Airtel Africa’s mobile money business processed nearly USD 200 B in transactions over the past year as the telecoms operator expands financial services across 14 African countries, putting it on track for a London listing that analysts say could value the unit at up to USD 10 B.

The company’s Sustainability Report 2026, published on Wednesday, showed that Airtel Money’s transaction value climbed 44% to approximately USD 196 B in the financial year to March 31, driven by microloans, international transfers and merchant payments. The customer base grew 21% to 54.1 million users.

Chief Executive Sunil Taldar said expanding access to financial services and connectivity remains central to the company’s strategy. “Across Africa, access to connectivity, financial services and digital education is increasingly essential to economic opportunity,” he said in the report.

The growth positions Airtel Money for an initial public offering scheduled for the second half of 2026. Analysts at CLSA estimate the unit could raise between USD 1.5 B and USD 2 B at a valuation of up to USD 10 B, a fourfold increase from 2021, making it one of the largest fintech listings on a European exchange in recent years.

The mobile money business now has an EBITDA margin of 50.8%, above the broader Airtel Africa margin of 49.3%, and contributes 20% of the group’s regional revenue. However, penetration remains at only 29% of Airtel Africa’s 184 million mobile subscribers, with significant room for growth in Nigeria, where only 2.7 million customers currently use the service.

Airtel Africa has also expanded its digital infrastructure, with mobile network coverage reaching 81.9% of the population, including 73.1% in rural areas. Smartphone penetration rose to 49.5%, while data customers grew to 84.2 million.

The company’s agent network, which supports financial inclusion and local entrepreneurship, expanded by 39% to 2.4 million agents. Women account for 44.1% of Airtel Money customers, the report showed.

Beyond financial services, the Airtel Africa Foundation connected 3,043 schools to free internet through a partnership with UNICEF, up from 2,176 the previous year. The company also converted more than 950 network sites from off-grid to on-grid power, cutting diesel consumption by 9.1 million litres.

Feature Image Credits: Developing Telecoms

South African small businesses are shifting from a survival mindset to more deliberate, disciplined growth strategies as economic conditions slowly improve, though lingering global uncertainties keep their optimism in check, a report released on Thursday shows.

The latest SME Pulse Report by SME funding startup, Lula, found that entrepreneurs are moving beyond short-term crisis management and focusing on operational optimisation after years of navigating power cuts, high inflation and steep interest rates.

“The story of SMEs in 2026 is no longer one of pure survival, but not yet one of full recovery either,” Lula Chief Executive Trevor Gosling said. “What we’re seeing instead is measured optimism. Businesses are becoming more deliberate about where they deploy capital, which opportunities they pursue, and how they protect cash flow.”

The report points to improving affordability for small businesses over the past 12 months, with easing inflation and greater energy stability restoring some predictability after prolonged pressure.

Business confidence has also improved. The RMB/BER Business Confidence Index rose to 47 in the first quarter of 2026, the highest level in nearly five years, building on gains in late 2025. Inflation has moderated from previous highs, and the South African Reserve Bank has begun cutting interest rates, with the prime lending rate at 10.25% by May 2026.

However, the report cautions that conditions remain fragile. Escalating conflict in the Middle East has driven up global oil prices, threatening to push inflation back up and delay or reverse further interest rate relief. Gosling said the external environment has already shifted rapidly since the report’s data was compiled earlier this year.

“SMEs are operating in a market that can change very quickly and often without warning,” he said. “Businesses cannot afford to become complacent.”

The report also noted a shift in how SME owners view funding. Many still rely on personal savings or credit, but there are growing signs that business funding is being seen less as a last resort and more as a strategic tool for growth. Some businesses are now using finance proactively to secure stock ahead of demand or expand operations rather than waiting for cash flow pressure to build.

“The future of SME finance will not simply be about access to capital,” Gosling said. “It will increasingly be about helping businesses make smarter decisions and giving them the confidence to act at the right time.”

