One UI 8.5 missing features explained: Which Galaxy phones miss out
Table of contents What the June 2026 update finally added What One UI 8.5 still does not give you Which phones are affected What Samsung has said Will One UI 9 fix this? What to do right now Samsung’s One UI 8.5 update arrived with a lot of promise: Galaxy AI features, camera upgrades, and smarter notifications. But if your phone is a Galaxy S25, S24, or older, you’ve probably noticed that some of the headline features Samsung showed off on the Galaxy S26 simply aren’t on your device. This is what’s missing from One UI 8.5, which devices are affected, and what you can expect in future updates. What the June 2026 update finally added When One UI 8.5 stable rolled out in May 2026, three Galaxy AI features were missing from the Galaxy S25 series. Samsung quietly fixed that with a June 2026 update, released on June 11. The package was about 900MB, noticeably larger than a typical security patch, and for good reason. The three features now available on the Galaxy S25, Z Fold 7, and Z Flip 7 are: Prioritize Notifications: Galaxy AI reorders your alerts so the most important ones appear at the top. Everything is processed on your phone, not in the cloud. One catch: it only works when your notifications are in the same language as your phone’s system language. Supported languages include English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Hindi, Thai, Polish, Italian, and Vietnamese. Summarize Notifications: Long group chats and email threads get collapsed into a short, plain-language summary without you having to open each app. The same language requirement applies. File Summaries: In the My Files app, you can now get AI summaries of PDF and TXT files, as well as voice recordings saved in the Voice Recorder app. On-device only. The update started rolling out in South Korea first, with North America, Europe, and India expected to follow within a week, according to Android Authority and GSMArena. What One UI 8.5 still does not give you The June update closed part of the gap, but several S26 features are still absent from the S25 and older devices. Here is what you are still waiting on. 1. Now Nudge This is the most talked-about missing feature. Now Nudge is a context-aware AI tool that reads what is on your screen and surfaces helpful suggestions in your Samsung Keyboard toolbar. It might offer to add an event to your calendar, save a contact, or share a photo, based on what you are looking at in the moment. It only works with the Samsung Keyboard, so if you use Gboard, it will not apply. As of June 2026, Now Nudge is only available on the Galaxy S26 series. It is missing from the S25, S25+, S25 Ultra, Z Fold 7, Z Flip 7, and every older device. Samsung has not explained why. Digital Trends noted that Now Nudge does not appear to rely on any Galaxy S26-exclusive hardware, which makes its absence on the S25 harder to justify. Samsung markets it as a headline One UI 8.5 feature, which makes the omission even more noticeable. According to a firmware leak spotted by SamMobile, Now Nudge appears in internal One UI 9 builds for the Galaxy Z Fold 7, suggesting Samsung may be saving it for the One UI 9 update. But this is based on a leak, not a Samsung statement. 2. 24MP camera mode On the Galaxy S26 Ultra, a 24MP shooting option sits between the standard 12MP and the maximum 200MP modes. It uses AI Fusion processing to produce more detailed shots without the file sizes that come with high-resolution captures. You access it through the Camera Assistant app. On the Galaxy S25 Ultra, that option does not exist in Camera Assistant at all, even though both phones run the same version of the app. SammyGuru confirmed this. There is no confirmed plan to bring the 24MP mode to the S25 or any older device. 3. Video softening This is a Camera Assistant setting with three levels: Off, Medium, and High. It reduces the sharpening and noise processing that Samsung applies by default, giving your videos a more natural, less over-processed look. Think of it as a processing intensity dial. Android Authority found it in One UI 8.5 code, but it was never activated on the S25. It is currently reserved for the Galaxy S26. The S25 Ultra is also missing related autofocus speed and sensitivity controls, as well as 8K recording via Smart View or HDMI output. 4. Fingerprint accuracy booster This feature lets you rescan your registered fingerprint up to 10 times so your phone gets better at recognizing it. It is a software feature with no hardware requirement, which makes its rollout history odd. It reached the Galaxy S25 FE in May 2026 via a security patch, and the Z Fold 7 also has it. But as of the June 2026 update, the standard Galaxy S25, S25+, and S25 Ultra still do not have it. Android Authority noted that no one has publicly explained why the S25 FE received it before the S25 Ultra. 5. Horizon Lock and other missing features A few more S26 features are also absent. Horizon Lock (also called Horizontal Lock) is a Super Steady video stabilization feature on the S26 Ultra that keeps footage level even when your hands are shaky. It is missing from all older Ultra models after the June update. Other omissions on the S25 build, reported by PiunikaWeb and Digital Trends, include: The ‘Show Finder on Home screen’ shortcut Samsung Browser’s ‘Ask AI’ feature A high-magnification photo remaster tool (30x+) Some 8K recording options Which phones are affected Here is how the missing features break down by device: Galaxy S25, S25+, S25 Ultra, S25 Edge: Got stable One UI 8.5 in May, then the three notification and file features in June. Still missing Now Nudge, 24MP mode, video softening, Horizon Lock, and the fingerprint accuracy booster.
