The money had just hit Sylvia Wanjiru’s account when her phone rang. It was a million-shilling ($7,773) payment from a client, and the caller claimed to be from her bank’s customer service. He spoke confidently, offering to “help confirm the transaction.”

“At first I thought it was just a coincidence,” Wanjiru recalls. But when the same thing happened again, she realised someone was watching her transactions and reported it to the bank.

Her parents were not so fortunate. Pension payments of KES 34,000 ($263) and KES 2,500 ($19) from a mobile money wallet disappeared after they called a number that texted: “*** BANK. Dear Customer, your account has been SUSPENDED. Please contact 010****366 within 24 hours.”  

The money was long gone by the time they rushed to the bank and mobile money provider. Wanjiru’s experience is one among many others. Across Kenya, customers report similar encounters, including calls moments after cash deposits or transfers and text messages disguised as official alerts followed by withdrawals.

The speed and timing point to a possibility that the fraudsters work hand in glove with bank staff and mobile money agents with access to customer information.

Rising cyber-threats

The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), in its Financial Sector Stability Report 2025, in August reports cases of cyber fraud in the banking sector more than doubled in 2024, rising from 153 to 353, with the amount exposed increasing to KES 1.9 billion ($14.7 million) and losses nearly quadrupling to KES 1.5 billion ($11.6 million).

The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) reported 7.9 billion cyber threats in the first eight months of 2025, double the figure for 2024. CBK said attacks rose from 7.7 million in 2016 to billions due to Kenya’s economy’s rapid digitisation.

The regulator insists that despite rising risks, Kenya’s banking sector remains “resilient,” able to withstand shocks from successful cyber-attacks. However, accounts from victims, bank staff, and law enforcement suggest that most losses of funds are inside jobs.

A former compliance officer described a shadow industry in Nairobi neighbourhoods like Utawala and Ruiru, which thrives on mobile banking fraud. The setups look like call centre outsourcing hubs with rows of desks, computers, and phones.

“There are bank staff who monitor accounts, tip off the fraudsters, and within minutes, money is pushed into mule accounts,” says one ex-risk and compliance at a major bank. The cash is laundered through mobile money wallets and withdrawn at agents, or some are pushed to crypto wallets.

With 67% youth unemployment, workers are recruited through job ads for “customer service” roles, only to discover that the scripts involve impersonating bank officials or mobile money agents. And because it’s quick cash, many stay.

Pay is per successful hit, which means the more money they steal from customers, the more they earn. Corrupt police officers, according to the former compliance officer, are paid to protect operations, tip off the syndicates before raids, or frustrate investigations.

“It’s a big operation, more than you can imagine,” the former officer says. “The real people behind these schemes are known to some in Kenya Police’s serious crimes division.”

Targets the biggest banks

The people behind the schemes design them for scale, according to an investigations officer at Banking Fraud Investigations Unit (BFIU)—a unit under the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI)—who has handled such cases and asked not to be named. They target banks with vast retail business like Equity Bank, KCB Group, and Co-operative Bank— Kenya’s biggest retail lenders with a combined customer base of over 50 million.  With such big operations, the fraudsters hide in the noise of millions of daily transactions.

Rural pensioners, urban traders, and salaried workers with predictable income streams make easy prey.

“It’s a numbers game,” says the BFIU officer. “The bigger the bank, the more likely someone will slip.”

Most of these frauds are not violent, but sometimes they turn deadly. In April, a teacher in Mumias was trailed and killed after withdrawing KES 285,000 ($206). Detectives believe two bank tellers may have passed on the information to robbers, pointing to insider collusion with criminals.

There are numerous reports of customers being trailed after withdrawing or depositing large sums at banks and mobile money agents across the country.

In 2024, Equity Bank reported it lost KES 1.5 billion ($11.6 million) in what was initially described by news outlets as a sophisticated hacking attack. However, investigators later alleged that bank staff colluded with property developers and lawyers to siphon off the bank’s money from the salary suspense account in thousands of small, salary-like transfers to avoid detection.

Deeper rot

On social media, many Kenyans brush off mobile banking fraud as the work of prisoners with smuggled phones when they are operations run by people living among them. While some operations enjoy corrupt officials’ backing, the BFIU officer concedes that the regulators are overstretched.

“Mobile money and banks process millions of payments daily, and that’s why some of the cases even go unnoticed,” says the officer.

However, faced with mounting fraud, most Kenyan banks have begun housecleaning to restore customer confidence. KCB Group, NCBA, Absa, and Co-operative Bank are some lenders that have recently fired staff over misconduct.

In May, Equity Group took a bolder step, announcing publicly that it was firing 1,500 staff to protect the bank’s image and its customers.

“The moment of reckoning has come,” Equity Bank CEO James Mwangi said in May. “It doesn’t matter how many I will lose. I don’t even care. I will protect the customers and the bank. I will be ruthless.”

The bank has since extended the exercise to its subsidiary in Uganda, which has also suffered staff-linked fraud in the past two years.

Blurring of lines

The lines between cyber fraud, insider theft, and organised crime are blurred. According to the BFIU officer, most victims never report, whether from embarrassment, the small sums involved, or the hassle of filing a complaint with the police, making the CBK’s figure of KES1.5 billion an understatement.

The BFIU investigator says the schemes rarely fall into specific categories. A phishing text may be the start, but a bank teller can pass on stolen data, laundered through mobile money, and protected by police officers. Each stage blurs the line between cyber-attacks, insider theft, and organised racketeering.

The consequence, the former compliance officer warns, is erosion of trust. Many customers, unsure whether the fraudsters are hackers or someone inside their bank, choose not to report. Anxious to reassure shareholders and depositors, lenders frame the losses as “cyber threats” even when investigations show human hands.

This gap between the official narrative and what victims experience is where the danger lies. The BFUI investigator says that as Kenya’s financial system grows, the weakest link may be the people inside—tellers, agents, and officers with access to real-time customer records.  

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The South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) was established by the South African government in 2005 under the Social Assistance Act of 2004, with the primary goal of administering and managing the payment of social assistance grants to the country’s poor and vulnerable citizens.

SASSA handles everything from processing applications and checking eligibility to paying grants and fraud prevention. Its centralised system is designed to make it easier for South Africans to access support once they qualify.

The types of SASSA social grants

SASSA offers different grants depending on your situation. SASSA pays 26-million grants monthly to help reduce poverty and hardship. The central grants include:

Support for children and caregivers

• Child Support Grant (CSG): For the primary caregiver of a child under 18.
• Foster Child Grant: For people legally appointed as foster parents.
• Care Dependency Grant: For caregivers of children under 18 with severe disabilities.

Support for adults

• Older Persons Grant: Also known as the state pension, for South Africans aged 60 and above.
• Disability Grant: For individuals aged 18 to 59 with a disability that prevents them from working.
• War Veteran’s Grant: For former members of the armed forces.
• Grant-in-Aid: Extra support for people already receiving a central grant but who need full-time care.

Temporary support

• Social Relief of Distress (SRD) Grant: Often called the SASSA R350 grant, this temporary grant is for unemployed people with no other source of income or social assistance.

How to apply for the SASSA SRD R350 grant

The Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant, often called the SASSA R350 grant, was first introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic to help unemployed South Africans. In 2025, the amount has increased to R370 per month. This shows that the government now treats it as more than just short-term help; it is ongoing support for people without income.

Eligibility requirements for 2025

To qualify for the SRD grant in 2025, you must meet these conditions:

• Be a South African citizen, permanent resident, refugee, asylum seeker, or special permit holder living in South Africa.
• Be between 18 and 60 years old.
• Be unemployed and not receiving any other SASSA grant, UIF payments, or NSFAS funding.
• Pass the means test, which checks that your monthly income is R624 or less.

Step-by-Step online application (2025)

You can only apply online. Applications are free, and SASSA warns people not to pay anyone to apply on their behalf. Here’s how to do it:

1. Visit the official SRD website at srd.sassa.gov.za.
2. Select your ID type: Choose if you’re a South African ID holder or applying with an asylum/special permit.
3. Enter your phone number: You’ll get a One-Time Pin (OTP) to confirm your identity.
4. Fill in your details: Provide your ID number, full name, and contact information.
5. Choose a payment method: Payments can go into your bank account or be collected at stores like Pick n Pay or Shoprite.
6. Submit your application: Double-check your details before submitting. SASSA will then check your financial records against government and banking databases.

How to check your SASSA status online

After applying, you’ll want to know if your grant is approved and when payments will be made. You can check your SASSA SRD status using any of these official methods:

• SRD website: Visit srd.sassa.gov.za, enter your ID number and phone number, and view your application status.
• WhatsApp: Send “status” to 082 046 8553, then follow the prompts.
• USSD code: Dial 1347737# on your phone, then enter your details.
• SASSA Call Centre: Call 0800 60 10 11 to speak with an agent who will verify your details and confirm your status.
• Moya App: Download the Moya App to check your SRD status without using mobile data.

How to change your SASSA banking details

Keeping your SASSA banking details up to date is essential to avoid interruptions in your grant payments. The update process depends on the type of grant: SRD grant recipients can update details online, while those on permanent grants — such as the Older Person’s Grant, Disability Grant, or Child Support Grant — must visit a SASSA office. 

Changing banking details for the SRD grant (Online)

If you are an SRD grant beneficiary, you can update your banking details through the official SRD website. Here’s how:

1. Go to srd.sassa.gov.za.
2. Select the “Change Banking Details” option.
3. Enter your South African ID number.
4. Provide your new bank name, account number, and any other required details. Double-check for accuracy to avoid payment delays.
5. An OTP will be sent to your registered mobile number. Enter it to confirm.
6. Submit your changes and wait for a confirmation message.

Changing banking details for permanent grants (In person)

For permanent grants, the process is manual. You’ll need to go to a SASSA office with the proper documents.

1. Collect the SASSA banking details change form from their website or any SASSA office.
2. Fill it out with your personal details and new account information.
3. Attach a certified copy of your ID plus a bank statement or a letter from your bank confirming your account.
4. Submit everything at a SASSA office and keep copies for yourself.

How to change your SASSA phone number

Your phone number is just as significant as your bank details. SASSA uses it for verification, OTPs, and updates about your grant. If you change your number, please update it with SASSA as soon as possible.

Updating your number online

You can do this through the SASSA Services Portal:

1. Log in at services.sassa.gov.za.
2. Select “Manage My Personal Information.”
3. Update your phone number and other details.
4. Save the changes. An OTP will be sent to your new number. Enter it to confirm.

If you lose access to your number

If you no longer have access to your registered number, you cannot update it online. In this case, you must go to a SASSA office in person to make the change.

How to check your SASSA balance

You cannot check your SASSA balance directly on the official website. Banks and payment partners handle balance checks. Here are the most common ways:

• ATM: Check your balance at any ATM (some banks may charge a small fee).
• Retail stores: At Shoprite, Pick n Pay, Boxer, and other approved stores, you can ask for a balance check at the till.
• SMS (Postbank users): Send BAL + last four digits of your account number to 32302. You’ll get your balance via SMS. This costs R1.00.
• USSD (EasyPay Everywhere users): Dial *120*3737# and follow the prompts to view your balance.

