OpenAI brings ChatGPT’s cheapest plan to Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa
OpenAI has launched ChatGPT Go, a low-cost subscription plan designed to make its advanced AI tools more affordable and accessible to users globally. The new plan, though available in some select countries and priced at ₦7,000 ($4.71), offers a middle ground between the company’s free and premium ChatGPT tiers. According to OpenAI, the new plan gives users access to GPT-5, the company’s most advanced language model, along with several upgraded features. The plan’s features include image creation, uploading, and analysing larger files, and maintaining longer conversation memory. Subscribers to the new plan will also access advanced project and task customs. The selected countries span across Africa, Asia, North & Central America, and South America. The African selected countries include South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Morocco, and Egypt. In Asia, it includes India, Pakistan, and Malaysia. El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua are the selected countries in North & Central America The launch of ChatGPT Go marks a major shift in OpenAI’s strategy to reach more users globally, especially in emerging markets where the standard Plus or Pro subscriptions are considered expensive. The plan is priced lower than the existing plans, and according to OpenAI’s documentation, it costs about $5 per month in regions where it has rolled out. The plan was first launched in India in August at ₹399 (~US$4.60) per month, supporting local payment methods such as UPI, making it the company’s most affordable tier to date. Subsequently, OpenAI expanded availability to Indonesia at approximately Rp 75,000/month ($4.51). According to the company’s release notes, the ChatGPT Go tier is now available in 71 additional countries, bringing total coverage to 89 countries. Unlike the higher-end tiers, ChatGPT Go does not include API usage, which remains billed separately. The plan comes with certain limitations. Deep system integrations, advanced developer tools, and some legacy model options available under ChatGPT Plus and Pro are not included. Heavy users may also encounter usage limits depending on overall system capacity. The expansion of ChatGPT Go is seen as part of OpenAI’s broader effort to diversify its subscription model and attract its already large user base. The move introduces a middle-tier option between the free and premium versions, giving users a more affordable way to experience advanced AI capabilities without paying full price for top-tier access. It also underscores growing competition in the generative AI market. With Google, Anthropic, and other companies offering AI chat tools and subscription tiers at varying prices, OpenAI’s new plan helps it maintain its competitive edge, especially in price-sensitive regions. For OpenAI, the lower price point could serve as a gateway for millions of new users to experience GPT-5. It also provides the company with an opportunity to test new pricing structures and refine the product accessibility before global expansion.
Read MoreExclusive: Businessfront, parent company of Techpoint, lays off staff in restructuring move
Businessfront, the publishers of Techpoint Africa, Finance in Africa, Energy in Africa, and Intelpoint, has laid off an undisclosed number of employees across the group and individual publications, citing the need to ensure long-term sustainability and sharpen its strategic focus. In an emailed response to TechCabal, the company’s CEO, Múyìwá Mátùlúkò, confirmed the layoffs, noting that only a small number of roles were affected. “All our brands and emerging products, including Techpoint Africa, remain fully operational, and we continue to serve our audiences and clients without interruption,” Mátùlúkò said, declining to share the exact number of affected employees and how Businessfront would support them. Businessfront’s restructuring comes as African media businesses grapple with shrinking advertising revenues and shifting audience habits, as more readers turn to social media for news. National Media Group, once Kenya’s richest business, has laid off employees in recent years, while Standard Group has laid off 300 employees. A survey of 300 global media business leaders found that the harsh global economic climate and a downturn in the advertising market were major contributors to layoffs. Niche and trade publications, which serve smaller audiences, have been hit hardest. Shorter attention spans, declining referral traffic from Google Search and social platforms, and the rise of artificial intelligence have compounded the problem, eroding the visibility and monetisation potential of these small digital newsrooms. When revenues decline, layoffs are often the most critical measures media companies pull to stay afloat. In 2023, Big Cabal Media, the parent company of TechCabal and Zikoko, cut 19% of its workforce, despite growing revenue by 180% year-on-year in the first half of the year. The layoffs showed how rising income alone is no longer enough to offset the cost pressures facing digital publishers. Businessfront, which operates a free-to-read model, has likely struggled to sustain revenue amid declining ad spend. Introducing a paywall in a weak economy would not have been a solution either, as more established publications have taken down paywalls. BusinessDay, a national daily, recently took down its paywall to better understand reader behaviour. To survive the collapse of ad revenue, media businesses have increasingly turned to events and newsletters, building direct reader relationships and alternative revenue streams to offset declining traffic and traditional monetisation.
