👨🏿🚀TechCabal Daily – Cell C, plan C
In partnership with Lire en Français اقرأ هذا باللغة العربية Good morning. Welcome to another week. The English Premier League has kicked off. While it wasn’t the best start to the campaign, we (Man United) still had it better than a certain fanbase that outspent us—embarrassing, but yes, I want to take things to a new low. All protests against this logic will fall on deaf ears. In Silicon Valley, tech bros are fighting about whose AI research model is better; the folks at Inherent say theirs is. Who knows? Anthropic could just be cooling off on research to convince investors that it’s not trying to sell them a bubble ahead of its public listing. Keep scrolling to see what we’ve got for you today in African tech. —Emmanuel Become smarter about tech and commerce in Francophone Africa, and the policies shaping them. Read previous editions here first and subscribe below. Subscribe Cell C in talks with Starlink, Amazon Leo SA’s Gauteng wants to know who gig drivers are IN Groupe eyes expansive role in Kenya Malawi mulls tax relief for smartphones, Internet World Wide Web 3 Job Openings Telecoms Cell C wants Starlink and Amazon Leo in its network Image Source: Tenor Cell C, the South African mobile operator, is borrowing infrastructure to connect its customers to the Internet. Now, it wants to add space to the mix. What happened? Jorge Mendes, Cell C’s chief executive officer, said the company is in talks with satellite Internet service providers (ISPs) Starlink and Amazon Leo about reselling their broadband services to its customers and potentially offering direct-to-device connectivity. What would this mean? If this happens, Cell C subscribers could possibly connect to the Internet in two ways: through terrestrial networks, such as mobile towers, or satellite networks that beam connectivity from space. Cell C already relies on MTN and Vodacom’s network infrastructure instead of operating its own. The operator could use satellite broadband to reach places where building fibre or mobile towers is expensive, or resell satellite Internet to customers who need connectivity outside its traditional coverage. The space race is getting crowded: The move comes shortly after Herotel, a South African ISP, signed a distribution deal with Amazon Leo. Herotel said it plans to sell Amazon Leo’s satellite service under the ‘Evry’ brand from 2027. The deal, however, is non-exclusive, so other companies can also partner with Amazon. Traditional telecom companies have been eyeing partnerships with satellite Internet firms to extend broadband reach, with potentially lower capital expenditure—compared to fibre—and arguably better Internet access. Starlink reached a similar agreement in the Democratic Republic of Congo and launched in August. Despite talks with Cell C on a potential collaboration, Elon Musk-owned Starlink still hasn’t secured an operating licence in South Africa—its attempt marred by local rules keeping it out and disagreements that have turned into a political fight. South Africa’s connectivity market is heating up: MTN and Vodacom, South Africa’s two largest telecom firms, are also testing their own satellite-to-phone services through partnerships with US firm Lynk Global and AST Spacemobile, although neither has launched commercially. The coming months could get very interesting, as more players look to space for the next way to keep South Africans connected. Every business owner needs to watch this. The business questions you Google, answered by experts. Watch for free. Ride-hailing South African province Gauteng wants to know who your Uber, Bolt, or Wanatu driver is Image Source: Tenor South Africa’s e-hailing rules are moving from the app store to the government database. Gauteng, the smallest yet wealthiest province in South Africa, wants every e-hailing driver in the province to register on its public transport system—and foreign drivers will have to identify themselves as such. What happened? Gauteng’s Department of Transport is asking ride-hailing operators, including Uber, Bolt, Wanatu (a local operator), and inDrive, to register their drivers on the Gauteng Integrated Public Transport Administration System (GIPTAS). The system stores information on public transport operators, routes, licences, and conflicts. Drivers will submit details including their Professional Driving Permit, vehicle registration, and ID number. Foreign drivers without South African ID numbers can use a Traffic Register Number, a profile created on the national road-traffic system for people without the country’s 13-digit ID. State of play: The registration drive follows South Africa’s amended National Land Transport Amendment Act, passed in 2025, which formally brought e-hailing into the country’s public transport system. The wider rules mandated ride-hailing companies, local and foreign, to secure e-hailing licences, brand their vehicles, and install panic buttons for passenger safety. However, Gauteng hasn’t set a specific deadline for ride-hailing companies and drivers to comply. Explain like I’m new here: Gauteng is the inland province at the heart of South Africa’s economic engine. It includes Johannesburg, the country’s main financial and industrial centre, and Pretoria, the administrative capital. So this is not a small-town transport experiment: it is happening in the province where a huge share of the country’s business, commuting, and airport traffic converges. Between the lines: Gauteng is also the country’s biggest ride-hailing battleground. Uber held an estimated 60–65% of Johannesburg’s market in 2025, with Bolt taking most of the remainder, according to Bobby Ramagwede, chief executive officer of the country’s Automobile Association. That makes the province a high-stakes test of whether South Africa can bring app-based transport into the same regulatory net as taxis and buses without making it harder for drivers to earn a living—or for passengers to find a ride. Zoom out: The government says it needs a clear record of who is operating on its roads; however, ride-hailing platforms are still working through the practicalities of feeding driver data into a new system. For passengers, registration could offer some reassurance, creating a nationally enforceable way to track down wrongdoers in cases of incidents, a possible sigh of relief in South Africa’s torrid history of ride-hailing violence. Moonshot is back! Moonshot 2026 is coming! Join us at the National Theatre, Lagos on October 28 & 29 for two
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The Next Wave: Are Kenyan startups not bootstrapping enough?
