We have no crystal ball, but you likely had two reactions when you saw MultiChoice in today’s newsletter: ‘Did the pay-TV company finally reduce its DSTv prices?’ or ‘has it entered trouble with another regulator?’

Your thoughts are well…your thoughts. But MultiChoice is hogging the headlines again for the high-profile Canal+ takeover. On Tuesday, the company said it has started restructuring its businesses to accommodate the French media outfit operated by the Vivendi Group. The R55 billion ($3.17 billion) buyout, which has been a public spectacle since Canal+ first bought shares five years ago, is coming to an end.

Catch up: After Canal+ made a mandatory buyout offer to acquire 36.6% of the South African pay-TV company in 2024, it triggered a clause that gave the acquirer the right to make a takeover bid. It offered R125 ($7.21) per share to take over MultiChoice. Following approval of the deal, both companies have been scrambling to set up rules that allow Canal+ to own controlling stakes.

State of play: MultiChoice has since established a subsidiary, LicenceCo, which holds its broadcasting licences. It will reduce its controlling stake in LicenceCo to 20% to allow the deal to meet competition and foreign takeover requirements in South Africa.

Questions, questions: With this restructuring, where do consumers fit in? What changes for them? MultiChoice continues to oversee its operations, media content, and branding across platforms, according to CEO Calvo Mawela. The deal is unlikely to include a resource-sharing pact, so Canal+, one of France’s largest streamers, won’t merge its content into MultiChoice or vice versa.

We are edging closer to a monumental shakeup in Africa’s pay-TV market, with one of the continent’s biggest companies at the centre of it.

Tanzania’s largest bank by assets, CRDB Bank, has replaced its old core banking system, the Fusion Banking Essence (FBE) by Finastra, with Temenos T24, the Swiss platform used by heavyweights such as KCB and Stanbic Bank. This migration happened in early September.

Why? CRDB wants to move beyond East Africa into Dubai, and you can’t really make that big move with outdated infrastructure. Not to mention keeping pace with regional competitors.

Core banking isn’t like upgrading a mobile app. It requires shifting millions of sensitive user records at a go. CRDB’s migration had the usual teething problems of service lags and balance mismatches. But they insist it was a critical move for efficiency.

What’s new? CRDB can now allow people to initiate transactions in English, Swahili, French, Kirundi, and Arabic. The new system also supports transactions in multiple currencies.

Why it matters. By jumping on Temenos T24, CRDB is signalling regional and global players that it is ready to play hardball. The upgrade gives the lender the backbone to chase diaspora money in Dubai and roll out products faster. With the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) nudging local banks to modernise their systems, other East African banks are likely to follow CRDB’s footsteps.

Remember when Alphabet, the parent company of Google, did a 20-for-1 stock split on the NASDAQ in 2022? Did you buy its shares? Because Naspers, one of Africa’s largest technology conglomerates, is following suit.

When it comes to the stock market. Some may think it’s all just an expensive gamble with a bunch of imaginary numbers and prices for big players that make little sense. Naspers wants everyone to think differently. 

State of play: It announced a 5-for-1 share split on the local bourse, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), which will be effective from October 6. A stock split means each existing share is divided into smaller units, so the price per share drops, but the overall value of your investment stays the same. Companies with pricey shares typically use stock splits to make them affordable for smaller investors. 

By the close of market on Tuesday, Naspers’ shares were trading for R5,885.40 ($339) per unit; this means buying 100 shares costs nearly R600,000 ($34,500) before the split, among the highest prices on the JSE and locking out smaller investors. With this new split, the R600,000 ($34,500) investment could become R120,000 ($6,900) for the same ownership stake.

Between the lines: Most of Naspers’ valuation comes from its roughly 23% stake in the Chinese technology giant, Tencent. Tencent is valued at approximately $760 billion. Despite Nasper’s high stake, it is only valued at $53 billion; this gap tends to raise eyebrows. 

The split doesn’t change the company’s value, but it lowers the price per share, boosting liquidity and making the stock more accessible. 

This move is part of a bigger clean-up: Naspers has been buying back shares and tidying up its structure to convince investors that its value should be closer to what its books show.Stock splits can’t solve everything, but they can help close that valuation gap by drawing in smaller investors and improving market trading activity.

