Vodacom taps former Airtel Africa CEO onto its board
Vodacom is bringing the former chief executive of one of its biggest rivals onto its board, as the telecom group prepares to execute the next phase of its Vision 2030 strategy. Segun Ogunsanya, who led Airtel Africa until his retirement in July 2024, will join Vodacom as an independent non-executive director from October 9, 2026. His appointment gives the South African telecom group an executive who spent more than a decade running a major pan-African telecoms business across 14 countries, as Vodacom expands beyond connectivity into financial services and digital businesses. Vodacom announced the appointment on Wednesday alongside a wider reshuffle of its board, including the departure of two prominent directors and a planned change in its chairmanship. The company said Ogunsanya has more than 35 years of leadership experience across finance, banking, telecommunications and corporate governance. Before joining Airtel Africa in 2012, he held senior roles at Coca-Cola operations in Africa and Ecobank Transnational. “Until his retirement in June 2024, Segun served as the Group Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Airtel Africa PLC, a FTSE 100-listed multinational providing mobile telecommunications and financial services in 14 African countries,” Vodacom said in its statement. The appointment comes as Vodacom positions itself as an African technology company rather than simply a mobile network operator. The group’s latest financial results show the scale of its operations beyond South Africa, with international markets, Safaricom and financial services forming significant parts of the business. The board changes also mark the beginning of the end of Saki Macozoma’s tenure as Vodacom chairman. Macozoma, who joined the board in July 2017, will retire at the company’s annual general meeting on July 20, 2027, after reaching the company’s self-imposed 10-year tenure for board members. Khumo Shuenyane, currently the lead independent director, will succeed him as chairman from July 21, 2027. Vodacom credited Macozoma with overseeing the implementation of its Vision 2025 strategy and the beginning of its Vision 2030 strategy. “Both have heralded a transformational era for the business,” the company said. The board is also losing Phuthi Mahanyele-Dabengwa, the Naspers CEO, who will retire on October 8, 2026, after joining the board in January 2019. She served as chairperson of the Remuneration Committee and as a member of the Nomination Committee. Vodacom said it would announce further changes to its board committees in due course. Clive Thomson, a former Barloworld CEO, will take over as chairman of the Remuneration Committee while retaining his role as chairman of the Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee. True scale demands moving beyond surface-level integrations to robust execution. We’ve filtered the noise out of Moonshot 2026, optimising the conference strictly for high-calibre connections between startup founders, global financial operators, enterprise leaders and individuals rewiring Africa’s technical frameworks. Get 20% off Early Bird tickets for a limited time.
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How to watch Made by Google 2026: Time, channel, and what to expect
Table of contents What time does Made by Google 2026 start Where to watch Made by Google 2026 Who is hosting Made by Google 2026? What Google is expected to announce Why this year’s show looks different What about the Pixel 11 Pro Fold? Catch up if you miss it Made by Google 2026 goes live today, and you can catch the whole event from wherever you are. Here is everything you need: the exact time in your part of the world, where to stream it, and what Google is expected to show off. What time does Made by Google 2026 start Made by Google 2026 kicks off on Wednesday, August 12, 2026, at 6:00 PM ET / 3:00 PM PT. Here is what that looks like in other time zones: US Eastern: 6:00 PM, Wednesday, August 12 US Pacific: 3:00 PM, Wednesday, August 12 UK: 11:00 PM, Wednesday, August 12 Continental Europe: midnight, Thursday, August 13 Nigeria (WAT): 11:00 PM, Wednesday, August 12 Ghana (GMT): 10:00 PM, Wednesday, August 12 South Africa (SAST): midnight, Thursday, August 13 Kenya (EAT): 1:00 AM, Thursday, August 13 India (IST): 3:30 AM, Thursday, August 13 If you are in Nigeria, South Africa, or Kenya, plan to stay up late or set an alarm. Ghana runs an hour behind Nigeria, so keep that in mind if you are watching from Accra. Where to watch Made by Google 2026 You have a couple of solid options for watching the event live: The official Made by Google YouTube channel, which carries the main livestream The Google Store website, which mirrors the same feed Your smart TV, laptop, or game console, since the YouTube stream works on all of them Google’s Keyword blog, which will post updates and announcements as the show goes on Who is hosting Made by Google 2026? Comedian Trevor Noah hosts this year’s show, taking over from Jimmy Fallon, who hosted in 2025. Google’s teaser video also named a long list of guests, including Alex Cooper, Shubman Gill, Stephen Curry, Peggy Gou, JuJu Watkins, PinkPantheress, Chari Hawkins, Steven Gerrard, Daniel Durant, Ayami Nakajo, and Jesser. Being named in the teaser does not guarantee a guest will show up on stage. Last year, Stephen Curry only appeared in a video, so treat the list as a sign of who is involved rather than a confirmed lineup of live appearances. What Google is expected to announce Google already teased two of its new phones in its own videos: the Pixel 11 Pro and the Pixel 11 Pro Fold. It also teased the Pixel Watch 5 in a short clip that pokes fun at other smartwatch designs. You should also expect the standard Pixel 11 and the Pixel 11 Pro XL to round out the phone lineup, even though Google has not teased either one individually yet. A few accessories could show up too, based on leaks rather than anything Google has confirmed: A Pixel Tag, a small tracker similar to Apple’s AirTag, reportedly priced around €34.90 in Europe A new dark green colorway for the Pixel Buds Pro 2 A possible early look at Googlebook, Google’s laptop project A possible teaser for Android XR glasses Specs like the Tensor G6 chip, a new modem, and higher storage numbers have circulated widely, but none of it comes from Google directly, so treat those details as rumors until the event confirms them. Why this year’s show looks different Made by Google 2026 starts later in the day and lands a week earlier on the calendar than the 2025 event did. It also swaps last year’s talk-show-style format, hosted inside Jimmy Fallon’s show, for a standalone, celebrity-driven production hosted by Trevor Noah. What about the Pixel 11 Pro Fold? The Pixel 11 Pro Fold is expected to appear on stage today, but it likely will not go on sale until October, following the same pattern as last year’s Pixel 10 Pro Fold. Google has not confirmed a release date yet, so this is worth watching once the event ends. Catch up if you miss it A recording of the show will land on YouTube shortly after the event ends, so you can catch every announcement even if the time zone does not work for you. TechCabal will also cover every device Google announces once the event wraps up. True scale demands moving beyond surface-level integrations to robust execution. We’ve filtered the noise out of Moonshot 2026, optimising the conference strictly for high-calibre connections between startup founders, global financial operators, enterprise leaders and individuals rewiring Africa’s technical frameworks. Get 20% off Early Bird tickets for a limited time.