South Africa’s SME sector faces a financing gap estimated at more than ZAR 350 B (USD 18 B), according to the OECD. The Lula report suggests businesses that embrace funding as a growth enabler rather than an emergency measure are better positioned to scale.

The report is based on Lula’s internal affordability, funding and operating environment data, alongside broader SME sentiment research conducted with News24.

Zipline’s rise in Africa began with the promise of delivering blood and vaccines to remote clinics faster than any road could manage. Nearly a decade later, new peer-reviewed research shows the drones are doing far more than restock medical fridges.

Drone delivery networks operated by Zipline in Africa are linked to lower child mortality, higher farmer incomes and stronger local economic activity, according to three new studies examining operations in Rwanda and Ghana.

In a set of findings released on Wednesday, the autonomous logistics company documented that the same infrastructure built to bypass broken supply chains is now generating measurable returns in farming productivity, child nutrition, and household wealth.

One study, published in Frontiers in Veterinary Science, evaluated a programme in rural Rwanda that used drone-delivered, temperature-controlled pig semen combined with community training. The model increased farmers’ annual income by 17%, generating a 68% return on investment for smallholder pig producers, Zipline said.

Success rates for artificial insemination rose from 48.8% to 74.8% after drone logistics were introduced, the company reported, citing research data.

A separate study, focused on severe acute malnutrition, compared Zipline-served and non-served health facilities in Rwanda over five years. At sites where ready-to-use therapeutic food was delivered by drone, in‑hospital childhood deaths from severe malnutrition fell 22%, the findings show. Visits for severe anaemia in young children dropped 46%.

“The protocol for treating malnutrition has not changed. What changed was whether supplies were there when clinicians needed them,” said Pedro Kremer, Zipline’s head of impact and research. “That is the variable these studies are measuring.”

Another piece of evidence came from a third study examining Zipline’s GH3 distribution centre in northern Ghana. Researchers combined a household survey with satellite analysis of nighttime light intensity, a recognised proxy for local economic activity, and benchmarked the area against 82 comparable locations across the country.

It was found that households within two kilometres of the Zipline hub earned an additional USD 850.00 to USD 1.2 K per year. Liquid asset ownership fell about 27% with every additional 1.5 km from the hub, and improvements in drinking‑water access followed the same proximity pattern. Furthermore, nighttime light intensity near the hub was “significantly higher” than at the 82 comparable locations.

The results come as Zipline accelerates its buildout across the continent. In Nigeria, the company announced plans last month to grow from three distribution centres to 15 by 2028, potentially giving nearly 100 million people faster access to medical supplies. Rwanda is adding an urban delivery system, Platform 2, in Kigali, while Ghana, Kenya and Côte d’Ivoire continue to expand.

“This research shows what communities and governments across Africa have seen firsthand: when essential supplies reliably reach the people who need them, outcomes change,” said Caitlin Burton, Zipline’s chief executive for Africa and emerging markets.

However, an on-and-off debate over cost remains a sticky point. Ghana’s Health Minister Kwabena Mintah Akandoh told a press conference in Accra in December that an audit of Zipline’s contract revealed that only 12% of areas served qualified as “hard-to-reach” and only 4% of deliveries could be classified as emergencies.

The minister said the government owes Zipline GHC 174 M (USD 12.5 M) and has raised questions about whether high operational costs are justified.

Majority Leader Mahama Ayariga called the contract a “drain on national resources” and argued the health service should have developed its own drone capacity. Opposition has also come from Parliament’s Health Committee chairman, Dr. Mark Kurt Nawaane, who described Zipline as “a solution to a problem the country does not have” and said the real challenge is a shortage of voluntary blood donors, not transportation.

The company maintains that it runs one of the highest-impact, most cost-effective interventions ever studied, across multiple domains, including immunisations, maternal mortality, and nutrition. The Country Manager of Zipline Ghana, Daniel Kwaku Merki, pushed back against claims that the company’s drone delivery service is being misused to transport non-essential items, insisting that such non-medical deliveries are “extremely rare.”

