He started building in military-era Nigeria. Now he builds AI HR software.
In the 1990s, when most Nigerian businesses still relied on paper files, fax machines, and office memos, Chuma Chukwujama was already convinced software was the future he should pursue. Fresh out of studying electrical and electronics engineering at Obafemi Awolowo University, one of Nigeria’s premier universities, in 1996, he had realised something early: he did not want to become a traditional engineer. Nigeria was still under military rule; engineering jobs were limited despite a high employment rate of over 82%, which was mostly informal; and the internet economy, which would later reshape business operations worldwide, was only beginning to take shape. So instead of searching endlessly for employment, Chukwujama started building technology. “If thousands of engineering graduates came out of universities at the time, only a small fraction could find actual engineering jobs,” Chukwujama told TechCabal in an interview. So I started asking myself what else I could do, and that was how I began building technology.” He started his first company, Allied Technologies, in 1996 at a time when businesses globally were beginning to shift from paper-based operations to digital tools. That same year, Microsoft released products that helped make computers and the internet more practical for everyday business use. These included Internet Explorer 3.0, one of Microsoft’s early web browsers that helped popularise internet browsing, and Windows CE 1.0, a lightweight operating system designed for early handheld and portable devices. In November 1996, Microsoft Office 97 introduced Outlook, combining email, calendars, and scheduling into a single workplace application. As businesses slowly adopted these tools, Allied Technologies positioned itself to help Nigerian companies make the transition. The company assisted organisations in setting up computers, connecting office systems, and deploying Microsoft technologies, according to Chukwujama. In 2001, Chukwujama and his co-founder, Duke Obasi, renamed their company AlliedSoft as Nigeria’s telecom sector opened to new operators such as MTN Nigeria and Econet. The company began developing custom software for telecom operators, banks, and other large organisations. AlliedSoft built systems such as SIM registration platforms and other business software to help organisations manage their operations more efficiently. While working with these companies, Chukwujama noticed that many businesses struggled with managing their workforce and employee records. Sensing an opportunity, the company expanded into HR software development in 2004 as an additional service. But building business software at the time came with major limitations. “When we started building technology, there was no cloud computing,” Chukwujama recalled. At the time, deploying software was expensive and technically demanding. In 2004, a mid-range enterprise server such as a Dell PowerEdge or HP ProLiant could cost between $5,000 and $15,000 per unit, excluding the additional cost of server racks, cooling systems, and networking equipment. For many medium-sized businesses, setting up a functional server room often starts at around $30,000. Companies also needed physical servers inside their offices, internal networks connecting branches, and dedicated IT teams just to keep business applications running. The affordability gaps were glaring. Only large corporations could afford enterprise software infrastructure, including physical servers, internal computer networks, databases, internet systems, storage devices, and the IT teams that manage them. Smaller businesses were effectively shut out. “The way software was built then required companies to keep physical servers inside their offices,” Chukwujama explained. “Businesses also needed internal networks, and larger companies had to connect multiple branches through wide area networks. It was expensive and difficult to manage.” That began to change around 2010 with the global launch of Microsoft Azure and the arrival of the MainOne submarine cable in Nigeria, the country’s first privately-owned cable, which improved internet access and made cloud computing more practical for businesses. Companies no longer needed to build expensive, diesel-powered server rooms inside their offices. Instead, they could host their systems in professional data centres such as MDXi and Rack Centre, where businesses shared the cost of industrial cooling, backup power, and internet infrastructure. The shift significantly reduced operating costs, in some cases by as much as 40%, while making software deployment faster and more reliable. By 2015, Chukwujama realised the shift to cloud technology could no longer be ignored. Companies around the world were moving away from traditional client-server systems to cloud-native platforms delivered over the internet, forcing software companies to rethink how they built and delivered products. “That was the conversation happening between 2010 and 2015,” he said. “Everybody had to decide whether to continue building software the old way or move fully into the cloud.” His company chose the latter. The business, which had previously operated as Allied Technologies and later Allied Software, evolved into Xceed365HR Limited in 2015, focused entirely on cloud-native HR software. A decade later, the company restructured again into Talpro Software, a broader software-as-a-service company with Xceed365HR as its flagship product. “We are building the HR ecosystem infrastructure for Africa,” Chukwujama said. That ambition comes as Nigeria’s enterprise software market grows increasingly crowded, with localised enterprise tech investments projected to exceed $2.45 billion by the end of 2023 as digital transformation accelerates. Global giants like SAP and Oracle remain dominant benchmarks for many large organisations, while newer startups continue to emerge across payroll, HR, and workplace management. At home, Xceed365HR