Cet article est aussi disponible en français <!– In partnership with –> First published on August 23, 2026 If you start a business in a normal environment, you face a very simple but brutal problem: you must convince people to give you more money for your product than it costs you to provide it. If you fail, you run out of money and stop being a business. We call this bootstrapping, but it’s really just doing business. But if you start a business in an environment suddenly flooded with foreign venture capital, your problem changes. Your job now includes convincing customers to pay for your product now, and doing the same for investors to fund your runway later. Over the last few years, the Kenyan tech ecosystem got very good at the second job, while systematically forgetting how to do the first. Here is a slightly uncomfortable theory about what happened to Kenyan tech founders; they stopped bootstrapping not because they suddenly lost their drive, but because a localised glut of capital made bootstrapping economically irrational. Continuous funding replaced the constraints of early-stage survival, stripping the ecosystem of the hunger, angst and resourcefulness needed to digitise a frontier market. The visceral fear of missing payroll gave way to the bureaucratic anxiety of managing a burn rate. Investors are now quietly realising that the capital meant to empower Kenyan founders ended up domesticating them and turning scrappy entrepreneurs into highly paid managers of fundamentally unprofitable logistics subsidies. Next Wave continues after this ad. Founders. Investors. Policymakers. Enterprise leaders. Moonshot 2026 brings together the people shaping Africa’s technology ecosystem across AI, commerce, climate, enterprise, and culture. Spotlight your brand today. Secure Your Spot! The tragedy of the well-funded pivot If you are a venture capitalist with a mandate to deploy capital in East Africa, you want to fund scalable technology. If you are a Kenyan consumer, you want cheap consumer goods. For a brief, glorious period, the industry decided that the solution to both desires was to give tech founders tens of millions of dollars to subsidise the delivery of those goods. The structural reality of rural and informal delivery in East Africa is that it is extraordinarily expensive, highly fragmented and margin-poor. But when a startup has $20 million, it doesn’t need to prove that a customer will pay a profitable margin today. It only needs to prove top-line growth to the next series investor. You can defer the reality of unit economics for a very long time if your charts point up and to the right. To see how this plays out when the music stops, you only need to look at the recent mortality rate of Kenya’s most celebrated disruptors: Copia Global: This rural e-commerce platform raised $123 million across eight funding rounds. The business model was, essentially, to exchange global venture capital for the privilege of subsidising the delivery of consumer goods to remote populations. When the macroeconomic environment shifted and the company could no longer attract capital to maintain its high-burn operations, it collapsed into administration under KPMG, jeopardising over 1,000 jobs. Sendy: Targeting to streamline informal supply chains, Sendy raised $20 million from impact investors. Over five years, the company executed multiple expensive pivots—from household package delivery to long-haul B2B logistics—before simply running out of cash to subsidise its operations and shutting down. Twiga Foods: Twiga raised massive amounts of capital on the premise of organising smallholder farmers, only to realise that working with small farmers is fundamentally unprofitable. They pivoted to large farms, fired their in-house sales team, shifted to commission agents, fired those agents for underperformance, and scrapped their in-house logistics. Lipa Later: A celebrated Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL) fintech that was placed under administration in March 2025, highlighting the fatal mismatch between the high cost of capital and local consumer default realities. Kune Foods: Raised over $1 million for a food delivery model that solved a non-existent problem and fundamentally clashed with local consumer habits, burning through its runway before shutting down. The Kenyan tech ecosystem absorbed $638 million in 2024 and an astounding $984 million in 2025. Yet, the return profile looks increasingly bleak. Startup shutdowns across Africa jumped 50% in 2025, erasing $52 million in investor capital. Lost hunger Investors are openly noting that the scrappy, default-alive energy that characterised early Kenyan tech has evaporated. There are specific reasons why this hunger dissipated, and they are entirely rational responses to the incentive structures created by venture capital: Bootstrapping aligns a founder’s survival directly with the customer’s willingness to pay. Venture capital aligns the founder’s survival with the investor’s willingness to fund. The normalisation of high founder salaries at the pre-seed stages has completely altered the risk-reward calculus. When a founder is drawing a comfortable corporate salary to run an unprofitable business, the existential dread that forces true innovation disappears. Driven by the need to attract global capital, founders prioritised building businesses that pattern-match with Silicon Valley trends rather than addressing local realities. Deploying an app that introduces QR code menus to a roadside food vendor (a kibanda) looks highly innovative to a foreign capital allocator, but it adds zero tangible value to a price-sensitive local consumer base. Access to excessive early capital encourages founders to skip the crucial “no-code” validation phases, defaulting immediately to aggressive scaling and large tech teams. This results in massive burn rates and bloated overheads, complete with lavish company offsites. Capital deployment is often so inefficient that cynical local market observers have begun likening heavily funded ventures to fraudulent money conduits. The persistent assumption that the sheer scale of the Kenyan informal sector will eventually fix negative margins has proven fatal. Instead of estimating realistic customer acquisition costs against the local demographic’s actual purchasing power, founders relied on continuous funding simply to maintain daily operations. The mathematics of customer acquisition costing more than the customer’s lifetime value cannot be outrun forever, even in an emerging market. The market correction currently tearing through Nairobi is painful, but structurally necessary.
