Safaricom’s financial services chief joins wave of senior executive exits
Safaricom’s chief financial services officer, Esther Waititu, will leave the company at the end of July, becoming the third senior executive to exit Kenya’s largest telecommunications company in five months. “I wish to announce that Esther Waititu, our chief financial services officer, will be leaving Safaricom to pursue other opportunities,” Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa said in an internal email to employees seen by TechCabal. Waititu’s last day will be July 31, according to the email. Safaricom has appointed Boniface Mungania, its Director of Public Sector Digital Transformation, as interim chief financial services officer. The departure marks another leadership change at the executive level overseeing Safaricom’s financial services ambitions. In late March, Sitoyo Lopokoiyit stepped down as managing director of M-PESA Africa, while chief business development and strategy officer Michael Mutiga is leaving to become CEO of Stanbic Bank Kenya and South Sudan from August 1. The three executives held roles central to Safaricom’s strategy of expanding beyond telecommunications into digital financial services. Their departures come as the company expands M-PESA beyond payments into savings, credit, and investments, while building the technology needed to support more transactions and third-party financial services. Safaricom typically communicates executive departures internally unless they involve the chief executive, while publicly announcing senior appointments. Waititu joined Safaricom in 2023 after more than a decade in banking. During her tenure, the company completed Fintech 2.0, the biggest overhaul of M-PESA’s core infrastructure since Safaricom moved the platform in-house in 2015. Completed in September 2025, the migration moved M-PESA to a cloud-native architecture capable of processing 6,000 transactions per second at launch, replacing a system that was approaching its limit of 4,500 transactions per second. The upgrade also made it easier for Safaricom to introduce new services and for banks and fintech companies to connect to M-PESA. In February, Safaricom launched Ziidi Trader, an M-PESA service that allows users to buy and sell shares listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE). The product gave M-PESA’s more than 37 million users a direct route into the stock market and marked another step in Safaricom’s expansion into investment products. Before joining Safaricom, Waititu served as KCB Group’s Director of Corporate Banking from September 2021 to February 2023, and previously held several roles at Standard Bank. 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 Launch Africa keeps writing early-stage cheques despite market slowdown
At the start of 2026, Africa’s startup funding market appeared to be on firmer footing. Startups across the continent raised $711 million in the first quarter, up roughly 27% from the same period a year earlier, suggesting the recovery that began in 2025 was gathering pace. Beneath the headline features, however, the picture was less encouraging. The number of deals worth between $100,000 and $500,000 fell from 140 to 92, a decline of around 30%. The early cheques that help bring startups into existence dropped even more sharply, from 73 to 32. For the first time in recent quarters, debt financing also overtook equity funding. The data suggests many investors slowed down in their funding of early-stage startups. Launch Africa Ventures did the opposite. The pan-African venture capital firm, whose portfolio now spans more than 180 portfolio companies across 25 countries, says it completed 15 new investments in 2026, focusing on the very early-stage cheque sizes much of the market has retreated from. Launch Africa’s 2026 cohort spans AI, the future of work, B2B commerce, supply chain, and embedded finance across Francophone, North, West, and Southern Africa. The named investments are Udu Technologies, Fincart, Tayar, Khaime, Anavid, Mainstack, Growwr, Yamify, Legendary Foods, and Masunga. The firm also made follow-on investments in nine existing portfolio companies: Clarrio, Finverity, Agridex, Periculum, Recital Finance, Octavia Carbon, Itibari, Solarbox, and Awabah. So far, the strategy appears to be paying off. In June, Launch Africa returned $2.5 million to investors in its first fund after completing 11 exits, placing it among the small group of African managers that have handed cash back to limited partners in this cycle. The firm’s second fund reflects a shift in strategy. While Fund I pursued a high-volume approach, spreading capital across a large number of startups, Fund II is taking ownership stakes while reserving more capital for follow-on investments into its strongest-performing portfolio startups. I spoke with Uwem Uwemakpan, the head of investments at Launch Africa, to understand the reasoning behind the firm’s contrarian pace and how the firm plans to get money out again in a thinner market. This interview has been edited for length and clarity Everyone else is pulling back from early-stage right now. You just did the opposite and closed 15 deals. Walk me through the reasoning. What do you see in 2026 that the rest of the market doesn’t? The reasoning is contrarian by design, not by accident. We ran a sector-mapping exercise to identify where capital was underinvested relative to growth potential and impact on Africa’s trajectory, and where the global technology tailwinds actually apply. Two things converged in 2026. First, infrastructure: PAPSS is operational, data connectivity investment is accelerating, and regulation is catching up rather than lagging. Second, discipline: Q1 deal count was reportedly down roughly a third this year, and debt overtook equity as a funding source for the first time. Everyone reads that as a reason to wait. We read it as the moment the $100K–$500K cheque, the one that actually creates a company, nearly disappeared. If nobody writes that cheque in 2026, there’s no Series A class in 2029. We’d rather own that pipeline than inherit someone else’s gap in three years. You mentioned that without first checks in 2026, there is no Series A class in 2029. Your own liquidity depends on there being a well-capitalised growth-stage class