GoCab deploys 100 electric vehicles in Abidjan as part of Yango’s fleet
After raising $45 million in February, GoCab, the mobility fintech that operates Yango’s largest fleet in Côte d’Ivoire, has handed over 100 fully electric cars to driver-partners in Abidjan. The deployment is the first half of a 200-vehicle programme and gives the company one of Africa’s largest operational fleets of electric ride-hailing cars. It also makes Côte d’Ivoire the current front-runner in a race that has, until now, mostly played out on two and three wheels. “For a professional driver, fuel is not a minor expense. It is one of the highest daily costs of doing business,” Moulaye Tabouré, the country manager and managing director of GoCab Côte d’Ivoire, said in a statement. “Reducing that cost by 60% to 80% can fundamentally transform a driver’s economics.” The vehicles will operate mainly on GOYA, Yango’s premium ride-hailing service in the country. Fuel is one of the highest daily costs of the job for drivers working through Yango’s platform. GoCab is layering that saving onto its drive-to-own structure, under which drivers make regular payments from their ride-hailing income over three years, after which the vehicle transfers to them. This is a model similar to the one that drove Moove, a Nigerian mobility fintech, to a $2 billion valuation. GoCab is betting on those savings to onboard drivers. A full charge costs about 8,000 FCFA ($14) and covers up to 470 kilometres, while a petrol or diesel vehicle burns through 20,000 to 40,000 FCFA ($35 to $70) in fuel to travel the same distance, according to the company’s operating benchmarks. That works out to roughly a 60% to 80% reduction in energy costs. Over 10,000 kilometres, a driver could keep between 255,000 and 681,000 FCFA (about $444 to $1,186) that would otherwise go to the pump. This has led to a sharp rise in demand as over 300 existing GoCab drivers have already completed over two years in the programme and are expected to begin taking ownership from 2027, the company said. Image Source: GoCab Yango’s contrarian bet is paying off in EVs first The Abidjan handover fits inside a much larger Yango strategy. In May, Yango Africa CEO Adeniyi Adebayo told Bloomberg the Dubai-based company plans to invest at least $150 million in African expansion this year, targeting entry into 10 new markets. The new markets sit outside the Big Four of Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa, and Kenya, as the company focuses instead on secondary cities in West and Central Africa alongside Namibia, Botswana, and Mozambique. That geographic choice is a byproduct of how Yango reads African economies. In a June interview with TechCabal, Adebayo argued that cities, rather than countries, drive African economic activity and that Yango’s expansion strategy treats them as the primary unit of analysis. Yango enters at the densest node of commercial activity in a market, builds it to profitability, then uses that cash flow to subsidise expansion into secondary and tertiary cities. Bouaké, Côte d’Ivoire’s second-largest city, is the working proof, as Yango launched there in 2022, saw almost nothing for three years, and now counts it among its best-performing cities. Côte d’Ivoire was the first market for Yango Motors, the group’s automotive arm, when the business launched at the Abidjan Auto Show in September 2025. GoCab’s 200-vehicle deployment is the first visible instalment of Yango’s EV pipeline in the country. A different bet from the Lagos and Kigali playbooks Africa’s electric mobility story has so far belonged to two- and three-wheelers, as they are cheaper, easier to charge, and slot into the informal economy that dominates most African cities. In East Africa, the biggest EV mobility players are motorcycle operators. Ampersand runs over 4,000 electric motorcycles in Rwanda and more than 1,300 in Kenya, supported by 25 battery-swap stations, and announced in August 2025 that it planned to reach 13,000 motorcycles across East Africa by early 2026. Spiro, the largest player, has deployed over 100,000 electric motorcycles and 2,500 swap stations across seven African markets, but again, on two wheels. Four-wheeler EV ride-hailing has been the harder segment to unlock because the vehicles cost more upfront, need higher-margin fares to pay back, and depend on a customer base willing to pay for premium rides. Most African markets have not been able to sustain that combination at scale. GoCab’s 100-vehicle deployment does not match Ampersand’s or Spiro’s motorcycle fleets in unit count, but it operates in a different segment with different unit economics. If GoCab’s Abidjan programme holds up on unit economics, Yango has a repeatable template for the West and Central African markets it is expanding into. If it does not, motorcycles will remain the only proven electric mobility category on the continent, and the four-wheeler bet will have to be shelved. 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.
Read MoreTheir parents lost fortunes. They’re buying Nigerian stocks anyway.
