, Nigeria’s informal workforce sometimes lacks access to protection and labour rights enjoyed in regulated employment, especially for domestic workers whose jobs don’t follow a regular schedule and are outside the formal employment frameworks. Shaaré intended to use its platform to connect the domestic workers who fall among these 93% to households that require their services. But for a long time, even this tech-enabled solution came with a significant challenge of speed. Shaaré’s promise to refine the experience of service delivery came with a significant caveat of speed. While the platform offered a vetted alternative to the informal domestic cleaning market, its backend operations were manual and slow. Customers would sometimes wait up to 12 hours to get a booking confirmation. On December 17, the company launched an instant matching feature, a new algorithmic system designed to automatically pair a paid booking with the best fit sparkler immediately. “It’s the biggest leap we’ve ever made as a company,” Awazi Angbalaga, founder of Shaaré, said. “It’s designed to transform how bookings happen, how work moves, and how fast we can offer great service.” Instant matching and why Shaaré built it Shaaré’s origins were decidedly low-tech. The company began in 2023 as a simple WhatsApp group where Angbalaga manually connected a handful of cleaners with friends and family who needed help. “It was very scrappy,” she admitted, noting they were faced with issues, including payment collection. To solve the problem, the team set up a Paystack storefront, typically used for e-commerce, and created over 200 product variations to cover every possible combination of a bedroom, guest toilet, and weekly service, services that could be offered. Behind the scenes, the operation ran on Google Sheets and a web of no-code automations that Angbalaga cobbled together herself. The new instant matching replaces that workflow with an automated system that ranks sparklers based on several factors, including location, availability, skill fit, and past performance ratings. Once a customer completes payment, the system surfaces the best-fit sparkler and updates their calendar immediately. It also provides the ability for users to book a preferred sparkler if they want a specific cleaner they have come to trust. 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 The trust deficit Technology may reduce delays and double bookings, but it doesn’t erase the deeper trust issues that plague the informal sector, including fears of theft, misconduct, or incompetence. For a platform like Shaaré that acts as an intermediary, the reputational risks are high. Angbalaga acknowledges that trust is the true product, describing the company as a care layer integrated into the tech ecosystem. To mitigate the risks inherent in sending strangers into private homes, the company enforces a vetting process that includes verifying home addresses, demanding guarantors, checking work history, and training during the onboarding process. Angbalaga admits that despite the new automation, the company still relies heavily on customer feedback to police quality. “We depend on our customers to know what truly is going on at the moments where we don’t have eyes,” she said, noting that human intervention and investigation remain a critical safety net. “The moment we hear back from customers on anything, we take that really seriously.” Shaaré is not alone in trying to organise this sector. Companies like Eden Life pioneered subscription-based concierge models, while others like SweepSouth, the South African marketplace that expanded into Nigeria in 2022, focus on managed cleaning teams or ad-hoc bookings. What sets Shaaré apart, according to Angbalaga, is its emphasis on on-demand access without subscriptions. The platform operates on an 80/20 revenue split, with 80% going to the sparkler. To ensure fair pricing in a city where no two apartments are alike, Shaaré uses a dynamic pricing calculator. The tool adjusts rates based on home size, factoring in that a four-bedroom home in Lagos likely includes extra living areas, and calculates transport stipends automatically based on the worker’s location. Shaaré has remained bootstrapped, a choice Angbalaga says allowed the company to validate the market demand without the pressure of artificial growth. Now, the challenge is synchronisation. While the platform’s technical capacity has effectively levelled up with this update, its ground operations are still playing catch-up. “Operationally, we’re not there, but we’re going to get there, and that means more cities for Shaaré, more jobs, and more customers served,” Angbalaga said. In a market where most households still rely on referrals and intuition, Shaaré bets that its structure can earn trust.
