Africa Tech News

The Blockchain Association of Kenya is blocking the new Digital Asset Tax. The new tax took effect on September 1, but the case will be mentioned in court on September 28. The Kenyan government introduced several new taxes in the Finance Act 2023, aiming to generate extra income of up to $2 billion for the country. Since July 1, the Finance Act 2023 has been imposing a 1.5% tax on the earnings of...

The satellite internet provider hasn’t officially launched in Zimbabwe yet, but that hasn’t stopped some enterprising folks from getting their hands on it. The government warned that it is illegal to use or resell the service in the southern African country. Starlink is supposed to either get a direct license from the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe, buddy up with a...

Edo has made a full transition to a paperless mode of communication in its civil service as part of its move to become Nigeria’s first fully e-governed state, Edo State has officially transitioned to a paperless mode of communication in its civil service—the first Nigerian state to do so. The state governor, Godwin Obaseki directed his office to reject physical files from any ministry, department,...

Chinese electric vehicle upstart Xpeng is acquiring the smart EV assets of ride-hailing giant Didi for $744 million, marking another significant alliance that the Tesla challenger has struck in recent months. Didi says the duo is forming a strategic partnership to “promote the global application of smart electric vehicles and technologies.” The Didi assets will become a new sub-brand called “Mona”...

Moniepoint may extend its presence beyond Nigeria after getting approval to acquire Kenya’s payments and credit startup, Kopo Kopo. The Competition Authority of Kenya has provided clarity by announcing that Moniepoint Inc. can now acquire Kopo Kopo. The CAK oversees competition-related matters for transactions exceeding KES 1 billion, which means that the acquisition was the same or exceeded this...

Cellulant is parting ways with 20% of its headcount as it focuses on becoming a product-driven company. Cellulant is undergoing a restructuring exercise that will impact a fifth of its workforce. Cellulant, which operates across 19 markets, disclosed that these changes will be implemented in the coming days as the company focuses on a product-led approach that ideally creates user-centric products...

LemFi has raised $33 million in Series A funding to simplify remittance payments for immigrants globally. The round was led by Left Lane Capital. Other investors included Y-Combinator, Zrosk, Global Founders Capital, and Olive Tree. LemFi’s $33 million Series A means it has received just shy of $34 million since it was founded in 2019. Most immigrants to Canada come from Asia. In the 2019 example...

South Africa and China have signed two agreements to officially work together on space cooperation during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to South Africa last week. One agreement covers human spaceflight, and the other involves the International Lunar Research Station, a plan to build a base on the moon. The agreement is the first of its kind between the two countries and is part of China’s e...

Cyber threats against South Africa are increasing. A ransomware gang called Snatch reportedly hacked the country’s Department of Defence and stole over 200 TB of data. The South African publication MyBroadBand says that the hackers have already posted about 1.9 TB of the data they stole online. MyBroadBand, says the information released includes contact details for senior government officials incl...

The Scotland-based company, Enough, grabbed €40 million into doubling the output capacity of its first production site in the Netherlands, completed last September. The company’s proprietary technology feeds fungi with sugars from renewable feedstocks and then ferments it similar to the way beer is made. The company also boasts that Abunda is up to 15 times more efficient than protein from beef al...

Airtel Africa has announced plans to list shares on the Uganda Securities Exchange. The company plans to sell 20% of its shares—equivalent to 8 billion shares— to the public via an initial public offering and It will do this through its subsidiary in Uganda, Airtel Uganda Limited. Airtel Africa stated that the offer is expected to result in significant local ownership of Airtel Uganda Ltd., priori...

Kenya’s National Assembly is considering a petition to ban the social media platform, TikTok. Bob Ndolo, CEO of the digital consulting firm Bridget Connect Consultancy, submitted the petition to the assembly. Ndolo, says the country’s Communications Authority has failed to regulate the social media platform, which he claims is promoting violence, explicit sexual content, hate speech, and offensive...

The Central Bank of Nigeria has shared new guidelines for the sale of FX by Bureau De Change operators in the country, ending a 25-month ban. The apex bank is hoping that the new policy will stabilise Nigeria’s FX market. Nigeria’s Central Bank is ending a two-year ban on FX sales to the Bureau De Change operators in its newest move to stabilise Nigeria’s volatile FX market. The CBN says the sprea...