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What to expect from the Samsung Galaxy event on August 27
Table of contents When is the Samsung Galaxy event? How to watch the Samsung Galaxy event What will Samsung announce at the event? Samsung Galaxy S26 FE expected specs Could Samsung also announce the Galaxy Tab S12? What Samsung has confirmed so far Samsung is holding a Galaxy Event on August 27, 2026. The company has not named the phone yet, but everything points to the Galaxy S26 FE. Samsung says the event will bring the core Galaxy S26 experience, from camera to AI, to a wider audience. This guide covers the event time in Nigeria, how to watch it, what the Galaxy S26 FE is expected to offer, and how it compares to the Galaxy S25 FE. You will also find the price rumours and what else could show up at the event. When is the Samsung Galaxy event? Samsung confirmed the date as August 27, 2026. The event starts at 9:00 p.m. in South Korea. Here is what that means in different regions: South Korea: 9:00 p.m. KST, August 27 Nigeria: 1:00 p.m. WAT, August 27 United States (Eastern): 8:00 a.m. EDT, August 27 United Kingdom: 1:00 p.m. BST, August 27 If you are in Nigeria, mark your calendar for 1 p.m. on August 27. How to watch the Samsung Galaxy event Samsung will stream the event live on Samsung.com and on its official YouTube channel. You do not need a ticket or an invite. Just log on at the time above and watch. What will Samsung announce at the event? Samsung’s official invite does not name a phone. It only says the event will introduce the newest addition to the Galaxy S26 family, and that the device will bring core Galaxy S26 experiences in camera and AI, along with the latest One UI. That phone is almost certainly the Galaxy S26 FE. Samsung already mentioned a new S26 FE during its July earnings call, and leaked certification filings, benchmark listings, and marketing images all point to the same device. Samsung Galaxy S26 FE expected specs 1. Design and display: Leaks suggest the S26 FE will keep a familiar look but carry the newer S26 design language. Expect: A 6.7-inch AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate Gorilla Glass Victus+ protection and an aluminium frame IP68 water and dust resistance Colours in Blueberry, Pistachio, and Graphite 2. Performance and software: The processor is where this phone should show its biggest change. Leaks and a benchmark listing point to Samsung’s own Exynos 2500 chip, a jump from the Exynos 2400 in the S25 FE. Exynos 2500 chipset, based on leaks and a benchmark listing 8GB RAM, with storage options at 128GB and 256GB Android 17 with One UI 9 out of the box Up to seven years of OS updates, based on leaked marketing material 3. Camera and Galaxy AI: The camera numbers look almost unchanged from the S25 FE. Leaks point to: 50MP main camera 12MP ultrawide camera 8MP telephoto camera with 3x zoom 12MP front camera Samsung has already named the camera and AI as the two big themes for this event. Expect more focus on software features like Circle to Search, Now Brief, and Bixby than on new camera hardware. 4. Battery and charging: 4,900mAh battery 45W wired charging, supported by certification filings Wireless charging, though the speed is not yet known A leaked claim of around 50 hours of typical use, still unverified 5. Cost: Samsung has not announced a price yet. A French retail leak from Dealabs points to price increases over the S25 FE: Could Samsung also announce the Galaxy Tab S12? Samsung already confirmed the Galaxy Tab S12 as a product for the second half of 2026, but it has not linked the tablet to this event. The August 27 invite only mentions a new Galaxy S26 phone, and separate reports suggest the Tab S12 could launch in October instead. Treat the Tab S12 as a possible surprise, not a sure thing at this event. What Samsung has confirmed so far Confirmed: The event is on August 27, 2026, streamed on Samsung.com and YouTube A new Galaxy S26 family phone will be announced Camera, Galaxy AI, and One UI will be central to the event The Galaxy Tab S12 is a real, upcoming Samsung product, just not confirmed for this event Still unconfirmed: The Galaxy S26 FE name itself Final specs, storage options, and colours Price in any market, including Nigeria Preorder and sale dates outside the France leak Samsung is expected to settle most of these questions live on August 27. True scale demands moving beyond surface-level integrations to robust execution. We’ve filtered the noise out of Moonshot 2026, optimising the conference strictly for high-calibre connections between startup founders, global financial operators, enterprise leaders and individuals rewiring Africa’s technical frameworks. Get 20% off Early Bird tickets for a limited time.
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Samsung Galaxy S26 FE: Release date, price and specs
Table of contents When is the Galaxy S26 FE coming out Samsung Galaxy S26 FE price Samsung Galaxy S26 FE price in Nigeria Samsung Galaxy S26 FE specs Camera, battery and charging Samsung Galaxy S26 FE vs Galaxy S25 FE Should you wait for the Galaxy S26 FE? What we still don’t know Samsung is set to unveil a new Galaxy S26 series device on August 27, 2026, and everything points to this being the Galaxy S26 FE. The company hasn’t used that name yet, but leaked benchmarks, regulatory filings, and marketing materials tell a fairly complete story about the phone before Samsung says a word. Here is what you need to know about the release date, price, specs and how it stacks up against the Galaxy S25 FE. When is the Galaxy S26 FE coming out Samsung has confirmed a Galaxy Event for August 27, 2026, at 9 p.m. Korea Standard Time. That works out to 1 p.m. in Nigeria. Samsung’s invite promises a new addition to the Galaxy S26 family, with a focus on camera experiences, AI and the latest version of One UI. The evidence linking this device to the Galaxy S26 FE is strong, even though Samsung has not put a name on it yet: Google Play Console listings show Galaxy S26 FE models with codes like SM-S741B, SM-S741N, SM-S741U and SM-S741W A Geekbench listing for SM-S741B shows Android 17 and Samsung’s own s5e9955 chip, and FCC filings tied to the device confirm Samsung’s cellular hardware alongside Qualcomm’s wireless chip Treat August 27 as the announcement date, not the sale date. Samsung has not confirmed when the phone goes on sale. Reports point to the first week of September 2026, and the Galaxy S25 FE went on sale on September 4, 2025, so a similar window is likely again. Nigeria’s launch date is even less clear. Samsung has run FE launch promotions in Nigeria before, including for the S23 FE in October 2023 and the S24 FE in October 2024. That history is a good sign, but it doesn’t guarantee the S26 FE arrives here on the same day as in Europe or the US. Samsung Galaxy S26 FE price The clearest price signal so far comes from a leak in France. Dealabs reported the following prices, and both SamMobile and 9to5Google have since cited the same figures. Samsung has not confirmed any of these numbers, and it has not announced a price for any other market. Those figures are €50, €90 and €170 higher than the equivalent Galaxy S25 FE prices. A $799 figure has shown up in some coverage, but that number comes from converting the European price rather than an actual US leak, so treat it as a guess and not a confirmed price. Samsung kept the Galaxy S24 FE and Galaxy S25 FE at $649.99 in the US at launch, which gives you a