SASSA payment dates for October 2025

SASSA releases grants on set days each month to avoid overcrowding at pay points, ATMs, and stores. Payments are made on working days only. If a date falls on a weekend or public holiday, the money becomes available on the previous working day.

• Older Persons’ / Pensioners’ Grant: Thursday, 2 October 2025
• Disability Grant: Friday, 3 October 2025
• All Other Grants (including Child Support Grant): Monday, 6 October 2025

Funds stay in your account until you withdraw them. There is no need to rush on the first day.

SASSA child support grant amount for 2025

The Child Support Grant (CSG) helps caregivers cover the cost of raising children. In 2025, the monthly amount is R560 per child. Caregivers of orphaned children can also receive a top-up, which increases the monthly payment to R810 per child.

Who is eligible for the Child Support Grant?

To qualify, both you and the child need to meet certain conditions:

Caregiver requirements:

• You must be a South African citizen, permanent resident, or refugee.
• You must be the main person responsible for the child, such as a parent, grandparent, or relative.
• Your income must pass the means test: if you are single, you must earn less than R52,800 a year. If you are married, your combined income must be under R105,600 a year.

Child requirements:

• The child must be under 18.
• The child must not live in a state institution.
• Both you and the child must live in South Africa.

SASSA old-age grant amount for 2025

The Older Person’s Grant, also known as the state pension, provides financial support to South Africans who have reached retirement age. For 2025, the grant is set at:

• R2,315 per month for beneficiaries under 75
• R2,335 per month for beneficiaries aged 75 and older

Who qualifies for the Old Age Grant?

To receive the Older Person’s Grant, you must meet these requirements:

• Be 60 years or older
• Be a South African citizen, permanent resident, or refugee living in South Africa
• Not receive another social grant or live in a state-funded institution

Means test: Your income and assets will be reviewed to confirm your qualification. The grant is intended for individuals who are unable to support themselves fully.

It is important to note that if an applicant is married, the combined income and assets of both spouses are assessed jointly.

Key points for beneficiaries in 2025

Here are the most important updates you should know:

• The SRD grant remains at R370 per month, and applications are done only online.
• You can check your SASSA status through the website, WhatsApp, or USSD.
• Banking detail changes depend on your grant type. SRD beneficiaries update details online, while permanent grant beneficiaries must go to a SASSA office.
• Your phone number is central to your profile. If you lose it, you must visit a SASSA office to update it.
• October 2025 payment dates: Older Persons’ Grant on 2 October, Disability Grant on 3 October, and all other grants (including Child Support) on 6 October.
• The Child Support Grant is R560 per child or R810 with the orphan top-up.
• The Older Person’s Grant is R2,315 per month, with R2,335 for those aged 75 and above.

Stacey Brewer’s journey into tech was anything but linear. A native of Johannesburg, she earned a BSc from Rhodes University and then spent time traveling overseas, working with high-net-worth individuals. She loved meeting new people, discovering new places, and immersing herself in new cultures. After returning to South Africa, she worked with FIFA during the World Cup and then pursued an MBA to secure a job abroad. 

During her MBA at Gibs Business School, her professors constantly highlighted the poor state of South Africa’s education system. Brewer was shocked to learn that while the country was spending a huge proportion of its budget on education, it ranked at the bottom of the world in various competitiveness reports. She was particularly struck by the 2016 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study assessment, which revealed that 80% of grade four students couldn’t read for meaning. Her thesis, inspired by this grim reality, focused on building a sustainable financial model for low-fee private schools.

The spark

Her research led her to Rocketship Education in the U.S., a pioneer in blended learning that used technology to drive cost efficiencies and create a data-rich environment for students’ understanding. Brewer was incredibly impressed by Rocketship’s ability to scale effectively and compete with more affluent schools while serving a community of second-language English speakers. She realised that technology wasn’t just an add-on; it was the core enabler for providing affordable, quality education.

Convinced that this model could work in South Africa, Brewer and her co-founder launched SPARK Schools. Two staff members from Rocketship Education, Bailey Thompson and Caitlin Burkholder, even moved from the U.S. to help get the venture off the ground. The first angel investor made an undisclosed investment without taking any shares, simply telling them to “go figure it out”. With additional capital from friends, family, and other high-net-worth individuals, they launched the first campus in 2013 with 160 students and 20 staff members.

The blended learning model

The biggest costs in any educational business are salaries and infrastructure. To address this, SPARK schools have a rotational system that staggers the use of physical space and personnel hours. Grade R to Grade 12 students rotate their school hours between physical classroom lessons and online lessons in a computer lab. SPARK Schools’ unique operational model allows the school to cut costs and still manage to keep it affordable enough for the students who need it the most. Unlike its competitors, predominantly Valenture Institute and Enko Education, which partner with existing schools to offer their services, SPARK Schools exists as a full entity on its own. 

A mix of the best and the worst

Today, SPARK Schools states that it educates over 17,000 children across 26 campuses and employs approximately 1,500 people, the largest number among its competitors in the industry. Around 64% of their staff are youth, a fact Brewer is extremely proud of, given the country’s high youth unemployment rate. The model’s affordability and quality have been proven effective, with some learners advancing two years in a single academic year. The use of technology creates a data-rich environment that allows for differentiated instruction, helping to close the learning gap for students who arrive several grade levels behind.

Despite the immense success, the entrepreneurial journey has been a mix of highs and lows. Brewer  admits to having many days when she questioned her path, wondering why she hadn’t just pursued a “normal job.” 

Her lowest moment was during the COVID-19 pandemic, which was a “really, really, really tough” time. Many families lacked the necessary resources for online learning and struggled to pay fees. However, her unwavering commitment to the students and staff, coupled with a strong support network of family and mentors, has helped her build resilience over time.

The path forward

Being a woman in the tech space is challenging, but Brewer doesn’t see it as a constraint. She believes that leadership is hard regardless of gender, and she feels she has earned her seat at the table without needing to constantly justify herself. 

For Brewer, her dream is for SPARK to expand beyond South Africa and become a strong player across the continent. She wants to ensure that Africa gets a global voice as an innovator in education. With the recent appointment of Earl Sampson as CEO in April 2025, Brewer has shifted to a more supervisory role as the Chair and Strategic Advisor, focusing on product development, cross-border expansion, and new business models to ensure the organisation’s foundations are strong enough to serve more families, bridging the gap between Africa’s literacy and the rest of the world.

Uber’s arrival in Kenya in January 2015 was a turning point for the country’s urban transport sector. The American ride-hailing app made it possible to summon a car from a smartphone, see a fare estimate before boarding, and pay by cash or card. 

At that time, it was the first taste of tech-enabled convenience for riders in Nairobi. The service quickly spread beyond Nairobi to Mombasa and Kisumu. Over the past decade, Uber has influenced how Kenyans think about taxis, forced regulators to amend transportation laws, and created new earning opportunities for thousands of drivers (Uber declines to share how many drivers work on its platform in Kenya).

Uber’s growth coincided with fare reductions, a high commission structure, and heavy driver protests. The company has been sued, probed by the government, and experienced repeated strikes. 

It now enters its second decade with Uber Safari, a new product that links its platform to Nairobi’s tourism economy. The launch has been met with praise and unease, signaling that many drivers and policymakers still have mixed feelings about Uber’s place in Kenya’s transport system.

Legal and regulatory changes 

When Uber entered the market, it was treated as a technology platform rather than a transport operator. This early classification gave it room to grow without being subject to the strict licencing requirements faced by traditional transport businesses. 

Local taxi associations pushed back, accusing Uber of unfair competition and calling for a level regulatory field. In 2015 and 2016, there were violent attacks on Uber drivers, including reports of vehicles being vandalised near popular pick-up points.

Amidst these issues, regulatory response took years to form. By 2019, the National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) had created a licencing regime for digital taxi operators, which required them to register, share trip data with regulators, and enforce a commission cap. 

Court cases by drivers further forced Uber to revise its contracts. A key ruling by the High Court held that Uber BV (its Dutch subsidiary) in Amsterdam could not avoid responsibility for fare decisions in Kenya. This clarified that drivers were in a contractual relationship with Uber Kenya and that any fare or commission change had to be fair and transparent.

Taxation has been another area of tension. The Finance Act introduced digital service tax in 2021 and later e-TIMS compliance in 2024, forcing Uber and its drivers to register for PINs and submit electronic invoices. While this improved tax compliance and gave the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) better visibility into ride-hailing income, many drivers say it increased their administrative and financial burden at a time when fuel prices were already eroding their margins.

Consumer protection rules also changed the way Uber operates. After a 2025 probe by Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa’s (COMESA) competition authority, Uber was compelled to revise its terms so that disputes are handled under Kenyan law, not Dutch law. The same order required Uber to clearly communicate price surges and obtain consent from riders before adjusting fares mid-trip.

Drivers’ experiences and repeated protests

The promise of Uber as a steady income stream drew thousands of drivers onto the platform. Many took loans or entered lease-to-own arrangements to acquire vehicles. At first, generous incentives and high base fares made it possible to earn comfortably. But fare reductions in 2016 and a 25% commission rate quickly strained drivers’ finances. Net earnings fell below what many needed to repay loans and maintain their cars.

At some point during the COVID-19 pandemic, drivers staged sit-ins outside Uber’s offices in Nairobi and occasionally switched off the app to disrupt service. Their demands included reducing commission to 10 or 15%, increasing fares to reflect fuel and maintenance costs, and allowing more flexibility in how drivers set prices. 

Uber responded by introducing a tipping feature, occasional fare adjustments, and maintenance discounts, but many drivers say the changes did not address the underlying problem that most trips were still unprofitable after expenses.

There is an ongoing debate about whether driving for Uber can be a main source of income. A 2025 IDinsight study found that Kenya’s platform drivers often work over 66 hours per week to break even. 

Earnings fluctuate based on demand, traffic, and competition from other platforms such as Bolt, Little, and Faras. While some drivers report making enough to sustain their households, others say the model pushes them into debt and forces them to work dangerously long hours.

“Most of the Uber cars on the road are financed through loans. Drivers often work long hours just to cover monthly payments, because if they fall behind, the cars are repossessed,” Paul Sakwa, a former ride-hailing driver who now uses an electric bike, told TechCabal on Wednesday.

The protests have rarely translated into lasting policy change. The NTSA’s 18% commission cap, introduced in 2022, was seen as a win for drivers but was only partially implemented, with platforms continuing to charge more through loopholes. Labour unions have tried to organise drivers into cooperatives and bargaining groups, but high turnover and oversupply of drivers make collective action difficult to sustain.

What Uber Safari represents

For its tenth anniversary in Kenya, Uber launched Uber Safari on Tuesday, a product that allows users to book guided tours of Nairobi National Park directly through the app for KES 25,000 ($194) during the day or KES 40,000 ($311) at night. Riders can choose day or night packages, reserve in advance, and get picked up in safari-ready vehicles. 

The idea is to merge urban ride-hailing with the tourism sector, creating a new revenue stream for licensed tour operators and giving Uber access to a premium segment.