Read MoreWhy more Lesotho migrant workers are choosing fintechs to send money home
Every month, Mampe Seema, a Johannesburg-based domestic worker, remits part of her salary to her family in Lesotho. The money covers school fees, groceries, and other household expenses. For years, sending money across the border was straightforward. Then the process began taking longer and required additional steps. “When the banking process became more difficult, I worried that my family would not receive the money when they needed it most,” Seema told TechCabal. “I decided to try Mukuru after hearing about it from a friend. The registration was straightforward, and I could send money without the uncertainty I had started experiencing elsewhere.” The 53-year-old mother of two is among a growing number of the estimated 400,000 Basotho migrants in South Africa turning to fintechs like Mukuru, Sasai, Ria Money and hello Paisa as cross-border payments become more complex. The shift highlights how regulatory changes are reshaping consumer behaviour and expanding the role fintechs play in regional payments. In 2025, the South Africa Reserve Bank’s (SARB) changes affecting low-value cross-border electronic fund transfers (EFTs) within the Common Monetary Area (CMA) introduced stricter processing and verification requirements for some transactions. The CMA includes South Africa, Lesotho, Namibia, and Eswatini. The measures were designed to strengthen anti-money laundering controls, reduce illicit financial flows, and improve compliance with international financial standards. While the changes aim to improve oversight of the financial system, they have also added friction for some consumers accustomed to moving money between South Africa and Lesotho with minimal documentation. In some cases, users have faced additional verification requirements and longer processing times. For Lesotho, where remittances are a significant source of household income, these changes have direct implications. According to data from the World Bank, personal remittances account for almost 20.9% of Lesotho’s GDP. Statistics South Africa estimates that the 400,000 Basotho living and working in South Africa make up about 11% of the country’s immigrant population. Cape Town-based Mukuru, a global fintech which says it serves over 17 million across Africa, Europe, Asia and North America, says the SARB’s ban on EFTs to CMA countries has attracted new customers who previously relied on traditional banking channels. Mama Money, Shoprite and Nedbank’s Zaca are the other major money transfers that have entered the Lesotho market. “Historically, Mukuru focused on serving unbanked customers, but we are now seeing that even banked customers are facing difficulties when trying to send money home,” said Maleseli Mohapinyane, Mukuru’s country manager for Lesotho. The company launched its South Africa–Lesotho corridor in 2016 and now operates across 22 remittance corridors globally. According to Mohapinyane, the company is seeing increased interest from customers looking for alternatives to conventional cross-border payment channels. Cost is another factor. For Thabiso Nthunya, a mineworker in the Free State Province, what matters most is that the money reaches his family quickly. “When your family is waiting for money to buy food or pay bills, you need to know it will arrive without delay. Travelling home just to take money to my family is expensive, and carrying cash is not ideal,” he said. Moroesi Koali, Sasai Econet Financial Services Marketing Manager, agreed with Nthunya that convenience is one of the main reasons migrant workers are increasingly opting for their fintech-based remittance services. “For many migrant workers, convenience is key,” she said. “They can send money home knowing recipients can access the funds immediately through a wallet or an agent network, without needing to travel long distances or navigate multiple banking processes,” she said. However, Access Bank says its remittance business to Lesotho has remained largely upbeat despite the regulatory changes and competition from digital payments platforms. Naco Bolote, the bank’s Head of International Remittances, described Lesotho as an important corridor and said the lender had continued to serve the market effectively. “As a bank, there has not been any noticeable impact for us because our market dynamics are a little different from those of remittance companies. That is because our cross-border payments are at a more formalised level,” he said.
Read MoreWhy Africa’s most-funded EV startup is thinking beyond motorcycles
On June 1, Spiro, the electric motorcycle startup, announced a $215 million funding round, one of the largest capital raises ever secured by an African mobility company. The figure grabbed headlines, but the company’s plans for the capital offer the clearest insight into how it sees its future. Across Africa’s tech ecosystem, investors have become more demanding about business fundamentals. Growth remains important. However, investors now want clearer evidence that startups can generate sustainable revenue, move towards profitability and maintain sound economics as they scale. Spiro’s latest strategy speaks directly to that shift. The company still earns most of its revenue from selling electric motorcycles, yet it spends far more time talking about batteries, swap stations and energy infrastructure than motorcycles. Few mobility startups have consistently attracted capital. Spiro has now raised more than $500 million through a combination of debt and equity financing, including a $50 million facility from Afreximbank, a $100 million funding round announced in 2025, and the latest equity raise led by Impact Fund Denmark and Equitane. In a statement to TechCabal on Tuesday, Gagan Gupta, the company’s co-founder and chairman, described a business focused on expanding battery capacity, growing its swapping network and building energy services around it. Motorcycles remain the main source of revenue, but batteries and swap stations dominate the growth strategy. “Spiro’s revenue mix today is primarily driven by vehicle sales, with energy services, operations and maintenance contributing the remaining share,” Gupta said. Vehicle sales still drive the business Spiro is clear about where its revenue comes from today. Vehicle sales generate the largest share of the company’s revenue—Spiro declined to disclose the figures—while energy services, operations and maintenance account for the remainder. The revenue mix reflects the company’s current stage of development, with motorcycle adoption still growing before battery-swapping services can generate meaningful demand. “Vehicle sales serve as the entry point for