Africa’s relevance to the evolution of global finance is significant. The continent’s experience, particularly in cross-border payments, provides a glimpse into what tomorrow’s increasingly digital, data-driven global financial system could look like.As artificial intelligence (AI), automation and real-time data reshape how businesses make decisions, manage supply chains and deploy capital, the infrastructure that moves money across borders must evolve too. The question is no longer simply how quickly a payment can move. It is whether financial infrastructure can provide the intelligence, interoperability, liquidity and trust required to support an increasingly real-time global economy.Africa is already confronting many of these challenges. Its financial landscape spans more than 50 economies, multiple currencies, regulatory regimes, payment systems and levels of digital maturity. That complexity creates friction, but it has also made the continent an important environment for financial innovation.Mobile money, agency banking, digital identity and alternative payment solutions demonstrate how innovation in response to local needs can achieve much wider relevance. The next opportunity is to connect these innovations across borders in ways that support trade, inclusion and trusted financial participation.Initiatives such as the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), SADC regional clearing arrangements and interoperability programmes in East and West Africa are already creating opportunities to reduce friction and connect markets. But building more payment rails is only part of the answer. The next phase of digital finance will depend on making different rails work intelligently together.For Absa CIB, operating across and connecting clients into diverse African markets provides a close view of this evolution. Our experience suggests that solving for cross-border commerce requires more than technology alone. It requires the combination of regional connectivity, local-market knowledge, liquidity capability and trusted financial infrastructure to help clients navigate different currencies, regulations and payment environments.African clients increasingly expect to know where a payment is, what it will cost, when it will arrive and what is required to complete it successfully. As payments become faster and increasingly instant, those expectations create new challenges for banks. Liquidity has to be managed more dynamically, fraud must increasingly be prevented before a transaction takes place rather than detected afterwards, and payment data needs to become richer and more useful. Institutions must also make decisions across multiple currencies, markets and regulatory environments in real time.This is where AI and intelligent automation have an increasingly important role to play. Better use of data can support predictive liquidity forecasting, transaction monitoring, automated exception management and proactive fraud prevention. Standards such as ISO 20022 can provide richer transaction information, while APIs can connect payment, treasury and client platforms more effectively.But the real opportunity is not automation for its own sake. It is combining intelligent technology with trusted financial infrastructure.That distinction matters. In financial services, speed cannot come at the expense of governance, compliance or security. AI may help institutions make faster and better-informed decisions, but those decisions still need to operate within strong regulatory and risk frameworks. This is particularly important as instant and increasingly irreversible payments require fraud controls to move from detection and recovery towards prediction, prevention and real-time intervention.The future of cross-border finance is also unlikely to be defined by one winning payment technology. Traditional correspondent banking, instant payment systems, regional settlement networks, tokenised deposits, regulated stablecoins and potentially central bank digital currencies could coexist for some time.The challenge is therefore interoperability. A payment system that is exceptionally fast within one closed network but difficult to connect to another does not solve the wider problem of cross-border commerce. Financial institutions need to connect different systems while managing liquidity, foreign exchange, settlement risk, regulation and financial-crime controls.This means correspondent banking is not necessarily disappearing. It is being reinvented.The correspondent bank of the future is less of a passive intermediary and increasingly a trusted connector across financial ecosystems, helping clients navigate multiple payment rails, currencies and jurisdictions while providing liquidity, market access, transparency and regulatory confidence. This is particularly relevant in Africa, where local-market knowledge remains critical even as financial infrastructure becomes more digital.For businesses, the significance of this evolution extends well beyond moving money faster. Many multinational organisations operating across Africa have traditionally maintained multiple banking relationships, prefunded local accounts and held significant working-capital buffers because of uncertainty around payment timing, liquidity and currency availability.
Read briefing Absa has become the first African bank to launch an institutional digital asset custody proposition for South African clients, marking an important development for the bank and the evolution of digital financial services across the continent.Absa Digital Asset Custody will provide institutional and large business banking clients with secure safekeeping, administration and transfer services for digital assets within a regulated banking environment. The capability extends Absa’s established custody expertise into digital assets, combining specialist technology and infrastructure with the governance, security controls, compliance frameworks, financial crime controls and operational resilience expected of a leading financial institution.With its introduction, Absa joins a small group of regulated global banks, and the first African bank, to offer an institutional-grade digital asset custody proposition.“Financial services are changing, and we see digital assets as an important part of where the industry is heading,” said Rob Downes, Head of Digital Assets at Absa CIB. “Our strategy is to build the capabilities that will allow us to serve clients as these markets develop, while bringing the trust and oversight they already expect from us. Banks will continue to have an important role to play in the future of finance, and we want Absa to be at the forefront of that development, helping create the infrastructure that will support new opportunities across the continent.”The proposition has been developed specifically for institutional participation in digital assets and is targeted at clients including asset managers, non-bank financial institutions, corporates and treasury functions and clients in all segments who require institutional-grade custody. It is not currently a retail cryptocurrency offering.Digital Asset Custody forms part of Absa’s broader ambitions in digital assets, blockchain-enabled financial services and next-generation financial market infrastructure. Secure custody provides an important foundation from which future opportunities in areas such as tokenisation, digital securities, stablecoins and digital payments may develop.“For institutional clients, the challenge is ensuring that digital assets can be managed with the same confidence and oversight as the rest of their portfolios. Our experience in traditional custody gives us a strong understanding of what these clients require, and we have applied that expertise to the particular demands of digital assets. This allows them to explore new opportunities with the assurance that the necessary safeguards are in place,” said Downes.For South Africa and the wider continent, the introduction of regulated digital asset custody is an important step towards developing more mature financial markets. As institutional interest grows, access to trusted banking infrastructure can help bring digital assets into the formal financial system, giving African institutions greater confidence to participate in emerging markets. This service has launched to South African clients and Absa is also exploring opportunities to extend the capability into other African jurisdictions where regulatory frameworks and client demand support its introduction.
Read briefing Egypt and Mali are exploring closer cooperation in digital transformation, infrastructure, artificial intelligence (AI) and digital skills development following a meeting between their communications ministers.The discussions, held on September 27, 2026, brought together Egypt’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology and Mali’s Minister of Communications, Digital Economy and Information Technology, Hamdo Aguilian, alongside officials from both countries.Digital infrastructure was among the main areas discussed, with Mali expressing interest in Egypt’s experience in deploying fibre-optic networks and expanding high-speed connectivity.Egypt highlighted infrastructure work carried out under its Hayat Karima initiative, including the deployment of fibre-optic services intended to extend high-speed connectivity to 60 million citizens. The two sides discussed sharing technical expertise, implementation approaches and experience from the project.Digital skills development was another area identified for potential cooperation. Egypt presented training opportunities available through the African Center for Training in Communication and Information Technologies (EG-ATRC), which provides programmes for professionals from across Africa.The meeting also covered potential collaboration in artificial intelligence, particularly the use of AI in government services. Egypt outlined its national AI strategy and the work of its Applied Innovation Center, which develops technology applications targeting public and societal challenges.Mali also expressed interest in Egypt’s experience with digital government platforms and citizen-facing services. The discussions included how digital infrastructure and government platforms could be used to modernise public administration and expand access to digital services.The two countries are expected to hold further technical discussions to identify specific areas for collaboration, including digital infrastructure, AI, digital government platforms, knowledge exchange and skills development.Officials from Mali’s communications and technology agencies, as well as Egypt’s National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority and Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, also participated in the meeting.
Read briefing The CIO100 Symposium and Awards 2026 has announced sponsors ahead of its November event at Diamonds Leisure Beach & Golf Resort in Diani, Kenya, where technology leaders will convene to explore how IT leadership can drive business growth.Organised by CIO Africa by dx5, the three-day event will run from November 25 to 27 under the theme Innovation at Scale: Driving Business Growth Through IT Leadership.The sponsors are MBCOM/VMware, EProcess, Africa Data Centres, Incentro, TechLab, PAIX, Compyulinx, Entrust, Accelera Digital Group, Google Cloud, DTE, Meliora, Etica, IX Africa and Dilate Technologies Ltd.The symposium and awards recognise 100 IT leaders and organisations for achievements in leadership, innovation and the adoption of emerging technologies, including generative artificial intelligence (AI) and edge computing.The event will bring together chief information officers (CIOs), technology executives, industry experts and technology providers for discussions on digital transformation, enterprise technology adoption and business growth.Its programme will feature keynote presentations, roundtable discussions, networking sessions and presentations highlighting technology initiatives recognised through the CIO100 Awards.The symposium is designed to strengthen the capabilities of IT leaders and their teams while providing opportunities to exchange ideas, explore emerging technologies and build relationships with industry peers and solution providers.The 2026 edition will focus on how organisations can scale innovation through strategic IT leadership, technology investments and the adoption of emerging digital capabilities.The event will also provide a platform for technology providers to engage with enterprise decision-makers and showcase solutions supporting business transformation.The CIO100 Symposium and Awards is part of CIO Africa by dx5’s efforts to recognise technology leadership and promote collaboration among Africa’s technology and business communities.