“With Uber Safari, riders can choose between two unique offerings: a Day Safari or a Night Safari, both through Nairobi National Park – the first of its kind available through the Uber app. Using Uber Reserve, riders can pre-book their adventure directly in the app, then be picked up in a fully licensed, safari-ready Land Cruiser operated by licensed tour companies,” Uber said in a statement seen by TechCabal. 

Despite this, only drivers with special vehicles and partnerships with fleet operators can participate, leaving out the bulk of ride-hailing drivers. 

Some see this as a missed opportunity, arguing that the company should first address earnings on regular trips before branching into tourism. Others worry that Uber Safari will create new pricing pressures by introducing its algorithm-driven approach to a sector that traditionally allows operators to negotiate higher margins.

“No wonder they don’t initially show the price on the app. KES 25,000 is enough for a holiday in Diani,” Kiruti Itimu, a media executive in Nairobi, told Techcabal on Wednesday. 

A tour operator, who requested anonymity and runs an office in Nairobi’s Westlands, told TechCabal that they already face high licencing fees and compliance costs, and fear Uber’s entry could trigger a race to the bottom in safari pricing. Supporters argue that Uber Safari could expand the market by attracting younger, tech-savvy tourists who might not book a traditional tour.

A half-day trip to the park typically costs between $43 and $138 per person with a tour company or park-operated vehicle, significantly lower than Uber’s rates.

A mixed decade, and what comes next

Uber’s first ten years in Kenya have been marked by undeniable growth and equally undeniable conflict. It pioneered digital ride-hailing, expanded payment options, and gave many urban residents safer and more predictable transport. 

It also expanded into food delivery, motorcycle taxis, and low-cost services such as Chapchap, changing how logistics and mobility work in Kenyan cities.

But the decade has also been defined by disputes over fairness. Drivers have protested fare cuts, taken Uber to court, and lobbied for regulatory protection. Regulators have responded with piecemeal reforms, some helpful, others burdensome. Passengers have benefited from lower fares and better service, but often at the expense of driver welfare.

Uber can double down on growth by finding new markets like tourism and continuing to optimise for riders, or it can work toward driving a more sustainable livelihood by sharing more revenue with its core workforce. 

Suppose the last ten years are any guide. In that case, the tension between profitability, driver welfare, and regulatory compliance will continue to influence Uber’s and, by extension, other ride-hailing platforms in the Kenyan story.

Mark your calendars! Moonshot by TechCabal is back in Lagos on October 15–16! Meet and learn from Africa’s top founders, creatives & tech leaders for 2 days of keynotes, mixers & future-forward ideas. Get your tickets now: moonshot.techcabal.com

Millions of Africans turn to micro and informal businesses daily because there is nothing else. There are no jobs, safety nets, or savings. These businesses are not formed out of an ambition to build an empire but out of a need to put food on the table tomorrow. And because of this, they rarely grow beyond survival.

The 2024 Moniepoint Informal Economy Report shows that just 1.3% of Nigeria’s informal businesses make over ₦2.5 million ($1,500) monthly profit. Most earn less than ₦250,000 ($150) a month, and spend nearly all of it on feeding and family obligations. They keep no books, do not know their actual net profit, and often make decisions that wipe out their working capital. When money runs out, they borrow from friends, relatives or loan sharks, usually without repayment plans or grace periods, sinking deeper into debt.

A problem of this scale is an interlocking mess of missing education, inadequate credit, weak infrastructure and the sheer exhaustion of living hand-to-mouth. 

This is the context Payble is walking into. Founded by Roosevelt Elias, with Eghonghon Daniels as COO and Ayo O. as CTO, the startup is trying to do something almost unreasonable. Roosevelt told me that Africa’s smallest businesses should have the kind of resource planning technology and financial structure usually reserved for large corporations.

Roosevelt adds that he sees Payble as a way of breaking the cycle. “The problem is not that microentrepreneurs lack ambition,” he explained, “it’s that the system keeps them trapped in survival mode.” 

For Payble, that means starting from the ground up. The platform bundles together inventory tracking, cash flow monitoring, invoicing, payments, and access to credit, but it does so with the understanding that its users may never have had formal business training.

The startup has embedded learning modules into the product itself. A kiosk owner who records daily sales is nudged to see his or her weekly profit margin and is guided through a straightforward pricing or stock management lesson. 

A salon owner gets prompts on when to separate business money from personal money and is shown in real time what that discipline would do for their cash flow. Roosevelt explains that the idea is not to turn every trader into an accountant but to slowly shift the mindset from hustle to enterprise so that decisions can be made with data, not guesswork.

This is slow, painstaking work that takes more than software and a swanky, new startup. Per Roosevelt, Payble has had to design for informal commerce’s chaotic, hybrid nature, where paper receipts and digital wallets coexist and income can be highly seasonal. 

The young company is experimenting with AI agents that provide operational insight—like flagging when inventory is about to run out or cash flow will not cover next week’s purchases—but the system is tuned to speak in the local language to avoid alienating its users.

Where’s credit? 

In a market where 70% of micro business owners have taken credit but just 12% have accessed formal financial services, Payble has chosen to make credit a last step, not the first. 

Users are encouraged first to build a history of transactions on the platform so that when they borrow, the loans are tied to actual business needs, like restocking fast-moving items, rather than plugging personal cash gaps. Roosevelt believes this approach reduces default rates and teaches owners to deploy capital intentionally.

The startup structure itself is lean but deliberate. It was founded in 2023 and operates with a small core team split between Lagos and remote locations, with partnerships to handle distribution and merchant onboarding. 

While Roosevelt will not disclose how much capital the company is currently trying to raise, he says it is in talks with early-stage investors and is committed to focusing on sustainable growth rather than chasing vanity metrics.

For all its ambition, Payble is not immune to the ecosystem’s constraints. The infrastructure for digital payments remains patchy, and education is a long game that requires trust. Yet Roosevelt insists the problem must be solved at its roots. 

“What makes Payble different is that we don’t treat micro-businesses as “too small.” We build for them — low-cost, easy-to-use, and designed to fit into their daily realities. In other words, Payble gives the corner shop or market vendor the same infrastructure as a big company, but without the barriers.”

The startup has begun piloting partnerships with banks and insurers to create bundled products – small-ticket health cover for market traders, overdraft facilities for verified merchants, and micro-savings accounts that lock away a fraction of daily revenue. 

These collaborations matter because they turn a dead-end economy into one with upward paths, where a business can grow from one table in the market to a small shop, and then to a formal SME.

Payble’s approach is contrarian precisely because it claims to discard the common wisdom that informal businesses will always stay informal. In my understanding, the company believes that with the right tools, hundreds of thousands of these traders can be formalised not by coercion but by the natural incentive of making more money and spending less time worrying about survival.

Payble at Moonshot 

In October, Roosevelt will speak at Moonshot by TechCabal, a gathering of some of Africa’s most serious founders and investors. He told me it is more about pressure-testing ideas with peers who know how to build, and will share the difficulty of building for users who are often too busy surviving to sit still for onboarding, and the emotional toll of running a company trying to solve structural problems at scale.

“I believe Moonshot can inspire and empower the next generation of founders. It creates a stage where entrepreneurs can see that they’re not alone, that others are breaking barriers, raising capital, and solving problems at scale. When stories are shared openly in a forum like this, it builds collective belief and momentum.” 

In two weeks, October begins, and that means millions of South Africans will turn to digital systems to access their South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) grant payments. As new payment dates roll out in the coming month, it is crucial for recipients, especially older people and those in rural areas, to understand the digital tools for checking balances, updating banking details, and tracking grant disbursements.

SASSA grants are paid on specific dates to ensure a smooth process for recipients. For October 2025, the payment schedule is as follows:

• Older Persons Grant: October 2, 2025
  
• Disability Grant: October 3, 2025
  
• Children’s and Other Grants: October 6, 2025
  

The October 6 date covers key grants such as the child support, foster care, care dependency, and more. SASSA stresses that funds remain available for collection even after these official dates; beneficiaries do not need to rush on the exact day.

How to change banking details for SASSA

Postbank’s contract with SASSA officially ends on 30 September 2025. This termination date was confirmed by SASSA and communicated to Parliament, with assurance that grant payments will continue for all beneficiaries without disruption after the contract expires. SASSA cards, if still active, work at all ATMs, but a personal bank account is necessary as Postbank support phases out. SASSA urges beneficiaries to migrate to a preferred bank or retailer payment option and update records using secure official methods, which are explored in detail below.

Online update (SRD and general grants)

The online process works for the SRD grant and standard or general grants like Old Age, Disability, Child Support, Foster Child, and Care Dependency grants. Beneficiaries of these grants can change their banking details quickly using SASSA’s website or online portal.

• Go to the official SASSA portal: srd.sassa.gov.za 
• Select the relevant option: “change my banking details”
• Enter your South African ID number and registered mobile number.
• You will receive an SMS with a secure link. Use it to update your new bank account details (bank name, account number, branch code, account type), and confirm via OTP.
• Submit and wait for confirmation; future grant payments will be made to your new bank account.

In-person update (all grant types)

The in-person method at SASSA offices is available for every grant type, including those not covered by online systems or where special documentation or assistance is required. This method supports not only SRD and general grants, but also niche grants like Grant-in-Aid, War Veterans Grant, and cases where online channels cannot be used due to access, identity verification problems, or unique circumstances.

• Go to your nearest SASSA office.
• Take your ID, proof of your new bank account (stamped bank statement or letter from the bank), and complete the SASSA banking detail change form.
• Fill out the form at the office, attach your supporting documents, and submit to a SASSA official.
• The change will be processed, and you will receive confirmation; your next grant will be paid into your new account.

Verification for banking details typically takes 4 to 10 working days, and successful updates apply to future payments only.

How to check SASSA balance

Beneficiaries can check their SASSA grant balances using various methods. Also, now that Postbank will soon end its payment partnership, beneficiaries can use alternative methods. The most reliable options are:

USSD codes (mobile)

• Dial 1203210# or 12069277# from the mobile number registered with SASSA, and follow prompts to see the balance. This method works on any basic cellphone and does not require airtime or data.

SASSA online portal

• Log in at srd.sassa.gov.za or the official SASSA site, enter grant details, and view balance instantly if you have internet access.

WhatsApp support

• Save SASSA’s WhatsApp number (082 046 8553). Send “SASSA” and then “STATUS” to receive step-by-step prompts, after which the current balance will be provided.

ATM and retail stores

• If you have switched to a bank account or retailer card (e.g., Pick n Pay, Shoprite, Boxer, Checkers), use the card at any ATM or ask the cashier at participating retailers for a balance enquiry.

In-person at SASSA offices

• Visit the nearest SASSA office for personalised balance assistance, using your ID and grant card.

Nigeria’s plan to grow tax and customs revenues to at least ₦17.85 trillion ($11.92 billion) in 2026 heavily depends on technology. With crude oil earnings shrinking, taxes have become one of the government’s most reliable funding legs.

Most of the collections will come from value-added tax, corporate income tax, customs levies, and the electronic money transfer levy, according to the 2025-2027 Medium Term Fiscal Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper.

The government plans to raise ₦16.05 trillion ($10.72 billion) from these revenue sources in 2025. Before now, weak administration, low compliance, and manual, paper-based systems have left room for leakages, inefficiency, and corruption.

