African startups are ‘over-mentored, over-trained.’ Rwanda wants to fix that.
On March 12, Rwanda’s Ministry of ICT and Innovation (MINICT) launched Innovate Rwanda, a digital platform designed to connect startups, investors, talent, and ecosystem support organisations across the country, on the sidelines of the recently concluded Innovative Fintech Forum in Kigali, the country’s capital. “We want it to be a platform where startups can discover who else is playing in the field they want to play in,” Esther Kunda, the director general of the innovation and emerging technologies directorate at MICINT, told TechCabal. For a young tech ecosystem like Rwanda, the platform hopes to fix the information scarcity problem. The country has over 70 active startups and several incubators and hubs, like Norrsken, but information about these startups and investors has been fragmented because the ecosystem has yet to mature. “Entrepreneurs starting an idea were not able to find out who is providing the right support for the stage they are at, whether it’s ideation or scaling, or who is offering the right support or funding at their particular stage,” Kunda said. Founders can create profiles to showcase their ventures, discover relevant support programs, access funding and partnership opportunities, and connect with ecosystem organisations that can help them grow, she added. Outside of Innovate Rwanda, the government is also positioning itself as a direct buyer and often the first customer for Rwandan-based companies through a new public procurement regulation. In our conversation, Kunda explained how MINICT wants to fix the fragmentation that holds back the country’s startup ecosystem with Innovate Rwanda and why the government would rather let companies test emerging technologies than wait until it has all the rules figured out. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. What inspired the creation of Innovate Rwanda? From the ICT Ministry’s perspective, one of our key roles is to enable collaboration and coordination of our innovation ecosystem. One of the key issues we kept hearing from ecosystem players was the ecosystem’s fragmentation and a lack of information across it. For ecosystem support organisations, one of the issues was being able to know what different programmes exist in the ecosystem. It is one thing to know that there’s an innovation hub called XYZ, but information that goes deep into the type of programmes they provide is not readily available. For the different startups that apply to their programmes, what other programmes have they been part of so that they don’t duplicate efforts or even over-train them, which is one of the biggest issues that entrepreneurs in Africa have. They are over-mentored, over-trained, and with little support in other meaningful ways. That’s why we created Innovate Rwanda. We want it to be a platform where startups can discover who else is playing in the field they want to play in. We want people to be able to see what ecosystem support organisations (ESOs) are doing, the kind of programmes they’re running, who else they’re supporting, and how they’re supporting them. We’ve also been able to aggregate investor data around who has invested in companies that are either based in Rwanda or have operations in Rwanda. So you might have big global companies with operations here. We’re trying to get and perfect the information around who’s investing in those companies so that if you’re a startup in a sector, you can target the right investors and say, ‘Investor XYZ is interested in this sector, so if I’m currently raising, these are who I should be targeting.’ When you run a directory like Innovate Rwanda, getting accurate data is a challenge. How do you think about getting data, verifying it, and putting it up on the platform? We have done a couple of things, and as we launch, the data is going to improve much better than what we have done so far. One, we are aggregating data from the different programmes running in our ecosystem. We are working with ESOs, but also with the programmes that the government is running, to get that information. Two, we have partnered with a global platform that has an algorithm and has perfected some of these ways of finding investment data and information across ecosystems globally. In the last few years, they have done very specific insights into a couple of African countries, and we are starting from that. The last one confirms that the companies on the platform are actually registered and operating in Rwanda. Some of them today we’re not going to classify as startups, but they feature because they’ve raised funding in the last couple of years, mentioning Rwanda as one of their operations. We’ll be cleaning the data, making sure it becomes reliable. It’s really going to rely on how we, as an ecosystem, share data as we go along. It’s a journey, and it’s going to take some time. What specific outcomes will you be measuring to determine whether Innovate Rwanda is succeeding? Let me put it in plain words. If I get a lot of conversation from startups asking me, ‘Where should we go for an innovation hub?’ or ‘We’re raising this amount of money, where should we go? ‘ If this process becomes very easy because of this platform, that’s one metric of success. The other one: if we can measure the quality of the programmes provided in our ecosystem and start being very ruthless on the quality of innovation programmes in our market, that’s another metric we’ll look at. Third, and very specifically: increased funding in our ecosystem. That’s very crucial. And also job creation. What other things is your ministry working on to help startups in Rwanda? Other than the platform, we have been running our flagship programme. It’s a national startup competition where we crown the best startup every year. Around that, we have several sub-programmes: funding programmes in agriculture and funding and support programmes for startups in sexual and reproductive health. We also have, together with one of our development banks, a grant programme for startups that are starting, and we fund between $50,000