Read MoreFrom South Africa to Nigeria, here are the latest DStv subscription prices
Millions of households and sports enthusiasts across Africa depend on DStv for news, sports, and entertainment, making any update on its subscription models closely watched in Canal+’s takeover. As MultiChoice transitions to new ownership under French media giant Canal+, attention is turning to what this shift could mean for viewers in key markets like South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, and Ghana, where DStv remains the dominant pay-TV service. In South Africa, MultiChoice raised prices in April 2025, with a second increase for some packages in May. Now it has cut prices for HD decoders, signalling a push to strengthen its hold on the market and fend off growing competition from streaming platforms like Netflix. As inflation continues to squeeze household budgets across Africa, many price-sensitive viewers have turned to cheaper streaming alternatives or pirated sites to access content, a trend that MultiChoice has been fighting against over the years. The trend has hit MultiChoice hard. In recent years, DStv has lost more than 2 million subscribers, highlighting the mounting pressure on the pay-TV giant to reassess its pricing strategy and adapt to shifting consumer preferences. Here’s a look at how DStv prices currently compare across Africa’s major markets. South Africa South Africa remains MultiChoice’s biggest and most reliable market, accounting for nearly 60% of the group’s subscription revenue in 2024. DStv continues to dominate pay-TV in the country, driven by strong demand for local content and live sports. While subscriber growth has slowed, the market’s stability has helped offset weaker performance in other regions, making it the financial backbone of MultiChoice’s African operations. Nigeria In Nigeria, MultiChoice remains the leading pay-TV provider with a roughly 60% market share, but its dominance is no longer as secure as it once was. Over the past two years, DStv and GOtv have lost around 1.4 million subscribers as rising inflation, fuel shortages, and repeated price hikes have made pay-TV harder to afford. Its most recent price hike was in March, due to high inflation and currency depreciation. With streaming platforms gaining ground and piracy eroding viewership, MultiChoice faces an uphill battle to stay ahead in one of Africa’s largest television markets. Ghana In Ghana, DStv remains a popular choice for TV viewers, offering packages tailored to various needs. However, the service has encountered difficulties with regulators, who in August 2025 requested that MultiChoice reduce prices by 30% due to economic pressures and the weakening cedi. MultiChoice pushed back, saying such cuts could affect service and jobs. The National Communications Authority has even warned that it could suspend the licence if the issue isn’t resolved, highlighting the delicate balance between keeping TV affordable and running the business. Uganda DStv has seen its subscriber base fall sharply, dropping from around 2.4 million in early 2023 to about 1.1 million by late 2024 in Uganda. Rising subscription costs, economic pressures, and competition from streaming platforms have all contributed to the decline. Kenya In Kenya, DStv subscribers started paying higher rates from August 1, after MultiChoice increased prices by between 4% and 7%, — the latest in a string of hikes over the past five years. The Premium package now costs KES 11,700 ($91), while the Compact Plus and Compact packages cost KES 7,300 ($57) and KES 4,200 ($33), respectively. At the same time, the company has cut prices on some of its mobile and digital plans, including Showmax’s entry-level mobile bundles, to keep budget-conscious viewers from leaving. The company has lost roughly 180,000 subscribers in Kenya.