In 2008, when Nigeria’s stock market collapsed, *Faramade recalls her mother losing money she had invested in shares. “I can’t remember all the details, but there was a certain gloominess around her at the time,” she said. Her mother belongs to a generation of Nigerians who lived through one of the country’s worst market crashes. Between 2004 and 2007, a booming economy and widespread optimism drew thousands of first-time investors into the Nigerian stock market. Much of the rally was fuelled by investors borrowing from banks to buy shares, pushing stock prices to record highs. Then came the crash. The 2008 global financial crisis, triggered by the collapse of the United States housing market, caused stock prices to tumble. As share values fell, many investors rushed to sell their holdings to repay bank loans, accelerating the market’s decline. Between March and December 2008, investors lost an estimated ₦6.96 trillion ($55.03 billion at the then exchange rate of ₦126.48/$). Nearly two decades later, another generation is embracing the stock market, this time through smartphones instead of stockbrokers’ offices. Many are too young to remember the crash that shaped their parents’ relationship with investing. “Everything in life is a risk. Why sit with the thought of it crashing and not do anything?” Faramade, a Lagos-based communications professional, told TechCabal. “Even my mum, who faced the crash, invests through Bamboo now.” For the past year, Faramade, who earns a little over ₦800,000 ($578.42), has invested at least ₦200,000 ($144.61) monthly through Bamboo, a Nigerian digital investment platform. She relies on recommendations from her stockbroker, market news, and conversations with a close friend who has been investing for years. Her portfolio has suffered only a handful of losses. “The most I have at once has been ₦150,000 ($108.45),” she said. Several of her successful investments have generated returns of around 30%, reinforcing her commitment to investing consistently rather than trying to time the market. Faramade is part of a growing number of Nigerians turning stock investing into a monthly habit. Data Tool Stop Spectating, Start Compounding. The ghosts of 2008 are gone. Move the sliders to see how small, audacious habits multiply—and exactly what it costs you to hesitate. Monthly Invested ₦20,000 Expected Annual Return 15% Timeframe 5 Years Your Projected Empire Your Total Deposits ₦1,200,000 Pure Market Growth + ₦593,767 ■ Your Money ■ Market’s Money Final Balance ₦1,793,767 A solid financial foundation. The Cost of Hesitation Wait just 1 year to start, and you permanently lose ₦0 in compound growth. The revival of retail investing reflects more than the recent stock market rally. Investment apps have made buying shares as easy as making a bank transfer, while financial information shared on podcasts, newsletters, and social media has made investing less intimidating. At the same time, stronger corporate governance, tighter regulation, and solid market performance have helped restore confidence in a market long defined by the trauma of the 2008 crash. The result is a new generation of Nigerians investing small amounts every month, not simply to chase rising share prices, but to build wealth over the long term. Domestic retail investors traded ₦2.86 trillion ($2.07 billion) worth of equities between January and May 2026, a 138.76% increase from the same period a year earlier, according to Nigerian Exchange (NGX) data. Retail investors now account for 36.22% of all trading activity on the exchange. The surge has coincided with one of the world’s strongest stock market rallies. Nigerian equities have returned 67% in dollar terms this year, overtaking South Korea to become the world’s best-performing stock market among the 92 exchanges tracked by Bloomberg. The investors driving the boom are not all wealthy. Many are young professionals investing fixed amounts every month. Some are saving for weddings or future children, while others simply want better returns than a savings account can offer. For many, the amount matters less than building the discipline to invest consistently. Investing as a habit *Funmi opens two investment apps on her phone every month-end. Through Afrinvest PlutusNeo, the Lagos-based human resources professional invests ₦20,000 ($14.46) each month in U.S. mutual funds. She invests another ₦20,000 ($14.46) in Nigerian equities through Afrinvestor 2.0. “I have been doing this for about a year,” she said. Funmi earns less than ₦400,000 ($289.21) a month and does not consider herself a sophisticated investor. She does not spend hours poring over company financial statements. Instead, she buys shares in companies she recognises, adding to her portfolio every month as routinely as paying a utility bill. “I look at the big names that are popular on the app and make my pick,” she said. Her investment journey began after attending an investment event organised by Fintribe. “I decided to try it. It was just something to do with a little spare cash to see what would happen,” she said. For Lagos-based product manager *Doyin, the biggest change has been consistency. Although she opened a stock investment account three years ago, she only recently began investing a fixed amount every month. “Investing in stocks used to be random for me,” she said. “I would suddenly remember that I had a stock account, check how the market was performing, and top it up. It was only last month that I decided to start investing a specific amount every month.” Doyin’s portfolio is concentrated in Nigerian equities, reflecting her preference for companies whose businesses she understands and believes in. “I try to keep my stock options to a minimum so I can easily keep track of their performance.” The dividends from her earlier investments have been modest, but she has consistently reinvested them rather than cashing out. “I’ve always seen myself as a long-term investor, but I only started taking the stock market seriously last month. I also invest in mutual funds and money market funds, but now I’m becoming intentional about stocks.” System Insight The Market Takeover Simulator Your monthly investment might feel small compared to the ₦4.06 trillion traded by institutional giants. But what
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The young Kenyan engineer who thinks robots belong in every classroom