Read briefing The US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) is joining WIOCC Group alongside Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) and Saudi Arabia’s Vision International Investment Company (Vision Invest), according to an announcement made on 21 September on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.On 1 September, WIOCC signed a $300 million shareholder subscription agreement with AFC and Vision Invest at the LEAP technology exhibition in Riyadh. The agreement covers an equity investment earmarked for data centre deployment and consolidation, expansion of open-access terrestrial fibre, and investment in new subsea cable assets.The announcement states that DFC’s participation is “subject to further steps before commitment and closing, including congressional notification.” No amount has been disclosed for its proposed contribution.Neither announcement discloses the company’s valuation, the equity allocation among incoming investors or the extent to which existing shareholders will be diluted.“DFC’s investment will help build trusted, resilient digital infrastructure needed to power Africa’s economic growth,” said Conor Coleman, chief of staff at DFC.“Fibre, data centres and subsea cables are now essential infrastructure for growth, innovation and AI,” said Samaila Zubairu, president and chief executive of AFC.“Robust and scalable infrastructure will be essential to unlocking the continent’s potential,” said Chris Wood, chief executive of WIOCC Group.Omar N. Al-Midani, chief executive of Vision Invest, said WIOCC “has built one of Africa’s leading digital infrastructure platforms.”The $300 million equity investment signed in Riyadh is committed capital. DFC’s participation, by contrast, remains subject to procedural requirements before a commitment and closing can be completed.WIOCC operates a carrier-neutral, open-access digital infrastructure platform across more than 30 African countries, spanning terrestrial fibre, subsea cables and data centres.Its shareholder register reflects the breadth of Africa’s telecommunications sector. It includes Telkom Kenya, Uganda Telecom, Djibouti Telecom, Botswana Fibre Networks, Mozambique’s TMCEL, Zantel, Onatel, TelOne and Dalkom Somalia, alongside the International Finance Corporation and African Capital Alliance.In December 2025, WIOCC’s Open Access Data Centres arm acquired seven NTT facilities in South Africa, across Bloemfontein, Cape Town, East London, Gqeberha, Durban and Johannesburg, with a combined capacity of more than 25MW.That figure is significant against the continent’s total installed capacity. The African Actors of Data Center Association’s 2026 economic report puts Africa’s installed data centre capacity at approximately 360MW, equivalent to about 0.6 per cent of the global total.The acquisition therefore brought a substantial share of South Africa’s data centre infrastructure under a single operator’s ownership.The raise is substantial relative to WIOCC’s previous fundraising. It exceeds the company’s entire $200 million round in 2022 and represents roughly three-quarters of the capital it raised during 2025.Measured against construction costs, however, the amount takes on a different significance.Andile Ngcaba told an ITW Africa panel in Nairobi this month that building data centre capacity in Africa costs approximately $12 million per megawatt, against a target closer to $5 million.At the higher figure, $300 million deployed entirely into data centres would fund approximately 25MW. At the lower target cost, it would fund about 60MW.Speaking on the same panel, WIOCC’s Wood described $300 million as a drop in the ocean. WIOCC’s own agreement for that amount had been signed days earlier.The capital is not earmarked exclusively for data centres, and the calculations are illustrative rather than a projection of WIOCC’s planned capacity expansion.They nevertheless frame the scale of the challenge. Africa’s data centre capacity deficit is measured in gigawatts, while funding rounds of this size translate into tens of megawatts.DFC’s commitment: Whether congressional notification is completed and the investment reaches financial close.The deal’s terms: Whether either party discloses the size of DFC’s contribution, the round’s valuation or the resulting shareholding structure.The continent’s capacity: Whether Africa’s share of global installed data centre capacity, currently estimated at around 0.6 per cent, increases as the capital is deployed.Until the first milestone is reached, DFC’s participation remains a proposed investment in African digital infrastructure.The $300 million equity agreement already signed came from AFC and Vision Invest.
Read briefing Ninety-two per cent of Africa’s population lives within reach of a mobile broadband network, yet only 36 per cent uses mobile internet.Those figures, published by the GSMA in its State of Mobile Internet Connectivity 2026 report this month, reveal a usage gap of approximately 906 million people who have network coverage but remain offline. Another 122 million people lack mobile broadband coverage altogether.The ratio is roughly seven to one. For every African who cannot access a mobile broadband signal, seven others live within coverage but do not use mobile internet.At a side event during the United Nations General Assembly on 21 September, Nigeria’s Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, said Project Bridge had attracted more investment offers than the project required.Project Bridge is a roughly $2 billion national fibre backbone project designed to deploy at least 90,000km of fibre-optic cable. The initiative aims to expand Nigeria’s core connectivity infrastructure through a public-private partnership.The World Bank committed $500 million in January 2025, while the African Development Bank approved $200 million in April 2026. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has also pledged funding.Bridge Open Access, the company incorporated in August 2026 to manage the build, is structured to give the federal government a 25 to 49 per cent stake, with private investors holding at least 51 per cent.The delivery timeline has been compressed to three years, with rollout scheduled to begin in October. Government projections put the potential return at up to $5 billion in tax revenue and 229,000 jobs.The project follows a wholesale model. Bridge OA will sell network capacity on equal terms to operators and service providers rather than serve consumers directly.The difficulty is that Nigeria already has tens of thousands of kilometres of backbone fibre. Broadband penetration passed 56 per cent this year, driven largely by mobile connections.Fibre-to-the-home reaches a fraction of the population. Operators report tens of thousands of fibre cuts annually, alongside access denials and theft. Right-of-way charges still vary by state, and efforts to harmonise them remain incomplete.At the ITW Africa panel in Nairobi this month, Telkom Kenya’s Kibati put national network coverage at roughly 90 per cent of the population, against mobile internet usage of closer to 28 per cent.Rwanda presents an even sharper contrast in the GSMA’s data. Its 4G network reaches 96 per cent of the population, while 3G coverage extends to 99 per cent. Yet only 21 per cent of the population used mobile internet in 2025.Three countries, three extensive network footprints, and one shared challenge: infrastructure that has not translated into widespread internet adoption.The GSMA and the Partnership for Digital Access in Africa identify barriers that cannot be resolved simply by laying more fibre.An entry-level smartphone costs about 76 per cent of average monthly income in sub-Saharan Africa. Smartphone shipments across the continent fell 7 per cent year on year, while shipments of devices priced below $100 declined 34 per cent.Close to 600 million Africans lack reliable electricity, constraining both network economics and the ability to charge a handset.More than 600 million mobile connections still rely on 2G and 3G networks. Beyond affordability, the report identifies limited practical digital skills, a shortage of locally relevant services and a lack of perceived value in going online as barriers to adoption.“Africa has already built much of the network foundation for its digital future,” said John Giusti, chief regulatory officer at the GSMA. “The urgent task now is to close the usage gap by making smartphones and services affordable.”Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former president of Liberia and co-chair of the Partnership for Digital Access in Africa, framed the challenge as an integrated one.“If we bring together connectivity, electrification, affordable devices and digital skills, we can ensure that the continent’s digital transformation leaves no community behind.”The partnership’s three priorities are migrating more than 600 million legacy connections to 4G and 5G handsets, integrating energy and connectivity planning, and lowering rural service costs through shared infrastructure, results-based public funding and anchor demand from institutions.The GSMA’s modelling indicates that halving the usage gap across 11 assessed markets, including Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda and South Africa, could bring approximately 245 million additional people online.Backbone projects are relatively easy to finance because their outputs are easy to measure.Kilometres of fibre laid provide a clear metric. Development finance institutions can verify the infrastructure, ministers can announce progress, and contractors can be paid against measurable milestones.It depends on device affordability, electricity reliability, right-of-way administration across dozens of subnational jurisdictions and whether people have access to services they consider worth paying for.