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These new Google AI tools will help African content creators reach millions online
Numbers are the heartbeat of every creator’s career. Views, likes, and subscribers don’t just show popularity, but also reveal value. In the same way loyal customers are to a business, those numbers keep creators alive. Since the rise of TikTok’s For You Page, several changes have been made on social media. Feeds are curated for every user by a data-driven algorithm, delivering recommendations and higher virality potential for each content. Now, Google wants to help make those numbers count for more. The tech giant has rolled out three AI-powered tools — Video Reach Campaign (VRC), Video View Campaign (VVC), and Demand Gen — designed to help brands and creators get better results from their videos on YouTube. On paper, it’s another tech update. But in practice, it could reshape how African creators and brands work together. The gap between views and value Imagine a YouTuber somewhere in Lagos who just landed her first big brand deal. A crypto startup wants her to promote its new debit card. She makes the video, posts it, and the numbers start climbing. Views: great. Engagement: decent. But when the campaign ends, the brand looks at the analytics and frowns. Few clicks. Fewer conversions. That’s the problem Google says it wants to fix. At YouTube PluggedIn, a creator and brand event held in Lagos on October 9, 2025, Damilola Abodunrin, an Industry Manager at Google, explained to TechCabal how the new AI tools work: “Video Reach Campaign (VRC), Video View Campaign (VVC), and Demand Gen are AI solutions designed to help advertisers maximise their budgets and get better returns,” she said. “They do what humans can’t: manage multiple assets, campaigns, and touchpoints, because the touchpoints are growing every day.” In short, the AI looks at where people are watching, what they respond to, and which ad format delivers the most bang for the buck. Then it adjusts everything in real time. Algorithms as collaborators A few years ago, YouTube ads were mostly manual. Marketers had to guess which keywords to target or which demographics to chase. But AI has changed that completely. Now, Google’s system tests different versions of an ad, studies how people respond, and figures out which works best, all while the campaign is still running. It’s like having a data analyst, media buyer, and strategist rolled into one, working around the clock. For creators, that means their videos, especially brand collaborations, are more likely to be shown to the right audiences. For brands, it means fewer wasted ad dollars and higher chances of converting viewers into customers. The new formula of influence The timing of these tools couldn’t be better. Across Africa, the creator economy is booming, but unevenly. Thousands of people are building careers on YouTube, from cooking channels in Lagos to tech explainers in Nairobi, yet many struggle to monetise at the same level as creators elsewhere. Part of the reason is performance. Brands want proof that influencer campaigns work. Creators want to be valued for the audiences they’ve built. Google’s AI tools are trying to bridge that trust gap. Olumide Balogun, Google’s Director for West Africa, pointed to the 2023 IAB Creator Economy Study, which found that ads placed alongside creator content enjoy 1.2 times higher reach and consideration and 1.4 times higher loyalty than traditional ads. Making local creators visible For many African creators, visibility is the biggest hurdle. The internet might be global, but reach isn’t always equal. Videos made in English or about Western trends often get more traction than those in local languages or rooted in African culture. AI might start to change that. Because the new tools rely less on generic demographic data and more on user intent and behaviour, they can identify new audiences who might connect with a creator’s content — even across borders. A Ghanaian lifestyle vlogger could reach audiences in the Caribbean who share similar cultural tastes. A Kenyan comedian might find fans in the UK diaspora. Ify’s Kitchen presenting a pitch at the YouTube PluggedIn event. Image Source: TechCabal. “Ify Mogekwu,” the popular food creator behind Ify’s Kitchen, said after the PluggedIn event, “Now, we can actually compete with our contemporaries in more advanced countries because we have the tools to work with. I think the impact will be good overall.” For creators like her, these tools could break barriers of visibility and access, and not just about better ad performance.
Read MoreMultiChoice cuts DStv decoder prices by up to 40% as Canal+ seeks to win back viewers
MultiChoice, now a wholly owned subsidiary of Canal+, will revise its DStv decoder prices starting 1 November 2025, a major shift after years of declining subscriber numbers due to rising costs. Over the past two years, the company lost 2.8 million active TV subscribers across Africa, half from South Africa and the rest from other markets. In 2025 alone, DStv shed 1.2 million users in South Africa, an 8% drop from the previous year. The slump reflects a challenging pay-TV landscape shaped by higher subscription fees, changing viewer preferences, and growing competition from more than 560 streaming platforms now available across the continent. New decoder prices (South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya) South Africa Nigeria and Kenya While MultiChoice has not disclosed whether the new price cuts will apply across all its markets, any broad implementation could significantly impact key regions like Kenya and Nigeria, where DStv commands a large share of pay-TV households. Both markets have faced mounting pressure from cheaper streaming alternatives and rising living costs, so a price adjustment could either help the company regain lost ground or further expose its revenue to currency fluctuations and competitive pricing dynamics. If Multichoice slashes prices, in Nigeria and Kenya, using the similar 40% online and 30% retail price cuts, the following price will take effect. Nigeria Kenya What it means for subscribers MultiChoice’s decision to cut decoder prices lowers the entry barrier for customers who’ve been hesitant to join DStv. The more affordable hardware could attract new households and encourage existing users to upgrade their devices. Once those decoders are in homes, subscribers become eligible for a range of limited-time perks the company is rolling out. From November 7 to 9, all active DStv users will enjoy an Open Time Weekend, giving them access to Premium content at no extra cost. Meanwhile, DStv Premium customers will get two additional device streams until December, allowing up to four simultaneous views. These price adjustments and offerings mark Canal+’s first major strategic move as DStv’s new owner, making entry more affordable, rewarding loyalty, and rekindling interest in traditional satellite TV amidst growing streaming competition. MultiChoice’s deep decoder discounts show just how hard Canal+ is pushing to win back viewers. From November, South Africans will still pay the most for new DStv hardware, followed by Kenyans and Nigerians, but the cuts mark a clear attempt to make satellite TV affordable again after years of subscriber losses. It’s a move that could help DStv reconnect with middle-income households who’ve drifted to cheaper, on-demand options. Still, the timing says a lot about the shifting TV economy. With hundreds of streaming platforms now jostling for attention across Africa, lowering prices might spark a wider price war, one that gives viewers more choice, but forces pay-TV and streaming companies alike to fight harder for every household.