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Nigeria’s central bank opens regulatory sandbox to virtual asset firms
Nigeria has launched a regulatory sandbox for virtual asset operators, fintechs, financial institutions, and technology companies, marking the latest step in the country’s push to coordinate oversight of the country’s fast-growing digital finance ecosystem. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said on Tuesday that applications for Cohort 2 of its Regulatory Sandbox Programme will open on August 12 and close on August 31. The new programme includes a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) track for companies offering stablecoins, payment and settlement services, custody, wallets, and related financial infrastructure solutions. It also includes a second Data-Enabled Financial Services (Non-VASP) track for firms using secure digital infrastructure and permission-based data sharing to improve payments, credit, risk management, operational efficiency, and financial inclusion. The sandbox marks Nigeria’s latest move to regulate the virtual asset industry. The CBN will now oversee virtual assets used for payments, including stablecoins, payment, settlement, custody, wallet management, and other transaction-based infrastructure services. The Nigerian Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will oversee digital assets that behave like securities. The CBN began testing its supervisory approach in March with a pilot involving selected fintechs, including Flutterwave, Paystack, and Juicyway, to assess the stability of payment and cross-border transaction infrastructure linked to stablecoins under closer regulatory monitoring. With the new sandbox, the CBN now has a complementary testing framework alongside the SEC’s Accelerated Regulatory Incubation Programme (ARIP), which admitted nine digital asset-based investment companies in July. The CBN regulatory sandbox is expected to focus on stablecoin providers, on- and off-ramp companies, payment processors, settlement infrastructure operators, custody platforms, wallet-service providers, and other financial infrastructure firms that support the movement, storage, and conversion of digital assets. “The CBN Regulatory Sandbox provides a controlled environment in which eligible participants may test innovative financial products, services, business models, and enabling technologies under the supervision of the Central Bank,” Sidi-Ali Hakama, CBN’s Acting Director of Corporate Communications, said in a statement seen by TechCabal. “The programme enables the CBN and innovators to engage constructively throughout the testing process, supporting regulatory learning while encouraging responsible innovation that benefits consumers and the wider financial system.” The move follows President Bola Tinubu’s July 18 Executive Order to establish a harmonised regulatory authority under the Virtual Asset Council, which the CBN now chairs. As part of that committee, the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS)—which released a tax framework for virtual assets on August 3—and the SEC serve as vice-chairs. Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) and the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) serve as the other members of the council. The council evolved from a virtual assets white paper in February that proposed a coordinated oversight framework led by the CBN, SEC, and NRS, with the July executive order formalising and modifying that structure. The order was created to harmonise regulation across agencies, close supervisory gaps, strengthen anti-money laundering controls, improve consumer protection, and reduce fraud in a market that has grown rapidly with limited coordinated oversight. Following the establishment of the council, an inaugural meeting was held at the CBN headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria, on July 29, signalling that implementation has moved beyond policy design into active institutional coordination. Nigeria remains one of the world’s most active cryptocurrency markets. According to Chainalysis, Nigerians transacted about $92.1 billion in cryptocurrencies between July 2024 and June 2025, making it Africa’s largest virtual assets market by transaction volume. Stablecoins are becoming a bigger part of payments and remittances, as fintechs build infrastructure around stablecoin-based payment rails. The CBN said participation in the sandbox does not amount to a licence or authorisation to operate beyond approved testing parameters. Successful applicants will be required to comply with safeguards covering consumer protection, operational resilience, cybersecurity, and regulatory reporting. “The launch of Cohort 2 reflects the CBN’s continued commitment to developing a transparent, proportionate, and risk-based regulatory environment that fosters innovation while preserving monetary and financial stability,” Hakama said in the statement. “Insights from supervised testing will help deepen regulatory understanding of emerging technologies and inform the ongoing development of regulatory and supervisory frameworks for Nigeria’s evolving digital financial ecosystem.” For crypto operators, the immediate milestone is the application window. It will provide eligible virtual asset companies their first opportunity to enter the CBN’s supervised testing environment under Nigeria’s newly coordinated virtual assets regime. True scale demands moving beyond surface-level integrations to robust execution. We’ve filtered the noise out of Moonshot 2026, optimising the conference strictly for high-calibre connections between startup founders, global financial operators, enterprise leaders and individuals rewiring Africa’s technical frameworks. Get 20% off Early Bird tickets for a limited time.