Nigeria’s inflation numbers are in, and they are a mixed bag. While inflation has eased for the fifth time in a row, reactions trailing the results question why the numbers don’t seem to match everyday economic reality. In August, Nigeria’s Inflation eased to 20.12%.

The stats say something: Inflation is way down from 32.15% a year ago, meaning prices are still rising, just at a slower rate. Essentially, if your internet bill increased by 20% instead of 30%, you’re still paying more than last year. In 2024, Nigeria’s inflation was one of the highest in Africa. The inflation surge between 2023 and 2024 was mainly due to issues with sourcing foreign exchange, the fuel subsidy removal that increased the cost of logistics, and other agricultural disruptions that increased food prices. 

The Central Bank will decide next week whether to hold interest rates steady in its fight against inflation. Keeping rates unchanged would ease pressure on businesses and consumers who rely on fintech loans for daily expenses, but it could also risk prolonging inflationary pressures.

Nigeria is pushing ambitious economic reforms to boost investor confidence and hit a $1 trillion economy by 2030. But strong headline numbers don’t always translate into relief for ordinary Nigerians. Prices remain high, and consumer spending is still weak.

Source:

* Data as of 05.30 AM WAT, September 17, 2025.

Opportunities

• Applications are now open for Techstars’ Spring 2026 accelerators. Startups that make it in get a $220,000 investment, mentorship, lifetime access to a global network of investors and alumni, plus over $4 million worth of partner perks. Techstars says graduates raise an average of $1 million+ after the programme. Apply by November 19.

• The Backend: At Payble, no SME is “too small”
• Payu Kenya appoints liquidator, 6 years after Cellulant-powered expansion

Written by: Opeyemi Kareem and Ifeoluwa Aigbiniode

Edited by: Ganiu Oloruntade

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After three years, Nigerian banks have finally opened the gates for naira debit cards to roam globally again. That means you can now pay for your Apple Music, Amazon orders, or even that random item on AliExpress with the same card you use for Jumia.

United Bank for Africa (UBA) and Wema Bank are leading the comeback, confirming that their Premium Naira Cards and Naira Mastercards are once again enabled for international transactions—online transactions, POS machines, and ATMs abroad.

Why was there even a restriction? The year was 2022 and the survival of key sectors in the Nigerian economy were under threat. Foreign exchange was scarce, oil revenues were shaky, and Nigeria’s Central Bank’s managed exchange rate wasn’t helping. Eventually, financial institutions pulled the plug on global naira transactions. To keep their playlists going, people turned to virtual dollar cards from fintechs like Chipper Cash, Eversend, Cardtonic, and Payday.

What changed? It appears the confidence in Nigeria’s foreign exchange market is slowly creeping back to Nigeria’s Central Bank. The naira has shown signs of appreciation and diaspora remittances are now over $20 billion.

This is a curveball for virtual card providers. When banks locked international payments, startups like Chipper Cash, Eversend, Cardtonic, and Payday, stepped in with dollar cards. But now? These companies will have to step it up: offer better rates, more flexibility, or risk becoming irrelevant. 

This is because not everyone will keep paying extra for what their naira card can now do natively. And in Nigeria’s fast-moving payment space, only the most adaptable will survive the next chapter.

18,000 workers who lost their jobs at South Africa’s Post Office, one of the country’s largest public employer, are about to get a new home.

Takealot is in talks to hire up to 18,000 retrenched workers from the South African Post Office, as part of a government-backed plan to repurpose state talent for private sector growth. 

The plan, confirmed by the Department of Communications on July 3, is still under discussion. But the direction is clear: Takealot is ramping up its logistics workforce at scale ahead of a delivery war with the likes of new entrants Amazon, Shein, and Temu.

Why does it matter? Takealot is expanding aggressively to maintain its lead in South Africa’s e-commerce market. Amazon’s full local launch in 2024 changed the game. In response, Takealot has grown its revenue by 15%, offloaded non-core assets like Superbalist, and invested in AI tools, dark stores, and delivery operations. Now it’s looking at labour—skilled, available, and already trained in logistics basics.

This potential hiring wave reveals where Takealot’s focus is: building delivery muscle and shifting to an operations-heavy setup. Many of these former Post Office workers already know routing, package handling, and customer service. They also live close to the communities that Takealot wants to reach.