Most of us left the university with a degree and a vague idea of what might come next. Norah Kimathi, a graduate of informatics and computer science from Strathmore University, Kenya, is leaving with a company, a growing list of awards, and robots that could change how deaf students learn science. When we spoke over a video call, she was between university deadlines and startup meetings, slipping effortlessly from discussions about artificial intelligence to stories of dismantling household electronics as a child. Instead, she spoke with the matter-of-fact certainty of someone who has spent years solving problems that most of us never notice. The conversation kept circling back to one moment. During her mentoring of young people in STEM, she met deaf students struggling through STEM classes because qualified sign language interpreters were scarce. It struck her as an engineering problem as much as an educational one. If technology could automate factories, navigate roads, and diagnose disease, why couldn’t it bridge one of education’s oldest accessibility gaps? That question became ZeroBionic, the startup she co-founded in 2021. What began as a robotic hand assembled from recycled plastic inside a university workshop has evolved into AI-powered humanoid robots capable of translating spoken language into sign language in real time, technology that could soon find its way into every classroom. We spoke about curiosity, building with whatever is within reach, the optimism required to create hardware in Africa, and refusing to accept that accessibility should always come later. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Before the robots, the awards, or the conference introductions, what kind of child was Norah, and what part of her rarely makes it into a media profile? My entrepreneurship journey began when I was 15. I was always fascinated with tech, engineering, math, and generally STEM-related courses. Where we stayed in Kenya, I constantly saw the struggles people faced whenever it rained. Roads would flood, and there was no way to alert family to take different routes. At that time, I didn’t have a phone to warn anyone. So I decided to make my own phone using Lego bricks. I tinkered around, and though it obviously didn’t work—I was just 15—it actually looked like a real phone. When my parents saw it, they realised I had a passion for engineering and innovation at such an early age, so they registered a company for me. I was my very own CEO at 15. What people rarely see is the part where I spend sleepless nights in the lab, probably three or four days in a row. You’d find I’m there at night, the next day, the next night, the next day; it’s like a continuous loop. This is not something that’s ever been done in Africa. We are the ones laying the foundation, and by 2028, we hope to open-source billions of parameters. We need more time than a normal human being has, and that’s a side people don’t get to see. But at the end of the day, if you see the output, that’s what matters. How much did you actually know about accessibility and assistive technology before your encounter with deaf students during that STEM mentorship? I always had a passion for building technological solutions, and I never wanted to see people suffer, whether from climate issues, disabilities, or marginalisation. Seeing that I had tech skills on one hand, and on the other hand, I didn’t want people to suffer, the first encounter I had where a solution was needed was with deaf students. That’s when I knew I’d use my skills to bring a solution. I wouldn’t say I had any background in assistive tech or accessibility. It was more about growing up and seeing persons with disabilities sidelined from STEM, which shouldn’t be a privilege but a right. I just realised I needed to find a solution, and I did find one. It was more the environmental and surrounding impacts I saw at an early age. Looking back, what assumptions about education did that encounter overturn, and what did it demand of you as an engineer that you weren’t trained for? Most people take education for granted, as something that starts at five and ends when you graduate and start working. It’s normal for them. But I came to realise that for some, it’s normal; for others, once they get it, they take it as an honor. My end lesson was that people shouldn’t take something for granted; they should regard it with all the honor it deserves. Because when you get access to education, you don’t realise it’s what gives you employment, opens doors, and puts you on big stages. But some people don’t get access simply because they’re differently abled or lack resources. Be grateful because you never know how much somebody else would want to be in your position. Those are the doors we want to open, so it’s not a privilege but a right, just like for all of us who can see, hear, or talk. Image source: Norah Kimathi. Sophistication and speed are usually the bedrock for robotics companies, but you decided to go the climate way, building with recycled materials. Why? What came about that? When we started, we were targeting students in marginalised areas, schools without internet, without roads, disconnected from urban settlements. These schools couldn’t afford humanoid robots, going for hundreds of thousands of dollars. We realised we were building for a target market that wasn’t there. So we started looking for ways to subsidise the cost. Also, many people asked about the environmental impact of using metal, which is one of the biggest pollutants. We didn’t want that either. Conserving the environment was at the forefront of everything, but we didn’t know how to offset it. When the idea came to subsidise costs while conserving the environment, it was a win-win. Using recycled plastics for the outer casing reduced costs by over 60%. It was affordable for us to build at a
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Decide targets workplaces with enterprise AI rollout through CafeOne
Decide, the Nigerian AI startup that lets users analyse data in spreadsheets using prompts, has launched Decide for Work, an enterprise deployment arm to distribute its spreadsheet AI agent through universities, co-working spaces, and other professional communities. As part of the launch, Decide has entered its first major deployment partnership with CafeOne, a co-working network with over 30 locations across Nigeria. Through the partnership, CafeOne members with an active subscription will receive premium access to Decide as part of their membership, providing AI tools for spreadsheet analysis and research. The launch comes as African businesses and workplaces increase adoption of AI in their everyday work. By the end of 2025, 64% of African workers reported using AI at work over the previous year, ahead of the global average of 54%, according to a PwC survey. A separate KPMG report noted that 65% of West African CEOs expect AI to drive efficiency improvements in 2026. “AI agents are improving rapidly, but their