Read briefing Absa Bank Kenya PLC has launched Absa Next, a digital platform that lets people save, invest, borrow and manage their money in one place, whether or not they bank with Absa. The platform was built in Kenya on scalable cloud-based infrastructure, and the bank intends it to serve as a blueprint for digital banking across the wider Absa Group.The savings and investment side is built to work individually or in groups. According to the bank, users can save at rates of up to 7 per cent and invest for returns of up to 16 per cent, with goal-based and gamified savings tools sitting alongside them.Credit comes through the same app. Absa says users can access instant loans from as little as USD 3.86(KES 500) up to USD 7,710(KES 1 million), for personal or business needs. To widen access, the bank says the platform uses alternative credit scoring, which draws on a broader range of financial behaviours and data points when assessing a borrower.Everything feeds into a single dashboard covering both personal and business finances. According to Absa, open banking lets users add accounts held at other financial institutions to that view, and they can link both Absa and non-Absa Visa cards, so the picture isn’t limited to what they hold with the bank. A split-expenses feature lets them share costs with family and friends from the same place.The bank says Absa Next was shaped by extensive customer engagement and continuous testing, and will keep evolving with customer feedback.At the launch, Absa Bank Kenya Managing Director and CEO Yusuf Omari said the product reflects a shift in how financial services are designed and delivered, in line with the bank’s purpose of “Empowering Africa’s tomorrow together, one story at a time.”“Consumer expectations are changing rapidly. People want financial solutions that are intuitive, personalised and seamlessly integrated into their daily lives. Absa Next represents our response to this shift. Rather than digitising traditional banking, we have reimagined the banking experience around our customers’ goals, behaviours and aspirations,” Omari said.Sitoyo Lopokoiyit, Absa Group Chief Executive for Personal and Private Banking, said Kenya’s record in financial innovation made it the natural market to pioneer the product. “Kenya has consistently demonstrated its ability to develop innovations that solve real customer challenges and influence financial services across the continent. Absa Next builds on that legacy. It is an innovation informed by Kenyan consumers, and one that has the potential to shape how we serve customers across Africa,” he said.Consumer Banking Director Moses Muthui tied the design to how people now use money, saying the platform responds to emerging consumer behaviours and the growing overlap between digital lifestyles and financial needs. “The next generation of consumers expects banking to be simple, intelligent and always accessible. Digital is no longer just a channel; it is the primary way people engage with brands, services and their finances. Absa Next has been designed to deliver that experience,” he said.
Read briefing Tata Consultancy Services’ (TCS) sovereign cloud platform is now live in Kenya, hosted at iXAfrica Data Centres’ Nairobi facility and delivered through a partnership between TCS and regional systems integrator Sybyl.The launch was announced on the sidelines of the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly at an event held at the Harvard Club in New York.Ambassador Philip Thigo, Special Envoy on Technology to the President of Kenya, made the announcement alongside Snehar Shah, chief executive officer of iXAfrica Data Centres; Frank Mwiti, chief executive of the Nairobi Securities Exchange; John Mwendwa, chief executive of the Kenya Investment Authority; and TCS representatives.The platform provides government and enterprise users with in-country cloud infrastructure designed to support data residency, security, regulatory compliance and digital transformation, Thigo said.“As AI, digital public infrastructure and data become increasingly central to economic competitiveness and public service delivery, countries need trusted infrastructure through which they can exercise greater agency over their digital future,” he said.The three-way partnership was announced on 13 November 2025 and has now moved into production.TCS provides the sovereign cloud architecture, deployment frameworks and security expertise through its TCS Sovereign Secure Cloud offering. Sybyl handles local implementation, customer support and regional technical expertise across Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania. iXAfrica provides the underlying data centre infrastructure.The platform targets government agencies and public sector institutions, regulated industries such as banking and telecommunications, large enterprises with data sovereignty requirements, and regional financial institutions and utilities.“Our sovereign cloud fuels future-forward business models while meeting stringent privacy and regulatory requirements,” said Satishchandra Doreswamy, vice president of TCS’s cloud unit for growth markets, when the partnership was announced.Shailendra Yadav, Sybyl chief executive framed the proposition in economic terms, arguing that digital independence must deliver tangible benefits by reducing currency exposure and foreign policy risk.“African data stays in Africa, secure, sustainable, and ready to power innovation,” said Shah.The platform runs on iXAfrica’s NBOX1 campus on Mombasa Road, which the company describes as East Africa’s first and largest carrier-neutral, AI-ready hyperscale data centre.NBOX1 has a design capacity of 22.5MW across two phases. NBOX1.1 provides 4.5MW of IT load across 780 racks, while NBOX1.2 adds 18MW across 3,744 racks.The campus supports high-density workloads of up to 40kW per rack, operates at a power usage effectiveness (PUE) of 1.25 and uses free-air cooling. It draws power from the Kenyan grid, which iXAfrica says generates more than 90 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources.Two additional campuses are planned. NBOX2 is designed to deliver more than 53MW on an 11-acre site at Tilisi, approximately 40km from the existing facility. NBOX3 is planned for a site southeast of NBOX1.1.The African Actors of Data Center Association’s 2026 economic report puts the continent’s total installed data centre capacity at approximately 360MW, equivalent to about 0.6 per cent of global capacity.The same campus hosts Oracle’s Kenya public cloud region, making iXAfrica the physical home of multiple cloud platforms serving the Kenyan market.Neither TCS, Sybyl nor iXAfrica has disclosed the commercial terms of the arrangement, the capacity allocated to the sovereign cloud platform or its pricing.
Read briefing The International Business Training College (IBTC) has expanded its data centre workforce development programme to Kenya, with support from Schneider Electric University, the Africa Data Centres Association (ADCA) and other industry partners.The programme was formalised during ITW & Datacloud Africa in Nairobi and is aimed at training engineering and technology graduates for roles in the country’s growing data centre sector.The initiative combines technical training, certification, industry engagement and practical exposure to data centre operations. IBTC said the Kenya programme builds on similar initiatives it has established in South Africa and Nigeria.As part of the programme, participants will undertake the Data Centre Certified Associate (DCCA I) programme using curriculum provided through Schneider Electric University. The training covers areas including power, cooling, energy management, security, controls and data centre operations.The programme will be delivered through IBTC’s “source, train, place” model, which involves identifying candidates, providing technical training and connecting graduates with potential employment opportunities in the industry.Steve Santini, Vice President, Secure Power, Sub-Saharan Africa, at Schneider Electric, said the expansion comes as demand for data centre skills increases alongside investment in digital infrastructure.“Building a sustainable talent pipeline is critical to supporting the growth of digital infrastructure across the continent. Through Schneider Electric University and our collaboration with ecosystem partners such as IBTC and ADCA, we are helping to equip the next generation of engineers and technicians with the knowledge and practical skills needed to design, operate and maintain the resilient, efficient and sustainable data centres that will power Africa’s digital future. At Schneider Electric, we believe that investing in people is just as important as investing in technology, and workforce development remains a key pillar in enabling Africa’s digital transformation.” Said Steve.IBTC Data Centre Academy will oversee training and workforce development, while ADCA will provide industry and governance input to help align the programme with skills requirements within the data centre sector.Practical components of the training will involve industry partners, including IMEX and IX Africa, giving participants exposure to data centre technologies and operational environments.Nikki Maritz, Chief Executive Officer at IBTC, said collaboration between training institutions, technology providers and industry bodies would be important in addressing skills gaps in the sector.“Developing a sustainable talent pipeline requires collaboration across the entire digital infrastructure ecosystem. By bringing together industry associations, technology providers and training organisations, we can help equip young professionals with the skills needed to support Africa’s rapidly evolving data centre landscape.” Noted Nikki Maritz, Chief Executive Officer, IBTCThe Kenya programme comes as data centre capacity and digital infrastructure investment expand across Africa, driven in part by growing demand for cloud services, artificial intelligence workloads and other digital services.For Kenya, the programme adds another pathway for graduates seeking technical careers in data centre operations, at a time when the expansion of cloud computing and AI infrastructure is increasing demand for skills in power management, cooling, networking and other critical infrastructure disciplines.
