Wazzup. 
If you’ve found a hack to consistently create those faceless AI videos on YouTube and turn them into an income stream, the admin hammer could soon be coming down. YouTube says it’s tightening the rules around AI-generated “slop” and making it much clearer what kinds of content can, and cannot, make money on the platform. I’ll admit I’ll probably miss some of them. They seem to account for about half the random clips YouTube Shorts throws at me, sandwiched between movie recaps and Roblox gameplay (no thanks to the bubbly kids I share an account with).
That said, there’s an important announcement: we’re still collecting responses from African tech workers for our upcoming State of Salary report. If you work in tech on the continent, please take a few minutes to fill out our survey. The more responses we get, the more useful and representative the final report will be.
Now, let’s talk about African tech.
—Emmanuel
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- South Africa overhauls SIM registration
- GTBank Kenya needs a new managing director
- Cyberattacks in Kenya
- Malawi wants to break telecom duopoly
- World Wide Web 3
- Opportunities
Digital Economy
South Africa to link SIM registrations to government records
If you live in Africa, your phone number probably does a lot more than make calls. In Nigeria, it could be your OPay account number or tied to your M-PESA wallet in Kenya. It also helps unlock banking apps, receive one-time passwords (OTPs), and verify your identity (ID) online. That’s a lot of trust on digits that were intended for calls and texts—which is why South Africa wants to upgrade how those numbers are issued.
What’s happening? The South African government and mobile operators want to change the country’s SIM registration rules for the first time since the Regulation of Interception of Communications Act (RICA), which came into effect in 2009.
Explain like I’m new here: Until now, registering a SIM card was mostly a document-checking exercise. You presented your ID and showed proof of address, and the mobile operator recorded those details. The problem is that the system mainly verified the authenticity of the documents, not the person who presented them. That loophole created a black market for pre-registered SIM cards and fake registrations. Criminals could buy SIMs already linked to someone else’s identity, making it much harder for banks and investigators to trace scams back to the real culprit.
What’s changing now? Under South Africa’s proposed reforms, mobile operators want to verify citizens’ ID in real-time, checking those records against the Department of Home Affairs’ (DHA) database. The operators haven’t explained exactly how this will work for customers, but the database already stores information such as citizenship, immigration status, births, deaths, marriages, and official identity records, allowing a person’s ID details to be verified directly against DHA’s records before a SIM is activated.
Can this work? It should make one of the biggest SIM registration scams much harder. Criminals will no longer be able to register SIM cards using stolen or fake identity documents if mobile operators must verify every ID directly against the DHA records before activating a SIM. If you’re Nigerian, it’s a version of what the country tried to do by linking phone numbers to a National Identification Number (NIN), except in South Africa’s case, this is much more robust.
But that doesn’t eliminate fraud, and here’s a thought: If someone steals a real person’s identity or compromises their biometric or personal information, a live verification check may still approve the registration. The system is only as strong as the identity records it checks against and the safeguards protecting them.
Real-time verification should make fake registrations much harder, but it also depends on the quality of the government’s own identity database. In recent years, DHA has blocked ID numbers after detecting anomalies, duplicates, and suspected fraud. It would hope to play a key role in South Africa’s new telecom economy.
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Banking
GTBank Kenya’s managing director gets recalled to Nigeria
Over the past few months, chief executive officers (CEOs) and senior executives have been hopping between banks, telecoms, and fintechs like it’s transfer season in the Premier League. The latest move? GTBank Kenya is looking for a new boss.
What’s happening? Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) Kenya, the subsidiary of Nigerian tier-1 bank, is searching for a new managing director after its parent company recalled Jubril Adeniji after finalising his tenure. Adeniji will remain in the role for 90 days while the bank finds a replacement and secures approval from Kenya’s central bank.
Explain like I’m new here: Kenya’s financial sector has become one giant game of executive musical chairs. In June, Absa Kenya, one of the country’s biggest banks, had its CEO step down, Abdi Mohamed, who is now set to lead mid-tier lender I&M Bank Kenya. Stanbic Bank Kenya, a mid-tier lender, then filled its own CEO opening by appointing Michael Mutiga, who left Safaricom after leading strategy at East Africa’s largest telecom company, last week.
Moniepoint, the Nigerian fintech expanding into Kenya after appointing former Branch Kenya CEO Rose Muturi to lead that expansion. Meanwhile, former M-PESA Africa CEO Sitoyo Lopokoiyit crossed into traditional banking, joining Absa Group to head its Personal and Private Banking division.
Speaking of Safaricom: It is losing another executive, as Esther Waititu, the company’s Chief Financial Services Officer, is leaving the company at the end of July after helping modernise M-PESA’s infrastructure and launch Ziidi Trader, Safaricom’s money market trading app for retail investors.
Why is everyone moving? It could be a sign that the industry is changing. Banks are investing heavily in digital banking, while fintechs are expanding into regulated banking. Telecom companies are also entering financial services, and everyone wants executives who have already built digital products, scaled mobile money platforms, or led major technology transformations. That is why the people with experience building those products have become some of the country’s hottest hires.
Here’s a thought for you: if you’re a banking executive with a polished résumé, this might be a good time to dust it off. It’s hiring season in Kenya’s banking sector.
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Cybersecurity
Cyberattacks on Kenya’s government are surging
If you’ve ever walked into your house only to find a stranger has changed the locks and left a note on the door, you’ll have a fair idea of how Kenya’s information technology (IT) team felt on Thursday.