is facing competition from Pade and Seamless HR. But Chukwujama believes African businesses still face a deeper problem: most global enterprise tools were not designed for African realities. “The paradigm has always been that technology is agnostic,” he said. “But what works globally does not always work here.” That localisation challenge, he argues, extends beyond language or currency support. Xceed365HR is designed to build around those complexities instead of ignoring them, according to Chukwujama. The company is integrating directly with African fintech infrastructure so businesses can move seamlessly from HR workflows into payroll and payment systems without relying on multiple disconnected platforms, according to Chukwujama. The next leap, however, may come from artificial intelligence. While many software companies are still trying to bolt AI assistants onto existing systems, Chukwujama says Talpro rebuilt its upcoming platform version entirely around AI agents. The “V3” system, which would
Read MoreWhy Kenyan digital bank Cloud9 acquired Mtickets in $773,000 deal
Tesh Mbaabu believes that finance begins in personal life. People wake up thinking about where they want to go, who they want to meet, or what they want to do, and not their banks, he explained. While consumers may not actively think about financial services, money powers almost every decision they make. “That is why I think the intersection of lifestyle and fintech has become very important and interesting,” he told TechCabal in an interview on Thursday, May 14. “It’s not just about moving money; it’s about what you can offer beyond payments infrastructure.” That thinking formed the rationale behind why Cloud9, the Kenyan digital bank Mbaabu founded with Mesongo Sibuti, acquired Kenyan ticketing platform M-Tickets in an all-stock deal valued at roughly KES 100 million ($773,000). The deal comes seven months after the cofounders exited Chpter, the social commerce startup that helps businesses sell and communicate with customers across platforms like WhatsApp and Instagram. The acquisition gives Cloud9 access to a platform that says it has processed more than one million tickets across concerts, transport and sports events since 2014. “On the surface, Mtickets looks like a ticketing platform,” Mbaabu said. “But for us, we see it as a really strong point of contact with the youth, while they’re going about their daily lives.” Mbaabu told TechCabal that Mtickets will continue operating as a standalone brand under CEO and founder Brian Bogonko, adding that Mtickets’ services will be integrated directly into the Cloud9 app. Cloud9 users can buy tickets on Mtickets and on its app. Event organisers and vendors will also be able to receive payments through Cloud9’s business banking infrastructure. He also noted that the acquisition could create lending opportunities for event organisers that need upfront capital before ticket revenues come in. Cloud9 intends to use transaction histories and sales performance data from the platform to assess creditworthiness and extend financing to selected organisers, he said. First announced in October 2025, Cloud9 targets younger African consumers who earn and transact online. The startup offers multicurrency accounts, cross-border payments, virtual cards, savings products and investment tools through partnerships with regulated banks. Users can hold Kenyan shillings, US dollars, euros, Tanzanian shillings and Ugandan shillings within the app, he noted. Cloud9 currently generates revenue through transaction fees and subscription-based account tiers ranging from a free plan to a KES 999 ($7.73) monthly subscription. The paid tiers include features such as cashback and unlimited transfers. The deal pushes Cloud9 into competition with digital banks, fintech startups and ticketing platforms such as TicketSasa and Ticket Yetu. Mbaabu argued that Cloud9’s advantage lies in building financial services around user behaviour. Before Cloud9, Mbaabu and Sibuti co-founded social commerce startup Chpter and retail-tech company MarketForce. Mbaabu said both ventures shaped his understanding of how African consumers and merchants use digital services. “Each experience has built on top of the other in terms of just understanding what the continent needs from an innovation perspective,” he said. “It has made me better positioned to join the dots between how merchants operate and what they really need.” Cloud9 publicly launched in March 2026 after initially operating through a waitlist. The startup said it has thousands of users signed up and is recording hundreds of new registrations daily. Cloud9 plans to launch its business banking product publicly later this month and is exploring consumer credit and buy-now-pay-later products tied to ticket purchases and merchant activity on the platform. Mbaabu said the company remained open to more acquisitions and partnerships as it expands beyond consumer banking into embedded financial services. “The future of fintech won’t be defined by who builds the best banking app. It will be defined by who understands where life happens — and builds there first,” he wrote in his personal blog. “ For us, Mtickets is a step in that direction. Not because we want to be in ticketing. But because we want to be closer to life. And life doesn’t start in banking apps. It never did.”
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MTN’s IHS acquisition could change who controls connectivity in Francophone West Africa