Read MoreWhen tech calls it waste, Nairobi calls it Tuesday
Every evening in Nairobi, a transaction happens that no algorithm has ever improved upon. Njeri watches the day thin out. The sukumawiki that was KES20 (roughly $0.15) at noon becomes KES10 ($0.08) at dusk. The bread that didn’t sell moves quietly to the woman two stalls away. The pig farmer swings by on Tuesdays. The broker takes the remainder at a price that has a thin margin but wastes nothing. No app. No notification. No ESG carbon offset report. What the tech industry calls food waste, Nairobi’s informal economy calls secondary inventory. The pig farmer on Nairobi’s periphery, documented by the International Livestock Research Institute as dependent on urban surplus feed, is not a beneficiary of food waste. He is part of the supply chain. The broker redistributes near-expiry produce to the city’s price-sensitive consumers. Mama Mboga, too, with her handwritten credit book, sells single eggs to customers who cannot afford six. This is not a broken system waiting to be fixed. It’s a fifty-year-old circular economy that has functioned without an app. Yet a growing number of digital platforms are arriving to disrupt it without understanding the system they are entering. The assumption behind surplus-food platforms launched in Africa is simple: food waste is a market failure, and technology is the correction. It makes sense if you are looking at the problem from Copenhagen, London, or San Francisco, where unsold food at the end of the day goes into a bin. In Nairobi, it goes into a network. A 2024 study by Jeremy Wagner for the Hungry Cities Partnership found that the ‘supermarket revolution model’ fails to account for Nairobi’s reality. Informal vendors remain central to food security for low-income residents. Supermarkets cater to middle and upper-income groups. The informal economy is not a primitive version of the formal one. It is a parallel system with its own logic, trust infrastructure and way of finding a fair price before sunset. Every platform that has attempted to digitise it has learned this at a high cost. Twiga Foods raised over $60 million but restructured in May 2025, cut more than 300 jobs and retreated to an asset-light model after years of friction with the informal supply chain it was trying to formalise. Marketforce, built to bring digital tools to small-scale food traders, shut down in 2023 after burning through its runway against the same wall. The wall is not logistics. It’s not connectivity. It is an assumption that arrived before the product did. When a digital platform enables a supermarket to push near-expiry bread at 60% off, something happens that the carbon metrics will never capture. The supermarket absorbs the discount as a loss leader, a rounding error against its monthly revenue. The kiosk owner next door runs on a 10% daily margin. Njeri does not absorb anything. She loses a customer to a platform she cannot join. India watched this play out in real time. Between 2024 and 2025, quick commerce platforms like Blinkit and Zepto grew by 280%. 82% of buyers shifted at least a quarter of their purchases to these apps. Nearly $1.28 billion in annual sales moved from small traditional retailers to digital platforms in a year. Nearly 200,000 Kiranas closed. The Indian government built an open digital commerce network (ONDC) to bring informal traders onto a level playing field. There is a third option. It is hiding in plain sight. Njeri the Mama Mboga is the infrastructure they need to build on, if they are willing to see her that way. Any platform touching the informal economy needs to do what Systems Architects do: study the terrain. The behaviour of the buyer. The logic of the supply chain. The trust networks that have sustained it for fifty years. You cannot onboard a new system into a complex environment and call it disruption. You are just adding chaos with better branding. Njeri already has the last-mile presence in neighbourhoods formal retail has never entered, a trust network built over decades and a surplus problem of her own. M-Pesa did not ask Kenya to behave like a Western banking customer. It asked what Kenya trusted and built from there. Formalisation was the outcome, not the premise. That’s the architectural lesson every platform entering this space should inherit. Disruption and displacement are distinct concepts. Kenya’s next five years of food tech will depend on whether founders know the difference. The informal economy will not announce the verdict. It will simply route around every platform that was not designed for its terrain, the way it always has. The food is not wasted in Nairobi. It is moving. The question is whether the next generation of platforms moves with it or against it. ____ Carolyne Manyeki is a Nairobi-based Learning and Development Practitioner and writer who tracks what happens when global models land in environments they were never designed for. She is also a lecturer in Communications who publishes Strategic Insights on LinkedIn.