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MTN expects profits to fall up to 30% as Iran investment takes a hit
MTN Group is making more money from its core telecom business, but its profits are heading in the opposite direction. Africa’s largest telecom operator expects headline earnings per share to fall by as much as 30% in the first half of 2026, even as its underlying earnings rise by up to 23%. The reason is Iran. A large impairment on MTN’s 49% stake in Irancell, an Iranian telecom operator, alongside foreign exchange losses and hyperinflation, is dragging down headline earnings despite stronger underlying performance, according to the company’s trading statement on Tuesday. MTN’s underlying earnings are expected to rise by up to 23%, but a write-down on its Irancell investment, compounded by hyperinflation and foreign exchange losses, is dragging reported earnings lower. MTN said it took a material hit on its 49% investment in Irancell because of geopolitical and economic conditions during the period, including the war in Iran. The impairment losses accounted for 213 cents of the difference between H1 2026 earnings per share and headline earnings per share, compared with 104 cents a year earlier. The Group also recorded 178 cents in non-operational items, up from 12 cents in H1 2025. These included a 52-cent impact from hyperinflation and 126 cents from foreign exchange losses. The result is a sharp decline in reported earnings per share that does not directly reflect the performance of MTN’s underlying telecom operations. Still, MTN said it expects earnings per share for the six months ended June 30 to come in between 377 cents and 431 cents, down 20% to 30% from the 539 cents reported in H1 2025. But that decline masks a stronger underlying performance. MTN projects adjusted headline earnings per share, which the company considers a better measure of operating performance, to rise 18% to 23%, from 657 cents in H1 2025 to between 775 cents and 808 cents. “Overall, the MTN Group delivered a resilient performance, with strong commercial execution and disciplined capital allocation in the period,” the company said in its statement. MTN also reported strong Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation (EBITDA) margin expansion, free cash flow growth and cash upstreaming to the Group. MTN said its operations in Nigeria, Ghana and Uganda delivered “solid operational performance” during the first half. Nigeria remains an important growth market, but its fintech business is facing pressure. MTN believes this was partly driven by the regulatory suspension of airtime lending. MTN’s South African business is facing tougher conditions. The group said the country’s prepaid market remained challenging in Q2 2026, particularly for voice revenue. “As previously communicated and expected, the South African prepaid market continued to be tough in Q2 2026, specifically on voice service revenue,” MTN said. MTN is making progress on its proposed IHS acquisition. IHS shareholders voted in favour of the deal on August 4, giving MTN the required two-thirds majority to acquire the 75.3% of IHS it does not already own. The transaction would take MTN’s stake to 100% and result in IHS being delisted from the New York Stock Exchange. The company said it expects to publish its full interim results on or about August 24. True scale demands moving beyond surface-level integrations to robust execution. We’ve filtered the noise out of Moonshot 2026, optimising the conference strictly for high-calibre connections between startup founders, global financial operators, enterprise leaders and individuals rewiring Africa’s technical frameworks. Get 20% off Early Bird tickets for a limited time.