19 mai 2026 Hello , Welcome back to Francophone Weekly by TechCabal, your weekly deep dive into the tech ecosystem across French-speaking Africa. For readers who want to understand Francophone Africa beyond headlines—through markets, startups, and systems. New editions of the newsletter will land directly in your inbox every Tuesday at 12 PM WAT. By default, this newsletter is in French. If you’re reading this in your email inbox, click the “Read in English” button below to switch to the English version. If you’re reading on our website, you can either click the button below or toggle the language selector at the top right-hand side of the page to view the English edition. Read in English En février 2026, MTN Group, le plus grand opérateur de téléphonie mobile d’Afrique avec plus de 300 millions d’abonnés, a annoncé le rachat des 75,3 % restants du capital d’IHS Towers qu’il ne détenait pas encore, valorisant ainsi la société à environ 6,2 milliards de dollars. La transaction, financée en grande partie grâce aux quelque 1,1 milliard de dollars de trésorerie disponible chez IHS, complétée par des liquidités et des emprunts de MTN, entraînera la sortie d’IHS de la Bourse de New York (NYSE) et placera l’une des plus grandes sociétés de tours indépendantes au monde sous le contrôle total de MTN. IHS Towers, ce n’est pas n’importe quel actif d’infrastructure. Fondée au Nigeria en 2001, elle exploite près de 29 000 tours dans cinq marchés africains — le Nigeria, la Côte d’Ivoire, le Cameroun, la Zambie et le Rwanda — dont environ 2 678 tours en Côte d’Ivoire et 2 500 au Cameroun. Pendant des décennies, ces tours ont constitué l’épine dorsale des réseaux mobiles à travers l’Afrique francophone et anglophone, fonctionnant comme une infrastructure neutre accessible à tous les opérateurs. Cette ère de neutralité, c’est terminé. 1. Comment les tours sont gérées en Afrique francophone (au-delà d’IHS) Source de l’image : IHS Towers En Afrique francophone, IHS n’a jamais été le seul acteur, même s’il a toujours été le plus grand. En Côte d’Ivoire et au Cameroun, le paysage est plus complexe. IHS y occupe la position dominante, mais Orange, dans le cadre d’un accord de gestion et de licence de location, avait confié à IHS la gestion de plus de 2 000 de ses propres tours dans ces deux marchés pendant 15 ans, tout en restant propriétaire de ces actifs. Par ailleurs, Aktivco, le bras spécialisé dans les services énergétiques de la société française d’infrastructure Camusat, gère des tours dans le cadre de contrats de type ESCO (Energy Services Company), notamment avec Orange en Côte d’Ivoire, au Niger et au Burkina Faso. Au Sénégal, la situation est différente. Helios Towers, la société londonienne de gestion de tours et troisième acteur du continent, est l’opérateur indépendant de référence, avec une équipe locale dédiée et un directeur général basé à Dakar. Al Karama Towers, une towerco sénégalaise soutenue par M&A Capital, est également active : elle a racheté les 625 sites d’Expresso Telecom dans le cadre d’une opération de cession-bail (sale-and-leaseback) et explore une expansion vers d’autres marchés ouest-africains. À l’échelle de la région, Helios Towers est présent au Sénégal, en République Démocratique du Congo (RDC), au Ghana, au Congo-Brazzaville, en Afrique du Sud et à Madagascar, avec plus de 8 000 tours sous gestion, se positionnant comme la principale alternative à IHS dans les marchés subsahariens. Ce tableau révèle un écosystème d’infrastructure fragmenté : les marchés francophones ont historiquement été desservis par une combinaison d’IHS (dominant en Côte d’Ivoire et au Cameroun), de Helios (dominant au Sénégal et en RDC), des actifs conservés par les opérateurs eux-mêmes (notamment Orange), et d’une poignée de petites towercos régionales. L’acquisition par MTN vient concentrer le plus grand bloc de cette infrastructure entre les mains d’un seul opérateur commercial. Le précédent mondial : les leçons de l’Asie et de l’Amérique latine Ce n’est pas la première fois qu’un grand marché émergent vit une telle consolidation de l’infrastructure télécom, et ce qui s’est passé ailleurs donne des signaux importants. L’Inde offre la comparaison la plus parlante. Quand Reliance Jio est entré sur le marché en 2016 avec des données gratuites et une tarification agressive, il a déclenché une vague de consolidation qui a réduit le nombre d’opérateurs majeurs de huit à pratiquement trois. Cela s’est directement répercuté sur le secteur des tours : Bharti Infratel et Indus Towers — cette dernière détenue en partie par Vodacom à l’époque — ont fusionné pour former la deuxième plus grande société de tours au monde hors Chine, gérant plus de 200 000 tours. Parallèlement, Brookfield Infrastructure a acquis environ 135 000 tours auprès de Reliance Jio dans le cadre d’une opération distincte de cession-bail. Résultat : un marché à deux acteurs avec les mêmes trois opérateurs comme clients principaux des deux. Cette concentration a certes généré des économies d’échelle, mais elle a aussi introduit un risque systémique : quand un opérateur ancre rencontre des difficultés financières — comme ce fut le cas pour Vodafone Idea —, tout le système vacille. Pour l’écosystème startup indien, la consolidation a eu un effet indirect mais réel : les coûts des données mobiles ont baissé après le débarquement de Jio, alimentant une croissance explosive dans la fintech, l’edtech et le e-commerce, mais la propriété de l’infrastructure est devenue très concentrée. L’Amérique latine offre une leçon différente. En l’espace d’une décennie à peine, les sociétés de tours indépendantes — menées par American Tower Corporation (ATC) et SBA Communications — en sont venues à posséder plus de 52 % de l’ensemble des tours télécom de la région. Ce mouvement était porté par les opérateurs qui cherchaient à alléger leurs actifs. SBA Communications a racheté 7 000 tours à Millicom ; KKR a acquis 1 100 tours Tigo en Colombie en janvier 2024 ; American Tower a porté son empreinte au Brésil à plus de 17 000 tours. Le modèle latino-américain a préservé la neutralité de l’infrastructure et maintenu des prix de colocation relativement ouverts. Cependant,
Read MoreSpotify now wants listeners to know when AI helped make a song
