You’ve heard of Kílẹ̀ńtàr; here are the intra-African trade gaps it navigates to scale
Michelle Adepoju never knew she would be in fashion. But in 2018, she found herself in Burkina Faso, searching for fabric production sites. With a translator in hand, in a non-English speaking country, she approached a man selling a few streets away from where she lived. He offered to search the city with her, and she got in his car. They drove around for an hour before discovering a weaving site. Adepoju still remembers it vividly. “I walk in, to my left, [I’m] hearing the sounds of the looms. To my right, I’m seeing fabrics drying. And at that moment, it was almost like I knew.” The vision for Kílẹ̀ńtàr, her now popular women’s clothing brand, was born at the weaving site. A weaving site Originally, Kílẹ̀ńtàr, which means ‘what are you selling’ in Yoruba, was ideated as a marketplace for African items. Today, Kílẹ̀ńtàr is a global fashion brand featuring clothing items produced from scratch by local artisans in West Africa. It has taken African heritage to a global stage. But building a global fashion brand with strictly sourced African materials and production processes has its peculiarities. Adepoju’s commitment to the pan-African supply chain reveals the very gaps in the continent’s trade backbone that it seeks to celebrate and overcome. Mapping production networks Whether each clothing item is made of raffia, dye, cotton, or shells, the craftsmanship behind every Kílẹ̀ńtàr piece journeys through West Africa: from Burkina Faso to Côté d’Ivoire, to Senegal, and Nigeria. She considers a thread of decisions when putting together each clothing item. “The most important [part of the clothes] is the fabric. I also design all my fabrics, so all the hand-woven fabrics that you see are exclusively made in-house by Kílẹ̀ńtàr,” she said. Even the cotton from which the fabrics are made is cultivated in the continent. Historically, Burkina Faso, one of the production sites for Kílẹ̀ńtàr, was the largest producer and exporter of cotton. That position is now held by Mali. To make Kílẹ̀ńtàr’s cotton-based clothing, cotton is harvested and separated into threads, spun on a wheel to form a continuous, strong strand of yarn, and dyed. Indigo dye pits Dyed cotton The coloured threads are then prepared on a loom to be woven into fabrics. The process leans strongly on the craftsmanship of local artisans, especially those in Burkina Faso and Nigeria. “Wherever the fabric is being made from, if it’s being made in Burkina Faso or if it’s been made in Senegal, the fabric has to come to Nigeria, because it’s being produced in Nigeria,” Adepoju explains. With already approved patterns made on a simple fabric, the production for the final product begins. Adepoju sampling fabrics for her sketches However, with diverse regulations across countries and informal trade networks, logistics of the raw materials is one hurdle for the fashion brand. According to Mordor Intelligence, Africa’s global cotton market is fast-growing and is projected to expand at a 5.60% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2030. In 2024, the Better Cotton initiative started efforts to strengthen supply chains within the West African region. This included sustainability mapping and assessments to improve the cotton-to-textile value chain within West and Central Africa. Yet, supply and distribution gaps remain for cotton and other raw materials. For Adepoju, because of these limitations within Africa’s trade infrastructure, committing to locally sourced and produced materials involves travelling around the continent herself to source materials and bring them down to Nigeria. The logistics problem Logistics, too, presents significant challenges. Adepoju alternates between air and ground logistics to deliver her raw materials to Nigeria. In a last procurement trip, Adepoju recalled that the cost of the airfare had tripled. From Lagos to Burkina Faso where Adepoju interfaces with her artisans and sources for Kílẹ̀ńtàr, there are no direct flights, a journey of about three hours. Instead, Adepoju travels for about eight hours with different flights to connect both countries. “We’re still figuring out the best approach to get our pieces to us more smoothly,” she said. In addition, shipping these sourced materials by air to Nigeria for production also necessitates an expensive border clearance. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) has provisions for smoother logistics for trade across the continent. The protocol on trade in goods incorporates the gradual elimination of tariffs and non-tariff barriers, and improved customs procedures. But implementation of these protocols has not been harmonious across regions, especially Nigeria, where the brand’s production is domiciled. In July, the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Investment of Nigeria completed a five-year review on the country’s implementation of Phase I of the AfCFTA protocols. These include the protocol on trade in goods and the protocol on trade in services. The review revealed gaps in Nigeria’s implementation strategy that currently weaken its effectiveness, including logistical constraints and policy misalignments, which the ministry identified. In the 2023 World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index (LPI) report, which ranks countries on six dimensions of trade, including the efficiency of customs and border management clearance (“Customs”) and the quality of trade and transport infrastructure (Infrastructure), Nigeria scored 2.6 out of 5, while Burkina Faso scored 2.3. West Africa, where the fashion brand primarily operates cross-border operations, generally ranks near the African average for logistics performance. Southern Africa leads the continent with high indices, such as South Africa at 3.7 and Botswana at 3.1, indicating strong logistics capabilities. Northern Africa shows solid performance too, with Egypt at 3.1 and Algeria at 2.5, while Morocco, ranked 2.54 in 2018, was unranked in 2023. East Africa has varied scores, with Rwanda at 2.8 and Namibia at 2.9. Central Africa tends to have lower scores overall and below West Africa’s, contributing to the regional disparities in logistics ease across the continent. This landscape highlights stronger logistics and cross-border trade facilitation in Southern and Northern Africa relative to West, East, and Central Africa. In the 2025 Future of Commerce report by TechCabal Insights and Sabi, Nima Yussuf, Chief Operations Officer of Silverbacks Holdings, said: “Private capital
