Samsung is heading to London on July 22 for Galaxy Unpacked, and this year the Fold lineup is different: two book-style foldables at the same event. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra builds on everything the Z Fold 7 started, with a bigger battery, faster charging, and upgraded cameras. The Galaxy Z Fold 8 is an entirely new shape, shorter and wider, built around a 4:3 inner display that sits closer to a small tablet than a phone. 

Here is everything we know about both, before Samsung makes it official.

When and where

Samsung is expected to hold Galaxy Unpacked on July 22, 2026, in London. Korea Economic TV was the first outlet to report the date, and it has since been confirmed by Android Police, SamMobile, Android Authority, and Tom’s Guide. This will be Samsung’s first summer Unpacked event in the UK. Samsung has not issued an official media advisory as of mid-June 2026.

Pre-orders are expected to open the same day as the announcement. If Samsung follows its usual pattern, you should be able to buy both phones in the first week of August 2026, roughly two weeks after the event.

Three foldable phones are expected at the event, alongside the Galaxy Watch 9 series and what is being reported as Samsung’s first Galaxy Glasses (a Gemini-powered audio device made with Gentle Monster, no display):

• Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra (traditional tall book foldable)
• Galaxy Z Fold 8 (new wider, shorter 4:3 foldable)
• Galaxy Z Flip 8
• Galaxy Watch 9 series

Why this launch matters more than usual

Apple’s first foldable phone, widely referred to as the iPhone Fold or iPhone Ultra, is expected to arrive at Apple’s September 2026 event. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported in April 2026 that it is on track to launch alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, with a starting price exceeding $2,000 in the US. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo projects the price landing between $2,000 and $2,500, with Apple shipping 3 to 5 million units in its first year. It is expected to use a wider 4:3 form factor.

Samsung’s July 22 launch gives both Fold devices roughly a two-month window in the market before Apple ships a single unit. That means two months of reviews, accessories, trade-in deals, and carrier promotions before anyone can compare them side by side. Samsung chose London for this event as well, a move seen as a direct entry into one of Apple’s strongest premium markets.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra is the phone Z Fold 7 owners have been waiting for. It keeps the same tall book-style form factor but adds a meaningfully larger battery, faster charging, and the most significant camera upgrade the Fold line has ever seen. Here is what we know.

Specs

1. Design

The overall shape stays the same as the Z Fold 7. Renders from SamMobile put the dimensions at 158.4 x 143.2 x 4.5mm unfolded and 158.4 x 72.8 x 9mm folded. There is a conflict on thickness: tipster Ice Universe says the unfolded thickness drops slightly to 4.1mm. Both figures come from different streams, so treat the exact as unsettled until Samsung announces.

Key design details:

• Weight: 215g, the same as the Z Fold 7 (per Ice Universe), despite the larger battery inside
• IP48 rating for dust and water resistance
• Aluminum frame with Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on the cover
• Side-mounted fingerprint reader
• S Pen support: expected to be dropped. Ice Universe reported in May 2026 that neither the 2026 Fold will support the S Pen. No credible supply-chain source has contradicted this. The digitizer was already removed starting with the Z Fold SE, so this fits Samsung’s thinness direction
• Color options: not yet known

2. Display

The Z Fold 8 Ultra keeps the same display sizes as the Fold 7. Both panels use LTPO OLED technology with adaptive 1-120Hz refresh:

• Cover display: 6.5-inch LTPO OLED, Full HD+, up to 2,600 nits
• Inner display: 8-inch LTPO OLED, QHD+, HDR10+, up to 2,600 nits
• The inner panel is reported to use a dual-layer Ultra-Thin Glass structure with a laser-drilled metal support plate

On the crease: This is the most contested detail. Ice Universe said in May 2026 that the crease will not improve significantly over the Z Fold 7 and that there is no Privacy Display. A separate SamMobile report suggests crease control could come close to the OPPO Find N6, which is nearly invisible. These two positions conflict. The consensus across most outlets is that the crease will improve by roughly 20%, but the phone will not be crease-free.

On the CES 2026 “Mont Flex” panel: Samsung Display showed a genuinely crease-free foldable OLED panel at CES 2026. Samsung told The Verge it is an R&D concept with no fixed commercialization timeline. The weight of current information suggests this panel will not ship on the Fold 8 generation.

3. Performance

• Chipset: Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, globally. No Exynos variant has been reported for the Fold line
• RAM: 12GB on the 256GB and 512GB models; 16GB on the 1TB model
• Storage: 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB. No microSD slot
• Connectivity: 5G, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6.0, UWB, NFC, USB-C (USB 3.2 Gen 1)

4. Camera

The camera is where the Z Fold 8 Ultra makes its biggest leap. The ultrawide upgrade alone closes a gap that has been criticized across four Fold generations:

• Main: 200MP with OIS, retained from the Z Fold 7 and in the same sensor family as the Galaxy S26 Ultra
• Ultrawide: upgraded from 12MP to 50MP. This is the headline change. Source: SamMobile (via Tech Maniacs), corroborated by GSMArena, OnLeaks, and Digit
• Telephoto: 10MP with 3x optical zoom and OIS, carried over from the Fold 7
• Front cameras: 10MP on both the cover and inner displays. The cover punch-hole is reported to shrink from 3.7 mm to 2.5 mm
• Video: 4K at 60fps across all cameras, 8K at 30fps on the main and ultrawide

5. Battery and charging

The battery is the other major story. Samsung held the Fold line at 4,400mAh from the Z Fold 3 through the Z Fold 7. That changes with the Fold 8 Ultra:

• Battery: 5,000mAh, up from 4,400mAh. Multiple independent sources agree on this figure
• Wired charging: 45W, up from 25W
• Wireless charging: up to 20W Qi2.2, plus 4.5W reverse wireless (per SamMobile; some reports still cite 15W as the cap)

6. Software

• Ships with Android 17 and One UI 9 out of the box
• Galaxy AI suite: Photo Assist, Portrait Studio, Generative Edit, Now Brief, Now Bar, Samsung Internet multi-window improvements
• Gemini Intelligence: expected to debut commercially on the Fold 8 and Flip 8 (per Seoul Economic Daily, via 9to5Google). This is agentic AI that automates tasks across multiple apps
• Seven years of OS updates and security patches

7. Price

US pricing was leaked by tipster TheGalox in late March and early April 2026, corroborated by SamMobile and SammyFans:

• 256GB (12GB RAM): $1,999
• 512GB (12GB RAM): $2,199
• 1TB (16GB RAM): $2,499

The $1,999 entry price is unchanged from the Z Fold 7’s original launch price. The 512GB and 1TB tiers are roughly $80 to $90 higher than the Fold 7’s original tags.

On the $2,700 claim: Korean outlet NewsPim reported in May 2026 that the 512GB model may cost $2,300 to $2,400 in South Korea, and the 1TB model could exceed $2,700. This is driven by rising memory costs. SammyFans, citing Samsung disclosures, reported that mobile memory prices more than doubled year-over-year, rising 107%. These figures apply to the Korean market and may not translate directly to US pricing. Document the $1,999/$2,199/$2,499 US structure as the most credible position, with the Korean escalation as a documented risk.

Samsung is holding the $1,999 entry price flat partly because Apple’s foldable is expected to launch at $2,000 or above. Raising the price now would hand Apple a competitive opening before it ships a single unit.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 is something Samsung has never shipped before: a book-style foldable that is wider than it is tall when open. Its 4:3 inner display gives it a shape closer to an iPad mini than a traditional Fold, and at 201g, it is one of the lightest large foldables ever made. It does trade away some camera hardware to get there.

Specs

1. Design

The Fold 8 Wide looks and feels completely different from the Ultra when you hold it open. According to Ice Universe (via SamMobile), the dimensions are:

• Unfolded: 161.4mm wide x 123.9mm tall x 4.3mm thick
• Folded: 82.2mm wide x 9.8mm thick
• Weight: 201g, which makes it 14g lighter than the Ultra and lighter than any comparable large foldable currently on the market
• IP48 dust and water resistance
• Armor Aluminum frame, Gorilla Glass Victus 2 on the cover
• Side-mounted fingerprint reader

Note on thickness: one source (Geeky Gadgets) pegs unfolded thickness at 4.5mm rather than SamMobile’s 4.3mm.

2. Display

• Cover display: 5.4-inch LTPO OLED (some sources say 5.6-inch), with a 4.7:3 aspect ratio and 120Hz refresh
• Inner display: 7.6-inch LTPO OLED, 4:3 aspect ratio, 1-120Hz adaptive, HDR10+, up to 2,600 nits
• The 4:3 inner shape is verified across SamMobile firmware evidence, Ice Universe, and 9to5Google

On the crease: Same contested situation as the Ultra. Ice Universe says no significant crease improvement. SamMobile suggests crease control could rival the OPPO Find N6. The two positions conflict; lean toward a modest but visible improvement.

3. Performance

• Chipset: Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, same as the Ultra
• RAM: 12GB or 16GB
• Storage: 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB, no microSD
• Connectivity: 5G, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6.0, UWB, NFC, USB-C

4. Camera

This is the most important trade-off to know before buying the Fold 8. It uses a dual rear camera setup with no telephoto lens:

• Main: 50MP (f/1.8) with OIS
• Ultrawide: 50MP (f/1.9)
• No telephoto and no 200MP main sensor
• Front: 10MP on both cover and inner displays, no autofocus or OIS
• Video: 4K at 60fps, up to 8K at 30fps on the rear cameras, HDR10+ and Super HDR

On the camera gap: The Ultra has a 200MP main sensor, a 50MP ultrawide, and a 10MP 3x telephoto. The Fold 8 drops the high-resolution main and removes the zoom lens entirely. If you take a lot of photos that need zoom, the Ultra is the right choice. Android Authority and others have framed this as Samsung choosing form factor over imaging on the Fold 8, which is an honest way to put it.

5. Battery and charging

Battery capacity (source conflict): SamMobile’s May 4 report lists a ~4,560mAh-rated cell (typical: ~4,700-4,800mAh). A June 2 Ice Universe report by SamMobile says 4,800mAh, but Android Authority’s body text, quoting the same source, says 4,500mAh. The most commonly cited figure from June sources is 4,800mAh. Either way, this is smaller than the Ultra’s 5,000mAh.

• Wired charging: 45W. Supported by the June 2 Ice Universe report and an independent China 3C certification (model SM-F9710 at 15V/3A). Earlier, SamMobile data suggested 25W, but that appears to be superseded
• Wireless charging: 15W or higher, per the older SamMobile baseline page. No newer figure has been confirmed

6. Price

No clean price information exists for the Fold 8. SamMobile has estimated a price of around $1,800 in the US, based on the reduced camera hardware and smaller battery compared to the Ultra. PhoneArena notes that it could be priced similarly to, or slightly below, the Ultra entry. Nothing is confirmed.

