Techbuild Africa Community

FairMoney Aligns Product Design with Stricter CBN, FCCPC Consumer Protection Rules By James Edeh, Head of Compliance at FairMoney Microfinance Bank FairMoney Microfinance Bank says it is embedding regulatory compliance and consumer protection into the design and lifecycle of its financial products as Nigerian regulators intensify scrutiny of digital lending and financial technology operators. The lender said its approach goes beyond meeting regulatory requirements after products… https://techbuild.africa/fairmoney-cbn-fccpc-tighten-consumer-protections/

6th in AI Workforce Literacy, 19th in Enterprise Deployment: Nigeria’s AI Paradox, Explained Nigeria’s workers have adopted AI faster than any country in Europe, Latin America or the rest of Africa, according to a new global outsourcing report. They rank sixth worldwide for workforce AI literacy among 25 major outsourcing destinations. Their employers tell a very different story, ranking 19th for actual enterprise AI adoption. That 13-place difference… https://techbuild.africa/workforce-literacy-enterprise-nigerias-ai-paradox/

Reimagining Anambra: A 35-Year Vision for a Smarter, Greener and Connected State By Chukwuemeka Fred Agbata (CFA) As Anambra marks its 35th anniversary, the theme, “Our Environment, Our Future”, speaks directly to one of the defining challenges of our dear state. For Anambra, the environment is not an abstract conversation. We live with erosion, flooding, blocked drainage channels, indiscriminate waste disposal and increasing pressure on our land… https://techbuild.africa/anambra-35-year-vision-smarter-greener-connected/

Meta’s $18 Billion Child Safety Settlement Raises a Bigger Question for Africa Meta has been ordered to pay about $18 billion to settle a major lawsuit brought by US states that accused Facebook and Instagram of being designed in ways that could addict children and teenagers. The states also alleged that Meta misled the public about the risks its platforms posed to younger users. Meta has not… https://techbuild.africa/metas-18-billion-child-safety-settlement-raises-a-bigger-question-for-africa/

Africa’s MVNO Gap: A Market Still Waiting to Be Tapped By Warren Alberts, Chief Executive Officer at VAS-X According to a GSMA 2025 report, the mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) business model boosts access, diversifies services and fosters greater competition. The same report found that over 2000 MVNOs operated across nearly 100 markets worldwide, but only 65 were in Africa. And yet, Africa is the… https://techbuild.africa/africas-mvno-gap-a-market-still-waiting-tapped/

Google Cloud Targets Finance and Law Sectors With Gemini Enterprise Google Cloud has launched two purpose-built AI products simultaneously, one for financial services institutions and one for law firms, in a move that signals a deliberate shift away from selling general-purpose AI tools to enterprise clients and toward industry-specific solutions that arrive pre-configured for the compliance, confidentiality and workflow requirements of heavily regulated sectors. Gemini… https://techbuild.africa/google-cloud-finance-law-gemini-enterprise/

Zoho, SMEDAN Launch ₦20B Push to Digitize 25,000 Nigerian MSMEs Zoho, a global technology company, has announced a strategic partnership with the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) to improve access to affordable cloud technology for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) across Nigeria. The strategic partnership combines SMEDAN’s reach and mandate to promote and facilitate the development of Nigeria’s MSME sector… https://techbuild.africa/zoho-smedan-₦20b-digitize-25000-nigerian-msmes/

Intron Rolls Out Sahara v2.5 to Support Mixed African Languages in Voice AI Intron, an Africa-centric voice technology platform, today unveiled Sahara v2.5, a major leap forward for African voice AI that enables computers to understand one of the continent’s most common ways of communicating: mixing languages within the same sentence and conversation. Across Africa, people often move between languages in everyday conversations. A doctor may explain a… https://techbuild.africa/intron-sahara-v2-5-african-languages-voice-ai/

Ventures Platform Hits $84M fund, Defying Global VC Downturn Ventures Platform, Africa’s leading seed-stage fund, has announced the final close of its second institutional fund – VP Pan-African Fund II (VP PAF II)– at $84 million, exceeding its original target of $75 million. Achieved just three years after the close of Fund I and against a markedly more cautious global venture backdrop, the oversubscribed… https://techbuild.africa/ventures-platform-84m-fund-global-vc-downturn/