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Digital Nomads: Jephte Ioudom Foubi left the corporate chase to build a tech consulting business in Portugal
Travelling through Europe for work, Jephte Ioudom Foubi often finds himself comparing the places he visits with home. He notices how data flows differently across industries, how cloud infrastructure evolves, and how business decisions often hinge on subtle details that are easy to overlook. On one afternoon flight between Brussels and Lisbon, he caught himself smiling at the thought. This was not the life he imagined as a business student in Cameroon. Yet somehow, he had built a life that allowed him to work with companies across Europe, travel across Africa, and live quietly in Portugal, running his own tech consulting business. The journey stretched further back than the moment he registered his company. It began with curiosity—it always does. “I just became fascinated with everything that had to do with tech,” Ioudom Foubi said. “From that moment, I would say I touched everything from 3G to how the world was going to be interconnected.” That fascination would eventually lead him away from the corporate track in Cameroon, across continents, and into a career he had not even planned for. Beginnings: from business student to accidental technologist Ioudom Foubi grew up in Cameroon, studied in Cameroon, and imagined he would build a career in management. He studied business administration and went on to make his mark in the corporate world, working in management and business-facing roles. In 2014, he joined Ericsson, the global technology infrastructure firm, as a wide-eyed intern supporting MTN’s 3G rollout in Cameroon at the time. Ioudom Foubi during his time as an Ericsson intern, circa 2014/Image Source: Ioudom Foubi For the first time, he saw the delicate, invisible machinery that powered the modern world. He supported logistics for one of the country’s most consequential telecom infrastructure projects. He spent days onboarding equipment in warehouses, preparing deployments, and handling work orders for field teams. He remembers the pressure. A single damaged component could’ve delayed the entire rollout. But what stayed with him from that internship was a modest assignment that revealed how tiny inefficiencies can choke an entire operation. Field technicians often returned from remote sites without the small expense receipts they needed for fuel, food, and transport reimbursements. Without those receipts, reimbursements stalled, which created tension between teams and slowed field operations. Management asked him to look into why the existing reporting tools were not helping staff capture this basic information properly. During that process, another intern showed him an automation tool that could collect responses instantly and organise the data automatically. It was a small discovery, but it changed the entire workflow. Instead of printing pages, handing them out manually, and spending days compiling results, he could now watch submissions come in live as technicians filled a form. “I could see the results immediately as people were responding,” he said. “It took me maybe a day to compile everything, and I did a presentation for the whole company.” It stayed with him because it was the first time he saw how a simple digital improvement could unclog a system of people, processes, and tools. It taught him that technology was not abstract. After Ericsson, Ioudom Foubi carried that growing interest in technology into his next role at Kia Motors in Cameroon. He joined as a marketing and sales assistant. This was Ioudom Foubi during his first week at Kia Motors in Cameroon/Image Source: Ioudom Foubi Every month, he went into the field collecting quantitative and qualitative data from dealerships and competitors. The market for cars was competitive, so understanding pricing shifts, stock levels, and customer preferences mattered. His data reports informed decision-making at Kia Motors more than he expected. “I would collect the data, make recommendations to management, and then it would influence our strategy, even with the seemingly little things,” said Ioudom Foubi. “That was when I realised I was already drifting away from pure business and into analytics.” Those months pushed him to start asking bigger questions. “What would it look like to work fully in technology instead of circling it from the business side? Could I switch fields entirely?” he asked, recalling existential career questions he had considered. In search of answers, Ioudom Foubi began researching schools that would let him pivot from management to a technical field, a move that was difficult to execute inside Cameroon, he said. That search opened the door that eventually led him to Portugal. In 2018, he moved to Portugal on a study visa to build a company where he now consults on data and business intelligence for large enterprises. Get The Best African Tech Newsletters In Your Inbox Select your country Nigeria Ghana Kenya South Africa Egypt Morocco Tunisia Algeria Libya Sudan Ethiopia Somalia Djibouti Eritrea Uganda Tanzania Rwanda Burundi Democratic Republic of the Congo Republic of the Congo Central African Republic Chad Cameroon Gabon Equatorial Guinea São Tomé and Príncipe Angola Zambia Zimbabwe Botswana Namibia Lesotho Eswatini Mozambique Madagascar Mauritius Seychelles Comoros Cape Verde Guinea-Bissau Senegal The Gambia Guinea Sierra Leone Liberia Côte d’Ivoire Burkina Faso Mali Niger Benin Togo Other Select your gender Male Female Others TC Daily TC Events TC Scoop Subscribe The leap into tech consulting If you ask Ioudom Foubi why he chose Portugal over everywhere else, he answers like someone who has done the long, exhausting homework, laying out his reasons the way someone might tick through a well-prepared grocery shopping list: Quality of education, check. Language—English is widely spoken, check. Migration feasibility, check. Tech industry growth, check. And importantly, a strange but real influence from a television show. Check. He compared programmes across Europe and the US. Portugal stood out because the best business intelligence programme at the time was at NOVA Information Management School in Lisbon, according to Ioudom Foubi. It also helped that the programme was fully in English, unlike Germany’s mixed-language offerings, and that Portugal had just secured a ten-year hosting right for the Web Summit, a critical annual tech conference that brings in business leaders from all over the world to talk about