Z Fold 8 Ultra vs. Z Fold 8: At a glance

Here is how the two phones compare across the specs that matter most:

Software: What both phones get

Both the Z Fold 8 Ultra and the Z Fold 8 ship with Android 17 and One UI 9.0 out of the box. They are expected to be the first devices to receive the stable One UI 9 release, potentially ahead of the Galaxy S26 family and the Pixel 11.

• Galaxy AI suite: Photo Assist, Portrait Studio, Generative Edit, Now Brief, Now Bar, redesigned Bixby with natural language understanding
• Samsung Internet multi-window improvements for working across apps on the inner display
• Gemini Intelligence: expected to debut on these devices. This is Google’s agentic AI that can automate multi-step tasks across apps. It was absent from the early One UI 9 beta on the S26, so it likely arrives with the stable One UI 9 release
• Seven years of OS updates and security patches

The wider cover screen on the Fold 8 is also its biggest software story. A 5.4-inch 4.7:3 cover display is much easier to use one-handed when the phone is closed compared to the narrow, tall cover screen on previous Fold models. Expect expanded third-party app support on that cover screen with One UI 9.

Should You Buy the Z Fold 8 Ultra or Z Fold 8?

You want the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra if:

• Camera quality is your priority. The 200MP main sensor and 3x telephoto are only on the Ultra
• You want the largest inner screen (8 inches vs 7.6 inches)
• You are coming from a Z Fold 5 or older and want the most complete upgrade

You want the Galaxy Z Fold 8 if:

• The wider 4:3 shape appeals to you for multitasking, watching video, or just something genuinely different from every foldable that came before it
• You want the lighter option at 201g
• Zoom is not a priority for you
• You want to spend a bit less

If you own a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7:

• The Ultra brings meaningful upgrades in battery, charging speed, and the ultrawide camera. Whether those justify the upgrade depends on how much you use the camera
• The Fold 8 is the more interesting upgrade path if the wide format appeals to you

On the Apple question: Apple’s foldable arrives roughly six to eight weeks after Samsung’s launch and costs $2,000 or more. It will be a first-generation device, with limited supply and an untested form factor. Samsung’s Fold line is now in its seventh generation. That maturity advantage is worth something if you plan to buy at launch.

July 22 is when Samsung makes everything official in London. Keep this page bookmarked as specs get updated the moment Samsung announces.

Samsung is heading to London on July 22, 2026, for Galaxy Unpacked, and the Galaxy Z Flip 8 is the star of the clamshell side of the lineup. Alongside it, Samsung is expected to announce the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and the Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra. Here is everything we know right now, before Samsung makes it official.

When and where

Samsung is expected to hold Galaxy Unpacked on July 22, 2026, in London, UK. This would be the first time Samsung launches a foldable phone on UK soil. The date comes from Korea Economic TV reporter Kim Dae-yeon and has since been corroborated by SamMobile, Android Authority, Tom’s Guide, and SammyFans, citing Korean supply chain sources. Samsung has not made an official announcement yet.

Pre-orders are expected to open the same day as the announcement. If Samsung follows its usual pattern, you should be able to buy the phone in the first week of August 2026, roughly two weeks after the event.

Three foldable phones are expected at the event:

• Galaxy Z Flip 8
• Galaxy Z Fold 8 (wider, 4:3 book-style foldable, also referred to as the Z Fold Wide)
• Galaxy Z Fold 8 Ultra (the direct successor to the Z Fold 7)
• Galaxy Watch 9 series

Note: The naming across these devices is still unsettled. Some sources refer to the wider model as the “Z Fold 8″ and the standard successor as the “Z Fold 8 Ultra.” Samsung has not confirmed the final names.

Specifications of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8

This is a refinement year for the Z Flip line. The Z Flip 8 keeps the same display size, cameras, and battery as the Z Flip 7, but gets a newer chipset, a slightly lighter and thinner body, and a display that may finally have a much less visible crease. Here is what we know across each category.

1. Design

The overall look stays the same. CAD renders leaked by OnLeaks via MyMobiles in April 2026 show a body that is nearly identical to the Z Flip 7 in height and width, with one key change: the phone folds down to about 13.2mm, down from 13.7mm on the Flip 7. That is a 0.5mm reduction that might not sound like much on paper, but on a phone you open and close dozens of times a day, it is noticeable.

Key design details:

• Dimensions (unfolded): 166.8 x 75.4 x 6.6mm
• Folded thickness: ~13.2mm (down from 13.7mm on the Z Flip 7)
• Weight: ~180g, which is 8g lighter than the Z Flip 7’s 188g (single-source leak via Naver, corroborated by Gizmochina and SammyFans; treat as credible but not confirmed)
• IP48 rating for water and dust resistance, same as the Z Flip 7
• Side-mounted capacitive fingerprint reader, built into the power button
• Stereo speakers
• A redesigned hinge that enables the thinner fold and a reduced crease
• Color options: not known yet. The Z Flip 7 came in Jet Black, Blue Shadow, Coral Red, and Mint

2. Display

The Z Flip 8 keeps the same display sizes as the Flip 7:

• Inner display: 6.9-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X, FHD+ resolution, adaptive 1-120Hz refresh rate, up to 2,600 nits peak brightness, HDR10+
• Cover display (FlexWindow): 4.1-inch Super AMOLED, 120Hz, protected by Gorilla Glass Victus 2

On the crease: Multiple outlets including SammyFans, GSMArena, and SamMobile have reported that the Z Flip 8 could arrive with a “no visible fold line” display structure, essentially making the crease near-invisible. This claim is supported by multiple sources, and the redesigned hinge reinforces the logic. That said, Samsung has not confirmed it, and “dual-layer Ultra Thin Glass (UTG)” is described by GSMArena as an informed assumption. Expect a significantly reduced crease, but do not take “crease-free” as guaranteed until Samsung says so officially.

3. Performance

The biggest story in the Z Flip 8’s performance isn’t just the new chipset, but which chipset you get depending on where you buy the phone. The Z Flip 7 used Samsung’s Exynos chip in every region. The Z Flip 8 is reportedly going back to a split approach.

According to The Bell (a Korean publication), backed up by SamMobile, Android Authority, and Naver leaker Lanzuk (June 2026):

• Exynos 2600 (2nm): South Korea and Europe, including the UK
• Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy: North America, South America, most of Asia, and Australia

The reason, according to sources, is cost. Qualcomm reportedly offered Samsung a lower-than-usual price for the Snapdragon chip, making the split financially practical. One Samsung insider told The Bell that Z Flip buyers tend to prioritize design and portability over raw performance, which makes the Exynos trade-off easier to justify on this line compared to the Fold.

Other performance specs:

• RAM: 12GB LPDDR5X (no 16GB variant expected)
• Storage: 256GB and 512GB, UFS 4.0 or 4.1, non-expandable
• Connectivity: 5G, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6.0, NFC, USB-C (USB 3.2 Gen 2)

4. Camera

The camera hardware on the Z Flip 8 is unchanged from the Z Flip 6 and Z Flip 7. GalaxyClub confirmed that the camera module part numbers are identical across all three generations. This will be the third consecutive year with the same setup:

• Rear: 50MP main sensor and 12MP ultrawide lens
• Front: 10MP
• Video: Up to 4K at 60fps, 10-bit HDR
• No telephoto lens (not expected until the Z Flip 9 at the earliest)

Any camera improvements will come from software, specifically Samsung’s ProVisual Engine and Enhanced Nightography, which will benefit from the faster NPU in the new chipset.

5. Battery and charging

The battery capacity and charging speeds carry over from the Z Flip 7 without any upgrade. GalaxyClub identified the two battery cells by model number and confirmed they are identical to those in the Flip 7.

• Battery: 4,300mAh (4,174mAh rated capacity)
• Wired charging: 25W (unchanged since the Z Flip 4 in 2022)
• Wireless charging: 15W
• Reverse wireless charging: Yes (4.5W)

The move to a 2nm chip should translate to better battery efficiency in everyday use, even with the same capacity. Worth noting: GSMArena flagged the Exynos 2600’s battery life as disappointing in its Galaxy S26 review, so if you end up with a European or Korean unit, manage your expectations there.

6. Software

The Z Flip 8 will ship with Android 17 and One UI 9.0 out of the box. Samsung has already begun development of One UI 9 firmware for the device: firmware build F776USQU0AZB1 (model number SM-F776, confirmed to be the Z Flip 8) was spotted on Samsung’s servers in early 2026.

What to expect from One UI 9 on the Z Flip 8:

• Galaxy AI features, including Audio Eraser, Browsing Assist, Note Assist, Now Brief, Now Nudge, Photo Assist, and Writing Assist
• Gemini Intelligence integration for cross-app automation (per Android Authority, this may debut with One UI 9’s stable release)
• Expanded native third-party app support on the FlexWindow cover screen
• Cleaner Gallery app interface and refined widget design
• Seven years of OS updates and security patches

7. Price

Pricing has not been confirmed by Samsung. There is also a genuine conflict between sources that is worth flagging clearly.

Most sources, including Ice Universe, NotebookCheck, PhoneArena, Tech Advisor, and Android Headlines, point to $1,099 for the 256GB model and $1,219 for 512GB in the US. This would match the Z Flip 7 and Z Flip 6 at launch, holding the line for a third straight year despite rising component costs.

SamMobile puts the starting price lower, at around $949.99. This figure sits below the prevailing $1,099 figure from other sources and even below what the Z Flip 7 actually launched at. It may refer to a promotional or trade-in price rather than the full retail price. Both figures are on the table, and neither is confirmed.

For UK and European buyers, Tech Advisor has cited a potential starting price of around £1,049 in the UK and €1,199 in Europe. Component cost pressure could push the 512GB variant higher across markets.

What about the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 FE?

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8 FE does not appear to be happening this year. There are no certification filings, and no model number in any database that points to an FE model. Samsung’s 2026 foldable lineup cleared FCC and BIS certification with three devices: the Z Flip 8 (SM-F776), the Z Fold 8 Wide (SM-F971), and the Z Fold 8 Ultra (SM-F976). No FE model number appears anywhere in that list.

Android Central, in a June 2026 piece by Brady Snyder, put it plainly: Samsung might be skipping the Fan Edition this year. An earlier Sammy Fans rumor that tied model number SM-F971 to a Z Flip 8 FE has since been debunked. That number now refers to the Z Fold 8 Wide.

Should you wait for the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8?

July 22 is only weeks away. Here is a straightforward breakdown:

• On a Z Flip 5 or older: Wait for the Z Flip 8. The jump in chipset, display, and design refinement will be significant.
• On a Z Flip 6: The Z Flip 8 is worth considering if the lighter body or potential crease reduction matters to you. The camera and battery are unchanged.
• On a Z Flip 7: There is not much reason to upgrade this cycle. The chipset improves, but the camera, battery, and display size stay the same. You are looking at a thinner, lighter phone, but your Flip 7 is not missing anything essential.
• Waiting for the Z Flip 8 FE: Skip it. There is no evidence it is coming this year.

Samsung will make everything official on July 22 in London. Keep this page bookmarked, as the details will be updated the moment Samsung announces.