Read Morentel restuctures board ahead of January 2026 relaunch
NatCom Development and Investment Limited (trading as ntel), the company that acquired Nigeria’s national telecommunication company NITEL, has appointed a new board of directors as it prepares for a commercial relaunch in January 2026. The company is considering a fixed wireless home play as the market entry that might end up preceding an earlier roaming/MVNO play, according to one person with knowledge of the matter. The new board includes Adeleke Alex-Adedipe, Ayodeji Joshua Richards, Maryam Mutallab, Olaide Aremu, and Soji Maurice-Diya, who will serve as Managing Director/CEO. The directors will operate under the continued chairmanship of Gen. T.Y. Danjuma and the legacy director and minority shareholder, Tunde Ayeni. The board overhaul reflects ntel’s focus on reenergising its finances, optimising assets, and reestablishing itself as a key player in Nigeria’s telecommunications sector. Under its new leadership, ntel is implementing a turnaround strategy focused on cash-flow stability, asset monetisation, and a return to commercial service. The company said it is currently “monetising its nationwide portfolio of telecommunications and real estate assets” as part of efforts to diversify revenue streams and strengthen liquidity ahead of its relaunch. In a joint statement, the board described the transition as coming at a “defining moment” in ntel’s recovery journey. “It is a rare privilege to steward ntel at such a defining moment. We are energised by the opportunities ahead and look forward to working closely with management to unlock greater value from our infrastructure and shape a future-focused, sustainable business,” the board said. “Our goal is clear: to position ntel as a robust, investor-friendly enterprise that delivers on Nigeria’s digital aspirations.” The new board members bring a blend of legal, financial, and operational expertise critical to ntel’s revival. Alex-Adedipe, Managing Partner at Duale, Ovia & Alex-Adedipe, brings nearly two decades of experience in telecom and M&A law. Richards, a former GTBank Gambia Managing Director, strengthens the company’s financial governance capacity. Mutallab, founder of Noble Hall Leadership Academy for Girls, adds entrepreneurial and community engagement insight. Aremu, Group CFO of Ancestral Holdings, brings deep expertise in corporate finance and internal controls. Maurice-Diya said the board’s composition “aligns the skills we need with the tasks ahead,” emphasising that strong governance will be key to restoring investor confidence and achieving ntel’s goal of becoming a sustainable, growth-oriented telecom brand in Nigeria’s digital economy.
