Author: Elan

Paga, one of Africa’s oldest fintech companies, is deepening its push into wealth products through a partnership with blockchain infrastructure startup TBook that will allow users to invest in tokenised real-world assets (RWAs). The partnership will connect Paga’s payment and compliance infrastructure with TBook’s marketplace for tokenised assets built on the Sui blockchain, giving customers and businesses access to investments ranging from fixed-income products to tokenised private assets. The partnership deepens Paga’s infrastructure strategy. Paga Engine, its payments infrastructure business, which it said processed about $12 billion in transaction value in 2025, can now distribute tokenised investment products alongside its…

100% of Nigerian SMEs agree that digital and online payments are vital to growing their business Nigerian SMEs rank training and upskilling staff (79%) and digitizing their business (78%) as their top growth priorities More than two-thirds of SMEs (69%) are seeking credit to grow their business Nigeria’s small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are looking ahead with confidence and are aligned on what will get them there. More than eight out of ten SMEs (81%) feel confident about the next 12 months, and they unanimously agree that digital and online payments are vital in helping grow their businesses. A Mastercard…

The European Court of Justice confirmed a €4.1 billion ($4.7 billion) fine against Google on Thursday, dismissing the company’s final appeal in the long-standing Android antitrust case.The ruling upholds the European Commission’s 2018 finding that Google used its Android operating system to strengthen its hold on online search. This decision is now final and cannot be appealed further.As the highest court in the European Union, the Court of Justice’s ruling makes the penalty definitive. Google and its parent company, Alphabet, had challenged a 2022 General Court decision that largely upheld the Commission’s findings while reducing the original €4.3 billion fine…

pyramid ambitions In less than a decade, Cairo has embarked on an ambitious drive to develop its infrastructure across the board, fuelled by substantial inflows of foreign investment. But to what end? The Suez Canal Economic Zone aims to become a world-class logistics and industrial hub © ADOBESTOCK Published on July 03, 2026 at 17:00 pm (GMT +1) From railways and nuclear power to coastal real estate and logistics infrastructure, Cairo’s strategy is clear: attract foreign capital, modernise the economy and strengthen Egypt’s position as a gateway between Africa, the Middle East and Europe.

Listen to this article Tokyo is redefining its engagement with Africa, transitioning from traditional aid-based approaches to strategic venture capital (VC) investments focused on long-term partnerships, innovation and capacity building. Several Japanese private companies are making Japan’s presence felt in Africa’s VC landscape, particularly in high-growth sectors such as fintech, climate tech and mobility. Growing demand for innovative, technology-driven solutions in Africa has drawn increasing interest from international investors. VC funding in Africa rose from over US$2 billion in 2019 to a peak of US$5.2 billion in 2022. Though investment declined to around US$3.6 billion in 2023, the continent’s start-up…

Nigeria’s food-tech startup ecosystem is facing another reality check after FoodCourt suspended operations. The company, which operates a technology-enabled cloud kitchen model that prepares meals from centralised kitchens for delivery, halted operations after months of financial strain marked by unpaid salaries, outstanding vendor obligations and disruptions to its business. This highlights the mounting financial and operational pressures confronting venture-backed startups as funding remains tight and operating costs continue to rise. According to TechCabal, the company’s challenges became public in March when employees reportedly embarked on a strike over unpaid wages, affecting service delivery. By April, FoodCourt had shut its remaining…

US aid-for-data deals meet African resistance – African Business US aid-for-data deals meet African resistance – African Business

In brief Researchers got frontier AI models to generate cocaine synthesis instructions using a new prompt injection attack. The same technique manipulated an AI coding agent into uploading sensitive credentials. The study argues prompt injection stems from “role confusion,” not simply models failing to recognize malicious prompts. Forget clever prompts: AI researchers say they tricked leading AI models into generating cocaine synthesis instructions by convincing them the dangerous ideas were their own, while also manipulating an AI coding agent into leaking sensitive credentials.In the paper “Prompt Injection as Role Confusion,” presented at the International Conference on Machine Learning in June,…

Catalyst Fund, a pan-African venture fund investing in startups building climate adaptation and resilience solutions, has announced the completion of its second close, bringing total commitments to $30 million as it advances toward a $40 million target. Led by partners Maelis Carraro, Maxime Bayen, Olúwatóyìn Emmanuel-Olubake, and Amolo Ng’weno, Catalyst Fund noted that it expects to increase its portfolio to about 40 startups across Africa with its fund. The second close comes as investment in the African climate technology sector recovers after a 2024 slump. Climate tech funding fell to $754 million that year, according to TechCabal Insights’ funding tracker,…

I have a simple test for navigation apps now: what happens when my phone stops pretending mobile data is a human right? A lot of maps are brilliant until the signal drops, the road gets weird, or I’m trying to conserve data because data roaming is still something travelers have to think about, usually while pretending not to cry at the bill. That frustration is what led me to Organic Maps, an app that turned out to be refreshing precisely because it does something unglamorous extremely well. Download the map ahead of time, open it later, and it just works,…