As 2025 comes to a close, we’re taking a moment to look back at some of the stories that dominated conversations across Africa. This week’s edition turns the spotlight on one of the ecosystem’s hardest topics: Startup Shutdowns.

It has been a year marked by tough decisions, dramatic pivots, and founders wrestling with realities that no pitch deck can soften. Across the continent, companies faced rising costs, unforgiving markets, and the pressure to build not just fast, but sustainably.

What follows is a look at the companies that closed their doors or entered administration and the deeper signals behind each fall.

Joovlin: A Quiet End for a Promising Early-Stage Contender

This year’s shutdown narrative began with Joovlin’s shutdown in January. The Nigerian startup closed after nearly four years of building tools for micro-suppliers to manage orders and online sales.

It attracted over 2,000 resellers, secured USD 100 K in funding, and earned praise for solving a real operational pain point.

But early-stage traction couldn’t make up for an empty runway. Joovlin struggled to raise follow-on investment, and without fresh capital or a path to meaningful revenue, the founders made the tough call to shut down. The shutdown wasn’t dramatic; it was simply the result of timing, investor appetite, and the relentless math of burn versus growth.

The end was quiet, almost understated, yet it marked the beginning of a year where much louder collapses would follow. And barely weeks later, the ecosystem received the next, far more jarring signal.

Bento Africa: The HR Startup That Wanted to Be the Deel for Africa, Until the Floor Fell Out

Bento Africa had long pitched itself as the Deel for Africa—an automated payroll and HR platform that could scale across markets and simplify compliance. With a big vision, Bento quickly expanded into Ghana, Kenya, and Rwanda while onboarding hundreds of businesses.

It was the kind of company investors expected to scale quickly and dominate a critical infrastructure category.

But by early 2025, the company was sinking under allegations of unremitted taxes and pension contributions. The undoing began when the company’s engineers stopped work in protest of unpaid salaries, and the company fired the entire tech team, paralyzing its payroll engine.

Clients soon reported that their employees’ salaries had been missed. Tax and pension remittances also went missing, with one business publicly claiming NGN 50 M in unremitted deductions, prompting investigations by the EFCC and LIRS.

Bento’s CEO resigned as the panic deepened, and the board announced a temporary shutdown while advising customers to stop funding their payroll accounts.

Unlike Joovlin’s shutdown, which was because of limited funding, Bento collapsed in a spiral of mistrust and forensic scrutiny. And as the dust settled, founders across the continent were reminded of something uncomfortable: in fintech, ambition means nothing if the fundamentals aren’t airtight. You cannot automate payroll for others when your own house is unstable.

Edukoya: Edtech Ambition Meets Market Friction

Later in the same month, the spotlight shifted to education technology. Edukoya had entered Africa’s edtech scene with rare fanfare, landing the continent’s largest pre-seed round, USD 3.5 M, in 2021. Its model of K–12 tutoring with live classes, on-demand classes, and AI-supported learning felt like the perfect answer to Africa’s youth boom and widening learning gaps.

The platform onboarded 80,000 students, delivered over 15 million answered questions, and hosted thousands of live tutoring sessions. Its metrics were strong, its mission timely, and its product ambitious.

But the harsh reality was simple: the market wasn’t ready. Poor internet access prevented consistent usage. High device costs kept millions locked out. Disposable incomes kept falling as inflation rose. Even with a freemium model, converting users to paying customers became impossible at scale.

Unable to find a sustainable model, and after exploring M&A and potential pivots, the team decided it was better to close the platform and return capital than burn cash chasing scale that wasn’t coming. Edukoya’s shutdown marked a sobering turn in a sector that is long overdue for growth but continues to collide with Africa’s infrastructure gaps.

Lipa Later: Administration Takes Over

Kenya’s Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) startup Lipa Later didn’t shut down, but its entry into administration in March 2025 signaled deep trouble for consumer credit startups in East Africa.

The company had raised USD 16.6 M across multiple rounds and expanded into Uganda and Rwanda. It even went on the offense during tough times, acquiring the e-commerce platform Sky Garden for USD 1.6 M in late 2022, a bold move that signaled confidence in its future.

But by early 2025, 3 years later, that confidence was fading. Lipa Later struggled to raise new funding, payroll obligations began slipping, and concerns around debt levels intensified. The appointment of an administrator placed the company’s future in limbo, with restructuring, acquisition, or liquidation all on the table. The financially troubled hire-purchase firm has since entered several bids for acquisition.

While the company didn’t shut down entirely, entering administration was a stark reminder that BNPL models depend on continuous capital flow. Without it, even a well-known brand can grind to a halt.

Okra: The Fintech Powerhouse That Could Not Outrun Its Own Momentum

In May 2025, the once-celebrated fintech—one of Africa’s brightest hopes for open banking—closed down its operations.