The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation a statutory body that protects depositors’ funds, might investigate the directors of 183 banks whose licenses were revoked to determine if financial malpractice contributed to the revocation. The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation says that the Inter-Agency Task Force may soon be called to investigate the conduct of the directors of the 183 microfinance...

India’s ambitious push for self-sufficiency in mobile phone assembling is yielding results. India shipped 2 billion domestically assembled smartphones and feature phones between 2014 to 2022 as part of its Make in India initiative. A staggering 98% of all mobile phone shipments within the Indian market in 2022 were domestically produced and 16% of the production was exported, according to Hong Kon...

The Cyber Administration of China released a new proposal that will reduce screen time for minors to two hours. The Chinese government implemented new laws that limited the number of hours minors can spend gaming online. Minors were barred from gaming during the weekdays, and weekend gaming was limited to three hours. Douyin—China’s alternative to TikTok—also implemented new policies that limited...

Safaricom Ethiopia has bagged significant funding from the World Bank’s private investment arm for its greenfield telecommunications project. The telecom finalised an agreement with the International Finance Corporation and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, to receive $257.4 million in funding. The IFC is providing a loan of $100 million to Safaricom and investing $157.4 million Ksh22.5 bi...

South Africa’s competition regulator has rejected Vodacom’s acquisition of Maziv, a holding company that owns Dark Fibre Africa, the country’s second-largest fibre network operator. The competition commission of South Africa has recommended against Vodacom’s acquisition of Maziv, a holding company whose assets include fibre network operators Dark Fibre Africa and Vumatel. The commission stated tha...

Nigeria’s Central Bank has published its audited financial statement for the first time in years, weeks after President Tinubu appointed a special investigator to examine the bank. Nigeria’s Central Bank has published its consolidated financial statements for 2015 through 2022. The apex bank has made its audited financial statements publicly available for the first time in seven years. Weeks after...

Payment processor Mastercard Inc. has agreed to buy a minority stake in the fintech business of MTN Group Ltd., a major telecom company in Africa. MTN’s CEO, Ralph Mupita, says that they’re finalising the investment arrangements, The cornerstone of MTN’s fintech endeavours is its mobile money product, MoMo, which has been valued at $5.2 billion, nearly 40% of MTN’s total market capitalisation. Thi...

Autonomous-driving company Pony.ai and Toyota say they’re teaming up with the goal of one day cranking out a bunch of fully driverless robotaxis. The two companies intend to kick off their partnership sometime this year with around $139 million in capital from GAC Toyota Motor Co. — a joint venture between Toyota China and GAC, a Chinese state-owned automaker. The investment follows Toyota’s move...

Poland-based spyware LetMeSpy is no longer operational and said it will shut down after a June data breach wiped out its servers, including its huge trove of data stolen from thousands of victims’ phones. LetMeSpy confirmed the “permanent shutdown” of the spyware service and that it would cease operations by the end of August. The notice said LetMeSpy is blocking users from logging in or signing u...

The government has shut down Senegal’s internet again after an internet shutdown in June and the awarding of a 5G licence two weeks ago, following Friday’s arrest of opposition leader, Ousmane Sonko. The minister of Communications, telecommunications, and Digital Economy, Moussa Bocar Thiam, shared on Twitter, that telephone operators were required to comply with the shutdown. Moussa Bocar Thiam s...

The Commission again reiterates that the activities of Binance, and any such other platform through which the Company solicits investors is neither registered nor regulated by the Commission and its operations in Nigeria are therefore illegal. The Commission says any member of the investing public dealing with the entity, making such solicitation is doing so at his/her own risk. The Commission her...

The Kenya government has suspended WorldCoin in Kenya after thousands of people joined long queues to scan their irises in exchange for a $54 token. The Kenyan government has suspended the operations of WorldCoin, a blockchain product co-founded by OpenAI’s Sam Altman. WorldCoin also operates a crypto wallet called World App and recently began onboarding Kenyans onto its platform. Kithure Kindiki,...