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IHS Towers revenue rises 8% as diesel, merger costs squeeze profits
IHS Towers, Africa’s largest independent telecommunications tower infrastructure company, grew its revenue by 8.2% in the first half of 2026, but higher diesel and power costs, along with expenses related to its proposed takeover by MTN Group, put pressure on its profits. Revenue from continuing operations rose 8.2% to $844 million in the six months to June, compared with $780.3 million a year earlier. Revenue also grew 10.4% in the second quarter to $428.6 million, according to the company’s H1 financial report. The results show how rising diesel costs are putting pressure on IHS’s profitability, making cost control increasingly important as the company prepares for its proposed takeover by MTN. Operating income fell 38.4% year-on-year, while net income rose 10.3% in the first half compared with H1 2025. However, IHS swung to a $7.5 million net loss in the second quarter. A major reason was the rising cost of powering its towers. Diesel prices in Nigeria increased sharply during the first half of the year, from an average of ₦1,361.57 ($0.999) per litre in January to ₦3,277.47 ($2.41) in May in some parts of the country. That rise in diesel prices fed directly into IHS’s power costs. The company spent $205.4 million on power generation, primarily diesel, in the first half, up from $165.4 million a year earlier. IHS said the increase was partly driven by higher global energy prices and geopolitical tensions. “We incur capital expenditure in relation to the maintenance of our towers and fiber equipment, which is non-discretionary in nature and required for us to optimally run our portfolio and to perform in line with our service level agreements with customers,” the company noted in its report. Merger-related expenses also added to the pressure. IHS recorded $83.1 million in accelerated share-based payment and long-term employee incentive expenses during the first half, linked to the proposed MTN acquisition and the company’s asset sales. Despite these pressures, adjusted Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation (EBITDA), a measure of the company’s underlying operating performance, rose 2.6% to $514 million. The company also benefited from the stronger naira when its Nigerian operations were converted into dollars. The currency movement added $40.7 million to second-quarter revenue and $22.6 million to adjusted EBITDA compared with the same period last year. However, underlying revenue growth was weaker. Organic revenue declined 0.6% in the first half as gains from new tenants, new sites and lease changes were offset by lower foreign exchange-related revenue and the loss of some sites. IHS said about 1,050 sites were vacated following the renewal of its contract with MTN Nigeria. The company is also reshaping its business ahead of the MTN takeover. IHS shareholders approved MTN’s proposed $8.50-per-share cash acquisition in August. The deal is still subject to the remaining regulatory and closing conditions. “The proposed acquisition of IHS Towers by MTN, an important step in the Group’s evolution, was recently approved by our shareholders and remains on track to close in 2026, subject to the remaining closing conditions,” said Sam Darwish, IHS Towers Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. In May, IHS sold its 51% stake in Brazilian fibre company I-Systems to TIM S.A, a Brazilian telecommunications company, for $183 million in gross cash. In August, it completed the sale of its Brazilian and Colombian tower operations, covering about 9,000 sites, to Macquarie Asset Management for an enterprise value of about $952 million. The sales mark IHS’s exit from Latin America and leave the company focused on its African operations. As of June 30, IHS operated 37,672 towers across seven countries, although its tower count was down by 1,512 from a year earlier, largely because of the sale of its Rwanda operations. IHS ended June with $1.5 billion in total liquidity, including $1.09 billion in cash and $407.1 million in unused credit facilities. It had $3.11 billion in total borrowings. True scale demands moving beyond surface-level integrations to robust execution. We’ve filtered the noise out of Moonshot 2026, optimising the conference strictly for high-calibre connections between startup founders, global financial operators, enterprise leaders and individuals rewiring Africa’s technical frameworks. Get 20% off Early Bird tickets for a limited time.
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Nigeria collects $19.9 billion in taxes as digital systems expand
Nigeria collected an average of ₦127.83 billion ($93.98 million) in taxes every day between January and July 2026 as new laws and digital systems helped the government bring more economic activity into the tax net. Tax collections reached ₦27.1 trillion ($19.93 billion) in the first seven months of 2026, according to data shared by the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS), the country’s tax agency. The increase in collections puts Nigeria on track to raise more tax revenue in 2026 than it did in all of 2025, while new tax laws and digital systems give the government greater visibility into how much Nigerians and businesses earn, spend, and move. In seven months, the NRS has already collected 95.76% of the ₦28.3 trillion ($20.81 billion) it collected throughout 2025, and has reached two-thirds (66.57%) of its ₦40.71 trillion ($29.93 billion) revenue target for 2026. The NRS attributed the increase to the “digitisation of tax systems, four new tax reform laws, the transformation of the revenue service and an executive order that closed loopholes in the system.” In 2025, President Bola Tinubu signed four new tax laws, changing the framework for administering, collecting, and enforcing taxes in Nigeria. The reforms came as the government sought to raise more revenue from an economy where oil could no longer be relied on as heavily as it once was. The four tax laws signed in 2025 outlined new rules for administering and collecting taxes, including a legal basis for using technology to automate tax assessment, collection, and information gathering. “A relevant tax authority may deploy technology to automate tax administration processes including tax assessment, collection, accounting and information gathering,” part of the Tax Administration Act read. In 2021, the NRS, then called the Federal Inland Revenue Service, launched TaxPro Max, a platform that allows taxpayers to register, file returns, make payments, and download tax clearance certificates online. Since August 1, 2025, businesses with annual turnovers above ₦5 billion ($3.68 million) have been required to integrate their invoicing systems with the NRS platform for real-time validation and reporting. “Leveraging technology, such as the automated tax administration system (TaxPro Max and E-services) to further simplify tax processes, drive voluntary tax compliance, increase revenue collection, and create a tax environment that is