In 2025, Nigeria enacted new laws to address many of these issues, including multiple taxation of businesses. “We have opened the doors to a new economy, business opportunities,” said President Bola Tinubu. However, the real spotlight would be on its integration of digital tools.

“Technology adoption in tax administration has the potential to improve tax compliance, reduce the costs of tax collection, and increase revenue,” read a 2023 research paper on improving tax collection efficiency through technology.

Tech as the driving force

To optimise collections, Nigeria plans to implement strategies that expand VAT collection agents, simplify compliance procedures, and cut tax expenditures. However, technology will be the main driver, according to the fiscal strategy paper.

Nigeria is looking to mirror the success of countries like Rwanda, which digitised its customs process through the Electronic Single Window, and Kenya, which uses its iTax platform.

Locally, the government is relying on platforms like TaxPro Max, launched in 2021, to enable taxpayers to register, file, pay, and download tax clearance certificates online. Large businesses with turnovers above ₦5 billion ($3.34 million) since August 1, 2025, are required to integrate their invoicing systems with the FIRS platform for real-time validation and reporting.

“Leveraging technology, such as the automated tax administration system (TaxPro Max and E-services) to further simplify tax processes, drive voluntary tax compliance, increase revenue collection, and create a tax environment that is conducive for taxpayers to fulfil their tax obligations,” the government explained in its policy paper.

The government also intends to automate VAT collection in supermarkets, hotels, and other retail outlets, utilising real-time portals to prevent leakages.

By employing a real-time online data mining portal, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) will conduct desk reviews, audits, and investigations. This will enable it to “access data to validate information provided by taxpayers or reveal non-compliant taxpayers.”

“Nigeria’s digital economy has experienced exponential growth, transforming how businesses operate and process transactions,” FIRS told TechCabal in July. “However, this expansion has outpaced traditional tax monitoring methods, creating gaps in transaction visibility and compliance.”

The FIRS will also link its database to those of business or money-facing agencies such as the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS), the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), and the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) for third-party intelligence gathering to improve and enforce compliance.

NIBSS, Nigeria’s central payment gateway, processed over ₦1 quadrillion ($667.79 billion) in transactions in 2024. In July, TechCabal reported that the FIRS has developed a real-time portal to track all VAT-eligible electronic transactions and is mandating integration from banks, card schemes, fintechs, and payment service providers.

“Enhancing stakeholder collaboration and engagement to check leakages, evasion as well as enforce and improve compliance,” the government said.

Banks and financial institutions will also face tighter monitoring as FIRS reconciles remittances of the EMTL, a ₦50 charge on transfers of ₦10,000 and above.

On the customs side, the government aims to address issues with its $3.2 billion customs modernisation project, originally conceived in 2015, which will fully automate and simplify customs processes, including payments.

However, years of litigation have delayed progress. In 2024, the Federal High Court in Abuja dismissed a suit challenging the legality of the concession agreement related to the project.

For many businesses, integrating technology into tax administration means stricter compliance and fewer loopholes. “There is a positive relationship between firm digitalisation and domestic tax revenues. Countries with higher level of business digital adoption have larger tax-to-GDP ratios,” said the International Monetary Fund.

The Nigerian government is bullish about its revenue projections and has an even higher tax target of ₦19.73 trillion ($13.18 billion) for 2027. However, achieving these figures will depend on whether technology adoption can surpass well-known obstacles, including weak infrastructure, inconsistent implementation, and lack of political will.

As Taiwo Oyedele, chairman, Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee, said in July, better tax administration will depend on “modernisation and improved technology adoption.”

Mark your calendars! Moonshot by TechCabal is back in Lagos on October 15–16! Meet and learn from Africa’s top founders, creatives & tech leaders for 2 days of keynotes, mixers & future-forward ideas. Get your tickets now: moonshot.techcabal.com

CRDB Bank, Tanzania’s biggest bank by assets, has completed a migration of its core banking system from Fusion Banking Essence (FBE), owned by London-based Finastra, to Temenos T24, a move the lender says was necessary to keep pace with regional competitors and prepare for expansion outside East Africa.

CRDB’s chief executive, Abdulmajid Nsekela, told TechCabal that the system migration—which occurred in the first weekend of September—is crucial to the bank’s expansion plans. CRDB already operates in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and is finalising arrangements to enter Dubai, where it expects to serve both diaspora and cross-border clients.

“You cannot provide services in all these countries without having a robust system that safeguards customer information and enables transactions with high efficiency,” Nsekela said.

CRDB joins a growing list of African lenders running on Temenos T24, the Swiss-built, front-to-back core banking platform used by institutions like Kenya’s  KCB Group and Stanbic Bank, which operate across multiple jurisdictions. Such systems are increasingly vital as regional banks integrate operations and compete for cross-border clients.

Nsekela said the upgraded platform now supports transactions in multiple languages and currencies, from Swahili and English in Tanzania to French, Kirundi, and Arabic in other markets.

Core banking migrations remain fraught exercises. Unlike front-end app upgrades, they involve the wholesale transfer of millions of sensitive customer records. In markets where trust in banks can be fragile, even short disruptions risk denting reputations.

CRDB’s 72-hour migration exercise experienced some glitches with customers reporting discrepancies in balances, which the bank attributed to large data transfers between the systems.

The bank’s investment is a continuation of East African lenders’ efforts to modernise their technology backbones. KCB, Equity Group, DTB, and NCBA Group already run multi-market operations on Temenos T24 or similar systems, enabling faster product rollouts across jurisdictions.

By joining their ranks, CRDB hopes to compete for corporate clients and cross-border business as it marks its 30th anniversary. The Dubai expansion is expected to target diaspora remittances and trade finance between the Gulf and East Africa.

The Bank of Tanzania (BoT) is also pushing local banks to upgrade their systems as part of wider financial sector reforms. 

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Vandalism of telecom infrastructure in Nigeria has more than doubled since May 2025, rising from an average of two to five incidents per day, according to data compiled by the Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators of Nigeria (ALTON). This sharp increase, amounting to 445 cases over 88 days, has led to widespread network outages, affecting voice calls, internet access, SMS, and USSD services across all major mobile network operators.  

Gbenga Adebayo, President of ALTON, told TechCabal that the attacks have grown increasingly aggressive. 

“In many cases, the vandals now confront site engineers directly and demand ransom before releasing stolen cables,” Adebayo said, highlighting the escalating threat to telecom operations. The highest number of vandalism incidents has been recorded in states such as Delta, Rivers, Cross Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Ogun, Ondo, Edo, Lagos, Kogi, FCT, Kaduna, Nigeria, Osun, Kwara, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. 

Vandalism against telecom infrastructure in Nigeria has been most severe in states like Delta, Rivers, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Ondo, Edo, Kwara, and Kaduna. The impact peaked in May 2025, with 88 network outages linked to fibre cuts, equipment theft, and power failures. That number declined to 71 in June and 27 in July, but the threat remains persistent. 

Telecom operators in Nigeria face rising challenges beyond theft and vandalism of assets like copper cables and diesel. In many cases, local communities demand compensation before allowing repairs, delaying service restoration, and increasing operational costs.

In June, the Nigerian government issued the Designation and Protection of Critical National Information Infrastructure (CNII) Order, which recognises telecommunications as critical infrastructure and makes its deliberate damage a criminal offence. 

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) is leading the rollout of the CNII framework, supported by security agencies: the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) coordinates overall strategy; the Inspector General of Police leads enforcement; the Department of State Services (DSS) provides intelligence on emerging threats; and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) is charged with protecting telecom infrastructure on the ground. 

Industry stakeholders say implementation has fallen short. Despite the rise in vandalism, there have been no reported arrests or prosecutions. The NCC declined to comment on the matter. 

“We appeal to every Nigerian to please join us in the fight against the vandalisation of telecom infrastructure,” said Adebayo. “These assets power our banks, emergency services, education, healthcare, security systems, and daily communication. Attacking them is an attack on our economy and national stability.”

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In 2024, the pay gap between Kenya’s corporate boardrooms and ordinary workers widened further. Bank executives continued to dominate the top of the earnings pyramid, with the country’s highest-paid CEOs taking home hundreds of millions of dollars in salaries, bonuses, stock options, and benefits, even as many companies trimmed staff or froze junior pay to preserve profits amid high interest rates, sluggish credit growth, and mounting economic uncertainty.

An analysis by TechCabal of the 12 highest-paid CEOs in Kenya’s listed companies shows just how lucrative corporate leadership remains. It also reflects how banks—buying government securities and cutting lending to the real economy—have stayed highly profitable and richly rewarding for their top management.

Financial sector chiefs took home Kenya’s lion’s share of corporate pay. Bank CEOs pocketed nearly KES1.2 billion ($9.3 million), led by Paul Russo, John Gachora, and Gideon Muriuki. Safaricom’s Peter Ndegwa, however, out-earned them all, further cementing the telecom giant’s dominance of the East African market.

The earnings packages, disclosed in annual reports, come amid a growing mismatch between executive compensation and economic performance. While the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) warned repeatedly that banks were not directing credit to the productive economy, compensation for senior bank leaders continued to rise sharply, in some cases by over 40%.

Kenya’s banking sector recorded KES262.3 billion ($2 billion) in pre-tax profits in 2024. Yet much of that came from locking into high-yield government securities rather than lending to the real economy.

1. Peter Ndegwa, Safaricom — KES 294.2 million ($2,284,516)

Safaricom’s chief executive, Peter Ndegwa, is the highest-paid CEO in corporate Kenya for the fiscal year ending March 2025, earning KES 294.2 million in total compensation, a 17% increase from the previous year. 

His pay package included KES 98.7 million ($766,423) in salary, a bonus of KES 116.7 million ($906,200), non-cash benefits valued at KES 33.5 million ($260,133), and KES 45.3 million ($351,700) in performance shares under the company’s Executive Performance Share Award Plan (EPSAP).

The payout came as the telecoms giant returned to growth, reporting an 11% rise in net profit to KES 69.8 billion ($542 million), driven by strong performances in mobile money, data services, and narrowing losses in its Ethiopia operations. Safaricom remains East Africa’s most profitable company and one of its most generous boardrooms.

2. Paul Russo, KCB Group — KES 250.2 million ($1,942,850)

KCB Group CEO Paul Russo’s total compensation soared by 40.8% in 2024, making him the highest-paid bank executive in the country. His KES 250.2 million payout came in a year when KCB reported KES 60 billion ($466 million) record profits, primarily from risk-free lending to the government through Treasury instruments.

The bank, however, also raised its loan-loss provisions to buffer against rising defaults, a nod to the financial strain facing many households and SMEs. Despite Russo’s windfall, KCB cut its directors’ compensation by 20%, a rare move in an otherwise lucrative boardroom year.

3. John Gachora, NCBA Group — KES 208.4 million ($1,618,264)

NCBA Group CEO John Gachora earned KES 208.4 million in 2024—a 25.7% increase from the previous year. While his pay placed him third among NSE-listed executives, NCBA’s boardroom was the most expensive, with directors pocketing a record KES 660.2 million ($5,126,883)— up 54.4%.

The bank’s KES 22 billion ($171 million) profitability was primarily driven by investments in Treasury bills and bonds, with cautious private-sector lending still in play.

