Author: Insider Editor

Circle Gas, the UK-based parent company of Kenyan clean-cooking business M-Gas, reported $67 million in contracted carbon credits awaiting delivery and $57 million in cash prepayments in 2025, according to its financial statements. The figures highlight the role carbon-credit revenue plays in financing clean-cooking businesses in Kenya. They also point to the risks these companies face when government approval determines whether expected revenue can be realised. Circle Gas’s accounts, filed in September, show that the company lost $39.3 million in 2025. It ended the year with $1.1 million in cash and reported net liabilities of $156.7 million. The company also…

Safaricom is making it easier for Kenyans to pay with M-PESA at physical shops by partnering with payments company Pesapal to bring tap-to-pay to 30,000 point-of-sale (POS) terminals. Customers with NFC-enabled Android phones or iPhones can now tap their devices on compatible Pesapal terminals to pay through M-PESA, instead of manually entering a merchant’s Till Number. Customers whose phones do not support NFC can use a QR code displayed on the same terminal. The rollout allows Safaricom to expand M-PESA contactless payments without building its own POS network. Instead, the company is using Pesapal’s existing terminals, which are already deployed…

Data centres are the backbone of modern cloud computing and artificial intelligence, but they usually require large buildings, huge amounts of electricity and fibre networks to move data around. Satlyt, a space-tech startup with its African headquarters in Nairobi, is pursuing a different approach: putting more computing power to work in orbit. The company develops software that allows satellites to process data and run artificial intelligence applications using computers already installed onboard the spacecraft. Its longer-term goal is to connect computing resources across multiple satellites and create what it calls virtual AI data centres in space. Satlyt has now raised…

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) is partnering with South Africa’s Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) to help 10 technology-focused small and medium-sized businesses prepare for investors and gain access to new markets and sources of funding. The 16-week pilot programme, launched on September 30, will focus on companies working in health, agriculture and fintech. Participants will receive support on investment readiness, pitch development and market access, alongside opportunities to connect with investors and industry players through JSE networks. The programme is part of the JSE’s effort to get involved earlier in the growth journey of promising businesses, rather than only engaging…

Reni Onafeko has been appointed as Glovo’s new Country Managing Director for Nigeria, taking over from Lamide Akinola, who has left the role after more than three years leading the company’s Nigerian operations. Onafeko has been overseeing Glovo’s operations in Nigeria since the start of 2026 and will now lead the company’s next phase of growth, including its expansion across Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Ibadan. Her appointment comes as Glovo continues to grow its Nigerian business. The company said Nigeria was its fastest-growing market globally in 2025, with 38 million items delivered across the country over the past year.…

Kenyan fintech Cloud9 has secured a $500,000 equity investment from Alliance, a New York-based crypto accelerator and founder community, as the company works to build a cross-border payments network for African businesses. The investment is part of Cloud9’s ongoing pre-seed round, which has also attracted funding from Techstars NYC and strategic angel investors. The latest investment brings the company’s total funding to $1 million. Cloud9 launched its product in early 2026 and says it has since opened more than 25,000 accounts, while transaction volume has grown by more than 15% week over week. The company is now looking beyond digital…

Meta is challenging a Nigerian court ruling that could change how Facebook and Instagram collect and use people’s data for targeted advertising. The company has appealed a September 25 judgment by the Lagos High Court, which found that Meta could not make behavioural profiling a requirement for Nigerians who want to use its platforms. Meta filed its notice of appeal on September 30, taking the dispute to the Court of Appeal. The case centres on how much control users have over the personal information generated when they use Facebook and Instagram, and whether accepting a platform’s terms of service is…

African businesses are increasingly operating across borders. A company in Nigeria can source products from Ghana, hire talent in Kenya, serve customers in the UK and settle payments in dollars all while dealing with different financial systems and regulatory requirements. Moving money across those markets, however, is rarely as straightforward as doing business across them. Companies often have to deal with multiple banking relationships, varying compliance requirements and settlement delays that can make international payments expensive and unpredictable. The cost of sending money across the continent remains high. Data from the World Bank’s Remittance Prices Worldwide shows that Sub-Saharan Africa…

The conversation around Nigeria’s innovation ecosystem is moving beyond technology alone, with industry leaders and policymakers calling for greater support across sectors that can drive sustainable development. That was a key focus at the second edition of the Innovation Makers Challenge (IMC) Conference & Innovation Exhibition 2.0, organised by the Telecommunication and Technology Sustainability Working Group (TTSWG) in Lagos on Thursday, September 24, 2026. Held under the theme “Nurturing Innovation Ecosystems: Beyond Ideas to Real Impact,” the conference brought together policymakers, technology and telecom executives, investors, development partners, financial institutions, young innovators and other stakeholders from across Nigeria’s innovation ecosystem.…

For Vambo AI, getting the computing power to build a large African-language AI model was not the biggest challenge. Finding enough African-language data was. The Johannesburg-based company had access to a supercomputer through a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)-backed initiative. It had the graphics processing units (GPUs) required to train a 1.5-billion-parameter model called MORENA across 12 African languages. What it did not have was enough real text in those languages. “Finding that much real data was close to impossible, so a lot of it was synthetic,” said Isheanesu Misi, Vambo’s co-founder and chief technology officer. That shortage exposes a…