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Is the OnePlus 15 the best $900 Android phone? Here’s how it compares
Table of contents What the hardware looks like on each phone How the phones perform in daily use What you get for your money in the long run The OnePlus 15 was launched globally on Thursday, November 13, priced at $899, entering a price range where every major brand wants to offer the best value. The device stands out with its strong battery and fast display, features typically found in more expensive phones. This article compares the OnePlus 15 and other Android smartphones in the same price range, highlighting the key trade-offs in performance, software support, hardware quality, and long-term value. How we chose the phones for this comparison The OnePlus 15 starts at $899 for the base model. To make a fair comparison, the analysis focuses on Android flagships priced within a window of roughly $720 to $ 1,079. This keeps the comparison tight and helps you see how the OnePlus 15 fits within the upper mid-range and premium category. Five Android flagships were selected because they are comparable in price to the OnePlus 15 and offer features that matter to buyers in this segment. Comparative flagship matrix What the hardware looks like on each phone A quick look at the hardware reveals that these phones share strong processors, but noticeable differences are evident in battery choices, display priorities, and durability. Detailed technical specifications comparison 1. Processing and display Most competing phones use the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, which is built for high performance. The Pixel 10 Pro utilises Google’s Tensor G5, while the OPPO Find X9 Pro employs the Dimensity 9500, offering both devices distinct approaches to speed and efficiency. The OnePlus 15 sets itself apart with a 6.78-inch LTPO OLED screen that can reach 165 Hz. Samsung and Google typically operate at around 120 Hz. This higher refresh rate makes the OnePlus 15 more appealing if you care about smooth gaming or animations, which explains why the device requires a significantly larger 7300 mAh battery to keep the screen running comfortably. 2. Battery and charging Battery design is where the biggest split appears. OnePlus and OPPO focus on large batteries and very fast charging. You get 7,300 mAh on the OnePlus 15 and 7,500 mAh on the OPPO Find X9 Pro, both utilising new Silicon Carbon technology to pack more power into the same space. Samsung and Google take a more conservative route. The Galaxy S25 features a smaller 4000 mAh battery, while the S25 Plus and Pixel 10 Pro have batteries of just under 5000 mAh. Charging speeds also differ. The OnePlus 15 reaches 120 W, while Samsung and Google offer noticeably slower options. 3. Durability All phones in this group reach the IP68 rating for dust and water protection. The OnePlus 15 and OPPO Find X9 Pro take it a step further with IP69K support. This rating protects the phone against high-pressure and high-temperature water jets, which shows extra attention to durability. How the phones perform in daily use Performance is more than peak benchmark numbers. You should examine how each phone performs under prolonged use, including its temperature, battery life, and image quality. 1. Benchmarking and heat control Phones using the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, including the OnePlus 15, Galaxy S25 Plus, and Xiaomi 15, deliver strong short burst speed. The Xiaomi 15 is smaller, so it has less room for cooling, which can make it throttle earlier during long gaming sessions or heavy tasks. The Pixel 10 Pro takes a different approach with the Tensor G5 chip. It does not aim for the highest benchmark score. Instead, it focuses on steady performance, especially for AI tasks. During long workloads, it maintains close to the sustained performance levels of larger Snapdragon phones, which is helpful if you use your phone for extended content creation sessions or multitasking. 2. Battery life and charging Battery life shows a clear gap. The OPPO Find X9 Pro, with a 7500 mAh battery, lasts the longest, and the OnePlus 15, with a 7300 mAh battery, is close behind. These two will give you far more screen time than Samsung and Google phones that stay under 5000 mAh. Charging speeds follow the same pattern. The OnePlus 15 reaches up to 120 W and can refill much faster than the S25 Plus or Pixel 10 Pro. Some regions receive a reduced 80 W speed, which slows things down slightly, but it still charges more quickly than most rivals. 3. Camera performance Camera systems follow two different paths. OPPO focuses on large sensors and robust zoom hardware, giving it a significant advantage if you prioritise high detail and long-range zoom. Google leans heavily on computational photography. The Pixel 10 Pro may not have the biggest sensors, but its processing produces clean, balanced photos that are ready to post without adjustment. The OnePlus 15 uses a triple 50MP setup and a new imaging engine. Early samples look solid. Your experience with this camera will depend on how well OnePlus continues to improve its software tuning over time. What you get for your money in the long run The long-term value of a phone depends on more than hardware. Software updates, support, and the true cost of ownership all matter when you plan to use your phone for several years. 1. Software support and longevity Software support has become one of the strongest factors in this price range. Samsung and Google both promise seven years of major Android updates and seven years of security patches for the Galaxy S25 series and Pixel 10 Pro. This keeps your phone secure and feature-ready for a long time. Other brands lag. The OnePlus 15 and Xiaomi 15 offer four years of major updates and six years of security patches. OPPO goes a little further with five years of OS updates. If you plan to keep your phone for more than three years, the extended support from Samsung and Google can provide you with better long-term value, even if the phone costs slightly more. 2. Customer support
Read MoreSpectranet slides below 100,000 subscribers as Starlink and FibreOne regain momentum
