news
It’s Day 1 at Moonshot 2026! ☀
Let’s talk at Moonshot!
You’ve read our stories. Now, we ‘d enjoy to hear yours.
If you’re participating in Moonshot today, we’re welcoming TC Daily readers to take a seat with members of the TechCabal newsroom for a discussion.
Bring us an African tech story you’re attempting to comprehend, a concern you’ve been indicating to ask, and even a take of ours you disagree with. We ‘d enjoy to speak about it.
We’re reserving a couple of 15-minute slots at the TechCabal cubicle on October 28 and 29. Choose a time that works for you, inform us what you ‘d like to talk about, and we’ll see you there.
Reserve a discussion with us
Check out clever insights about Francophone Africa’s tech community– weekly.
Banking
FirstRand goes bank shopping in Kenya, once again
FirstRand has actually invested about 14 years window-shopping Kenya’s banking sector. The South African banking group might lastly be all set to purchase
What took place? FirstRand, the moms and dad business of First National Bank (FNB )and Rand Merchant Bank(RMB), has actually stepped up its look for a Kenyan lending institution. Mary Vilakazi, the bank’s president, stated the group would rather purchase a smaller sized bank at the best rate and grow it than pay a premium for among Kenya’s most significant loan providers.
No target has actually been called. FirstRand is likewise looking beyond banking at services such as insurance coverage and financial investment banking as it attempts to develop a more comprehensive East African operation.
Describe like I’m brand-new here: FirstRand is not brand-new to Kenya. In 2012, it opened a representative workplace in Nairobi, primarily through RMB, to set up facilities and project-finance offers. A representative workplace can not take deposits or run a complete retail bank.
Even then, FirstRand stated it wished to purchase a mid-sized Kenyan loan provider. It never ever did. High appraisals made acquisitions challenging, so the group invested years running on the marketplace’s edges rather.
In between the lines: Kenyan banks made KES 241.65 billion ($1.9 billion) in combined revenues in 2015, up 16.3%. At the exact same time, smaller sized lending institutions are under pressure to construct adequate capital to satisfy a KES 10 billion ($77 million) minimum by 2032, which might develop more prepared sellers.
FirstRand for that reason does not require to win a bidding war for a prize bank. Purchasing a smaller sized loan provider would provide it a banking licence, deposits, and consumers, then let it include FNB’s retail items and RMB’s corporate company gradually.
Zoom out: South Africa’s banks are crowding into Kenya. Nedbank has actually finished its 66% acquisition of NCBA, while Standard Bank currently runs Stanbic and is trying to find more scale.
FirstRand has actually enjoyed Kenya for more than a years. The intriguing part now is whether increasing combination lastly produces a bank at a cost it wants to pay.
Update your service today
Pay with OPay is live on Fincra. Consumers authorize payments directly from their OPay wallet, and you get verification back on your website.
Business
Safaricom fires 118 staff members over scams
Safaricom fired 118 workers for scams in the year to March, approximately one every 3 days. It is the 4th year in a row that the number has actually increased at Kenya’s biggest telecom business and M-PESA’s operator.
What took place? Terminations leapt from 113 in the previous year. Safaricom likewise released 3 disciplinary cautions and referred 14 cases to police. The misbehavior consisted of theft, falsifying business records, and unauthorised access to client call records.
Safaricom independently recuperated KES 953 million ($7.4 million )in inflated commissions paid to representatives after its tracking systems flagged irregular payments. The business has actually not connected those healings straight to the 118 staff members who were fired.
Discuss like I’m brand-new here: Scams is especially delicate at Safaricom since the business rests on a lot more than phone records. M-Pesa processed KES 41.68 trillion ($323 billion) throughout 46.4 billion deals in the year to March. Workers, dealerships and representatives can for that reason access client identities, SIM registrations and a payments network utilized by 10s of countless individuals.
Safaricom has actually handled expert scams for several years, consisting of unauthorised system gain access to, deceptive SIM swaps and abuse of M-PESA procedures. It has actually gradually included automatic tracking and machine-learning tools to capture suspicious activity.
In between the lines: More terminations do not instantly indicate scams is becoming worse. Safaricom has actually broadened the operations its scams reporting covered in the last few years, while much better analytics can reveal misbehavior that formerly went undetected.
A better step is whether real losses and effective attacks fall. Safaricom states its brand-new SIM-swap system, which runs 18 automated checks before a line can be changed, has actually currently cut deceitful swaps by 65%.
What to see: Safaricom is significantly taking delicate choices far from specific workers and representatives and putting them into automated systems. If those controls work, future scams reports must ultimately reveal more than individuals getting captured. They ought to reveal less effective scams efforts in the very first location.
More worth with Mycoverai
You currently have a terrific item. With MyCover.ai, produce customized insurance coverage for your consumers throughout fintech, e-commerce, logistics and more, constructed around your item, and their requirements. Get going here
Fintech
Moniepoint is reorganizing its engineering and item groups
On October 19, Moniepoint, a Nigerian fintech unicorn, notified staff members of an internal restructuring impacting functions throughout backend, frontend, mobile, quality control, and item management. The business states some positions will end up being redundant as it relocates to smaller sized groups that own items from start to complete. Moniepoint has actually used impacted staff members 5 months’ income to leave willingly, while stating it will initially try to find appropriate functions somewhere else in business. The business has actually not divulged the number of staff members will be impacted.
