This Week in African Tech 🌍

Hey hey, Darius here 👋🏼, and good morning from Abuja Nigeria.

Did you check your calendar today? Its October 5th, World Teachers’ Day!

It's a day to appreciate the people who taught us to read, write, and, most importantly, pivot when an initial plan doesn’t work out.

After all, the best education, more than just getting things right the first time, is about knowing when to close one chapter (like Chpter's founders) and immediately open a new one (like their new digital bank, Cloud9).

But before we get into the details…

Tech Roundup

• Nigeria is coming for its remote workers. Starting January 2026, freelancers and Nigerians employed by foreign firms will be required to pay income tax up to 25%. At that rate, the country still taxes less than South Africa (45%) and Kenya (35%), but enforcement is tightening with fines, penalties, and even jail time on the table.

• Africell Angola has unveiled AfriGPT, an AI-powered service that runs entirely on SMS and USSD. It’s the country’s first AI service accessible via SMS and USSD. For as little as Kz 30/day, users can ask questions on school subjects, culture, science, and more, no internet required. It’s AI for anyone with a phone, not just a smartphone.

• Tesh Mbaabu and Mesongo Sibuti, co-founders of Chpter who stepped down in September 2025, are back with Cloud9, a digital bank built for Africa’s Gen Z and millennials. The yet-to-launch platform promises real-time payments, credit, and wealth tools tailored to side hustlers and freelancers. There’s already a waitlist, but no investors or launch date disclosed.

• Cash is losing its grip in South Africa. A Yebo Fresh survey found most spaza shops now take cards, while FNB data shows 89% of its clients’ transactions are digital. PayShap, the instant-payments service launched in 2023, has already crossed 44.8M monthly transactions.

• Bridgin and SunCulture are teaming up on a first-of-its-kind financing model to back Kenya’s smallholder farmers. The structure unlocks local-currency capital for solar irrigation at a cost and scale traditional lenders haven’t managed, giving SunCulture room to reach more farmers while de-risking its balance sheet.

• NjiaPay, a South African payments startup, has poached Stitch’s dealmaker Mike McLaren as COO. McLaren helped secure Stitch’s $55M Series B and will now steer NjiaPay’s push to simplify Africa’s tangled payments scene with its single-API platform.

• Uber has rolled out Women Drivers in South Africa, a feature that lets female riders choose female drivers for their trips. The option, tested in the US and France, comes amid safety concerns around e-hailing in the country and gives women more control over how they move. Competitors Bolt and Kgosigadi Rides already offer women-only services.

• Nigeria may be sending its first civilian to space, and the public will vote to decide who it is.. The National Space Research and Development Agency has partnered with U.S.-based SERA to let Nigerians nominate and support candidates through a Telegram-powered app. The winner will ride Blue Origin’s New Shepard on an 11-minute suborbital flight.

• Kenya is moving to regulate crypto after its National Assembly advanced the Virtual Asset Service Providers Bill. The law would hand regulators sweeping authority over exchanges, stablecoins, and tokenisation — a first for the region. For one of Africa’s top five crypto markets, the rules could either unlock investment or choke the boom.

• Mastercard is teaming up with Smile ID to tackle Africa’s fraud problem and speed up digital onboarding. The deal, which includes a minority investment, will plug Smile ID’s verification tech into Mastercard’s platforms, helping banks and fintechs onboard users in seconds. They aim to secure access for 300M more Africans.

• Rwanda is going all in on Starlink. The government signed a deal with SpaceX to install the country’s first Starlink gateway by 2025, linking it directly to Rwanda’s national fiber backbone. With just 5,000 users today, the move could supercharge speeds, extend rural access, and help schools, farms, and clinics get online.

• Sending cash on M-PESA or Airtel Money could soon get cheaper. Kenya’s central bank plans to cap P2P fees, targeting a drop from KES 23 to KES 10 by 2028. The regulator argues high costs are stalling growth in a market where 82% of adults already use mobile money and KES 21B ($162M) flows daily.

Deal Roundup

• Mawingu, East Africa’s largest rural ISP, just raised $20 million from Pembani Remgro Infrastructure Fund II to expand internet access across underserved African communities. The company aims to reach 1M people by 2028 through acquisitions and new digital infrastructure.

• South Africa’s Pura Beverage Company raised $14 million to fuel its global soda ambitions. Known for low-sugar, preservative-free sodas, Pura plans to scale in the U.S. and beyond, betting that natural fizz can chip away at the $1.4T drinks market.

• Swiss blockchain platform Lisk launched a $15 million fund aimed at Web3 startups in emerging markets. The firm plans to write $250K–$750K cheques for founders tackling payments, credit, and other real-world problems. Lisk says global VCs are too busy chasing hype, while the next unicorns are quietly being built in Africa, LATAM, and Southeast Asia.

• MazaoHub, a Tanzanian agri-tech startup, has closed a $2 million pre-seed round to bring AI-powered, climate-smart farming tools to smallholder farmers. Backers include Catalyst Fund, Mercy Corps Ventures, and Nordic Impact Fund. The startup’s platform helps farmers test soil, adapt to climate shifts, and sell crops more directly.

• OKO, a climate-insurance startup for African farmers, closed a six-digit round led by Catalyst Fund. Already active in five countries and covering 33,000 farmers, OKO says it’s embedding crop insurance directly into agri supply chains as climate volatility rises.

Watch Caleb Maru, Founder of Tech Safari dive deep into the conditions shaping the continent's most successful ventures. He tackles the major questions everyone is asking: Is stronger capital, better policy, or deeper talent the missing ingredient? What are the pros and cons of developing AI in our local languages? And why is failure not just inevitable, but essential for every tech entrepreneur?

And that's a wrap!

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

Cheers,

The Tech Safari Team

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