Author: Insider Editor

Nigerian startups have fought the same battles: acquiring users, keeping them engaged, and finding ways to build loyalty without burning through incentives. Cashback works for a while. Discounts work for a while. But neither necessarily creates lasting relationships. This is the idea behind ZOI, Wellahealth’s embedded healthcare infrastructure. Its latest move launching Femcare on the PalmPay app—offers an early glimpse of what healthcare could look like when it becomes part of the digital platforms Nigerians already use every day. Instead of asking people to download another health app, the approach is simple: integrate affordable health plans directly into apps they…

Africa remains largely invisible in the data that powers today’s artificial intelligence systems, despite being home to more than 2,000 languages. Most machine learning models are trained primarily on English, Mandarin, and a handful of other dominant global languages. For millions of Africans, that gap means the next generation of digital tools—from voice assistants to financial apps—may struggle to understand the languages they speak every day. Nigeria is now taking a step to change that. The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has partnered with NKENNEAi, an African language artificial intelligence platform, to build the infrastructure needed to support AI…

Nigeria’s formal exit came at the FATF plenary in Paris on October 24, 2025, when the country was removed from the grey list after completing a 19-point action plan aimed at strengthening its anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing framework. The reforms were the result of a two-year effort involving multiple agencies, coordinated largely through the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU). The NFIU upgraded its goAML intelligence platform, expanded data-sharing across financial regulators, and deepened Nigeria’s engagement with the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA), FATF’s regional body. By the time of the October plenary, Nigeria…

South Africa’s e-hailing industry is at a crossroads. While Bolt and WANATU have secured their operator licences ahead of the March 11 deadline, thousands of drivers are still scrambling to get their permits, leaving many at risk of fines and potential street-level conflicts. Bolt confirmed it received its Certificate of Registration from the National Public Transport Regulator (NPTR) on February 27. “Receiving the Certificate of Registration from the NPTR is an important milestone not only for Bolt, but for the broader e-hailing industry, as it strengthens trust and enhances safety for both driver operators and passengers,” said Fikile Nzuza-Chunga, senior…

After more than a decade of trying to carve out a homegrown streaming service, Showmax is set to close. The African platform, run by MultiChoice Group now a subsidiary of French broadcaster Canal+ will be wound down in the coming months as part of a major cost-cutting and efficiency drive. The decision, approved by the Showmax board and communicated to subscribers on Thursday, comes in the wake of Canal+’s $3 billion acquisition of MultiChoice. While no final closure date has been announced, the company said legal processes related to the takeover are still being finalised. “This decision reflects our focus…

A Moroccan-Senegalese mobility startup Weego is building a multimodal transport platform, has raised $1.1 million in funding from Azur Innovation Fund, an early-stage venture capital firm. The capital will help the company expand across Moroccan cities, strengthen its business-focused transport solutions, and prepare for growth into Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. Urban congestion remains one of the biggest economic challenges in Africa’s major cities. Casablanca, Morocco’s economic hub, ranks eighth among the continent’s most congested cities, according to Numbeo, which tracks commuting conditions and congestion worldwide. As Morocco works toward its 2030 development goals, transport efficiency is increasingly tied…

Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses, developed with EssilorLuxottica, are marketed as AI-powered assistants capable of translating languages, describing surroundings, capturing hands-free photos and videos, and answering questions about what the user sees. But interviews with Sama employees and Meta staff revealed that much of the footage recorded through the glasses is sent thousands of kilometers to Kenya, where annotators review and label it to improve the AI’s performance. Several workers told the Swedish newspapers that they regularly encounter highly sensitive material, from everyday household scenes to intimate moments that users likely did not realize were being captured. Some footage reportedly included…

Airtel Nigeria’s financial arm, SmartCash Payment Service Bank (PSB), has hit nearly three million active users, a milestone the company says reflects customers who have transacted in the past 30 days a stricter standard than the six-month “active” metric used by many banks. Usage over longer 60- and 90-day windows is even higher, highlighting strong and growing engagement across the country. Since the Central Bank of Nigeria introduced PSBs in 2018, telecom-led fintechs have struggled to turn subscriber scale into meaningful financial traction. Airtel’s SmartCash generated just $6 million in revenue by December 2025, modest compared with market leaders like…

Kuda, a Nigerian neobank with over seven million customers, saw something others hadn’t: building its own CBA could make or break the bank. “It was one of the hardest and most daring decisions I’ve ever taken,” said Musty Mustapha, Kuda’s co-founder and CTO. “I knew I had to stake everything,my team, our investors, the board on this choice.” Banking itself hasn’t changed much over the decades: take deposits, guarantee access, lend to the economy. What has changed is the engine that powers it. A core banking application is that engine recording every deposit, loan, and transaction, updating accounts in real…

A Kenyan battery-as-a-service (BaaS) startup Arc Ride, has secured a $5 million (KES 645 million) commitment from the International Finance Corporation to support its regional expansion, reflecting growing investor interest in e-mobility and climate solutions in East Africa. The IFC backing comes ahead of Arc Ride’s planned Series A round, which the company intends to use to expand its battery-swapping infrastructure and deepen partnerships with local electric mobility operators across the region. “IFC proposes an equity investment of up to $5 million to support Arc Ride’s Series A financing round, which aims to scale network density and service capacity in…