In late 2025, Papaoutai, a French-language song, exploded across streaming platforms. The song currently has close to 140 million streams on Spotify. What most listeners did not realise was that the viral afro-soul version remix of the 2013 hit by Belgian artist Stromae was created using AI, and with most music platforms lacking clear labelling for AI music, many listeners did not know. AI-generated tracks now account for 44% of all new music uploaded to the platform, according to streaming platform Deezer, and 97% of people it surveyed could not hear any difference between AI- and human-made music. As AI-generated music becomes harder to distinguish from human-created work, streaming platforms are being forced to answer uncomfortable questions about impersonation, fraud, ownership, and authenticity. For Spotify, this means introducing new safeguards to promote AI transparency on its platform. “We believe that to truly unlock the positives and the potential in AI, we need to protect against the worst,” Bryan Johnson, Spotify’s Head of Artist & Industry Partnerships, told TechCabal during a two-day event at the company’s new South African office in Johannesburg on May 14. One of Spotify’s biggest concerns is spam. Johnson said the company removed 75 million spammy tracks from the platform in the past year as AI tools made it easier to mass-produce low-quality or deceptive uploads. In September 2025, Spotify explained that its spam filter was created to identify uploaders and tracks engaging in spam tactics, including mass uploads, duplicates, SEO hacks, artificially short track abuse, and other forms of slop. The system was designed to tag these tracks and stop recommending them. The company is also overhauling its artist verification process to what it describes as a more human-centric system. Previously, artists who signed up for Spotify for Artists automatically received a verification badge. Under the new Verified by Spotify system, artists must now demonstrate sustained listening activity, avoid fraudulent behaviour, and show evidence of real-world artistic activity such as ticket sales, performances, or merchandise sales before receiving verification. “We want regular listening, so sustained listening activity, which I think is at least 10,000 monthly active listeners over three consecutive months,” Johnson said during a panel session. Spotify is also testing what it calls AI credits, a feature that would allow artists and labels to disclose whether AI was used during parts of a song’s creation, including songwriting, instrumentation, or production. The platform is currently working with a few distributors on this. “The information is delivered from the artist or songwriter to the distributor label, and they deliver it to Spotify, and we can surface that on the artist page,” Johnson said. “It is all about giving artists more control over their profile, their presence on the platform in this AI era, and giving listeners more trust.” For now, Spotify insists AI is not a problem. The company has rolled out several AI-powered listener features, including AI DJ, a personalised, AI-powered music guide, which Johnson said has reached about 94 million listeners since launch. “We are leveraging this technology to give the best experience for listeners and to give them more control over the platform,” he said. “On the artist side, we are taking protective measures there too.” Spotify’s changes reflect a wider industry shift. Deezer began tagging AI-generated tracks in June 2025 and says it tagged more than 13.4 million AI tracks on its platform that year alone. As synthetic voices become increasingly indistinguishable from human ones, streaming companies are moving beyond simply hosting music and are beginning to decide what authenticity should look like in the AI era.
Read MoreKenya appoints Adan Mohamed as tax chief amid revenue pressure
Kenya has appointed Adan Abdulla Mohamed as Commissioner General of the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), in a major leadership reshuffle as President William Ruto’s government faces growing pressure to raise revenue without deepening public frustration over taxes. Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi appointed Mohamed to a three-year term effective immediately, according to a government gazette on Monday, formalising the leadership change at the country’s tax authority as Kenya struggles with rising debt servicing costs, weaker economic growth and persistent revenue shortfalls. Mohamed replaces Humphrey Wattanga, whose exit in April came abruptly after KRA’s board declined to renew his contract. The authority gave no detailed explanation for the decision beyond thanking him for his service and role in organisational restructuring. The move comes as tax collection has become one of the most politically sensitive parts of Ruto’s economic agenda. The government has leaned heavily on KRA to finance spending plans and narrow budget deficits, even as businesses and households grapple with high living costs and slower consumer demand. Under Wattanga, KRA expanded digital monitoring systems, tightened enforcement and increased scrutiny of businesses and imports in an effort to widen the tax base. Business groups and manufacturers said the measures increased compliance costs in an already weak economy. Mohamed takes over an agency expected to deliver stronger collections while avoiding further strain on economic activity. Parliament is currently debating proposals under the Finance Bill 2026 aimed at widening the tax net and tightening compliance measures. His appointment signals continuity in Kenya’s revenue strategy even after Wattanga’s abrupt exit. Kenya remains under pressure to improve domestic revenue mobilisation as part of broader fiscal reforms backed by lenders, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF). KRA collected KES 2.038 trillion ($15.7 billion) in the nine months through March 2026, missing its KES 2.122 trillion ($17 billion) target but posting 11.4% growth from a year earlier, according to KRA data. The revenue authority attributed the increase to wider digital compliance systems and data-driven tax administration, even as businesses continued to push back against rising enforcement pressure.
