• MultiChoice begins Canal+ restructuring
• Tanzania’s CRDB Bank upgrades to Temenos T24
• Naspers announces five-for-one share split
• Nigeria’s inflation eases for fifth straight month
• Hot Take
• World Wide Web 3
• Opportunities

Companies

Multichoice kicks off Canal+ restructuring

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Banking

Tanzania’s biggest bank upgrades its core banking system to chase growth

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

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

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

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

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

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Companies

South Africa’s Naspers wants to make its shares 5 times cheaper for investors

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Economy

Nigeria’s inflation rate goes down for the fifth consecutive month

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

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

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

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

HOT TAKE!

Digital assets make up only 0.2% of global commerce, and stablecoins won’t change that overnight. The tech is impressive, but commerce runs on what people can actually use. For informal retailers, stablecoins are hard to grasp, and no one wants to fiddle with blockchain networks at the point of sale. Until stablecoin payments are built into familiar tools like cards, POS machines, and mobile apps that make the blockchain invisible, it’s hard to see them powering street-level commerce anytime soon.

We’ve heard Multichoice’s 9% year-on-year revenue decline in the recently ended financial year. We’ve heard of their 1.2 million decline in subscribers. Now, we are hearing that the pay-TV giant has quietly started testing weekly subscription plans in Uganda for the last seven weeks. 

Users can now pay weekly, instead of paying for a full month. If this trial gains traction, it could spread to the company’s other markets in the coming months.

Why the sudden change? The short answer: people aren’t paying like they used to. Tough macroeconomic situations have made many users cut back on pay-TV, and DSTV wants to adapt. Weekly payments might feel less heavy for users.

What does this mean for viewers? In addition to weekly payments, this move means there’s some flexibility on the horizon, but not full control. MultiChoice still doesn’t believe in customers building their bundle by choosing channels. However, it is exploring an offering where customers could get a base product and then add channels to it. This is in line with its recent plan to unbundle SuperSport from its offerings.

Zoom out: If weekly plans catch on, could they replace monthly plans? Would paying week by week turn out to be cheaper, or become more expensive over time? Could this move bring back old users or lure people away from Netflix and other streaming services? 

It’s still in its testing phase, but it is clear that DStv knows it has to evolve or risk being left behind.

It looks like Elon Musk wants to lock in again.

After months of playing right-wing politics and being buddies with US President Donald Trump, Musk, the CEO of Tesla, has decided to turn his focus back on his companies.

In his first move after his very public, messy exit from the White House, Musk’s Tesla, the company which makes electric cars, has opened an office in Casablanca, Morocco, with an initial investment of $2.75 million. This is the first time the electric car company will enter an African country—and it’s an interesting play.

Tesla will make and sell its electric cars in Morocco, along with providing energy solutions like charging stations, solar panels, and photovoltaic technologies. 

With a presence in Africa, Tesla can control the launch, distribution, and after-sales services of its cars in the market. This is a value chain it previously controlled remotely from the US. People didn’t just steer clear of buying a Tesla because of the lack of infrastructure (South Africans buy electric cars), but the lack of boots on the ground made them second-guess Tesla. This will change things.

But why Morocco? Tesla likely chose Morocco for its strategic location; the region offers a window into the rest of Africa—with cheaper duty-free exports—and also gives the mobility company the opportunity to export to Europe, Gulf countries, or the rest of the Middle East.

Again, with Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” threatening to cut EV subsidies—which have made Tesla cars affordable for Americans over the years—the car company could be looking elsewhere for growth opportunities.

Tesla is entering a $2.56 billion shared mobility market where longtime competitor, China’s BYD, already exists. In Morocco, Renault, Dacia, and Hyundai sell the most cars due to their low-cost maintenance, yet EV demand—especially for e-bikes—is growing. 

Whether Tesla will start making e-bikes is something we cannot answer yet, but our guess is it will try to create demand for its cars. If you’re a Moroccan reading this newsletter, this news will make you happy. This author’s dream car is a Tesla.

From Lagos to Miami, Moove is on the move to become a unicorn. 

The Uber-backed Nigerian startup wants $300 million, a cash injection that could drive its valuation over the $1 billion mark, earning it a unicorn badge. 

“What’s this $300 million for?” See it as fuel for the next lap. Moove is growing (and expanding) at breakneck speed. The company’s revenue has climbed to $360 million from $115 million in just a little over a year. In January, it acquired Kovi, a Brazilian urban mobility provider that finances ride-hailing drivers, marking its footprint in Latin America. 

The acquisition came after Moove’s partnership with Waymo, a self-driving vehicle division, to manage fleets of autonomous vehicles in US states, including Phoenix, Arizona, and Miami, Florida. 

If you don’t know Moove: This startup buys cars with bank loans and offers them to Uber drivers through a drive-to-own model—meaning the drivers can pay for the cars with part of their earnings until they eventually own them.

The new capital will power its expansion ambitions and strengthen its US operations, pushing it further into the world of self-driving cars. This isn’t just another startup trying to bulk up on funding. Moove is plotting a full-blown global takeover, from Lagos to London, and to Waymo robo-taxis in the US.

Where the road leads for Moove: Although the company’s current agreement with Waymo is limited to fleet management, it plans to purchase AV-enabled cars from manufacturers and lease mini-fleets of robotaxis to individuals or businesses. Moove’s ambition is to become a key player in the autonomous mobility ecosystem.

If Moove lands this $300 million, it will possibly become a key infrastructure layer for autonomous vehicles, signalling that African-born startups can lead in shaping global tech infrastructure, not just participate in it.

It’s sad that despite multiple media reports, warnings, and red flags, many Nigerians are still hooked on CBEX, the Ponzi scheme that took the country by surprise in April. 

After freezing withdrawals, CBEX is now asking users to pay a $100 “verification fee” to get their money back.

This makes no sense. A platform that owes you money shouldn’t ask for more. It’s like charging people to unlock the door you already locked from the outside. Classic Ponzi behaviour.

Remember Racksterli? The platform collapsed in 2021, then returned with a dummy site asking users to keep engaging. People kept paying in, but no one got paid out.

Our theory on CBEX is simple: the money is gone. And in its final days, it’s trying to squeeze more out of desperate users to “pay them back.” And sadly, some are still falling for it. According to engagements seen in Telegram groups, users who pay the fee are added to a “private” group to talk to CBEX admins about repayments.

The shuffle of Nigerians toward predatory schemes like CBEX—stemming from greed or desperation at this point—is driven by a deep-rooted lack of financial education. CBEX promised steady monthly returns from crypto futures trading. But if you know anything about trading, you know returns are never guaranteed.

Regulators need to step up. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), for example, could work with telecom operators in the country to block access to known Ponzi websites like CBEX. It might not solve everything, but it could slow the damage.

For now, CBEX says it will pay 50% of debts by June 25. Fingers crossed, but the Ponzi platform remains a ticking time bomb.