Read MoreMoonshot 2025: Asia as a limited partner base, Europe for exits and more of what African VCs discussed
It’s hard to describe all that investors talked about at Moonshot 2025, TechCabal’s flagship conference, but three main themes stood out: a) how startups need financial discipline before attaining scale, b) how to pivot to engineered exits, and c) how more African VCs are increasingly turning to Asia for capital as many firms prepare to raise funds in Q1 2026. For Olu Oyinsan, the managing partner at Oui Capital, engineering exits means backing businesses with a clear path to profitability. According to the investor who returned his first fund, startups should have a “fixed cost recovery mentality” that guides them to make more money than they spend on an operational fixed cost basis over time. Some investors pointed to growing sophistication across the ecosystem as more founders now start pitch decks with a “path to profitability” slide,as funds are more hands-on in operationalising discipline. “Everyone’s playing moneyball now,” said one fund manager who asked not to be named to speak freely. “You need solid maths, a plan, and a clean cap table.” “There’s less focus on burning cash… more focus on ensuring the business model is sustainable before massive scale,” said Samuel Frank, an associate at Sahara Impact Ventures, a Ghanaian climate tech fund, echoing the focus on discipline for startups. As LP appetite cools across Europe and the US—typically the first ports of call for African VC fund managers—many firms are turning to Asia for capital that’s more patient and philosophically aligned with long-term investments, two investors told TechCabal on the sidelines of Moonshot. In late August, Japan’s development finance institution, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), signed on as a limited partner in Novastar Ventures, a $200 million fund. That same month, Uncovered Fund, a Japanese firm focused on early-stage investing in Africa, partnered with Monex Group, a Tokyo-based financial services company, to back startups across Africa and the Middle East with a $20 million fund. This LP shift may reshape the types of companies that get backed and the timelines they’re judged by. If those deals help close funds, the expectation is that pre-seed and seed startups will see an uptick in funding but with smaller cheques. For Freda Isingoma, the senior fund manager at Octopus Investments, deeper local capital pools, especially at Series B and C, are essential to unlocking more exit opportunities for African startups. Isingoma pointed to the UK’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM) as a possible model: a secondary exchange where smaller, high-growth firms can go public under lighter regulatory burdens. While it might be difficult for African startups to list on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), which hosts around 110 African companies from over 20 countries with a combined market capitalisation exceeding $110 billion, AIM has less stringent requirements. AIM has helped mid-sized companies access public capital without the cost and complexity of listing on the main London Stock Exchange. Isingoma suggested that African startups consider dual pathways: listing an equity line into an international exchange to attract liquidity and institutional investors while keeping their operational base and growth engine local.
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After Moonshot: What to do with all that post-event energy
Every October, when Moonshot by TechCabal ends, I’m reminded that the real work starts after the applause fades. The panels, keynote speeches, and mixers create a kind of high, a temporary ecosystem of ideas and ambition. But once the crowd disperses and everyone flies back to their respective countries, the question becomes: what do you actually do with all that energy? As a journalist, I’ve attended summits across the continent — from Kigali to Cape Town, Nairobi to Lagos, Kinshasa to Cairo. The conversations are often visionary, but the follow-through can be uneven. What separates those who turn these moments into catalysts from those who treat them as calendar filler, is what happens in the quiet days after the summit. The learning, connecting, and follow-up. The self-reflection. The disciplined filtering of noise. Here’s what that looks like, from where I sit, and what I’d tell the thousands of professionals who left Moonshot 2025 feeling something meaningful just began. For founders: Don’t chase contacts, chase conviction High level events like Moonshot are designed to further the development of a sector with immense potential, but presents opportunities for serendipity—that perfect investor meeting in the hallway, that mentor who finally “gets” your product. But most founders, including some I interacted with, mistake volume of interaction for value. Handshakes feel like leads, conversations like opportunities. By the last day, you’ve exchanged fifty cards and promised coffee to twenty people. Then Monday arrives, and you’re back in the office putting out operational fires. The window for meaningful follow-up narrows fast. The best founders I’ve met treat post-summit engagement like a strategy. They spend time after events going through every conversation, ranking contacts by relevance: Who can help me achieve my next milestone? Who can challenge my assumptions? Who can open a door that helps me build? Then they follow up with precision. Not “great to meet you,” but something like: “You mentioned expanding into Kenya, here’s a short memo on our API integration challenges there. Would love your take.” As someone