Starlink and FibreOne regained momentum in the second half of 2025, strengthening their positions as the country’s second- and third-largest internet service providers. Their rebound coincided with a significant decline for Spectranet—the long-time market leader—which fell below 100,000 subscribers for the first time since the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) began publishing ISP data. Spectranet lost 3,732 subscribers in Q2, falling from 103,252 to 99,520, a significant drop for a company that consistently held a six-figure base. Starlink also saw a decline in the same period, losing over 6,000 subscribers and dropping from 65,564 to 59,509, but the impact was short-lived. By Q2 2025, the satellite-based ISP had recovered to 66,523 subscribers, surpassing its Q4 2024 performance and reinforcing the resilience of its user base. Spectranet, meanwhile, continued to contract, underscoring ongoing challenges with service delivery, customer retention, and broader market strategy. FibreOne also experienced significant turbulence. In the first quarter, the fibre-to-home provider suffered one of the steepest declines in the sector, losing an estimated 42%of its subscriber base. Its customers dropped sharply from 33,898 at the end of 2024 to just 19,823 in Q1 2025. This dramatic fall reflected a broader trend of subscriber churn across Nigeria’s ISP market, as rising costs, shifting consumer expectations, and performance inconsistencies drove users to switch services. However, FibreOne rebounded convincingly by the second quarter of 2025, gaining subscribers and climbing to 37,117, more than doubling its Q1 tally and reasserting its foothold in the competitive fibre market. These shifts in 2025 were shaped in part by trends established the previous year. NCC’s data for 2024 showed that active internet subscriptions for ISPs grew by 8.9%, rising from 262,206 in December 2023 to 285,605 in December 2024. Spectranet ended 2024 as the largest ISP with 102,486 subscribers, followed by Starlink with 60,862, reflecting the satellite operator’s rapid rise after entering Nigeria. FibreOne held 19,000 subscribers as of December 2024, remaining the leading provider in the wired broadband category. In the wireless segment, Spectranet controlled nearly half the market with 47.3 percent of subscriptions, while Starlink held 28.4 percent, a clear indication of how quickly the new entrant had gained nationwide traction. Starlink’s ongoing success can be attributed to several structural advantages and shifting consumer behaviours. Its low-earth orbit satellite technology offers high-speed internet across virtually every part of Nigeria, including rural and underserved areas where fibre and LTE providers struggle to reach. Many users, frustrated by inconsistent speeds, outages, and coverage limitations from traditional ISPs, found Starlink’s reliability appealing. Even though Starlink’s service is significantly more expensive than that of Spectranet or FibreOne, a growing number of customers were willing to pay a premium for stability, especially remote workers, SMEs, and heavy internet users who rely on consistent connectivity. At the same time, dissatisfaction with established ISPs played an important role. Spectranet and FibreOne both grappled with service degradation, prolonged outages, and customer support challenges at various points in the reporting period. These issues contributed to subscriber churn, with many customers migrating to Starlink in search of better performance. For Spectranet in particular, the continued decline in subscribers not only reduces recurring revenue but also constrains its ability to invest in upgrades, marketing, or innovation, creating a cycle that could further erode its competitive position.
Read More‘People should move their money freely’: Eswatini’s Central Bank on opening the payments market
Although Eswatini—a country of 1.2 million people—is still catching up with more established African central banks, its central bank is overhauling the payment system by building interoperability from the start across all major players. This includes the four commercial banks—First National Bank (FNB) Eswatini, Standard Bank Eswatini, Nedbank Eswatini, and Eswatini Bank—and the newly licenced Building Society, and three mobile money operators, including MTN MoMo and Instacash. On Wednesday, I spoke with Sabelo Gama, Deputy Director of Operations for Payments at the Central Bank of Eswatini (CBE), about the country’s push to build an interoperable instant-payments system. The CBE is also preparing to move into new offices about 12 kilometres from Mbabane, where construction is underway for a 22-storey headquarters. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Eswatini’s mobile money growth is strong. How is the CBE balancing rapid innovation by non-bank players with the need to protect consumers and maintain financial stability? Our latest data shows financial inclusion at about 87%. Ten years ago, most activity sat around the 50% mark and came from the banking sector. The jump has come from mobile money. Non-bank providers drove most of the gains, and banks have since responded by launching their own wallets. The market now has a mix of mobile money operators and bank-led products. We can start from the consumer’s point of view. People should move their money freely, so interoperability is key, which means customers shouldn’t be locked into one provider. We also regulate how agents work. In this case, agents can’t sign exclusive agreements with a single operator. This keeps the market open and avoids behaviour that would limit choice or competition. We also set clear rules for complaints. Each provider must follow defined steps for handling disputes. Our national switch supports this process by tracking cases and enforcing response timelines. The goal is to keep the market open, safe and fair while letting new products grow. As Eswatini builds its instant payments system, how will the CBE ensure it connects everyone and not just banks, but mobile wallets and fintechs as equal participants from day one? One of our early gaps was that most payment infrastructure had been built for banks, yet banks don’t reach most people. Mobile money covers far more of the population, but its link to bank-owned systems was limited. The switch (Eswatini Payment Switch or EPS) was designed to close that gap from the start. We built interoperability into the project, where all banks and mobile money providers were part of the governance group. The central bank funded the project, but both sides shaped the technical work. That helped us design a system that serves everyone, not only the incumbents. Connection timelines varied because each provider had