adoption and integration into everyday work have not caught up,” Abiodun Adetona, founder of Decide AI, said in a public post. “We want Decide to be embedded wherever work happens online, inside spreadsheets, inboxes, and existing business tools, and physically, through the companies, co-working spaces, universities, and communities where people work and learn every day.” Decide for Work will use the same AI agent currently available to individual users, but package it for organisational deployments, Adetona noted. Instead of signing up individual employees, Decide will work directly with organisations to provide access, onboard users, and integrate the software into existing workflows. Adetona said pricing will vary based on deployment size, number of users, support requirements, and any custom integrations. Launched in 2025 by Adetona, a former Flutterwave software engineer, Decide helps users analyse spreadsheets and business data using natural language prompts instead of formulas. The startup said it has completed more than 41,000 analysis runs and helped users create and analyse over 21,000 spreadsheets since its launch. It said it is used by professionals across more than 10 countries and has achieved 82.5% verified accuracy on SpreadsheetBench, a benchmark for AI spreadsheet agents, placing it alongside models from leading AI companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic. CafeOne is the first major rollout under Decide for Work. The co-working company will make Decide available to eligible members across its subscription tiers, ranging from ₦8,525 ($6.15) daily to ₦109,950 ($79.36) monthly. Adetona said eligible CafeOne members will receive premium credits that unlock Decide’s products, with access lasting as long as those credits remain available based on individual usage. “CafeOne has built a nationwide community of professionals, founders, freelancers, operators, analysts, and growing teams,” he said. “Many of them work with spreadsheets, reports, research, and business data every day. It was a natural fit because their members closely match the people Decide was built for.” He noted that CafeOne would send members instructions on how to activate their Decide access, and they could also request activation directly from staff at any CafeOne location. Adetona said the CafeOne rollout is only the first step for Decide for Work, with discussions already underway with additional co-working spaces, universities, professional communities, and companies interested in deploying AI tools across their teams. “Our goal is to make Decide available wherever knowledge workers spend their day working with spreadsheets, reports, and business data,” he added. 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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Why Kenya’s revived golden visa matters for venture investors and founders
Kenya is considering offering permanent residency to foreign investors to strengthen Nairobi’s position as East Africa’s investment hub. The Kenya Investment Authority (Invest Kenya) is working on proposals for a residency-by-investment programme that would grant long-term residency to investors who commit substantial capital and create jobs, reviving a plan first floated in 2019 but never implemented. Kenya joins a growing list of countries competing for globally mobile investors with immigration incentives besides tax breaks. The proposal could prove attractive to venture capital firms and startup founders, who need senior investment staff and entrepreneurs to spend years building businesses in the markets where they invest. Unlike traditional foreign direct investment (FDI), venture capital relies heavily on local presence, with partners expected to sit on boards, recruit executives and work closely with portfolio companies. “We are exploring residency by investment,” Invest Kenya chief executive John Mwendwa told Business Daily in an interview on Thursday. “Directionally, that’s the way investors would like it.” The agency has yet to determine investment thresholds or qualifying sectors, and Mwendwa said any programme would require legislation because immigration policy falls outside Invest Kenya’s mandate. “We have to have parameters that make commercial sense,” he said. The move is part of a shift in how governments compete for capital. Rather than relying solely on tax holidays, countries are now using residency rights to attract investors whose businesses—and tax contributions—are expected to remain for decades. A win for VCs and startups For venture investors, immigration certainty has become an important consideration. Fund managers frequently relocate across markets as they source deals and support portfolio companies, while founders need long-term residency to scale businesses after raising capital. Kenya already hosts regional offices for several international venture capital firms—including Antler, Capria Ventures, Delta40, and Enza Capital—aided by one of Africa’s largest startup ecosystems and a pipeline of fintech, climate and enterprise software companies. But investors continue to navigate work permit renewals and immigration processes that can complicate long-term expansion. Kenya currently requires foreign investors to obtain a Class G Investor Permit, available to those investing at least $100,000 in an active Kenyan enterprise, before becoming eligible to apply for citizenship after several years of residence. Permanent residency would offer a faster, more predictable route for investors seeking to establish long-term operations. Permanent residency would remove much of that administrative burden, potentially making Nairobi a more competitive base against rival investment hubs such as Cape Town, Kigali, and Mauritius, all of which have introduced investor-friendly policies. South Africa introduced its permanent residence route for investors under the Immigration Act in 2002, allowing foreigners investing at least R12 million ($729,000) to apply for residency. In 2020, Mauritius lowered the minimum investment required for residency from $500,000 to $375,000 to stimulate foreign investment following the pandemic. The proposal comes as Kenya is reinforcing its position as one of Africa’s leading destinations for venture capital. Kenyan startups attracted $984 million in funding in 2025, the highest on the continent and about a third of all startup investment into Africa, driven largely by climate and energy technology deals. Kenya has retained its lead into 2026, remaining the continent’s largest startup funding destination in the first half of the year despite a broader slowdown in dealmaking. 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.