Okra had all the hallmarks of a breakout success: top-tier founders, USD 16.5 M raised, partnerships with major banks, and blistering early growth that turned it into an industry favorite almost overnight.

But after co-founder David Peterside’s departure, the company struggled to maintain execution speed. The engineering team struggled under the weight of growing contracts, and the platform’s heavy reliance on screen scraping became a bottleneck.

The pivot to Nebula, a naira-priced cloud offering launched in October 2024, felt bold, but bold wasn’t enough. It arrived in a market dominated by AWS and Google Cloud. Meanwhile, the naira losing ground daily was a mismatch that Okra could not win. By mid-2025, the company accepted the inevitable.

By mid-2025, Okra shut down, returning an estimated USD 4–5.5 M to investors and offering staff up to six months of severance. Its closure was a moment of reckoning: if a company with this level of capital, talent, and early traction could collapse, it signaled that the era of easy fintech wins was over.

And as Okra bowed out, it left the industry asking a sharper question: If a frontrunner can fall this fast, what does that mean for everyone else building in the same economic storm?

Afristay: Covid Fatigue Claim a Local Travel Favorite

Afristay’s shutdown in early mid-2025 closed the chapter on one of South Africa’s most recognizable travel-tech platforms. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, the platform was thriving, attracting 700,000 monthly visitors and aiming for ZAR 140 M in bookings, positioning it as South Africa’s homegrown answer to Airbnb. It had a local-first product, dedicated booking agents, and strong brand loyalty.

But the pandemic crushed demand almost overnight. Traffic dropped 96%, bookings evaporated, and the business never recovered its footing. By 2023, Afristay was operating with two part-time staff and fewer than 30 monthly bookings. When the company finally shut down in 2025, it felt like the last chapter of a pandemic-induced decline that had dragged on for four years.

More importantly, Afristay’s fall highlighted something bigger: South Africans now have far less spending power than they did a decade ago. Travel is a luxury many can no longer afford, and even the strongest platforms cannot thrive in a shrinking consumer economy.

And with that, the first chapter of shutdowns in 2025 came to a close, each one different, but all pointing to an ecosystem reshaping itself under pressure.

A Year of Tough Calls and Tougher Lessons

Taken together, these shutdowns reveal a continental theme. Money alone isn’t saving companies anymore. Market timing, governance, cost discipline, and technical depth matter more than ever. Investors are asking harder questions. Founders are making tougher decisions. And the glamour around African tech is giving way to a more grounded, more demanding era.

This is only the first part of our 2025 African Startup Review. More stories are coming, and with them, the insights shaping the next chapter of innovation across the continent.

Vodacom Group, a South Africa-based pan-African telecommunications company, has announced its purchase of a significant number of Kenya’s Safaricom PLC shares, giving it a 55% controlling stake in Kenya’s biggest telecom. The share agreement was announced in Nairobi on December 4, 2025.

Under the terms of this transaction, Vodacom will purchase 15% of Safaricom PLC from the Government of Kenya’s share in the telecom, and an additional 5% from its local subsidiary Vodafone (at USD 0.26 per share), valuing the total deal at USD 1.95 billion (SAR36 billion). Should the transaction receive the requisite approvals from regulatory and governmental authorities in Kenya, Ethiopia and South Africa, this will see Vodacom’s stake in Safaricom – which will remain listed on the Nairobi Stock Exchange – increase from 35% to 55%. Kenya’s government will continue to hold 20% of the company while public shareholders will take the rest.

The move is a key milestone in Vodacom’s Vision 2030 strategy, which includes deepening its leadership in Africa’s high-growth markets, and scaling its diversified portfolio to include financial inclusion for underserved markets. This will include M-Pesa Global, which both Vodafone and Safaricom have been expanding over the years to allow East Africans to send merchant and personal payments around the world at minimum cost and inconvenience. Should this work as envisioned, M-Pesa Global will become the jewel in the crown of Safaricom’s operations.

However, this trade hasn’t come without some resistance from Kenyans – both as shareholders and as users of the business’ services – who feel Kenya has ceded too much ground and undersold its shares which, while trading at Sh29 (from an opening position of Sh28.20 on the day of this announcement), are estimated to be valued at at least Sh40 per share, given the company’s latest strategy moves. Kenya’s President William Ruto has stated in the past that this and similar sales of government properties allow Kenya to raise home-grown investment in critical infrastructure without having to rely on debt.

Per Hon. John Mbadi, Cabinet Secretary for National Treasury and Economic Planning: “This transaction is one of the first steps in the President’s stated agenda of innovatively unlocking capital without increasing taxes or the country’s debt burden, to allow additional investment in critical infrastructure to support future growth.”

Despite the home-grown controversy, this is a very strategic move for Vodacom. “This landmark transaction will mark a pivotal step in Vodacom’s journey to accelerate growth and (deepen) our impact across Africa,” said Shameel Joosub, CEO of Vodacom Group. “Acquiring a controlling stake in Safaricom strengthens our position as a market leader, while at the same time unlocks new opportunities to drive digital and financial inclusion at scale in Kenya and Ethiopia.