who’s interested in the ecosystem, I would respond. And that, there, could mark the foundation of a mutually beneficial relationship. Building relationships with intent isn’t easy. Another truth is that you might not get value in the investor you pitch, but in the fellow founder you grab lunch with. Founders who share similar scaling pains can become the most enduring allies in an ecosystem like Africa’s. Uche Ark, a former Lagos banker now exploring solar ventures, told me he makes it a rule to maintain at least one ongoing conversation with another founder from every event he attends. “They’ve already made mistakes I haven’t yet,” he said. So, my advice to founders is that after the summit, create a small circle of “accountability peers”, people who understand your struggles and will tell you the truth when the hype fades. For investors: From observation to conviction A session at the Emerging Tech stage during Moonshot by TechCabal 2025. Image source: TechCabal Investors are perhaps the most visible species at any tech summit. They sit on panels, moderate sessions, host dinners. But in the days after the event, I’ve noticed two kinds of investors emerge. The first group files their notes, updates their pipeline tracker, and waits for startups to email. The second group tests their theses, immediately. They pick up the phone, call a founder they met, and ask deeper questions like “Walk me through your unit economics again. Who’s your top customer? What do you need in the next quarter?” The latter build conviction fast. In markets as fluid as Africa’s, conviction is a competitive advantage. It allows investors to move decisively when opportunities arise, rather than waiting for consensus or validation. So, if you’re an investor, don’t just collect pitch decks, connect the dots. What did this summit reveal about shifting founder psychology? About where capital scarcity is most acute? About the policies still holding innovation hostage? In short, use the summit as a mirror for your thesis. Refine it. Deepen it. Test it against the realities founders are living daily. For regulators: Listen beyond the applause Policymakers often attend summits to “engage the ecosystem.” It’s become part of the choreography — a keynote here, a panel appearance there. But the true opportunity lies not in speaking, but in listening. After Moonshot, the policymakers who stand out are those who go back to their ministries and ask their teams hard questions like “What did I hear that challenges our current regulatory approach? Who should we be inviting to our next stakeholder session — not because they’re famous, but because they’re building?” If you’re a policymaker, reach out to three founders or investors you met and ask for honest feedback on one policy area. It’s an act of humility, and it signals seriousness. The ecosystems that progress fastest — Rwanda, Kenya, Ghana — are those where dialogue doesn’t end when the microphone is switched off and cameras go off. For storytellers: Look for signals beneath the noise As journalists, we’re trained to capture moments, the headline quotes, the speaker soundbites, the “key takeaways.” But the longer I’ve covered events, the more I realise the real story does not just come from the stage. It’s in the contradictions. The frictions. The quiet consensus forming in side sessions that rarely make it to print. After events, I resist the urge to rush a recap. Instead, I spend time decoding what the event really revealed. For example, what topics drew the most emotional reactions? Which industries were conspicuously absent from the agenda? Which narratives are losing power, and which are rising quietly in their place? A good summit tells you what the industry is talking about. But a great journalist discerns what the industry is thinking about but not yet saying aloud. So, to my fellow storytellers, resist the FOMO-driven recap. Write the piece that will still make sense six months from now. For everyone: Stay visible without being noisy The audience follows a session during
Read MoreDigital Nomads: The global tech recruiter who can chose where to build a career
Rhoda Adeola remembers the first time she earned in euros: €500 as a contract hire for a Dutch company from her home in Nigeria in 2021. “I remember paying my [church offerings] in dollars even when I was earning in naira,” she said. “I’d take ₦10,000, exchange it for a few dollars, and give that instead. I used to tell myself, one day I’ll earn in this currency. I’ve always been that ambitious and hungry.” Though she had no background in software, she was fascinated by the people behind it: the coders, the designers, and tech builders. Her job was to find them, match them to opportunities across Europe, and convince them to take a chance on something new. She didn’t know it then, but that moment marked the beginning of a career that would stretch across time zones and continents, redefining what “work” could mean for an ambitious woman from Ibadan, southwest Nigeria. 