Read MoreAs US doors narrow, African tech talent faces a tougher path to America
On Tuesday, December 16, US President Donald Trump expanded travel and visa restrictions on nationals from more than 30 countries, many of them in Africa, reviving and widening a policy first introduced during his first term. The order imposes full or partial entry restrictions based on visa overstay data, terrorism risk assessments, and failures in identity management and information sharing. For Africa’s fast-growing tech ecosystem, the move creates an entry barrier to one of the most important corridors for founders and operators trying to access the US market. Trump’s decision followed a months-long bureaucratic process rooted in legal precedent, immigration data, and national security doctrine that has already survived Supreme Court review. What led to the blanket ban The current expansion traces back to June 2025, when Trump restored the travel restrictions from his first term shortly after returning to office. Rather than introducing a new framework, the administration reinstated Executive Order 14161 and Proclamation 10949, relying on an earlier Supreme Court ruling that upheld the president’s authority to restrict entry on national security grounds. This time, the administration leaned heavily on data from the Department of Homeland Security’s FY 2024 Entry and Exit Overstay Report. Countries whose citizens overstayed US visas at high rates were flagged for sanctions, ranging from partial suspensions of business and student visas to full bans on entry. According to that report, several countries’ citizens defaulted at notable rates. F, M, and J student and exchange visa holders were flagged as compliance risks due to overstays. Cote d’Ivoire recorded a 19.09% overstay rate among students and exchange visitors, while Tanzania and Senegal posted rates of 13.97% and 13.07%, respectively. Nigeria, one of Africa’s largest tech hubs, recorded a student and exchange visa overstay rate of 11.90%, even as business visa defaults on B-1 and B-2 visas remained just above 5%. The Gambia, Benin, and Sierra Leone stood out with the highest student visa overstay rates, each exceeding 35%, placing them among the most heavily penalised countries in the proclamation. High overstay rates in any major category are treated as evidence of systemic non-compliance, triggering broad restrictions that hit African talent. Several African countries now face full US entry bans, including Burkina Faso, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Libya, Mali, Niger, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, and Sudan. Sierra Leone was upgraded from partial to full restrictions under the new order, reflecting a sharp tightening of enforcement. Other African countries were partially restricted. Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Angola, Benin, Burundi, Togo, Cote d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Malawi, Mauritania, and Gabon are subject to limits that primarily affect business, tourism, and student visas, while leaving some immigrant pathways technically open but more difficult to access. Partial restrictions suspend the issuance of B-1 and B-2 visas used for business and tourism, as well as F, M, and J visas for students and exchange visitors. Some immigrant visa categories remain open, but applicants should expect slower processing and tougher reviews at US embassies. “This is not a blanket ban on all immigrant visas,” said Oluyomi Ojo, founder of immigration consulting firm AgoraVisa. “It does not automatically shut down EB-1A and EB-2 visas. EB immigrant visas are affected at the consular level—embassies will not adjudicate or will effectively pause issuance—there will be no exceptions. EB migrations will continue as the ban does not affect approvals at the USCIS. The USCIS continues to adjudicate EB petitions inside the United States for all. The disruption happens at embassies, where visa issuance may be paused or delayed, even after approvals.” Yet for Nigeria and several Sahel countries, the proclamation adds another complication. Trump explicitly cited the presence of groups such as Boko Haram and the Islamic State, arguing that terrorist activity “creates screening and vetting difficulties.” This could trigger enhanced security checks and reviews that slow immigration processes. Those two factors combine to raise the burden of proof for Nigerian applicants across nearly all non-immigrant categories. What does this mean for African tech talent? The most immediate impact falls on global mobility. New B-1 and B-2 visas will largely stop flowing from affected countries, cutting off US access. Student and exchange routes, which were viable immigration routes into the US tech ecosystem, will also narrow sharply. As visiting routes close, African tech talent is likely to seek out immigration pathways that remain unaffected by the proclamation. Employment-based visas such as O-1, L-1, and H-1B remain legally open, but they are far harder to obtain. These categories require employer sponsorship, exceptional-ability thresholds, or intracompany transfers that many early-stage founders and independent operators cannot meet. “Tech workers already on O-1, L1, H-1B [visas] from [affected] countries are not impacted, and can still file for EB-1 and EB-2 in the US and get approval,” said Ojo. “Those with visas approved before January 1 face fewer issues.” The deeper shift lies in how applications will now be judged. High overstay rates push consular interviews toward suspicion rather than validation. Immigration interviews will focus more on reasons an applicant might stay than on the purpose of the trip. African tech workers could face pressure proving they have reasons to return home, such as property ownership back home or long-term local employment, with no incentives to overstay their welcome. This creates a structural mismatch; for those without clear proof, it could weaken their ability to demonstrate ties to home countries. Founders already inside the US system remain shielded from the executive order. But first-time entrants will face a wall built from data, security logic, and bureaucracy that hamper migration opportunities for African talent. This could encourage a shift toward alternative hubs in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, where visa access is predictable.