Read MoreAfrica Bitcoin Corporation upgrades listing to Johannesburg Stock Exchange Main Board
Africa Bitcoin Corporation (ABC), the South Africa-based Bitcoin treasury and SME financing firm, has applied to transfer its listing from South Africa’s Alternative Exchange (AltX), a board for smaller companies, to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange’s (JSE) Main Board. The transfer will move all of the company’s share classes, including its ordinary shares and preferred A, B, and C shares, to the JSE Main Board under the exchange’s General Segment classification, the company said in a statement on Monday. The JSE has approved the move set to take effect on Friday, May 22. The move is the latest step in Africa Bitcoin Corporation’s multi-exchange expansion across Africa, as it seeks to bring Bitcoin exposure to institutional investors through publicly traded stock exchanges. Questco Corporate Advisory Proprietary Limited, a South Africa-based advisory firm which previously acted as the company’s designated advisor, will become its JSE sponsor from the transfer date. In March, Africa Bitcoin Corporation completed a 3-for-1 share split and issued up to 22.9 million new ordinary shares to meet the minimum share capital requirements for a Main Board listing and additional international listings. “[Africa Bitcoin Corporation] has strategic ambitions to broaden its exchange footprint, including a potential migration to the JSE Main Board and participation on additional international trading platforms. Increasing the issued Ordinary Share capital will assist the [ABC] in achieving the minimum issued share capital criteria applicable to such exchange and market segments,” the company said in the March 25 filing. Under JSE Main Board listing requirements, companies seeking to list must have at least 25 million issued equity shares in circulation and meet one of two financial thresholds. They must either report a pre-tax profit of at least R15 million ($902,700) in the most recent financial year and hold net assets of at least R50 million ($3 million), or hold net assets of at least R500 million ($30 million). Africa Bitcoin Corporation met the profit threshold in the year ended February 2025, its last released full-year report. It earned R47.9 million ($2.9 million) in total profit. Most of it came from an R86.2 million ($5.2 million) fair value gain tied to its Altvest Credit Opportunities Fund (ACOF), the company’s SME lending arm, rather than from its core operations, according to the report. At the time, the company had 11 million ordinary shares in issue, less than half the JSE’s 25 million minimum for Main Board listings, which required it to issue additional shares. The Main Board listing gives the company more flexibility under JSE rules. Under the General Segment classification, Africa Bitcoin Corporation will not need shareholder approval to issue shares for cash, as long as the issuance stays below 10% of its issued share capital. The company can also repurchase some shares without shareholder approval and is no longer required to publish condensed financial results within three months of its financial year-end, according to the Monday filing. Africa Bitcoin Corporation, which now holds 5 Bitcoins in its reserves, said in 2025 that it planned to raise $210 million to build a Bitcoin treasury reserve, following the model popularised by firms like Strategy in the United States. The company is already listed on the Namibian Stock Exchange (NSX), and trades on the OTCQB Ventures Market in the United States. ABC is also listed on German retail trading exchanges, including the Börse Frankfurt Quotation Board, Tradegate, and Lang & Schwarz. In October 2025, Warren Wheatley, ABC’s chief executive officer (CEO) and Stafford Masie, its executive chairman, told TechCabal that the company plans to pursue further listings across Africa, including in Botswana and Kenya, as well as London. As a listed Bitcoin treasury firm, ABC could raise capital through equity issuance, buy Bitcoin with the proceeds, and give investors indirect exposure to the digital asset through publicly traded shares. Public listings also allow ABC to sidestep crypto trading restrictions in some African markets. In countries where retail crypto trading is banned, investors can still gain exposure to Bitcoin by buying shares in the company.
Read MoreMoneyHash hires Hwan Lee as Africa regional director in continental expansion
MoneyHash, a Middle East and Africa-born startup that provides payment orchestration infrastructure for businesses, has appointed Hwan Lee as its Regional Director for Africa as the company plans its expansion across the continent. Lee joins MoneyHash after more than eight years at Ozow, a South African electronic funds transfer (EFT) systems provider, where he most recently served as Head of Partnerships. Earlier in his career at Ozow, Lee also held senior commercial and business development roles focused on expanding merchant relationships and market reach. The appointment aligns with MoneyHash’s ambition of building what it previously described as a fully agnostic payments infrastructure layer capable of aggregating payment Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and technical capabilities across providers and markets, which it could achieve by hiring the right people. “Africa represents one of the most exciting growth opportunities in global payments today,” said Nader Abdelrazik, Chief Executive Officer of MoneyHash. “Hwan’s leadership experience and deep market understanding will be instrumental as we expand across the continent and help businesses scale with greater control, flexibility, and efficiency.” Founded in early 2021 by Abdelrazik and Mustafa Eid, MoneyHash started as a payment orchestration platform focused on emerging markets, where businesses often struggle with fragmented payment systems. The company has since positioned itself as infrastructure that sits between merchants and payment providers, enabling businesses to integrate multiple gateways through one API instead of building separate integrations for each market. It offers smart payment routing, multi-currency payment processing, and a unified dashboard for complete operational control. As Regional Director for Africa, Lee will oversee MoneyHash’s commercial strategy and market development efforts across the continent, which will include strengthening partnerships with payment providers and merchants and driving business growth across priority markets. MoneyHash noted that Lee already played a role in expanding relationships with companies operating in African markets, including Luno, a cryptocurrency exchange platform, Lumepay, a digital payments company, and Moove, the Uber-backed vehicle financing startup. “I’m excited to join MoneyHash and help merchants unlock growth through stronger payment operations and modern infrastructure,” Lee said. The startup raised a $4.5 million seed round in early 2024 and a $5.2 million pre-Series A round in 2025. In its statement, it identified Africa as one of the core pillars of its international growth strategy, citing growth in digital commerce and cross-border payments across the continent.