“Safaricom’s outstanding track record and differentiated growth outlook perfectly complement our Vision 2030 ambitions, empowering us to deliver sustainable value for all stakeholders and to connect millions more people for a better future. I look forward to working even closer with the Safaricom team and taking some of the learnings from their success and leveraging it across the Group,” he added.

Peter Ndegwa, Safaricom CEO, said: “Vodacom has been a trusted partner in Safaricom’s journey from the very beginning, and we welcome their continued commitment and long-term investment in our business. Their confidence in Safaricom is a testament to the strength of our people, our strategy, and the opportunities ahead. We look forward to deepening our collaboration as we continue to scale innovation, expand regionally, and deliver transformative digital and financial services to our customers.”

Safaricom is widely regarded as one of Africa’s most attractive assets, combining telecommunications, fintech and technology services. It has consistently delivered strong financial results, with industry-leading margins and resilient cash generation. Through its flagship platform of M-Pesa in Kenya, it drives high-growth fintech revenue, while its Ethiopia operations position Safaricom for continued regional growth.

When Nicolas Goldstein talks about remote work, he does so with the blunt optimism and raw resolve that one would come to expect from someone in the ‘people’ business. His newest plan is somewhat radical: to pay hundreds of people a year to work for others and make remote work great again.

Goldstein is the co-founder of Breedj, the Mauritius-based HR tech platform formerly known as Talenteum. Recently, he announced something that sounds like an experiment and a challenge at once: Breedj will fully fund 500 twelve-month remote internships for African graduates, covering stipends, onboarding and HR support while employers simply open a remote seat and mentor the intern.

The idea lands at an awkward moment. Since the pandemic, many large employers have been moving in the opposite direction, pulling staff back to offices and sounding sceptical about remote talent.

Headlines have tracked that U-turn. Big names from retail to tech have tightened remote policies, and some companies have ended fully remote work entirely.

At the same time, employers say they cannot find enough people. Recent talent-shortage surveys show three-quarters of firms struggling to hire the right skills.

“HR leaders are facing a growing shortage of young talent who are truly job-ready,” Goldstein shared with WT. “76% of employers worldwide report struggling to hire due to a lack of qualified talent.”

Breedj’s pitch to companies is that if they are desperate for entry-level talent and African universities keep graduating people at scale, why not meet in the middle, remotely, for a year, in a low-risk trial?

There are encouraging signs as the Breedj, across its previous and present iterations, now boasts a 15,000-strong talent network and 3,500+ positions secured with 120+ business partners, and more than 54 countries covered.

Make remote work great again

Breedj’s model borrows from the playbooks of talent platforms that grew up under the same premise — train, vet and then place. Think Andela, which started by paying and training aspiring developers and then placing them as full hires on global teams, who then pay the employee while Andela earns commission.

That model helped change how some firms view talent in Africa, proving quality could be delivered at a distance. But Breedj is trying to flip the unit economics again, asking employers to supervise rather than pay the initial risk costs while Breedj buys the runway for the intern.

Goldstein frames the move as a response to two stubborn facts. “Western labour markets are producing fewer young professionals while employers face inflationary hiring pressures and changing skills needs,” he explains.

Meanwhile, Africa’s tertiary cohorts are expanding fast, Goldstein says the continent has the world’s youngest population and a growing pipeline of degree holders who nevertheless often struggle to land a first professional job.

“The number of young people in Africa completing secondary or tertiary education is expected to more than double between 2020 and 2040, from 103 million to 240 million,” he notes. 

“Many of these graduates possess strong technical and digital capabilities, yet many struggle to secure their first professional role. In Kenya, for example, it is estimated that a graduate takes an average of five years to secure a job.”

Breedj argues the gap is about access and structure rather than talent. That logic makes sense on paper, but it also exposes hard questions. Who pays for a year of stipends at scale and why?

Breedj is the sponsor, but the programme’s long-term success depends on conversion. Do mentors turn into hirers, and do these remote juniors convert into durable, productive team members? Goldstein says each placement is a “low-risk, high-impact way to assess real talent in real time.”

A challenging prospect

The test for Breedj will be whether employers treat the placements as cheap labour, an experiment to be shelved, or a genuine pipeline that feeds mid-career roles.

There are practical traps, too. Hiring across borders still runs into payroll, tax, and compliance minefields, though Goldstein points out that those obstacles have narrowed thanks to global HR tooling, but they have not disappeared.

Integrating a junior remote worker requires proper onboarding, time invested by mentors, and a team that can absorb a learner without productivity penalties. Breedj says it will shoulder onboarding and HR support; that is the key operational claim to watch.

