This Week in African Tech 🌍

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If your week felt busy, Rwanda's was busier.

The country became the first African government to sign a multi-sector AI agreement with Anthropic, committing to deploy Claude across hospitals, classrooms, and public agencies in one move.

And the scope is ambitious: API credits, developer training, malaria detection, and digital classrooms, all on the same roadmap. The policy team behind it probably hasn't slept since Tuesday.

Let’s unpack the rest of this week’s news…

Tech Roundup

•  After years on the sidelines, SA banks are edging into crypto as regulations firm up and risk fears cool. Discovery Bank is already offering in-app crypto trading through Luno, while Absa and others prep custody and tokenisation pilots for 2026. With the Travel Rule now standard and customer demand rising, banks are shifting from crypto-curious to crypto-active.
  

• Visa is carving out a new sub-region in Egypt, Libya, and Sudan as it chases digital-payments growth across North Africa. Longtime exec Malak El Baba will lead the bloc, tasked with deepening partnerships with banks, merchants, and fintechs. The reshuffle aims to put Visa closer to policymakers shaping the region’s digital-commerce future.
  

• Foreign investment in Nigeria’s telecom sector hit $392.9 million in the first nine months of 2025, its strongest run since 2019. A 50% tariff hike and a steadier naira helped lure capital back after years of whiplash. Operators are already spending: MTN tripled capex, Airtel is building a hyperscale data centre, and regulators say the rebound proves pricing reform is working.

• TikTok scrubbed more than 580,000 videos in Kenya last quarter as pressure mounts over privacy and covert recording scandals. The company says 99.7% were removed before anyone reported them, and it cut off 90,000 livestreams for rule-breaking. The crackdown lands just as Kenyans debate hidden-camera content and whether moderation can keep up with new tech.
  

• MTN Group is undoing one of its biggest infrastructure deals, offering $8.50 per share to take IHS Towers private and reclaim the 29,000-tower portfolio it once sold. The buyback would cost about $2.2 billion and fold the margin IHS earns back into MTN’s books. Call it a strategic rewind: as data demand surges, MTN wants its network backbone back under one roof.
  

  

  MTN is Africa’s biggest telco and also IHS’s biggest African customer.

  
  

• Rwanda has become the first African government to ink a multi-sector AI MOU with Anthropic, aiming to deploy Claude across health, education, and public-sector systems. The deal builds on last year’s ALX partnership and includes developer training, API credits, and national-scale programs targeting everything from malaria to digital classrooms. It’s a big swing at becoming Africa’s AI testbed, with policy, skills, and infrastructure moving in lockstep.
  

  

  Global AI giants like OpenAI and Anthropic are making partnerships inroads into Africa. A few months ago, OpenAI piloted a program with a Nigerian university.

• Amid mounting labour unrest, Gabon’s media regulator has indefinitely suspended social media platforms, citing misinformation and online abuse. The blackout comes as teachers, health workers, and broadcasters escalate strikes under President Brice Oligui Nguema. It’s the latest in Africa’s growing wave of platform shutdowns, and a reminder that political tension often travels fastest through the internet’s off switch.
  

• Nigeria’s data watchdog has opened a probe into Temu over alleged violations of the Data Protection Act. Regulators say the platform handles data for 12.7 million Nigerians, raising flags around surveillance, transparency, and cross-border transfers. If the NDPC’s suspicions stick, Temu could face serious legal heat and a crash course in Nigerian compliance.
  

• The Nairobi Securities Exchange is plotting a dedicated tech board to woo VC-backed startups that typically skip public markets. Earlier attempts like the Ibuka program fizzled, but new rules now let the bourse carve out sector-specific boards. With retail investing rising and Kenya’s tech scene maturing, the NSE is hoping a fresh coat of “startup-friendly” paint will finally draw its hometown champions.
  

• Airtel Africa is in late-stage talks to plug Starlink’s direct-to-cell tech into its network across 15 markets. The upgrade would let regular phones ping satellites directly, a cheat code for reaching rural regions where towers are pricey and slow to build. If the deal closes, Airtel may not match Safaricom’s tower footprint, but it won’t need to.

  

  This initiative will significantly expand internet access to unserved places across Africa.

• After years in regulatory limbo, Risevest has finally secured a Fund & Portfolio Manager licence from Nigeria’s SEC. The approval caps a turnaround that began after the regulator warned Nigerians away from the platform last year. Now fully legit, Risevest joins peers like Bamboo and Trove, and gets a shot at capturing Nigeria’s fast-growing retail investor wave.
  

• Eden Life is shelving its consumer subscriptions around meals, laundry, and cleaning to bet fully on corporate catering and industrial food services. The pivot follows shaky unit economics and a brutal macro environment that crushed premium home-service demand. Refunds are still trickling out, but Eden says the B2B shift is its clearest path to surviving and turning a profit by 2026.

Deal Roundup

• Ghana’s Points Africa raised $2 million from VestedWorld to build a continent-wide rewards network where customers earn a single loyalty currency across telcos, supermarkets, fuel stations, and banks. The startup already counts MTN, Jumia, Uber, and Melcom as partners. Next up: expansions into Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda, and Kenya.
  