sense of where the US price could land if Samsung holds the line this year. Samsung Galaxy S26 FE price in Nigeria An official Nigeria price does not exist yet, and converting the French price straight to naira would give you a misleading number. Nigerian pricing depends on the exchange rate, import costs, VAT and Samsung’s own local pricing decisions, so what follows is a working estimate rather than a leak. Using the CBN’s exchange rate of ₦1,347.63 to the dollar, Nigeria’s 7.5% VAT rate and current Samsung retail prices in Nigeria as reference points, here is a rough model based on three possible US starting prices: Based on this, our working estimate for the base 128GB Galaxy S26 FE in Nigeria sits between ₦1.05 million and ₦1.20 million. A 256GB model could land between ₦1.18 million and ₦1.35 million if Samsung applies the same storage price jump seen in the French leak. Both ranges are estimates until Samsung West Africa confirms official pricing. Samsung Galaxy S26 FE specs Samsung has not published a spec sheet for the phone, but leaked marketing material, Google Play Console data, Geekbench results and FCC filings agree on most of the details below. Storage is one area with mixed signals. One detailed leak lists only 128GB and 256GB, while pricing leaks and newer reports mention a 512GB option too. Treat 512GB as possible, not certain, until Samsung confirms it. Colour names have also shifted between reports. Earlier leaks used names like Aqua Green and Blue/Purple. The newest and most complete render leak names three colours, Blueberry, Pistachio and Graphite, and this is the version most likely to match what Samsung eventually announces. Camera, battery and charging On paper, the camera setup looks unchanged from last year. Leaks point to the same 50MP main sensor and 8MP telephoto sensor used in the Galaxy S25 FE, so any improvement will likely come from software, Galaxy AI, and image processing rather than new hardware. That fits Samsung’s own teaser language, which promises upgrades “from camera to AI.” Battery capacity also stays flat at 4,900mAh, the same figure as the Galaxy S25 FE. What stands out is the battery life rating. European energy labels show a 50-hour rating with an A energy grade, compared with 42.5 hours and a B grade for the Galaxy S25 FE. That is a meaningful jump in efficiency without a bigger battery. There is a trade-off too. The same energy labels reportedly rate the battery for 1,200 full charge cycles before it drops below its rated capacity, down from 2,000 cycles on the Galaxy S25 FE. Some reports link the improved efficiency to a silicon-carbon battery, but Samsung has not said what changed, so treat that claim as a rumour for now. Wired charging stays at 45W, the same speed as the Galaxy S25 FE. FCC filings confirm the phone supports reverse wireless charging, though the maximum wireless charging speed is still unknown. Samsung Galaxy S26 FE vs Galaxy S25 FE Most of the changes sit under the hood. The processor upgrade and the better battery efficiency rating are the
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He started Bitoshi as a student with an $11.12 allowance. Now it has 60,000 users
As a first-year Computer Science student at the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), Timilehin Zubair wanted to become financially independent. His parents gave him ₦15,000 ($11.12) a month, which was supposed to cover his expenses as he adjusted to living away from home. But Zubair could spend the money within two weeks. He began looking for ways to earn his own income. His first attempt was an Instagram blog, where he reposted pictures from other accounts and tried to build an audience. When that failed to gain traction, he moved into vector art, teaching himself Photoshop and spending hours drawing people. He attracted some attention, but the commissions he expected never came. Graphic design was one of his first experiments that actually made money. Zubair began designing for brands and used some of his earnings to advertise his services. In his second year, a roommate asked him to design a flyer for a crypto business he was starting. The design job became Zubair’s introduction to crypto. “That was not the first time I was hearing about crypto,” he told TechCabal in an interview. “This time around, I was very interested in knowing more about it. So, I told him to put me on and give me more information about the business.” By the time he finished the design, Zubair had started trading crypto himself. He bought cryptocurrency from people at one price and sold it at a higher price, keeping the difference. His graphic-design earnings helped him advertise the business, while customers began contacting him on WhatsApp to buy and sell crypto. As the business grew, Zubair realised that he could not handle every transaction manually. If he wanted to serve more customers, he needed to automate the process and build a product. It took a failed attempt to hire an outside developer, and the discovery that one of his own coursemates could build software, the WhatsApp hustle to become Bitoshi, the crypto startup Zubair founded in 2020. The company allows users to send cryptocurrency to a wallet address and receive its naira equivalent in their bank accounts. The name Bitoshi combines “Bit”, from Bitcoin, and “oshi”, from Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator or creators of Bitcoin. Bitoshi entered a Nigerian crypto market that was growing rapidly but operating under a difficult banking environment. In February 2021, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) directed banks and other financial institutions to close accounts belonging to crypto businesses. It warned regulated institutions against dealing in crypto-related transactions. By 2026, Nigerians had transacted an estimated $96 billion worth of crypto, making the country one of Africa’s largest crypto markets. For Bitoshi, the opportunity was also the challenge: how do you build a crypto business when the banking infrastructure needed to move customers’ money is effectively off-limits? Day 1: Turning the WhatsApp hustle into a product Ask Zubair when Bitoshi started, and he will not point to the WhatsApp side hustle. In his telling, that was simply a way to make money he badly needed. Day 1, as he counts it, was the moment he decided to turn the hustle into a company. On WhatsApp, Zubair manually matched crypto buyers and sellers and tracked payments himself. Customers would tell him they wanted to sell Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency. He would give them a rate; they would send the crypto to his wallet, and he would transfer the naira equivalent to their bank account. It worked when the business was small. But Zubair knew he could not keep doing every transaction himself as the customer base grew. “I could not scale to 100 customers a day because it was not humanly possible,” he said. Scaling meant getting off WhatsApp and building an actual product. The answer came in the form of Leon, a fellow FUTA student Zubair had known since his first year but did not realise was a developer. The first version of Bitoshi was a simple website that generated a wallet address for each user, allowed them to send cryptocurrency to it and paid the naira equivalent into their bank account. In effect, it was a website version of what Zubair had been doing manually on WhatsApp. For the first few months, it was just the two of them. They were students, working