Goldstein maintains that the human stories matter more than the spreadsheets. “For employers, the promise is access to motivated people who often speak English or French, and who have technical or professional training but no practical experience,” he asserts.

“For graduates, the offer is clarity; a paid way to gain workplace habits, references, and something concrete on a CV.”

The approach echoes other scalable initiatives across Africa, from Andela’s fellowship model, which was ultimately discontinued, to newer training-to-hire schemes such as Gebeya’s partnerships to upskill developers at scale. Those programs show both upside and complexity in that graduates can launch careers, but the systems that support them must be robust.

Timing is relevant, too

Immigration rules and geopolitical shifts are nudging companies to look beyond traditional talent pools. Visa headaches, higher wages, and demographic decline in some Western markets make a borderless approach more than a novelty.

But the optics are sensitive: firms must avoid the perception of exploiting cheaper labour. Goldstein pushes the messaging that “this is strategic hiring, not a CSR move.” The claim is credible if employers treat placements as real investments in talent rather than a temporary arbitrage.

There are early signals that companies will test hybrid solutions. Some will insist on near-shore or hub models. Others will treat remote juniors as apprentices who require structured mentorship. Breedj’s bet is that once a few cohorts succeed, conversion and confidence will spread, and reluctance will fade.

Where Breedj can surprise is in measurement. If the company publishes conversion rates, retention figures and performance metrics, it would invite rigorous judgment instead of goodwill. If the numbers are opaque, scepticism will grow. That scrutiny is healthy as it keeps the experiment honest and helps employers and policymakers decide whether to scale similar efforts.

There is a moral and economic argument for trying

African graduates need pathways into stable careers. Global firms need reliable pipelines in a tighter labour market. If Breedj’s 500 placements deliver real hires and solid work, it will be easier for other firms to accept remote juniors as part of their future workforce. If the experiment falters, it will still expose the operational gaps that must be fixed.

Either way, the story matters because it tests a thesis about the future of work in terms of whether structure and sponsorship can overcome geography and bias. Goldstein is offering one answer, backed by money and a year of runway. Now the real work starts.

Africa’s biggest pay TV provider, Multichoice, is facing major headwinds resulting in severe loss in subscriber count in the period since it was acquired by French media giant Canal+.

Not only is Multichoice facing massive subscriber churn, but it is also facing the potential loss of over 12 international channels that it distributes across Africa, following deadlocks in distribution discussions. Among the channels the business may lose are significant ones such as The Food Network and CNN.

This information came to light during Canal+’s latest strategy and outlook presentation, and the first once since its purchase of Multichoice was confirmed. Per the French owned pay TV conglomerate, the brutal subscriber loss has climbed up to 2.8 million users in South Africa alone by the year ended September 2025, from a peak number of 17.3 million subscribers at the end of March 2023. This represents a 16% decline in numbers.

While this number is reflective of the situation in South Africa only, other countries such as Kenya have also recorded a similar trend. In Kenya alone, numbers dipped by 84% in the year preceding September 2025, as detailed in a Communications Authority report released in September. In Nigeria, Multichoice lost 1.4 million subscribers in the two-year period ended June 2025. Both Nigeria and Kenya are key markets for the African entertainment provider.

The decline is attributed to the entry of global streaming service Netflix in 2016, which is when Multichoice’s DStv started to experience this steep decline. Unlike Multichoice, which requires heavy hardware investment and offers steep package pricing, all one needs to access Netflix is a reliable internet connection and a paid subscription.

Multichoice has tried to counter Netflix’s invasion with its own streaming service, Showmax; however, Showmax has faced its own difficulties in the recent past, with multiple users reporting difficulty in paying for their subscriptions, as well as a recent partnership with Peacock TV which saw disruptions in access to its platforms while the two respective company’s apps were merged.

Multichoice has previously tried to stem this churn by combining its Premium offering with its Compact Plus, creating a new premium subscription tier. It has also changed its reporting period from overall subscriber gain or loss over the course of a financial year, to a ’90-day active subscriber’ period. None of these moves has stalled or reversed the loss. They also failed to address customer dissatisfaction with the overall product; in a world overtaken by on-demand viewing, is there still space for non-news, non-sports appointment entertainment? Multichoice also stands accused of poor overall television offerings.

According to MultiChoice’s pre-takeover report, currency depreciation was one of the culprits, as was economic disruption across the continent, and piracy. Among the company’s measures to overtake its circumstances was an aggressive price hike – even while subscribers walked away.

Recently, Canal+ announced its rescue plan, which included bringing the prices of hardware and subscriptions down, as well enhancing its African offering. However, the question still remains: With Multichoice increasingly seeming like a relic from the past in a world overtaken by the instant demand for entertainment, is there still space for it in African homes, or should they pivot entirely and focus on streaming-only services?

