Author: Elan
African entrepreneurs collaborating in Lagos, Nigeria. Photo: Ninthgrid/Pexels. African technology startups can apply to Madica for an investment of up to $200,000 and 18 months of company-building support. Applications are accepted throughout the year, but founders need more than an idea: Madica looks for an operating business with a minimum viable product, evidence of market demand and a team capable of working on the company full-time. The programme has returned to attention after announcing investments in five startups from Algeria, Cameroon, Nigeria and Egypt. The additions include HR software, digital payments, semiconductor design and two circular-economy businesses. For founders, however,…
By PwCSouth Africa’s economy continues to grow, but the pace remains modest relative to the country’s investment, employment, and development needs. As some long-standing constraints begin to ease, new challenges are emerging, reshaping where growth gets stuck and how economic potential is converted into real business activity.As the first in a five-part series, this edition of the outlook combines economic indicators, industry analysis, and PwC insights to explore the structural shifts influencing business decisions and economic outcomes across South Africa.Key insights from the outlookThe bottleneck is moving: As electricity reliability improves, growth is increasingly being constrained by areas such as…
Raj Kamal, founder and CEO of TransFiBy Bonface Orucho (Bird Story Agency)Africa is building faster ways to move money across borders.However, faster payment rails are exposing the question whether banks and payment providers have enough of the right currencies, at the right price, to settle those payments. In February, the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) and Kenya’s PesaLink said more than 80 PesaLink participants were connected to more than 160 banks on the PAPSS network, allowing 24/7 cross-border payments in local currencies.Mobile money has already made digital payments part of everyday life for millions of Africans. The GSMA says…
When Web3Bridge, Africa’s premier blockchain academy, earlier today announced a shutdown of its flagship programme, it sent a ripple through the entire continent’s technology ecosystem. For seven years, if you wanted to build in Africa’s blockchain space, all roads led to a single compound in Lagos. The organisation operated as a relentless talent factory, taking in curious novices and churning out engineers equipped to handle complex smart contracts. Now, that assembly line has abruptly halted. The announcement of the Web3Bridge closure is not merely the end of a beloved educational initiative. It is a stark referendum on the current state…
MTN Group and Airtel Africa form the two leading telecoms companies in Sub-Saharan Africa with a combined subscriber base of over 506 million users. While MTN spreads across 16 markets, Airtel spreads its operations across 14 markets; all in Sub-Saharan Africa. On the continent, telcos’ scalability and growth depend largely on their ability to offer affordable, high-quality mobile data plans, especially in markets where both are present, such as Nigeria, Zambia, Uganda, Rwanda, and the Republic of Congo. However, operators offer different mobile data plans based on market peculiarities. Spotlighting the differences between MTN and Airtel prices, we highlight in…
If you’ve ever browsed a torrent website (it’s OK to just look, right?) you’ve surely seen movies listed with a retail UHD Blu-ray as the source. Logically, the only way this could happen is if someone used a computer Blu-ray drive to make a digital copy of the original. Similarly, people who use services like Jellyfin and Plex to digitize their disc collection and then self-host that content in their homes need the hardware to do it. The thing is, getting the right tools is getting harder, which means it could become effectively impossible to get the drives needed to…
By PwCIn today’s fast-paced business environment, organisations are under pressure to adapt, grow, and create value quickly. In this episode of the Business Success Podcast, Jan Groenewald, Africa Deals Leader at PwC South Africa, explains why a deal is not a strategy, but a way to accelerate one.He shares insights on how transactions can support strategic objectives, unlock new capabilities, and create long-term value when grounded in a clear strategic rationale, while highlighting the key questions leaders should ask before pursuing a deal.
Poverty is immense, livelihoods are lacking, unemployment is rampant and the perilous irregular migration resulting in numerous deaths is now the order of the day, the 141-billion-dalasi debt burden is telling its toll on the nation as over 16 billion dalasi is sought to be allocated for debt service payment in 2027 after 13 billion dalasi was allocated in 2026. We can go on and on. The unbearable situation motivated many to call for the Barrow administration to go, but his overwhelming victory in the 2021 presidential election made them to condition their demand that the opposition must come together…
European Investment Bank Brings More Than 40 African Venture Capital Fund Managers to Oxford for Fifth Africa Venture Finance Programme (IN BRIEF) The European Investment Bank has completed the fifth Africa Venture Finance Programme at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School, bringing together more than 40 African and Africa-focused venture capital fund managers from 14 countries. Held from 21 to 25 September 2026, the programme strengthens investors backing early- and growth-stage technology and technology-enabled companies across Africa through academic instruction, practical experience and confidential peer exchange. Following this year’s edition, AVFP’s alumni network includes more than 200 fund managers from 20…
In a RootsToFoods Capital Series interview continuing Wave 2 of the series, Michael Meehan, founder of the Forum for Impact and former chief executive of the Global Reporting Initiative, argues that capital corridors are not built from scratch. They are recognized, then organized, and some of the most active ones now connect the Gulf, Europe and East and Central Africa. Ovidiu Bujorean, chief executive officer of OviBees Ventures, spoke with Michael Meehan, founder of the Forum for Impact and former chief executive of the Global Reporting Initiative, as Wave 2 of the RootsToFoods Capital Series continued. Meehan’s argument: the deployment…