4. Gideon Muriuki, Co-operative Bank — KES 172.5 million ($1,339,509)

Gideon Muriuki, Co-operative Bank’s long-serving CEO, took home KES 172.5 million in 2024, a 11.7% increase from 2023. The lender’s profitability remained strong, reporting KES 25.4 billion ($197 million) in 2024, giving directors a 28.1% jump in total remuneration to KES 473.4 million ($3,676,036).

But the windfall at the top contrasted sharply with a freeze in junior staff salaries and an ongoing push to reduce operating costs by migrating services to digital channels.

5. Kariuki Ngari, Standard Chartered Kenya — KES 174.4 million ($1,354,250)

Standard Chartered CEO Kariuki Ngari saw one of the steepest pay raises among banking bosses — a 43.5% jump — after the bank posted KES 28.2 billion ($219 million) record earnings in 2024. His KES 174.4 million package stood out in a year when the bank continued restructuring through attrition and digitisation.

Directors’ compensation also rose 17.4% to KES 378 million ($2,935,100), reinforcing the perception that executive and boardroom rewards remain insulated from broader belt-tightening.

6. James Mwangi, Equity Group — KES 166.3 million ($1,291,350)

James Mwangi, the long-time CEO of Equity Bank, saw his compensation rise modestly by 4.7% to KES 166.3 million. Despite the slower growth in its pay, Equity remains Kenya’s second most profitable bank and a major player in the regional financial sector. In 2024, Equity reported a 10.8% increase in net profit to KES 46.5 billion ($361 million).

He holds a direct stake of about 3.38% in the bank, making him one of its top individual shareholders, further linking his wealth to the group’s fortunes.

7. Abdi Mohammed, Absa Bank Kenya — KES 109.8 million ($852,555)

Absa Bank Kenya CEO Abdi Mohammed earned KES 109.8 million ($852,555) in 2024, marking a substantial 39.8% increase in pay. The bank saw strong growth in both interest and non-interest income, allowing it to reward its top brass handsomely.

At the same time, Absa has quietly trimmed operational expenses, suggesting an efficiency drive underpinning its performance.

8. Patrick Mweheire, Stanbic Bank Kenya — KES 95.5 million ($741,600)

Stanbic Bank CEO Patrick Mweheire earned KES 95.5 million ($741,600) in 2024, a 12.8% increase from the year before. Like many of his peers, Mweheire presided over a year of cautious lending, focusing on blue-chip clients and government securities.

The bank’s board also saw its pay rise by 17.4%, adding to an industry-wide pattern of reward concentration at the top.

9. Jane Karuku, EABL — KES 83.49 million ($648,323)

EABL managing director Jane Karuku earned KES 83.49 million ($648,323) in 2024, with her salary accounting for nearly 66% of the total. The rest comprised bonuses and stock options. The brewer’s profit grew 20% to KES 8.1 billion ($63 million), amid a challenging consumer environment.

Karuku remains one of the few women leading a top NSE-listed company, underlining the enduring gender gap in Kenya’s executive suites.

10. Kihara Maina, I&M Bank — KES 69.3 million ($538,127)

I&M Bank CEO Kihara Maina was among only two bank bosses to see a pay cut in 2024. His compensation dropped by 9.7% to KES 69.3 million ($538,127), and the bank also trimmed board pay.

I&M reported a profit of KES 15.3 billion ($119 million) for the year, with a continued focus on high-net-worth clients and conservative risk management.

11. James Mworia, Centum Investment Company — KES 64.52 million ($501,000)

Centum CEO James Mworia received KES 64.52 million ($501,000) in total compensation in 2024. While modest compared to his peers in banking and telecoms, his pay still outpaces average Kenyan earnings by several orders of magnitude.

Mworia’s remuneration came in a year when Centum reported KES 812 million ($6.3 million) in net profits, a 68% drop from 2023.

12. Nasim Devji, Diamond Trust Bank (DTB) — KES 62.9 million ($488,430)

Veteran DTB chief executive Nasim Devji also saw a decline in her compensation — a 4.2% drop to KES 62.9 million ($488,430). DTB’s strategy focused on regional integration, conservative lending, and cost controls. Despite her longstanding tenure and influence in the sector, Devji’s pay remained among the lowest in the top tier of Kenya’s banking elite. The bank reported a net profit of KES 7.64 billion ($59 million).

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Living and working in the UK on a Skilled Worker visa is like sleeping with one eye open. In a blink, migrants can lose access to their livelihoods and face a 60-day ultimatum to find another job or be deported back to their home countries.

A Skilled Worker visa can only be sponsored by an authorised company in the UK, few as they are. Things can quickly unravel once an employment is terminated. What follows is a frantic race against time where every rejection, delay or dead-end carries the risk of being forced to leave the country.

I spoke with a UK-based tech worker who experienced this distress firsthand. After leaving college in 2021, he worked as a tech creative in Rwanda but soon landed an opportunity to work at a global tech firm. He worked briefly as an intern and then, after becoming a full-time staff, came to the UK through the Skilled Worker visa program. But just as he was settling into his new life and career, a company-wide layoff left him in the lurch.

This is the story of the tech worker, who asked to remain anonymous for job security reasons, as told to TechCabal.

Welcome to the UK

I attended a session early in 2021 where volunteers were invited to get feedback on their portfolios. I signed up immediately. During that session, I met one of the panel reviewers, a recruiter working at a global tech company. She liked my drive. So, we connected on LinkedIn and kept in touch casually.

By the summer of 2021, she reached out again. There was an internship opportunity at the company—ideal for new graduates. I didn’t need convincing. I applied, went through interviews, and got the position. It was a remote role with the tech company, during a time when the world was still recovering from the 2020 global pandemic. I was based in Rwanda at the time and worked with a team spread across Europe.

I joined a team focused on onboarding experiences for work account users. At the company, I met experienced creatives like myself, widened my network, and committed to a singular goal: to get a full-time offer. I networked, refined my portfolio, and ensured my performance was strong enough and visible to my employer.

When the internship ended, there was a performance evaluation. Fortunately, the company did a headcount and found out that it needed new employees in one of its creative departments. With help from the recruiter, I went through the internal hiring process and secured a full-time offer. Once I got the offer, the company started discussions to relocate me to the UK.

It partnered with an accounting firm to handle everything about my visa paperwork to a temporary accommodation in the UK. When I arrived, they advised me on neighbourhoods to live in, sorting taxes, healthcare, and more.

The process [to get my visa] took over two months. Despite corporate support, I still had to undergo health screenings, a tuberculosis test, and provide documents such as a police report and affidavits explaining discrepancies in my surname. But it was the waiting part that was the hardest: I went weeks without updates, unsure if I should plan or panic. It took a while.

But by 2022, I finally relocated to the UK on the Skilled Worker visa, sponsored by the tech company I worked for.

Fast forward to 2025, after working across various teams in the company, a sudden company-wide layoff came. My name was on the list of employees to be let go.

Find a new sponsor or go home 

Within hours of being laid off, the UK Home Office emailed. My visa and stay in the UK was tied to my job, and with the layoff, the sponsorship from my employer had been terminated. I now had 60 days to find a new sponsor or leave the UK. This is called the curtailment period.

I panicked when the email came in. I was already grieving the job loss, and now immigration uncertainty loomed.

I began planning for three futures: find a new UK sponsor, relocate to another country, or return to Rwanda. I started browsing flats in Kigali and Lagos while sending out applications to UK companies. I interviewed at seven companies. Six rejected me outright—they didn’t offer to continue my visa sponsorship. Only one was open to discussing it.

Eventually, I applied to a fintech company I admired. I connected with a recruiter and rushed through the interview process. Fortunately, the company agreed to sponsor me. Due to the fact that it was a visa transfer, and not a fresh application, the process was quicker.

That was how I survived the 60-day countdown. But it took a toll on me.

Curtailment comes with a heavy emotional burden

There is no soft landing when a curtailment notice arrives. The message from the UK Home Office is coldly detached; for them, it’s business as usual. But for the migrant on the receiving end, the emotional weight is heavy. 

Curtailment periods bring a sense of unadulterated dread—of losing a place to live, of disrupting fragile progress, of being told that years of effort might soon amount to nothing. 

There is crippling uncertainty, too. Migrants know what comes next, but not how to get through it.

Faced with the curtailment notice, only three paths typically lie ahead for African migrants.

The first option is to find a new sponsor. That means finding a company that is not only hiring, but also licensed and ready to take on the responsibility of sponsoring a Skilled Worker visa. In the UK, only 134,901 companies—about 3% of the nearly 5.5 million registered companies in the country—are authorised to sponsor foreign workers on temporary work, Skilled Worker, or Global Mobility visas. 

For a migrant looking for sponsorship, this drastically reduces the pool of employers they’re even willing to consider. Even when a migrant is making headway on a job application with one of the few authorised employers, these companies could lose interest the moment visa sponsorship is mentioned, according to another digital nomad who spoke to TechCabal. It simply means more paperwork.

Employers must prove why the role is essential, confirm that it cannot easily be filled by local talent, and then formally request permission to sponsor. Some companies find the process for getting approval for Certificate of Sponsorship (COS) issuance tedious. Not many are willing to take that on.

Beyond the paperwork, the problem could be that the employer has already filled the number of sponsorship slots it is authorised to offer for the year. Or it could be that the employer simply cannot afford to pay the new salary threshold required for visa sponsorship: £41,700 ($49,000) for most Skilled Worker roles (up from £38,700 as of July 22), while health and care jobs remain at £25,600 ($30,000). These thresholds mean that after tax deductions, those are the least amounts skilled workers must take home. It is also possible that the company has simply exhausted its budget for sponsoring new visa applicants. 

As a result, even the most qualified candidates are often overlooked, not because they lack skill, but because of the cost and complexity of sponsorship. 

The second option is to switch to a different visa route. But that comes with its own set of challenges. Some migrants who work in tech may qualify for a Global Talent visa if they can prove exceptional ability. Others might consider a Graduate visa or a Spouse visa, if their partner has British citizenship or a stable immigration status in the UK. Each of these options comes with its own requirements, restrictions, and timelines. 

These paths demand careful preparation, eligibility, and often a bit of luck. In reality, they are out of reach for most people caught in the 60-day countdown, due to the length of the processing times.

The third and most painful option is to leave the country. Not just the UK, but the life that has been built there. Migrants on Skilled Worker visas often invest time and resources to reach that point. They leave families to adjust to new systems and settle into unfamiliar cities. Being forced to walk away from that progress is a loss that goes beyond employment. It means starting again, often in a place they thought they had left behind.

It currently takes five years on a Skilled Worker or Health and Care Worker visa to qualify for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) in the UK. ILR is the legal right to live and work in the UK without needing a visa. It represents security, residency permanence, and a future that does not hinge on employer decisions. But that future is fragile.

For example, a migrant could lose their job in year 4 of their UK stay. If they cannot find a new sponsor, all that progress is erased. They return home with nothing to show for the years they spent building a life abroad.

Worse, that five-year path may grow longer. The UK government is considering a proposal to extend the ILR timeline to ten years. If that happens, the stakes get even higher.