Moniepoint, the Lagos-born fintech that reached unicorn status last year after a major funding round, is making its first foray beyond pure payments, where it’s seen much success, into an arena that seems both tricky and valuable.

The company has rolled out Moniebook, a combined point-of-sale and bookkeeping product aimed at small and medium businesses across Nigeria. The company frames Moniebook as a single place for payments, inventory, staff management and sales reporting, sold as a subscription alongside Moniepoint’s existing terminals.

The new product follows the firm’s wider push into adjacent services, most recently a diaspora remittance product called MonieWorld earlier this year.

Moniepoint closed a headline-making Series C that put it in unicorn territory, and it processes billions of transactions through its network. That reach gives Moniepoint a distribution advantage most pure-play bookkeeping startups lack. Moniepoint says Moniebook was tested in beta by more than 4,000 businesses and that NGN 19 B (~USD 13 M) in transaction value moved through the system during that phase. The product comes in two subscription tiers: Core at NGN 6 K (USD 4.15) per month and Pro at NGN 8.5 K (USD 5.88) per month, with add-ons for extra registers and implementation support.

Babatunde Olofin, managing director of Moniepoint MFB, says the product is “engineered to be a growth partner for businesses” and promises “full visibility over sales, staff, customers, and inventory in real time.” Oluwole Adebiyi, head of product for Moniebook, stresses that the tool was built with “the realities of Nigerian business owners in mind.” Those direct lines from the company reinforce that Moniepoint is selling a practical fix for everyday pain points many merchants still juggle manually.

Still, this is hardly a guaranteed win. While it’s fair to say that everything Moniepoint has touched has turned to gold thus far, this new move comes with peculiar challenges.

Bookkeeping has proven a harder product to monetise than payments. Nigerian startups that leaned heavily on bookkeeping features have run into trouble converting users into paying customers or scaling beyond early adopters. Kippa, once a high-profile bookkeeping app backed by international investors, pivoted away from core bookkeeping ambitions after operational struggles. It signals that building bookkeeping into a durable, revenue-generating business is difficult in Nigeria even with a strong product story.

Moniepoint has advantages that other bookkeeping players that faltered may have lacked, as it already controls the payment rails and has on-the-ground relationships with merchants through its terminal business. Its funding and investor backing give it more runway to subsidise hardware, push sales, and bundle services. The pitch of a single vendor managing both payments and books could be appealing to merchants if the experience is reliable and if the subscription price proves affordable relative to the value delivered.

Moniepoint’s move is sensible in the context of its recent expansion strategy. The company has pushed into remittances and other adjacent services in quick succession, and its investor backing gives it room to iterate. Whether Moniebook becomes a profitable, standalone revenue stream or primarily a merchant-acquisition loss leader will say a lot about where Moniepoint wants to position itself in the next phase of growth.

For now, Moniepoint is wagering that combining its payments footprint with genuinely useful business software will be enough to clear the bar that felled others.

Yuma Sasaki vividly recalls the lay of the land four years earlier when he started building Dodai, an electric motorcycle startup based in Addis Ababa.

“There were few established supply chains, limited charging infrastructure, and almost no policy framework for electric transport,” he shared with WT. Yet, within a few years, that picture has changed dramatically.

“The government has proactively introduced supportive legislation, while domestic firms across industries are now actively exploring ways to integrate electric vehicles into their operations,” he says.

Sasaki’s account feels like a map for the wider story playing out across Ethiopia. For years, the country was broadly off most investors’ radars. A state-led model, tight controls and an unpredictable forex environment left the market looking risky and hard to scale in. Now, a sequence of policy moves and a few visible investments are nudging Ethiopia into view.

“Investors are beginning to recognise this shift,” Sasaki says. “That change reflects growing confidence in both the market and the fundamentals of doing business in Ethiopia.”

***

This year, Ethiopia passed its first Startup Proclamation, a legal framework that recognises startups as a distinct business category and offers incentives such as tax breaks and simplified registration. On paper, the law promises a clearer path for early-stage firms and for the outside capital that backs them. Implementation will be the real test, but the law is a signal that the state wants entrepreneurship to matter.

Perhaps the clearest market signal came when the country opened telecoms to competition. In 2021, a Safaricom-led consortium won a license and rolled out services across multiple cities the following year. That move broke a long-standing state-run monopoly, brought fresh network investment, and raised the prospect of more sophisticated mobile services. For investors, better connectivity and clearer digital rails reduce the friction of doing business.

Ethiopia has also relaxed rules on foreign banks. Lawmakers in late 2024 and into 2025 passed measures to allow reputable foreign banks to set up subsidiaries, branches or take minority stakes in local banks under ownership caps. That matters because better banking options can expand access to foreign exchange, provide startups with more international payment rails, and help institutional investors consider meaningful local exposure.

***

Ethiopia’s scale is the obvious draw. Ethiopia’s population now tops more than 130 million, and a large share of that population is under 30. That creates a wide, young consumer base and a big labour pool for digital services. That scale is the central prize for investors who look beyond short-term noise.