The online retail giant is also exploring township delivery programmes and driver development. It wants to build a national last-mile network that’s faster, more flexible, and harder for Amazon to replicate.

The state sees this as an opportunity to soften the blow of the Post Office collapse. Takealot sees a logistics edge and political capital. South Africa may get both jobs and an improved service delivery. A win for everyone involved.

Telekom Egypt and SubCom just pulled off two key landings of the SEA-ME-WE-6 subsea cable system—one on the Mediterranean and the other on the Red Sea. 

SEA-ME-WE-6: Southeast Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 6 (pretty cool, huh?)

Why does this matter? This isn’t just confusing wiring talk, and the SEA-ME-WE-6 isn’t just a shiny new pipeline. It is built to deliver a design capacity of 126 terabits per second, enough to handle millions of high resolution video calls all at the same time. Think faster internet connection, fewer network outages, and better protection against cable disruptions, like the seismic shock that hit West Africa in 2024.

For Egypt, it strengthens its role as a digital transit hub. The country already hosts 10 cable landing stations, supports 15 live subsea cables, and has five more under construction. But the SEA-ME-WE-6 puts Egypt back at the centre of the internet map. With growing demand for high-speed connections driven by cloud services, remote work, and digital trade, Egypt is well-positioned to monetise its geography.More global players will pay to move traffic through its routes, and more investors will look at Egypt’s internet economy seriously. With this, comes more economic power and digital influence for Egypt.

The signal is clear: Egypt isn’t just hosting internet traffic, it is routing the future. Soon, the world won’t just be connecting to Egypt, it will be connecting through it.

Dear Nigerians, the next time your internet glitches midway through your Netflix binge or a Zoom call, the NCC wants you to know who is responsible.

In a sweeping change, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the regulator for telecom firms and internet service providers (ISPs), has said it will introduce a portal for tower companies to report downtimes on their network facilities. It has also given them an August deadline to improve their infrastructure or face fines.

Why does this matter? According to the NCC, Nigeria experiences an average of two network outages daily, with a total of 349 major outages recorded across the country between January and June 2025.

The NCC wants every company involved in the network connectivity value chain to be held accountable. When your internet connection frustrates you next time, it’s not enough to blame MTN, Airtel, Glo, or 9mobile. There are more players behind the scenes that make internet connectivity happen. Tower Companies (TowerCos) are one of them; they manage and maintain the cell towers you see in your streets, lease them to telecom companies, and charge for it. When their infrastructure fails, it affects you too.

Zoom out: Since the telecom tariff hike took effect in February, Nigerians have been paying more for internet, voice, and SMS services. Now the NCC is saying: if consumers must pay more, then service providers—especially TowerCos—must deliver more. And fast. 

In September 2024, the telecom regulator reviewed its Quality of Service (QoS) benchmarks for mobile operators to improve internet quality and call drop rate. As part of that review, mobile operators now face a fine of ₦5 million ($3,300) if they fail to improve their service, and an additional ₦500,000 ($330) daily for the period the infraction lasts.

TowerCos too, like mobile operators, will get the same accountability treatment. No more excuses about diesel costs or unpaid bills from mobile operators. The Commission has made it clear: downtime has a deadline. And it expires in August.

Source:

* Data as of 06.45 AM WAT, June 16, 2025.

Job Openings

• Cowrywise — iOS Software Engineer — Lagos, Nigeria
• Moniepoint — Business Development Manager — Lagos, Nigeria
• CredPal — Product Manager — Hybrid (Lagos, Nigeria)
• Grey — Frontend Engineer, Fullstack Engineer, Multi-Platform Mobile Engineer, Financial Accountant — Remote (Lagos, Nigeria)
• Mono (Internships) — Business, Technology, Commercial — Lagos, Nigeria

There are more jobs on TechCabal’s job board. If you have job opportunities to share, please submit them at bit.ly/tcxjobs. 

• How Jordan Belonwu taught Nigerian startups to dress with soul: Day 1-1000 of Belonwus
• Why startups fail: The overlooked role of people processes
• ‘Amazon of Africa’ Jumia fights to rebuild investor trust

Written by: Opeyemi Kareem and Emmanuel Nwosu

Edited by: Faith Omoniyi

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