Read briefing Every enterprise AI strategy eventually collides with the same uncomfortable truth: the model is rarely the hard part. The data underneath it is.Boards and executive committees are approving generative AI budgets at a pace that would have been unthinkable three years ago. Pilots are multiplying. Vendors are circling. And yet the organisations quietly pulling ahead are not the ones with the flashiest use cases — they are the ones that treated data governance as infrastructure for AI, rather than a compliance checkbox to satisfy after the model is already in production.Governance has always mattered. What has changed is the cost of getting it wrong.In traditional reporting and analytics, a data quality problem produces a bad chart. Someone notices, someone corrects it, the damage is contained to a dashboard. AI does not work that way. A model trained on inconsistent, incomplete, or poorly defined data does not just misreport the past — it encodes that flaw into every prediction, recommendation, and automated decision it makes going forward, at a scale no human reviewer can realistically audit line by line.This is why data governance functions that once felt like back-office hygiene are now front-line risk controls for AI. Nine disciplines, in particular, deserve executive attention:Data Quality Management stops being a housekeeping task and becomes a model-risk control. Accuracy, completeness, and consistency are no longer nice-to-haves — they are what stands between a model that earns trust and one that quietly erodes it.Metadata Management becomes explainability infrastructure. When a regulator, auditor, or board member asks why a model made a particular decision, the answer lives in metadata — what the data meant, where it originated, how it was transformed along the way. Without that lineage, AI governance has no audit trail, and “the model decided” is not an answer any serious institution can defend.Reference and Master Data Management is what allows AI to generalise correctly across an enterprise. If “customer,” “product,” or “account” is not a single trusted definition, a model trained on one business unit’s data will misfire the moment it is applied elsewhere — and it will do so silently, without raising a hand to say something is wrong.Data Security Management shifts its centre of gravity. It is no longer only about protecting data at rest in a database; it is about protecting data as it moves through training pipelines, inference APIs, and retrieval-augmented systems — a far larger and far less mature attack surface than classical data security was built to defend.Data Architecture, Development, Operations, Warehousing/BI, and Document Management round out the picture: together they determine whether data is structured for reuse, built for the right use cases, reliably available, integrated for analysis, and properly retained. Weakness in any one of these becomes a weakness in every AI system that depends on it.The most useful way to think about this is as a wheel rather than a list. These nine functions are interdependent: quality feeds architecture, architecture feeds development, development feeds operations, operations feeds security — and the cycle folds back through master data, business intelligence, document management, and metadata. Strength in one area cannot fully compensate for weakness in another, because AI systems draw on all of them simultaneously, often without a human in the loop to catch what governance should have caught upstream.This is the argument for treating data governance — people, policies, processes, technology, and culture together — as the precondition for AI adoption, not a parallel workstream that catches up later.For CIOs, Group ICT Directors, and technology leaders driving enterprise AI transformation, the practical implication is straightforward, even if the execution is not:Data governance today is what builds the brighter, AI-enabled tomorrow that every transformation roadmap promises. The enterprises that internalise this — that fund governance as the foundation rather than the finishing touch — will be the ones whose AI systems earn trust instead of merely demanding it.Joe Ouko is a Digital Transformation Leader, Technology Strategist and Doctoral Fellow with a passion for helping organisations harness technology to create meaningful business outcomes. Beyond the boardroom, he is a certified fitness coach, avid runner and golfer, and an advocate for men’s wellbeing through The B4 Project, where he explores conversations around health, leadership, fatherhood and purpose. Joe believes the best technology is the kind that quietly helps people become better versions of themselves.
Read briefing Startup and technology event Latitude59 is returning to Kenya for the fourth consecutive year, with applications now open for its 2026 Kenya Pitch Competition. The competition is open to early-stage startups from Kenya and other African countries, with selected finalists set to compete for non-equity funding, partner prizes and a place on the main stage of Latitude59 Kenya Edition in Nairobi.The event will take place on December 3–4 in Nairobi. December 3 will focus on investor activities and side events, while the main conference and pitch competition will be held on December 4. Latitude59 CEO Liisi Org said the event’s return to Kenya reflects its efforts to connect African startups with investors and ecosystem participants from other regions.“Rooted in Estonia, Latitude59 has established a strong international presence and built strong connections across Africa. Our events in Kenya and South Africa have shown that our commitment to building bridges between Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Nordic countries creates new opportunities for startups, investors, partners, and the global ecosystem. We are now returning to Kenya for the fourth year in a row and inviting founders from across Africa to apply for the opportunity to present their startups on the Latitude59 Pitch Competition stage in Nairobi this December,” said Org.Last year’s Kenya edition attracted around 2,000 participants, according to the organisers. A similar turnout is expected this year, including about 600 investors from Africa, Europe, the Nordic countries and Asia.Latitude59 is also planning two pre-events in Uganda and Zambia this year, marking the first time the event will hold activities in the two countries. The Kenya Pitch Competition will be held on the main stage on December 4. Startups will be assessed based on factors including their technology component, scalability, product development and traction.According to Latitude59 Head of Investor-Startup Relations Krista Meinarde, the competition is open to startups across sectors, although applicants are expected to demonstrate a viable technology-driven business and potential for growth.“Last year, the Latitude59 Pitch Competition attracted over 600 startup participants, and we expect similar interest this year. I’m very excited to return to Kenya and look forward to working with this year’s candidates. We do not restrict applicants to specific sectors, but a strong technological component and a clearly scalable business model are important. Ideally, we are looking for startups with a functioning MVP, clear traction, and teams that are actively fundraising,” explained Meinarde.Ten startups will be selected from the applicants to receive pitch training and mentoring before competing in the final competition. The finalists will compete for a pool of non-equity funding and prizes provided by Latitude59 partners. One of the finalists will also receive a fast-track invitation to attend Latitude59 2027 in Tallinn, Estonia, with the organisers covering round-trip travel costs.The competition provides an opportunity for early-stage startups seeking investment to present their businesses to investors and other participants attending the Nairobi event.
Read briefing Africa must stop importing its technology and instead co-own and co-design it, Ambassador Professor Muhammadou M.O. Kah told the African AI Governance Summit, held on the sidelines of the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly.Ambassador Kah, who is The Gambia’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Switzerland and Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office at Geneva, the World Trade Organization and other international organisations, delivered the keynote at a session convened by Lawyers Hub delivered the keynote on 22 September. The summit was held in New York with virtual participation.It follows the inaugural summit Lawyers Hub convened in Geneva in July, which the governments of The Gambia and Kenya, and their permanent missions in Geneva, supported. Ambassador Kah located the continent’s leverage in two assets: the minerals that power the global digital transition, and more than 2,000 languages capable of supporting inclusive and representative artificial intelligence systems. “For Africa, this time we must not import,” he said. “We must co-own, co-design, and own our own data.”The frameworks now being written. Kah’s call to write the rules lands while those rules are taking shape. The first Global Dialogue on AI Governance met in Geneva on 6 and 7 July, where the UN’s Independent International Scientific Panel on Artificial Intelligence, created by the General Assembly in August 2025, presented its first report.Africa already has a seat in that process. Linda Bonyo, founder and chief executive of Lawyers Hub, co-chaired the Dialogue’s breakout cluster on human rights alongside Spain’s minister for digital transformation and the civil service. At home, the African Union adopted a Continental Artificial Intelligence Strategy in 2024, and national strategies have followed in several member states, including Kenya’s National AI Strategy 2025–2030. She said multilateralism remains the continent’s main force multiplier. “Africa is not a bystander, she is a stakeholder,” she said. “But alignment is a choice, never assume it.”
Read briefing Johannesburg-based startup campus 22 On Sloane has launched KUMii.Africa, an artificial intelligence platform that matches entrepreneurs with funders, markets and support services, while opening a $63 million fundraise through its investment arm.Both initiatives were announced at the Global Entrepreneurship Congress Africa, held on September 16 and 17 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre under the theme “Connecting Africa.”The congress brought together representatives from 59 countries, including 26 African nations, following more than a year of engagement with ecosystem organisations across more than a dozen countries.KUMii.Africa is built around matching businesses with opportunities. For entrepreneurs, the platform generates business plans, pitch decks and financial models in about three minutes. It also drafts tender applications, connects businesses with services and resources, and identifies market opportunities aligned with their profiles.For investors, it facilitates connections with entrepreneurs. For ecosystem support organisations, it delivers enterprise development, market readiness and investor readiness programmes, with dashboards providing real-time visibility into entrepreneurs’ progress.For policymakers, the platform provides a channel for connecting with peers across the continent.More than 4,000 startups and micro, small and medium enterprises have registered on the platform. KUMii is led by Noma Ngubane, its chief executive officer.Sloane Capital, led by chief executive officer Priyansh Dhawan, is raising $63 million to invest in startups and MSMEs across the continent.The firm has secured a Category II licence and a licence from the National Credit Regulator.“Sloane Capital has been established to help bridge this gap by facilitating access to capital for high-potential startups and MSMEs,” said Kizito Okechukwu, executive head of 22 On Sloane.“Through Sloane Capital, we aim to support businesses across critical stages of growth, connecting entrepreneurs with appropriate sources of capital,” Dhawan said.Only 190 African startups raised $100,000 or more in the first half of 2026, the lowest figure since 2021. Globally, nine in every 10 late-stage venture capital dollars now flow into artificial intelligence.Okechukwu described Africa’s structural opportunity as being constrained by fragmentation within and beyond the continent.“Africa’s future will not be built in isolation; it will be built through connection. The question is no longer whether Africa should integrate, but how quickly and deliberately we can make it happen. On a fragmented continent, connection is power. And in a connected Africa, opportunity becomes exponential.”Jonathan Ortmans, president of the Global Entrepreneurship Network, cautioned against measuring entrepreneurship ecosystem interventions solely by participation figures.He argued that their effectiveness should be assessed through measurable outcomes, including funding secured, tenders won and customers acquired.By that standard, the platform’s 4,000 registrations demonstrate adoption rather than measurable business impact.Strategic partners for the congress included African Bank, Microsoft, Amazon, the Western Cape Government, the Small Enterprise Development and Finance Agency, the City of Cape Town, the Kgalema Motlanthe Foundation and the Global Entrepreneurship Network.Additional partners included Telkom, the United Nations Development Programme, the Masisizane Fund, the Wholesale and Retail SETA, the National Empowerment Fund and the FirstRand Empowerment Foundation.
