Author: Insider Editor

Africa’s private capital market is entering a more pragmatic phase, investors said at the AVCA Annual Conference, as venture-backed exits hit record levels in 2025 despite continued fundraising challenges. Speaking at the opening of the 22nd Venture Capital Summit in Nairobi, Abi Mustapha-Maduakor, CEO of the African Private Capital Association, acknowledged the tough environment but pointed to a shift in how the ecosystem is evolving. “The centre of gravity is moving toward local capital, local expertise, and local conviction,” she said. While venture funding across Africa has cooled from its peak reflecting a broader global slowdown 2025 still saw a…

Kuiper, Amazon’s satellite internet project, is looking to expand its footprint in Africa, with Kenya next on its radar following its recent approval in Nigeria. The company has applied to the Communications Authority of Kenya (CAK) for a Network Facilities Provider (NFP) Tier 2 licence. If granted, the licence would allow Kuiper through its local unit, Amazon Kuiper Kenya Limited to build and operate telecommunications infrastructure across the country. The move comes just months after a major breakthrough in Nigeria. In January 2026, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) granted Kuiper a seven-year licence covering satellite transmission, internet services, and international…

An Ethiopia-based electric mobility startup Dobai focused on electric motorbikes, has raised $13 million in Series A funding to scale its production and expand its battery-swapping network across Addis Ababa. The round combines $8 million in equity and $5 million in debt, with backing from investors including Value Chain Innovation Fund, UTokyo Innovation Platform Co., Nagase, Persistent Energy, For Seasons, CBC Co., Ltd, Inclusion Japan (ICJ), and British International Investment (BII), which provided the debt financing. The raise comes at a time when Ethiopia is emerging as one of Africa’s most ambitious electric vehicle markets. The government banned imports of…

Nigeria is moving to break what regulators describe as a long-standing culture of silence around cyberattacks, pushing banks, fintechs, and other organisations to disclose breaches or at least share threat intelligence as incidents become more frequent and increasingly interconnected. Kashifu Abdullahi, director-general of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), said organisations can no longer afford to treat cyberattacks as isolated or reputational issues, warning that a single breach can quickly cascade across the wider financial and digital ecosystem. “The landscape is elevated because of AI and other dynamics, and we are all connected,” Abdullahi said on the sidelines of…

MTN Nigeria shareholders are set to vote on Thursday on a major restructuring plan that would separate its fintech business from its core telecoms operations, in a move that could redefine how the company is organised and funded going forward. According to a regulatory filing on the Nigerian Exchange, the proposal scheduled for decision at the company’s Annual General Meeting on April 30 will transfer control of MTN Nigeria’s fintech subsidiaries, MoMo Payment Service Bank Limited and Y’ello Digital Financial Services Limited, into a new holding structure backed by MTN Group. The restructuring comes as MTN Nigeria looks beyond self-funding…

WapiPay, a Nairobi-based remittance startup, has received regulatory approval to begin operations in Jamaica, marking its first move into the Caribbean and a strategic push into one of the world’s most remittance-reliant regions. The green light from the Bank of Jamaica allows the company to launch through a partnership with JN Money Services Limited (JNMS), a local payments provider. Through this collaboration, WapiPay will facilitate cross-border transfers linking Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean serving both diaspora remittances and trade-related payments. The expansion places WapiPay in a competitive corner of global finance that underpins money flows into emerging markets. It also…

Telecel Zimbabwe is officially up for sale but under mounting pressure that highlights just how far the operator has declined. Last week, corporate rescue practitioners from Grant Thornton invited investors to bid for a stake in the struggling telco, as it looks to exit a court-supervised rehabilitation process that began in October 2025. Interested buyers have until April 28, 2026, to submit offers, with full financial details only accessible after signing non-disclosure agreements. The urgency is clear. Telecel is weighed down by more than $240 million in debt and faces the real prospect of liquidation if a buyer does not…

Nigeria is preparing to modernise its internet infrastructure over the next three years, as rising demand for connectivity begins to outpace the limits of its current system. At the centre of the shift is a move away from Internet Protocol version 4, the decades-old technology that still underpins most of the country’s internet connections. While IPv4 has powered the web since the 1980s, it can only support a finite number of device addresses a growing constraint as millions more Nigerians come online and data usage accelerates. To address this, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is pushing for a transition to…

Airtel Money is stepping up its push into merchant payments in Kenya, rolling out a new integration with Absa Bank Kenya that allows small businesses to move money more easily between mobile wallets and bank accounts. For many SMEs, managing payments across wallets, bank accounts, and agent networks has long been a daily headache. Transactions can take time to settle, and reconciling cash flows often involves too many manual steps. The new integration aims to simplify that process. Merchants can now receive payments from Airtel Money users directly into Absa accounts or via paybill numbers, mobile billing codes similar to…

Nigerian Communications Commission has directed telecom operators to compensate subscribers with airtime refunds after months of poor network service, in a move that signals tougher regulatory oversight of the sector. The refunds, which begin on Friday, April 24, are meant to cover disruptions experienced between November 2025 and January 2026. According to the commission, operators failed to meet required service standards in several parts of the country. Subscribers will be notified via SMS once the credits are applied to their lines, NCC’s Executive Vice Chairman, Aminu Maida, said during a press briefing in Lagos. While compensation orders are not new,…