different systems and capacities. We issued clear regulatory expectations to keep the onboarding process moving. In total, we have eight participants: four banks, three mobile money providers and Building Society (which received a banking licence in October). The final participant goes live this coming weekend, so at that point, everyone in the country will be reachable on the switch. The first phase was about getting every provider connected. The next phase is about reaching the channel level, making sure people can send and receive from every channel their provider offers. Talk me through the onboarding process of a new fintech or mobile money service provider in Eswatini. A new mobile money provider must first go through our licencing process. The National Payment Systems (NPS) Act of 2023 sets out our powers and the obligations for payment system providers, participants and anyone operating in the value chain. We are also finalising regulations that spell out timelines, documentation and detailed requirements, but for now, we use our mobile money guidelines. The applicant submits core documents that cover ownership, directors, the business model and how the firm plans to operate. We then involve other units inside the central bank. Market conduct reviews pricing and the proposed model. The payments team checks how customer funds will be protected and where the trust account will be held. Our financial integrity unit looks at anti-money laundering (AML) controls and the processes the firm will rely on. Once approved, the firm receives a provisional licence. That stage lets them operate with close monitoring. They must submit regular data on volumes, values and other indicators through our reporting system. We track performance and compliance as they scale. This regime is lighter than banking rules by design. It lowers barriers to entry, but it doesn’t open the door to anyone. Applicants must meet security, governance and operational standards before joining the ecosystem. Many citizens have mobile money accounts but use them mainly for P2P transfers. What are the biggest barriers preventing broader use for payments, savings, or credit? Most mobile money services started with peer-to-peer (P2P). As they grew, they added bill payments and small credit products. One provider offers limited credit today (MTN). Some government payments already flow through mobile money, but only through one provider. From a regulatory point of view, it needs to move onto the switch so every provider can support those use cases. The main barrier is the limited range of things you can pay for inside the wallet. People send money, then cash out because most real transactions still happen in cash. That cycle weakens digital savings and makes it harder for new services to take off. Our focus now is on building a broader digital ecosystem, which means person-to-government and government-to-person payments. It also means merchant acceptance, so that people can pay directly from their wallets. We are working on domestic e-commerce through open banking and bringing in payment gateways. The aim is to give people enough reasons to keep money in their wallets. Once that happens, products like savings and credit can grow on a stronger base. Beyond the Payment Systems Act, what legal or regulatory updates are most urgent to support digital finance, especially for remittances, data privacy, and digital identity? The
Read MoreJumia narrows losses, cuts 7% staff as AI reshapes operations
E-commerce giant Jumia inches closer to profitability with narrowing losses and growing revenue in the third quarter of 2025. The gains come as the company deepened its use of artificial intelligence to streamline operations and cut operational costs. Revenue rose 25.28% to $45.6 million in Q3, 2025, from $36.4 million a year earlier, according to its recent financial statements. For the first nine months of the year, revenue increased marginally by 4.68% to $127.5 million. Operating loss fell 13.43% to $17.4 million, while loss before income tax declined slightly $17.7 million. Jumia has reduced its workforce by 7% since December 31, 2024, with just over 2,010 employees on payroll as of September 30, 2025. The company said the cuts were part of a broad cost-optimisation strategy enabled by AI-driven automation. “We are leveraging AI across key functions to enhance productivity and reduce operating expenses,” Jumia said. “AI-driven workflows in customer service, marketing, and technology operations are improving efficiency, streamlining processes, and supporting a leaner cost structure. These initiatives are contributing to ongoing reductions in total operating expenses and improved scalability.” The company’s general and administrative expenses decreased by 7% to $17.6 million in Q3 2025, with further reductions expected as it continues to ramp up operational efficiency initiatives over subsequent quarters. Technology and content expense are down 10% to $8.7 million, driven by ongoing headcount optimisation and savings from recently renegotiated contracts. Beyond AI, Jumia is driving other efficiency measures to further trim costs. The company is lowering fulfillment unit costs by boosting warehouse productivity and automating parts of customer support. Aside from cost optimisation efforts, higher-order volumes and an uptick in active customers drove Jumia’s growth in Q3. Total orders rose 34% year-over-year, Gross merchandise volume (GMV) climbed 26%, while active customers ordering physical goods grew 23%. The company noted that its momentum in Nigeria has continued, with orders up 30% and GMV up 43%. CEO Francis Dufay described the quarter as a period of “significant acceleration in customer demand and order growth,” adding that Jumia has reached an inflection point due to its value proposition and operational discipline. “We continue to strengthen our cost structure and sharpen operational discipline, reinforcing our path toward profitability,” he said. “Our focus remains on execution and customer engagement as we build a more efficient business. We believe that we are on track to reach breakeven on a Loss before Income tax basis in Q4 2026 and achieve full-year profitability in 2027, positioning Jumia for long-term growth and value creation.” The long-term success of Jumia’s AI strategy remains to be seen. Many firms walking the same path have discovered that while AI may boost efficiency, human workers remain central, especially to customer experience and operational nuance.