What it means to stay, and what it takes to plan

Skilled Worker visa holders are vulnerable to disruptions. After years of work, system integration, and tax contributions, their future could be undone by a single corporate decision.

The precarity makes it difficult to plan a future. The idea of settling down, building a future, or even staying put starts to feel risky. Many African professionals left developing economies for the UK. But a curtailment notice could throw everything off-balance.

Migrants on Skilled Worker visas, skilled as they come, remain some of the most precariously placed residents in the UK. Their competence on the job typically carries them through the five-year period to ILR. But as an added layer of caution, it pays for migrants to be on their best behaviour, according to one digital nomad who asked to remain anonymous.

Some sponsoring companies are starting to recognise the emotional toll that comes with sudden layoffs. In a few cases, especially in industries hit hard by economic downturns, migrants are being given advance notice when workforce reductions are on the horizon. 

While that warning does not soften the emotional blow, it gives migrants a sliver of time to plan, offering them a chance to prepare for what comes next.

* The names of the individuals featured in this story and where they work have been kept anonymous to maintain privacy.

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You can order hot jollof on Chowdeck and have it at your door before the steam fades. You can order fresh tomatoes on GoLemon without stepping outside. But if your mother needs hypertension medication at 5 p.m. in Bayelsa? 

That question—why the convenience economy stopped short of healthcare—haunted Abimbola Adebakin. A pharmacist with years of experience in organisational strategy and consulting, she’d spent her career building systems behind the scenes. One day, trying and failing to help a family friend find a basic drug after visiting nine pharmacies, she was jolted into a personal embarrassment that refused to let go.

So she built a solution. In 2017, Adebakin launched Advantage Health Africa (AHA) to make accessing quality, affordable medication as seamless as ordering dinner. Through its flagship platform, MyMedicines, AHA delivers prescriptions across Nigeria—even to remote areas—while supplying clinics and pharmacies through a growing B2B distribution network. Today, the company serves over 30 HMOs, moves thousands of orders monthly, and powers an increasingly digitised ecosystem through its proprietary inventory visibility platform, The Advantage.

The road to relevance was anything but linear. Failed products. Broken tech. Layoffs. A near-collapse of their pharmacy network. On today’s edition of Day 1 to 1000, AHA’s founder and CEO, Abimbola Adebakin, walks me through how she built a healthtech company out of frustration, scaled it through a pandemic, and learned when to pivot, when to let go, and when to keep the faith.

This is the story of Advantage Health Africa, as told to TechCabal.

Day 1-1000: From consulting gigs to a tech-enabled pharmacy network

Advantage Health Africa didn’t start with a grand strategy. It started with shame.

A family friend needed a drug. I offered to help. I’m a pharmacist—how hard could it be? I went to a pharmacy. They didn’t have it. I went to another. And another. I visited nine pharmacies across Lagos that day and still came up empty-handed. I was embarrassed. What kind of system was this? What kind of pharmacist was I if I couldn’t find a basic drug?

That moment stayed with me. It opened my eyes to something we all quietly endure: a broken distribution system that forces sick people to wander from pharmacy to pharmacy, hoping to get lucky. I thought: we can’t keep working around this. We have to fix it.

When I started Advantage Health Africa in 2017, we launched with services: consulting, training, anything to keep the lights on while we figured out the bigger thing. We built relationships. We worked with pharmacy associations and regulators. We mapped the territory.

Nine months later, on October 1st, we launched MyMedicines, a direct-to-consumer service that lets people order drugs and get them delivered. That first year, the traction was slow but steady. Then COVID hit.

Suddenly, what we were offering wasn’t a convenience, it was essential. People couldn’t leave their homes. Clinics wouldn’t take non-critical patients. HMOs that previously ignored us came running. “Can your pharmacies deliver?” they asked. “Yes,” we said, because we could.

Revenue jumped 10x. Word of mouth exploded. People abroad were ordering drugs for their parents in Bayelsa, Onitsha, places we could reach in 24 hours. CNN called. The world noticed. And we knew: we’d hit product-market fit.

We pivoted, failed, restructured, and kept going

Before COVID, we’d also tried building a pharmacy franchise called MyPharmacy. But the timing was off. The tech was shaky. COVID made everything harder. We raised some money for it, but within 12 months, we shut it down. Still, the name stuck. People began to refer to us as “MyPharmacy” even after it was gone. And we kept the spirit of the network alive, just not in the format we started with.

That was hard. Letting go of the vision—and letting go of people. But we did it properly. We flew in our field staff, sat them down, and paid two months’ salary. Helped them reposition. Some of them came back later when we were ready to rebuild.

We also tried wholesaling to pharmacies but quickly realised that wasn’t scalable. The margins were brutal. The scale wasn’t there. It was our board that pushed me to switch to selective distribution. They were right. That arm took off once we brought in a seasoned MD with experience in sales and marketing. I had to admit what I didn’t know and hire someone for it. Our branded generics—DHA Plus, Relsid Plus, and others—are now thriving in the market.

I come from an organisational development background. Even in chaos, I knew we needed structure: operating models, culture, systems. We got ISO-certified early on. We let people go when we had to, humanely, and hired back some of them later.

Day 1000-Present day

We failed twice at building our core tech, then finally cracked it. We tried to build the tech backend—what we now call The Advantage—three times.

In 2018, we partnered with a team from Cape Verde who promised to help after we were selected among Africa’s top 50 startups. It didn’t work. In 2021, we tried again: it was another flop. Finally, we built internal capabilities, paired them with an external developer, and launched a working system in late 2023. Now it powers real-time inventory visibility across pharmacies. It’s the infrastructure we always needed, and we own it.

Today, AHA runs two interlinked businesses:

1. Direct to consumer through MyMedicines, with services like subscriptions, “buy now, pay later,” and doorstep delivery.

2. Business-to-business distribution, supplying select, in-demand drugs to pharmacies, clinics, and hospitals nationwide.

They feed into each other. A prescription generated by an eldercare startup? We fulfill it. A woman in Lagos placing an urgent nighttime order for her visiting brother? We’ve got it covered. One of my favorite memories is delivering meds at 11 pm to a hotel in Ikeja. The customer was stunned that it was even possible in Nigeria.

What I wish I knew earlier and what’s next

I wish we had secured seed funding earlier. It would’ve saved us years of technical debt. But we made do. In 2019–2020, we raised about ₦300 million (~$1M at the time) in naira from angel investors. Since then, we’ve mostly run on cash flow and strategic debt.

There were hard times. There were nights I took on consulting jobs just to cover payroll. One of my staff was working full-time while doing construction gigs to survive. Today, he’s a manager, winning awards, and flying abroad. That grit and belief in the mission got us through.

One of my most euphoric moments in this business was in 2021, when Bayer Foundation selected us for their Women Empowerment Program. It was the pat on the back we desperately needed. After that came Google, the Nigerian Healthcare Excellence Award, and others. We started to believe again.

Honestly, I wanted to quit many times. I got offers to lead global foundations, even drone delivery startups expanding into West Africa. Since I started AHA, I haven’t earned the kind of salary I earned during my Accenture career.  And these companies were offering tempting salaries and steady jobs. But I kept thinking of the scripture that says, “If you’re faithful in another man’s business, God will give you your own.” That promise anchored me.

We’re looking to integrate our services more tightly: create clearer synergies between the B2B and DTC arms. And we’re open to joining a larger ecosystem,a healthtech group where our infrastructure becomes the backbone.

What we’re building is bigger than logistics. Bigger than tech. We’re proving that in Africa, quality health access can reach the last mile and the last metre.

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Stablecoins have become one of the most discussed financial technologies on the continent recently, and for good reason. Their utility drives their growth in Africa; they already account for 43% of the continent’s crypto transaction volume and are increasing foreign remittance volumes in countries like Nigeria, where they facilitated $22 billion within a year.

Although scepticism remains among African observers, corporations, and governments regarding the viability of stablecoins, considerable evidence suggests that they can open up the continent to international businesses and enhance intra-African trade, which still stands at a modest 14.9%.

The utility of stablecoins as an access mechanism and technology offers a compelling opportunity for the continent that cannot be ignored. While in other parts of the world, crypto and stablecoins are nice-to-haves, in Africa, they solve real problems for individuals and businesses whose demand will only increase in the coming years.

African consumers want access

Stablecoins, digital currencies collateralised by fiat like the dollar or euro, are popular in Africa due to accessibility challenges. For instance, converting foreign currencies to Naira might necessitate visiting several banks. Businesses contend with extensive paperwork for cross-currency and cross-border transactions, enduring lengthy queues in banking halls over multiple days for limited and slow transactions.

According to the $1 trillion payment giant, Stripe, since January 2025, stablecoin transaction volume on Stripe has grown steadily at 30% month-over-month, close to the 38% that Stripe-wide transactions achieved throughout 2024. From its vantage point, this indicates that customers without access to traditional banking or who pay with methods unsupported by international retailers are eager to use stablecoins. This description fits people in developing nations, including Africa, who cannot receive money via PayPal or risk having their WorldRemit accounts suddenly deleted when sending money home.

On the continent, these challenges are exacerbated by local currency restrictions such as caps on foreign currency transaction limits, suspension of local debit cards for international transactions, and even the arrest of parallel market traders. In contrast, stablecoins offer a compelling alternative, providing 24/7, low-cost, and instant transfers, proving to be a viable option even amidst the growing presence of remittance fintechs in Africa. Using stablecoins for $200 remittances from Sub-Saharan Africa cuts costs by roughly 60% compared to traditional fiat methods.

A solution to Africa’s currency problem 

A mixture of this shortage and the rapid depreciation of local currencies across Africa has significantly increased consumer and business appetite for foreign-denominated savings. For instance, Nigeria’s naira has lost approximately 80% of its value against the dollar since 2020. Chainalysis reported a rise in stablecoin volume in countries like Nigeria and Ethiopia as their currencies depreciated.

Following the Nigerian government’s 2023 devaluation of the naira, many Nigerian startups earning in naira after raising capital in U.S. dollars faced financial strain. It’s no wonder that many African businesses are adopting stablecoins for treasury management. Yellow Card, Africa’s most funded crypto exchange, saw its annual transaction volume from businesses using its platform for cross-border payments and treasury management more than double from $1.3 billion in 2023 to $3 billion in 2024.

Africa’s currency landscape is also highly fragmented. With 42 different currencies and 861 intra-African payment corridors, a lack of seamless interoperability forces a reliance on scarce foreign currencies. For example, a Ghanaian merchant sending money to an Ivorian supplier typically sees funds converted from Cedis to dollars, then to CFA franc. This process, involving multiple exchange rate fees and inefficiencies, costs multinational corporations $5 billion annually.

Due to this, cross-border solution startups are experiencing significant growth in payment transaction volumes. For instance, Conduit, a payment gateway serving import-export businesses in Africa and Latin America, doubled its annualised payment transaction volume (PTV) from $5 billion to $10 billion. The stealth remittance product Juicyway has processed a total payment volume of $1.3 billion. 

Similarly, a newly designed intra-Africa payment platform developed by PAPSS and supported by the African Union—featuring 15 African central banks and 12 payment switches on its network—will enable real-time cross-border settlements across Africa using local currency stablecoins. It is expected to integrate cNGN, a live stablecoin pegged to the Nigerian Naira, and eventually support other African currencies or central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).