market adoption, but as fleet density increases, energy demand scales in a compounding manner and with it, the recurring, high-margin revenue profile that defines infrastructure businesses,” Gupta told TechCabal. Gupta’s comments help explain how Spiro views the relationship between its vehicles and its infrastructure. The motorcycles bring riders onto the platform. The battery-swapping network is designed to generate ongoing activity after the initial sale. That model differs from that of a traditional vehicle manufacturer, where revenue is largely tied to unit sales. Spiro’s approach depends on building a network that riders repeatedly return to. Every additional vehicle deployed creates another potential user of the company’s battery-swapping infrastructure. The company expects the balance of revenue to evolve, declining to disclose its revenue from battery swaps or provide projections for when energy-related activities could rival vehicle sales. Revenue today remains tied primarily to getting more motorcycles on the road. “While we do not disclose market-level payback data at this stage, we can confirm that our most mature markets are already demonstrating the utilisation trajectory consistent with the target unit economics,” Gupta said. Why Spiro needed another $215 million The latest funding round will not be used to launch a new business or test a new market. According to Gupta, previous funding rounds enabled the company to establish its platform, validate product-market fit and build operational capacity for growth. The latest raise is intended to accelerate the expansion of the infrastructure already in place. The new capital will be used to expand battery capacity, roll out more swap stations, deepen the company’s presence in existing markets and support further localisation of manufacturing. The plan is notable for what it does not include. Gupta did not point to a new product category, a major technology shift or a new business model. The focus remains on expanding the existing network. Spiro says it has deployed more than 2,500 battery-swapping stations across Africa. Gupta argues that scale matters because riders need confidence that energy will be available wherever they operate. The company refers to this as “rider anxiety”—the hesitation to switch to electric motorcycles when access to battery-swapping services remains uncertain. Commercial motorcycle riders earn money only when they are moving. A battery that runs out far from a swap station can lead to lost trips and income. Spiro argues that a dense network reduces much of that uncertainty, making electric motorcycles a more practical option for riders who depend on them for daily earnings. The latest funding round is built around that premise: rather than pursuing a new line of business, Spiro is directing fresh capital towards expanding battery capacity and extending the reach of its swapping network. The race to electrify Africa’s motorcycles Africa’s electric motorcycle sector is attracting a growing number of startups, drawn by a simple calculation. Some estimates put Kenya’s boda boda operators at three million, who spend a large share of their daily earnings on fuel. That has created an opportunity for companies that can offer a cheaper alternative without sacrificing convenience. The result has been a wave of investment into electric motorcycles, battery-swapping networks and the infrastructure needed to keep them running. Besides Spiro, startups such as Ampersand, Roam and ARC Ride are also building businesses around electric two-wheelers, with many relying on battery-swapping networks to address charging constraints and reduce operating costs for riders. Despite differences in approach, these companies are pursuing the same objective: lowering fuel costs, reducing downtime and making electric motorcycles practical for commercial transport. Where Spiro stands apart is the amount of capital it has raised. Ampersand, one of the region’s best-known electric motorcycle companies, has raised over $43 million to expand its fleet, battery-swapping network and charging infrastructure across East Africa. Roam has raised nearly $32 million to expand production of electric motorcycles and buses. Spiro, by contrast, has now secured more than $500 million in debt and equity financing, giving it significantly more firepower to build infrastructure across multiple markets at the same time. The size of that opportunity helps explain the investor interest. Motorcycle taxis form the backbone of transport in many African cities, while rising fuel costs continue
Read MoreMoroccan proptech Agenz raises $5 million to digitise real estate transactions
Agenz, a Moroccan proptech startup that digitises real estate transactions, has raised $5 million to support product development and strengthen its investments in artificial intelligence. The funding round saw participation from Breega, a European venture capital firm, Attijariwafa Ventures, and Saviu Ventures, an Africa-focused growth capital fund. The raise comes three years after Agenz’s $1.3 million pre-Series A financing round as activity in Morocco’s property market picks up. Residential land transactions surpassed 140,000 in 2023, an increase from 2022, according to a World Bank document, highlighting the opportunity for digital platforms that simplify property transactions for users. “We believe the future of real estate will be built on the responsible use of data and artificial intelligence,” said Malik Belkeziz, Co-founder and CEO of Agenz. “Our ambition is to leverage technology to create a more transparent, secure and accessible market, while keeping user trust at the centre of everything we do. This funding will allow us to accelerate this vision for the benefit of the entire Moroccan real estate ecosystem.” Founded in 2021 by Malik and Badr Belkeziz, Agenz operates an integrated real estate platform that combines property valuation tools, market intelligence, solutions for professional services, and digital transaction solutions. The fresh capital will also be used to expand the company’s services for individuals, real estate agents, developers, investors and financial institutions, according to the company. “Agenz has built, in just a few years, the platform the Moroccan real estate sector was missing, bringing together data, tools and transactions into one seamless experience,” said Driss Ibenmansour, Partner at Breega. “We believe this funding will help accelerate an already ongoing transformation of the market.” The company said it has recorded growth in transaction volumes since launching its transaction platform in 2023, including surpassing 730,000 monthly visits on its Agenz.ma website in May 2026.
