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Editor’s note: Yesterday’s TC Daily subject line, “Paystack cuts the Allawee,” was intended as a pun but may have suggested that Allawee had shut down. To clarify, Allawee, the Nigerian card-issuing fintech startup, has been integrated into Paystack following its acquisition by the payments company.
In the latest episode of Headlines by TechCabal, hosts Eme Agbor and Muktar Oladunmade and guest Noah Banjo, our Analysis and Special Reports Editor, discussed some of the biggest stories shaping business, tech, and security across Africa.
They break down Meta’s new $0.0101 fee for WhatsApp Business and what it could mean for businesses. They also look at the new regulations affecting drivers on ride-hailing platforms such as Uber and Bolt in Johannesburg, South Africa.
And finally, the hosts discussed AI and its use in creating presentation slides and content, and why digital safety is becoming important as more people adopt online tools.
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- MTN Nigeria has a new growth problem
- WIOCC raised $300 million
- Shoprite finalises R&A Cellular acquisition
- Kenya merges eTIMS with government payments
- World Wide Web 3
- Opportunities
Telecoms
MTN Nigeria has a new growth problem
MTN Nigeria has more customers and is making more money than ever, but each customer is bringing in less money.
What happened? The telecom operator added 7.5 million subscribers in H1 2026, taking its customer base to 92.2 million. Service revenue rose 25.9% to ₦2.99 trillion ($2.25 billion), but the average amount MTN made from each customer fell 1.67% in naira terms and 8.82% in dollar terms.
State of play: In 2025, MTN’s biggest growth lever was pricing. Its 50% tariff increase helped drive a sharp rise in revenue. But that boost is now largely annualised, and revenue growth is slowing.
Between the lines: MTN now needs to grow without relying on another major price increase—something that may not happen again for years.
Data is its clearest opportunity. Average data usage per subscriber rose 15.2% in H1 2026, while data revenue grew 38.4%. MTN is also looking beyond mobile data, with home broadband and fintech offering new ways to earn more from its customers.
Zoom out: For now, adding subscribers can make up for falling revenue per customer. But that gets harder as subscriber growth slows. MTN’s challenge is becoming less about getting more customers and more about getting existing customers to spend more.
Our senior reporter Temitayo Jaiyeola wrote a deep dive on this; read it on our website.
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Funding
WIOCC, the Africa-focused data centre company, raises $300 million from Saudi investor and AFC
The West Indian Ocean Cable Company (WIOCC) Group, an Africa-focused digital infrastructure provider, has raised $300 million, its biggest fundraising haul yet. The company wants to expand its data centres, fibre networks, and subsea cables.
What happened? On Tuesday, WIOCC signed an agreement with Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), a development finance institution, and Vision Invest, a Saudi Arabian investment company, to raise a combined $300 million from both investors.
WIOCC is swapping an undisclosed amount of shares in its business for that capital. The money will fund new data centres, expand the company’s terrestrial fibre network, and investments in new subsea cable assets.
Explain like I’m new here: WIOCC sells connectivity and infrastructure to telecom operators, cloud companies, Internet service providers (ISPs), and other businesses, and operates across more than 30 African countries.
In 2021, WIOCC raised $200 million in mixed debt and equity funding. According to Serrari, a Kenyan financial data publisher, the company raised over $400 million across three separate rounds in 2025, including a $65 million sustainability-linked debt from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), Proparco, and other investors.
It’s a factor of the industry WIOCC operates in: Teraco, South Africa’s largest data centre operator, has close to 190 megawatts (MW) and about $877 million in committed investment. Vantage Data Centers, a global hyperscale data centre developer, is building out its Johannesburg campus in Waterfall City with investment of up to $1 billion. Cavaleros Group, a property developer, is developing large data centre campuses in Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa.
Why should you care about the big numbers? Data centre infrastructure operators are becoming aggressive about providing local capacity, and they are raising big money to do so. With more local data centres, we can reduce reliance on foreign infrastructure and keep more of Africa’s data closer to home.
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M&A
Shoprite, the South African retailer, is taking its financial services to spaza shops
Shoprite, the South African retailer, is already one of the most recognisable chain markets for weekend and last-minute shopping runs. What happens when it owns the payment rails that process transactions at local tills and spaza shops—smaller provision stores—in South Africa?
After aggressively scaling back, exiting markets such as Ghana and Malawi in 2025, and prioritising its home market, the retailer just bought a point-of-sale (PoS) business. Yes, your guess is as good as ours.