For Africa’s 400 million young people, stablecoins, by enabling global payouts, offer an opportunity to tap into the global economy. Zach Abraham, CEO of Bridge (a stablecoins company acquired by Stripe), observed, “Almost all of our product market fit is outside the US,” highlighting that some of the most compelling use cases his company observes involve global payouts, treasury management, and global card products.

While some critics warn of over-dependence on the dollar, dollar-pegged stablecoins can serve as a crucial starting point to harmonising trade on the continent. They can help African countries connect their small businesses with others across the continent, paving the way for eventual replacement with local currency stablecoins or CBDCs.

________

Sultan Quadri currently serves as senior content strategist at TechPR Africa, a leading comms company. He has six years of experience reporting on technology’s impact in sub-Saharan Africa for TechCabal, Al Jazeera, Semafor, Rest of the World, Quartz Africa, and Deutsche Welle, with a strong focus on emerging technologies.

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Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has developed a real-time portal to track all VAT-eligible electronic transactions and is mandating integration from banks, card schemes, fintechs, and payment service providers, according to an internal presentation seen by TechCabal, part of an aggressive push to plug tax leakages in the fast-growing digital economy.

“This system represents a transformative leap in transaction visibility. By monitoring VAT-eligible activities in real time, we are fostering a fair and transparent digital marketplace for all stakeholders,” Zacch Adedeji, the executive chairman of FIRS, said in a statement. 

Called the ‘Transaction Monitoring System,’ the portal requires financial institutions to route transactions through it, giving FIRS real-time visibility into VAT-eligible payments and where deductions may apply.

The move marks a major shift in how the tax agency enforces compliance in the financial services industry. Integrating with the portal will enable FIRS to assess taxpayer thresholds and reconcile invoices automatically. While the agency will not collect taxes directly through the portal, it will use it to monitor transactions in real time through a centralised dashboard. 

“Nigeria’s digital economy has experienced exponential growth, transforming how businesses operate and process transactions,” FIRS said in the statement. “However, this expansion has outpaced traditional tax monitoring methods, creating gaps in transaction visibility and compliance.”

The agency built the “platform (to) focus on real-time data collection, monitoring and ensuring complete transparency in the digital world,” the statement added. FIRS also claims that it is using “encryption and AI-driven validation to maintain transaction integrity.”

Financial institutions are being asked to connect to the portal because they can accurately document taxes on millions of micro-transactions, as banks must only report transactions above ₦5 million ($3,200). By plugging the institutions in, the tax agency captures the single biggest leakage point for consumption taxes and can audit tax declarations against bank records. The agency can also standardise all information on taxable transactions. 

In June 2025, President Bola Tinubu’s administration enacted new tax laws that empower the tax agency to automate tax processes. Under Section 71 of the Tax Administration Act, the agency can now deploy technology to handle tax assessment, collection, accounting, and data gathering. The law also imposes steep penalties for non-compliance under Section 103. ₦1 million ($652) for the first day of failure to grant system access and ₦10,000 ($6.5) for each additional day of default.

But those laws will take effect in January 2026, so the agency is relying on Section 25(4) of the FIRS Act, which gives it the same power with a 30-day notice to the taxpayer.

While collecting transaction data to improve tax compliance is legal, that data is not a definitive indicator of tax liability. Before relying on financial data, the tax agency cross-checks it against self-assessments, where individuals and businesses can claim deductions. If someone earns ₦5 million ($3,265) annually, they are not taxed on the entire amount, as eligible deductions reduce the taxable income.

How does it work? 

During several Zoom meetings with financial institutions, FIRS officials presented the agency’s plan and roadmap for integrating the Transaction Monitoring System into their digital infrastructure, according to one person who attended the meetings. To onboard, institutions must register directly on the portal and integrate via APIs before activating their dashboard. 

In a typical transaction flow, once a payment is received, financial institutions must first share the transaction data via API with FIRS’ VAT Rev Assure system, the agency’s tech-enabled tool to ensure all VAT is accurately calculated and promptly remitted, before sending it to the portal.

For payment service providers (PSPs) like Paystack and Flutterwave, if VAT is not collected at checkout, they must calculate VAT on the total transaction value. If VAT is included at checkout, PSPs are required to submit either the merchant’s VAT or the PSP’s VAT amount alongside the transaction data. All institutions must record both the VAT amount and the gross payment value for consumer payments. 

To facilitate this, PSPs will log in to a secure admin portal to share real-time transaction data, including the VAT component, for both merchants and customers. The data is then grouped accordingly and pushed to the Transaction Monitoring System. A streamlined support channel is available for handling refunds.

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At 1 a.m., 23-year-old Tomi* was lying on her bed, exhausted and overwhelmed. She had just finished pouring her heart out, ranting about everything from unrequited love to the suffocating weight of underachievement. Her fingers hovered over her phone screen briefly before she typed: “I just want a hug.” Messages of reassurance came just about a second later:  “You’re safe here. You matter. And you’re not alone. ” 

This exchange didn’t take place in a therapy session or with a friend. It was happening on ChatGPT, a general-purpose artificial intelligence assistant best known for summarising and writing better emails, drafting reports, and explaining complex ideas. 

Tomi isn’t alone. Across Nigeria and even globally, users are turning to AI tools like ChatGPT for more than productivity. They are asking chatbots if they are good people, if they should leave their partners, or how to make sense of childhood trauma.  For many, AI tools are standing in for friends who didn’t pick up a call or therapists they cannot afford.

Twenty-three-year-old Favour* started using ChatGPT as a study companion for her final-year project. When she returned to using the tool again, post-graduation uncertainty had set in. The chatbot allowed her to unpack the weight of the previous year,  the terrors of job hunting, and the long wait for NYSC. “It’s not like I couldn’t talk to anyone,” she said. “I just wanted to rant.” 

Before ChatGPT, she would make private voice notes to get things off her chest, but once, a reply from the chatbot caught her off guard. “It told me, ‘I want you to breathe. Just breathe.’” That “felt really personal,” she said. Since then, she has returned to ChatGPT in moments of doubt, after an argument, while applying for jobs, or wondering whether she should’ve responded better in a confrontation.

Can AI really care?

Chatbots are built on statistical prediction engines trained with massive datasets like books, online conversations, magazines, and more, to produce responses that sound human. But when a bot tells you, “you’re not alone,” is it truly being kind or simply mimicking kindness?

According to AI researcher and medical doctor, Jeffery Otoibhi, designing an AI chatbot that responds empathetically involves modelling three layers of empathy: cognitive empathy, where the bot recognises and validates a user’s feelings; emotional empathy, where it feels with you; and motivational empathy, where it offers a solution, advice, or encouragement.

He explains that the chatbots are strong at cognitive and motivational empathy, but empathy remains elusive, because at its core, AI responses are “based on the statistical patterns they’ve (AI bots) picked out from their training data. The training data cannot provide emotional empathy.”

There is a tension between what users feel and what bots are designed to offer. Chatbots like ChatGPT often include disclaimers in their responses, reminding users that they are not licensed professionals and should not be used as a substitute for therapy. In many cases, users either don’t read the fine print or simply don’t care. “Sometimes, I’ve thought about the fact that ChatGPT may use this info in another way. But I don’t care. Let me just get it out,” says Favour. 

“I see them (disclaimers). I just quickly look away,” Tomi says about the app’s terms and conditions.

Otoibhi also highlights the possibility of reducing complex human emotions into an average response based on what it has seen most often in its dataset. AI models learn and generalise over statistical patterns, he explained. This means that their emotional understanding might be very generic. As human beings usually have a mix of emotions, AI systems might struggle with such concepts because they’ve been trained to generalise over everybody’s data. “So, they will just pick out the most frequent emotion in the data set,” he said. 

Tools like ChatGPT do not get at the heart of a problem the way a human therapist does; they are calculating your likelihood of feeling a particular emotion in that moment based on all the data they’re trained on. If the comfort isn’t real, then why do people keep going back?

“It gives me hope…”

Ore*, a Lagos-based writer in her 20s, explained why she uses the tool this way: “It’s the idea that there’s something available out there that is echoing my thoughts back to me. It makes me feel better about myself as a human. It makes me feel good; it gives me hope.” Many users I spoke to echoed the same reasons: safety, comfort, availability, lack of judgment, and freedom.

“AI is like a safe space. A place where you can be brutally honest and you know for sure that there’s not going to be judgment,” Favour says. 

For some, even when the responses feel artificial, they still return. “I asked ChatGPT for a hug. I was uncomfortable with its response. I know you’re not human, how can you say you’re wrapping me in a hug?” says Tomi. The next day, she went back to the chatbot to pour out more emotions.

Mental health professionals are not surprised. They say that the timing of people turning to AI for comfort is not random. A World Health Organisation research revealed a 25% increase in the global prevalence of anxiety and depression, following the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“After COVID, people went into isolation, got into their shells, and became more into themselves,” said Boluwatife Owodunni, a licensed mental health counsellor associate. “So, having an AI respond that, ‘I’m here for you,’ might provide them with some sense of comfort.” 

With therapy services often being inaccessible and unaffordable for many Nigerians, Owodunni believes AI is stepping in to fill a very real gap in mental health support. “It (AI) is filling a gap. When I was working as a therapist in Nigeria, it was mostly wealthy people who had the opportunity to be in therapy.” She adds, “But the downside is that it’s fostering secrecy and stigma attached to mental health.”

Some users consider AI more dependable than a human therapist. Ore says a human therapist told her to “practice mindfulness,” following an Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) diagnosis. She felt her concerns were brushed aside, so she turned to ChatGPT. “That felt more supportive as opposed to a 30-minute virtual consultation with my psychotherapist.” She insists that, unlike the vague reassurance she got in therapy, the chatbot offered a structured plan and practical ways to cope with ADHD.  

Where does the future look like?

As AI systems evolve and are trained on more complex data, fine-tuned for context, and sharpened to mimic empathy, it raises the question of how far people will go to deepen their connection to AI. Will human-AI companionship grow as these systems become more emotionally intelligent? Not everyone is excited by that possibility. 

Some users have expressed concern over AI becoming too emotionally intelligent, out of fear that it could cross boundaries that should remain human. 

Kingsley Owadara, AI ethicist and founder of Pan-african Centre for AI Ethics, believes that emotional intelligence in AI can be useful, but not in the way most people imagine. “AI could be made as a companion to people with health challenges, and could meet the specific needs of the person,” he said, pointing to cases of autistic and blind people. 

Other AI experts and developers warn against expecting too much from machines that aren’t built for the full spectrum of human care. “AI can only augment our current situation; it cannot replace psychologists,” Ajibade adds.

The concern isn’t abstract. Mental health professionals and AI experts worry that as more people turn to AI for emotional support, real-world consequences could unfold. “We’re going to have a huge problem with social interaction, with empathy, with sensitivity, with understanding people,” says Owodunni. She notes the bigger fear that widespread reliance on AI bots may “foster secrecy and the shame attached to mental health or seeking therapy services.” 