Read MoreQuick Fire 🔥 with Bolaji Anifowose
Bolaji Anifowose is a product marketing manager and go-to-market (GTM) engineer with over 7 years of experience helping startups across Africa and beyond sharpen their positioning, launch products, and build compounding growth engines. He has led growth, GTM, and marketing efforts for high-impact companies such as Simpu, Distrobird, Chatbase, and Tecno, delivering successful product launches, demand generation campaigns, and market expansion strategies that produce significant results. Before tech, Bolaji studied Metallurgical and Materials Engineering at the University of Lagos, Nigeria, a background that shaped how he approaches marketing today: systems-first and evidence-led. He is a graduate of the pioneer cohort of the GTM Engineer School and spends a lot of his time these days at the intersection of marketing and AI, building automations and workflows that let small teams punch far above their weight. Explain your job to a five-year-old. You know when you make something really cool, like a drawing or a sandcastle, but nobody comes to look at it? My job is to make sure people come and look. I help companies that have built something good figure out how to tell the right people about it, in a way that makes them go “I want that.” I find the people who would love it, work out what to say to them, and build little machines that help do it again and again. Did your 16-year-old self ever imagine he’d end up in marketing? Not even close. At 16, I was deep in science, headed for engineering, convinced my future involved metals and lab coats. Marketing wasn’t on the map. If you’d told that kid he’d spend his days writing, building automations, and obsessing over why people buy things, he’d have laughed. But here’s the funny part: the engineer never left. I still approach marketing the way I’d approach a materials problem. Test, measure, find the system underneath the noise. I didn’t abandon engineering. I just changed what I was building. Who’s a GTM engineer, and what’s the path to becoming one? GTM engineering is a term Clay coined in 2023. The simplest way to think about it is this: a GTM engineer builds systems that generate revenue. You’re combining artificial intelligence (AI), automation, and creative problem-solving to do work that would normally require a much larger team. That’s the core of it: giving a small team the firepower of a big one. Think about traditional growth work. You’re manually searching LinkedIn for leads, writing outreach emails one by one, juggling inboxes, and tracking replies. Now flip that. Clay finds and enriches leads. A signal tool identifies who’s actually in-market. Claude and OpenAI personalise outreach. A sequencer sends it, and an n8n agent handles responses. Same goal, far less manual work. That’s what a GTM engineer builds. There isn’t just one type of GTM engineer. I usually break it into three. First, the software engineer who could work on a product or data team but chose revenue instead. Second, the systems specialist, often from revenue operations (RevOps) or marketing operations, who excels at orchestrating tools. Third, the marketer or salesperson who picked up technical skills and sits at the intersection of strategy and execution. That’s me, and for most people, it’s the most realistic path in. The skills transfer more than you’d think: systems thinking, customer understanding, copywriting, learning new tools quickly, and being comfortable working alongside code. You don’t need a computer science degree. To get started, learn the fundamentals first: ideal customer profile (ICP), positioning, channels, and messaging. Then look at your week and identify a repetitive task, whether that’s lead research, follow-ups, or reporting. That’s your first automation opportunity. Build with tools companies are hiring for today, like Clay, n8n, and Claude Code. Turn a real task into a working system, then run it on actual campaigns. After that, document what you built, make it part of your portfolio, and join the communities where jobs and collaborations happen. Every system you ship becomes proof that you can do the work. In this field, proof beats a fancy résumé every time. What’s your hot take on why most product launches fail? Here’s my hot take—and the numbers back me up on this: most product launches don’t fail because of the product. They fail because teams mistake shipping for creating demand. The numbers back it up. Depending on the study, 80–95% of new products fail. Harvard’s Clayton Christensen put the figure at 95%. In B2B, only about one in four launches hits its revenue target. That’s not bad luck. That’s a pattern. The mistake is usually the same. Teams build the product, pick a launch date, post about it, then wonder why the market shrugs. But a launch was never an announcement. It’s the moment you prove you understand your buyer well enough to make them care. The data shows where things break. Simon-Kucher’s global pricing study found that 72% of new products miss their sales targets, and a quarter of companies said none of their recent launches met expectations. That’s rarely a product problem. It’s usually a failure to understand what buyers value and what they’ll pay for. Many teams build on assumptions and don’t test them with real customers until it’s too late. Messaging is another common culprit. Most launches focus on the company and its features: look what we built. Buyers care about something else: what’s changing for them, and why now. If that isn’t clear, no amount of launch-day promotion will save you. That’s why I think launches don’t fail on launch day. Launch day simply exposes months of skipped homework. If you can’t clearly explain who the product is for, what changes for them, and why it matters now, you don’t have a launch. You have an announcement nobody asked for. The teams that win do the unglamorous work first. They talk to customers, sharpen their positioning, and align around a clear story. By the time they hit publish, demand already exists. The launch just opens the door. What’s your favourite
Read MoreAlliance-backed Daya wants to help businesses manage money using stablecoins