Read MoreLuno wants more than crypto trading. Prediction markets are the first move.
Luno, the UK-born digital asset firm that allows users to trade tokenised US stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and buy, sell, and earn yield for holding cryptocurrencies, has launched prediction markets for users in South Africa and Nigeria, two of its four operational markets in Africa. Launched in partnership with Limitless, a US-based prediction market infrastructure provider, the new feature will allow Luno users to place short-term bets on whether major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ether, and Solana will finish above or below a target price within 24 hours, with payouts for correct predictions. The rollout marks the first step in Luno’s derivatives strategy, advancing the company’s push to become an ‘all-in-one’ investment app for users, following earlier launches of staking and tokenised US equities in both countries. The company plans to add other derivative products, including perpetuals and potentially futures, for Nigerian users later this year. “Prediction Markets are a natural evolution of how our customers already engage with cryptocurrency, and there is a strong customer demand for this product,” Ayotunde Alabi, Luno Nigeria Country Manager and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), told TechCabal. “Many of our customers closely follow price movements, form views on where markets are headed, and look for structured ways to act on that knowledge.” The feature sits alongside existing crypto trading, staking, and tokenised equity products on Luno. Prediction markets are a form of derivatives that let users speculate on the outcome of specific events—in this case, short-term crypto price movements—without directly owning the underlying asset. Each market has a fixed settlement window and a pre-defined payoff structure, so users either earn a payout if their prediction is correct or lose their stake if it is wrong. According to Alabi, customers can participate using USD Coin (USDC), a dollar‑pegged stablecoin, and must first fund a separate USDC predictions wallet to join. The Prediction Markets product is open to KYC‑verified users, with participation starting at 3 USDC and capped at 10,000 USDC per prediction. Customers can cancel their positions before the one-day window closes, but once a market settles, they either lose their stake or claim a payout based on the outcome. “Prediction Markets provide a mandatory risk disclosure, which customers have to accept before they can participate in and before any funds can be committed,” Alabi said. “A customer is prohibited from holding on both sides of the same market simultaneously, and there is a clearly defined maximum exposure per prediction. These are features of a structured financial tool.” Luno’s prediction market product operates a peer-to-peer (P2P) model; customers are betting against other users, not against Luno, and the company only earns fees for running the market. Each prediction has another user as a counterparty on the other side of the trade, so when a customer loses, their staked USDC goes to that counterparty, not to Luno, said Alabi. Luno and its partner Limitless charge buy and sell fees for every trade, and these fees form their take rate for providing the market. Users pay a buy fee when they take a position in a trade, ranging from 0.03% to 3% of the staked amount. They also pay a sell fee, up to 1.5%, when they exit a position or trade. The launch comes as African regulators, including Ghana, Rwanda, South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria, step up efforts to regulate the broader digital asset sector. Luno’s classification of its prediction markets and its approach to worst-case loss scenarios will determine how much risk retail traders ultimately face and the intensity of scrutiny from financial and betting regulators. Prediction markets are often likened to gaming products because of their inherent risk–reward structure. In 2025, the Lagos State Lotteries and Gaming Authority (LSLGA), the state’s gaming industry regulator, listed Bayse Markets (formerly Gowagr), a Nigerian prediction markets platform, among illegal gaming operators. The classification of such products remains an open question for operators seeking to launch them. Prediction Markets is also a way for Luno to deepen engagement with active digital asset traders who are already familiar with the technology. Luno says its new product will focus only on crypto price prediction and not encroach on other real-world events typically seen on platforms such as Polymarket and Kalshi. “Our focus is on crypto-based prediction markets, and we do not have plans to expand the product beyond crypto-related events,” Alabi said. “The product today is built around short-term price predictions on leading cryptocurrencies, being Bitcoin, Ether, Solana, Dogecoin, and XRP.” Several local competitors have moved into derivatives, including South Africa’s VALR and Nigeria’s Roqqu, which offer futures trading, but no major crypto exchange serving Nigerian and South African users currently offers a dedicated prediction markets product. Luno will also compete for mindshare with local prediction market platforms, such as Bayse Markets and MevsYou, which enable crypto price prediction events. Luno’s prediction markets product, an early test of its derivatives ambition, is a direct answer to competition from both ends of the market and a litmus for what truly scales in Africa’s digital asset sector beyond buying, selling, and holding cryptocurrencies.