This is Follow the Money, our weekly series that unpacks the earnings, business, and scaling strategies of African fintechs, financial institutions, companies, and governments. A new edition drops every Monday.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) mentioned stablecoin(s) at least 68 times in its newly released Payments System Vision 2028 (PSV 2028).  For a regulator that once wanted banks nowhere near cryptocurrency businesses, this is a remarkable shift. 

A stablecoin is a digital currency pegged to a stable asset, such as a fiat currency, to minimise volatility, used for payments and settlements, especially in cross-border transactions 

In February 2021, the CBN instructed banks and other financial institutions to close accounts associated with crypto transactions. At the time, the regulator argued that cryptocurrencies posed risks to financial stability, money laundering controls, and consumer protection.

Five years later, the same institution is proposing an enabling framework for stablecoins to become part of Nigeria’s regulated payments infrastructure.

Across emerging markets such as Nigeria, stablecoins already help move money across borders, facilitate trade, and provide access to dollar liquidity for businesses and individuals. 

More than 65% of crypto inflows into Nigeria are now denominated in stablecoins, with Tether’s USDT and Circle’s USDC dominating activity, according to a new International Monetary Fund (IMF) report on Nigeria. 

For the CBN, the new question it wants to answer is whether stablecoins can be regulated in a way that helps solve some of Nigeria’s most persistent payments and foreign exchange (FX) challenges.

As PSV 2028 attempts to shape its broader ambition to redesign how money moves into, out of, and across Nigeria, stablecoins have emerged as one of the tools the CBN believes could help achieve that objective.

Stablecoins are part of how Nigerians move money

Between July 2024 and June 2025, Nigeria received approximately $92.1 billion in crypto-asset value, with stablecoins driving growth. The country’s numbers are nearly triple that of the next country, South Africa, according to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis. 

In a June 9 report on Nigeria, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said the country has become the largest destination for stablecoin inflows in Sub-Saharan Africa, accounting for roughly 60% of regional inflows between late 2019 and early 2025.

The rise in stablecoins’ attractiveness can be traced to elevated inflation and naira volatility between 2023 and 2024, according to the IMF.

For households, stablecoins could serve as a cheaper alternative for receiving remittances. Remittances are a crucial part of income for many households, and amount to about $21 billion annually in Nigeria. 

By allowing funds to move directly over blockchain networks, stablecoins can reduce reliance on intermediaries that typically charge transfer and foreign exchange fees, helping recipients receive more of the money sent to them. 

For freelancers, stablecoins provide access to international payments. For businesses, they increasingly function as a mechanism for treasury management and cross-border settlement. In effect, stablecoins have emerged as an unofficial dollar rail operating alongside the traditional banking system.

To tap into this growing usage, Nigeria’s first regulated stablecoin, cNGN,  pegged 1:1 to the naira, was launched by WrappedCBDC, a private company, in early 2025. About ₦2.3 billion cNGN held by around 4,805 wallets was in circulation as of June 12. 

To further strengthen stablecoin use cases, the CBN is exploring the creation of a regulatory framework that would formally recognise fiat-collateralised stablecoins as a distinct category of digital monetary instrument.

“Develop regulations that recognise fully fiat-collateralised stablecoins as monetary instruments, with CBN licencing, 100% high-quality reserve requirements, daily attestations, monthly audits, and real-time regulatory visibility via smart-contract ‘regtech nodes,’” it said in the PSV.

Under the model being considered, stablecoins backed one-for-one by reserves in Naira or foreign currencies would function as tokenised representations of fiat currency operating on blockchain networks.

“When fully backed by fiat reserves, such tokens function as on-chain representations of sovereign currency and must therefore be subject to monetary oversight distinct from e-money or crypto-assets,” the CBN said in the PSV.

The regulator is examining whether stablecoins can serve as digital extensions of traditional money.

A dollar-backed stablecoin would represent a digital claim on dollars held in reserve, while a Naira-backed stablecoin would represent a digital claim on naira deposits held within the banking system.

The CBN’s proposal effectively creates a framework where regulated stablecoins could sit alongside existing payment instruments such as bank deposits, electronic money, card networks, and the eNaira.

“In this context, the Bank is also reviewing approaches for the oversight of entities that may seek to issue fiat-collateralised stablecoins intended for use within the Nigerian financial system,” the CBN said.

To achieve this, the CBN said it is pursuing targeted legislative amendments to provide clear statutory recognition of fiat-collateralised stablecoins as monetary instruments rather than securities.

It intends to collaborate with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other key stakeholders to develop a unified policy position that affirms their classification as digital representations of sovereign currency for payments, settlement, and value transfer.

TechCabal Interactive Tool

The CBN Regulatory Evolution Engine

Map the operational mechanics behind the central bank’s transition from an outright ban to on-chain supervision.

Select Timeline Phase:

2021 Ban 2024 Surge 2025 Pilot 2028 Vision

Regulatory Matrix PHASE 1 of 4

CBN Enforcement Strategy: De-platforming & Account Bans

Network Visibility Index: 5% (Total Blindspot)

The 2021 Banking Restriction

The CBN instructs banks to close all accounts associated with crypto transactions, asserting risks to financial stability, money laundering controls, and consumer safety. Capital flows immediately move into unmonitored peer-to-peer networks.

Structural Consequence

By detaching crypto assets from the formal financial loop, capital operations move underground into hidden peer-to-peer execution channels.

User

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Hidden P2P

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No Oversight

Reference Framework: Charted from the CBN’s initial 2021 directives, the 2025 VASP pilot, and the proposed stablecoin frameworks outlined in the Payments System Vision 2028 (PSV 2028).

A new source of foreign exchange liquidity

The CBN increasingly sees stablecoins as a potential source of FX liquidity.

It states that beyond tokenised monetary instruments such as fiat-collateralised stablecoins, the domestic payment system itself can be leveraged as a supplementary source of FX liquidity.

“This can be achieved through targeted regulatory inclusion and transparent oversight mechanisms that integrate licensed non-bank participants into official FX channels,” it said.

Today, Nigeria earns most of its FX from oil, which is constantly under pressure due to low production capacity and global price fluctuation, and diaspora remittances. Gross FX reserves stood at $50.44 billion on June 10, according to the CBN.

Because foreign currency-backed stablecoin reserves sit outside Nigeria’s regulatory visibility, the dollars backing them are typically held by foreign custodians and largely operate outside the domestic financial system.

For Naira-denominated stablecoins, the regulator is considering requirements that 100% of reserves be held in cash, treasury bills, or other approved liquid instruments with licenced Nigerian custodians.

For foreign currency-backed stablecoins, including dollar-backed instruments, the central bank is evaluating rules that would require a minimum portion of reserves to be held domestically with approved commercial banks.

“A minimum percentage of total fiat reserves backing approved stablecoins denominated in foreign currencies (e.g. USD) should be held domestically in approved custodians (licensed commercial banks),” the CBN said. “The remainder may be held in approved foreign custodians/jurisdictions, including short-term sovereign instruments (e.g. US treasuries) to enhance stability and liquidity.”

This approach contrasts with Kenya, where the National Treasury has proposed that stablecoin issuers serving the public must maintain local fiat-backed reserves in high-quality liquid assets, including cash and deposits, held with commercial banks or the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK). 

The CBN wants some of the underlying liquidity supporting stablecoins to become visible, regulated, and connected to the formal financial system.

In effect, the regulator is examining whether stablecoins can create an additional pool of regulated foreign currency liquidity that supports trade, remittances, and cross-border commerce.

Already, stablecoins are expected to play a more active role in cross-border payments, with the CBN intending to leverage them and central bank-backed digital currencies to navigate currency hurdles with its trading partners.

The IMF explained that stablecoins can enable near-instant cross-border transfers at low cost by reducing reliance on correspondent banking networks and multiple intermediaries that can make traditional cross-border payments slow and expensive.

According to the World Bank, the global average cost of sending $200 remains high at 6.49%, rising to 8.78% in Sub-Saharan Africa, while global payment giant Stripe reports that sending stablecoins typically entails fees of only a few cents per dollar, although total all-in costs depend on network conditions and on- and off-ramp fees.

TechCabal Interactive Tool

The PSV 2028 Impact Engine

Model conservative cost reductions under the CBN’s proposed framework, accounting for actual fiat on/off-ramp friction.

Transaction Amount (USD): Max $100,000

$

Transfer Frequency: Once (Single Transfer) Monthly (12x/Year) Weekly (52x/Year)

Select Capital Corridor:

SSA Remittance Avg. (8.78%)

Global Trade Avg. (6.49%)

Per-Transaction Cost Breakdown

Traditional Channel

$–

3–5 Days • High friction

Regulated Stablecoin Rails

$–

Near-Instant • ~50% drop

CBN Target Limit

$–

5.00% PSV 2028 ceiling goal

The Compounding Effect

By switching to regulated digital rails at this frequency, you could save an estimated $– over the course of a year.

Infrastructure Shift: Inside the Framework

Onshore Custody Mandate

To prevent capital flight, rules require stablecoin issuers to hold a minimum threshold of foreign currency reserves domestically within licensed commercial banks instead of offshore.

RegTech Node Surveillance

Supervision moves from slow paper audits to programmatic oversight, embedding central bank smart-contract observer nodes into verified networks for real-time tracking.

Data Sources & Methodology:

• Central Bank of Nigeria Payments System Vision 2028 Blueprint.
• World Bank Remittance Prices Worldwide (Sub-Saharan Africa 8.78% & Global 6.49% benchmarks).
• Stablecoin metrics assume a conservative ~50% reduction from traditional rates to account for on/off-ramp exchange spread friction.

The winners

The CBN’s proposal could create significant opportunities across the payments ecosystem.

Businesses engaged in international trade stand to benefit from faster settlement times and potentially lower transaction costs. Importers could gain access to more efficient payment channels. Exporters could receive funds faster. Remittance providers could reduce costs.

It currently costs about $17.56 to send $200 to Nigeria, according to the World Bank.  For a $2,000 payment, companies and individuals will have to part with $175.6. If stablecoins only cost about 50% of what is currently obtainable, the operating costs for businesses and individuals will also drop.

The CBN ultimately wants to drop the cost of remittances to 5%.

Treasury and cross-border payment startups would also gain regulatory clarity that allows them to scale new products. Already, several African fintech companies are exploring stablecoin-based payment infrastructure for businesses engaged in international commerce. Companies such as Grey, Paga, and Flutterwave are all showing interest in the space.

The banking sector could also emerge as a beneficiary.

If reserve custody requirements are implemented, commercial banks could become key custodians of stablecoin reserves, creating a new role within the emerging digital asset ecosystem.

Building a regulatory framework

To achieve its objectives, the CBN intends to introduce a classification framework that distinguishes stablecoins based on reserve structure, risk profile, and use case.

The framework recognises fiat-backed stablecoins, which are fully collateralised by naira or foreign currency reserves and are considered suitable for regulated remittances, trade facilitation, and tokenised deposits.