What happened? In its financial results released on Tuesday, the South African retailer reported that it has bought a 51% majority stake in R&A Cellular, which makes PoS devices from South Africa’s busy province of Mpumalanga. The value of the deal, which finalised on August 14, was not disclosed.
Why does this matter? Owning a critical payments infrastructure business could enable Shoprite to expand deeper into payments. Small businesses, an estimated 15,000, use R&A Cellular’s PoS devices in South Africa, where it is a prominent niche provider.
Between the lines: While it does not compete directly with major mainstream enterprise PoS providers such as Lightspeed Commerce and GAAP POS in high-end formal retail, R&A Cellular commands a vital network within South Africa’s vast, cash-dominated informal retail sector.
What does this do for Shoprite? Two things. One, it could allow Shoprite to pay more attention to providing financial services to spaza shops through this acquisition. Second, Shoprite could integrate R&A Cellular’s PoS devices into its own ecosystem to control more of its payment flows. Remember what MultiChoice and Moment did?
Of course, R&A Cellular’s PoS devices would not be the only terminals at your local supermarkets. Customers need multiple points of failure in e-commerce; once you deny them those options, you risk frustrating and potentially losing them.
Zoom out: It’s a deal Shoprite will relish. Informal payments are growing steadily in South Africa; it grew 5.9% to reach R220 billion ($13.6 billion) in 2025, according to research firm Trade Intelligence, with fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) being a consequential contributor to that sector.
E-commerce is often a precursor to fintech and payments, and naturally, Shoprite’s ambition is not out of place—or new: it has been distributing omnichannel PoS software since at least 2024. Competitors such as Woolworths and Pick n Pay have also moved deeper into payments and financial services, blurring the lines between retail and fintech.
Moonshot 2026 is coming! Join us at the National Theatre, Lagos on October 28 & 29 for two days of tech and innovation. Grab your early bird tickets now and get 15% off.
Government
Kenya has put a tax checkpoint inside the government payment system
Getting paid by the Kenyan government now comes with one more digital hurdle: your invoice must already exist in the taxman’s system before the payment can move.
What happened? The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), the country’s taxman, and the National Treasury have linked the Electronic Tax Invoice Management System (eTIMS) with the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS).
IFMIS is the government’s automated platform for managing public finances. Suppliers must now generate a valid eTIMS invoice before submitting a bill for payment through IFMIS, and the details on both systems must match exactly.
Explain like I’m new here: Before this link-up, a supplier’s invoice and the government’s payment workflow were separate steps. Now, IFMIS can check whether the invoice submitted for payment matches the one recorded in eTIMS.
That gives the government an automated validation checkpoint for spotting invoices that are altered, duplicated, or difficult to verify before public money leaves the system.
Catch up: Kenya has been steadily moving tax administration online through eTIMS, which gives taxpayers a digital system for issuing electronic tax invoices.
The latest integration pushes that requirement into government procurement: keeping tax records up to date is no longer only about filing returns; it is also part of getting paid for work already delivered to a public institution.
Zoom out: For the government, the system could make public spending easier to audit and reduce room for invoice manipulation. For suppliers, especially smaller businesses that rely on government contracts for cash flow, a mismatched invoice or unresolved eTIMS issue could delay payment. Kenya’s digital tax push is therefore moving from “please file your taxes” to “the payment system will check first.”
CRYPTO TRACKER
The World Wide Web3
Source:
Coin Name
Current Value
Day
Month
– 1.47%
+ 23.68%
– 2.12%
+ 30.42%
+ 17.18%
+ 13.46%
– 3.50%
+ 37.51%
* Data as of 06.25 AM WAT, September 2, 2026.
Opportunities
- Moonshot early bird ticket sales end in 6 days!
This is your chance to get your Moonshot 2026 ticket at 20% off the original price.
This October, Moonshot brings founders, investors, operators, creators, and talent together at the National Theatre in Lagos for two days of conversations, connections, and opportunities. The Early Bird offer presents a unique opportunity for you and your network to get 20% off Moonshot tickets. Prices return to normal after it closes. Get your Moonshot ticket at 20% off now to secure your seat in the rooms defining Africa’s next chapter
- Nokia turns to AI as Africa’s telecom market enters its next phase
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- Tim Cook leaves a $4 trillion Apple with unfinished business in Africa
- AI safety is designed in the West, and failing users everywhere
Written by: Temitayo Jaiyeola, Yemi Kareem, Emmanuel Nwosu, and Zia Yusuf
Edited by: Emmanuel Nwosu & Ganiu Oloruntade
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