• WafR, a Moroccan embedded-finance upstart, closed a $4 million seed round co-led by LoftyInc, Attijariwafa Ventures, and Al Mada. The startup powers 20,000 neighborhood retailers with mobile money services and is posting 29% monthly transaction growth. They’re aiming for 100,000 active merchants, and new products like micro-insurance and credit scoring for a market shifting quickly away from cash.

  

  Ismail Bargach, CEO of WafR

• Kenya’s Arc Ride has secured a $5 million commitment from IFC to fuel its Series A and expand its battery-swapping network across East Africa. The startup’s “buy the bike, swap the battery” model aims to make electric motorcycles cheaper upfront and easier to run. With earlier backing from BII and Mirova, the IFC check further de-risks the business and puts more charging cabinets in petrol stations, kiosks, and warehouses.
  

• Digital lender Mogo Kenya secured KES 800 million ($6.2 million) in local-currency debt from a syndicate led by I&M Bank and Ecobank, marking a deliberate shift away from FX-exposed foreign loans. With 80% of its liabilities now in shillings, the company plans to ramp up asset-backed lending for boda bodas, tuk-tuks, and smartphones.
  

• Lupiya, a Zambian digital lender, has extended its Series A to $11.25 million, led by Alitheia IDF with support from INOKS Capital and DEG. The round’s been almost two years in the making and will fuel tech upgrades, new products, and expansion beyond Zambia.

  

  Muchu Kaingu and Evelyn Kaingu, Lupiya’s cofounders

• Cairo-based Flextock picked up $12.6 million in Series A funding to grow its “Shopify plus logistics” stack across the Egypt–Saudi corridor. The startup blends warehousing, shipping, cross-border enablement, and fintech via Flexcash. The cash will help it win more merchants, scale fulfillment, and beef up its financial services for SMEs.

  

  L-R: Flextock’s founders, Mohamed Mossaad (CEO) and Enas Siam (COO)

• Nigeria’s Terra Industries topped up its round with $22 million led by Lux Capital, bringing total funding to $34 million and pushing its valuation past $100 million. The defense-tech company builds autonomous drones, sentry towers, unmanned vehicles, and its ArtemisOS threat-detection platform. Its systems already protect infrastructure worth $11 billion across Africa, and the new cash will scale manufacturing and deployments.
  

  

  Terra’s seed funding is one of Africa’s largest seed rounds in recent years.

  
  

• Cape Town–based HAVAÍC has secured over $30 million for its African Innovation Fund III after a fresh commitment from E Squared Investments. The VC firm, known for backing high-growth, post-revenue startups, has already deployed $10 million into eight companies, including SAPay, Entersekt, and Sportable. The fund expects to close at $50 million by August 2026, riding momentum from recent exits like RapidDeploy and hearX.
  

• Egypt’s online grocer Breadfastraised $50 million in pre-Series C funding from a global all-star investor lineup, including Mubadala, IFC, EBRD, and YC. The vertically integrated startup (handling everything from sourcing to delivery) wants a bigger slice of Egypt’s $100 billion grocery market and is eyeing North and West African expansion. An IPO is on the long-term menu.

Events

•  RealCorp Capital is hosting the Diaspora Angel Playbook Workshop on 12 March 2026 in London, with a global livestream for those tuning in abroad. The event promises practical frameworks, live case studies, and a crash course in how early-stage investing really works. All aimed at helping diaspora professionals back African and diaspora-led startups. Secure your slot here.
  

• The Africa Media Festival returns for its fourth edition, now drawing more than 1,900 participants and 200+ speakers from 26+ countries. The 2026 edition lands in Nairobi, Kenya, running February 25–26, with two packed days exploring AI, creative economies, climate storytelling, and the future of how news gets made (and funded). Expect rapid-fire talks, hands-on workshops, live experiences, and the festival’s own media awards. Save your seat here.
  

• n8n is pulling its Lagos community together on March 14, 2026, for an afternoon dedicated to automation, AI agents, and real-world workflow building. The meetup, hosted in Ikoyi, features creators and builders known for their practical n8n and AI-powered automation skills. RSVP here.

Opportunities

• South Africa’s 2026 National Cleantech Innovation Challenge is now accepting applications for solutions to nine province-specific climate and energy gaps. Led by the Technology Innovation Agency, the program offers technical support and commercial pathways to help ideas move beyond pilots. Applications close on 21st April 2026.
  

• The Swedish Institute has opened applications for Impact Pioneers ’26, a fully funded leadership program flying 80 climate-focused ecosystem builders from across MENA to Stockholm. The program is geared toward incubator leads, investors, public-sector operators, and anyone shaping climate entrepreneurship in Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, or Tunisia. Deadline’s March 3rd, and the trip is on Sweden’s tab. Apply here.

Post of the Week

And that's a wrap!

That’s it for this week. See you on Wednesday 😃 

Cheers,

The Tech Safari Team

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