Zipline’s CEO for Africa and emerging markets, said in Wednesday’s press release that the research shows measurable results across multiple sectors. “Zipline began by improving access to critical health supplies. Today, the same infrastructure is strengthening nutrition systems, agricultural productivity and local economies,” she said.

Nearly all Egyptian consumers use artificial intelligence to help them shop, but only a fraction trust AI to complete a purchase on their behalf; a paradox that reveals a broader challenge facing the global payments industry as it rushes to build infrastructure for autonomous commerce.

A Visa study released Tuesday found that 91% of consumers in Egypt have used AI tools to assist with shopping, comparing prices, checking reviews and finding gift ideas. Fully 97% say the technology makes online shopping faster and easier. Yet when asked whether they would trust an AI agent to handle checkout, that figure collapsed to just 38%.

The findings, from the annual Stay Secure survey conducted by Wakefield Research, lay bare the gap between consumer appetite for AI-assisted discovery and their reluctance to cede control of the payment itself. The study surveyed 5,800 adults across 17 markets in Central Europe, the Middle East and Africa, including Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.

The trust gap is not unique to Egypt. In South Africa, only 23% of consumers would trust an AI agent to complete a purchase, according to the same study. In Kenya, that figure stood at 29%. Across the region, consumers are embracing AI for research, but they draw a firm line when money changes hands.

“Consumers see fraud protection as a shared responsibility, but they expect financial institutions, governments, and payment providers to take the lead,” said Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president for North Africa, the Levant and Pakistan.

The study also revealed a rapidly shifting e-commerce landscape. Eighty‑five percent of Egyptian consumers have purchased products directly through social media platforms. But as commerce migrates to new channels, fraud follows. Among consumers who reported experiencing a financial scam in the past 12 months, some 36% of respondents, nearly half said the incident occurred on social media, more than on any other platform.

In 2025 alone, Egyptian authorities said they thwarted financial fraud operations worth an estimated EGP 4 B (approximately USD 77 M), according to statements from the Central Bank of Egypt. Across the continent, an Interpol‑coordinated operation in early 2026 involving 16 African countries resulted in 651 arrests and exposed scams tied to over USD 45 M in losses.

The findings arrive as Visa, Mastercard, and other payments giants race to prepare financial institutions for agentic commerce – autonomous transactions executed by AI agents with minimal human involvement. Visa has already begun enrolling banks in its Agentic Ready programme, which enables institutions to process such payments.

But as the Egypt data makes clear, the infrastructure is arriving ahead of consumer trust. Asked who should bear primary responsibility for fraud protection while shopping online, nearly half of Egyptian consumers pointed to government authorities. Only 13% believed consumers themselves should be primarily responsible.

The path forward remains uncertain for payments companies. Consumers have demonstrated they will use AI to discover products and compare prices. Whether they will ever trust it to spend their money remains an open question.

Feature Image Credits: Consultancy-ME

Nearly five years after its high-profile launch as Africa’s first central bank digital currency, Nigeria’s eNaira is being quietly repurposed. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has acknowledged in a new strategy document that adoption of the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) has been slow, and is now repositioning it away from a consumer-facing payment tool toward a backend infrastructure for government disbursements and cross-border settlements.

The eNaira, launched in October 2021 to much fanfare, has struggled to gain traction. According to the CBN’s Payments System Vision (PSV) 2028 strategy, unveiled on June 1, the CBDC currently has “millions of wallets” but has processed only about NGN 22 B (USD 16 M) in transactions. This is a fraction of the nearly 1 quadrillion naira in total electronic payments processed in 2024, and well below the 300 million transactions the bank had envisioned for the digital currency by 2026.

In the PSV 2028 document, the CBN acknowledged that barriers to the eNaira’s success included “limited stakeholder engagement and buy-in” during its design and implementation. The bank conceded that adoption had been slow, with the CBDC offering little that existing bank apps, fintech wallets and mobile money platforms were not already providing more conveniently.