Read MoreSouth Africa’s Vodacom resists Kenyan push to split M-Pesa from Safaricom
Vodacom Group, South Africa’s largest telecom, has ruled out separating its M-Pesa mobile money platform from Safaricom and listing it separately, despite renewed pressure from Kenyan authorities to unbundle the telecom operator’s core businesses. The company, which holds a 40% stake in Safaricom alongside the Kenyan government, said M-Pesa’s operations were too closely integrated with the telco’s core business to justify a separation. “What we’re trying to position is we’re not looking to separately list the financial service businesses because we do see it intricately linked to our value proposition that we’re providing to the customer,” Vodacom CEO Mohamed Joosub said during an earnings call on Tuesday. “In fact, we see it more closely linked and then coupling that with loyalty going forward.” The statement comes amid ongoing discussions in Kenya over whether Safaricom— Kenya’s largest listed company—should be divided into separate units. Spinning off M-Pesa would give regulators more control over Kenya’s most important mobile money platform. Still, for Safaricom, it could disrupt a business that now brings in nearly half of its revenue and saddle the company with a massive tax bill. In August, the Treasury Secretary told Bloomberg that the plan to split Safaricom into three separate units—its core telecom business, a tower company, and the mobile money giant M-Pesa—was in motion, a move that could also involve the state selling part of its 35% stake in the company. Mbadi said a recent assessment found “huge benefit” to the state from such a restructuring, but added that a final decision will need cabinet approval before anything moves forward. The split would also enable the government to revalue Safaricom’s business units and list them separately in the future. A stalled split The Treasury and the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) have argued that such a structure could also strengthen regulatory oversight and consumer protection in a market where mobile money has become a critical financial infrastructure. Safaricom prefers a group reorganisation that keeps M-Pesa under the same corporate umbrella, arguing that a complete spin-off would only make sense if it adds value for shareholders and customers, not simply to meet regulatory demands. M-Pesa has grown into the most profitable arm of Safaricom, contributing KES 88.1 billion ($560 million) in revenue for the six months to September, a 14% increase from the same period a year earlier. The business now accounts for 44% of Safaricom’s total revenue of KES 199.9 billion. “Take a market like Kenya, the market is still growing very, very strongly, but our fintech services is sitting at 44% of revenue,” Joosub said. While CBK governor Kamau Thugge has pushed for the split to increase the regulatory oversight on the mobile money platform, he has also warned that separating M-Pesa could trigger a tax liability of KES 75 billion ($500 million), complicating any restructuring effort.
Read MoreFrom side hustle to $731 million in trades: Bootstrapped crypto startup Obiex says it is now profitable
Obiex, a Nigerian crypto startup that allows users to speculate and trade digital assets, says it is now profitable. The bootstrapped startup has processed $731.5 million in annualised trade volume, serving more than 100,000 retail users. It claims that a significant portion of this activity comes from high-value retail customers who trade large volumes daily. Low retail transaction volumes and narrow spreads often push crypto startups to focus on institutional clients. Obiex, however, is building around high-volume retail traders as its core users, proving that the segment can still generate significant value and profitability. “We started making money from day one,” Ikechukwu Okeke, Obiex CEO, told TechCabal. “We bootstrapped Obiex and have reinvested everything back into the business to keep growing.” The startup’s total transaction volume (TTV)—the cumulative value of executed trades on its platform, excluding deposits and withdrawals—grew from $588 million in 2024 to $832 million so far in 2025. About 70% of its trading volume comes from retail users and 28% from business customers. Year-to-date in 2025, the platform’s active users traded an average of $211,000 each, according to internal data seen by TechCabal. While Obiex launched an over-the-counter (OTC) business in April to provide services to high-net-worth individuals and institutions that want to buy and sell digital assets in bulk, most of the startup’s revenue still comes from high-frequency retail crypto traders who speculate on price movements daily. Obiex operates primarily in Nigeria, runs a trading app in Cameroon, and is now planning an expansion into Ghana, a market that recently published a regulatory framework for virtual assets. A bootstrapped journey from payments to trading Obiex’s story starts almost a decade ago. In 2016, Okeke discovered Bitcoin while teaching private lessons as a university student. He soon abandoned tutoring to explore what he called a “game-changing” idea. His first product was a crypto payment gateway that allowed merchants to accept Bitcoin and, later, stablecoins. Okeke describes it as “a Paystack for crypto.” But the product struggled to scale. Businesses saw crypto less as a payment tool and more as a store of value. By 2018, the founders—Okeke and Chidozie Ogbo, who serves as CTO—pivoted to what became the first version of Obiex: an off-ramp product that allows users to convert crypto to naira instantly through a “sell wallet.” It worked until the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) ban on crypto in February 2021, which blocked exchanges’ access to banks and payment partners. “When the CBN pulled the plug, we couldn’t process automated payouts anymore,” said Okeke. “We tried to run it manually, but it wasn’t scalable.” The ban cut Obiex off from the payment service providers and partner banks it used to automate transactions, making its off-ramp product impossible to sustain. The startup went back to the drawing board to rethink what traders actually needed and how it could keep serving them without direct banking access. In June 2021, the crisis forced another reinvention. Obiex rebuilt itself as a retail trading platform that solved one of the hardest problems for local traders: volatility and confirmation delays. Okeke said most crypto startups now enable fiat deposits and withdrawals through payment service providers. Making crypto trading faster and less risky Before Obiex’s trading platform emerged, Nigerian crypto traders often had to wait for multiple confirmations before seeing Bitcoin deposits reflect on exchanges, exposing them to sudden price swings. Obiex built a system that allows traders to lock in value instantly, removing that risk. It turned out to be a simple change with an outsized impact. Traders could now buy and sell in seconds, even during volatile market conditions. “We helped create trading volume in the market,” said Okeke. “People started trading more because they could manage their risk better. For many traders, Obiex isn’t just a wallet. It’s part of their trading journey.” Since its last pivot in 2021, Obiex has processed $2.93 billion in total swaps, and is on track to cross $3 billion by the end of 2025. It currently employs 40 people and continues to operate without venture funding. Running a profitable business Obiex’s founders say they’ve collectively invested about $150,000 in operational funding and provided liquidity themselves in the early days to keep trades flowing. The startup sources its liquidity in-house, allowing it to control spreads and keep execution fast. While Okeke declined to share specific revenue figures, he claims Obiex is capital-efficient and ranks among the top retail crypto platforms in revenue per active user. After establishing itself in Nigeria and Cameroon, Obiex now has its sights set on Ghana, South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, and Rwanda. The startup says Ghana is its immediate priority, partly because of the Bank of Ghana’s (BoG) new policy paper on virtual assets, released on November 5. The paper outlines a path for regulating crypto trading and wallets, noting that over 3 million Ghanaians already use digital assets. The regulatory clarity forming in the country is enticing for players like Obiex, said Okeke. Tanzania and South Africa are also attractive, he adds, because of their growing adoption and “openness to digital assets.” In a market where African digital asset operators, such as Yellow Card, are pivoting toward institutional-grade clients, Obiex is doubling down on the retail trading opportunity. The startup believes there’s still value in serving the high-frequency, high-value crypto users who trade daily and treat digital assets as speculative instruments rather than payment tools.