Read briefing The Nairobi International Financial Centre (NIFC Africa) has signed a cooperation agreement with Swiss technology company New Wind Ventures to develop and test a framework connecting participants in the Swiss banking sector with Kenya’s capital markets.The agreement was signed by NIFC Africa CEO Daniel Mainda and New Wind Ventures CEO Veronica Almedom on the sidelines of the 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. The signing took place at the Consulate General of Switzerland and was witnessed by Joachim Tomaschett, Deputy Consul General of Switzerland. The proposed pilot will focus on improving the quality and reliability of capital markets data, increasing transparency across transactions and exploring the use of tokenisation within Kenya’s existing regulatory framework.The two organisations also plan to develop a recurring pipeline for opportunities connecting Swiss financial sector participants with Kenya’s capital markets. Mainda said the initiative is intended to address some of the information and transparency challenges that can affect cross-border investment.“This is not technology for technology’s sake,” Mainda said. “It is about using technology to reduce information asymmetry, strengthen confidence, lower transaction costs and ultimately move more capital into productive, job-creating opportunities in Kenya.”Under the agreement, New Wind Ventures will contribute technology capabilities, relationships within the Swiss market and international execution experience, while NIFC Africa will provide its institutional platform, regulatory connections and access to Kenya’s financial ecosystem. Mainda further said that the parties are looking to develop a framework that could eventually be applied beyond Kenya.The intention, Mainda said, is to “turn Swiss confidence into scalable opportunity in Kenya” and establish a model that can eventually serve markets across the continent. This initiative comes as Kenya seeks to strengthen its position as a regional financial centre and attract international capital into its financial services and technology sectors.NIFC certification provides qualifying firms with access to various state incentives, including tax benefits, while certified companies are required to establish a physical presence in Kenya. In July, NIFC Africa announced the admission of 15 new firms, which it said were expected to mobilise a combined KSh25.8 billion, equivalent to about $200 million, and create more than 1,000 jobs.New Wind Ventures is based at EPFL Innovation Park in Prilly, Switzerland. The company works with investors, governments, businesses and institutional partners on initiatives involving capital and investment opportunities in African markets.The pilot will provide a framework for the two organisations to assess how technology can support data quality, transaction transparency and cross-border participation in Kenya’s capital markets.
Read briefing Africa’s digital transformation is often described as a race to catch up. But that framing misses an important opportunity.African countries are building digital economies at a time when technology is changing rapidly. Many markets also have fewer layers of legacy infrastructure than developed economies. This creates an opportunity to design systems around today’s needs rather than simply reproducing yesterday’s models. That requires a different approach to digital transformation. Because Africa is not one market.A digital solution that works well in Nairobi may require significant adaptation in Dar es Salaam. A model that works in Tanzania may need to be redesigned for South Sudan. The differences are practical. Connectivity varies. Financial inclusion varies. Government capacity varies. Regulatory environments differ. Consumer behaviour differs. Informal economic activity remains significant across many markets.People need confidence that digital systems are secure, that their information is handled appropriately and that the institutions operating those systems are accountable. These realities should influence how digital infrastructure is designed from the beginning. Too often, the discussion about digital transformation starts with the technology. What platform should be deployed? What software should be purchased? What application should citizens download?What process needs to work better? What information needs to move more efficiently? Where are the points of friction? Which institutions need to interact? What should the citizen or business experience look like? Technology should then be designed around those requirements.Digitising a fragmented process without addressing the fragmentation can simply create a digital version of the same problem. A government may put a service online while leaving the systems behind it disconnected. Citizens then have a digital front door leading to an analogue back office. The real opportunity is to redesign the system underneath the service.Governments understand their policy objectives, institutions and citizens. Technology companies understand the tools and infrastructure available to address particular problems. Financial institutions understand the payment and financial systems through which economies operate.Bringing those perspectives together can produce solutions that are more relevant and more sustainable. It also creates an opportunity for African technology companies to play a larger role in the continent’s transformation. Companies with experience across African markets can contribute more than technology. They can contribute implementation knowledge.They can understand how a solution behaves in different regulatory environments, how users interact with systems and where apparently similar problems require different approaches.That experience matters because successful digital transformation is rarely about technology alone. It is about adoption, institutional capacity, regulation and mostly, trust. It also about whether the system solves a problem people actually have.Global technology companies have an important role in the continent’s digital economy. The point is that African markets should shape the solutions deployed in them. The next generation of digital infrastructure should be designed with African conditions in mind from the outset.That means building for different levels of connectivity. It means considering informal economies. It means designing around local regulation and consumer behaviour. It means treating data protection and security as fundamental requirements.Pilots can give policymakers and technology partners a controlled environment in which to test a solution, understand its limitations and improve it before considering wider adoption. That approach can help turn digital transformation from a procurement exercise into a learning process. Africa does not need a single model for digital transformation. It needs systems that work.The opportunity is to build those systems around the realities of African economies, institutions and citizens.This article has been written by Eva Nyamori, the Global Chief Strategy Officer at CapitalPay International
Read briefing The first is the prescribed standard: dig, bury the cable underground by land, so that when the road crews come through — and they will — the fibre survives, or by sea. We are familiar with it. One day, the earth is suddenly churned in your neighbourhood, trenches framed with rubble running parallel to your path, silt mixing with tarmac if it pours. Or, sometimes, the odd fibre cuts a rug right across the road. The second way is faster, cheaper and above ground: string it in the air, on poles, on trees, and lace it with a dollop of hope.Both methods deliver connectivity from day one, but only one is still delivering it in year five. “You can still string fibre in the air, on trees and get the same output. But you’re compromising on availability and reliability. Yes, it’s fast to do it on a tree, but it’ll be more costly in the future in maintenance, reliability, and customer satisfaction.”And that is how an engineer thinks about infrastructure and policy. It is also, Wamola will state, how a continent should think about digital transformation, yet too often, doesn’t. Yes, we know Africa has never lacked ambition. The policies exist. The strategies, laid out. The summits, annual. Missing, however? Implementation. The will to execute. As Head of Africa at the GSMA, the global body representing 800+ mobile network operators, Wamola sits at the precariously challenging yet exciting nexus between operators and regulators, investors and ministries, the networks that exist and the 960 million Africans under their coverage but have yet to go online. The stakes, cliched as this will sound, have never been higher. Because AI will not keep.Wamola’s route to policy is atypical. African regulators and policymakers come wielding law degrees more often than not. She approaches it as an engineer. Six years in Safaricom’s technology division as the first and only senior woman in its leadership, she literally planned and run the networks we angsted over every Friday evening with our peculiar habits, savoured, then took for granted over time; bars on a phone screen. “Having the engineering background, and having worked with a mobile network in the technology division, you get to really understand how a service is delivered. And that helps you appreciate the constraints. Because at the end of the day, the service is costed.”Every infusion into a network, from the licence to the diesel in the generator, ends up somewhere in the price a customer pays for a gigabyte of data. So does every policy decision. Take licensing. When a licence is tied to a specific technology, an operator pays twice for every generational upgrade: once for the real engineering work of new equipment on the towers, and again for a fresh licence, often hundreds of millions of dollars, just for permission to use the new technology, even on kit they already own. The undercurrent cost repeats with every leap from 3G to 4G to 5G, a double whammy flowing through to the price of data. “With technology-neutral licensing, it doesn’t matter whether I use satellite, fibre, 3G or 5G. You just get one licence, and it makes it cheaper.”Narrowing the coverage gap tower by tower, cable by cable to roughly nine per cent of the population living beyond the reach of 3G-and-above networks, coverage almost seems like the easy problem. “When you look at the usage gap (people who have access to the technology but are not using it), then we start looking at other barriers,” she says. Digital literacy. Device affordability. The absence of content in languages people actually speak. Close to a billion people stand on the paradox of an inactive side of that line: covered, but offline. Those people are your unbanked customers, unreachable citizens, digital channel users and everyone you build for but are just out of reach.When looking at African digital transformation as a whole system, Wamola identifies the point of failure not as spectrum, or fibre, or even skills. Instead, she says, it was narrative. “It’s in making it make sense. Digital transformation means you’re moving from something to something. From analogue to digital, from obsolete technology to new technology. It means there will need to be a business case. And making it make sense means somebody, at the end of the day, will pay for it. Because nothing comes for free.”That failure compounds. Africa has not made the case convincingly enough to investors, who must keep capital flowing into a brutally capital-intensive sector. Nor to customers, who somehow believe connectivity is exempt from economics. “In all the other sectors, prices are going up — fuel, food, school fees, hospital costs. The mobile industry is the only sector where the expectation from customers is that the price should go down. Does that make sense? The same fuel that runs your network went up in price, but somehow the data price should go down. The data ran on fuel. The data ran on a network.”A network under repeated assault. “Before, people were stealing copper. Now they’re stealing solar panels.” The panels installed to make rural sites sustainable. Each stolen battery, each severed cable, is priced back into somebody’s data bundle. It also means we need a come-to-Jesus moment. The network is a shared good. COVID proved it when it “became an essential service for life to continue. Mobile money runs on networks.” It contextualises redundancy, disaster recovery and security. “All of that is an investment. If we create awareness and shared value in society, some of those costs can be minimised because we’re having ‘an Ubuntu discussion.’”