Read MoreQuick Fire 🔥 with Helina Bischoff
Helina Bischoff is Deputy Managing Partner at Africa Collective, where she leads engagement across the organisation’s platforms and oversees partnership development, flagship convenings in Davos and Geneva, and core activities including network management and B2B facilitation. She works at the intersection of business, policy, and international cooperation, convening senior leaders from the public and private sectors. Her work focuses on priority areas structured through Africa Collective’s thematic “Circles,” including healthcare, infrastructure, ventures, commodities, and the arts. She also oversees the Swiss-African Business Circle, an independent association fostering commercial exchange between Switzerland and African markets. Before joining Africa Collective, Helina held roles at Novartis across Global Diversity & Inclusion, the Malaria Initiative, and the Africa Cluster, specialising in communications and public affairs. She holds a BA in International Relations and French from Rhodes University and an MA in African Studies from the University of Basel. Explain your job to a five-year-old. I bring people together so that they can find ways to work together. What’s the most contrarian bet you’ve made professionally that paid off? My role at Africa Collective can be considered contrarian by definition; we create platforms and convenings within global events that give greater visibility to African topics and perspectives, especially in spaces where they are underrepresented or absent altogether. That is not always easy, but it has paid off. Through Africa Collective and the Swiss-African Business Circle, the business association we manage, we have built trusted platforms that bring people together, create space for concrete discussions, and facilitate meaningful collaborations. Your path went from Novartis, working across Global Diversity & Inclusion, the Malaria Initiative, and the Africa Cluster, to Deputy Managing Partner at Africa Collective. What’s the thread connecting those roles? Most of my roles have had a strong focus on the African continent. The thread connecting them—from Diversity & Inclusion to the Malaria Initiative and now Africa Collective—is that they have all involved bringing together people from different parts of the world and creating opportunities through those relationships. Africa Collective works through healthcare, infrastructure, ventures, commodities, and the arts. Which one gets the least attention but deserves the most? The most interesting part of approaching these sectoral topics is often where ecosystems and thematic areas intersect. For instance, bringing together large pharmaceutical companies, tech companies, and venture capital funds to exchange perspectives on global health. This way of looking beyond existing networks and ecosystems is often overlooked. Africa Collective provides a platform through its “Africa Collective Circles,” thematic communities where members can discuss topics within a specific area while also taking conversations beyond a narrow sector focus. This creates even more space for novel and innovative partnerships and collaboration. What’s a belief about Africa-Switzerland trade that most people get wrong? The depth of the ties between Switzerland and the African continent is often underestimated, as are the opportunities to leverage them. Switzerland is a global hub for many key sectors, including commodities, banking, tech, and life sciences. It is also home to large pools of capital and major impact investors with an interest in Africa. Several Swiss multinationals are active across the African continent, but there are also many Swiss SMEs and startups operating in African markets. On the flip side, African companies and organisations are looking to establish and strengthen ties with Swiss counterparts as technical or knowledge partners and, in some cases, to set up entities or subsidiaries in Switzerland. What’s something you believed strongly about African tech five years ago that you’ve since changed your mind about? Five years ago, I would have thought about African tech solutions mainly in their own right. Since then, I have also come to appreciate the role of African tech as an enabler of lower-tech businesses that are critical to the global economy. African tech solutions are not only being developed for local markets, but for the world, too. What’s one career win you’re most proud of and why? Being part of the rapid growth of the Africa Collective platform has been a highlight. We started with one lunch in Davos in 2023, and the size of the convening more than doubled the following year. It has been incredible to be part of something that has grown so quickly in such a short period. Making it happen with limited resources has been challenging, but it has also provided invaluable learning experiences. What would you do differently if you were starting your career over? In hindsight, I would have approached my roles and responsibilities in my early career with more confidence, to get even more out of the experience. I am grateful for every opportunity I have been given and for the people who have supported me along the way. I wouldn’t change a thing.