Rather than competing directly with these established platforms, the CBN now wants the eNaira to become part of the infrastructure that underpins Nigeria’s digital payments ecosystem. The strategy, which runs through 2028, places the CBDC alongside initiatives such as open banking, digital identity and cross-border payments frameworks.

The rethink comes amid a broader strategic shift at the CBN under Governor Olayemi Cardoso, who has prioritised stabilisation, trade facilitation and investor confidence.

The PSV 2028 framework, unveiled at a gathering of banking executives and fintech operators in Abuja on June 1, aims to position Nigeria among Africa’s leading payment ecosystems by promoting faster, safer digital transactions and strengthening cross-border payment systems under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

The path forward for the e-naira will focus on government-to-person (G2P) payments, such as welfare disbursements and subsidies, as well as cross-border settlements. “Routing every government payment through the eNaira is where the plan argues with itself,” noted one analysis of the strategy, pointing to the tension between the CBDC’s past failures and its future ambitions.

The repositioning reflects a quiet admission that Africa’s first CBDC experiment, once hailed as a landmark step toward a cashless economy, has fallen short of its original promise. Now, the CBN is betting that a more utilitarian role can salvage the project.

Africa’s tech ecosystem had its best funding year since 2022 as startup investments rebounded last year, ending the slump of the previous two years, thanks to record debt financing and a steady recovery in equity markets. Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt together accounted for much of the capital raised.

The money is back, but something else is quietly choking the continent’s startup ambitions. A common view among stakeholders suggests that it’s not a lack of ideas or market, but rather leadership.

When Moniepoint CEO Tosin Eniolorunda told a Lagos audience that his company had struggled to fill 500 vacancies because Nigerian candidates were “not up to global standards,” the internet exploded. Some called it an insult, others said he was telling an uncomfortable truth. But Marcia Ashong‑Sam, founder and CEO of the executive search and leadership advisory firm, TheBoardroom Africa, has a different take.

“The question was never whether African professionals are capable,” she tells WT. “It was whether the organisations they work within are built to draw that capability out.”

Ashong‑Sam sees a painful irony every other day. “Founders will tell you in one breath that talent is their biggest challenge, and in the next, allocate the smallest slice of their budget to developing it.” Why? “Because leadership development gets treated as a cost centre, not a strategic growth lever. When you are racing to hit targets or close a round, teaching your VP of Product how to make better decisions feels abstract. Product and customer acquisition feel real. So the money flows to what feels urgent.”

But there is a deeper structural bias. The capital that flooded Africa over the last decade was priced for speed and market capture. “Investors focused more on growth metrics than leadership capacity or organisational maturity,” Ashong‑Sam says. “So founders optimised for what they were measured on.”

Many also assumed talent could simply be hired rather than developed. “That assumption is where the model breaks down,” she warns. “You cannot hire your way out of every talent challenge. At some point, you have to build capability internally.”

So what separates the companies that actually do this from the ones that collapse under their own weight? High‑performing organisations, she explains, “do not just recruit talent. They systematically compound it.” Ashong-Sam holds the view that the organisations that fare better treat leadership development as an operational discipline, not something delegated entirely to HR.

“They build clear succession plans, conduct regular talent reviews, and give people early exposure to cross‑functional responsibilities. And they think several layers ahead. Building tomorrow’s leadership bench with the same intentionality they bring to building their product,” she explains

There’s another dimension that gets missed entirely. “Organisations frequently hire people because they are excellent at one specific thing,” Ashong‑Sam notes. “The assumption is that technical excellence will advance a career. It rarely does on its own.”

What actually determines who grows into leadership is the ability to lead people, translate strategy into action, and navigate uncertainty, she asserts. “Those are human skills, and they have to be developed with genuine commitment. A well‑rounded career requires a well‑rounded professional.”

So how do you know if your company is hitting a leadership ceiling instead of a product or market problem? Ashong‑Sam says the most reliable early warning is decision velocity.

“When a company that was once agile becomes slow, when simple decisions require multiple sign‑offs and teams are waiting weeks for clarity, that is a leadership architecture problem.”