Read MoreMultiChoice to move Showmax content to DStv Stream by April 1
MultiChoice, a subsidiary of French Media giant Canal+, has announced that subscriptions on Showmax will end from April 1, 2026, as it moves content to its sister platform, DStv Stream. The timeline, communicated to users via email on Wednesday, puts a concrete date for a restructuring first reported by TechCabal on March 5, months after the $3 billion takeover of MultiChoice by the French broadcaster. All Shomax subscriptions will end on March 31, and users will be required to subscribe afresh for DStv Stream. The migration of Showmax Original and its library to DStv Stream is the first major integration since the takeover in September 2025, signalling cost-cutting measures to come as the media giant seeks sustainable growth in Africa’s competitive but rice-sensitive market. On March 5, MultiChoice said the decision to close Showmax aligns with its goal of “strengthening our overall digital offering and ensuring long-term sustainability in an increasingly competitive streaming environment.” Wednesday’s announcement means the pay-TV operator plans to consolidate technology stacks, cut duplication, and redirect investment into a single platform. “Showmax is starting a new chapter, and your favourite shows are getting a shiny new home on DStv Stream,” MultiChoice said. “Even better, they’ll be joining a bigger world of entertainment, all in one place.” As part of its restructuring efforts, the parent company also plans to cut staff through a voluntary severance package to employees in support roles as part of a $115 million turnaround investment. The consolidation comes after years of financial struggle for the streaming platform. In the three years leading up to the Canal+ acquisition, Showmax accumulated losses of approximately €370 million ($429 million). Even a high-profile relaunch in early 2024, backed by a $309 million investment from Comcast’s NBCUniversal and leveraging the technology powering Peacock, failed to reverse its fortunes. Final annual results before the takeover showed trading losses widening despite declining revenues, underscoring the immense difficulty of building a profitable streaming business in Africa’s price-sensitive markets.
Read MoreWorld Bank bans PwC Africa subsidiaries over electricity project fraud
The World Bank has debarred three African subsidiaries of global advisory firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) for 21 months after being found guilty of manipulating procurement processes for a major cross-border electricity project. In a statement on Wednesday, the Washington-based multilateral lender said PricewaterhouseCoopers Associates Africa Ltd, based in Mauritius, along with its Kenyan and Rwandan affiliates, engaged in “collusive and fraudulent practices” linked to the Eastern Electricity Highway Project, a flagship initiative to transmit hydropower from Ethiopia to Kenya. The decision sidelines PwC from lucrative World Bank-funded projects on the continent, dealing a blow to one of the region’s most influential audit and advisory firms. It could reshape competition for high-value consulting work across emerging markets—potentially disrupting startups and tech firms reliant on World Bank funding—as scrutiny over governance and compliance tightens. The World Bank, through its private sector arm International Finance Corporation (IFC), offers grants and low-interest loans to startups across emerging markets. On Monday, the IFC committed $20 million to invest in high-growth startups in Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa. “The debarment makes PwC Associates, PwC Kenya, PwC Rwanda, and any affiliates they control ineligible to participate in Bank Group-financed projects and operations,” the World Bank said. “It is part of a settlement agreement under which the three companies admit culpability for sanctionable practices.” The determination was based on the company’s conduct between 2019 and the award of contracts for consultancy services and asset valuation work for the Ethiopian state power utilities. According to the World Bank’s Integrity Vice President, the firm obtained confidential procurement documents to improperly influence the award of a contract for the implementation of International Financial Reporting Standards at the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation. They also attempted to steer a separate contract for a fixed asset inventory and revaluation for the power utility towards PwC Associates. During the bidding and execution of that contract, the bank found that the company misrepresented the availability and qualifications of key experts and failed to disclose the full list of subconsultants involved. According to the World Bank, the debarment is shorter than would otherwise apply because PwC admitted misconduct. The advisory firm also agreed to a series of remedial measures, including internal investigations, disciplinary action against responsible staff, terminating relationships with all subconsultants involved, and additional staff training.