Read briefing When Immaculate Kassait walked into the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) in November 2020, she was not taking over an established regulator. She was helping build one.The Office had a mandate under Kenya’s data protection framework, but lacked many of the institutional structures, systems, processes and public awareness mechanisms needed to turn that mandate into a functioning regulatory institution.Kassait’s tenure has coincided with a fundamental shift in how Kenya approaches personal data. Data protection has moved from a relatively new regulatory concept to a growing part of corporate governance, public-sector administration, technology policy and individual awareness.As she reflects on her tenure, Kassait discusses the challenges of establishing the ODPC, the evolution of enforcement, the rise of AI and digital public infrastructure, and the unfinished work facing her successor.A: I was essentially walking into an institution that had a mandate but no institutional structures, systems, processes or public understanding and awareness.It was a big opportunity, but also an enormous responsibility. We had to establish an institution that Kenyans could trust while helping organisations understand what data protection meant in practical terms.We were not simply implementing a law. We were building a new regulatory culture around privacy and the responsible use of personal data.That included institutional structures, regulatory processes and policies, systems for handling complaints and registrations, investigative and enforcement capabilities, public awareness programmes and relationships with stakeholders.The priorities were quite foundational: establishing the institution, putting the right people and systems in place, creating awareness about the new law and beginning to build public and stakeholder confidence in the Office.Q: What was the biggest challenge in establishing a new regulator, and how did you navigate it?A: The biggest challenge was building credibility while building the institution itself.As a new regulator, we had to establish our authority, but we also had to demonstrate that our authority was being exercised fairly, independently and in the public interest.We were also introducing a relatively new concept to organisations across very different sectors. That meant engaging government, private companies, civil society, technology companies, professionals and ordinary citizens, all of whom had different levels of understanding of data protection.We navigated this through a combination of education, engagement, guidance and, where necessary, enforcement.Regulation is most effective when people understand both what is expected of them and why it matters.Q: When you accepted the appointment in 2020, what did you expect the ODPC to look like by the end of your tenure? How different is the reality?A: I expected the ODPC to become a credible, independent and respected regulator capable of protecting the rights of data subjects while supporting responsible innovation.The Office has grown institutionally, our enforcement work has become more visible, public awareness has increased, and data protection has become part of conversations around business, government and technology.Today, organisations and citizens are much more likely to ask questions about how personal data is collected, used, shared and protected. That shift in consciousness is significant.Q: Five to six years later, how would you describe the transformation of Kenya’s data protection landscape?A: Years ago, data protection was largely a new regulatory concept for many organisations. Today, it has become part of corporate governance, public-sector administration, technology conversations and individual awareness.We have moved from introducing the framework to operationalising it. Organisations are increasingly appointing data protection officers, conducting assessments, reviewing their data practices and engaging with the regulator.Citizens are also becoming more conscious of their rights. They are asking questions, raising complaints and expecting organisations to account for how their personal information is handled.Q: What is the single biggest change you have seen in how Kenyan organisations handle personal data?A: Organisations are increasingly recognising that personal data is not simply an asset that they collect and store. It is information entrusted to them, and that comes with responsibility.Organisations now think more carefully about why they need particular information, how long they should retain it, who should have access to it and what safeguards should be in place.The conversation has definitely moved from, “Do I have to comply?” to, “How do I build responsible data practices into the way my organisation operates?”Q: Has Kenya moved from treating data protection primarily as a compliance requirement to recognising it as a fundamental business and governance issue?
Read briefing The headline out of Unstoppable Africa 2026 was a permanent African seat on the United Nations Security Council. The more consequential number for the continent’s digital economy was $300 million, and it was attached to solar mini-grids.The Nigeria Distributed Renewable Energy Fund reached commercial launch on the sidelines of the 81st UN General Assembly. It is co-managed by the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority and Africa50, with Sustainable Energy for All as a partner and $25 million in IDA financing from the World Bank.The fund will finance mini-grids, standalone solar systems and storage for communities and businesses that the national grid does not reach.It sits under Mission 300, the World Bank and African Development Bank programme targeting electricity access for 300 million Africans by 2030. Organisers said the initiative has passed 50 million connections across 40 countries.Read against what the digital infrastructure industry was debating in Nairobi last week, it becomes something else: a large pool of African capital targeting the input that increasingly determines where compute can be built.At ITW Africa in Nairobi, one of the central questions was the cost of a megawatt.Andile Ngcaba put the build cost of data centre capacity on the continent at around $12 million per megawatt, against a target closer to $5 million. JLL puts the global average build cost at roughly $11.3 million per megawatt for 2026.The gap that matters is not simply the construction cost. It is everything wrapped around unreliable power: redundancy designed for a grid that cannot always be depended on, diesel and storage capacity sized for outages that are assumed rather than exceptional, and a cost of capital priced for both.An operator does not pay a premium because concrete is necessarily more expensive in Nairobi or Lagos.It pays a premium because reliable power is not always available, and every layer of engineering required to compensate for that uncertainty lands on the balance sheet before a single rack is energised.The IMF counts about 160 data centres in Africa, roughly 5.5 per cent of the global total by facility count. The African Actors of Data Center Association’s 2026 economic report puts the continent’s share of global capacity at about 0.6 per cent, or roughly 360 megawatts.Africa has a respectable number of buildings and a much smaller share of global capacity. Counting facilities flatters the position. Counting power does not.The IMF’s AI Preparedness Index ranks sub-Saharan Africa lowest and identifies power shortages as a primary constraint. It projects that AI could add about 4 per cent to the sub-Saharan economy over a decade, conditional on electricity supply, internet access and skills.In New York, African Union Commission Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf listed the continent’s binding constraints as affordable energy, infrastructure, access to finance, skills, technology and standards.UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed, speaking about deploying AI at scale, said Africa has the talent and ideas and needs the opportunity, infrastructure and investment.Both, however, described a constraint that sits at the centre of the industry’s growth equation.The temptation is to treat a distributed renewable energy fund as a rural electrification instrument and therefore separate from hyperscale ambition.What unlocks private generation at data centre scale is closely related to what unlocks it at village scale: the ability of private producers to sell power to private buyers under viable commercial and regulatory frameworks.Raxio chief executive Robert Skjødt has framed the requirement in those terms. South Africa’s 2022 Energy Action Plan, which opened the way for private power purchase agreements, provides a reference case. Kenya and Nigeria are working through comparable changes.A fund that finances independent generation and helps establish viable contracting, credit structures and regulatory pathways at one scale can help build the infrastructure and market mechanisms required at another.Alain Ebobissé of Africa50 described the vehicle as a model that can scale across Africa. Aminu Umar-Sadiq of NSIA said Nigeria’s distributed renewable market is investable, credible and ready to operate at scale.Telkom Kenya’s Kibati told the ITW Africa panel in Nairobi that roughly 90 per cent of the population sits under network coverage while usage is closer to 28 per cent.Built capacity that goes unused is a familiar African outcome. It can emerge in power as it does in connectivity: capital deployed against demand that cannot yet support the investment.Data centre load is large, contracted and creditworthy. It is also less dependent on proximity to population centres than many traditional forms of electricity demand.In generation terms, it can become the anchor customer that distributed renewable projects have historically lacked.That creates an overlap between two markets that are often discussed separately.