Another signal is what happens to high‑potential people. “High turnover among strong performers,” she tells WT, “particularly when they are leaving not for better compensation but because they do not feel they are growing or being heard, is a leadership culture signal that precedes deeper difficulty.”

In her view, boards often miss this because they are watching revenue, churn and burn rate, but those only tell you what has already happened.

“What boards should be tracking is succession depth, voluntary attrition, and the gap between what the organisation says its strategy is and how it actually behaves day to day.” She recommends a simple test: “Who runs this if you step away for six months? If the honest answer is that it falls apart, the board is sitting on a leadership risk.”

The debate that erupted over Moniepoint’s CEO’s comments stopped at exactly the wrong place, Ashong‑Sam argues. “A person can have full competency on paper and still be set up to fail if the organisation has not invested in building their capacity to lead.”

The leadership guru also criticises the tendency of many organisations to expect world‑class performance without world‑class development structures. “When outcomes disappoint, the individual gets the blame rather than the environment. That misdiagnosis is costly,” she says, “both for the person whose reputation suffers unfairly and for the organisation that learns nothing and repeats the same conditions with the next hire.”

Africa’s workforce is young, growing and ambitious. Sub‑Saharan Africa is expected to add 620 million people to the global workforce by 2050. That is either a dividend or a disaster, depending on who is building the systems to lead them.

Ashong‑Sam’s final lesson for the tech ecosystem is urgent. “Pipeline building does not have to wait for maturity or scale. The intent has to be present early, built into the culture before the organisation is large enough to feel the absence of it.” The capital is back. The question is whether the leadership will follow.

Tosin Eniolorunda, founder/CEO of Nigeria’s largest fintech by transaction volume, Moniepoint, has fired the starting gun on credit layering, which is shaping up to replace payments as the new battleground in Nigeria’s vibrant fintech scene. And industry insiders say the battle over customer deposits will be key to that.

Speaking at the official launch of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Payments System Vision (PSV) 2028 framework in Abuja, the Moniepoint Group CEO argued that the next phase of growth for the country’s digital economy lies in building credit products directly on top of existing payment rails.

“I believe the next phase of growth will come from layering services like credit onto existing payment flows, using the visibility and trust already built through financial transactions,” Eniolorunda told a panel of industry leaders, including the heads of NIBSS, Remita and SANEF. “For many small businesses, access has always been the real barrier.”

Moniepoint has already demonstrated the firepower of that model. Its microfinance bank disbursed more than NGN 1 T (USD 734 M) in credit to SMEs in 2025, financing thousands of provision stores, pharmacies and building materials sellers across the country. The company processed NGN 412 T (USD 302 B) in transaction value last year, powering an estimated 80% of in-person digital payments nationwide.

Yet the credit push is merely the visible front of a deeper strategic pivot. An emerging consensus among analysts and executives is that the coming fight will not be merely about lending, but about the cheap deposits required to fund it profitably.

“Large fintechs are not going to borrow expensive money to lend, they also won’t be depending solely on float.” industry veteran Victor Asemota pointed out, suggesting operators will deploy customer deposits, leveraging microfinance bank licenses to build balance sheets that can compete with traditional commercial banks.

That puts the spotlight on the deposit side of the equation. Banks have long held a monopoly on low-cost retail and corporate deposits. But fintechs, such as Moniepoint, OPay, PalmPay, FairMoney, Flutterwave and Paystack, have been quietly accumulating user bases that rival or exceed those of many Tier-2 banks. OPay and PalmPay alone have over 80 million users between them, while Kuda and Moniepoint serves 7 million and 16 million individuals, respectively.

A recent report by Credit Direct Ltd, a leading non-bank lender, forecasts that Nigeria’s credit market will split over the coming decade. Banks will concentrate on corporate and secured lending, it argues, while non-banks will lead consumer and informal-sector credit, powered by embedded finance and AI underwriting.

