Technology
Connectivity, cloud, fintech infrastructure and the builders wiring the continent.
- Technology & AI
A Lagos crypto-infrastructure startup just admitted its pricing was the product problem — not the tech
ForgeLayer scrapped its fixed monthly subscription for a 0.3%-per-transaction pay-as-you-go model, betting that cash-flow risk — not blockchain complexity — was the real barrier stopping African merchants from adopting crypto payment infrastructure.
33d ago - Technology & AI
Starlink Hits a Ceiling in Kenya — And This Time It's Charging a Deposit to Wait
Starlink has frozen new sign-ups across seven Kenyan counties, including the coastal hubs of Mombasa and Kwale, after demand outran its satellite capacity — and is now taking deposits to hold a place in line.
36d ago - Technology & AI
Vodacom closes its $2.1bn grab for Safaricom — and Africa's biggest mobile-money engine now answers to Johannesburg
Vodacom has completed the purchase that lifts it to 55% of Safaricom, folding M-Pesa and East Africa's most valuable company into its accounts. The real prize isn't the network — it's control of the continent's largest daily payments rail.
37d ago - Technology & AI
Amazon points its first African satellite gateway at Nairobi — and the real contest with Starlink starts on the ground
With 396 satellites now in orbit, Amazon has crossed the threshold to switch on its Leo broadband service — and it wants Kenya to host its first ground station on the continent, turning Nairobi into the anchor of a rivalry that will be decided by fibre and routing as much as by rockets.
37d ago - Technology & AI
Mastercard is building Africa's cyber early-warning system — and starting where the attacks hit hardest
Mastercard has launched a pan-African Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence, starting in South Africa and Nigeria — the two markets its own data flags as the continent's most-attacked. Powered by threat-intelligence firm Recorded Future, which Mastercard bought for $2.65 billion, the shared-defence hub will run a first-year risk analysis across up to 50 banks, agencies and large firms as Africa's digital economy races toward a projected $1.5 trillion by 2030.
37d ago - Technology & AI
Abidjan invites Starlink in on a 12-month leash — and turns Côte d'Ivoire into Africa's satellite proving ground
Côte d'Ivoire has cleared SpaceX's Starlink to sell fixed satellite internet from July, becoming roughly the 28th African market to open its skies. But Abidjan is not rolling out a red carpet — it granted only a 12-month provisional licence with fees tied to local revenue, launched 5G the same month, and dropped Starlink into a market where Orange and MTN already sell satellite broadband. The result is the continent's most instructive test of how a state absorbs low-Earth-orbit connectivity on its own terms.
40d ago - Technology & AI
Visa and M-Pesa turn DR Congo into Africa's live lab for stablecoin-settled mobile money
Visa, M-Pesa and pan-African payments network Onafriq are piloting a system in the Democratic Republic of Congo that settles mobile money top-ups with stablecoins in the background — users see nothing change, but the dollar rails underneath their wallets just moved onto a blockchain.
41d ago - Technology
2Africa is finished: the 45,000km subsea cable rewiring a continent
The Meta-backed 2Africa cable — longer than the Earth's circumference — is complete, connecting 33 countries and reaching more than 3 billion people. For African internet, it changes the economics.
44d ago