in 2030. Are you underwriting Fund II on the assumption that layer recovers, and what happens to your exit timeline if it doesn’t? We’re not underwriting Fund II on the assumption that the growth-capital layer recovers on our timeline; that’s not a bet we get to make. Every deal has to pass what we call Exit Realism before we write a cheque. In practice, that means named acquirers across banks, telcos, global platforms, industrials, and DFIs, not exclusively Series A-and-up VCs. We are seeing African exits cluster in the $50–150M trade-sale range, and that pathway doesn’t depend on a well-capitalised Series A market existing on our schedule. If the Series A layer does recover, and the infrastructure argues it will, because demand for what these companies do isn’t going anywhere, that’s upside, not the base case. If it doesn’t, we still have a path through strategic acquirers and secondaries. We’re hedged against the scenario in your question, not hoping it doesn’t happen. What makes a company the kind of early bet you describe? Market and fund timing: why now, specifically, and does the exit timeline fit our remaining fund life? Unit economics: do the numbers actually work? FX resilience: does the model survive currency volatility, not just growth? Scalability: is multi-market architecture built in from day one, not retrofitted later. Exit realism: can we name three to five specific acquirers, not “we’ll figure it out.” And founder quality, which is where a lot of early-stage companies actually fail. Sector-wise, we try to avoid crowded spaces unless there’s a strong case for a specific company. The saturated end of the market has better brand recognition. The underserved end sometimes has better economics. In Fund I you did more than 100 investments and passed your follow-on rights to your LPs. In Fund II you’re taking 5% to 15% positions and following on yourselves. Those are two very different funds. Does that change how you evaluate and invest in companies? The substance of the question is right, it changes everything about how we evaluate. A fund built for volume is optimised to not miss outliers; the underwriting bar is lower because the portfolio math forgives individual misses. A fund built for concentration can’t afford that. Every company has to individually justify a 5-10% position, which means we’re doing Series A-grade diligence at seed: separate co-founder interviews, reference checks, unit economics that have to make sense before we write the cheque, not after. And even more rigorous analysis if the ownership is below our preferred threshold. It also changes our relationship to the company after we invest. At lower ownership, we are just
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South Africa wants every SIM card to become a trusted digital ID
A mobile number has evolved into one of South Africa’s most trusted digital identity credentials. It secures access to bank accounts, online payments and messaging platforms, making it a critical target for organised crime. Now, the government and the telecommunications industry want to overhaul the country’s SIM registration system for the first time since the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Act (RICA) introduced mandatory registration nearly two decades ago. The proposed reforms, developed by mobile operators and the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, introduce stronger identity verification using real-time checks against the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) database. The goal is to make SIM registration as reliable as the identity checks banks already use. The changes extend well beyond telecoms. A more trusted mobile identity system would reduce fraud on banking and fintech platforms while giving law enforcement a stronger tool to investigate cybercrime. “The enhanced verification measures operate through existing arrangements between the Department of Home Affairs and mobile network operators, enabling ACT members to verify customer identities against the DHA database,” Nomvuyiso Batyi, chief executive officer (CEO) of the Association of Communications and Technology (ACT), a telecoms industry body, told TechCabal on Friday. Batyi said the industry concluded that RICA no longer reflects how digital crime has evolved. “It was driven by the rapid increase in sophisticated digital fraud from around 2019 onwards,” she said. Organised financial crime, identity theft and the widespread sale of pre-registered SIM cards have exposed weaknesses in the current system. Authorities have also linked improperly registered SIM cards to financial fraud and organised crime, leading to several crackdowns, including the 2024 arrest of suspects accused of selling pre-RICA’d SIM cards in Free State Province and the 2025 arrest of 48 people in KwaZulu-Natal province, for allegedly registering SIM cards using fraudulent identities. The industry also believes anonymous communications have enabled organised crime and money laundering, concerns that gained urgency after South Africa’s grey listing by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Today, RICA mainly requires customers to present identity documents when buying a SIM card. The proposed framework instead focuses on confirming that the person registering the SIM is the legitimate owner of that identity. ACT and the government have also proposed changes to RICA. “The proposals to the Department of Justice are in line with the industry-led solution in the framework agreement,” Batyi said. “They identify legislative and operational reforms that may further improve the effectiveness and enforceability of Section 40 of RICA.” The reforms follow an urgent meeting convened in March by Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi, who brought together telecom operators, regulators and law enforcement agencies to address weaknesses in South Africa’s SIM registration system. The Department of Justice said improperly registered SIM cards have been linked to banking fraud, cash-in-transit robberies, kidnappings, contract killings, and cybercrime. Officials also warned that loopholes in RICA and weak registration practices have allowed bulk SIM registrations using false identities, making it harder for investigators to trace suspects. Kubayi said the government