That structural realignment is already forcing traditional banks to defend their turf. Analysts have tipped neobanks to aggressively poach customers from legacy lenders in 2026, while Flutterwave’s recent acquisition of a microfinance bank license was described as creating a “tectonic shift” in the competitive landscape. The CBN has also formalised the nationwide status of fast-growing fintechs, effectively placing them closer to deposit money banks on the competitive spectrum.

Governor Olayemi Cardoso underscored the stakes at the PSV 2028 launch. “Inclusion and not exclusion must define our future,” he said, setting a target of 95% financial inclusion by 2028 — incorporating 50 million more Nigerians into the formal banking system. Achieving that goal will require regulators, banks and fintechs to work together, he warned against the country’s historic “start-stop” policy cycles.

Moniepoint is not alone in positioning for this shift. FairMoney disbursed over NGN 150 B in loans to small businesses in 2025. PalmPay and OPay have built mass-market payment networks and lending features. Flutterwave’s 2 million-strong Send App user base now has a banking licence behind it. Paystack, too, has acquired a microfinance bank licence, though it faces a significant competitive gap against larger incumbents.

Uganda’s central bank is tightening the screws on cash, imposing new withdrawal and cheque limits in its strongest push yet toward a cashless economy, even as the government’s own digital transaction taxes threaten to undermine adoption.

The Bank of Uganda, in a circular issued last week, set daily over‑the‑counter cash withdrawal caps of UGX 50 M (USD 13.7 K) for individuals and UGX 500 M (USD 137 K) for businesses. Weekly limits are set at UGX 250 M and UGX 2.5 B, respectively. The rules take effect on Jan. 1, 2027.

“In line with the Bank of Uganda e‑payments strategy, which aims to promote a cash‑lite economy as part of the broader national digitisation agenda,” the central bank said it had also reduced interbank cheque limits and introduced the withdrawal caps, according to the circular.

The move comes as digital payments surge. According to the central bank’s own data, electronic money transaction values in the East African nation rose 28% in 2025 to UGX 366 T (USD 100.3 B), while transaction volumes grew 17.3% to 9.1 billion. Mobile money remains the primary driver, with transaction values jumping 40% to UGX 66.1 T last year.

But a 0.5 percent excise duty on mobile money cash withdrawals, charged on top of service fees, is creating friction. Telecommunications firms MTN Uganda and Airtel Uganda told Parliament’s finance committee in April that the levy disproportionately hurts low‑income users. The operators are pushing for a reduction to 0.25 percent, arguing it would stimulate usage and ultimately lift tax revenue.

“When you send money for Parish Development Model, Emyooga, women down there will suffer the tax burden, they are your taxpayers,” MTN’s Dennis Kakonge told lawmakers.

The cost has sparked a shift. Agency banking transaction values rose 76% in 2025 to UGX 29.4 T as consumers seek cheaper channels, according to industry data. The number of agents expanded to more than 22,000. Refactory CEO Michael Niyitegeka, a tax expert, called the current framework “a distortion in the digital payments ecosystem,” noting that the tax burdens one channel while similar banking transactions attract lower costs.

The central bank’s restrictions may backfire if the cost of digital channels remains prohibitive. But mobile money remains the most accessible payment option for households and small merchants, even with the levy.

Amazon has launched its paid Prime service in South Africa, deploying the loyalty engine that underpins its global dominance two years after the U.S. e‑commerce giant quietly entered the country’s crowded online retail market.

The subscription, priced at ZAR 59 (USD 3.20) monthly or ZAR 399.00 annually, offers unlimited same‑day delivery in major metros, access to Prime Video streaming and Amazon Luna cloud gaming, as well as exclusive entry to the company’s annual Prime Day sales event, scheduled for June 23‑29. The launch makes South Africa the 27th country to receive the service.

Amazon’s marketplace went live in South Africa in May 2024 to a muted reception, with limited product selection and no Prime offering in place. Nearly two years later, independent data suggests the platform has gained traction. During the 2025 Black Friday period, Amazon recorded the third‑highest transaction value among customers of both FNB and Discovery Bank, trailing only Takealot and Checkers Sixty60. One logistics partner, The Courier Guy, processed a peak of nearly 224,000 deliveries for Amazon in September 2025.