Read MoreAs DFI money dries up, AFC is doubling down on African VC with $100 million
For nearly two decades, Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) wrote cheques for bridges, ports, mines, and subsea cables. Now, the $19 billion Africa-focused development finance institution is doing something its own board initially resisted: betting $100 million on African venture capital. Future Africa, the early-stage venture capital firm, and LightRock Africa, an impact investment firm, have received a combined $40 million anchor commitment from AFC, making them the first firms to raise capital from an unlikely backer of African venture capital. Begna Gebreyes, the head of AFC’s technology division, is leading this pivot into tech investing for one of the largest Africa-focused development financial institutions. Future Africa, the fund led by renowned tech founder and investor Iyin Aboyeji, is getting $15 million, and LightRock Africa will get $25 million as the first deployments from a $100 million fund the AFC has earmarked for African venture capital. While the AFC has previously backed African startups, it is the first time that the AFC is investing directly into an African tech venture capital firm, a pivot from writing cheques for bridges, ports, mines, and subsea cables. The investment comes as funding from development finance institutions (DFIs), historically the largest source of funding for African venture capital, fell to new lows in 2025, with only 27% of total commitments coming from DFIs. Africa-focused fund managers raised just $107 million across six final closes in 2025, an 87% year-on-year drop by value, according to the African Private Capital Association. Established in 2007 and headquartered in Lagos, AFC has total assets of $19 billion. The DFI’s board, as Gebreyes recalls, initially pushed back on the idea of investing in African venture capital firms, telling him they sat on the board of an infrastructure developer, not a VC business. But Gebreyes, an Ethiopian banker who joined AFC 12 years ago as a sector-agnostic private equity product specialist, helped convince them to reconsider their decision. Investing in tech stemmed from an observation Gebreyes and colleagues made around 2021: that what would actually make the continent competitive was digital services such as fintech, e-commerce, e-logistics, e-government, and e-health. Supporting those services would drive traffic onto the subsea cables AFC had financed and content into the data centres it was building. It would prime the pump for the infrastructure that the corporation’s traditional projects were designed to close, while bridging the same infrastructure gaps. In our conversation, Gebreyes explained why AFC waited until now to back early-stage African VC, what AFC looks for in a VC fund manager, and how AFC could reshape how African startups are funded over the next decade. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. What was the early limitation on how the AFC could participate in the technology sector? The limitation we faced was the bank’s relatively low risk appetite compared to that of venture capital investors. That meant we were really only focused on very late-stage technology companies. We ended up doing co-investments with some physical equity and VC funds into M-KOPA, Moniepoint, and LulaLend. We did the working capital for Wave. We came close to doing a transaction with MNT-Halan. These were all very well-developed companies. We were only touching the unicorns or the soon-to-be unicorns, companies that were already profitable and had critical mass. What we pointed out to our board and management was that we were not addressing the other 95%, maybe even 98%, of the venture capital ecosystem on the continent. We convinced them that, rather than retooling our whole organisation to be able to address this segment, it made more sense to do the same thing lots of other DFIs are doing, which is using a mixed approach of a fund of funds to address the early stage and then making co-investments where appropriate into the best portfolio companies. Once those companies scale up and enter growth equity or debt fundraising rounds later, we will have already done our diligence on them and developed a direct relationship that puts us in a position to invest. We have been doing the second half of that already — looking at late-stage companies. But we were not involved in getting to know those companies earlier. We have now launched this fund-of-funds programme with an initial envelope of $100 million to invest. We reached an agreement with the first two funds: LightRock Africa II and Future Africa Three. We are looking to close on both within the next month or two and fill the initial envelope with additional funds. At the same time, as a multi-billion-dollar financial institution with extensive relationships in the business community and with the governments of our member countries, we are entering the institutional investor market – foundations, endowments, and pension funds – to crowd in co-investment. These are investors who cannot easily do small fund-by-fund investments in Africa because they do not feel they have the manpower or boots on the ground. We are telling them: come and invest alongside us in proportion with the $100 million commitment we have made. Our objective is to crowd in an additional $300 to $500 million of third-party capital to invest alongside our $100 million. How did the conversations with the general partners of these firms begin? When we first started investing in the VC space, we were looking to make direct investments, not through fund managers. The only companies that really met our criteria were the big multi-hundred-million-dollar valuation tech companies—MNT-Halan, Flutterwave, Moniepoint, and M-KOPA, to name a few. Along the way, as we were talking directly with these companies about making direct investments, we started developing a rapport with a fund manager called LightRock, which was managing funds for LGT, the largest private family office based out of Liechtenstein, owned by the Prince of Liechtenstein and his family. We really liked the way they think and invest. It was no coincidence that their two lead partners both came from what was CDC Group, now British International Investment, and there was a connection in the past between
Read MoreShowmax is gone. MultiChoice’s future is now premium streaming and payments