Read MoreNdovu targets Kenya’s high-income investors with new multi-asset fund
Ndovu Wealth, a Kenyan fund manager licenced by the Capital Markets Authority (CMA), has launched a multi-asset fund with a $2,500 minimum ticket, targeting higher-income investors as wealthtech startups push beyond entry-level products. The move shows how local fintechs are pushing into territory long held by private wealth managers and offshore brokers, staking their growth on the idea that a growing base of affluent, digitally native users will pay for guided access to global markets. The Kibaba Multi-Asset Special Fund, announced in Nairobi on Tuesday, offers exposure to global equities, fixed income, Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs ), Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs ), and commodities through Ndovu’s app, with minimum investments set at KES 250,000 ($1,930) or $2,500 for dollar accounts. The amount exceeds the thresholds that powered the first wave of Kenyan investing apps like Hisa and Chumz, some of which built scale by allowing users to start with a few thousand shillings. The higher minimum also narrows the addressable market in a country where most investors remain price-sensitive. “We created the Kibaba Multi-Asset Special Fund in response to the evolving investor demands in the region,” said chief executive Radhika Bhachu, pointing to rising interest in offshore exposure. Retail investors who entered markets through money market funds and savings apps are moving into dollar assets to hedge against currency pressure and inflation. Kenya’s collective investment schemes market has grown steadily in recent years, with fund managers reporting increased demand for foreign-denominated products as the shilling weakened through 2023 and 2024. Local fintechs have been strong at onboarding first-time investors but weak at keeping them as balances grow. Many users migrate to global platforms like Interactive Brokers that offer wider asset access or to traditional managers that provide structured portfolios. Ndovu wraps a regulated fund inside a digital interface that handles onboarding, payments, and portfolio tracking, while adjusting allocations using market data. This places the company in more direct competition with international brokerages that offer self-directed investing, as well as financial institutions like Standard Investment Bank and other licenced managers targeting high-net-worth clients.
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Everything you need to know about the new Oppo Find N6 and Watch X3
Table of contents Oppo Find N6 Oppo Watch X3 Oppo Find N6 vs Find N5 comparison On March 17, 2026, Oppo held a global launch event at its Binhai Bay Campus in Shenzhen, China. Two products took centre stage: the Oppo Find N6, a book-style foldable smartphone, and the Watch X3, a high-end smartwatch built from aerospace-grade titanium. The Find N6 goes after two problems that have followed foldable phones since day one: the crease you can see and feel on the screen, and cameras that could not keep up with regular flagship phones. The Watch X3 builds on that with advanced health tracking and materials that match the phone’s quality. Here is everything you need to know about both devices. Oppo Find N6 Image source: Mark Ellis Reviews on YouTube The biggest engineering achievement on the Find N6 is what Oppo calls the Zero-Feel Crease. Since the Find N series launched in 2021, Oppo has been refining its hinge design with each generation. The Find N6 is the result of that five-year process. Two technologies make this possible: the 2nd-Generation Titanium Flexion Hinge and Dome Memory Glass. The hinge uses an industry-first 3D liquid printing process that applies droplets as small as 5 picoliters. This reduces height variance by 75%, from 0.2mm in previous generations down to just 0.05mm. A Clover Balance Pivot increases vertical support force by 20%, keeping the display flat and stable. • The hinge is TUV Rheinland certified for one million fold cycles. Dome Memory Glass is 50% thicker than the standard Ultra-Thin Glass used in competing foldables, yet more flexible thanks to a proprietary layering process. This glass achieves a 338% increase in deformation resistance, restoring up to 99.9% of its flatness each time you open the phone. Compared to the Find N5, crease depth has been reduced by 82%, as certified by TUV Rheinland. Oppo is clear that the crease has not been physically removed. The Zero-Feel name refers to its near-invisibility from most angles and under normal lighting. Hinge and Structure at a Glance Displays Image source: Mark Ellis Reviews on YouTube The Find N6 has two screens, each supplied by a different manufacturer and tuned for its specific role. The internal main display is an 8.12-inch Samsung E7 AMOLED panel with a 2K+ resolution of 2480 x 2480 pixels. It uses LTPO 3.0 