It also recognises asset-backed stablecoins, which derive value from commodities or securities and would require stricter transparency and valuation oversight.

The classification system would underpin licensing, reserve requirements, redemption obligations, interoperability standards, consumer protection measures, and disclosure rules.

The central bank said it is studying regulatory approaches in jurisdictions including Hong Kong, Japan, the European Union, and the United States as it develops its own licencing regime.

“Review existing regulatory guidelines to determine how fiat-collagenised stablecoin off-takers may be granted supervised access to relevant payment system functions, including settlement and on/off-ramp operations, in a manner consistent with oversight requirements,” the CBN said.

Under the proposed framework, stablecoin issuers would be subject to prudential, operational, technological, and disclosure requirements, and would be licenced by the CBN.

On March 31, the CBN launched a supervisory pilot for virtual asset service providers (VASPs) that included fintech firms Flutterwave and Paystack, crypto startup Koin Koin, and cNGN, a Naira-backed stablecoin issuer.

The regulator is considering daily reserve reconciliation, real-time reserve attestations, monthly audits, segregation of reserve assets, and mandatory redemption mechanisms.

Stablecoin issuers would also be required to comply with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing rules, including transaction traceability and Travel Rule obligations.

The CBN wants visibility, not just regulation

PSV 2028 proposes the possibility of CBN observer nodes operating on approved blockchain networks.

The bank is also evaluating a regulatory technology (RegTech) node architecture that would provide real-time visibility into issuance, redemption, circulation, and reserve positions.

A RegTech is a technology solution that helps financial institutions comply with regulations efficiently and effectively, often through automation and real-time reporting. 

“This architecture would give the CBN continuous, tamper-evident insight into stablecoin supply, reserve adequacy, and transaction flow; transforming compliance from periodic audits into real-time supervisory oversight consistent with international best practice in Hong Kong, the EU, and the BIS mBridge framework,” the bank said.

Unlike traditional supervision, which relies heavily on periodic reporting from regulated institutions, the proposed system would allow regulators to monitor activity directly through blockchain infrastructure.

The CBN wants stablecoins to operate in a manner that preserves the transparency and programmability of blockchain technology while maintaining regulatory visibility comparable to traditional financial systems.

That approach reflects a broader global trend among regulators who increasingly view blockchain infrastructure not as something to prohibit but as something to supervise more effectively.

In August 2025, Hong Kong introduced a stablecoin licensing regime requiring reserve backing and redemption rights. In the United States, lawmakers passed the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) ACT, which provides a framework for the federal regulation of payment stablecoins, on July 17, 2025.   

The balancing act

The CBN’s embrace of stablecoins remains cautious.

Stablecoins support many of the objectives outlined in PSV 2028, including improving cross-border payments, reducing transaction costs, expanding digital commerce, increasing interoperability, and strengthening financial inclusion.

Yet, they also introduce significant risks. A poorly backed stablecoin can lose its peg. Large-scale adoption of foreign-currency-backed stablecoins could encourage digital dollarisation, weaken demand for the Naira, complicate monetary policy, and create new channels for capital flight, according to the IMF.

“Stablecoins facilitate ‘digital dollarisation,’ allowing users to hold and transact in USD-denominated assets outside the formal financial system. Widespread use of USD stablecoins in such a context could amplify capital flow volatility, deepen currency substitution (dollarisation), and weaken the effectiveness of monetary policy,” the IMF said.

It is noted that, under the current conditions of improved exchange rate stability in the country, these risks appear contained.

The IMF recommended stronger supervision, robust licencing requirements, consumer protection rules, and close coordination between the CBN and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The CBN appears to agree and said it is working with the SEC and other stakeholders.

It wants to “develop a risk-tiered stablecoin framework; set rules for licencing, reserve backing, redemption and disclosures; run controlled stablecoin pilots for low-value trade or remittances.”

Five years after telling banks to stay away from crypto, the CBN has reached a different conclusion about stablecoins. They are no longer viewed solely as speculative digital assets. Increasingly, they are being viewed as part of the country’s payment infrastructure and will start to play a big role from 2026.

Samsung updates its software support chart monthly. Each update can quietly drop a phone from the list, meaning that the device will no longer receive security patches. In June 2026, only one Samsung phone lost its software support: the Galaxy M53 5G. Every other device on the May chart carried over unchanged.

If you own a Galaxy M53 5G or you are thinking of buying one secondhand, here is everything you need to know.

Galaxy M53 5G: The phone that lost software support

The Galaxy M53 5G was removed from Samsung’s quarterly security update row in June 2026. According to Sammy Fans, Samsung’s quarterly chart showed the removal of one Galaxy M-series phone, with no other additions or changes observed. The M53 5G had been grouped with the M54 5G, M55 5G, M55S 5G, and M56 5G. After the June update, that row now starts from the M54 5G.

The last firmware the M53 5G received was M536BXXSFGZE2, which carries the May 2026 security patch and was released on May 28, 2026. Sammy Fans confirmed this is likely the final update for the device.

About the Galaxy M53 5G

Samsung launched the Galaxy M53 5G in India on April 22, 2022, with sales starting April 29. Here are the key specs:

Software support history

The Galaxy M53 5G launched on Android 12 with One UI 4.1. At launch, Samsung promised two years of OS updates and four years of security updates. The phone ended up getting far more than that, receiving four major Android upgrades in total:

• Android 13 (One UI 5.0/5.1)
• Android 14 (One UI 6.0/6.1)
• Android 15 (One UI 7)
• Android 16 (One UI 8.0) in October 2025, its final OS version

The phone was excluded from One UI 8.5, which is based on Android 16 QPR2 and began rolling out on May 6, 2026. Some sources speculated the M53 5G might receive 8.5 as one final feature update, but that did not happen. One UI 8.0 is its last version.

Throughout its lifespan, the M53 5G was always on a quarterly security update schedule, not a monthly one.

What losing software support means for your phone

Your phone does not stop working. Calls, texts, Wi-Fi, your camera, and apps you already have installed keep working. The hardware is unaffected. What changes is the security maintenance that runs in the background.

Here is what losing support actually means:

• No more security patches: Samsung will no longer send fixes for newly discovered vulnerabilities. To put that in perspective, the June 2026 patch that the M53 5G will not receive fixes 45 security issues, including five rated Critical and 28 rated High, covering problems in Android and Samsung’s own software.
• App compatibility can decline over time: Apps that check your device’s security patch level, especially banking and payment apps, may eventually limit features or block access entirely.
• Samsung services may flag your device: Samsung Pay, Knox, and Secure Folder rely on a healthy security setup. An unpatched device becomes a weaker link over time, and some services may reflect that.
• Google updates continue for a while: Google Play Protect, Play Services, and Google Play system updates come from Google, not Samsung, so those will keep arriving for some time. They do not replace Samsung’s system-level patches, but they do offer some continued protection.

Samsung phones still receiving software updates

Samsung’s June 2026 scope page currently lists two update tiers: monthly (flagships) and quarterly (mid-range and older flagships). The biannual tier that used to cover the oldest budget devices no longer exists. Samsung discontinued it in 2026.

Monthly security updates

• Galaxy Z series (foldables): Z TriFold, Z Fold4, Fold5, Fold6, Fold7, Fold Special Edition, Z Flip4, Flip5, Flip6, Flip7, Flip7 FE, and the W-series (W23 through W26)
• Galaxy S series: S26, S26+, S26 Ultra, S25, S25+, S25 Ultra, S25 Edge, S25 FE, S24, S24+, S24 Ultra, S24 FE, S23, S23+, S23 Ultra, S23 FE
• Enterprise and A-series on monthly: Galaxy A54 5G, A55 5G, A56 5G, A57 5G, Tab Active5 Pro, XCover6 Pro, XCover7, XCover7 Pro

Quarterly security updates

• Galaxy Z series: Z Fold3 5G, Z Flip3 5G
• Galaxy S series: S22, S22+, S22 Ultra, S21 FE 5G
• Galaxy A series: A04 to A07 range, A14 to A17 range, A23 5G, A24, A25 5G, A26 5G, A33 5G to A37 5G range, A73 5G
• Galaxy M series: M04 to M07 range, M13 to M17e 5G range, M34 5G to M36 5G range, M44 5G, M54 5G to M56 5G range (M53 5G removed)
• Galaxy F series: F04 to F07 range, F13 to F17 5G range, F34 5G, F36 5G, F54 5G to F56 5G range
• Galaxy C series: C55 5G
• Tablets: Tab S11/S11 Ultra, Tab S10 series, Tab S9 series, Tab S8 series, Tab S6 Lite (2024), Tab A11/A11+, Tab A9 series
• Galaxy Wearables: Watch8/Watch8 Classic, Watch Ultra, Watch7, Watch FE, Watch6, Watch5, and Watch4 series, Galaxy XR

How to check for software updates on your Samsung phone

If you want to see your current software version or check for a new update, follow these steps:

1. Open Settings on your phone.
2. Scroll down and tap Software update.
3. Tap Download and install.
4. Your phone will check for updates. Follow the on-screen steps to install if one is available. Samsung recommends doing this on Wi-Fi with your battery above 60%.

To check your Google Play system update separately, go to Settings > Security and Privacy > Updates > Google Play system update. Google sends these updates independently, so they continue to arrive even after Samsung ends its own support.

What to do if you own a Galaxy M53 5G

Your phone is safe to keep using for now. The May 2026 patch (firmware ending in GZE2) is your last expected update from Samsung. Here are a few practical steps to take:

• Keep your apps updated through the Play Store. Google can still push Play Services and Play Protect updates.
• Turn on two-factor authentication for your important accounts, especially your banking and email accounts.
• Avoid downloading apps from outside the Play Store.
• If a banking app or work app starts warning you about an outdated security patch, that is the clearest sign it is time to upgrade.

If you are shopping for a used Samsung phone, skip the M53 5G and other recently retired models. A Galaxy S23 or newer will give you monthly updates and several more years of OS upgrades. If you want a mid-range option, look for a current A5x or A3x model still on the quarterly list.

Samsung’s One UI 8.5 update arrived with a lot of promise: Galaxy AI features, camera upgrades, and smarter notifications. But if your phone is a Galaxy S25, S24, or older, you’ve probably noticed that some of the headline features Samsung showed off on the Galaxy S26 simply aren’t on your device.

This is what’s missing from One UI 8.5, which devices are affected, and what you can expect in future updates.

What the June 2026 update finally added

When One UI 8.5 stable rolled out in May 2026, three Galaxy AI features were missing from the Galaxy S25 series. Samsung quietly fixed that with a June 2026 update, released on June 11. The package was about 900MB, noticeably larger than a typical security patch, and for good reason.

The three features now available on the Galaxy S25, Z Fold 7, and Z Flip 7 are:

• Prioritize Notifications: Galaxy AI reorders your alerts so the most important ones appear at the top. Everything is processed on your phone, not in the cloud. One catch: it only works when your notifications are in the same language as your phone’s system language. Supported languages include English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Hindi, Thai, Polish, Italian, and Vietnamese.
• Summarize Notifications: Long group chats and email threads get collapsed into a short, plain-language summary without you having to open each app. The same language requirement applies.
• File Summaries: In the My Files app, you can now get AI summaries of PDF and TXT files, as well as voice recordings saved in the Voice Recorder app. On-device only.