remotely and learning as they went. “We had no marketing team in the early stage. We did zero marketing,” Zubair said. “I was just telling the audience I already had about this product, and they all seemed to like it and started telling their friends about it.” Because Bitoshi launched during the crypto ban, Zubair built Bitoshi assuming it would never get a bank partnership, “We built the product with the mindset that we were going to handle these transactions ourselves,” he said. To make that possible, Bitoshi built a vendor-dispatch system. Withdrawal requests were routed by an algorithm to a queue of vendors. A transaction would go to the first vendor and move to the next if it was not picked up within a set time, until an available vendor accepted it. That vendor would send the money from their own bank account to the customer’s account and earn a commission for processing the transaction. According to Zubair, the system gave the company an advantage over crypto platforms that relied on conventional peer-to-peer (P2P)transactions, where users had to find and transact with individual buyers or sellers. The workaround came with its own problems. Zubair said hackers found ways to exploit the platform, while other users created multiple accounts with fake identities to farm referral bonuses. “We learned on the job. We made a lot of mistakes. We had a lot of losses, because we didn’t fully understand what it meant to build in a financial market,” Zubair says. “It was very messy. But everything that happened, every obstacle we came across, we were able to break through and proceed.” Day 500: From holding crypto to spending it Bitoshi had figured out how to make it easier for
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Best Google Gemini features to use for free in Nigeria right now
Table of contents What Gemini features can Nigerians use for free? Free Gemini vs paid Gemini: What is the difference? What do Google AI Plus, Pro and Ultra give you in Nigeria? Which Gemini plan should you use? Not every Gemini feature is available in Nigeria Bottom line Google Gemini is available in Nigeria, and you do not need to pay for a Google AI subscription to start using many of its most useful features. The free version can do far more than answer questions or help you write an email. You can use it to research complex topics, analyse documents, hold voice conversations, generate and edit images, create study materials and even work on projects inside a dedicated workspace. That does not mean the free and paid versions are identical. Google AI subscriptions, including Google AI Plus, Pro and Ultra, generally give users higher usage limits, greater access to advanced models and some additional capabilities. But if you are wondering what you can actually do with Gemini in Nigeria without paying, there is already plenty to explore. This article breaks down the best free Google Gemini features available in Nigeria right now, what they do, and when it might make sense to consider a paid plan. What Gemini features can Nigerians use for free? Gemini is available through its web and mobile apps in Nigeria. Many of its core features can be used with a standard Google account, although some have daily or monthly usage limits. Google Gemini free features in Nigeria at a glance Here are some of the most useful ones. 1. Ask Gemini questions and get help with everyday tasks The most basic way to use Gemini is still one of the most useful. You can ask questions, request explanations, brainstorm ideas, write and edit text, plan tasks, and get help working through problems. For example, you could ask Gemini to: Explain a difficult concept in simple terms Help you write an email or cover letter Brainstorm story ideas Create a travel or study plan Summarise a topic Help you think through a problem Gemini can also handle follow-up questions, so you do not always have to start a new conversation when you want to go deeper into a topic. For everyday use, this is where most people will probably spend most of their time. The difference with paid plans is largely about how much access you get to Google’s more advanced models and how often you can use them before reaching a limit. 2. Research complex topics with Deep Research Deep Research is one of Gemini’s most useful features, particularly if you are working on a topic that requires more than a quick answer. Instead of simply responding to a prompt, Gemini can research a subject, work through multiple sources and produce a more detailed report. It can also show you a research plan before beginning and allow you to ask follow-up questions after the report is complete. This could be useful for: Researching a company or industry Understanding a complicated policy issue Comparing products or services Preparing for an interview Exploring an unfamiliar topic Building background knowledge for a project The important thing here is that Deep Research is not entirely locked behind a paid subscription. Free users can access it, although usage limits apply. Paid Google AI plans offer higher limits and additional access to Google’s more capable models for research. For anyone who regularly needs to dig into unfamiliar subjects, the free version is worth trying before deciding whether a subscription is necessary. 3. Upload and analyse files You can also upload supported files to Gemini and ask questions about them. That means you can give Gemini a document, spreadsheet, image or other supported file and ask it to help you understand what is inside. For example, you could upload: A long PDF and ask for a summary A spreadsheet and ask Gemini to identify patterns A report and ask for the key findings A document and ask specific questions about it An image and ask Gemini to describe or analyse what it shows This can save a significant amount of time when you are dealing with long or complicated material. The free version comes with usage limits, particularly when working with larger files or analysing video and audio. Paid plans increase those limits. Still, for occasional document analysis, the free tier may be enough. 4. Talk to Gemini with Gemini Live If you do not feel like typing, Gemini Live allows you to have a spoken conversation with the AI. Instead of giving one prompt, waiting for a response and typing another, you can speak more naturally and continue the conversation as you would with another person. You can interrupt Gemini, change your mind or ask it to explain something differently. On supported devices, Gemini Live can also use your camera or screen during a conversation. For example, you could point your camera at something and ask Gemini about what you are seeing, or share what is on your screen while discussing a problem. This could be useful when: You want to practise an interview You are trying to understand something you can see You need help working through a problem You prefer speaking to typing You want a more natural back-and-forth conversation Availability can depend on your device, account, and software requirements, so not every Gemini Live capability will necessarily work on every phone. But for supported users, it is one of the more interesting ways to interact with Gemini for free. 5. Generate and edit images Gemini is not limited to text. You can use it to generate images from a written description and, in supported cases, edit existing images by telling Gemini what you want to change. For example, you could ask it to: Create an illustration for a presentation Generate a concept image Change parts of an existing image Create social media visuals Experiment with different creative ideas Google’s current Gemini image tools give free users