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👨🏿🚀TechCabal Daily – Uber takeover
In partnership with Lire en Français اقرأ هذا باللغة العربية TGIFSYNW. And just like that, my week on lede duty comes to an end. I shall now retreat to my cosy little corner where I only have to write blurbs while my colleague, Emmanuel, worries about how to open the newsletter. Until next time, adieu! Before you disappear, too, fill out our tech salaries survey. —Yemi Get smarter about Francophone Africa with our newsletter, Francophone Weekly—the startups, tech policies, and institutions building the pipelines for ecosystem growth. Subscribe Quick Fire with Helina Bischoff Uber to take over Delivery Hero Stanbic Bank Kenya appoints new CEO Who secured the bag? World Wide Web 3 Job Openings features Quick Fire with Helina Bischoff Image: Helina Bischoff, Deputy Managing Partner at Africa Collective Helina Bischoff is Deputy Managing Partner at Africa Collective, where she leads engagement across the organisation’s platforms and oversees partnership development, flagship convenings in Davos and Geneva, and core activities including network management and B2B facilitation. She works at the intersection of business, policy, and international cooperation, convening senior leaders from the public and private sectors. Her work focuses on priority areas structured through Africa Collective’s thematic “Circles,” including healthcare, infrastructure, ventures, commodities, and the arts. She also oversees the Swiss-African Business Circle, an independent association fostering commercial exchange between Switzerland and African markets. Before joining Africa Collective, Helina held roles at Novartis across Global Diversity & Inclusion, the Malaria Initiative, and the Africa Cluster, specialising in communications and public affairs. She holds a BA in International Relations and French from Rhodes University and an MA in African Studies from the University of Basel. Explain your job to a five-year-old. I bring people together so that they can find ways to work together. What’s the most contrarian bet you’ve made professionally that paid off? My role at Africa Collective can be considered contrarian by definition; we create platforms and convenings within global events that give greater visibility to African topics and perspectives, especially in spaces where they are underrepresented or absent altogether. That is not always easy, but it has paid off. Through Africa Collective and the Swiss-African Business Circle, the business association we manage, we have built trusted platforms that bring people together, create space for concrete discussions, and facilitate meaningful collaborations. What’s a belief about Africa-Switzerland trade that most people get wrong? The depth of the ties between Switzerland and the African continent is often underestimated, as are the opportunities to leverage them. Switzerland is a global hub for many key sectors, including commodities, banking, tech, and life sciences. It is also home to large pools of capital and major impact investors with an interest in Africa. Several Swiss multinationals are active across the African continent, but there are also many Swiss SMEs and startups operating in African markets. On the flip side, African companies and organisations are looking to establish and strengthen ties with Swiss counterparts as technical or knowledge partners and, in some cases, to set up entities or subsidiaries in Switzerland. What’s something you believed strongly about African tech five years ago that you’ve since changed your mind about? Five years ago, I would have thought about African tech solutions mainly in their own right. Since then, I have also come to appreciate the role of African tech as an enabler of lower-tech businesses that are critical to the global economy. African tech solutions are not only being developed for local markets, but for the world, too. Getting paid in cedis just got easier for African businesses operating in Ghana. Fincra now issues dedicated GHS virtual accounts to enable businesses to collect payments. See how Fincra GHS virtual accounts work. companies Prosus’ forced Delivery Hero exit turned into a $2.4 billion payday Image Source: Tenor A forced sell-down, a decisive stake in one of Germany’s most important food delivery companies, and an impeccably timed takeover bid that is set to bring a huge payday, the folks at Prosus, the investment firm of South Africa’s Naspers, were grinning from ear to ear yesterday. On Thursday, Uber, the US-based ride-hailing giant, offered to buy Germany’s Delivery Hero (DH) at €41.50 ($47.48) per share, valuing the company at $14.8 billion. State of play: Uber has been eyeing Delivery Hero for months. In May, while competing with fellow US delivery company DoorDash, it explored a €10 billion ($11.6 billion) bid. Today, it is paying more than 25% extra for the same company. Delivery Hero shareholders look set to accept the offer. Prosus, which has signed an unconditional agreement to sell its remaining 16.83% stake once the deal closes, will receive €2.1 billion ($2.4 billion). Explain like I’m new here: Prosus first invested €387 million ($434 million) for a 10% stake in Delivery Hero in 2017. Over the next eight years, it spent over $4 billion through initial public offering (IPO) participation, acquisitions, private placements, and open-market purchases, eventually building a 29.95% stake. By 2025, Delivery Hero remained one of its biggest investments. Together with iFood and Swiggy, Prosus said its food delivery businesses served nearly half the world’s population and generated $1.3 billion in revenue. Then regulators forced its hand. After announcing its acquisition of Just Eat Takeaway.com, a Dutch food delivery company, Prosus was ordered by the European Union to reduce its Delivery Hero stake over competition concerns. It sold 4.5% to Uber in April and another 5% to Aspex Management, an investment firm, in May for €605 million ($713 million). Prosus wasn’t trying to exit Delivery Hero because it had lost faith in the business. It was being forced to sell because of regulators, while trying to maximise the return on nearly a decade of backing one of Europe’s largest food delivery companies. Prosus even asked the European Commission to pause the sell-down, believing that takeover interest from Uber and DoorDash could drive a much higher valuation. But the jury is still out on whether it made a fair value gain on Delivery Hero, but one
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Former Safaricom executive Michael Mutiga named Stanbic Bank Kenya CEO