A Nigerian business can send an email to a supplier in China in seconds. But paying that supplier can take days. Tomiwa “Aleph” Lasebikan encountered that disconnect repeatedly as the head of product at Y Combinator-backed crypto startup Helicarrier, which he co-founded after leaving Microsoft in 2018. Customers who came to the company for crypto services often had a more practical problem: receiving dollars, paying overseas suppliers, and moving money across borders. Now Lasebikan is betting stablecoins can help solve it. His new startup, Daya, is building a payments platform that helps businesses access dollar liquidity, settle international transactions, and move money across borders using dollar-backed digital currencies. It raised $350,000 from Alliance DAO, a US-based crypto accelerator, in 2025. The startup is part of a growing list of companies building financial infrastructure around stablecoins, arguing that blockchain-based settlement can do for cross-border payments what the Internet did for communication: help businesses move money more quickly across borders. Stablecoin as an alternative rail for businesses Stablecoins as a financial rail for businesses are gaining traction. In 2024, stablecoins settled $15.6 trillion in transactions globally, according to US-based investment manager Ark Invest, a volume comparable to Visa’s and nearly double Mastercard’s. By 2025, that figure grew 79% to $28 trillion, according to blockchain research firm Chainalysis. Most of the transaction activities driving stablecoin use cases are economic, including business-to-business (B2B) payments, treasury management, and remittances, according to Chainalysis. Daya is building a business-focused payments platform that connects traditional banking systems with blockchain networks. It provides businesses with dollar-denominated accounts, converts incoming payments into stablecoins for settlement, and allows firms to move funds across borders or convert them into local currency for withdrawal in Nigeria. Founded by Lasebikan and Paul Joe in October 2025, Daya is seeking to capture a share in the global commercial B2B payments market. In 2024, the global B2B cross-border payments market was worth $31.7 trillion and was projected to reach $47.8 trillion by 2032, according to US-based research firm FXC Intelligence, dwarfing consumer remittances. By comparison, consumer remittances totalled $905 billion globally in 2024, according to the World Bank. Businesses move far more money than individuals, yet much of that activity still depends on correspondent banking infrastructure. “The world we’re born into is one where communication across borders is incredibly fast,” Lasebikan said. “But sending money across borders is horrendous.” How Daya’s model works When a business signs up on Daya, it completes know-your-customer (KYC) and know-your-business (KYB) checks, including director-level verification and validation against Nigeria’s Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) registry, according to the startup. Once approved, the business receives a dollar-denominated account provided through regulated financial partners in the United States. When a customer abroad sends dollars to that account, the funds are converted into stablecoins and credited to the business’s Daya wallet. From there, businesses can hold stablecoins as dollar-equivalent balances, pay international suppliers, or convert funds into Naira for withdrawal into local bank accounts. To handle currency conversion, Daya aggregates a network of professional over-the-counter (OTC) traders under anti-money laundering (AML)-compliant terms, rather than relying on a single off-ramp partner. The startup charges 0.1%–0.3% per transaction, according to Lasebikan. The model relies on stablecoins as a settlement layer, while regulated banks and payment partners handle fiat onboarding and withdrawals. “The USD account is an account in the US,” Lasebikan said. “Whoever wants to send you money sends funds into this account managed by our partners—reputable, licenced partners in the US. They settle us in stablecoins. So now the user has stablecoins: this is your global money, so to speak. Businesses can hold the stablecoins or convert them to Naira straight into their bank account.” According to Lasebikan, the company is positioning stablecoins as backend infrastructure, with customers primarily focused on receiving payments, accessing dollar accounts, or moving money across borders rather than interacting directly with blockchain technology. Similar approaches are already being used in global payments infrastructure. Bridge, the stablecoin company Stripe acquired in 2025, has built banking-linked settlement rails using stablecoins. Stripe, the payments giant, said in its 2025 annual letter that Bridge’s transaction volume grew more than fourfold. Visa and Mastercard have also expanded stablecoin settlement pilots; companies such as BVNK, the UK-based stablecoin neobank that Mastercard agreed to acquire, are building payment infrastructure around stablecoin rails globally. In Africa, players including Yellow Card, Juicyway, and Conduit are building similar infrastructure for businesses, focusing on cross-border payments and treasury flows. Daya operates in this same category: infrastructure for business payments using stablecoins. A problem older than crypto African banks have historically relied on correspondent banking relationships (CBRs), partnerships that allow local institutions to access the global financial system, clear international payments, and settle foreign currency transactions. But those relationships have been shrinking for years. A 2016 International Finance Corporation (IFC) report warned that African financial institutions were losing correspondent banking relationships as global banks withdrew from markets perceived as higher risk. Compliance costs, anti-money laundering (AML) requirements, and regulatory scrutiny made many relationships economically unattractive. For businesses, the effects are often indirect but significant. Fewer correspondent banking relationships mean fewer payment corridors, more intermediaries, longer settlement times, and higher costs. International transfers that appear simple on the surface often move through multiple institutions before reaching their destination. Since then, the decline of correspondent banking networks has persisted across emerging markets. Stablecoins, especially dollar-backed digital currencies, are increasingly being pitched to fill that gap for businesses in that region, especially in Africa. Why Daya is betting on stablecoin infrastructure For Lasebikan, Daya reflects how much the infrastructure layer around crypto has changed since his first foray into building his former startup and personal projects. He said that early attempts to build crypto products in Africa often meant assembling large parts of the technical stack manually while building in unclear regulatory markets and fragmented banking access. That has shifted. When Lasebikan first entered crypto, startups often had to build large portions of the underlying infrastructure themselves, from blockchain integrations to custody systems. Today,
Read MoreAI is now a geopolitical asset. African presidents are racing to catch up.