The update started rolling out in South Korea first, with North America, Europe, and India expected to follow within a week, according to Android Authority and GSMArena.

What One UI 8.5 still does not give you

The June update closed part of the gap, but several S26 features are still absent from the S25 and older devices. Here is what you are still waiting on.

1. Now Nudge

This is the most talked-about missing feature. Now Nudge is a context-aware AI tool that reads what is on your screen and surfaces helpful suggestions in your Samsung Keyboard toolbar. It might offer to add an event to your calendar, save a contact, or share a photo, based on what you are looking at in the moment.

It only works with the Samsung Keyboard, so if you use Gboard, it will not apply. As of June 2026, Now Nudge is only available on the Galaxy S26 series. It is missing from the S25, S25+, S25 Ultra, Z Fold 7, Z Flip 7, and every older device.

Samsung has not explained why. Digital Trends noted that Now Nudge does not appear to rely on any Galaxy S26-exclusive hardware, which makes its absence on the S25 harder to justify. Samsung markets it as a headline One UI 8.5 feature, which makes the omission even more noticeable.

According to a firmware leak spotted by SamMobile, Now Nudge appears in internal One UI 9 builds for the Galaxy Z Fold 7, suggesting Samsung may be saving it for the One UI 9 update. But this is based on a leak, not a Samsung statement.

2. 24MP camera mode

On the Galaxy S26 Ultra, a 24MP shooting option sits between the standard 12MP and the maximum 200MP modes. It uses AI Fusion processing to produce more detailed shots without the file sizes that come with high-resolution captures. You access it through the Camera Assistant app.

On the Galaxy S25 Ultra, that option does not exist in Camera Assistant at all, even though both phones run the same version of the app. SammyGuru confirmed this. There is no confirmed plan to bring the 24MP mode to the S25 or any older device.

3. Video softening

This is a Camera Assistant setting with three levels: Off, Medium, and High. It reduces the sharpening and noise processing that Samsung applies by default, giving your videos a more natural, less over-processed look. Think of it as a processing intensity dial.

Android Authority found it in One UI 8.5 code, but it was never activated on the S25. It is currently reserved for the Galaxy S26. The S25 Ultra is also missing related autofocus speed and sensitivity controls, as well as 8K recording via Smart View or HDMI output.

4. Fingerprint accuracy booster

This feature lets you rescan your registered fingerprint up to 10 times so your phone gets better at recognizing it. It is a software feature with no hardware requirement, which makes its rollout history odd.

It reached the Galaxy S25 FE in May 2026 via a security patch, and the Z Fold 7 also has it. But as of the June 2026 update, the standard Galaxy S25, S25+, and S25 Ultra still do not have it. Android Authority noted that no one has publicly explained why the S25 FE received it before the S25 Ultra.

5. Horizon Lock and other missing features

A few more S26 features are also absent. Horizon Lock (also called Horizontal Lock) is a Super Steady video stabilization feature on the S26 Ultra that keeps footage level even when your hands are shaky. It is missing from all older Ultra models after the June update.

Other omissions on the S25 build, reported by PiunikaWeb and Digital Trends, include:

• The ‘Show Finder on Home screen’ shortcut
• Samsung Browser’s ‘Ask AI’ feature
• A high-magnification photo remaster tool (30x+)
• Some 8K recording options

Which phones are affected

Here is how the missing features break down by device:

• Galaxy S25, S25+, S25 Ultra, S25 Edge: Got stable One UI 8.5 in May, then the three notification and file features in June. Still missing Now Nudge, 24MP mode, video softening, Horizon Lock, and the fingerprint accuracy booster.
• Galaxy S25 FE: Unusually got the fingerprint accuracy booster first via its May security patch. Received the June update but did not get the additional AI features from that build, per SammyGuru.
• Galaxy Z Fold 7 and Z Flip 7: Same hardware class as the S25, same gaps. Got the June notification and file features. Already has the fingerprint booster. Still missing Now Nudge, 24MP, and video softening.
• Galaxy S24 series: On the confirmed One UI 8.5 list and has features like Quick Share with Apple devices. It was not confirmed that the June AI features would reach the S24 immediately, per Android Central.
• Galaxy S23 series: Got a reduced version of One UI 8.5 that is missing Quick Share with Apple devices (available on S24 and newer) and Call Screening. PhoneArena and Android Authority both noted this fuelled planned-obsolescence complaints from S23 owners who still have about a year of OS support left.
• Galaxy A-series (A56, A36, A55, A35, and others): Receive One UI 8.5 with a reduced AI subset called Awesome Intelligence, not the full Galaxy AI suite.
• Galaxy S22, Z Fold 4, Z Flip 4, Tab S8, S21 FE: Not getting One UI 8.5 at all. These devices have reached the end of feature updates.

What Samsung has said

Samsung has issued no public explanation for any of these omissions. PiunikaWeb and Ubergizmo both reported that Samsung has not issued an official statement. Samsung moderators have only responded publicly to bug reports, such as battery drain on certain carrier variants, not to questions about deliberate feature gaps.

What makes this harder to accept is that the Galaxy S25 and Z Fold 7 run the same Snapdragon 8 Elite hardware as the Galaxy S26. The hardware argument does not hold up. Whether this is a scheduling decision or a strategy to differentiate the S26 remains unaddressed by Samsung.

Will One UI 9 fix this?

One UI 9, based on Android 17, entered beta on May 13, 2026, starting with the Galaxy S26 series in six countries: the US, UK, Germany, South Korea, Poland, and India. Samsung has not officially confirmed a stable release date, but multiple South Korean outlets point to a July 22, 2026, Unpacked event at which the Galaxy Z Fold 8 and Z Flip 8 are expected to launch.

The Galaxy S25 and S24 series would likely receive stable One UI 9 around August or September 2026, if Samsung follows its usual rollout pattern. Internal One UI 9 testing for the S25 reportedly began in the first week of June 2026, according to SamMobile.

The strongest signal for Now Nudge on older devices is the firmware leak: SamMobile found Now Nudge listed in internal One UI 9 builds for the Galaxy Z Fold 7. That suggests it is coming with One UI 9, not One UI 8.5. But until Samsung officially confirms it, treat it as expected rather than guaranteed.

For 24MP mode, video softening, and Horizon Lock, there is no leak or statement pointing to a backport. If those features matter to you, the Galaxy S26 is currently the only option.

What to do right now

1. If you have a Galaxy S25, S25+, S25 Ultra, or S25 Edge, go to Settings > Software update > Download and install. The June 2026 update brings Notification Highlights and File Summaries. Do not expect Now Nudge, 24MP, video softening, Horizon Lock, or the fingerprint booster from this update.
2. If you are waiting for Now Nudge, keep an eye on the One UI 9 beta and stable cycles over the next few months. Based on what is known from the firmware leak, it should arrive then, but there is no Samsung commitment to point to yet.
3. If 24MP mode or video softening is important to you, no backport is confirmed. The Galaxy S26 is the only guaranteed path to those features today.
4. If you own a Galaxy S23 and want Quick Share with Apple devices, it is not coming to the S23. As a workaround, QR-based Quick Share still works for sharing between devices.

Every month, Mampe Seema, a Johannesburg-based domestic worker, remits part of her salary to her family in Lesotho.

The money covers school fees, groceries, and other household expenses. For years, sending money across the border was straightforward. Then the process began taking longer and required additional steps.

“When the banking process became more difficult, I worried that my family would not receive the money when they needed it most,” Seema told TechCabal. “I decided to try Mukuru after hearing about it from a friend. The registration was straightforward, and I could send money without the uncertainty I had started experiencing elsewhere.”

The 53-year-old mother of two is among a growing number of the estimated 400,000 Basotho migrants in South Africa turning to fintechs like Mukuru, Sasai, Ria Money and hello Paisa as cross-border payments become more complex. The shift highlights how regulatory changes are reshaping consumer behaviour and expanding the role fintechs play in regional payments.

In 2025, the South Africa Reserve Bank’s (SARB) changes affecting low-value cross-border electronic fund transfers (EFTs) within the Common Monetary Area (CMA) introduced stricter processing and verification requirements for some transactions. The CMA includes South Africa, Lesotho, Namibia, and Eswatini.

The measures were designed to strengthen anti-money laundering controls, reduce illicit financial flows, and improve compliance with international financial standards.

While the changes aim to improve oversight of the financial system, they have also added friction for some consumers accustomed to moving money between South Africa and Lesotho with minimal documentation. In some cases, users have faced additional verification requirements and longer processing times.

For Lesotho, where remittances are a significant source of household income, these changes have direct implications. According to data from the World Bank, personal remittances account for almost 20.9% of Lesotho’s GDP. Statistics South Africa estimates that the 400,000 Basotho living and working in South Africa make up about 11% of the country’s immigrant population.

Cape Town-based Mukuru, a global fintech which says it serves over 17 million across Africa, Europe, Asia and North America, says the SARB’s ban on EFTs to CMA countries has attracted new customers who previously relied on traditional banking channels. Mama Money, Shoprite and Nedbank’s Zaca are the other major money transfers that have entered the Lesotho market.

“Historically, Mukuru focused on serving unbanked customers, but we are now seeing that even banked customers are facing difficulties when trying to send money home,” said Maleseli Mohapinyane, Mukuru’s country manager for Lesotho.

The company launched its South Africa–Lesotho corridor in 2016 and now operates across 22 remittance corridors globally. According to Mohapinyane, the company is seeing increased interest from customers looking for alternatives to conventional cross-border payment channels.

Cost is another factor. 

For Thabiso Nthunya, a mineworker in the Free State Province, what matters most is that the money reaches his family quickly.

“When your family is waiting for money to buy food or pay bills, you need to know it will arrive without delay. Travelling home just to take money to my family is expensive, and carrying cash is not ideal,” he said.

Moroesi Koali, Sasai Econet Financial Services Marketing Manager, agreed with Nthunya that convenience is one of the main reasons migrant workers are increasingly opting for their fintech-based remittance services.

“For many migrant workers, convenience is key,” she said. “They can send money home knowing recipients can access the funds immediately through a wallet or an agent network, without needing to travel long distances or navigate multiple banking processes,” she said.

However, Access Bank says its remittance business to Lesotho has remained largely upbeat despite the regulatory changes and competition from digital payments platforms. Naco Bolote, the bank’s Head of International Remittances, described Lesotho as an important corridor and said the lender had continued to serve the market effectively.

“As a bank, there has not been any noticeable impact for us because our market dynamics are a little different from those of remittance companies. That is because our cross-border payments are at a more formalised level,” he said.

On June 1, Spiro, the electric motorcycle startup, announced a $215 million funding round, one of the largest capital raises ever secured by an African mobility company. The figure grabbed headlines, but the company’s plans for the capital offer the clearest insight into how it sees its future. 