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South Africa’s Cell C finds growth beyond its own subscribers
Cell C, South Africa’s third-largest mobile operator, sees its next wave of growth coming not just from its own subscribers, but from the businesses selling mobile services through its network. Cell C’s latest financial results, released on Friday, show that its wholesale and Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) business is becoming a key growth engine. Wholesale revenue grew 20% year on year, while 5.7 million subscribers were using services provided by other brands on Cell C’s network by the end of May 2026. The company expects double-digit growth to continue in FY27. The growth marks a change in Cell C’s business beyond selling mobile services directly to consumers. The company uses its network to support other brands that want to offer mobile services without building their own infrastructure, making wholesale and MVNOs an important part of its growth strategy. An MVNO allows a company to offer mobile services without operating its own radio network. Cell C provides the underlying connectivity and infrastructure, while partner businesses can market mobile services to their own customers. Its wholesale business effectively provides the network capacity and services these partners need, allowing Cell C to earn revenue from companies that use its infrastructure to serve their own customers. Cell C said its wholesale business generated R1.8 billion ($111.8 million) in revenue in FY26 and accounted for 80% to 85% of South Africa’s MVNO market. The telco ended the year with 8.9 million direct subscribers, up 17.1% year on year, alongside the 5.7 million MVNO subscribers using its platform. Cell C reported total revenue of R12.64 billion ($785.2 million), up 13.5%, while adjusted Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation (EBITDA) increased 16.9% to R2.4 billion ($147.8 million). Cell C says its asset-light, partnership-led model is supporting growth, with its wholesale and MVNO businesses becoming an important part of the strategy. Group chief executive officer (CEO) Jorge Mendes said the company had moved from recovery towards growth after completing its restructuring and listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) in November 2025. “Wholesale remained a standout performer and continues to validate our platform strategy, with sustained momentum in our MVNO business demonstrating the strength and scalability of Cell C’s partner-led model,” Mendes said in the results statement. The results show that providing network services to MVNOs and other partners is becoming an important part of Cell C’s growth strategy. Cell C said the number of subscribers using MVNO services on its network rose 27.3% to 5.7 million from 4.5 million a year earlier. The company’s consumer businesses also recorded growth. Prepaid revenue increased 9.7% to about R5.8 billion ($360.2 million), supported by a recovery in the customer base, with prepaid subscribers increasing by 1.3 million during the year. Postpaid service revenue gained 1.2% to R2.3 billion ($142.9 million), while average revenue per user rose to R242 ($15.03) from R225 ($13.98) after the company cleaned up its subscriber base. Data traffic shot up 47% year on year, while voice traffic fell 4%. Mendes noted that wholesale is central to the company’s growth plans. “Wholesale remains a key growth driver, and we expect double-digit revenue growth to continue supported by the continued strong performance of our MVNO business,” he stated. Cell C enters FY27 with a stronger balance sheet after net debt fell to R2.02 billion ($125.5 million) from R5.7 billion ($353.4 million) a year earlier. The telco expects overall revenue growth in the upper-single-digit range in FY27. It warned, however, that data rollover regulations due to take effect in January 2027 and lower mobile termination rates will put pressure on some revenue streams. Cell C also expects its postpaid business to improve following the integration of Comm Equipment Company (CEC), a telecommunications equipment and services business it acquired in August 2025. True scale demands moving beyond surface-level integrations to robust execution. We’ve filtered the noise out of Moonshot 2026, optimising the conference strictly for high-calibre connections between startup founders, global financial operators, enterprise leaders and individuals rewiring Africa’s technical frameworks. Get 20% off Early Bird tickets for a limited time.
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Nigeria’s Central Bank wants to monitor your stablecoin transactions. Can the plan actually work?
In its Payments System Vision 2028 (PSV 2028), unveiled on June 1, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said it intends to run observer nodes on blockchain networks that operate approved stablecoins, enabling the regulator to see stablecoin transactions in real time. A blockchain network is a shared ledger: instead of one company keeping the only copy of transaction records, many computers maintain copies and keep them in sync. An observer node is a computer connected to the network that keeps a copy of the blockchain and monitors activity on it. It does not validate or submit transactions to the network; its job is to observe. Running observer nodes on blockchains would give the CBN a direct view of how those tokens are created, moved, or destroyed, rather than making it depend entirely on reports prepared by the companies issuing them. It marks the regulator’s attempt to bring stablecoins into Nigeria’s regulated payments system without giving up visibility over how money moves across it. Stablecoins are digital currencies built on blockchain technology and designed to maintain a 1:1 peg to real-world currencies, such as the US dollar or naira. If a stablecoin is backed by the naira one-to-one, its issuer—usually private companies—must hold an equivalent amount or more in reserves with banks and other financial institutions, and keep those reserves available when customers buy or redeem the stablecoin. Nigerians use stablecoins for remittances and as a hedge against naira volatility, the CBN said in its PSV 2028 document. Much of that activity is informal or peer-to-peer (P2P), as further noted. The central bank now wants to regulate the stablecoins it approves, require them to hold reserves, and build infrastructure that lets it see their activity directly. Nigeria is not an isolated case. On June 30, 2026, Kenya’s Capital Markets Authority (CMA) issued a tender for virtual asset blockchain analytics providers, asking bidders to provide KES 900,000 ($7,000) in tender security, signalling the regulator’s readiness to work with managed services providers to gain greater oversight into how virtual assets operate on blockchains. Regulators want greater visibility into how digital assets—especially stablecoins and their role in payments—move on blockchains as they seek to manage risks to monetary sovereignty. However, running observer nodes could increase compliance costs for stablecoin issuers, who may need to hire managed services providers to meet the CBN’s proposed technical requirements. Stablecoins are no longer fringe experiments Between July 2024 and June 2025, digital