When African leaders gathered in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, on May 12 for the Africa Forward Summit, artificial intelligence (AI) took centre stage, alongside energy, agriculture and international finance for the first time. That alone marked a change. Only a few years ago, AI policy on the continent revolved around ethics, digital literacy and startup incubation. Now governments are discussing cloud infrastructure, sovereign data, regional computing capacity and local language models, subjects once confined to engineers and Silicon Valley executives. In the past two years, Kenya has unveiled a National Artificial Intelligence Strategy, Nigeria has launched its National AI Strategy, Rwanda has established a Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution to shape AI governance, South Africa has stepped up work on a national AI policy, while the African Union adopted its Continental AI Strategy calling for African-owned data, compute infrastructure and language models. The shift reflects a growing recognition that artificial intelligence is becoming a geopolitical asset. Just as countries once competed over natural resources and shipping lanes, they are now competing over semiconductors, data centres and computing power. But Africa enters that race from an uncomfortable position. Critical minerals The continent produces many of the minerals that power modern computing and generates some of the world’s fastest-growing volumes of digital data through mobile money, e-commerce and government digitisation. Yet the infrastructure that turns those inputs into economic value largely sits elsewhere. That dependence appears to have informed Section 6 of the Africa Forward Declaration, adopted by African and French leaders in Nairobi. The declaration, signed by 30 heads of state, documents calls for investment in data centres, cloud computing, trusted data systems, broadband infrastructure, and African-led ownership of data and AI systems. “Digital transformation and artificial intelligence are reshaping economies, public services, knowledge systems, security, creative industries, and global competitiveness,” said the declaration, “Africa’s participation in the AI age requires investment across the full digital and AI stack.” Despite accounting for nearly 20% of the world’s population and some of its fastest-growing internet markets, the continent still hosts less than 1% of global data-centre capacity, according to industry estimates. Mobile data consumption is growing at roughly 40% annually—almost twice the global average—but the infrastructure needed to process and store that information remains severely constrained. A decade ago, African startups could build globally competitive products using rented cloud services and relatively modest computing resources. Generative AI has changed the economics entirely. Training and deploying frontier models requires thousands of Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), sophisticated cooling systems, and uninterrupted electricity supplies. African governments’ investment in AI infrastructure is still low, with most commitments coming from the private sector and development finance institutions (DFIs). In April, the International Finance Corporation committed $100 million to regional data-centre operator Raxio Group, its largest investment in African digital infrastructure, backing facilities from Ethiopia to Angola as demand for cloud services and AI workloads accelerates. The World Bank’s investment reflects a growing recognition that digital infrastructure has become as important to economic development as roads and ports. Private investments Cassava Technologies, founded by Zimbabwean telecoms billionaire Strive Masiyiwa, announced in July 2025 plans to deploy Nvidia-powered AI infrastructure across Africa through a $700 million investment programme, positioning itself as one of the continent’s first large-scale AI compute providers. In 2024, Microsoft and Abu Dhabi-based AI company G42 unveiled an ambitious $1 billion AI data centre in Kenya, powered by geothermal energy. The project has since been put on hold. Some of these investments, like the Kenyan one, illustrate the continent’s infrastructure constraints. Negotiations have stalled over electricity requirements and financing arrangements, with Kenyan officials acknowledging that the original proposal would require more power capacity than the country can currently dedicate to a single data centre. Discussions continue, but they show that computing power requires supporting infrastructure, which the continent currently struggles to provide. It is forcing policymakers to rethink AI as much an infrastructure question as a technology one. The Nairobi Declaration referred to this, shifting debates on AI investments to the centre of the continent’s economic policy. “We commit to mobilise public and private investment in resilient digital infrastructure and AI infrastructure, including broadband connectivity, regional data centres, cloud and compute capacity, clean energy and trusted data systems,” African heads of state declared. The implications stretch far beyond data centres. For much of the past decade, Africa’s digital ambitions have been defined by rising smartphone adoption, the spread of fintech, and the emergence of startup hubs from Lagos and Nairobi to Cape Town. Artificial intelligence is changing that conversation. The focus is shifting away from consumer applications and towards the infrastructure that enables them. The same shift is taking place around the world. In the US, AI leadership has become intertwined with national security, with the Trump administration accelerating investment in AI infrastructure and treating advanced AI capabilities as a strategic asset in geopolitical competition with China. Washington has issued executive orders to accelerate data centre construction and strengthen America’s AI technology stack, while officials have described AI as critical to maintaining economic and military leadership. Gulf states are deploying sovereign wealth to finance hyperscale data centres and semiconductor partnerships. Europe, meanwhile, increasingly frames AI through the lens of technological sovereignty rather than simply innovation policy. Africa is beginning to adopt a similar approach. The Nairobi declaration repeatedly emphasises digital sovereignty, African ownership of data and the development of local AI ecosystems. It also calls for African language models, locally generated datasets and open-weight AI systems, reflecting a growing recognition among policymakers that AI is not just another software industry but a strategic asset that could shape future economic growth. Technological sovereignty comes with a substantial price tag, which the continent might not marshal soon. Building a competitive AI ecosystem requires far more than skilled engineers. It depends on reliable electricity, fibre networks, advanced chips, research capacity and billions of dollars in patient capital. For many African governments already facing fiscal constraints and competing development priorities, those investments remain difficult to finance. But the declaration’s
Read MoreKenya’s Family Bank secures approval for long-awaited NSE listing
Family Bank, a Kenyan bank with assets worth KES 230.3 billion ($1.78 billion), has received the Capital Markets Authority’s approval to list on the Nairobi Securities Exchange on June 23. The listing will allow existing shareholders to trade their shares on the NSE without raising new capital. It comes after Family Bank raised KES 8 billion ($61.8 million) in a 2025 private placement, exceeding its KES 6.09 billion ($47.1 million) target. The move ends the lender’s five-year-long push to go public and comes at a time when the NSE is seeking to attract new listings after a prolonged bear run. Most recent market activity has been driven by secondary share sales, bond issues and rights offers rather than initial public offerings (IPOs). “The decision for the Bank to list follows years of strategic preparation to ensure we list from a position of strength,” Family Bank Managing Director Nancy Njau said in a statement on Thursday. Family Bank will now join publicly listed banks including KCB Group, Equity Group, NCBA and DTB Group. The stocks are among the most traded on the NSE, driven by the sector’s strong performance over the past five years, according to NSE data. The listing will provide a public market valuation for Family Bank, founded in 1984 as Family Finance Building Society. It secured a commercial banking licence in 2007 and has grown into one of Kenya’s largest tier-two lenders. Family Bank said in the statement that it does not need additional capital to support the listing, citing its capital position and balance sheet strength. The lender’s shareholders include founder Titus Muya and his family, as well as the Kenya Tea Development Agency, one of its largest institutional investors. “Through the capital raising initiatives, we have strengthened our balance sheet and remain confident in our strategy, our capital position, and our ability to deliver sustainable growth and long-term value. The bank is well positioned for growth as per our 2025 – 2029 strategic plan anchored on being The Preferred Bank for Biashara,” said Njau. The bank is entering the public market after posting its strongest financial performance on record. Profit after tax rose 52.6% to KES 1.6 billion ($12.4 million) in the first quarter ended March 2026, while total assets grew 32.3% to KES 230.3 billion ($1.78 billion). Customer deposits increased to KES 168.2 billion ($1.30 billion) and net loans rose 12.6% to KES 108.4 billion ($838 million). Standard Investment Bank is the lead transaction adviser, while PwC Kenya is the reporting accountant and Mboya Wangong’u & Waiyaki Advocates is the legal adviser.