Across Africa’s tech ecosystem, investors have become more demanding about business fundamentals. Growth remains important. However, investors now want clearer evidence that startups can generate sustainable revenue, move towards profitability and maintain sound economics as they scale. 

Spiro’s latest strategy speaks directly to that shift. The company still earns most of its revenue from selling electric motorcycles, yet it spends far more time talking about batteries, swap stations and energy infrastructure than motorcycles. 

Few mobility startups have consistently attracted capital. Spiro has now raised more than $500 million through a combination of debt and equity financing, including a $50 million facility from Afreximbank, a $100 million funding round announced in 2025, and the latest equity raise led by Impact Fund Denmark and Equitane. 

In a statement to TechCabal on Tuesday, Gagan Gupta, the company’s co-founder and chairman, described a business focused on expanding battery capacity, growing its swapping network and building energy services around it. Motorcycles remain the main source of revenue, but batteries and swap stations dominate the growth strategy. 

“Spiro’s revenue mix today is primarily driven by vehicle sales, with energy services, operations and maintenance contributing the remaining share,” Gupta said. 

Vehicle sales still drive the business

Spiro is clear about where its revenue comes from today. Vehicle sales generate the largest share of the company’s revenue—Spiro declined to disclose the figures—while energy services, operations and maintenance account for the remainder. The revenue mix reflects the company’s current stage of development, with motorcycle adoption still growing before battery-swapping services can generate meaningful demand. 

“Vehicle sales serve as the entry point for market adoption, but as fleet density increases, energy demand scales in a compounding manner and with it, the recurring, high-margin revenue profile that defines infrastructure businesses,” Gupta told TechCabal.

Gupta’s comments help explain how Spiro views the relationship between its vehicles and its infrastructure. The motorcycles bring riders onto the platform. The battery-swapping network is designed to generate ongoing activity after the initial sale.

That model differs from that of a traditional vehicle manufacturer, where revenue is largely tied to unit sales. Spiro’s approach depends on building a network that riders repeatedly return to. Every additional vehicle deployed creates another potential user of the company’s battery-swapping infrastructure.

The company expects the balance of revenue to evolve, declining to disclose its revenue from battery swaps or provide projections for when energy-related activities could rival vehicle sales. Revenue today remains tied primarily to getting more motorcycles on the road.

“While we do not disclose market-level payback data at this stage, we can confirm that our most mature markets are already demonstrating the utilisation trajectory consistent with the target unit economics,” Gupta said. 

Why Spiro needed another $215 million

The latest funding round will not be used to launch a new business or test a new market.

According to Gupta, previous funding rounds enabled the company to establish its platform, validate product-market fit and build operational capacity for growth. The latest raise is intended to accelerate the expansion of the infrastructure already in place.

The new capital will be used to expand battery capacity, roll out more swap stations, deepen the company’s presence in existing markets and support further localisation of manufacturing. The plan is notable for what it does not include. Gupta did not point to a new product category, a major technology shift or a new business model. The focus remains on expanding the existing network.

Spiro says it has deployed more than 2,500 battery-swapping stations across Africa. Gupta argues that scale matters because riders need confidence that energy will be available wherever they operate. The company refers to this as “rider anxiety”—the hesitation to switch to electric motorcycles when access to battery-swapping services remains uncertain.

Commercial motorcycle riders earn money only when they are moving. A battery that runs out far from a swap station can lead to lost trips and income. Spiro argues that a dense network reduces much of that uncertainty, making electric motorcycles a more practical option for riders who depend on them for daily earnings.

The latest funding round is built around that premise: rather than pursuing a new line of business, Spiro is directing fresh capital towards expanding battery capacity and extending the reach of its swapping network. 

The race to electrify Africa’s motorcycles

Africa’s electric motorcycle sector is attracting a growing number of startups, drawn by a simple calculation. Some estimates put Kenya’s boda boda operators at three million, who spend a large share of their daily earnings on fuel. That has created an opportunity for companies that can offer a cheaper alternative without sacrificing convenience. The result has been a wave of investment into electric motorcycles, battery-swapping networks and the infrastructure needed to keep them running.

Besides Spiro, startups such as Ampersand, Roam and ARC Ride are also building businesses around electric two-wheelers, with many relying on battery-swapping networks to address charging constraints and reduce operating costs for riders. 

Despite differences in approach, these companies are pursuing the same objective: lowering fuel costs, reducing downtime and making electric motorcycles practical for commercial transport. 

Where Spiro stands apart is the amount of capital it has raised. Ampersand, one of the region’s best-known electric motorcycle companies, has raised over $43 million to expand its fleet, battery-swapping network and charging infrastructure across East Africa. Roam has raised nearly $32 million to expand production of electric motorcycles and buses. 

Spiro, by contrast, has now secured more than $500 million in debt and equity financing, giving it significantly more firepower to build infrastructure across multiple markets at the same time.

The size of that opportunity helps explain the investor interest. Motorcycle taxis form the backbone of transport in many African cities, while rising fuel costs continue to squeeze rider incomes. Companies that can lower those costs and build reliable energy networks are competing for a market measured not just by vehicle sales but by the daily movement of millions of riders and passengers across the continent.

The economics investors want to see

The strongest argument for Spiro’s long-term business model rests on the economics of its battery-swapping network.

Gupta said the network is strongest in markets with high motorcycle volumes and frequent battery swapping. 

“Spiro’s battery-swapping network demonstrates strong underlying unit economics, with station-level profitability driven by two primary levers: vehicle deployment density in a given geography, and frequency of use per rider,” he said.

The logic here is that more vehicles create more demand for battery swaps. More swaps increase utilisation of existing infrastructure. Better utilisation can improve the economics of assets that have already been deployed.

The company did not disclose station payback periods, break-even utilisation rates or market-level profitability data. Those figures would provide a clearer picture of how the network performs financially and how quickly new stations begin generating returns.

“We are already cash positive in our two most mature markets,” Gupta said. 

Spiro did not identify those markets or disclose financial figures. Even so, the statement offers one of the few direct indicators of operating performance contained in the company’s responses.

Much of the public discussion around electric mobility has focused on funding announcements, expansion plans and deployment targets. Cash-positive operations point to a different measure of progress, suggesting that at least part of the business has moved beyond pure deployment and into a stage where operations are generating positive cash flow.

Spiro did not disclose enough details to assess the scale of that performance or how it compares across markets. Still, the disclosure is crucial because it shifts attention from fundraising and expansion to the company’s financial performance. 

Looking beyond transport

“Electric mobility and energy infrastructure are two sides of the same coin. To succeed in one, you must deliver the other,” Gupta said, pointing out that the company’s longer-term ambitions extend beyond motorcycles and battery swapping.

The network Spiro is building was designed to support electric motorcycles, but the company sees broader applications for the underlying infrastructure. Batteries need to be charged, monitored, stored, and moved across a network that keeps them available when riders need them. Once that system exists at scale, the company believes it can support more than transport alone.

Battery storage, distributed energy solutions and grid-related applications are among the areas being explored internally, according to Gupta. They are not major contributors to revenue today, but they offer a glimpse into how Spiro views the role of its infrastructure over the longer term.

One idea that appears further along is opening the network to outside partners. Gupta said the company is preparing to make parts of its energy infrastructure available to third parties, extending its use beyond Spiro’s own fleet.

“Looking ahead, we are also preparing to open Spiro’s energy infrastructure to third-party partners,” Gupta said.

The company sees a role for that infrastructure beyond its own fleet. Gupta pointed to Spiro’s acquisition of Coexlion, a UK engineering and design firm in May 2026, as part of a broader effort to strengthen its engineering, product development and energy infrastructure capabilities.

Gupta disclosed little about station economics, utilisation rates or profitability across individual markets. What he did disclose was that two of Spiro’s most mature markets are already cash-positive. For a startup that has spent years being defined by the number of motorcycles it deploys, that may be the most revealing figure of all.

Agenz, a Moroccan proptech startup that digitises real estate transactions, has raised $5 million to support product development and strengthen its investments in artificial intelligence.

The funding round saw participation from Breega, a European venture capital firm, Attijariwafa Ventures, and Saviu Ventures, an Africa-focused growth capital fund. 

The raise comes three years after Agenz’s $1.3 million pre-Series A financing round as activity in Morocco’s property market picks up. Residential land transactions surpassed 140,000 in 2023, an increase from 2022, according to a World Bank document, highlighting the opportunity for digital platforms that simplify property transactions for users.

“We believe the future of real estate will be built on the responsible use of data and artificial intelligence,” said Malik Belkeziz, Co-founder and CEO of Agenz. “Our ambition is to leverage technology to create a more transparent, secure and accessible market, while keeping user trust at the centre of everything we do. This funding will allow us to accelerate this vision for the benefit of the entire Moroccan real estate ecosystem.” 

Founded in 2021 by Malik and Badr Belkeziz, Agenz operates an integrated real estate platform that combines property valuation tools, market intelligence, solutions for professional services, and digital transaction solutions.  The fresh capital will also be used to expand the company’s services for individuals, real estate agents, developers, investors and financial institutions, according to the company.

“Agenz has built, in just a few years, the platform the Moroccan real estate sector was missing, bringing together data, tools and transactions into one seamless experience,” said Driss Ibenmansour, Partner at Breega. “We believe this funding will help accelerate an already ongoing transformation of the market.”

The company said it has recorded growth in transaction volumes since launching its transaction platform in 2023, including surpassing 730,000 monthly visits on its Agenz.ma website in May 2026.

Bolaji Anifowose is a product marketing manager and go-to-market (GTM) engineer with over 7 years of experience helping startups across Africa and beyond sharpen their positioning, launch products, and build compounding growth engines. He has led growth, GTM, and marketing efforts for high-impact companies such as Simpu, Distrobird, Chatbase, and Tecno, delivering successful product launches, demand generation campaigns, and market expansion strategies that produce significant results.

Before tech, Bolaji studied Metallurgical and Materials Engineering at the University of Lagos, Nigeria, a background that shaped how he approaches marketing today: systems-first and evidence-led. He is a graduate of the pioneer cohort of the GTM Engineer School and spends a lot of his time these days at the intersection of marketing and AI, building automations and workflows that let small teams punch far above their weight.

• Explain your job to a five-year-old.

You know when you make something really cool, like a drawing or a sandcastle, but nobody comes to look at it? My job is to make sure people come and look. I help companies that have built something good figure out how to tell the right people about it, in a way that makes them go “I want that.” I find the people who would love it, work out what to say to them, and build little machines that help do it again and again.

• Did your 16-year-old self ever imagine he’d end up in marketing?

Not even close. At 16, I was deep in science, headed for engineering, convinced my future involved metals and lab coats. Marketing wasn’t on the map. If you’d told that kid he’d spend his days writing, building automations, and obsessing over why people buy things, he’d have laughed. But here’s the funny part: the engineer never left. I still approach marketing the way I’d approach a materials problem. Test, measure, find the system underneath the noise. I didn’t abandon engineering. I just changed what I was building.