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How Swypt turns M-PESA payments into stablecoins without changing how Kenyans pay
In September, I met the Swypt team at ETHSafari in Kenya, a week-long Ethereum conference organised by Lisk, a blockchain platform that builds and supports decentralised applications, particularly in emerging markets. The event brings together developers, startups, and investors working on blockchain infrastructure across Africa. ETHSafari is usually loud with many product demos competing for attention from throngs of visitors. One of the booths by Swypt, a Kenyan fintech that connects merchants to stablecoin rails, was easy to miss because it did not have a lot of people around it. At the booth, co-founder and chief product officer, Stephen Gachanja, told me that Kenyan businesses were already using Swypt to sidestep shilling volatility by converting M-PESA payments into dollar-pegged stablecoins. A few days earlier, just before we left Nairobi for Kilifi, where ETHSafari was held, I had already seen what he meant. At Nairobi’s Westlands Mall, inside a small jewellery and fashion boutique, a customer made a payment that looked ordinary. The customer scanned an M-PESA paybill. On the phone, the transaction showed up in Kenyan shillings, but on the merchant’s end, though, the settlement arrived as USDT (Tether) in a self-custodial wallet. That gap between what the customer sees and what the merchant receives is Swypt’s entire product. Much of the blockchain industry tries to change user behaviour with new wallets and a promise of new rails. Swypt takes a different route because it leaves M-PESA untouched and moves the complexity underneath. Kenyans keep paying the way they already do, but stablecoins appear only after the payment clears. For now, the product spreads less through marketing and more through merchants, explaining it to each other across different towns. The mechanics of the Swypt Say a car rental business in Kenya, which handles local and international customers, wants to use digital assets to bypass local currency volatility. The business can convert mobile money or bank receipts into USDT, a dollar-pegged stablecoin, by routing payments through a specialised financial interface. The car rental payment system may choose to rely on an M-PESA paybill, a central feature of Kenya’s mobile money economy. In this context, a paybill is an M-PESA-linked business-to-business (B2B) or customer-to-business (C2B) cash collection service. Unlike a personal “send money” transaction, a paybill allows an entity to collect funds on a massive scale via a unique business number. Swypt merchant paybill Customers enter this business number and a specific “account number” to identify the transaction, such as a rental agreement ID or a car registration. This will then allow the business to automate reconciliation and track which customer paid for which service. Assuming the rental business operates across three national locations, managed through a central data module (Swypt issues a free virtual POS (point of sale) terminal that allows the merchant to manage these multiple branches from a single dashboard without the need for physical card readers), the financial flow moves through four steps. Customers pay via M-PESA using a provided paybill, QR code, or payment link. The Swypt software automatically converts the shilling-denominated payment into USDT. Funds are pushed to a self-custodial wallet owned by the business. This ensures the service provider does not hold the merchant’s capital to cut counterparty risk. Staff at each respective branch receive instant transaction alerts to confirm the rental. Once settled in digital dollars, the business can then use the liquidity for operational expenses. Swypt supports outbound payments back into the M-PESA ecosystem, including tills (retail payment numbers) and bank accounts, to settle payroll and supplier invoices. Customer journey from payment to reconciliation However, the lack of a traditional chargeback mechanism shifts risk. Only a merchant can initiate a reversal, which eliminates the “friendly fraud” that plagues online retail but demands higher consumer trust. The cheapest route for the business is “peer-to-peer” settlement with other merchants on the same network. Because the underlying assets are on-chain, the business can also settle international obligations with any supplier capable of receiving USDT, effectively removing the friction of traditional cross-border banking. Swypt is stripping the complexity from self-custody by offering a decentralised bridge between USDT and KES without the traditional friction of blockchain. The platform is strictly non-custodial, meaning it never holds user keys or funds. Instead, it only interacts with a user’s wallet when authorised to settle a specific transaction. To make the experience feel like a standard banking app, Swypt uses account abstraction that allows users to bypass the headache of seed phrases (the master key to your digital assets), accessing their wallets via email and 2FA across any device. Why is bypassing the shilling so important? For Kenyan merchants, the primary incentive is currency preservation. After two years of the shilling’s volatility against the US dollar, holding local currency has become a balance-sheet risk for anyone importing raw materials or finished goods. Once funds arrive as stablecoins, merchants can move money quickly across multiple channels. They can pay international invoices in USDT, transfer assets to external wallets like Trust Wallet, or convert back to KES for local use. Swypt claims to remove its own exposure to currency fluctuations by eliminating an “internal float” or the idle cash reserves traditional processors hold. Lean operations Swypt’s commercial model is aggressive since there are no upfront fees for accepting payments. Rather, costs are concentrated on the payout side. According to Gachanja, off-ramp fees typically sit below 1%, comfortably beating the spreads of black market FX exchanges or traditional wire fees. For high-volume enterprises, an over-the-counter desk handles liquidity via API. “Swypt only applies fees on payouts and has no direct upfront fees for pay-ins (M-PESA to paybill charges apply). In comparison to market standards, our fees are majorly below 1% for all transactions,” Gachanja said. In an era of renewed venture rounds, Swypt is an outlier. The 12-person team is entirely bootstrapped. Gachanja claims that the business has processed over $10 million in volume across 1,000 merchants. The model is not without its dependencies because Swypt relies on the stability of third-party stablecoins and
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