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1 week ago | 
techcabal.com | Adonijah Ndege
NCBA Group, Kenya’s third-biggest bank by assets, disbursed over KES 1 trillion ($7.7 billion) in digital loans in 2024, mainly through Fuliza and M-Shwari, underscoring how mobile credit has become a lifeline for households and small businesses as the economy slows and traditional lending dries up. Fuliza, NCBA’s overdraft service embedded in the M-Pesa mobile money platform, accounted for most of the lending.
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1 week ago | 
techcabal.com | Adonijah Ndege
First published 25 May, 2025 Why Africa’s tech dream is political Image | CTECH Let me tell you the truth that we don’t say enough in Africa’s tech circles: If you’re building the next unicorn and ignoring politics, you’re playing with house money in a burning casino. I’ve spent the past two years of my journalism career listening to Africa’s startup stories.
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1 week ago | 
techcabal.com | Adonijah Ndege
Kenya plans to offload an undisclosed portion of its 34.9% stake in Safaricom, the region’s most profitable company, as part of a privatisation push to raise $1.1 billion (KES149 billion) to plug a hole in public finances and avoid imposing new taxes amid a tough economy.
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2 weeks ago | 
techcabal.com | Adonijah Ndege
Watu Holdings, a Kenyan buy-now-pay-later startup, reported a sharp 84% drop in profit to $1.2 million (KES157 million) in 2024, according to disclosures by Car & General, which holds a 29% stake in the business. The decline from $7.6 million (KES985 million) a year earlier points to rising loan defaults and deteriorating repayment behaviour in Watu’s core markets of Kenya, Uganda, and Sierra Leone.
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2 weeks ago | 
techcabal.com | Adonijah Ndege
Kenya’s biggest telco, Safaricom, has launched new credit products for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), introducing overdraft and short-term loans through its M-PESA platform with limits reaching $3,089 (KES400,000). The new products signal the telecom giant’s increasing focus on financial services as growth in its core voice and data business slows.
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2 weeks ago | 
techcabal.com | Adonijah Ndege
Onafriq, a pan-African digital payments network, has named Simon Black as chair of the board of its UK holding company following his appointment as an independent non-executive director. Black previously served as chief executive of PPRO, a Germany-based payments infrastructure provider, from 2015 to 2023. Under his leadership, the company expanded internationally, surpassing $113 million in annual revenue.
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2 weeks ago | 
techcabal.com | Adonijah Ndege
A Kenyan Supreme Court judge has warned judges and lawyers about using artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT in court submissions following a case in which fabricated legal citations were generated and presented in court. Justice Isaac Lenaola, also the chairman of the Judiciary’s Committee on Innovation, described an instance where lawyers had submitted arguments with AI’s help, only for the presiding judge to discover that every legal authority cited in the submission was fictitious.
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3 weeks ago | 
techcabal.com | Adonijah Ndege
When Grace Achieng’, a vegetable vendor in western Kenya, signed up for a Vivo smartphone on a Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) plan, it felt like a lifeline. With no deposit and weekly instalments of $2.71 (KES 350) or $0.39 (KES 50) daily, the deal was attractive: pay in bits, own the device, and stay connected with your friends and relatives. Three missed payments later, her device was remotely disabled. “Imagine your only way of sending money or calling family getting locked,” says Achieng’.
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3 weeks ago | 
techcabal.com | Adonijah Ndege
Craydel, a Kenyan edtech that helps students apply to universities abroad, has launched in Rwanda and is expanding its Nigerian team as part of its ambitious pan-African expansion drive. Rwanda’s entry brings Craydel’s total footprint to five countries, joining Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.
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3 weeks ago | 
techcabal.com | Adonijah Ndege
Three Kenyan startups—Roam Electric AB, M-KOPA Holdings Ltd, and Victory Farms Ltd—have been named among Africa’s fastest-growing companies in the latest ranking by the Financial Times and Statista, a list dominated by South African and Nigerian firms. The three startups were among 11 Kenyan companies featured in the 2025 FT Africa Fastest Growing Companies list, which evaluated revenue growth between 2020 and 2023 across 130 private and public businesses on the continent.