Stanbic Bank Kenya has appointed former Safaricom executive Michael Mutiga as its chief executive, bringing in a telecom and banking veteran to lead the lender as Kenya’s financial sector increasingly converges with digital financial services. Mutiga will assume the role on August 1, subject to regulatory approval, the bank said in a statement on Thursday. He succeeds Abraham Ongenge, who has served as acting chief executive since March and will return to his substantive role as Head of Private & Personal Banking. The appointment underscores how banks are increasingly looking beyond traditional financial institutions for leadership as competition with fintechs and mobile money operators intensifies. Mutiga joins Stanbic after serving as Chief Business Development and Strategy Officer at Safaricom, Kenya’s largest telecommunications company and operator of the M-PESA mobile money platform. “The Board is confident that Mr. Mutiga’s proven track record in the banking sector, strategy execution and transformation will position Stanbic Bank for its next phase of growth,” the bank said in the statement. Before joining Safaricom, Mutiga built a career with more than two decades of leadership experience spanning banking, telecommunications, and digital financial services. He holds a Master of Laws degree from Temple University and a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Nairobi. According to Stanbic, he has received multiple industry accolades, including five Corporate Banker of the Year awards. The appointment comes as the lines between banking and telecommunications continue to blur in Kenya. Safaricom has steadily expanded M-PESA into lending, savings, and retail investing, while banks have accelerated investments in digital banking to defend market share against fintechs and mobile money providers. Absa Bank Kenya will spend up to KES 3 billion ($23.2 million) annually on technology to deepen its digital strategy. Stanbic Bank Kenya is part of South Africa’s Standard Bank Group, one of the continent’s largest banking groups, making the appointment one of the most closely watched leadership changes in Kenya’s banking sector this year. In June, Abdi Mohamed stepped down as chief executive of Absa Bank Kenya, ending a three-year tenure atop one of Kenya’s largest lenders. He joined rival I&M Group as the next CEO of its Kenyan banking business. 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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Amazon found the formula for entering South Africa that Starlink refused
Amazon Leo, a global satellite broadband service, is entering South Africa with a strategy that goes beyond connectivity. Instead of seeking its own licence, it partnered with a local operator, testing a different formula for expanding into Africa’s regulated telecoms markets. Amazon Leo, formerly known as Project Kuiper, will launch in South Africa in 2027 through a partnership with Herotel, one of the country’s largest fixed internet service providers. Instead of applying for its own electronic communications licence, Amazon will provide the satellite network while Herotel manages installations, customer support and sales through a new service called evry. The approach contrasts with Starlink, a rival satellite broadband service, which has been unable to launch commercially in South Africa after refusing to comply with the country’s 30% local ownership requirement. Amazon’s entry suggests global technology companies do not always need regulators to change policy before expanding into African markets. By working with licenced local operators instead, they can enter faster while relying on partners that already understand the regulatory environment and customer needs. “Amazon has really shown the way that foreign operators, ideally, should operate in South Africa,” Arthur Goldstuck, founder and CEO of World Wide Worx, a technology research firm, and a veteran telecommunications analyst, told TechCabal on Thursday. “Rather than literally dropping into the country, they are entering through the existing ecosystem.” Goldstuck said Amazon’s strategy benefits both the company and the local market. “The significance is not only the business arrangement itself, but also the smooth entry of the operator into the country,” he said. “Instead of being a disruptive entity that could create chaos in both the customer experience and the business environment, Amazon is strengthening what already exists.” The strategy also reflects how Amazon has built other businesses. Like Amazon Web Services (AWS), which provides infrastructure to companies rather than competing with them directly, Amazon Leo is designed to sit behind local operators instead of replacing them. “What we are really seeing is not a battle between Amazon Leo and Starlink,” Goldstuck said. “Amazon is avoiding the battle altogether by strengthening the offerings of operators already on the ground.” Customers are unlikely to buy Amazon Leo directly. “They will buy services from Herotel, telecommunications companies like Vodacom, or other local providers,” Goldstuck said. “Through those relationships, customers will receive more versatile and resilient connectivity powered by Amazon Leo.” For Herotel, the partnership will extend its broadband to areas where fibre remains too expensive to deploy. “Our goal is to connect homes and small businesses across South Africa,” Herotel CEO Van Zyl Botha said at Wednesday’s launch. “In the South African environment, it’s always difficult to reach people, especially where there is no backhaul fibre or power. With the Amazon Leo product, we can have a national reach beyond the existing telecoms infrastructure, and we can truly try and connect every South African and business.” Goldstuck stated that Herotel serves more than 350,000 customers across over 550 towns, cities, and suburbs. “Its existing installation teams and support network allow Amazon to enter the market without building its own retail operation,” he said. Communications and Digital Technologies Minister Solly Malatsi welcomed the partnership at Wednesday’s launch, saying collaborations between global technology companies and South African operators can help expand broadband access while supporting the country’s digital economy ambitions. The deal also raises fresh questions for Starlink. According to Goldstuck, the company has already worked with local internet providers in other countries, suggesting a similar approach could unlock the South African market. “We have already seen Starlink partner with local entities in other countries, where it provides the satellite service while local internet service providers sell it to customers,” he said. “So there is little reason why that cannot happen in South Africa.” If Amazon Leo succeeds, its biggest advantage won’t be its satellites. Instead, Amazon will decide to work with local partners rather than challenge the rules. True scale demands moving beyond surface-level integrations to robust execution. We’ve filtered the noise out of Moonshot 2026, optimising the conference strictly for high-calibre connections between startup founders, global financial operators, enterprise leaders and individuals rewiring Africa’s technical frameworks. Get 20% off Early Bird tickets for a limited time.