currencies, including stablecoins, accounted for an estimated $205 billion in transaction flows in Sub-Saharan Africa, according to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis. The company said remittances, retail payments, and business-to-business (B2B) cross-border transactions using digital currencies have become increasingly common, especially in countries such as Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, and Ethiopia. Another report by Hashed Emergent, an India-based venture capital firm that invests in early-stage Web3 firms including African startups, noted that Nigeria had the highest 24-hour stablecoin P2P transfer volume on centralised exchanges in Sub-Saharan Africa, reaching $48.2 million in 2025, underscoring how deeply embedded those channels have become in moving money in the country and cementing the CBN’s case for tighter oversight of the sector. The CBN is also building a regulatory framework around stablecoins. It has opened a second cohort of its regulatory sandbox, which now includes stablecoin issuers and other virtual asset service providers. Under its PSV 2028, the regulator plans to licence fiat-backed stablecoins and require a minimum percentage of reserves backing foreign-currency stablecoins, such as the US dollar, to be domiciled in Nigeria with approved custodians (banks). For the regulator, the next question is visibility. The key benefit of running observer nodes is independence: the central bank can read the stablecoin-issued blockchain network to obtain high-level information about the digital currency’s supply and circulation, without relying on the issuer to tell it what happened. Blockchains, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, are already public on permissionless networks, allowing anyone to run these nodes without needing approval from a central authority. The attraction is that the regulator would no longer have to take an issuer’s word for what happened on the chain. “The practical value is not like the observer node [will] magically reveal new categories of truth,” Derek Degbe, a senior blockchain analytics engineer, told TechCabal in an interview. “The value is that they give the CBN an independent, more continuous, and evidence-based view of the on-chain side of the stablecoin system.” Licenced stablecoin issuers would be required to build features into their smart contracts—the code on which the stablecoin is built—that link reserve information to the blockchain and provide the CBN with access to relevant data. Observer nodes would allow the central bank to continuously monitor the blockchains on which approved stablecoins operate and see transactions in real time, rather than relying solely on reports from issuers, banks, independent auditors attesting to stablecoin reserves, and other regulated institutions. While it is technically possible to run observer nodes on permissionless blockchains, the harder part is deciding exactly what the CBN will monitor, how many blockchains it will support, and what happens to everything the blockchain cannot tell it. What CBN actually wants to build Beyond running nodes on blockchains, Nigeria’s central bank has also proposed licencing fiat-backed stablecoins and requiring issuers to keep reserves fully segregated, audited, and attested to daily. The CBN is evaluating a “RegTech Node” that would give it direct, real-time visibility into approved stablecoins. The node would be read-only, allowing the bank to watch the blockchain without changing transactions. For this to work, the CBN wants each licenced issuer to build four things into its stablecoin. First, smart contract transparency hooks, which would record every mint, burn, and redemption, so the CBN can see when tokens are created, destroyed, or redeemed. Second, regulator access addresses, allowing the CBN to read relevant data without interfering with transactions. Third, a link to reserves. Approved custodians would publish cryptographically signed proofs of reserves to the blockchain, allowing the CBN to compare reserves with tokens in circulation. Fourth, source code
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👨🏿🚀TechCabal Daily – FAAN’s new pickup line
In partnership with Lire en Français اقرأ هذا باللغة العربية TGIFWAW! The Naira Life Conference is almost here! We’re down to the final days. Tomorrow, professionals, entrepreneurs, investors, and creators will gather at The Jewel Aeida, Lekki, Lagos, for a full day of honest conversations about making, growing, and protecting money. Want to earn more, build wealth, or grow a business? Learn how to increase your market value, get practical advice on stocks, mutual funds, and cryptocurrencies, build your first portfolio, and discover what it really takes to turn a hustle into a wealth engine. The room only has a few seats left. Don’t wait until it’s too late to secure a ticket. Get your Naira Life Conference ticket. Become smarter about tech and commerce in Francophone Africa, and the policies shaping them. Read previous editions here first and subscribe below. Subscribe Quizzes Uber, Bolt aren’t banned from Nigerian airports—yet Comsol is building a wholesale 5G network for SA Who secured the bag? World Wide Web 3 Events Economy Uber and Bolt aren’t banned from Nigerian airports, yet Image Source: Tenor Have you ever tried ordering a ride after landing at Nigeria’s Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) and watched the little car icons on your app multiply until it looked like a huge pile-up? FAAN wants to bring some order to that chaos. What happened? The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the regulator that manages Nigeria’s commercial airports, has said it is speaking to ride-hailing companies, including Bolt and Uber, about a framework that would allow them to pick up passengers at airports while meeting the authority’s safety and operational requirements. FAAN added that until those agreements are signed, Uber and Bolt do not have formal approval to pick up passengers from Nigerian airport terminals. Explain like I’m new here: This is all part of FAAN’s master plan to digitise airport access systems and turn airport transport into something it can manage. In March, it fully activated its cashless policy at airport access points, where airport users were required to obtain a FAAN electronic payment card that must be scanned at entry points. In June, it launched the Airport Car Hire Rank Management System (ACHRAMS) at MMIA to register and track airport car-hire operators. So what does FAAN want and why? It wants control and visibility over commercial transport operating on airport property. FAAN said it has received complaints about touting and passenger solicitation around airports and wants commercial transport providers operating on its turf to be identifiable and accountable. Where does that leave you? For now, don’t delete Uber or Bolt. FAAN has said that ACHRAMS is not an e-hailing app designed to compete with ride-sharing platforms, but until agreements are completed, Uber, Bolt, and other ride-hailing platforms don’t have formal approval to pick up passengers from Nigerian airport terminals. Every business owner needs to watch this. The business questions you Google, answered by experts. Watch for free. Telecoms Network access provider Comsol is building a wholesale 5G network for South Africa Image Source: Tenor South Africa is getting another 5G network, but this one has a slightly different plan. Comsol, a South