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The AI helping African companies automate work while humans stay in control
Last week, I started a conversation with Pheneas Munene, a passionate Nairobi-based builder. His company, Phindor, which he launched alongside his co-founder, John Maina, in 2018, is working within the part of the African business that has been getting attention over the last few months; the daily work conducted through WhatsApp chats, phone calls, SMS, and small internal task lists. These repetitive workflows are admittedly complex to manage at scale. Teams answer the same questions multiple times daily and follow up on leads, confirm orders, and escalate issues only when necessary. One person can do this easily, but when a company grows, the work becomes cumbersome. Phindor built JuaFlow (“Jua” is Swahili for “know”) to solve this problem. The product enables companies to create AI agents that handle repetitive tasks, such as lead qualification messages, delivery confirmations, basic HR requests, and product lookups. When the situation requires judgment, the agent hands it off to a human, Munene said, because this helps keep everything in context. The aim is not to replace people but to keep work moving, reduce back-and-forth, and prevent tasks from stalling. Why this matters Munene and Maina spent seven years building automation for medium-sized organisations. The work was similar across clients, but always built differently. That made every deployment slow and expensive, and with only a few organisations that could justify that cost, scaling across many clients was hard. The shift occurred when a retail company sought a more cost-effective way to manage high-volume WhatsApp and Instagram conversations. The founders wanted quick replies, simple lead qualification, and a human handoff for cases that required judgment. That solution evolved into Lisa, an artificial intelligence (AI) business assistant that was launched in July 2024. According to Munene, Lisa gained adoption because teams could use it without changing their existing workflows. As more teams used Lisa, new requests appeared. Some wanted internal task handling while others wanted logistics updates. The idea expanded from messaging automation to general work support. Lisa was re-worked and renamed JuaFlow to reflect this broader use. “Our client wanted a cheaper way to handle repetitive inquiries automatically without compromising customer experience, like identifying valuable leads and responding instantly,” Munene said. “That project became Lisa, the Intel-l-igent S-tore A-ssistant, which eventually evolved into JuaFlow, a platform that allows teams to build governed AI agents that streamline and speed up customer/employee-facing tasks while under human oversight.” Get The Best African Tech Newsletters In Your Inbox Select your country Nigeria Ghana Kenya South Africa Egypt Morocco Tunisia Algeria Libya Sudan Ethiopia Somalia Djibouti Eritrea Uganda Tanzania Rwanda Burundi Democratic Republic of the Congo Republic of the Congo Central African Republic Chad Cameroon Gabon Equatorial Guinea São Tomé and Príncipe Angola Zambia Zimbabwe Botswana Namibia Lesotho Eswatini Mozambique Madagascar Mauritius Seychelles Comoros Cape Verde Guinea-Bissau Senegal The Gambia Guinea Sierra Leone Liberia Côte d’Ivoire Burkina Faso Mali Niger Benin Togo Other Select your gender Male Female Others TC Daily TC Events TC Scoop Subscribe How the JuaFlow idea formed The core lesson Phindor drew from consulting work was that AI agents need some kind of structure. If an agent takes actions without checks, minor errors spread through teams. If an agent cannot explain why it acted, no one can adjust it. At the same time, if the agent cannot hand off at the right time, staff lose trust in it. To avoid these problems, JuaFlow treats each task as a sequence of steps. Before running any action or tool call, the system checks two things: whether the action has the right data, and whether it follows the organisation’s rules. If either check fails, the agent stops and hands the task to a human to avoid silent failures. According to Munene, this approach is not complex, but it enables companies to integrate agents into real workflows without the risk of runaway actions. How does JuaFlow work? Most teams use the Studio, a control room where the team sets up agents. They define identity and tone, add documents and references, and build workflows in a graphical editor. Just like other platforms, like WayaWaya’s conversation AI tool, no code is required to get a working agent. Each conversation maintains a small “state” record, which tracks the workflow step, the agent’s confidence, and the applicable policies. Short-term memory stays with the active task, while long-term memory is stored separately and retrieved when needed to keep the operations light. Grounded answers come from a knowledge base that the team maintains. Say, if the agent is confident, it responds. If confidence is low, it asks a clarifying question or hands the query to a human. Munene added that the AI agent allows a company to add a chat widget to its website, connect to Slack, or integrate the system with internal tools through an API. The system also supports multiple workspaces, so departments or partner accounts can be separated while sharing only what they choose. What comes next Despite Lisa launching in July 2024, the company’s first enterprise customer came three months later. Munene claims that from February to July 2025, usage rose from about 15,000 interactions to over 700,000. When JuaFlow launched in July 2025, it went live with 15 companies and about one million recorded interactions. Munene said pricing for the service is credit-based, where these credits cover messages, knowledge access, and workflow steps. Credits do not expire as long as the account remains active. Enterprise customers, as expected, can negotiate terms. Many people across the region communicate through voice notes and calls, and many use local languages in daily work. Phindor is working on supporting these patterns as part of its plans. “Our main focus is rebuilding parts of our LLM layer to support local languages and voice. Africa is multilingual, and AI should adapt to that,” Munene said. Get The Best African Tech Newsletters In Your Inbox Select your country Nigeria Ghana Kenya South Africa Egypt Morocco Tunisia Algeria Libya Sudan Ethiopia Somalia Djibouti Eritrea Uganda Tanzania Rwanda Burundi Democratic Republic