conducive for taxpayers to fulfil their tax obligations,” the government explained in a policy paper. In July, the NRS told TechCabal that large taxpayers were already under compliance monitoring, while medium-sized businesses began mandatory onboarding in July 2026. Emerging businesses will follow in 2027 as part of a three-year phased rollout. Nigeria is looking to mirror the success of countries such as Rwanda, which digitised its customs process through the Electronic Single Window, and Kenya, which uses its iTax platform. The ₦127 Billion Clock Nigeria collected an average of ₦127.83 billion daily between January and July 2026. Select an illustrative public project below to see the elapsed time required for the government’s tax engine to collect an equivalent amount. Per Day … Per Minute … Per Second … Choose an illustrative project: Primary Health Centre — ₦150m 1MW of Solar Infrastructure — ₦1.2bn 1km of Paved Road — ₦1.5bn Annual Minimum Wage for 10,000 Workers — ₦8.4bn Time elapsed to collect this amount — The bigger story is not the clock. A fast collection rate improves government revenue without automatically closing the gap between what it earns and what it spends. The clock shows scale, not fiscal solvency. Despite hauling in roughly ₦1.48 million every second, the government must still borrow to balance its budget. As the Minister of Finance noted, for every ₦6 the government targets in revenue, its expenditure demands ₦10. Data: Nigeria Revenue Service (January–July 2026 Average) / TechCabal. Project costs are illustrative. Tax revenues are pooled and not explicitly earmarked for individual projects. The taxman can see more of the money In July 2025, TechCabal reported that the NRS, then the FIRS, had developed a real-time portal to track Value-Added-Tax-eligible electronic transactions and was requiring banks, card schemes, fintechs, and payment service providers to integrate with the system. In August 2025, the Federal Government said the portal had been introduced as part of the Transaction Monitoring System (TMS). To give the TMS access to more of Nigeria’s payment system, which processed more than ₦1.2 quadrillion ($882.26 billion) in 2025, the Central Bank of Nigeria in March 2026 mandated all licensed Payment Solution Service Providers (PSSPs) and Switches and Processing Operators to integrate with the system. VAT collections increased by 9.98% in the first quarter of 2026 to ₦2.42 trillion ($1.78 billion), according to the National Bureau of Statistics. The point of a more aggressive and efficient tax system is ultimately how it affects everyday economic activity. But higher revenue collections have not eliminated the government’s need to borrow, with Nigeria’s debt stock reaching ₦159.35 trillion ($117.16 billion) at the end of March 2026. Taiwo Oyedele, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, said on July 20 that higher revenue collection does not necessarily eliminate the need to borrow when expenditure requirements remain higher than available resources. “We look at all our numbers and say that we can generate ₦6. ₦6 is our revenue target; our expenditure is ₦10,” Oyedele said. “If we end up generating ₦7, we will say we have exceeded our revenue target. It is not a lie. But we still need ₦3 to balance the budget because we need to spend ₦10. So this is the reason why both can co-exist. The government can exceed the revenue target and still have to borrow.” The numbers show that the government is getting better at identifying taxable activity and collecting revenue. The harder question is when that additional revenue will be enough to reduce the government’s reliance on borrowing and, eventually, translate into better public services. 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How Android Halo shows you what your AI agent is doing
You ask an AI agent to handle a task for you, close the app, and carry on with your day. But then you start wondering: Is it still working? Did it finish? Does it need something from me? Or did it get stuck somewhere along the way? This is one of the problems Google is trying to solve with Android Halo, a new interface designed to show users what their AI agents are doing without forcing them to stop whatever else they are doing on their phones. Google previewed Android Halo in May 2026 as part of its push to make Android more useful in an increasingly agentic AI era. Instead of keeping an agent’s activity hidden inside an app, Halo brings updates to the top of the phone screen, showing when an agent is working on a task, enters live mode, or sends a message. This article explains what Android Halo is, how it works, and why giving users a window into their AI agents could become increasingly important. What is Android Halo? Android Halo is a new interface on Android that gives users an at-a-glance view of what their AI agents are doing. Google describes it as a way to bring an agent’s status and progress to the top of the phone screen. Instead of opening the Gemini app or another app to check what an agent is doing, users can see updates while remaining on whatever screen they currently use. Think of it as a small communication layer between you and your AI agent. If you ask an agent to handle a task that takes several steps, you don’t necessarily need to sit and watch it work. Halo is designed to keep you informed as the task progresses. The feature is particularly relevant as Google moves from AI assistants that primarily answer questions towards agents that can carry out tasks on a user’s behalf. How does Android Halo work? 1. It shows when your agent is working The first job of Android Halo is visibility. When an agent takes on a task, Halo can show its activity at the top of the screen. Google says the interface provides at-a-glance visibility into what an agent is working on at any given time. This matters because agentic tasks can take longer than a typical AI response. An agent may need to work through several steps before completing what you asked it to do. Rather than leaving users wondering whether anything is happening, Halo provides a visible indication that the agent is active. 2. You can see progress without leaving your current screen One of Halo’s most useful ideas is that you don’t have to stop what you’re doing to check on an agent. Google says users can see an agent’s progress from the top of their screen. That means you could continue using your phone while an agent works in the background and still have a way to see what is happening. The distinction is important. Halo isn’t simply another notification that asks you to open an app. It is designed as an always-visible, lightweight status layer that keeps the agent’s activity within your field of view. 3. It can show when an agent enters live mode Halo can also communicate when an agent enters live mode. Google has described three specific moments that trigger the indicator: when an agent picks up a task, when it shifts into live mode, or when it has something to tell you. That gives users another indication of what the agent is doing without requiring them to leave their current activity. 