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👨🏿🚀TechCabal Daily – MTN eyes fintech licences
In partnership with Lire en Français اقرأ هذا باللغة العربية Happy pre-TGIF. Nigeria’s healthtech startups have raised $271 million across 128 companies, but funding alone has not fixed the country’s healthcare challenges. From low electronic medical record adoption to uneven access and fragile business models, the sector still faces hurdles to lasting impact. TechCabal Insights’ new State of Healthtech in Nigeria (2026) report goes beyond the numbers to map what it will take to build sustainable, scalable healthtech businesses in Africa’s largest market. Download and read the report. ICYMI: Kim Tran, chief executive officer and co-founder of Trenderz, is rebuilding how creator recommendations turn into real bookings in Africa. Get smarter about Francophone Africa with our newsletter, Francophone Weekly—the startups, tech policies, and institutions building the pipelines for ecosystem growth. Subscribe MTN eyes fintech licences Kenyans lose $835 to online fraud South Africa proposes new EV incentives SA formalises rules for e-hailing World Wide Web 3 Events telecoms MTN wants a bigger piece of Africa’s credit market Image Source: Guillem Sartorio/Bloomberg Africa’s largest telecom operator wants to do more than connect phone calls and process payments. It wants to lend money too. What happened? MTN Group said on Wednesday that it plans to expand further into lending across key African markets, including Nigeria, as it seeks additional fintech licences. The telecom operator already helps facilitate loans through partners, with more than one million people accessing credit through its platforms every day. Now, it wants the regulatory approvals that would allow it to lend directly from its own balance sheet. Why this matters: Telecom companies have spent years building the ingredients needed for lending businesses: millions of users, transaction histories, merchant networks, and mobile wallets. MTN says only 4%–5% of adults across Africa have access to formal credit, leaving a massive market underserved by traditional banks. The opportunity is enormous. In Nigeria alone, nearly 80% of MSMEs lack access to formal credit, while the sector faces a $236 billion funding gap. For MTN, lending is becoming the next logical step after payments. The company already serves more than 70 million active MoMo users, works with over 2 million merchants, and processed more than $500 billion in transaction value in 2025. Zoom out: For years, African telcos have competed with banks on payments. MTN’s latest push suggests the next battleground could be lending. If regulators approve the licences it is seeking, the company would move from helping customers find loans to becoming the lender itself. We Have Secured the Bank of Ghana EPSP Licence. Fincra has officially secured its Enhanced Payment Service Provider licence. This regulatory milestone authorizes Fincra to directly collect, process, and settle payments in Ghanaian Cedis, offering a highly streamlined financial pipeline for businesses operating within the region. Start here. reports Digital scams cost Kenyans more than other Africans, says report Image: IFEC In 2025, the average Kenyan lost about KES 296 ($2.29) to online scams, according to a report by TransUnion, a consumer credit reporting and fraud prevention company. The figure might not sound alarming at first, but it points to a broader reality: as more Kenyans move their lives online, fraudsters are finding new ways to follow. Kenya recorded the highest median loss from digital fraud among African countries surveyed by TransUnion, with victims reporting losses of KES 108,132 ($835). Between the lines: The biggest culprit was not fake websites or suspicious links. Nearly four in ten victims said they were scammed by third-party sellers operating on legitimate e-commerce platforms, showing how fraud is creeping into places consumers already trust. The findings show the uncomfortable trade-off of digital growth. Kenya has become one of Africa’s most connected economies, with e-commerce penetration crossing 53%, meaning that more than half of the Kenyan population buy items online. Expanding mobile money uptake, online shopping, and digital payments have contributed to its strong growth. Growth at what cost? But the same systems making transactions easier are also creating new opportunities for criminals. From account takeovers and identity theft to phishing and social engineering scams, fraudsters are becoming more sophisticated, targeting digital identities before targeting wallets, according to the report. The lesson is becoming harder to ignore: The faster a digital economy grows, the more attractive it becomes to scammers. Kenya’s experience suggests that building digital infrastructure is only half the job; protecting users is just as important. Naira Life 2026 is here! The theme for this year’s Naira Life Conference by Zikoko is “All About Wealth.”Join 2,000+ in Lagos on August 22 for a day of practical money conversations and workshops designed to move you from simply earning an income to building lasting wealth. Get 15% off early bird tickets. policy South Africa proposes new incentives to boost local EV manufacturing Image source: Inside EVs The International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (ITAC), a government body responsible for trade policy, is proposing changes to its automotive incentive programme that would extend government support to minerals used in manufacturing batteries for electric vehicles (EVs). The EV transition is forcing a rethink: In the first quarter of 2026, battery-electric vehicle (BEV) sales rose 96% year on year. The country’s automotive industry contributes