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Buying Starlink in Nigeria? Here’s the current cost and where to get it
Table of contents Official Starlink pricing in Nigeria Current Starlink availability status in Nigeria Getting Starlink now when your area is on the waitlist Starlink reseller prices in Nigeria Should you import Starlink to Nigeria? Starlink, which officially launched in Nigeria in January 2023, is now available across much of the country including major cities such as Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Ibadan, Port Harcourt, and Enugu. However, in high-demand zones, it currently asks potential customers to join a waitlist. You can still order the kit online and have it delivered (with warranty and support), but availability in some urban areas has been temporarily paused while capacity is expanded. What has been less stable is the price. The hardware and monthly subscription have undergone several changes, mainly due to fluctuations in the exchange rate. The current official subscription rate is ₦57,000 monthly, and the hardware price reflects the current importation cost. If the Naira shifts again, these prices may move too. Here is what Starlink currently costs in Nigeria, and the safest ways to purchase it. Official Starlink pricing in Nigeria If you want to get Starlink in Nigeria, the costs fall into two categories: hardware (one-time payment) and monthly subscription. Hardware costs The main Starlink Standard Kit in Nigeria costs about ₦590,000 when you buy directly from the official Starlink website. The box comes with the dish, router, mount, and cables. You can install it yourself without hiring a technician. Starlink also offers the Starlink Mini Kit for about ₦318,000. It is smaller and easier to carry around if you frequently move or need to stay connected while travelling. Both kits bought from the official Nigerian website usually include shipping and support. Monthly subscription costs The Residential Plan is the most common plan for homes and small offices. The current monthly price is ₦57,000. If you run a business with higher data needs, the Business or Priority Plan costs about ₦159,000 monthly. This plan is designed for multiple users, offices, and sites that require increased capacity. There are also Roam Plans for users who move around. The Roam plan costs ₦38,000 monthly, while advanced roaming or global roaming plans can be significantly higher, depending on usage and region. Some people try to use the cheaper Roam plan at home as a workaround, often leading to service restrictions later, so it is safer to choose the plan designed for your type of use. Current Starlink availability status in Nigeria In some parts of Nigeria, particularly high-demand locations such as Victoria Island, Ikoyi, Lagos Island, Surulere, Lekki, and specific areas of Abuja, Starlink has temporarily paused new Residential Plan orders due to network congestion and capacity limitations. When you try to place an order from these areas, Starlink now displays a message stating that service is at capacity. Instead of being able to purchase the hardware immediately, new customers are asked to pay a refundable deposit and join a waitlist. You will only receive the kit once additional capacity is made available. Starlink has not provided a confirmed timeline for when these areas will open again. The company states that it is actively adding more satellite capacity and expanding coverage, but this depends on infrastructure upgrades and, in some cases, regulatory clearances. After joining the waitlist, customers are required to submit identification details that must match the name used during the order process. Orders are not fulfilled unless this verification is completed. This is not the first time Starlink has paused new activations in Nigeria. In late 2024, nationwide orders were halted for several months due to bandwidth limits and regulatory adjustments. Orders resumed again after upgrades in mid-2025, but demand in major cities quickly reached capacity. Starlink engineers have explained that limiting new sign-ups in congested areas helps maintain stable speeds and service quality for existing users. For now, existing Starlink users in Lagos and Abuja remain unaffected and continue to receive service. The pause only affects new customers trying to register in high-demand zones. Suppose you are located in one of these areas and need Starlink urgently. In that case, you may either join the waitlist or check whether nearby towns or neighbourhoods without capacity issues still allow direct orders. Getting Starlink now when your area is on the waitlist Starlink is not immediately available in some parts of Lagos and Abuja. As a result, people have developed various ways to stay connected while they wait. Many of these approaches came from people we spoke to, who shared what has worked for them and what to avoid. “We just cannot sit and wait without the internet,” said Chinedu, who works remotely from Orchid. “People are sharing information everywhere. Twitter, Nairaland, Telegram groups. Everyone is just trying to figure out how to stay online.” Buying a used Starlink kit Since new kits in these high-demand areas require a waitlist, many people attempt to purchase used Starlink kits from individuals who already have an active Residential plan. The idea is simple. If the kit is already tied to a Residential plan, you will continue to pay the normal ₦57,000 monthly fee and avoid being forced into the higher ₦159,000 Business or Roam plan. As a result, used kits are now selling for more than the official price. While a new kit from Starlink costs approximately ₦590,000, used kits can range from ₦700,000 to ₦1,000,000, depending on the seller and the current plan the kit is on. You are essentially paying extra upfront to maintain a lower monthly fee in the long run. “There is a risk when buying used,” said Aisha, who bought hers through a referral group. “The seller has to remove the kit from their account first. If they do not do it properly, you are stuck. You have to trust the person you are buying from.” Activating the kit in another location Another approach is to order a kit and activate it in a state where Starlink is still accepting new customers. People often use addresses in places like
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