“Since launching Amazon in South Africa two years ago, we have built a store our customers love, with a great selection of local and international products backed by a reliable delivery experience,” Robert Koen, managing director for Sub‑Saharan Africa at Amazon, said in a statement. “Launching Prime is the next exciting milestone on our journey in the country.”

The move ratchets up pressure on incumbent rivals. Naspers‑owned Takealot remains South Africa’s largest e‑commerce platform, holding about 45% of regular online consumers, but its market share has fallen from 35% in 2020 to 24% in 2025.

Takealot introduced its own TakealotMore subscription service days after Amazon’s entry, while Shoprite’s grocery delivery app Sixty60 has emerged as a formidable competitor.

South Africa’s online retail sector remains underpenetrated, accounting for an estimated 5%‑8% of total retail sales, a gap that Koen said presents a growth opportunity. Amazon has expanded its physical footprint to support the push, including more than 4,000 pickup points across the country and delivery coverage extending into rural areas.

“We want to price it at an affordable level, which I think adds a lot of value in the offering,” Koen told local media. Customers can sign up for a 30‑day free trial before committing to the subscription.

Canal+ began trading on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on Wednesday in a secondary listing that fulfils a key regulatory pledge tied to its USD 3.2 B acquisition of MultiChoice, as the French media group doubles down on live sports rights to reverse steep subscriber losses at Africa’s largest pay-TV operator.

The listing, the first ever by a French company on the JSE, comes eight months after Canal+ took full control of MultiChoice, which has shed nearly three million linear subscribers over the past two financial years across its DStv and GOtv platforms. The stock opened at 58.50 rand, above its reference price based on London-traded shares, before settling.

While the listing hands South African investors rand-denominated exposure to a combined entity serving 42 million subscribers across 70 countries, the operational challenge facing the group is quite tasking.

MultiChoice ended 2025 with 14.4 million subscribers, down from 14.9 million a year earlier, with revenue sliding 6% to EUR 2.4 B. In South Africa alone, DStv shed 589,000 subscribers in the 2025 financial year, an 8% decline across every pricing tier from premium to mass-market.

Sports as a shield

Canal+ has moved decisively to lock in premium rights across multiple disciplines in a bid to stem churn. On Wednesday, the same day as the JSE listing, the group extended its Premier Soccer League broadcast rights through SuperSport across sub-Saharan Africa. That followed a May renewal of its multi-year domestic rugby rights with the South African Rugby Union, covering all Springbok matches.

SuperSport will also broadcast all 104 matches of the 2026 FIFA World Cup across 27 African nations, a tournament featuring a record 10 African teams.

“The renewal of the domestic broadcast agreement is not just the strengthening of our long-standing partnership,” said Rendani Ramovha, Canal+ director for sports content in English and Portuguese-speaking Africa, following the rugby deal. “It is a victory for DStv viewers and subscribers”.

Canal+ Africa CEO David Mignot said the rugby extension “reaffirms our long-term commitment to local sport,” while the group has also committed EUR 100 M to a turnaround plan that includes hiring more than 1,000 salespeople across African markets and lowering subscriber entry costs.

Content consolidation

The Paris-based group has simultaneously moved to rationalise MultiChoice’s streaming bets, shuttering the loss-making Showmax platform in March after years of heavy investment failed to deliver scale.

By centralising sports rights through SuperSport while cutting standalone streaming overhead, Canal+ is betting that live events, which are less vulnerable to cord-cutting than general entertainment, can anchor a broader content proposition that includes thousands of hours of local African productions.

Canal+ CEO Maxime Saada described the dual London-Johannesburg listing as reinforcing the group’s “ambition to be a bridge between Europe and Africa”. But question marks linger over whether a renewed focus on sports and local content can reverse years of subscriber erosion in a market where the shift to streaming appears structural.