This is Follow the Money, our weekly series that unpacks the earnings, business, and scaling strategies of African fintechs, financial institutions, companies, and governments. A new edition drops every Monday. MultiChoice still dominates Africa’s broadcasting market with 14.5 million subscribers, but its fast-growing bets now sit outside traditional television: in decoder-free Internet streaming and payments. The company, which previously operated the now-shuttered Showmax streaming platform, is now leaning on a two-pronged strategy built around DStv Stream, its premium Internet TV service, and payments business, Moment, to offset pressure on its traditional pay-TV operations. DStv Stream reflects Canal+’s effort to streamline MultiChoice’s overlapping streaming bets after years of heavy losses and rising platform costs at Showmax, in a market where subscriber scale never matched the level of investment. Rather than exiting streaming, MultiChoice is consolidating around higher-margin businesses as it seeks more capital-efficient sources of growth. Why DStv Stream works better Unlike Showmax, DStv Stream was never designed as a low-cost mass-market platform. Originally launched as DStv Now before a July 2023 relaunch, DStv Stream offers the company’s full premium pay-TV experience over the Internet, including more than 150 live channels, the SuperSport network, news channels, and on-demand programming. The platform targets consumers willing to pay for premium entertainment but unwilling to install a satellite dish or decoder. Showmax, a mobile-first, on-demand service, depended on attracting millions of lower-paying users to justify its licencing and content spend. DStv Stream, by contrast, generates significantly higher revenue per customer because it attracts a more premium subscriber base anchored by premium content. Following its relaunch in 2023, DStv Stream’s standalone subscriber base grew 139%, with more than 90% of those being entirely new customers who had never subscribed to MultiChoice, according to its 2024 report. In 2024, the company said the platform’s growth skewed heavily toward Premium-tier subscribers, a more profitable customer segment than Showmax’s entry-level audience. While MultiChoice does not disclose DStv Stream’s exact revenue figures, it reported that revenue nearly tripled in 2024 after the relaunch, before growing another 48% in 2025. Across the broader group, however, the company lost 96,000 Premium subscribers, including Compact Plus customers, in 2025, signalling a dwindling base at its highest-paying tier. It shows the headwinds the pay-TV business has to deal with, where Premium subscribers are logging off due to costs. DStv Stream, at R699 ($42) without a decoder or dish, is a cheaper entry point into the same content, and therein lies the opportunity. The economics improve further because DStv Stream eliminates one of MultiChoice’s highest costs: subsidising decoders. In 2024, MultiChoice spent $132 million subsidising decoders; by 2025, that cost fell to $54 million, partly because more customers were shifting toward decoder-free streaming. Every DStv Stream subscriber costs a fraction of what a traditional satellite customer costs to acquire. The company is now trying to convert former Showmax users into DStv Stream customers. After Showmax’s shutdown, MultiChoice offered subscribers a free DStv Stream trial followed by a discounted R99 ($6) entry-tier package. The company is playing a high-risk, high-reward bet that price value and its deeper content library will nudge former Showmax users to higher-tier plans on DStv Stream. MultiChoice Total Revenue (5-Year) Macro-headwinds hit hard in FY25, pulling total revenue down to ZAR 50.8B. Subscription Other Revenue FY21 ZAR 53.4B FY22 ZAR 55.1B FY23 ZAR 59.1B FY24 ZAR 56.0B FY25 ZAR 50.8B FY21 Breakdown Total RevenueZAR 53.4B SubscriptionZAR 44.7B84% of total Other RevenueZAR 8.7B16% of total FY22 Breakdown Total RevenueZAR 55.1B SubscriptionZAR 45.3B82% of total Other RevenueZAR 9.8B18% of total FY23 Breakdown Total RevenueZAR 59.1B SubscriptionZAR 48.6B82% of total Other RevenueZAR 10.5B18% of total FY24 Breakdown Total RevenueZAR 56.0B SubscriptionZAR 45.2B81% of total Other RevenueZAR 10.7B19% of total FY25 Breakdown Total RevenueZAR 50.8B SubscriptionZAR 40.2B79% of total Other RevenueZAR 10.6B21% of total Data: MultiChoice’s Financial Reports TechCabal Tools With Canal+ committing $115 million toward MultiChoice investment, it could deepen local content production, where shows like Adulting, Youngins, and The Real Housewives franchise already attract high viewership. If Premium subscribers continue to make up a bulk of DStv Stream’s base, the high-margin economics of the platform could sustain the content investment Canal+ is betting on. Moment and the fintech play Moment, a fintech platform partly owned by MultiChoice, started as a cost-cutting play. In 2023, when MultiChoice launched it as a joint venture with Rapyd, General Catalyst, Entrée Capital, and Raba, the company said it was paying over $60 million annually in third-party transaction fees. Moment was built to bring those payments in-house. That year, MultiChoice paid $3.3 million for an initial 25.5% stake. It later invested R151 million ($8 million) in Moment’s Seed+ round, which closed in May 2024 at a post-money valuation of $82 million, according to its report. MultiChoice initially increased its shareholding to 29.6% on a fully diluted basis. However, capital contributions from other investors in that round diluted MultiChoice’s stake to 28.5%. The company has also committed an additional $6.5 million through a simple agreement for future equity (SAFE) note, earmarked for conversion in a funding round expected in 2025. As an aggregator connected to over 200 payment partners, Moment processed $635 million in total payment volume (TPV) in 2025, a sevenfold increase from $85 million the previous year. Moment grew because MultiChoice embedded it deeply into its own ecosystem: it processed 56% of the group company’s payment volumes in 2025, up from 20% the prior year, and within South Africa alone, its share grew to 81%, according to its report. With Moment in the picture, MultiChoice reported a 5% cost savings in 2025; that uplift might seem small, but it possibly accounts for millions of dollars. By 2025, Moment’s annualised run rate, a projection of its expected annual revenue, had crossed $1 billion, according to Mawela. Moment has joined real-time payment networks in 18 countries and expanded into local and cross-border card payments across the 44 markets it covers, according to the MultiChoice 2025 report. In South Africa, it was the first to launch PayShap for instant