would step up enforcement. “Given that the law already prescribes penalties of up to R5 million ($303,000) or imprisonment of up to 10 years for non-compliance, enforcement in this regard should commence from July 2026, supported by a dedicated and coordinated approach involving the police, the National Prosecuting Authority, and other relevant entities,” she said. Leon Schreiber, the Home Affairs Minister, also told delegates at the meeting that the department’s identity verification systems, already used by banks, could strengthen SIM registration and support South Africa’s developing digital identity framework. Consumers are unlikely to notice immediate changes. ACT has not disclosed how the new verification process will work. “We unfortunately cannot comment at this stage as this information will be communicated to consumers through a coordinated consumer awareness campaign,” Batyi said. Batyi noted the tougher checks will improve security without making mobile access more difficult. “The risks posed by SIM-enabled fraud now extend beyond individual consumers to the financial system and national security,” she said. “The measures do not create unjustifiable barriers to mobile access but simply ensure that the person obtaining the service is the legitimate holder of the identity presented.” The framework will still operate under the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA), which governs how personal information is collected and processed. Batyi said the industry’s long-term goal is to eliminate identity theft in SIM registration, remove pre-registered SIM cards from circulation, and restore trust in South Africa’s mobile identity system. True scale demands moving beyond surface-level integrations to robust execution. We’ve filtered the noise out of Moonshot 2026, optimising the conference strictly for high-calibre connections between startup founders, global financial operators, enterprise leaders and individuals rewiring Africa’s technical frameworks. Get 20% off Early Bird tickets for a limited time.
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Nigeria’s central bank is rewriting the rules for fintech growth
This is Follow the Money, our weekly series that unpacks the earnings, business, and scaling strategies of African fintechs, financial institutions, companies, and governments. A new edition drops every Monday. Over the past decade, the playbook for Nigerian fintechs has been remarkably consistent: build payment products, acquire merchants, scale transaction volumes, obtain microfinance bank licences, expand into lending, and eventually launch savings products. The result is an industry in which some of the country’s largest financial technology companies now operate across multiple layers of the financial system. They issue wallets, acquire merchants, process transactions, provide payment terminals, lend to businesses and, increasingly, operate regulated financial institutions. This strategy has helped drive rapid growth of Nigeria’s electronic payment industry, which processed ₦1.2 quadrillion ($880.51 billion) worth of transactions in 2025, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Now, the CBN wants to rewrite the rules that enabled that expansion. Between March and June, the regulator issued or exposed for consultation a series of policy documents covering market concentration, financial holding companies, operational ring-fencing, ownership disclosure, and anti-money laundering systems. Viewed individually, the proposals address distinct regulatory concerns. Taken together, however, they reveal a regulator’s intent on steering Nigeria’s payments ecosystem into a more mature phase. At the heart of the reform is a germane question: how should large payment companies be structured, and how much market power should any single operator be allowed to accumulate? Nigeria is not alone in asking it. India’s Reserve Bank imposed limits on market concentration in the Unified Payments Interface after PhonePe and Google Pay came to dominate digital payments. In Europe, the second Payment Services Directive (PSD2) sought to weaken incumbents’ control of payment infrastructure by requiring banks to open access to third-party providers. One group can no longer operate as a single business Nigeria’s payment companies are increasingly becoming banks. After building large payment infrastructure businesses, many are acquiring microfinance banks to move beyond transaction fees into lending, deposits, and other banking services. Flutterwave secured a microfinance bank licence in April following its acquisition of open banking startup Mono, while Paystack acquired Ladder Microfinance Bank in January. These deals allow fintechs to deepen customers relationship and generate revenue from multiple financial products instead of relying primarily on payment fees. As a result, many of these companies are evolving into financial groups, with several regulated businesses operating under one corporate umbrella. Paystack, the Nigerian fintech acquired by Stripe, restructured its operations under a new holding company, The Stack Group (TSG), in January. TSG now houses Paystack, its consumer payments app Zap, Paystack Microfinance Bank (MFB), and a venture studio. TSG is jointly owned by Paystack’s chief executive officer, Shola Akinlade, Stripe, and existing Paystack employees known as Stacks. The structure creates powerful operational advantages. Customer data generated from payments can improve lending decisions. Banking products help retain customers within the ecosystem. Subsidiaries can also share infrastructure, technology, and management, lowering the cost of expansion. The CBN now wants to draw clearer boundaries around that model. Its draft ring-fencing framework introduces stricter separation between related entities, covering governance, customer funds, intra-group transactions, data sharing, and recovery planning. “The guidelines seeks to establish clear operational and functional boundaries among closely linked entities within the financial system as well as address regulatory arbitrage arising from the commingling of activities across different licence categories,” a part of the CBN’s guideline read. The ring-fencing rules also tighten ownership requirements, capital standards, and oversight of shared