4. It can surface messages from your agent Halo can also notify you when an agent sends you a message. This is useful because an agent doesn’t necessarily work completely independently from start to finish. It may need to communicate with you as it works, and Google is building Halo to make those interactions visible without interrupting your workflow. The important point is that Halo is not simply showing whether an AI is running. It is intended to create an ongoing line of communication between the user and the agent. What does Gemini Spark have to do with Android Halo? Android Halo is closely connected to Google’s broader push towards personal AI agents, particularly Gemini Spark. Google describes Spark as a 24/7 personal AI agent designed to help users navigate their digital lives and take actions on their behalf under their direction. It can work with Google’s tools, including Gmail, Docs and Slides, and continue working in the background even when a user’s laptop is closed or their phone is locked. On Android, Google says users will be able to see live updates and task progress from agents such as Spark through Android Halo. This is where the two products fit together. Spark is the agent doing the work. Halo is the interface that helps you see what the agent is doing. That distinction is important because an agent that can act on your behalf needs a different kind of interface from a chatbot that simply waits for your next question. Why does Android Halo matter? The bigger issue here is not the visual design of Halo. It is trust. When an AI only answers a question, you can usually see what it has produced immediately. But when an agent is performing a task for you, there can be a period where it is working without you watching every step. That creates a new problem: users need to know what the agent is doing. This fits a pattern in how Google has been positioning its AI rollout more broadly, leaning on language like transparency and user control as agents take on more autonomous tasks. Halo is one way of putting that principle into the interface. Instead of hiding an agent’s activity behind an app, Google is making that activity visible at the top of the screen. When is Android Halo coming? Google has not announced a specific launch date for Android
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South Africa wants to use machine learning to screen travellers for fraud
South Africa is turning to machine learning, biometrics and facial recognition to tackle one of its most politically explosive problems: controlling who enters the country. President Cyril Ramaphosa will launch the Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA), a digital visa system, at OR Tambo International Airport on Wednesday, making it the centrepiece of Home Affairs’ technology immigration overhaul. The move comes as anger over undocumented migration, porous borders and weak enforcement has fuelled anti-immigration protests, some of which have turned violent and strained relations with countries including Ghana and Nigeria. “The ETA combines advanced biometric verification, machine learning and the upgraded Electronic Movement Control System (eMCS 2.0) as part of a modern digital immigration ecosystem that strengthens border security while making travel to South Africa faster, simpler and more secure for legitimate travellers,” the Presidency said in an August 6 statement. The system has already processed more than 203,000 applications since May before it officially launches on Wednesday, according to Leon Schreiber, the Home Affairs Minister, with more than 5,500 fraudulent applications rejected, including fraudulent passports, manipulated documents and other indicators of fraud detected through machine learning. In his May budget vote, Schreiber said the ETA also allows prospective travellers to apply for a tourist visa from their laptop or smartphone, using biometric and machine learning technology to verify their identity. The technology starts checking travellers before they reach the border. Schreiber said the system checks 40 parameters to establish whether a passport is authentic and uses liveness detection to compare an applicant’s selfie with their passport photograph. At the border, the Border Management Authority (BMA) uses facial recognition to verify the traveller’s identity and visa. For aviation, the immediate promise is faster movement through airports. Guy Leitch, a Johannesburg-based aviation analyst, said automated passport control is “long overdue for Africa,” having been used at European ports of entry for years. But he cautioned that the technology will not solve South Africa’s broader immigration problem. “I would be reluctant to draw any strong connection between this and it being a solution to immigration problems,” Leitch told TechCabal. That distinction is important. The ETA is designed for travellers using formal ports of entry; it cannot address people who bypass them entirely. “They are crossing rivers. They’re crossing through the Kruger National Park. They are wading through rivers,” Leitch said. “All of those things are not going to be affected by this at all.” He stated that the technology is therefore aimed at making formal border processing more efficient and harder to exploit, rather than sealing every gap along South Africa’s borders. That comes as immigration enforcement has become a source of growing political tension. In June, March and March, an anti-immigration group called for undocumented foreigners to leave South Africa. Protests spread across the country, with some demonstrations involving violence and looting. The fallout also spilled into regional relations, with Ghana and Nigeria raising concerns about the treatment of their citizens. The government has sought to distinguish concerns about irregular migration from attacks on foreign nationals. President Ramaphosa has said everyone in South Africa must be in the country legally, while warning citizens against taking immigration enforcement into their own hands. Ndileka Cola, Head of Communications at Home Affairs, confirmed that the department has been working to put systems in place across the country’s entry points but declined to provide further details before Wednesday’s launch. “We are excited to be launching the ETA, but we are not giving out that sort of information now because that’s the information that’s going to be delivered at the actual launch,” Cola told TechCabal in an interview on Tuesday. Home Affairs says the ETA is only the beginning. The department plans to expand it into a single digital visa platform that covers visitor, work and study visas, replacing legacy systems and paper-based processes. True scale demands moving beyond surface-level integrations to robust execution. We’ve filtered the noise out of Moonshot 2026, optimising the conference strictly for high-calibre connections between startup founders, global financial operators, enterprise leaders and individuals rewiring Africa’s technical frameworks. Get 20% off Early Bird tickets for a limited time.
