Author: Insider Editor

2025 Zenith Tech Fair came alive as founders, innovators, creators, investors, and technology leaders converged for the grand finale of Zecathon 5.0, Zenith Bank’s flagship innovation challenge aimed at identifying and accelerating Africa’s most promising emerging talent. With Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu in attendance, the event delivered a powerful display of ingenuity, resilience, and Africa’s growing capacity to build scalable, homegrown solutions. This year’s edition stood out not only for the strength of ideas on display but also for the depth of interest it attracted from across Africa’s innovation ecosystem. Thousands of applications poured in, showcasing solutions with strong…

Millions of South Africans are once again relying on SASSA’s social grant payments to navigate the country’s rising cost of living. With food prices, transport fares, and basic household expenses continuing to climb, these monthly payouts remain a crucial safety net, supporting more than 18 million beneficiaries and helping families stay fed while keeping children in school. In 2025, the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) implemented major changes to its grant administration system to improve security and ensure that payments reach only eligible recipients. A key part of these reforms is a mandatory verification process requiring beneficiaries to confirm…

Flutterwave has focused on helping African businesses accept and move money across borders, largely by connecting card networks with local payment processors. With its acquisition of open-banking startup Mono, the company is taking a deeper step towards owning the financial data layer behind those payments. The all-stock deal, valued between $25 million and $40 million, marks a major consolidation play in Africa’s financial infrastructure. It comes at a time when the continent’s digital economy is gradually shifting away from traditional card payments toward bank-linked, account-to-account systems. Mono will continue to operate as an independent unit, with CEO Abdulhamid Hassan retaining…

Sterling Bank has partnered with global cross-border payments company Thunes to make international money transfers faster and more transparent for Nigerians living abroad. The deal connects Sterling Bank to Thunes’ Direct Global Network, enabling funds to move directly from multiple European countries into Sterling Bank accounts. The partnership is aimed at reducing long-standing challenges in cross-border payments, including slow settlement times, high fees, and unfavourable exchange rates. For many Nigerians in the diaspora, remittances are a regular financial responsibility, supporting household expenses and essential bills back home. In 2024 alone, Nigerians abroad sent over $20 billion back to the country,…

Fresh funding is accelerating the use of drones and artificial intelligence to tackle public-health challenges across Africa. SORA Technology has raised an additional $2.5 million in the second close of its late-seed funding round, pushing its total funding to about $7.3 million. The latest raise follows a $4.8 million round completed in March 2025 and attracted new investors, including Daiwa House Group Investment Limited Partnership, Central Japan Innovative Research Fund I, and UNERI Capital Fund Series I. Existing shareholders also participated, signaling growing confidence in the company’s Africa-focused health and climate solutions. The new capital marks a shift from pilot…

In early 2025, a quiet but significant deal sent a strong signal about the future of African technology. RapidDeploy, an emergency response software company founded in South Africa, was acquired by Motorola after successfully expanding into the United States, where its platform now supports critical 911 infrastructure. The acquisition marked more than a financial win for investors. It showed that African-built software can meet the highest operational and regulatory standards globally. Behind that expansion was Sango Capital, a pan-African investment firm managing over $670 million in assets, which played a key role in helping RapidDeploy scale beyond the continent. Founded…

Nigeria’s leading digital savings and investment platform, PiggyVest, has announced a landmark achievement in 2025, paying out over ₦1.3 trillion to its users and growing its user base to more than 6 million active accounts. The milestone highlights not just the platform’s growth, but also the increasing adoption of technology-driven financial solutions in Nigeria. Founded with the goal of helping Nigerians save and invest conveniently, PiggyVest has steadily evolved from a simple digital savings app to a comprehensive financial platform. Its services now include targeted savings, investment options, and flexible plans designed to suit both individual savers and small business…

When Tolu Adesina talks about Nigerian small businesses, he speaks less like a software founder and more like someone who has lived inside their daily struggles. The long nights balancing books by hand, the confusion around cash flow, the constant fear of making the wrong financial decision, these are problems he understands deeply. They are also the problems that led him from Moniepoint to building Zirro. Adesina’s journey into fintech and business software began long before Zirro existed. At Moniepoint, one of Nigeria’s fastest-growing financial technology companies, he worked closely with merchants and SMEs, watching firsthand how technology could either…

5G has arrived in Africa, but for most consumers, the technology remains more promise than practice. Telecom operators across the continent are racing to roll out next-generation networks, touting faster speeds, lower latency, and the potential to power everything from smart cities to connected cars. Yet, in the streets of Nairobi, Lagos, or Accra, many smartphone users are still struggling with 3G or 4G connections, often unable to access even basic data services reliably. Across Africa, 5G deployments are concentrated in urban pockets and high-income areas, leaving millions of users untouched. Countries such as South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, and Egypt…

Areeba Guinée has formally been taken over by Guinea, bringing the country’s second-largest telecoms operator fully under state ownership following the exit of MTN Group. A presidential decree signed by Guinea’s military leader, Mamadi Doumbouya, confirms that the government now owns 100% of Areeba, having acquired the remaining shares previously held by the South African telecoms giant. The announcement was read on state television late Thursday, making the transfer of ownership official and final. The move transforms Areeba into a state-owned telecoms company, with all ownership and voting rights now vested in the Guinean government. A separate decree also approved…