Read briefing Kenya’s research and innovation community has outlined priorities for helping locally developed knowledge, prototypes and technologies move from research into commercial use.The priorities emerged from the Research Innovation and Commercialisation Roundtable held at Weston Hotel in Nairobi as part of preparations for the Africa Technology Leadership Conference 2026.The roundtable brought together representatives from public and private universities, TVET institutions, national research organisations, government departments, standards bodies and the private sector.Participants examined why promising research often stalls between the laboratory, validation, certification, investment and market entry.The discussions highlighted the need to identify promising capabilities, involve industry earlier, finance development at different stages, and prepare innovations for standards approval and commercial scale.“We are producing knowledge. Do we have the talent and ideas? The answer is yes. The question is whether we can convert more of this knowledge, consistently and sustainably,” said Professor Shaukat Abdulrazak, Principal Secretary, State Department for Science, Research and Innovation.Abdulrazak said Kenya needs clearer results from investments in universities and research institutions by converting more research into enterprises, jobs, useful products and measurable public benefit.He also called for stronger links between public institutions and the private sector, with industry participating in the research ecosystem rather than entering only after a prototype has been completed.Participants identified several areas requiring attention, including stronger links between academia, research institutions, TVETs and industry around defined national and commercial problems.They also proposed organising institutions into focused clusters supported by a national repository of expertise, facilities and research outputs, alongside stronger access to shared laboratories.Another priority was establishing a financing pathway that distinguishes between ideation, proof of concept, prototyping, validation, commercialisation and scale.The roundtable also called for standards, metrology, regulation and intellectual property requirements to be addressed from the concept stage, including affordable testing support for smaller institutions and innovators.TVET institutions were identified as having a defined role in the commercialisation process, with ATLC 2026 expected to connect screened innovations with investors and corporate partners through deal rooms and structured one-to-one engagements.The Kenya Bureau of Standards emphasised the importance of considering standards during the early stages of product development rather than treating compliance as a final step before market entry.Participants also called for clearer intellectual property ownership and benefit-sharing arrangements to give researchers, institutions, students and commercial partners greater certainty when entering projects.The roundtable will inform a Kenyan position paper for the Africa Technology Leadership Conference 2026, scheduled for October 22–23 at Argyle Grand Hotel in Nairobi.Before the conference, participating institutions are expected to identify their strongest research areas, leading researchers, major facilities and promising innovations for an initial national capability inventory.A first portfolio of innovations will then be screened for engagement with investors, corporate partners and technical institutions.The proposed deal-room model is intended to connect selected projects with potential finance, testing facilities, commercial expertise and distribution partnerships.The roundtable also called for greater domestic financing through public funding, industry investment, matching grants, blended finance and long-term capital aligned with the risk associated with each development stage.“We are here to reflect and prepare ourselves to be part of the upcoming Africa Technology Leadership Conference in October by shaping what we want to find and what we want to give there,” said Professor Vasey N. Mwaja, Chair of NACOSTI.ATLC 2026 will bring together government, academia, research organisations, industry, investors, innovators and international partners around Kenya’s technology priorities and investable opportunities.Available next action: Create a downloadable DOCX file here in this chat containing the editable prose above
Read briefing President Bola Tinubu has given the Federal Government 180 days to produce a roadmap for the full launch of Nigeria’s Digital Free Zones- a plan aimed at making it easier for tech and service companies to raise international capital, create jobs locally, and serve global markets from Nigerian soil, rather than from abroad.The directive was announced in a statement by presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga, instructing Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment Dr Jumoke Oduwole who coordinates the Presidential Steering Committee on Digital Free Zones that Tinubu chairs to build the roadmap alongside the Itana Innovation project. That puts the deadline at roughly midMarch 2027.Tinubu’s own words, as carried across multiple outlets that ran the statement verbatim, framed it as a matter of national ambition rather than technical policy, “Nigeria has the talent, enterprise and ambition to build companies that can compete anywhere.”For years, the standard path for a Nigerian startup chasing serious capital ran through incorporation abroad. A founder could build the product, hire the team and run operations entirely out of Lagos but the company itself, its intellectual property and its cap table typically moved to Delaware or the UK, because that’s what foreign investors required before writing a check. Nigeria’s free-zone rules , which the government itself describes as over thirty years old, weren’t built for remote-first, digital businesses. On top of that, naira volatility made incorporating locally a harder sell than going abroad. The economic value those companies created jobs, tax revenue, professional services was effectively exported along with the paperwork.The government isn’t building this from scratch. Itana, the only entity licensed by the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA) as a Digital Free Zone, has been running a version of this idea since, well before the presidential directive. Andela and Flutterwave cofounder Iyinoluwa Aboyeji first talked publicly about building a jurisdiction for the digital economy in January 2020. The project, initially called Talent City, secured its first physical site inside Alaro City, Lagos, in January 2022.It rebranded to Itana, raised a $2 million pre-seed round in 2023 from investors including LocalGlobe, Amplo, Pronomos Capital and Future Africa, and has since grown into the $500 million project the Presidency now leans on, with the Africa Finance Corporation backing it and, according to Africa Finance Corporation, (AFC’s) own statement, describing itself as “proud to be a pioneer alongside Itana, in building Africa’s first” digital economic zone.Structurally, Itana works less like an industrial park and more like a jurisdiction-as-a-service: companies incorporate remotely, get access to banking, tax and immigration handling through what the company calls a one-stop-shop platform.The Digital Free Zones directive is the newest of three related moves the government has made since mid2026. On 17 August, it unveiled the National Digital Cloud Policy, aimed at drawing investment into cloud and datacentre infrastructure so Nigeria hosts more of its own digital economy rather than renting it from abroad targeting $750 million in private investment over 24 months, with the ministry pointing to state purchasing power as the main lever: “A central feature of the Policy is the use of Government’s collective purchasing power.”Two weeks later, on 31 August, Information Minister Mohammed Idris launched “Hire from Nigeria” in Abuja a campaign to market Nigerian professionals to global employers directly, tied to a target of one million exportlinked jobs. Idris’s pitch: “A young Nigerian does not have to leave the country to participate.”The “how” of the roadmap remains the least defined part of the announcement. Turning one company’s licensed model into a national framework requires coordination across tax authorities, the Central Bank, immigration and arbitration bodies, none of which has been detailed publicly yet. Nor has the government said whether a company incorporated inside a Digital Free Zone would actually be shielded from the currency volatility and capital repatriation friction that made the offshore route attractive in the first place. That question is likely to matter more to founders than the incorporation process itself.Cloud policy addresses where digital business runs. “Hire from Nigeria” addresses who does the work. Digital Free Zones addresses where the company is legally based. Together, the three form a single stack rolled out over one quarter infrastructure, workforce, jurisdiction. The 180day roadmap, due around midMarch 2027, is now the piece that has to turn that ambition into something founders can actually use.
Read briefing The Most Influential Women In Tech Africa (MIWIT) is back. Every year, CIO Africa by dx5 goes looking for the women advancing technology in Africa. Some of them are well known to the community. Some, not so much. Many are the women who do their best work far from the spotlight. We want to find both.MIWIT started as an East African showcase and is now a pan-African list. Last year’s 45 came from Rwanda, Uganda, Nigeria, Benin, Namibia, South Africa and beyond. Rwanda’s ICT Minister Paula Ingabire was on it for her work making the country an AI hub. So was Uganda’s ICT Permanent Secretary Dr Aminah Zawedde, and Ada Nduka Oyom, who built She Code Africa. The youngest was Dr Viviane Oke, a 23-year-old digital health founder from Benin. Ministers sat next to founders. CIOs sat next to community builders. It is this mix that makes not just our list, but also the continent’s technological edge, unique.2026 has been a big year. AI has moved out of pilots and into daily work. Governments are writing the rules. Boards are asking what their technology spend actually delivers. Women have been part of all of it, even though they still make up only a small share of Africa’s tech workforce. This list is how we make sure this work comes alive.Nominate a woman you admire, or nominate yourself. Tell us how she meets the 2026 criteria. Be specific and comprehensive. Tell us what she or you did and what changed because of it. Numbers, launches and links help far more than general praise.
Read briefing The Government of Kenya has signed a five-year Memorandum of Understanding with the Emerging Markets Working Group at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution to strengthen collaboration on artificial intelligence, data governance, digital transformation, policy research and strategic foresight.The agreement was signed on the sidelines of the 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York by Prime Cabinet Secretary and Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Musalia Mudavadi and Dr Jendayi Frazer, Co-Director of Hoover’s Emerging Markets Working Group.The partnership will explore how AI and data can help government analyse emerging trends, develop scenarios and anticipate technological, economic and other changes that could affect national development.Kenya’s State Department for ICT and the Digital Economy said the five-year partnership is intended to move government from “data to insight, and from insight to action”, while building institutional capacity in evidence generation, analytics, monitoring, evaluation and policy development.The collaboration will be anchored through the Hoover Institution’s Emerging Markets Working Group, linking its research and policy expertise with Kenyan government institutions.Strategic foresight involves examining possible future developments and their implications rather than relying on a single forecast.For governments, this can include monitoring emerging signals, analysing trends, developing scenarios and testing policies against different possible outcomes.AI can support this work by processing large volumes of information, identifying patterns and helping analysts generate and evaluate scenarios. The Kenya-Hoover partnership places these capabilities within a broader effort to strengthen institutional decision-making and long-term planning.The initiative will include support for the National Economic and Social Council (NESC), which Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Ministry has identified as the proposed strategic policy home for the cooperation. Riara University is expected to provide a Kenyan academic and research base.An immediate priority is an El Niño Impact Monitoring and Response System, which will integrate climate, geospatial, water, agriculture and infrastructure data to generate county-level intelligence and support coordinated responses.Other planned tools include a Digital Trade Readiness Index, a Public-Private Partnership Governance Tracker and a Sectoral Resilience Scorecard focused on areas including agriculture and the digital economy. The tools are intended to strengthen investment decisions, governance and policy coordination. (The Foreign Affairs Ministry’s briefing indicates that the proposed roadmap anticipates an initial working capability within about six months, followed by further development over 12 months.The collaboration brings together Kenyan government institutions and experts from Hoover’s Emerging Markets Working Group, including Frazer and Dr Sanjeev Khagram.Frazer is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution and co-director of its Emerging Markets research team. She previously served as US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs from 2005 to 2009 and as the first woman US ambassador to South Africa.Khagram is a distinguished research fellow at Hoover and leads the Global Resilience, Intelligence Platform, and Partnership (GRIPP). His work covers technology and data, sustainable development, human security, governance and public-private partnerships.The collaboration therefore combines Kenya’s policy and development priorities with Hoover’s research capabilities in emerging markets, technology and governance.The agreement comes as Kenya continues to expand its use and governance of artificial intelligence.The partnership focuses not only on AI adoption but also on using data, research and technology to improve how government identifies risks, evaluates opportunities and develops long-term policy.Kenya’s Ministry of ICT said the broader objective is to build lasting institutional capability in evidence generation, analytics, monitoring, evaluation and policy development.The next phase will be measured through the implementation of the planned analytical systems and the development of institutional capacity around them.