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👨🏿🚀TechCabal Daily – Age-gating social media
In partnership with Lire en Français اقرأ هذا باللغة العربية Good morning. Egypt may have found a way to keep more of its fintech value at home. MNT-Halan has been in talks since June to list its Egyptian-only business on the Egyptian Exchange, while keeping its operations in markets—such as the UAE, Turkey, and Pakistan—private. Nigeria, meanwhile, is facing the opposite situation: fintechs including OPay and PalmPay are looking at foreign listings. The Nigerian Exchange Group is now asking the government to encourage major fintechs to list locally, or at least alongside foreign listings, arguing that Nigerian investors should also have a chance to benefit from companies built on the country’s market. What would it take for Nigeria to make staying home as attractive as going abroad? Let’s dive in. Become smarter about tech and commerce in Francophone Africa, and the policies shaping them. Read our newsletter here first or subscribe below. Subscribe NCBA’s Multiple Hauliers takeover hits a court roadblock South Africa wants YouTube and TikTok to check your age Nigeria wants to bring its cloud computing back home Kenya says receipts alone won’t beat a KRA tax bill World Wide Web 3 Opportunities Banking NCBA tried to take over Multiple Hauliers. A Kenyan court has stopped it—for now Image Source: Tenor Kenya’s High Court has temporarily stopped NCBA Bank Kenya, one of the country’s largest lenders, from taking control of troubled logistics company Multiple Hauliers (EA) Ltd. Here’s what happened: NCBA says the transporter owes it KES 7.2 billion ($55.7 million). The bank appointed two administrators from consulting firm PwC to take over the company and rescue it or recover money for creditors. Under Kenyan insolvency law, administration is similar to putting a company under external management: the administrators can run the business, control assets, and decide whether it can be saved or should be sold. Multiple Hauliers challenged the appointment in court. A judge has now issued a temporary order blocking the PwC administrators from acting as administrators or taking charge of the company until the case is heard on September 25. Why does this matter? The dispute is much bigger than a single bank loan. Multiple Hauliers reportedly has more than KES 31 billion ($240 million) in claims from various Kenyan lenders and creditors, while its assets are estimated at KES 17 billion ($131.5 million), according to local publication Business Daily. Major banks including KCB, Co-operative Bank, I&M Bank, and others are also exposed. Between the lines: NCBA has not acquired Multiple Hauliers and does not currently control its operations or assets. The court has merely paused the takeover attempt while it decides whether the bank’s appointment of administrators was lawful. The bigger signal is about Kenya’s credit market. When a large logistics company spends years moving between restructuring talks, administration attempts, and liquidation proceedings, lenders recover their money more slowly, which can make banks more cautious about financing transport and logistics businesses across the economy. Zoom out: NCBA is in the middle of a KES 116.3 billion ($794 million) takeover by South African lender Nedbank. On July 21, Nedbank confirmed that it had secured a 66% stake in the Kenyan bank, clearing its path to take control of NCBA. The Multiple Hauliers case shows that one of the bank’s largest corporate debt disputes is still unresolved as the takeover process moves forward. Getting paid in cedis just got easier for African businesses operating in Ghana. Fincra now issues dedicated GHS virtual accounts to enable businesses to collect payments. See how Fincra GHS virtual accounts work. Social media South Africa wants YouTube and TikTok to start checking your age Image Source: Tenor When it comes to policy drafting, South Africa seems to be putting the bigger battles—such as regulating AI—on hold and focusing on a problem that affects far more people every day: what children can watch online. The country is drafting rules that could force social media platforms, such as YouTube and TikTok, to introduce age-verification systems for content deemed harmful or distressing to children. What happened? The proposal is part of a draft online safety framework being developed by the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT), the South African government ministry responsible for communications, broadcasting, telecommunications, and digital policy. The same framework would also create an online content ombudsman to handle complaints involving misinformation, harmful content, and material considered unsuitable for minors. Explain like I’m new here: The government is not banning YouTube and TikTok for children. It is saying that platforms may need stronger systems to decide who is old enough to view certain content. The draft draws heavily from the United Kingdom’s Online Safety Act and Australia’s social media restrictions for under-16s. Those models go well beyond the familiar “Yes, I am over 18” checkbox. The UK framework, for example, allows measures such as facial age estimation, ID uploads, or credit-card checks for restricted content. Between the lines: The proposal would also encourage age ratings on uploaded videos and stronger parental control tools. The interesting part is the scope creep. The white paper is not only about child safety; it is also examining whether global streaming services such as Netflix and Disney+ should face a regulatory and tax treatment closer to that of South African broadcasters. The policy is not law yet. The government is still reviewing submissions from industry groups, media organisations, and digital rights advocates, and the consultation process remains open. Zoom out: South Africa is joining a growing list of countries trying to answer an uncomfortable question: how do you protect children online without exposing every other user to the same rigorous ID checks? The technology industry has not found an answer yet, and South Africa is about to test whether regulators can do any better. Download PalmPay. Bank smarter. With PalmPay, you can bank with confidence. Enjoy seamless everyday banking with security features designed to help protect your money. Send money, pay bills, and manage your finances all in one app. Learn more. Digital Sovereignty 85%
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85% of Nigerian workloads run on public clouds as government pushes localisation