On the ground, momentum still looks small compared with Nairobi or Lagos, but it is building. Dodai is one visible example. The company has raised multi-million dollar rounds and is pushing battery swap stations and local assembly to make electric two-wheelers practical for delivery riders and taxi drivers.

Sasaki frames these as patient, practical moves. “For investors, success in Ethiopia depends on partnership and patience,” he notes. “The most effective strategies involve working closely with local teams, understanding the nuances of regulation, and building relationships with government and financial institutions.”

Other Ethiopian startups have also begun to close meaningful rounds, from climate-focused ventures to payments platforms that are trying to connect local businesses to global e-commerce rails.

***

Real risks remain, however. Currency volatility and foreign exchange shortages complicate exits. Some reforms are recent and fragile. Institutional investors watch governance, transparency and the pipeline of enforceable exits before writing large cheques. International companies that have entered Ethiopia have learned this the hard way; telecom and banking entrants have absorbed startup costs and regulatory surprises that show why careful local knowledge matters.

What helps explain why some investors are moving from cautious to curious are stories they can relate to. A startup that builds battery-swap stations solves a practical problem for thousands of riders. A payments company that links a small export business to global rails shows how scale can happen. Those concrete outcomes make the abstract reforms feel real.

Sasaki puts it plainly. “Because Ethiopia is still an emerging destination for venture capital, entrepreneurs must spend time educating investors,” he says. “They must explain not only their business model, but how the ecosystem operates, why it is changing, and the immense potential it offers.”

Ethiopia’s history of complex politics and protectionism, and a recent period of instability, gave some investors pause. But at the moment, the country resembles a sleeping giant waking up after years of isolation and opacity.

As Yuma notes, the perceived opacity often masks a dynamic and exciting business culture. For now, that culture is what may finally get foreign investors to stay and build.

Featured Image Credits: Nisarg Desai

Morocco’s fintech sector reached a new milestone this week after Cash Plus completed its debut on the Casablanca Stock Exchange, landing a valuation of about USD 550 M and drawing one of the largest investor turnouts the market has seen from a tech-driven issuer.

The listing, which closed on November 25, was shaped as much by the movement of long-term shareholders as by the company’s ambition to accelerate its growth across both digital and physical channels.

The IPO raised USD 82.5 M in total, including USD 44 M in new capital that will go directly into scaling the company. Cash Plus plans to use the funds to expand its nationwide footprint, strengthen its agent network, and push its digital ecosystem further into payments, mobile wallets, and app-based services.

At the center of the IPO was a two-part structure that split the USD 82.5 M raise into new capital for the company and liquidity for an early investor.

Cash Plus received USD 44 M in fresh funds through a capital increase aimed at accelerating the expansion of its nationwide agency network and investing in digital infrastructure. The remaining USD 38.5 M came from the sale of existing shares, all of it from Mediterrania Capital Partners (MCP), which used the offering to partially exit its position.

The private equity firm offloaded 1.8 million shares, with its main vehicle, MC IV Money, accounting for roughly USD 31.9 M of the sale, while MCIV Morocco cashed out USD 6.6 M. The exit reduced MCP’s holding from 23.5% to 14.3%.

The move provided liquidity for MCP after several years in the company, but it also left the fund without a lock-up, a detail analysts say could influence trading patterns in the months ahead, given the stock’s relatively small float.

While MCP exited part of its investment, the company’s founding shareholders took the opposite path. The Amar and Tazi families, each previously holding 38.2%, did not sell any shares. Their post-IPO stakes now sit at 35.1% each, a reduction tied entirely to new shares issued rather than disposal. Both families have committed to a seven-year lock-up, anchoring control and signaling long-term belief in the company’s direction.

The pricing of the IPO reflected a balance between intrinsic value and market precedent. Shares were offered at 200 MAD, roughly USD 22. A dividend discount model used in the prospectus valued Cash Plus at USD 628 M, or USD 27.83 per share, while a transactional reference based on MCP’s 2024 entry, at a P/E of 16.3x, implied a valuation near USD 490 M, or USD 21.78 per share. The final price landed between these two markers, giving investors a discount to the DDM value but aligning closely with recent private-market activity.

Behind the numbers is a business that has grown into one of Morocco’s most widely used financial-services platforms. Cash Plus operates close to 5,000 branches across the country, with roughly one quarter located in rural regions. About 87% of its network is franchised, a model that has helped the company reach communities underserved by the banking sector. On the digital side, its mobile app counts about 1.3 million users, and across both its physical and digital channels, the company says it serves around 12 million customers annually.

That combined “phygital” presence has reshaped Cash Plus’s revenue mix. Transfers, which once made up 73% of its income, have fallen to about 52% as the company expands into payment accounts, digital wallets, bill payments, and other cashless services. The USD 44 M raised through the capital increase is expected to push this transition further by strengthening both the technology platform and the branch network.