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How teaching AI your career could become the smartest job search strategy
Every new technology promises to save people time. Artificial intelligence is beginning to promise something more ambitious: memory. Instead of asking chatbots to answer questions or draft emails from scratch, a growing number of professionals are spending hours – sometimes days – teaching AI who they are. They are feeding it years of curriculum vitae, portfolios, writing samples, work histories, career decisions, and personal preferences until the software can represent them almost as consistently as they can. The goal is not to write better prompts, but to build an AI that understands the person behind the prompt. For Olanrewaju Habeeb, a Lagos-based communications professional, that shift began with frustration. Finding remote work had become almost a full-time job. After finishing his day job in public relations, he spent his evenings searching job boards across the United States, Canada, and Europe, researching companies, tracking down hiring managers’ email addresses, and rewriting his CV and cover letter for every application. Most applications disappeared without a response. “You cannot have just one source of income because of how the economy is,” he says. “Not every company will pay you well. You have to find another way to make money.” Like millions of professionals, Habeeb initially turned to ChatGPT to speed up the process. Then he experimented with Claude. The chatbots helped him write faster, understand unfamiliar tasks, and tailor his applications to different employers. Copy-paste But over time, he noticed something else. As AI-generated applications became commonplace, they also began sounding remarkably alike. “If ten people use the same prompt and apply for the same job,” he says, “the HR person is reading almost the same thing over and over.” The problem, he realised, was no longer access to AI. It was differentiation. Rather than searching for a better prompt, Habeeb decided to build something more personal. Over several days, he uploaded his work history, CV, portfolio, writing style, career milestones, and professional biographies into a Claude Project, a persistent workspace within Anthropic’s Claude AI that lets users store documents and long-term instructions. He taught the system to distinguish between two different versions of himself: the communications professional he presents to organisations in Nigeria and the SEO writer he introduces to overseas clients. He even trained it to recognise which tone, experience, and CV belonged to each audience. “I told it to differentiate the two personalities,” he says. “If I ask for the offline person, it gives me that. If I ask for the online one, it gives me that.” The result is a personalised career assistant. When Habeeb finds a vacancy, he pastes the job description into a simple web interface he built with Claude’s help. The application sends the request to Claude through its API, rewrites his CV for the role, drafts a tailored cover letter and application email, then estimates how closely his experience matches the position before he decides whether to apply. His experiment reveals an evolution in how people are using AI. The first wave of generative AI centred on discrete tasks that people once turned to search engines for. Users asked chatbots to write emails, summarise meetings, explain unfamiliar concepts, or generate ideas on demand. The next wave is becoming far more personal. Rather than treating AI as a tool they consult occasionally, workers are turning it into a permanent fixture in their professional life—one that remembers years of experience, understands individual working styles, and carries out repetitive tasks with increasing context and consistency. In that future, the competitive advantage may no longer come from knowing how to prompt AI but from teaching AI who you are. Started with ChatGPT like everyone Habeeb’s introduction to generative AI was much like everyone else’s. During a three-month internship with a United Kingdom company, unfamiliar assignments regularly landed on his desk. Rather than admit he did not know where to begin, he turned to ChatGPT. “There was a time during my internship when they would give me a task and expect me to finish it in record time,” he says. “I couldn’t say I didn’t know how to do it. I would just go and disturb the hell out of ChatGPT until I got what I wanted.” ChatGPT became as much a tutor as an assistant. “It was like AI was holding my hand.” By early 2026, he had switched much of his workflow to Claude, whose writing style he preferred. At first, he used it like millions of other people: to edit copy, answer questions, and draft job applications. Then he noticed something unsettling. Advice on writing the “perfect AI prompts” had become a cottage industry across Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube. The same templates circulated endlessly: paste in a job description. Ask the chatbot to rewrite your CV. Generate a tailored cover letter. Repeat. The results were efficient and increasingly indistinguishable. Generative AI has dramatically lowered the cost of producing good writing. But when everyone relies on similar models, trained on similar data and guided by similar prompts, quality alone becomes a weaker differentiator. The scarce resource shifts from writing ability to originality. Habeeb concluded that the problem wasn’t Claude. It was that he was using it the same way everyone else was. So instead of searching for a better prompt, he decided to build a better memory. Habeeb’s Eureka moment The experiment required an unusual amount of patience. Over three days in May this year, he began constructing what he called My Personal Log, a Claude Project that would serve as a permanent record of his professional life. Into it went years of work experience, portfolios, biographies, writing samples, CVs, and examples of how he naturally introduced himself in different situations. Software template. Image source: Habeeb Olanrewaju One instruction appeared again and again. “Imagine you were me.” The distinction mattered because Habeeb was not trying to teach Claude a profession. He was teaching AI about a person. The distinction illustrates how AI is evolving from a conversational interface into something closer to professional infrastructure. Early chatbots behaved
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