Nigeria is moving to bring more of its cloud infrastructure within the country, in a push to reduce reliance on overseas systems and keep more of the digital economy’s value at home. More than 85% of Nigerian workloads now run on public clouds, according to Kashifu Inuwa, director-general of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA). Nigeria also hosts only 22% of its 1,000 most-accessed websites locally, below the Sub-Saharan Africa average of 34%. Nigeria wants to bring more of its cloud infrastructure onshore, betting that localising the systems that run its digital economy will reduce exposure to foreign infrastructure, keep more technology spending in the country and make critical services more resilient. The push is being formalised through the National Sovereign Cloud Initiative, whose regulatory instruments were signed with Galaxy Backbone Limited, a government-owned ICT infrastructure and shared services provider, on August 5, 2026. The framework sets out the policy, technical and quality requirements for hosting more digital services in Nigeria. Inuwa said the move builds on Nigeria’s 2019 Cloud First Policy, which sought to move government institutions away from standalone server rooms and data centres with high operating costs and towards cloud-based services. “The idea then was, how can we encourage government agencies to stop spending money on building technology and let them patronise data centre providers, both local and international providers,” Inuwa told TechCabal in an interview in Abuja on Wednesday, on the sidelines of the two-day summit where the National Sovereign Cloud Initiative was signed. But the policy also produced an unintended outcome: government and businesses moved rapidly to public clouds, without a corresponding expansion of local cloud infrastructure. “People just started going to public cloud,” Inuwa said. “Yes, it’s easier to move to public cloud, but also we need to encourage building the local ecosystem.” That has raised concerns about how much of the economic value generated by Nigeria’s digital economy is being captured outside the country. “Imagine localising and keeping all that content locally,” he said. “The kind of innovation and economic activities you can create.” The government’s argument is partly economic. Over 90% of Nigeria’s digital data and enterprise workloads are currently hosted on offshore servers, resulting in an estimated $850 million in annual capital flight as local banks, fintechs, and enterprises pay foreign cloud providers in US dollars. This foreign-currency exposure leaves domestic businesses vulnerable to severe foreign exchange volatility and geopolitical risks. Expanding Nigeria’s domestic cloud and data-centre market—projected to reach $782 million by 2031—would allow companies to pay in local currency (Naira), retaining hundreds of millions of dollars locally while creating high-value jobs in network engineering, software, cybersecurity and content delivery. “Imagine if you are paying in naira, jobs will be created in Nigeria,” Inuwa said. “Nigerians will be building content locally,” while investment in large data centres would create additional employment and business opportunities. Inuwa said the push to localise cloud infrastructure is also about making Nigeria’s digital services more resilient. As more critical services move online, heavy reliance on infrastructure and connectivity outside the country can leave businesses and essential services exposed when international links are disrupted. In March 2024, four major undersea cables serving West Africa—MainOne, WACS, SAT-3 and ACE—were damaged simultaneously in waters off Côte d’Ivoire. The outages disrupted internet connectivity across the region, exposing the risks of Nigeria’s reliance on international infrastructure and triggering widespread disruptions for businesses and essential services. “For us, sovereignty is not about protectionism,” Inuwa said. “It’s not about closing our doors against the big cloud service providers, but it’s about asking them to come and build with us in Nigeria.” The objective is to create a more resilient domestic infrastructure network capable of maintaining services even when individual locations or connections fail. “The big picture is how can we build like a digital triangle in Nigeria, where we create resilience and service assurance,” Inuwa said. “Even if there is an earthquake in one location, everything can seamlessly fall over to another location.” Nigeria could also strengthen its position as a regional cloud hub for West and Central Africa, using its large internet market and growing subsea cable capacity to attract hyperscale cloud facilities and carrier-neutral data centres. NITDA said the policy is not intended to displace public cloud services or exclude global providers from the Nigerian market. Instead, the agency wants major cloud providers, or hyperscalers, to deploy and operate more infrastructure locally. Inuwa said the government had previously granted waivers allowing institutions to use public cloud services, but it eventually began pressing providers for clearer localisation plans. “We can’t continue giving you waivers,” he said. “We need to have a roadmap on when you are going to localise some of this infrastructure in Nigeria.” One obstacle was the argument from some hyperscalers that Nigerian data centres did not meet the technical requirements needed to support their infrastructure. It was to address these concerns that NITDA brought hyperscalers and local data-centre operators together at the summit to discuss the technical and regulatory barriers to local deployment. The discussions led to a technical working group comprising local providers and global cloud companies, which developed the framework for the sovereign cloud initiative. The framework includes guidelines covering data classification, technical requirements for cloud service providers and digital quality assurance. Providers will have to meet defined standards and certifications to host certain categories of services. The initiative also seeks to address cost, a major barrier to local adoption, as cloud infrastructure in Nigeria has historically been more expensive than hosting workloads abroad, making overseas public cloud providers more attractive to startups and other businesses. NITDA and Galaxy Backbone are working on a plan to offer startups cloud services at lower costs and allow them to pay in naira, according to Inuwa. He expects greater local capacity to increase competition and put downward pressure on prices. “Today, because of lack of competition, that’s why the hyperscalers choose their own price,” Inuwa said. “But if there is competition in terms of capacity and availability
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