to dynamically adjust its refresh rate between 1Hz and 120Hz, depending on what is on screen. Peak brightness hits 2,500 nits, and it supports 10-bit colour depth (1.07 billion colours). The external cover display is a 6.62-inch BOE Q10 panel with a 1.5K+ resolution of 2616 x 1140 pixels. Its peak brightness of 3,600 nits means you can read it clearly in direct sunlight. Both screens support Dolby Vision, HDR10+, and HDR Vivid, plus 2160Hz PWM dimming to reduce eye strain. Build and Protection Oppo built the Find N6 to push back on the idea that foldable phones are fragile. The frame uses 7000-series aerospace-grade aluminium, which is 30% stronger than what was used in the previous generation. The hinge mechanism uses Grade-5 titanium alloy for its casing and wing plates. The back cover is made from aircraft-grade fibre, which is 43% thinner than glass and more resilient in drop tests. The Find N6 carries a triple ingress protection rating: IP56, IP58, and IP59. The IP59 rating is notable because it means the phone can withstand high-pressure, high-temperature water jets, a level of protection you usually only find in industrial equipment. When unfolded, the device measures just 4.21mm thick, making it thinner than the M4 iPad Pro. When closed, it sits at 8.93mm, which is comparable to phones like the iPhone 17 or Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra. Total weight is approximately 225-229 grams. Read more on OPPO phones expected to launch in 2026 and the full release timeline Camera: The Cosmos Ring and Hasselblad 200MP System Foldable phones have always struggled with camera performance because their thin chassis limits sensor size. Oppo tackled this through the Cosmos Ring, a symmetrical camera module built in partnership with Hasselblad. The headline feature is a 200MP Hasselblad Ultra-Clear Camera. 200MP main sensor at f/1.89, with Hasselblad tuning, OIS, and a 7-element lens. 50MP periscope telephoto at f/2.7, with 3x optical zoom, OIS, and a 4-element lens. 50MP ultra-wide at f/2.2, covering a 116-degree field of view with autofocus, doubling as a macro lens. Two 20MP front cameras (one on the cover, one on the main display), both at f/2.4, capable of 4K video at 30 fps. The Snapdragon 8 Elite ISP powers features such as AI Clarity Enhancer and 4K@60 fps Dolby Vision recording. Hasselblad-exclusive shooting modes include XPAN (which simulates the 65:24 panoramic aspect ratio of the classic Hasselblad film camera) and a portrait mode that reproduces Hasselblad lens bokeh. Lightning Snap uses posture detection to cut shutter lag on candid shots. Processor and Performance The Find N6 runs on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, built on a 3nm process. It is a seven-core system with two Oryon Gen 2 Prime cores at 4.3 GHz and five Oryon Gen 2 Performance cores at 3.5 GHz. The Adreno 830 GPU runs at 1100 MHz, delivering a 40% improvement in rendering speed. The Gen 5 NPU brings a 45% improvement in AI efficiency. Oppo’s Trinity Engine manages memory allocation and thermal load to deliver 48 months of consistent system speed. RAM options: 12GB or 16GB LPDDR5X. Storage options: 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB UFS 4.0. The 1TB model is sold as the Satellite Communication Edition, with integrated BeiDou satellite connectivity for emergency messaging in areas without cellular coverage. Battery and charging Fitting a large battery inside an ultra-thin foldable is an engineering challenge. Oppo solved it with a 6,000mAh silicon-carbon battery. Silicon-carbon chemistry offers an energy density of 801 Wh/L, significantly higher than that of traditional graphite lithium-ion cells. By adding 10% silicon to the battery, Oppo increased capacity by 16.7% while keeping the battery physically smaller than the 5,600mAh
Read MoreSpotify payouts show Nigerian artists earned about ₦2 per stream in 2025
Nigerian artists earned roughly ₦1.98 for every stream on Spotify in 2025, according to figures from the global streaming platform’s annual Loud & Clear report. Spotify said Nigerian artists generated over ₦60 billion ($43.92 million) in royalties from the platform in 2025, from 30.3 billion total streams. Dividing the revenue by total streams puts the estimated payout at just under ₦2 per stream. Spotify provides a direct path to monetisation for many artists, but artists in lower-income markets often earn significantly less per stream than their Western counterparts because of how streaming payouts are calculated. According to this 2025 report, one million streams in Nigeria generate just $300, while the same streams in Sweden are worth up to $10,000. The disparity stems from Spotify’s territorial payout model, which adjusts earnings based on regional subscription fees and economic conditions. In Nigeria, Spotify’s premium plan costs about ₦1,600 ($1.17) per month, while in Sweden, where the