African telecom company, is building the network and selling access to other businesses. What happened? Comsol has started selling wholesale access to a national 5G network built specifically for home broadband. The network will be available to Internet service providers (ISPs), mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), and other resellers, while Comsol stays behind the scenes handling the infrastructure. Explain like I’m new here: Normally, a telecom company builds the network and sells the internet service directly to customers. Comsol, however, builds and operates the 5G network that an ISP or MVNO can use to create a home broadband package, decide what to charge, and sell it under its own brand. What’s interesting: South Africa already has a mature 5G market. MTN and Vodacom launched the country’s first 5G networks in 2020, while Telkom and Rain have also built 5G offerings. In 2022, MTN had the fastest median 5G download speed, according to GSMA. Comsol wants to become the network that other businesses can use to compete with these heavyweights. We’ve seen this before: Ghana’s Next-Gen InfraCo (NGIC) launched in 2024 as a shared 4G/5G infrastructure company and commenced operations in March, with the idea that mobile operators and Internet providers could use one national network instead of each building everything themselves. Comsol is doing something similar, although its network is focused on 5G home broadband rather than being a shared mobile network for the whole country. What does this mean for you? An interesting thing to look out for will be the price. Comsol hasn’t disclosed what it will charge its wholesale partners, and those partners will still have to add their own costs and margins. A wholesale network could make connectivity cheaper by spreading infrastructure costs across providers, but it doesn’t guarantee cheaper Internet for you. Naira Life 2026 is here! The Naira Life Conference 2026 is bringing together Nigeria’s top finance minds, industry leaders, creators, and business strategists for a full-day of specialised sessions and masterclasses designed for ambitious Nigerians who want to make, keep, grow, and pass on real wealth. Happening on August 22 at the Jewel Aeida, Lekki, Lagos. Secure a seat in the room. Insights Funding Tracker Image Source: Success Sotonwa for TechCabal Insights Terra Industries, a Nigerian defence-tech startup, raised $18 million in seed funding. The investment came from existing investors 8VC, Silent Ventures, Nova Global, Belief Capital, and SV Angel, alongside new investors Norleo Space Investments and angel investor Grant Gordon. (Aug 17) Here are the other deals for the week: Pouchers, a Nigerian stablecoin-powered payments platform, raised $500,000 in a pre-seed funding round led by Stack Directory LLC, a Dubai-based internet investment company, with participation from other strategic angel investors. (Aug 17) Jem, a South African workforce management startup, raised $8.4 million in Series A funding led by Quona Capital, with participation from University Technology Fund,
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Nigeria’s SEC wants crypto firms to share transaction data
Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has proposed new rules that would allow it to approve new digital and virtual asset operators, set governance requirements, and gain deeper visibility into transactions, wallets, and the movement of digital assets in and out of the country. The proposed rules, issued on Thursday, would mandate cryptocurrency businesses targeting Nigerian users to register with the SEC, even if they operate from outside the country. The rules cover exchanges, custodians, and virtual asset service providers (VASPs), as well as tokenisation and digital-asset offering platforms. It marks a significant expansion of the SEC’s approach to regulating crypto in Nigeria, shifting the focus from simply bringing virtual asset businesses into its sandbox framework to issuing operating rules to closely supervise how they operate, move customer assets, and interact with the wider financial system. The proposal underscores one of the key areas where Nigeria’s virtual asset regulation lies: transaction monitoring. Several virtual asset businesses now face re-enforced costs of operating in the digital asset sector. Exchanges and digital asset custodians would each need ₦2 billion ($1.5 million) in minimum capital, while VASPs would require ₦200 million ($148,400). Digital asset platform operators (DAPOs) such as token issuers, digital asset offering platforms (DAOPs)—including companies that provide platforms for token issuance—and real-world asset tokenisation platforms (RATOPs) must all maintain minimum capital requirements of ₦500 million ($371,000). Notably, ancillary virtual asset providers (AVASPs), which provide technological infrastructure for virtual asset businesses, are no longer included in the proposed rules. The category previously carried a minimum capital requirement of ₦300 million ($222,600) under the SEC’s revised guidelines issued in March. Digital asset exchanges would pay a ₦30 million ($22,270) registration fee, while VASPs would pay ₦15 million ($11,130). But the bigger change may be how much information crypto companies would have to make available to the regulator. The SEC could require regulated firms to provide application programming interface (API)-based or other electronic access to operational, transactional, financial, wallet, custody, and settlement data. Digital asset firms would also have to identify and report transactions involving Nigerian residents and cross-border flows, including wallet addresses, transaction values, timestamps, and counterparty information. “The Commission may refuse to register an applicant where the Commission is not satisfied with the applicant’s information, governance, ownership, financial condition, operational model, technology, risk controls, compliance arrangements, regulatory status or ability to comply with these rules,” the SEC said in the proposed rules. Exchange operators face additional requirements. Customer assets cannot be freely mixed with company funds, while related-party custody arrangements would require a separately incorporated and regulated custodian. The SEC is also seeking to pull more of crypto’s newer business models into its regulatory perimeter. Staking, lending, yield products, liquidity pools, peer-to-peer (P2P) and over-the-counter (OTC) trading, and non-custodial wallet services are explicitly addressed in the proposed framework. The proposal follows the SEC’s recent push to bring more virtual asset companies into its Accelerated Regulatory Incubation Programme (ARIP), with 12 firms admitted since July and on track to receive approvals-in-principle. The pace marks an acceleration from 2025, when new admissions slowed. The SEC said under the new framework, ARIP approval-in-principle would last two years, but would not amount to full registration and would come with restricted operating scopes and enhanced supervision. True scale demands moving beyond surface-level integrations to robust execution. We’ve filtered the noise out of Moonshot 2026, optimising the conference strictly for high-calibre connections between startup founders, global financial operators, enterprise leaders and individuals rewiring Africa’s technical frameworks. Get 20% off Early Bird tickets for a limited time.
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