On July 18, William Kabogo Gitau, Kenya’s tech minister, confirmed a detail that most citizens have speculated for several hours. The country’s official website was hit by a cybersecurity attack. Reports circulating in the media said the attackers had held the state to ransom and demanded 5 Bitcoins, worth KES 41.3 million ($320,000).
However, Gitau said that there was “no evidence of unauthorised access to sensitive data, data exfiltration, or loss of information.” As of Monday, however, the website was back functioning, and for those engineers who worked overtime, the nights of pumping caffeine probably paid off.
But, according to a new report by the Communications Authority of Kenya (CAK), the country’s telecoms, IT, and digital economy regulator, these incidents happen more frequently than anybody cares to keep count of.
What happened? According to the regulator, web application attacks targeting government systems and Internet service providers (ISPs) increased by 43.7%, rising from about 12.1 million in the previous quarter to 17.4 million by June. If you do the maths, this means hackers attacked these platforms about 191,000 times a day, or 133 times every minute. That’s some never-give-up spirit.
But why is this happening at such an alarming rate?
Explain like I’m new here: Every website has a front door, the page you see, and a back room where databases, logins, and software do the actual work. A web application attack is an attempt to find weaknesses in that back room. Hackers constantly probe websites for vulnerabilities they can exploit to steal data, disrupt services, or gain control. Most attacks fail because systems block or detect them, but defenders still have to stop every attempt, while attackers only need one mistake to get in.
Are the attackers trying to say something? The July 18 attack was the second attempt on Kenya’s government website this year. With the country heading towards presidential elections in 2027, all sorts of theories could be up in the air to answer why waves of these attacks are hitting critical platforms. But without evidence, it’s safer to see these attacks for what they are: part of a much broader wave of automated cyberattacks targeting government systems in 2026.
Globally, a surveillance system used by the US’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) suffered a cyber incident. Other countries, including Brazil, and local governments in Poland have suffered the same. Closer to home, South Africa has been dealt the same hand.
Zoom out: As governments move more services online, their digital infrastructure becomes critical national infrastructure. That also makes it a bigger target. IT could get a lot more attention as it plays a huge role in how governments keep public services running.
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Telecoms
Malawi wants to break the Airtel-TNM duopoly—again
For people who have been stuck at a dinner party where only two people are allowed to speak, and they both keep raising their prices for the privilege of listening, you’ll understand the frustration of Malawian mobile users.
For years, Airtel Malawi and Telekom Networks Malawi (TNM) have dominated the country’s telecom market, and the government has once again decided it’s time to invite more guests to the table.
What happened? Shadric Namalomba, Malawi’s ICT minister, on July 17 proposed licencing more mobile network operators to drive down costs and improve service quality. This follows a public outcry over rising tariffs and a recent order from the regulator for both Airtel and TNM to compensate customers after they hiked prices without the required seven-day notice under Malawian law.
Beyond price, Malawians have long complained about thepoor quality of service (QoS) provided by Malawian telecoms, with the regulator even launching a plan to improve things in 2023. It seems that plan is still in flux.
Why now? Malawians are dealing with some of the highest data costs in the region, and the government is under pressure to deliver on its digital acceleration promises. To sweeten the deal for newcomers, the country said it will slash spectrum fees by 50% and is using a $150 million World Bank project to help build towers in underserved areas, which it plans to lease to new entrants to lower their initial costs.
Explain like I’m new here: In most healthy markets, competition keeps prices low. If one shop charges too much for bread, you go to the one next door. But in Malawi, there are essentially only two shops. While the government has handed out licences to others—such as Malcel and Nyasa Mobile—none of them have managed to actually open their doors due to macroeconomic challenges like high inflation and currency issues.
Playing in the telecoms market doesn’t end with licences; a country needs operators with deep capital that can put those licences to great use. Second, these operators also need to see Malawi as an investable market. TNM, its largest telecom, earned MK 222.90 billion ($128.5 million) in revenue in 2025, growing by 41% from the previous year. Airtel Malawi’s average revenue per user (ARPU) also grew, reaching MK 3,604 ($2.08), suggesting there’s a performance story foreign telecoms might find intriguing.
While handing out licences like chewing gum won’t fix the problem, Malawi is keen on trying, anyway. The country’s Internet penetration is at 18%, one of the worst in Africa; the move to break the duopoly seems like a cop-out.
Zoom out: Breaking a duopoly in a small, landlocked market is a product challenge as much as a regulatory one. For a third player to survive, they don’t just need a licence; they need a reason for customers to switch from the incumbents.
Malawi’s history is littered with attempts to launch a viable third operator. Unless the government can solve the underlying economic hurdles, “licencing more competitors” risks remaining a parliamentary ambition rather than a digital reality.
Founders. Investors. Policymakers. Enterprise leaders. Moonshot 2026 brings together the people shaping Africa’s technology ecosystem across AI, commerce, climate, enterprise, and culture. Spotlight your brand today.
CRYPTO TRACKER
The World Wide Web3
Source:
Coin Name
Current Value
Day
Month
– 0.82%
+ 0.78%
– 0.52%
+ 7.71%
– 0.24%
+ 3.93%
+ 0.30%
+ 6.03%
* Data as of 06.40 AM WAT, July 21, 2026.
Opportunities
- Building an off-grid energy solution? All On is offering up to $1 million in blended finance through its Off-Grid Challenge 2026 to support innovative energy access projects. Applications close July 31, 2026. Apply here.
- Ask An Investor: Why Launch Africa keeps writing early-stage cheques despite market slowdown
- Follow the Money: Nigeria’s central bank is rewriting the rules for fintech growth
Written by: Opeyemi Kareem and Zia Yusuf
Edited by: Emmanuel Nwosu & Ganiu Oloruntade
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