company is headquartered, monthly subscriptions cost about $13.78. While this model helps keep streaming affordable for listeners, it also reduces per-stream revenue for artists in lower-income regions. Spotify says it pays royalties based on an artist’s share of overall streams across the platform, not based on a fixed per-stream rate. “If an artist accounts for 1% of all streams in a particular country, their selected rightsholder(s) receive 1% of the recording royalties we pay there,” the streaming platform said. Spotify pays out two-thirds of every dollar it generates from music streaming to rights holders, who eventually pay artists. Before this money gets to artists, it flows to labels, distributors, publishers, and collective management organisations. In 2025, the company paid out $11 billion globally, with the ₦60 billion ($43.92 million) earned by Nigerian artists representing 0.39% of the total. Streaming growth and expanding global audience Beyond payouts, Spotify’s data shows that the Nigerian music ecosystem is growing quickly, both locally and internationally. In 2025, Nigerian artists generated 30.3 billion streams and had 1.6 billion listening hours on Spotify. Revenue generated by Nigerian artists on the platform has grown more than 140% in the last two years. In 2024, it paid out ₦58 billion ($42.45 million). In 2025, Nigerian artists were discovered by first-time listeners more than 1.3 billion times on Spotify, representing a 26% increase compared to 2024. At home, Nigerian musicians accounted for over 80% of tracks on Spotify Nigeria’s Daily Top 50 during the year, highlighting strong domestic demand for local music. The report also highlights the growing role of independent artists and labels in Nigeria’s music economy. About 58% of all royalties earned by Nigerian artists on Spotify in 2025 went to independent artists or labels, indicating that a large share of revenue is flowing outside traditional label structures. Nigerian artists were also added to nearly 2,000 editorial playlists in 2025, while Nigerian music appeared in nearly 320 million user playlists globally and over 12 million playlists in Nigeria. More than 60 million playlists featuring Nigerian artists were created on Spotify during the year. “Nigeria’s music story continues to be one of creativity, innovation, and global cultural influence,” said Jocelyne Muhutu-Remy, Managing Director, Spotify in Africa, in a statement. “What we’re seeing is a market where talent is not only reaching new audiences around the world, but also building deeper connections at home.”
Read MoreIHS swaps troubled tenants for cash repayments in pre-MTN takeover cleanup
IHS Towers is restructuring parts of its portfolio by letting tenants who can’t pay vacate tower sites in exchange for structured debt repayments, part of a broader operational cleanup ahead of its planned $2.2 billion acquisition by MTN Group. The company’s business model is built on leasing space on its telecommunications towers to mobile network operators. These operators—known as tenants—install their equipment on the towers and pay recurring fees for access to the infrastructure and related services such as power and maintenance. By replacing uncertain rental income with structured repayment commitments, IHS is reducing revenue risk and improving the reliability of its earnings. The restructuring also streamlines the tower portfolio, potentially allowing MTN to inherit a more stable asset base with fewer exposure risks as demand for mobile data and 5G infrastructure continues to grow across African markets. “The proposed sale of IHS Towers to MTN represents the next step in our long-standing partnership,” Sam Darwish, chairman and chief executive officer of IHS Towers, said in the company’s 2025 financial year report released on Monday. “The transaction brings together Africa’s largest mobile network operator with one of the continent’s leading digital infrastructure platforms.” A key part of the restructuring was an updated agreement with 9mobile, now operating as T2 Mobile, a smaller Nigerian telecom operator that has struggled with liquidity in recent years. Under the deal, IHS allowed the company to vacate 2,576 tower sites across Nigeria in exchange for a contractual commitment to repay portions of its historic overdue balances through July 2027. While the report does not disclose the exact amount owed by T2, IHS Towers has approximately $4.2 billion in gross debt, according to its report. The arrangement contributed to a year-on-year loss of 3,836 tenants due to churn, but it also replaced an uncertain revenue stream with a structured cash repayment schedule. By removing a struggling tenant while securing repayment commitments, IHS can potentially improve the quality of its earnings and present a cleaner financial profile to investors ahead of the planned acquisition. Beyond tenant restructuring, IHS