• Who’s a GTM engineer, and what’s the path to becoming one?

GTM engineering is a term Clay coined in 2023. The simplest way to think about it is this: a GTM engineer builds systems that generate revenue. You’re combining artificial intelligence (AI), automation, and creative problem-solving to do work that would normally require a much larger team. That’s the core of it: giving a small team the firepower of a big one.

Think about traditional growth work. You’re manually searching LinkedIn for leads, writing outreach emails one by one, juggling inboxes, and tracking replies. Now flip that. Clay finds and enriches leads. A signal tool identifies who’s actually in-market. Claude and OpenAI personalise outreach. A sequencer sends it, and an n8n agent handles responses. Same goal, far less manual work. That’s what a GTM engineer builds.

There isn’t just one type of GTM engineer. I usually break it into three. First, the software engineer who could work on a product or data team but chose revenue instead. Second, the systems specialist, often from revenue operations (RevOps) or marketing operations, who excels at orchestrating tools. Third, the marketer or salesperson who picked up technical skills and sits at the intersection of strategy and execution. That’s me, and for most people, it’s the most realistic path in.

The skills transfer more than you’d think: systems thinking, customer understanding, copywriting, learning new tools quickly, and being comfortable working alongside code. You don’t need a computer science degree.

To get started, learn the fundamentals first: ideal customer profile (ICP), positioning, channels, and messaging. Then look at your week and identify a repetitive task, whether that’s lead research, follow-ups, or reporting. That’s your first automation opportunity.

Build with tools companies are hiring for today, like Clay, n8n, and Claude Code. Turn a real task into a working system, then run it on actual campaigns. After that, document what you built, make it part of your portfolio, and join the communities where jobs and collaborations happen.

Every system you ship becomes proof that you can do the work. In this field, proof beats a fancy résumé every time.

• What’s your hot take on why most product launches fail?

Here’s my hot take—and the numbers back me up on this: most product launches don’t fail because of the product. They fail because teams mistake shipping for creating demand.

The numbers back it up. Depending on the study, 80–95% of new products fail. Harvard’s Clayton Christensen put the figure at 95%. In B2B, only about one in four launches hits its revenue target. That’s not bad luck. That’s a pattern.

The mistake is usually the same. Teams build the product, pick a launch date, post about it, then wonder why the market shrugs. But a launch was never an announcement. It’s the moment you prove you understand your buyer well enough to make them care.

The data shows where things break. Simon-Kucher’s global pricing study found that 72% of new products miss their sales targets, and a quarter of companies said none of their recent launches met expectations. That’s rarely a product problem. It’s usually a failure to understand what buyers value and what they’ll pay for. Many teams build on assumptions and don’t test them with real customers until it’s too late.

Messaging is another common culprit. Most launches focus on the company and its features: look what we built. Buyers care about something else: what’s changing for them, and why now. If that isn’t clear, no amount of launch-day promotion will save you.

That’s why I think launches don’t fail on launch day. Launch day simply exposes months of skipped homework. If you can’t clearly explain who the product is for, what changes for them, and why it matters now, you don’t have a launch. You have an announcement nobody asked for.

The teams that win do the unglamorous work first. They talk to customers, sharpen their positioning, and align around a clear story. By the time they hit publish, demand already exists. The launch just opens the door.

• What’s your favourite and least favourite part of the work you do?
  

My favourite part is the moment a system clicks. I’ll build a workflow, go to sleep, and wake up to find it has spent the night finding leads, enriching data, and sending personalised outreach without me lifting a finger. There’s something magical about that. You build it once, and it keeps paying you back. That feeling of compounding, where yesterday’s work keeps working for you, never gets old.

It’s the same with marketing. When positioning I’ve shaped makes a prospect say, “This is exactly what we needed,” that’s just as rewarding. For me, the real payoff is building something that creates results without me having to be in the room.

My least favourite part is keeping up with the tools. In AI, the pace is relentless. Every day there’s a new product, a new feature, or a new model. You finally master a tool and build it into your workflow, then three new alternatives show up claiming to be faster, cheaper, or smarter.

You can’t ignore them because some genuinely are better, and clients expect you to stay current. But you also can’t chase every shiny object, or you’ll never get anything done. So you’re constantly balancing learning with execution. I love that this field forces me to keep growing, but even for someone who enjoys learning, the pace can be exhausting.

• What’s the one mistake you wish you could save every early-career marketer from making?

Don’t chase titles in the beginning. Just do the work.

I see a lot of people early in their careers obsessing over the label. They want “Manager” in their title, they want to be “Head of” something, they want the senior tag before they’ve built the skills those titles are supposed to represent. And I get it. It feels like progress. But a title is just a word on LinkedIn. It doesn’t make you good. The work makes you good.

When you’re starting out, your job is to get your hands dirty. Build the campaigns. Write the copy that flops and figure out why. Run the experiments. Learn the tools. Get close to customers and understand why they buy. That’s where real growth happens: in the doing, not in the title.

Because here’s what nobody tells you: when you become genuinely good at the work, the titles come looking for you. You don’t have to chase them.

The people who skip work and chase titles early often get exposed. They land the senior role, but the title isn’t backed by real ability. So my advice is simple: forget what they call you for now. Get obsessed with becoming great at the craft. Be the person who can actually do the thing.

The recognition, the titles, and the money follow. They always do.

Kora, the payment infrastructure platform, has joined the International Air Transport Association’s IATA Financial Gateway (IFG), connecting global airlines to Africa’s payment ecosystem through a single, reliable infrastructure layer.

IATA Financial Gateway is the airline industry’s dedicated payment orchestration and management platform. IFG brings together global, regional and local payment partners to provide airlines with the right mix of payment options to maximise acceptance, reduce cost, and better serve customers in every market. Through this integration, airlines and travel agencies using IFG can now accept payments across Africa via Kora, including cards, bank transfers, mobile money, and local alternative payment methods, without having to build or manage multiple complex integrations independently.

Africa is one of the fastest-growing aviation markets in the world. The continent is expected to add more than 300 million new passengers by 2050. Yet global airlines have long faced a fundamental operational challenge when entering African markets: fragmented local payment rails, FX complexity, disconnected settlement systems, and the burden of managing multiple payment service provider relationships across Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Egypt and South Africa. This partnership removes that friction. One connection through IFG gives airlines access to Kora’s full African payment infrastructure, with the settlement reliability and local compliance that enterprise operations require.

Dickson Nsofor, CEO of Kora, said, “Africa is not a market to figure out later. It is a growth opportunity that demands serious infrastructure today. Our partnership with IATA signals that the rails are ready. Global airlines no longer have to choose between expanding into Africa and managing payment complexity. With Kora inside IFG, they get both.”

IATA currently represents over 370 international airlines globally. With Kora now part of IFG, those airlines gain direct access to Africa’s payment stack across all markets where Kora operates.

IATA Financial Gateway (IFG) enables greater flexibility in travel payment processing for the world’s airlines and travel suppliers, helping them build a cost-effective travel payment strategy. Kora’s participation strengthens our ability to serve airlines operating in or expanding across African markets,” said Kamil Al-Awadhi, Regional Vice President, Africa and Middle East. 

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Moroccan proptech startup Agenz has raised USD 5 M in an oversubscribed seed round co-led by Breega, Attijariwafa Ventures, and Saviu Ventures.

Founded in 2021 by brothers Malik and Badr Belkeziz, Agenz operates an end-to-end real estate platform that combines property valuation tools, market analytics, software for real estate professionals, and a transaction marketplace for buyers.

The company aims to improve transparency and efficiency in Morocco’s property market, which has traditionally been fragmented and reliant on informal brokerage networks.

Since launching its transaction platform in 2023, Agenz has grown rapidly, recording more than 730,000 monthly visits by May 2026. The new funding will support team growth, technology development, product expansion, and future international expansion plans.

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Airtel Africa’s mobile money business processed nearly USD 200 B in transactions over the past year as the telecoms operator expands financial services across 14 African countries, putting it on track for a London listing that analysts say could value the unit at up to USD 10 B.

The company’s Sustainability Report 2026, published on Wednesday, showed that Airtel Money’s transaction value climbed 44% to approximately USD 196 B in the financial year to March 31, driven by microloans, international transfers and merchant payments. The customer base grew 21% to 54.1 million users.

Chief Executive Sunil Taldar said expanding access to financial services and connectivity remains central to the company’s strategy. “Across Africa, access to connectivity, financial services and digital education is increasingly essential to economic opportunity,” he said in the report.

The growth positions Airtel Money for an initial public offering scheduled for the second half of 2026. Analysts at CLSA estimate the unit could raise between USD 1.5 B and USD 2 B at a valuation of up to USD 10 B, a fourfold increase from 2021, making it one of the largest fintech listings on a European exchange in recent years.

The mobile money business now has an EBITDA margin of 50.8%, above the broader Airtel Africa margin of 49.3%, and contributes 20% of the group’s regional revenue. However, penetration remains at only 29% of Airtel Africa’s 184 million mobile subscribers, with significant room for growth in Nigeria, where only 2.7 million customers currently use the service.

Airtel Africa has also expanded its digital infrastructure, with mobile network coverage reaching 81.9% of the population, including 73.1% in rural areas. Smartphone penetration rose to 49.5%, while data customers grew to 84.2 million.

The company’s agent network, which supports financial inclusion and local entrepreneurship, expanded by 39% to 2.4 million agents. Women account for 44.1% of Airtel Money customers, the report showed.

Beyond financial services, the Airtel Africa Foundation connected 3,043 schools to free internet through a partnership with UNICEF, up from 2,176 the previous year. The company also converted more than 950 network sites from off-grid to on-grid power, cutting diesel consumption by 9.1 million litres.

Feature Image Credits: Developing Telecoms

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South African small businesses are shifting from a survival mindset to more deliberate, disciplined growth strategies as economic conditions slowly improve, though lingering global uncertainties keep their optimism in check, a report released on Thursday shows.

The latest SME Pulse Report by SME funding startup, Lula, found that entrepreneurs are moving beyond short-term crisis management and focusing on operational optimisation after years of navigating power cuts, high inflation and steep interest rates.

“The story of SMEs in 2026 is no longer one of pure survival, but not yet one of full recovery either,” Lula Chief Executive Trevor Gosling said. “What we’re seeing instead is measured optimism. Businesses are becoming more deliberate about where they deploy capital, which opportunities they pursue, and how they protect cash flow.”

The report points to improving affordability for small businesses over the past 12 months, with easing inflation and greater energy stability restoring some predictability after prolonged pressure.

Business confidence has also improved. The RMB/BER Business Confidence Index rose to 47 in the first quarter of 2026, the highest level in nearly five years, building on gains in late 2025. Inflation has moderated from previous highs, and the South African Reserve Bank has begun cutting interest rates, with the prime lending rate at 10.25% by May 2026.