Financial performance underpins the company’s public-market pitch. Cash Plus enters the market as one of the few profitable, scaled fintechs in Africa. The company reported USD 21.56 M in net profit for 2024 and projects USD 26.07 M in 2025. It forecasts more than USD 29.7 M in 2026 and aims for USD 43.67 M by 2030. Between 2026 and 2030, the company plans to distribute 85% of net profits as dividends, presenting itself as a yield-focused asset rather than a high-burn tech play.

However, the prospectus outlines several risks. Competition remains intense, with established players like Wafacash and Chaabi Cash backed by major banking groups. Heavy reliance on franchisees introduces quality-control challenges across a network of nearly 5,000 branches. Meanwhile, the company’s shift deeper into digital finance raises cybersecurity and technology-spend pressures, leaving limited room for missteps as it seeks to maintain profitability and meet dividend commitments.

Even with those uncertainties, Cash Plus’s listing marks a turning point for Morocco’s capital markets. Mediterrania Capital Partners may have unlocked part of its investment, but the company’s founding families have doubled down. The next phase will test whether Cash Plus can turn its USD 550 M debut into sustained momentum as it evolves from a transfer operator into a full financial-services platform.

Vodacom Tanzania has launched the next major phase of its mobile money ecosystem: M-Pesa Global. This advanced service enables users to perform cross-border money transfers to recipients in over 200 countries worldwide, immediately turning M-Pesa into a truly international remittance platform.

The launch introduces the M-Pesa Global Visa card, a virtual, pre-paid debit card developed in partnership with Visa. Following its 2022 debut in Kenya, the card now allows Tanzanians to make online payments for goods and services globally. Users simply ensure their M-Pesa account is funded and use the card details to complete transactions on any international merchant’s payment interface.

Users in Kenya are also taking advantage of M-pesa’s partnership with PayPal, which allows Kenyans to receive money from international sources without the hassle of waiting days for payments to clear.

Tanzanians will also benefit from the relaunch of M-pesa ‘Tap&Go’, a near-field communication system that allows users to tap their virtual card at points of sale, just as they would with a physical card or with services such as Apple Pay; the service, which was launched in Kenya under the name 1Tap, was discontinued there due to a lack of uptake from the market, as well as a court case over IP theft (the Kenyan High Court eventually ruled in Safaricom’s favour).

In Tanzania, M-pesa users can also take advantage of Vodacom’s partnership with Thunes (a global payments infrastructure company), to in turn use Thunes’ partnership with China’s Alipay to make payments to merchants in China, and with TerraPay, which will facilitate payments to Dubai. All of these are set to boost import and small-scale trade businesses that source from Asia and The Middle East.

 “Together with Vodacom, we are making it possible for Tanzanian businesses to pay Chinese merchants instantly through the Alipay network. This new level of interoperability and innovation strengthens trust in mobile financial ecosystems and opens new avenues for international trade,” Andrew Stewart, Chief Revenue Officer at Thunes, said.

Other entities Vodacom Tanzania has partnered with for this project include MTN Uganda, which will allow transactions on its MoMo Mobile Money platform; Network International, which will facilitate payments to the larger Middle East, and Magnati, a fintech that focuses on SME payments.

Morocco has rolled out a new financing mechanism aimed at giving its startup ecosystem a stronger lift, marking one of the flagship moves under the Digital Morocco 2030 strategy.

The initiative was formalized on November 21, 2025, in Rabat, where Minister Delegate for Digital Transition and Administrative Reform Amal El Fallah Seghrouchni presided over the signing of a broad partnership agreement.

The agreement brings together the Ministry of Digital Transition and Administrative Reform, the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Mohammed VI Fund for Investment, CDG Group, and Tamwilcom, marking a coordinated effort to accelerate the country’s innovation landscape.

The mechanism is built to fill a persistent funding gap in Morocco’s early-stage market. Although interest in the sector has grown, financing remains limited, especially for seed and growth phases.

To address this, the program targets investment funds that support startups from seed stage through expansion, providing two forms of risk-mitigating support: a first-loss coverage tranche and direct commitments by Tamwilcom.

The government has committed the equivalent of USD 39 M (AED 400 M) to a catalytic fund designed to reduce risk for venture investors.

The program offers either first-loss coverage or direct commitments through Tamwilcom, both modeled on international venture capital standards to encourage funds to step into the market earlier and with greater capacity.

The new mechanism forms a central component of the Digital Morocco 2030 strategy, which aims to reinforce the pipeline of emerging companies and expand access to financing.

The ambition is to expand the number of startups in the country to about 3,000, mobilize up to USD 753 M in new capital (AED 7 B), and produce one or two unicorns by the end of the decade.