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She enjoyed the discipline of science, but she found greater purpose in helping people navigate their careers. Through volunteering and employability programmes, she learned to coach others on putting together their resumes and interviewing. This instinct guided her toward HR. “I realised I liked helping people figure out their next step,” she said. After graduation, she joined an HR firm in Lagos. When the pandemic arrived, she worked from home, observing how the tech industry adapted quickly to remote systems. It influenced her next ambition to be part of the tech industry, where she saw the gap she could bridge between companies, talent, multi-market expansions, and tech. On LinkedIn, she found a Nigerian recruiter at Microsoft who mentored Africans interested in tech recruiting. Adeola volunteered to help coordinate the sessions and learned how to screen software engineers, assess CVs, and manage candidate pipelines. This experience led her to join the Dutch company, Matchr, which was expanding a new agency and looking for talent in Nigeria. Adeola applied and got hired, earning her first euro while in Nigeria. Then came the layoffs By 2022, Adeola had saved enough money to relocate to the UK for postgraduate studies—a master’s in HR —while still working remotely for the Dutch firm. Then came 2023 and the great tech layoffs. Meta, Amazon, and Miro—the whiteboarding platform and one of her key clients at Matchr—began cutting staff. The demand for tech recruiters dropped almost overnight. Her contract with the recruitment firm ended when tech hiring slowed. “It was a difficult period,” she said. “But it pushed me to think about how to stay relevant.” She realised that recruiting was evolving. Companies wanted professionals who could combine traditional hiring skills with data and strategy—people who understood markets as well as people. Adeola started learning how to use analytics tools that track salaries, hiring trends, and regional talent gaps. She became more involved in workforce planning and began advising managers on long-term recruitment strategies. Recruiting had moved beyond filling roles. It had become about forecasting demand and filling talent pipelines before vacancies opened. Recruiting in technology demands both structure and empathy. Describing her work process to me, Adeola said she begins her day analysing job briefs from hiring managers, mapping skills, and researching talent pools across countries. Then she reaches out, writing messages, scheduling calls,
Read MoreNigeria has made progress since ‘Crypto Black Friday,’ but regulation remains insufficient
After years of stop-start regulation, Nigeria has made its intention clear that it is ready to bring its crypto sector, which has notoriously operated in a Wild West market, under its watchful eye. Obinna Iwuno, president of the Stakeholders in Blockchain Technology Association of Nigeria (SIBAN), an advocacy group, echoed this sentiment during a fireside chat with Chinedu Obidiegwu, Head of Business at Luno Nigeria, a crypto company, at Moonshot by TechCabal on Thursday, October 16. “Crypto regulation is gaining clarity, but we are not where we want to be yet,” said Iwuno. “The ISA [Investment and Securities Act, 2025, which was signed in March] is not the most perfect regulation out there, but we can improve it. That’s why we say if you’re an operator coming into the market, you’re still early.” Since 2024, Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has worked to position itself as a forward-looking regulator. In June, it launched the Accelerated Regulatory Incubation Programme (ARIP) and the Regulatory Incubation (RI) programme to test emerging crypto businesses under controlled conditions. Through these sandboxes, the regulator granted provisional licences to seven operators from both programmes, and began monitoring experiments in stablecoins, tokenisation, and real-world assets. The transition to full licences has slowed, with the SEC citing extended due diligence to ensure only compliant players advance. Iwuno said SIBAN is working on ensuring alignment between crypto operators, policymakers, and multiple regulators involved in different aspects of overseeing how crypto transaction flows, including the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the telecoms regulator; the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the anti-graft agency; the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), the body responsible for financial intelligence reporting; the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), the ICT sector regulator; and the Ministry of Communications. A big part of SIBAN’s efforts is educating the stakeholders involved, ensuring there’s a more holistic approach to regulating crypto, said Iwuno. “[Nigeria] has implemented a national blockchain policy that centres around capacity development and responsible adoption of crypto,” said Iwuno. “We have the ISA, too, but the existing [regulations] are not sufficient to capture the different nuances of crypto. We want to see the responsible integration of crypto in the private and public sectors.” Despite the lack of full regulatory clarity surrounding crypto, the adoption of digital assets in Nigeria has surged, led by a young population that wants speed and convenience when sending and receiving money. Crypto has the most practical utility in Africa. Fast, high-value cross-border transactions are only possible with crypto. Yet the sector still plays outside institutional finance because regulators are still wary of the lack of centralised oversight. The SIBAN has led efforts to implement compliance standards for operators, in a bid to give crypto a self-regulated front, according to Iwuno. “As SIBAN, we ensured every operator operated a minimum of two identity verification checks to ramp up security,” said Iwuno. “And that is bringing the trust we need in the market.” Blockchain technology is one of the few sectors where anyone can find a place, regardless of background or skill set, said Iwuno. Its inclusiveness and endless room for innovation make the industry truly exciting. He believes the future belongs to those who build, create, and provide real value within it.
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