Read briefing The 2026 Africa Breakfast Conversations is set to take place on Friday, September 25, at the World Trade Centre in New York, on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly. The invitation-only gathering convened by BHM and Allison Worldwide brings together leaders from business, technology, finance, government, telecommunications, energy, manufacturing, multilateral institutions and regulatory bodies.This year’s conversation themed Africa’s Next Chapter: Trade, Partnership, Investment & Global Influence, will focus on three broad questions:Meanwhile, the wider agenda will touch on trade expansion, investment capital flows, infrastructure, technology and innovation, and Africa’s evolving role in the global economy. It seeks to capture and deepen the burgeoning economic and investment ties between North America and East Africa.Ayẹni Adékúnlé, Founder & CEO of BHM Holdings, captures the rationale behind the conversation this way. “The Africa Breakfast Conversations reflects Africa’s transition from potential to performance.” He adds that, as US-Africa commercial relations enter a pivotal period, the platform is intended to help decisionmakers move beyond opportunity narratives toward actionable partnerships that can drive mutual prosperity and sustainable growth.Launched in 2024 by BHM and Allison, it is a platform for meaningful dialogue between African innovators, global investors and development leaders during UNGA. The inaugural edition brought together influential voices around Africa’s global role and opportunities.The second edition, held during UNGA80 in 2025 in partnership with The King’s Trust expanded the conversation around African-led innovation and sustainable development. It featured discussions around investment, youth empowerment, technology, media, AI, finance and the creative economy, with speakers including Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, Iyin Aboyeji, DJ Cuppy and other African and global leaders. The 2026 edition’s expected outcome is to move beyond dialogue towards connections that can lead to investment, stronger cross-border partnerships and commercial collaboration. The organisers also aim to strengthen Africa’s position in global economic conversations and help translate its growing visibility and influence into tangible economic value.The 2026 edition places special emphasis on Kenya’s evolving position as a regional financial, logistics, and technology gateway. As a premier destination for venture capital in Africa and a lead partner in trade negotiations with Washington, Kenya serves as a vital anchor for international commerce in Sub-Saharan Africa.Ayẹni Adékúnlé, CEO of BHM Holdings said “Africa is no longer just a future prospect; it is a vital, present-day commercial partner. From Nairobi’s Silicon Savannah to global financial hubs, African enterprises are building scalable solutions. This forum brings together the investors, founders, and policymakers responsible for converting continental momentum into long-term enterprise value.”Kenya provides an important lens for this year’s conversation because of its position across several of these areas, particularly technology and innovation, investment, regional commerce and its growing engagement with global markets. The 2026 announcement specifically highlights Kenya’s strategic role in the wider US-Africa commercial conversation, making its experience relevant to the broader questions around how African economies can build stronger international partnerships and translate opportunity into sustainable growth.“For the past few years, we have provided a platform during UNGA for decisionmakers from Africa, the US, and global markets to align around high-impact opportunities,” said Claudine Moore, Managing Director, Africa at Allison. “As East Africa’s innovation powerhouse, Kenya demonstrates how technology, renewable energy, and entrepreneurship can create sustainable commercial links across the Atlantic.”The Africa Breakfast Conversations has established itself as an exclusive forum during UNGA week. Past participants include leadership from Access Holdings, Future Africa, MTN Group, Goldman Sachs, Citi Bank, NBA Africa, UBA, and The King’s Trust. The event directly mirrors UNGA81’s core agenda, Restoring Trust, Managing Transformation: A United Nations that Delivers for All, by placing market-driven solutions, job creation, and African technology leadership at the center of global trade discussions.
Read briefing Kenya’s ride-hailing market has become an important part of the country’s wider gig economy, with digital transport platforms now playing a significant role in how people move around Nairobi and other urban centres.The sector, however, has also been marked by recurring tensions between ride-hailing platforms and drivers over fares, commissions, fuel costs and working conditions. Driver strikes and protests have periodically highlighted the challenges of maintaining a sustainable model for platforms, fleet operators and drivers alike. It is against this backdrop that Yango Group, which operates across ride-hailing, public transport and delivery services, is evaluating its formal entry into the Kenyan market.Rather than adopting the conventional model used by many established ride-hailing platforms, Yango is considering an approach that would place local small and medium-sized fleet businesses between the technology platform and individual drivers.“When we think about entering a market like Kenya, we avoid the traditional, discount-driven race to the bottom that has characterized the sector for years,” stated Shashi Shekhar Singh, Director of Operations for Yango Ride (Africa & Asia), during his address at the Tech Safari Summit 2026 in Nairobi. “Instead, our focus is on introducing a distinct Business-to-Business operational framework built entirely around empowering local Small and Medium Enterprise fleet partnerships.”Under the conventional ride-hailing structure, individual drivers typically operate as independent contractors and are responsible for costs such as vehicle financing, maintenance and fuel. Yango’s proposed model would instead work with fleet operators that manage groups of drivers while the technology platform provides the underlying ride-hailing infrastructure. According to Singh, Yango’s wider international network includes more than 200 local fleet partners, with individual partners managing teams of roughly 10 to 12 people.“This model addresses a critical bottleneck in the Kenyan transport sector: credit access. While an individual driver with an inconsistent digital transaction record struggles to secure standard bank financing, an established corporate fleet partner can negotiate asset-backed loans,” said Shashi.The model would, however, introduce another layer into the relationship between the platform and driver. A ride’s revenue would need to account for the technology platform as well as the fleet operator and driver, potentially creating a different set of cost and margin considerations from those faced by drivers working directly with ride-hailing platforms. The viability of such a structure will also depend on the financial position of the local SMEs involved. Fleet operators would have to contend with vehicle financing, maintenance, taxes, fuel and other operating costs while ensuring that drivers remain adequately compensated.Pricing presents another consideration in a market where commuters remain sensitive to the cost of transport. Data cited in the article from a 2026 TIFA Research industry survey indicates that 60 percent of Nairobi ride-hailing users would consider switching to traditional matatus or other cheaper alternatives if ride-hailing fares increased significantly. For Yango and its potential fleet partners, this creates a relatively narrow space in which to position the service. Higher fares could make it difficult to attract price-conscious customers, while lower fares could leave less room for fleet operators and drivers to cover their costs.Yango’s proposed approach therefore appears to place greater emphasis on differentiation than on competing primarily through price. The company has pointed to newer vehicles, driver training and security features as elements of the service it intends to offer. That positioning would depend on whether there is sufficient demand among Kenyan customers for a ride-hailing service that prioritises consistency and other service attributes over the lowest available fare.Yango is also looking beyond ride-hailing as part of its wider strategy in Kenya. The company has invested in BuuPass, a Kenyan digital platform focused on intercity transport, ticketing and travel technology. Its broader portfolio also includes logistics, parcel delivery and B2B software. For the company, these businesses could provide additional opportunities for local partners beyond individual passenger trips, potentially reducing their dependence on daily ride-hailing demand.The proposed market entry will also take place within a changing regulatory environment.Kenya’s ride-hailing industry has faced continued debate over platform commissions, driver earnings and the regulation of gig work. The High Court’s suspension of the 18 percent commission cap has altered the operating environment for platforms, while driver representatives have continued to push for greater regulation of fares and driver earnings. Yango says its approach is informed by its operations across more than 30 countries in Latin America, Europe and the Middle East. However, applying the model in Kenya would require adapting it to local market and regulatory conditions.
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