Discuss like I’m brand-new here: Moniepoint ended up being a unicorn in 2024 after raising $110 million, purchased a 78% stake in Kenya’s Sumac Microfinance Bank in March, and states its subsidiaries now process more than $400 billion in yearly digital payments. In October, one worker stated the business worked with more than 120 individuals, while Moniepoint has formerly stated it was having a hard time to fill numerous senior technical functions. In August, Moniepoint phased out MonieWorld, its UK-Nigeria remittance item, less than 18 months after launch.
Why the restructuring? The fintech states the restructuring becomes part of a routine tactical evaluation as business moves into its next development phase. It is transferring to a platform-group design, where smaller sized groups own particular item locations, and it is likewise developing platform designer functions to manage the shared innovation beneath those groups. The restructuring and development show a business still broadening, however ending up being more selective about where it puts individuals and cash.
The larger image: Moniepoint is likewise signing up with a tech-industry shift towards smaller sized groups. Block, the moms and dad business of Square and Cash App, cut about 40% of its labor force previously this year, mentioning AI and a leaner organisational structure. Jumia and Zap Africa have actually likewise connected labor force modifications to effectiveness and AI. Moniepoint states AI is not the factor for this restructuring, although the business has actually gone over internally how AI might enhance product-management work.
Do not miss out on Moonshot 2026 for anything on the planet!
Real scale needs moving beyond surface-level combinations to robust execution. We’ve filtered the sound out of Moonshot 2026, optimising the conference strictly for high-calibre connections in between start-up creators, international monetary operators, business leaders and people rewiring Africa’s technical structures. Join us on October 28 & & 29, 2026. Get your ticket
Financing
South Africa’s CrissCross gets Circle support for stablecoin growth
Stablecoins are having their minute in African payments, and Circle, the business behind USDC, is backing the facilities that wishes to make them in fact helpful.
What occurred? CrissCross, a South African cross-border payments business, has actually gotten a concealed financial investment from Circle Ventures, Circle’s business endeavor arm. The financial investment was made through CrissCross’s moms and dad business, Stitch Group. The cash will assist CrissCross broaden its payment connections and liquidity throughout Africa, while developing out stablecoin settlement for business consumers.
Discuss like I’m brand-new here: Stablecoins such as USDC are digital tokens developed to keep a steady worth versus a currency, generally the United States dollar. That makes them helpful for moving dollar worth in between markets. African fintechs are starting to construct around this concept.
Flutterwave revealed a Circle Ventures financial investment in July and included USDC settlement to its payments platform. Onafriq has actually likewise been dealing with Circle on managed stablecoin settlement throughout its network of more than 40 African markets. CrissCross partnered with Velocity in October to link institutional stablecoin liquidity to regional collections and FX throughout more than 30 African markets.
Why Circle is interested: Every brand-new payment platform that constructs USDC into its facilities possibly produces another path for the stablecoin to move through the monetary system. Sub-Saharan Africa likewise got more than $205 billion in on-chain crypto worth in between July 2024 and June 2025.
CrissCross states it runs throughout more than 30 markets and supports more than 20 currencies. The financial investment must assist it deepen those regional connections and provide business more methods to move in between stablecoins and regional currencies.
CRYPTO TRACKER
The World Wide Web3
Source:
|
Coin Name |
Present Value |
Day |
Month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bitcoin | $79,869 |
— 0.30 % |
— 5.46 % |
| Ether | $2,390 |
— 2.19 % |
— 14.03 % |
| XRP | $1.31 |
— 2.20 % |
— 19.85 % |
| Solana | $ 103.84 |
— 1.51 % |
— 13.17 % |
* Data since 06.49 AM WAT, October 28, 2026.
Opportunities
- Dar Blockchain and The Hashgraph Association have actually released a four-month incubation program to assist 18 Web3 endeavors from the Hedera Africa Hackathon end up being investment-ready start-ups. Backed by $ 900,000, the program will offer technical assistance, organization mentorship, item advancement support, and access to possible financiers. A minimum of 5 start-ups are anticipated to be prepared for seed financial investment by January 2027, when the program concludes with a financier Demo Day. Discover more
Composed by: & Emmanuel Nwosu and Yemi Kareem
Modified by: Emmanuel Nwosu & Ganiu Oloruntade
Desire more of TechCabal?
Register for our informative newsletters on business and economy of tech in Africa.
- The Next Wave: futuristic analysis of business of tech in Africa.
- Francophone Weekly by TechCabal: expert insights and analysis of Francophone’s tech environment
P: S If you’re frequently missing out on TC Daily in your inbox, examine your Promotions folder and move any edition of TC Daily from “Promotions” to your “Main” or “Primary” folder and TC Daily will constantly concern you.
Discover more from PMN S.P.O.R.T.S - A PRIME MEDIA NETWORK BRAND
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