services. “Each regulated entity shall meet capital adequacy and liquidity standards individually, regardless of group-level resources,” the guideline read. Instead of operating like different departments within the same organisation, each regulated subsidiary would be required to maintain its own governance, capital, risk management framework, and regulatory accountability. This raises the cost of operating multiple regulated businesses and erodes some of the efficiencies that made licence accumulation attractive in the first place. Growth through acquisitions will still be possible. But integrating and running those businesses as part of a single group will become significantly more expensive. Scale is no longer enough Every successful fintech begins with a competitive edge. Moniepoint built its business by serving small businesses and developing payment infrastructure for merchants. In 2025, it processed more than ₦412 trillion ($294.03 billion) in transactions and, since 2023, has steadily expanded into retail banking. By first serving merchants, fintechs created a gateway to consumers, generating network effects that allowed them to expand simultaneously across consumer payments, merchant acquiring, banking, and lending. The CBN now wants to limit how far the strategy can go. Under a market structure circular issued in June, any institution that controls more than 25% of consumer issuing cannot simultaneously control more than 15% of merchant acquiring. The same restriction applies in reverse. Firms will also be required to submit monthly market-share reports and comply with the new thresholds by the end of 2026. The objective extends beyond promoting competition. It is about preventing a single company from dominating both sides of Nigeria’s payments market: where consumers keep their money and where merchants receive it. A business with significant market power on both sides can reinforce its own ecosystem, making it more difficult for rivals to compete while increasing the systemic consequences if its infrastructure fails. For fintechs, this changes the economics of scale. Rather than expanding into every adjacent segment of the payments value chain, companies may have to decide where they want to lead. Future growth is likely to depend less on controlling every layer of the ecosystem and more on improving profitability and efficiency within a chosen segment. Governance is the new moat For years, fintechs distinguished themselves by building products that were faster, simpler and more convenient than those offered by traditional banks. The CBN now expects those same companies to operate less like technology startups and more like mature financial institutions. Under its new anti-money laundering (AML) framework, the CBN is signalling that compliance is no longer simply a matter of deploying the right software or purchasing
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South Sudan’s $50 e-visa fee threatens East African labour mobility
South Sudan has imposed a $50 visa fee on citizens of Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, introducing a new cost for workers and businesses operating in one of East Africa’s most commercially important frontier markets. Under the revised charges, published on the country’s electronic visa portal on Monday, Somali and Burundian citizens will pay $100 to enter South Sudan. Tanzanians and Egyptians can enter visa-free, while South Africans can visit without a visa for stays of less than 30 days. Nigerians will pay $100. The fees implement an immigration policy introduced last week and mark a departure from the East African Community’s push to remove restrictions on the movement of people, labour, and services across the eight-member bloc. South Sudan joined the EAC in 2016. The regional grouping says citizens of its partner states should generally be able to travel within the bloc without visas, an ambition anchored in the Common Market Protocol and intended to support the free movement of workers and capital. The EAC describes free movement as a central pillar of the common market. The different treatment of EAC citizens is likely to raise questions over reciprocity and Juba’s compliance with those commitments. Tanzanians will continue to enter free of charge, while travellers from six of South Sudan’s seven other EAC partners face fees of between $50 and $100. The new charges will have their greatest impact on Kenya and Uganda, South Sudan’s main links to regional markets. Both countries supply the landlocked nation with food, manufactured goods, fuel, and professional services, while their citizens account for a significant share of the traders, drivers, bankers, and aid workers travelling to Juba. Kenyan transport companies move goods to South Sudan from the port of Mombasa through Uganda, with drivers and support staff routinely crossing the border. Although $50 is modest for large companies, repeated payments could increase operating costs for logistics businesses whose employees make several journeys every year. The rules could also complicate labour mobility. South Sudan has long drawn accountants, engineers, teachers, healthcare workers, and other professionals from neighbouring countries, particularly Kenya and Uganda. The fee adds to the cost of accepting assignments or taking short business trips to Juba. Kenyan lenders are among the most exposed companies. KCB Group, Stanbic Bank, and Equity Group operate subsidiaries in South Sudan, while other regional companies maintain employees, suppliers, and clients in the country. The banks rely on staff movement between Nairobi and Juba for roles in technology, risk management, audits, and compliance. Visa charges will not alter their balance sheets, but could add another layer of cost and administration in a market already affected by currency volatility, high inflation, and political uncertainty. Travellers are required to apply through South Sudan’s official e-visa portal, pay online, and download an approved document before travelling. The government says applications can be processed within 72 hours. 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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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.
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