pruned its geographic footprint. The company reported a net decrease of 1,639 towers year-on-year, leaving it with 37,590 towers at the end of the fourth quarter of 2025. However, most of that decline stemmed from the disposal of its Rwanda operations in October 2025, which accounted for 1,467 towers. Excluding the Rwanda exit, the company’s tower base declined by only 172 sites. The divestiture is widely viewed as part of the preparations for the MTN deal, allowing the telecom giant to acquire a more focused portfolio centered on core markets. Despite the decline in headline tower numbers, the underlying business continues to expand. IHS added 580 new sites during the year and reported 4,328 new lease amendments, bringing the total to 43,999. Lease amendments typically involve upgrades such as 5G equipment installations, solar power systems, or backup energy solutions added to existing towers. Because the physical infrastructure is already built, these upgrades generate higher-margin revenue than constructing new towers. The company’s colocation rate, the average number of tenants per tower, declined slightly to 1.46x from 1.48x in the previous quarter. However, that drop largely reflects the Rwanda divestiture and the T2 restructuring. When those two factors are excluded, IHS actually added 1,148 net tenants over the year, indicating continued demand for tower infrastructure and related services. IHS reported revenue from continuing operations of $397.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2025, up 1.2% year-on-year. The growth came despite revenue headwinds from earlier asset disposals and currency movements. Organic revenue declined slightly due to foreign exchange adjustments and changes in power indexation linked to the appreciation of the Nigerian naira. However, revenue growth from new tenants, lease amendments, and contractual escalations helped offset these pressures. “We delivered a strong fourth quarter, completing a year of solid revenue growth and profitability, robust free cash flow generation, and continued consolidated net leverage reduction,” Darwish said. “Our full-year results reflect disciplined execution, sustained commercial momentum, and the resilience of our operations across key markets.”
Read MoreCBN restricts BVN phone number changes to once in a lifetime to curb fraud
The Central Bank of Nigeria has restricted how often Nigerians can update the phone number linked to their Bank Verification Number (BVN), capping it at once in a lifetime. In a circular issued to banks and other financial institutions on Thursday, the apex bank said the new rules will take effect from May 1, 2026. The restriction is part of new safeguards designed to reduce fraud risks tied to Nigeria’s rapidly growing digital payments ecosystem, where mobile numbers are central to authentication and account recovery. Phone numbers linked to BVNs play a critical role in Nigeria’s banking infrastructure. They are used for one-time passwords (OTPs), transaction alerts, and account recovery processes, making them a key point of vulnerability for fraudsters attempting to hijack bank accounts. Introduced in 2014, Nigeria’s BVN system is the foundational identity layer for the country’s financial services sector. As of March 2026, BVN enrolment count stood at 68.59 million. By limiting how often these numbers can be changed, the CBN aims to reduce the risk of identity manipulation and SIM-related fraud that can enable unauthorised access to financial accounts. While there is no isolated estimate of the financial cost of SIM fraud in Nigeria, the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System says SIM-related compromises often play a role in social engineering schemes, the country’s leading cause of fraud, which accounted for 62,901 cases in 2023. Alongside the restriction, the CBN has also directed financial institutions to establish a temporary watchlist for BVNs linked to suspicious activity. Under the new framework, a flagged BVN can remain on the watchlist for up to 24 hours while the bank contacts the customer to verify the transaction. During this period, the watchlist acts as a pause mechanism, giving financial institutions time to investigate potentially fraudulent activity before funds are moved across the banking system. The measure reflects a growing regulatory clampdown on fraud in Nigeria’s payment ecosystem. The circular reiterates that BVN enrolment remains restricted to individuals aged 18 and above, and that access to BVN database information is limited strictly to financial institutions licensed by the CBN. The latest directive forms part of a broader set of measures, including stronger Know Your Customer (KYC) measures, introduced by the regulator in recent months to tighten fraud controls across Nigeria’s banking and fintech ecosystem.
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