roughly 5% of gross domestic product (GDP) and supports over 600,000 jobs directly and indirectly. The current incentive programme already rewards manufacturers that use locally sourced materials, but not those critical in EV battery production. With these proposed rules, materials such as rare earths, iron, lithium, graphite, copper, and cobalt could qualify for incentives if sourced and processed within Southern Africa. Why the batteries matter: South Africa is estimated to have the world’s fifth-largest mining sector in terms of gross domestic product value. Yet, much of that value creation happens elsewhere. Countries mine the minerals, ship them abroad, and then buy back the higher-value products later. The new proposal is an attempt to keep more of that value chain closer to home. What could this change? If the incentives work, they could help attract battery manufacturers, reduce production costs
Read MoreMTN targets Nigeria’s lending market as it seeks fintech licences
MTN plans to expand into lending across key African markets, including Nigeria, as Africa’s biggest telco seeks regulatory approvals that would allow its fintech arm to offer a broader suite of financial services. “We’ve expanded access to credit for more people, but we also want to move further up the lending value chain,” Serigne Dioum, MTN Group Fintech CEO, said at the company’s capital market event on Wednesday. “Where appropriate, we will seek licences that allow us not only to facilitate loans but also to lend directly to customers and deploy our own balance sheet.” MTN’s strategy underscores its ambition to capture a larger share of Africa’s underserved credit market, where access to formal lending remains limited despite growing demand. According to a 2025 report by the National Credit Guarantee Company (NCGC), nearly 80% of Nigerian Macro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) lack access to formal credit, while a Stears report estimates the sector faces a $236 billion funding gap. The challenge extends beyond Nigeria. According to Dioum, only 4% to 5% of adults across Africa currently have access to formal credit, leaving a vast market largely untapped by traditional financial institutions. Nigeria sits at the heart of MTN’s expansion plans. MTN Group CEO Ralph Mupita said the company is pursuing additional licences in Nigeria and other markets to deepen its financial services offerings, declining to disclose the specific licences being sought. “We are pursuing additional licences that will allow us to offer a broader suite of financial products and services to customers,” Mupita said. “Nigeria is a key market in this regard, but the opportunity extends across several of our markets.” The move comes as MTN continues to build out its fintech business, which has become one of the group’s fastest-growing divisions. In 2025, MTN Fintech generated approximately $2.8 billion in revenue, processed more than $500 billion in transaction value, and handled over 23 billion transactions across its markets, according to the company. The company says it now serves more than 70 million active MoMo users, works with over 2 million merchants, and supports an agent network of more than 1.4 million people across Africa. For MTN, lending represents the next major growth frontier. The company already facilitates access to credit through partnerships in several markets. According to Dioum, more than one million people access loans through MTN’s platforms every day, using them to finance small businesses, purchase inventory, or cover urgent expenses such as healthcare costs. However, moving from a facilitator role to becoming a direct lender could significantly increase MTN’s revenue opportunities while giving it greater control over the customer experience. The push also aligns with the group’s broader assessment of Africa’s fintech opportunity. MTN estimates that the continent’s fintech revenue pool could expand as much as 13-fold over the next five years, driven by the continued digitisation of financial services. Despite rapid fintech growth across Africa, more than 90% of transactions remain cash-based, according to the company. That presents opportunities not only in lending but also in payments and remittances. “Together, payments, remittances and lending will be the key drivers of fintech growth over the next five years,” Dioum said. In Nigeria, MTN has already begun laying the groundwork for a broader fintech play. In November 2024, MTN Nigeria applied for Payment Solution Service Provider (PSSP) and Payment Terminal Service Provider (PTSP) licences through its fintech subsidiary, MoMo PSB. Ralph said on Wednesday the licence process is still ongoing. The move reflected the company’s growing interest in controlling more of the payments value chain. The PSSP licence would allow MoMo PSB to offer payment gateway services, merchant aggregation, payment processing, and other financial technology solutions. It would also reduce MTN’s reliance on third-party payment processors. The PTSP licence would allow MoMo PSB to deploy and service POS terminals, develop POS applications, and offer training and support to merchants, agents, and users on the MoMo PSB platform. Beyond licencing, MTN is also awaiting regulatory approval for the structural separation of its fintech business in Nigeria. Mupita said shareholders have already approved the separation, with the process currently undergoing regulatory review by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). “These separations are complex,” Mupita said. “In Nigeria, the structure is relatively novel, and regulators are carefully assessing it to ensure it is completed in the most tax-efficient manner possible.”
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