WhatsApp Adds Stronger Account Protections as Scams and Takeovers Rise WhatsApp is adding new security features designed to make account takeovers and fraudulent login attempts harder to pull off. The update includes changes to two-step verification, more information about calls from unknown numbers and the ability to use multiple passkeys on the same account. The biggest change is to WhatsApp’s two-step verification system. Users who… https://techbuild.africa/whatsapp-stronger-account-protections-scams/

South Africa Expands Access to Justice Through Airtime My AI Lawyer, enabled by ViaMedia, is rolling out AI-powered legal advice across mobile networks in South Africa. Cell C subscribers can currently access AI-powered legal guidance from My AI Lawyer for just R5, with the cost deducted directly from their airtime. According to the platform, this makes affordable legal guidance easier to access, particularly… https://techbuild.africa/my-ai-lawyer-south-africa-justice-via-airtime/

Scale2Miami Opens Applications for Global Startups Seeking U.S. Growth Applications are now open for the third edition of Scale2Miami, a startup growth programme designed for early-stage companies looking to expand into the U.S. market through Miami. The programme is open to startups from around the world, as well as Miami-based founders, and combines online preparation, an in-person immersion in Miami and a year of… https://techbuild.africa/scale2miami-global-startups-seeking-u-s-growth/

SA-founded Verascient Raises $1.2M to Tackle Enterprise AI’s knowledge Gap South African-founded AI startup Verascient has raised $1.2 million, or about R19.5 million, in an oversubscribed seed round as it prepares to expand its enterprise AI business and hire more engineering talent. The round was led by Founder Collective, an early backer of companies including Uber, Airtable and Whoop. Andrena Ventures, Cambridge Enterprise and Summit… https://techbuild.africa/sa-founded-verascient-1-2m-enterprise-knowledge/

Potential iPhone 18 Price Hikes Hint at AI’s Surging Hardware Cost Apple is reportedly preparing to raise the price of its next iPhone Pro models, potentially joining Samsung and Google in passing higher component costs on to consumers. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max could cost more when Apple unveils its next generation of smartphones in September. A… https://techbuild.africa/potential-iphone-18-ais-surging-hardware-cost/

Deel Has a Dollar Wallet for African Freelancers: Why SA Is Getting It First? Eleven weeks after launching in Argentina, Deel has expanded its DLUSD stablecoin wallet to more than 80 countries. The global payroll platform, which processes $22 billion in contractor payments annually, described the expansion as a milestone for workers in markets where local banks make dollar accounts difficult to access. On the African continent, one country… https://techbuild.africa/deel-dollar-wallet-african-freelancers-why-sa-is/

Onafriq and _able Tap Visa Flex Credential to Broaden Credit Access Visa, _able, and Onafriq today announced a partnership to support the expansion of the Visa Flex Credential across Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (CEMEA). Signed today, the collaboration is intended to help financial institutions activate credit experiences alongside existing prepaid and debit credentials. Visa Flex Credential enables issuers to offer multiple… https://techbuild.africa/onafriq-and-_able-visa-flex-credential-credit/

SARB vs Kastelo: R4 Billion in Alleged Crypto Violations and a Regulatory Warning for All of Africa South Africa’s Reserve Bank has frozen the bank accounts of Kastelo, a Cape Town-based crypto arbitrage fintech, over alleged exchange-control contraventions involving approximately R4 billion, roughly $246 million. The Johannesburg High Court has twice refused to lift the freeze. And the case is now doing something that goes well beyond a single company’s legal troubles:… https://techbuild.africa/sarb-kastelo-crypto-violations-regulatory-africa/

$4M Unpaid, A Federal Court Order: What One Nigerian Transaction Dispute Reveals About Cross-Border Business Risk A Lagos-based technology company says it is owed more than $4 million following a disputed $13 million cross-border transaction, a situation that has since drawn in Nigeria’s Police Special Fraud Unit, a Federal High Court forfeiture order, and a separate US federal court complaint involving another company making similar allegations against the same corporate network.… https://techbuild.africa/zacuten-4m-federal-court-nigerian-cross-border/

NANS Innovate 2026 Opens Applications for Nigerian Student Innovators Applications are open for NANS Innovate 2026, an innovation programme aimed that identifies and supports Nigerian students with ideas and solutions to real problems. The initiative provides a platform for student innovators to develop their concepts, gain exposure and connect with opportunities that can support the next stage of their projects. It is targeted at… https://techbuild.africa/nans-innovate-2026-applications-nigerian-student/