However, the report cautions that conditions remain fragile. Escalating conflict in the Middle East has driven up global oil prices, threatening to push inflation back up and delay or reverse further interest rate relief. Gosling said the external environment has already shifted rapidly since the report’s data was compiled earlier this year.

“SMEs are operating in a market that can change very quickly and often without warning,” he said. “Businesses cannot afford to become complacent.”

The report also noted a shift in how SME owners view funding. Many still rely on personal savings or credit, but there are growing signs that business funding is being seen less as a last resort and more as a strategic tool for growth. Some businesses are now using finance proactively to secure stock ahead of demand or expand operations rather than waiting for cash flow pressure to build.

“The future of SME finance will not simply be about access to capital,” Gosling said. “It will increasingly be about helping businesses make smarter decisions and giving them the confidence to act at the right time.”

South Africa’s SME sector faces a financing gap estimated at more than ZAR 350 B (USD 18 B), according to the OECD. The Lula report suggests businesses that embrace funding as a growth enabler rather than an emergency measure are better positioned to scale.

The report is based on Lula’s internal affordability, funding and operating environment data, alongside broader SME sentiment research conducted with News24.

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Zipline’s rise in Africa began with the promise of delivering blood and vaccines to remote clinics faster than any road could manage. Nearly a decade later, new peer-reviewed research shows the drones are doing far more than restock medical fridges.

Drone delivery networks operated by Zipline in Africa are linked to lower child mortality, higher farmer incomes and stronger local economic activity, according to three new studies examining operations in Rwanda and Ghana.

In a set of findings released on Wednesday, the autonomous logistics company documented that the same infrastructure built to bypass broken supply chains is now generating measurable returns in farming productivity, child nutrition, and household wealth.

One study, published in Frontiers in Veterinary Science, evaluated a programme in rural Rwanda that used drone-delivered, temperature-controlled pig semen combined with community training. The model increased farmers’ annual income by 17%, generating a 68% return on investment for smallholder pig producers, Zipline said.

Success rates for artificial insemination rose from 48.8% to 74.8% after drone logistics were introduced, the company reported, citing research data.

A separate study, focused on severe acute malnutrition, compared Zipline-served and non-served health facilities in Rwanda over five years. At sites where ready-to-use therapeutic food was delivered by drone, in‑hospital childhood deaths from severe malnutrition fell 22%, the findings show. Visits for severe anaemia in young children dropped 46%.

“The protocol for treating malnutrition has not changed. What changed was whether supplies were there when clinicians needed them,” said Pedro Kremer, Zipline’s head of impact and research. “That is the variable these studies are measuring.”

Another piece of evidence came from a third study examining Zipline’s GH3 distribution centre in northern Ghana. Researchers combined a household survey with satellite analysis of nighttime light intensity, a recognised proxy for local economic activity, and benchmarked the area against 82 comparable locations across the country.

It was found that households within two kilometres of the Zipline hub earned an additional USD 850.00 to USD 1.2 K per year. Liquid asset ownership fell about 27% with every additional 1.5 km from the hub, and improvements in drinking‑water access followed the same proximity pattern. Furthermore, nighttime light intensity near the hub was “significantly higher” than at the 82 comparable locations.

The results come as Zipline accelerates its buildout across the continent. In Nigeria, the company announced plans last month to grow from three distribution centres to 15 by 2028, potentially giving nearly 100 million people faster access to medical supplies. Rwanda is adding an urban delivery system, Platform 2, in Kigali, while Ghana, Kenya and Côte d’Ivoire continue to expand.

“This research shows what communities and governments across Africa have seen firsthand: when essential supplies reliably reach the people who need them, outcomes change,” said Caitlin Burton, Zipline’s chief executive for Africa and emerging markets.

However, an on-and-off debate over cost remains a sticky point. Ghana’s Health Minister Kwabena Mintah Akandoh told a press conference in Accra in December that an audit of Zipline’s contract revealed that only 12% of areas served qualified as “hard-to-reach” and only 4% of deliveries could be classified as emergencies.

The minister said the government owes Zipline GHC 174 M (USD 12.5 M) and has raised questions about whether high operational costs are justified.

Majority Leader Mahama Ayariga called the contract a “drain on national resources” and argued the health service should have developed its own drone capacity. Opposition has also come from Parliament’s Health Committee chairman, Dr. Mark Kurt Nawaane, who described Zipline as “a solution to a problem the country does not have” and said the real challenge is a shortage of voluntary blood donors, not transportation.

The company maintains that it runs one of the highest-impact, most cost-effective interventions ever studied, across multiple domains, including immunisations, maternal mortality, and nutrition. The Country Manager of Zipline Ghana, Daniel Kwaku Merki, pushed back against claims that the company’s drone delivery service is being misused to transport non-essential items, insisting that such non-medical deliveries are “extremely rare.”

Zipline’s CEO for Africa and emerging markets, said in Wednesday’s press release that the research shows measurable results across multiple sectors. “Zipline began by improving access to critical health supplies. Today, the same infrastructure is strengthening nutrition systems, agricultural productivity and local economies,” she said.

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Nearly all Egyptian consumers use artificial intelligence to help them shop, but only a fraction trust AI to complete a purchase on their behalf; a paradox that reveals a broader challenge facing the global payments industry as it rushes to build infrastructure for autonomous commerce.

A Visa study released Tuesday found that 91% of consumers in Egypt have used AI tools to assist with shopping, comparing prices, checking reviews and finding gift ideas. Fully 97% say the technology makes online shopping faster and easier. Yet when asked whether they would trust an AI agent to handle checkout, that figure collapsed to just 38%.

The findings, from the annual Stay Secure survey conducted by Wakefield Research, lay bare the gap between consumer appetite for AI-assisted discovery and their reluctance to cede control of the payment itself. The study surveyed 5,800 adults across 17 markets in Central Europe, the Middle East and Africa, including Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.

The trust gap is not unique to Egypt. In South Africa, only 23% of consumers would trust an AI agent to complete a purchase, according to the same study. In Kenya, that figure stood at 29%. Across the region, consumers are embracing AI for research, but they draw a firm line when money changes hands.

“Consumers see fraud protection as a shared responsibility, but they expect financial institutions, governments, and payment providers to take the lead,” said Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president for North Africa, the Levant and Pakistan.

The study also revealed a rapidly shifting e-commerce landscape. Eighty‑five percent of Egyptian consumers have purchased products directly through social media platforms. But as commerce migrates to new channels, fraud follows. Among consumers who reported experiencing a financial scam in the past 12 months, some 36% of respondents, nearly half said the incident occurred on social media, more than on any other platform.

In 2025 alone, Egyptian authorities said they thwarted financial fraud operations worth an estimated EGP 4 B (approximately USD 77 M), according to statements from the Central Bank of Egypt. Across the continent, an Interpol‑coordinated operation in early 2026 involving 16 African countries resulted in 651 arrests and exposed scams tied to over USD 45 M in losses.

The findings arrive as Visa, Mastercard, and other payments giants race to prepare financial institutions for agentic commerce – autonomous transactions executed by AI agents with minimal human involvement. Visa has already begun enrolling banks in its Agentic Ready programme, which enables institutions to process such payments.

But as the Egypt data makes clear, the infrastructure is arriving ahead of consumer trust. Asked who should bear primary responsibility for fraud protection while shopping online, nearly half of Egyptian consumers pointed to government authorities. Only 13% believed consumers themselves should be primarily responsible.

The path forward remains uncertain for payments companies. Consumers have demonstrated they will use AI to discover products and compare prices. Whether they will ever trust it to spend their money remains an open question.

Feature Image Credits: Consultancy-ME

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Nigerian insurtech startup Myka has raised an undisclosed pre-seed funding round from investors including Ventures Platform, TLcom, Shola Akinlade, co-founder of Paystack; Ridwan Olalere, founder of LemFi; and Olumide Soyombo, founder of Voltron Capital.

Founded in 2025 by serial tech entrepreneur Sim Shagaya, Muritala Ahmed, and Oluwadamilola Okenla, Myka is a licensed digital insurance broker that enables consumers and SMEs to discover, compare, and purchase insurance products from multiple providers in real time.

The startup aims to address Nigeria’s low insurance penetration by improving distribution through digital and offline channels that customers already use.

Working with leading underwriters and under the regulatory oversight of Nigeria’s National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), Myka offers coverage across categories, including health, vehicles, mobile phones, homes, and businesses, with a mission to expand access to financial protection at scale.

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Nearly five years after its high-profile launch as Africa’s first central bank digital currency, Nigeria’s eNaira is being quietly repurposed. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has acknowledged in a new strategy document that adoption of the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) has been slow, and is now repositioning it away from a consumer-facing payment tool toward a backend infrastructure for government disbursements and cross-border settlements.

The eNaira, launched in October 2021 to much fanfare, has struggled to gain traction. According to the CBN’s Payments System Vision (PSV) 2028 strategy, unveiled on June 1, the CBDC currently has “millions of wallets” but has processed only about NGN 22 B (USD 16 M) in transactions. This is a fraction of the nearly 1 quadrillion naira in total electronic payments processed in 2024, and well below the 300 million transactions the bank had envisioned for the digital currency by 2026.

In the PSV 2028 document, the CBN acknowledged that barriers to the eNaira’s success included “limited stakeholder engagement and buy-in” during its design and implementation. The bank conceded that adoption had been slow, with the CBDC offering little that existing bank apps, fintech wallets and mobile money platforms were not already providing more conveniently.

Rather than competing directly with these established platforms, the CBN now wants the eNaira to become part of the infrastructure that underpins Nigeria’s digital payments ecosystem. The strategy, which runs through 2028, places the CBDC alongside initiatives such as open banking, digital identity and cross-border payments frameworks.

The rethink comes amid a broader strategic shift at the CBN under Governor Olayemi Cardoso, who has prioritised stabilisation, trade facilitation and investor confidence.

The PSV 2028 framework, unveiled at a gathering of banking executives and fintech operators in Abuja on June 1, aims to position Nigeria among Africa’s leading payment ecosystems by promoting faster, safer digital transactions and strengthening cross-border payment systems under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

The path forward for the e-naira will focus on government-to-person (G2P) payments, such as welfare disbursements and subsidies, as well as cross-border settlements. “Routing every government payment through the eNaira is where the plan argues with itself,” noted one analysis of the strategy, pointing to the tension between the CBDC’s past failures and its future ambitions.

The repositioning reflects a quiet admission that Africa’s first CBDC experiment, once hailed as a landmark step toward a cashless economy, has fallen short of its original promise. Now, the CBN is betting that a more utilitarian role can salvage the project.

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Three years ago, Abia State was a byword for abandoned projects, salary arrears, and institutional decay. Today, that narrative is...

The post How Alex Otti Is Rebuilding Abia State: Roads, Health Centres, Digital Economy, and a N1 Trillion Budget appeared first on TechTrends Africa.

The pitch has always been compelling; millions of consumers across West Africa are underserved by traditional banks, disposable income is...

The post The Credit Promise That Hasn’t Landed: Why BNPL Is Struggling to Scale in West Africa appeared first on TechTrends Africa.