Read MoreSamsung One UI 9 beta is here: What Galaxy users should know
Table of contents What is One UI 9? What is new in One UI 9 Which Samsung Galaxy phones will get One UI 9 When will your phone get the update How to join the One UI 9 Beta Samsung has officially launched the One UI 9 beta, built on Android 17, starting with the Galaxy S26 series. The beta went live on May 13, 2026, in six countries, and the stable rollout is widely expected to land in July alongside the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Z Flip 8. Here is what is confirmed, what is still based on reports, and what you can realistically expect for your phone. What is One UI 9? One UI 9 is the next major version of Samsung’s Android software, coming after One UI 8.5. According to Samsung’s Global Newsroom announcement on May 12, 2026, One UI 9 is built on Android 17, Google’s new annual Android release. Here is what Samsung has officially confirmed: Version: One UI 9.0, based on Android 17 Beta announcement: May 12, 2026 First beta pushed to devices: May 13, 2026 Eligible beta device: Galaxy S26, S26+, and S26 Ultra only, for now Beta markets (Phase 1): United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and South Korea Beta markets (Phase 2, from May 26, 2026): India and Poland Stable release: Samsung says the “full experience” will debut on “upcoming Galaxy flagship devices later this year” Samsung has not officially confirmed a stable launch date. However, multiple credible reports from Korean outlets Seoul Economic Daily and Korea Economic TV, and backed by SamMobile and Tom’s Guide, point to a Galaxy Unpacked event on July 22, 2026, in London. That event is where the Z Fold 8 and Z Flip 8 are expected to debut, running a stable version of One UI 9. Treat the July 22 date and London venue as reported, not officially confirmed by Samsung at the time of writing. What is new in One UI 9 Samsung says the beta is built around four areas: creativity, customisation, accessibility, and security. The bigger AI features are being saved for the stable release, so what you are seeing in the beta right now is lighter than past major One UI launches. Confirmed by Samsung’s newsroom 1. User interface and customisation: Quick Panel redesign: Brightness, sound, and media player controls are now independently adjustable rather than grouped together. You also get more size options to rearrange the layout however you want. Samsung Notes: New creative tools have been added, including decorative tapes and a wider range of pen line styles. Contacts app: You can now access Creative Studio directly from Contacts to design personalised profile cards, without jumping between apps. This requires the Creative Studio app, a network connection, and a Samsung Account. 2. Accessibility: Mouse Key speed adjustment: For users who navigate using an on-screen cursor via keyboard. Combined TalkBack package: Merges screen reader features previously offered separately by Google and Samsung. Text Spotlight: A new feature that shows selected text larger and more clearly in a floating window, useful if you have difficulty reading small text. 3. Security: High-risk app blocking: When Samsung’s security policy updates flag a new high-risk app, One UI 9 warns you, blocks installation and execution, and recommends you delete it. Reported by credible secondaries SamMobile, TechRadar, and 9to5Google have documented smaller visual tweaks that are visible in the first beta build, even though Samsung did not list them in the official press release: Thicker display brightness and volume sliders. The lock-screen media player widget now has colourful waveform animations. The audio-output picker also reads ‘This Phone’ instead of ‘Media Output.’ Some media control buttons now appear circular. Parental Controls have been moved to a dedicated section in Settings, away from the Digital Wellbeing menu used in One UI 8.5. SamMobile notes that One UI 8.5 already brought a major visual overhaul, so One UI 9 reads more like a refinement in these early builds. More features are likely to appear as later beta builds drop. Android 17 features Samsung inherits Because One UI 9 runs on Android 17, your phone should also pick up the platform improvements Google has built in. These are based on Google’s Android Developers blog and Android Central reporting: Floating app bubbles: Long-press any app icon in the launcher to open it in a floating bubble that stays on top of whatever else you are doing. On foldables and tablets, a bubble bar lives inside the taskbar. System-level Contacts Picker: Apps can no longer demand full access to your entire address book. Android 17 introduces a system picker that gives apps temporary access only to the specific contacts you select. Adaptive screen sizing: Google now enforces stricter rules for screens 600 dp or larger, preventing developers from locking apps to a single orientation on tablets and foldables. SMS and OTP protection: One-time codes are no longer delivered freely to apps that do not legitimately need them. There is also a new local network permission called ACCESS_LOCAL_NETWORK. Cross-device Handoff API: Lets you resume app activity across linked Android devices. This feature is still in Beta 2 of Android 17. Samsung has not officially confirmed which Android 17 features will appear in One UI 9 exactly as Google designed them. OEM software often reimplements system features differently. Treat this list as expected, not guaranteed, until the stable build lands. What is still speculative A redesigned Quick Panel music player that adapts colour to album art. This comes from tipster Alfaturk via Sammy Fans and is not in Samsung’s press release. Improvements to Now Brief, the feature that sends notification reminders during the day. Android Authority, via Sammy Fans, reported this based on early beta observations, but Samsung has not confirmed it. The ‘advanced AI features’ Samsung teased for the stable build remain unspecified. Samsung separately confirmed that Gemini Intelligence will arrive on Galaxy devices this summer but provided no specifics. Which Samsung Galaxy phones will get One UI 9 Samsung has
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