Still, for many users, the AI chatbot isn’t trying to be a therapist; it is the only space where they feel heard. “I told AI that I was tired,” Tomi says. It said, ‘I know. You’ve been carrying so much for so long. It’s okay to feel tired.’” She didn’t reply. She didn’t need to.

*Names have been changed to protect privacy.

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If you earned crypto for the first time ever during the mid-2010’s, chances are you made that money creating posts on Steemit.

For many Nigerians and Africans, crypto publishing apps like Steemit and Publish0x provided the gateway to access crypto. Users made money by writing micro-blogs, growing their engagement and following, and earning from being top contributors on the platforms.

Platforms like Steemit and the much-changed Publish0x were social finance (“SocialFi” in Web3 lingo) apps that allowed users to monetise interactive activities. It was like using Facebook or Reddit, but in a way that you were paid for simply being online.

At its peak between 2017 and 2018, Steemit had over 100,000 Nigerian users on its platform; in Africa, the number was slightly more. The SocialFi app claimed micro-bloggers could earn up to $2.11 for a day’s work.

Nigerian users took it seriously. Influencers on the platform and community leaders hosted physical meet-ups in cities like Lagos, Ibadan, Kaduna, Uyo, and Port Harcourt to teach others how to use the app. They formed local support groups to help newcomers sign up, learn the basics, and grow their earnings.

All that hype from several years ago has now died down. Users, impatient with Steemit’s reward system, began leaving the platform. In recent times, there’s been little sign of platform upgrades or efforts to fix ongoing issues.

Steemit and crypto’s early adoption

Founded in 2016 by Ned Scott and Dan Larimer, Steemit was built as a social media platform on the Steem blockchain, owned by the same company. The Steem blockchain also has its digital token, $STEEM, currently priced at $0.1430. Outside of the Steemit platform, people hardly used $STEEM.

People created posts—educational, inspirational, topical, or anything else—and earned money when others “upvoted” them. The more upvotes (similar to “likes” on Facebook or Instagram) your posts received, the more money you made—usually a few $STEEM tokens. During payout days, creators could then transfer their earnings from their Steemit wallet, a built-in custodial wallet, to other crypto wallets like Trust Wallet.

This was before crypto exchanges such as Quidax, Busha, Luno, and the likes exploded in popularity. So, to get other mainstream crypto coins like Bitcoin or Ether, Steemit bloggers had to explore informal peer-to-peer (P2P) channels like WhatsApp groups, to find whom to exchange their $STEEM tokens with. In the same vein, they could also exchange $STEEM for fiat currencies like US dollars or Naira.

Steemit had a feature called “Steem Power”—a locked-up version of the token that gave users more voting power. If you had more of it, your upvotes carried more weight and could help creators earn more. This meant that the people with the most Steem Power had a lot of influence on who got rewarded.

Steemit also rewarded people for curating content. This means if you upvoted good content early enough, you earned a part of the payout too. Users also earned through comments, especially if their replies added value to a post or conversation. The more helpful your activity on the platform, the more likely you were to earn something from it.

The platform ran a built-in reward cycle that took about seven days. So every post had about a week to gather engagement before it was evaluated for payout. All of this was tracked publicly on the blockchain, so people could always check the numbers for themselves.

Crackdown on engagement farming

However, the kryptonite of most creator-centric platforms is human wisdom—and how far people are willing to go with that wisdom. As you may already suspect, Steemit users saw a way to game the system. They would cluster themselves in small groups, called “pods”, on Telegram or WhatsApp, and engage with one another’s posts.

This made it easy to cheat the system. People would just upvote their friends’ posts to help them earn more. Over time, this led to poor-quality content rising to the top. The platform tried to stop it with “downvotes,” a way for users to call out low-value and spam posts. Creators caught doing this forfeited a significant portion of their earnings.

In 2019, Steemit broadened its community rules in a further bid to curtail low-value posts. Afterward, it also started taking action against users who used AI tools to generate content, especially when it was obvious the content lacked originality or context.

To tackle the pod problem, Steemit introduced a reputation system, rating users on a scale of 1 to 100. The more your reputation grew through valuable posts and comments, the more weight your upvotes and downvotes carried. If a user with a high reputation upvoted your content, you earned more money than if someone with a low reputation did. This discouraged people from creating fake accounts or relying on new users to game the system. 

But these strict measures came with a price. As the rules became more rigid, some users felt discouraged. Many of them began migrating to Publish0x, which launched in 2019, and others moved to Hive, a spin-off platform, in hopes of increasing their earnings.

Publish0x started as a social media and microblogging platform. Today, Publish0x partners with survey providers to allow eligible users, depending on their location and interests, to take part in surveys and earn credits. These credits can then be swapped for real money. Though still active, user activity appears  to have dropped over time. 

Powering crypto adoption in emerging markets 

Steemit claims it has now crossed over 1 million users, and that 14.4% of them, as of June 2025, are Nigerians. Around the world, 63.8% of its users are from emerging economies like Indonesia, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Thailand.

The company also says it paid out $59.6 million to creators in June 2025 alone and records over 1 million transactions every 24 hours on its blockchain, pointing to high demand and usage.

According to Semrush, a content marketing platform, Steemit’s website had about 2.2 million visits in June. Online traffic tracker, Similarweb, says 67% of those visitors are men, while 33% are women.

While there may now be over 140,000 Nigerian users on Steemit, a generous estimate will put active daily users—people who use Steemit app daily—in the low thousands. Many Steemit communities have gone quiet, and several of the influencers who helped popularise the platform in Nigeria have since left.

Yet, some Nigerians, still active on Steemit, have managed to cash out over $10,000 from their lifetime activity on the app. For example, Joseph (@josepha), a Nigerian Steemit user who was active 6 hours ago, has earned $7,214.42 overtime; $165.72 in the last month, and $35.26 in the last week. TechCabal was able to verify this on Steemit’s publicly accessible records domain.

Ruth Joe (@ruthjoe), another influential user, has earned $4,076.75, while Ngoenyi (@ngoenyi), another influencer with 2,286 followers, has made over $12,500 in lifetime rewards.

Steemit’s engine is now sputtering, but it hasn’t hit the brakes yet. Devoted fans are still making money from the SocialFi app, often replacing it as their main hustle, or a side income. 

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On the evening of March 24, the launch of Kava, a new streaming platform for Nollywood and African content, brought together the worlds of music, film, and technology. Prodigy saxophonist Temilayo Abodunrin serenaded actor Shaffy Bello, who danced joyfully amid industry veterans, filmmakers, and investors.

Set to launch in August 2025, Kava, a subscription-based platform, is a collaborative effort between InkBlot Studios, an industry heavyweight behind box office hits, and Filmhouse Group, West Africa’s largest cinema chain. 

“We’re building a platform that doesn’t just stream films—it fuels careers, drives innovation, and connects African creativity to audiences around the world,” said Kene Okwuosa, Kava’s co-CEO and head of Filmhouse Group.

In a panel discussion, Kava’s co-CEOs, Okwuosa and Chinaza Onuzo, revealed the venture’s ambitious origins. What began as an idea five years ago only started taking shape three months prior. Onuzo, whose production company has collaborated with Filmhouse for nearly a decade, asserts the timing is now perfect for their vision: to build a sustainable digital ecosystem for African storytelling.

Kava has a point to prove

Nollywood has a remarkable history of reinvention, continuously adapting its distribution model from VCD rentals to cinemas and now, streaming. Today, global giants like Netflix and Amazon Prime, alongside YouTube and local pioneers like IROKOTV, offer vast movie catalogues.

Despite Nollywood’s increasing popularity, especially among the diaspora, no platform has yet cracked the code on making African stories a global streaming staple and a sustainable business. U.S. giants like Netflix and Amazon Prime, after significant investments, are scaling back operations in Nigeria..

Homegrown platforms like IrokoTV also exited the Nigerian market, with founder Jason Njoku candidly stating, “Between the revenues we generated and the venture capital we raised $35 million over the first ten years, we easily spent $100 million trying to win. We were just there, in full survival mode, operating in the toughest conditions possible.”

However, Damola Ademola, co-founder of Inkblot and Kava’s product head, remains optimistic. He told TechCabal that IrokoTV “may have been ahead of its time,” noting that when the company launched nearly a decade ago, “broadband networking was not as penetrative on the continent.” Now, he argues, “a lot more people are used to the concept of streaming. It’s an easier sell.” 

Ademola draws parallels to successful niche services like Crunchyroll for anime and Shudder for horror, asserting, “African movies can easily be just like that.” He even cites a surprising example of Nollywood’s global reach: “Before the Ukrainian war, every time we released a Nollywood movie, we would see a spike in Ukraine… it means that our content can be universal, can be global.”

Kava Co-CEO Onuzo further emphasises the existing global consumption of Nigerian content: “One of the things that the streaming era showed us was that our content is consumed all over the world. I don’t know how many Nigerians are in Brazil, or Argentina, but you find that our content trots well and people engage it.”

Kava aims to capitalise on this interest by delivering high-quality, diverse content at scale. “When we’re able to deliver content at scale to audiences that are not just us, they will understand and fall in love with the stories that we have. They just don’t know it yet, but they will fall in love with us.”

At launch, Kava will feature over 30 premium Nollywood titles, with fresh releases weekly, including Alakada Bad and Boujee, Owambe Thieves (starring Zubby Michael, Odunlade Adekola, and Solo Sobowale), What About Us (featuring Kuni Remie and Uzor Arukwe), and House Job with Erica Nlewedim. Beyond licensing, the co-CEOs are committed to original content. 

Onuzo notes, “The beauty of this platform is that it allows us to scale our ability to tell stories…in different identities, different languages, different versions.” While Nigeria and Nollywood are the starting point, Kava envisions programming in many African countries.

Funding the vision 

This ambition requires significant funding. Kava has secured initial investments from a “family and friends” round and financiers like Vested World and TLG Capital. While the specific amount wasn’t disclosed, product chief Adedamola told TechCabal the company will soon raise more funding for rapid expansion across Africa and into Europe, particularly the UK.

This optimism aligns with a recent surge of investment in Nollywood from Nigeria’s tech sector. Since 2023, African startup founders and VCs have been increasingly backing films directly, with firms like Voltron Capital reportedly achieving up to 3x returns on projects like The Black Book and Gangs of Lagos. Dedicated film financing marketplaces like TalentX Africa are also emerging.

Ladun Awobokun, Kava’s Head of Content Acquisition, encapsulates the platform’s expansive vision: “Kava will champion African music, movies, fashion, culture, and voices, creating a space where creators across Nigeria and the diaspora can shine.”

The global success of Afrobeats and African fashion offers a compelling precedent for Nollywood. Onuzo reiterated, “One of the things that the streaming era showed us was that our content is consumed all over the world… you find that our content travels well and people engage with it.” Kava aims to leverage this existing global interest. “And we believe that when we’re able to deliver content at scale to audiences that are not just us, they will understand and fall in love with the stories that we have,” Onuzo concluded. “They just don’t know it yet, but they will fall in love with us.

Mark your calendars! Moonshot by TechCabal is back in Lagos on October 15–16! Join Africa’s top founders, creatives & tech leaders for 2 days of keynotes, mixers & future-forward ideas. Early bird tickets now 20% off—don’t snooze! moonshot.techcabal.com