These ambitions come at a moment when the sector is showing signs of momentum. Moroccan startups raised USD 26 M in 2022, climbed to USD 93 M in 2023, and recorded USD 82 M in 2024, according to industry data.

These fluctuations highlight rising investor interest while simultaneously underscoring the urgent need for more reliable, structured financing.

With the Moroccan market still short on early-stage capital, officials say the catalytic layer is designed to draw investors into the ecosystem sooner and at higher ticket sizes.

Minister El Fallah Seghrouchni emphasized that the mechanism reflects directives from King Mohammed VI, who has called for stronger digital sovereignty and a more coherent national innovation system. She noted that while the country is seeing more entrepreneurial activity, too many high-potential companies struggle to reach scale because investors remain cautious about early-stage risk. By absorbing part of that exposure, the new fund is intended to ease those concerns and support startups through the stages where capital is most difficult to secure.

Officials from the Mohammed VI Fund for Investment, CDG, and Tamwilcom echoed this position, noting that the new structure introduces practical risk-sharing mechanisms that can make the Moroccan market more appealing to private capital. They pointed out that while entrepreneurial momentum is growing, the lack of financial depth continues to prevent many promising companies from advancing beyond early stages. The mechanism, they said, is intended to close that gap.

With the agreement now in force, Morocco is signaling a push toward faster, more coordinated ecosystem development. The alignment between public policy, institutional investment, and private sector participation reflects a shift toward a more active model of economic planning. If the mechanism succeeds in attracting the capital it seeks, the country will be positioned to strengthen its status as a regional hub for technology and innovation.

When a Lagos business owner emails a supplier in Accra and hits send, she expects the usual headaches of chasing dollars, waiting days for a correspondent bank to clear the transfer, and worrying the final amount will be eaten by exchange costs.

That friction is exactly what the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) was built to zap. It promises a world where that same payment moves in local currency, settles fast, and leaves both sides with less FX risk. The idea is simple. The reality, three years since PAPSS went live, is less so.

PAPSS was unveiled as the plumbing for the African Continental Free Trade Area. It lets banks and payment providers route cross-border transfers without detouring through the dollar and correspondent banking rails. Instead of a naira payment being converted to dollars and back to cedi, PAPSS nets transactions and settles across central banks, keeping the money in local currencies and shortening settlement windows.

In theory, that reduces cost, speeds up cash flow, and keeps value inside the continent, especially critical when intra-African trade still accounts for only about 15 percent of total African trade.

But theory has outrun practice. The system is live, and banks and regulators in pockets of the continent are using it. Yet adoption remains patchy. “PAPSS removes the need to route cross-border payments through USD,” Akinlabi Adegoke, Chief Digital Officer at Lotus Bank, told WT.

He said the main benefits for SMEs that have used PAPSS through his bank are lower costs, faster settlement, and less pressure to source foreign exchange. But he was blunt about limits: not all banks are fully integrated, some central banks are still ironing out settlement rules, liquidity arrangements are still maturing, and many businesses simply do not know the system exists.

That mix of technical, regulatory, and awareness problems explains the lukewarm rollout. A recent independent review of instant payment systems across Africa noted that regional systems such as PAPSS are growing but still lag national instant payment rails in reach and everyday use

Central banks are cautious for good reason. Cross-border settlement touches monetary policy, reserves, and liquidity. Regulators will not hand over fast-track settlement until they can predict how PAPSS will behave under stress.

There are early signs of traction

Afreximbank, which helps operate PAPSS, and other partners report a steady onboarding of commercial banks. Earlier this year, it was reported that PAPSS’s plan to expand into a currency marketplace to deepen liquidity and quoted officials saying the system is already linked to more than 150 commercial banks. That kind of connectivity could matter because a payments rail is only as useful as the parties on it.

Still, most of the continent’s payment volume runs over other rails. Mobile money networks and national instant payment systems continue to process the lion’s share of daily transactions. Big private operators such as MFS Africa have built broad networks connecting wallets and banks across many countries, and mobile money corridors between places like Kenya and Tanzania or Nigeria and Ghana are already business as usual for many traders. PAPSS is carving space into a crowded ecosystem.

What does PAPSS feel like for a user today? “A typical user doesn’t log into a ‘PAPSS app’, Adegoke explained. Most customers interact through their bank or payment provider. They initiate a routine transfer; the bank routes the payment through PAPSS, and the recipient receives local currency.

For SMEs that regularly buy regionally, the switch can be meaningful. “It helps with cash-flow planning,” he said, “and it makes pricing more predictable because the transaction stays in local currencies.”

Numbers tell a story

Some banks that pushed early have reported measurable volumes. In August, Fidelity Bank said it had processed over NGN 46 B through PAPSS since it adopted the system, and it highlighted settlement times that can be completed in under two minutes. Those pockets of scale show the model works when the plumbing and commercial incentives align. But such examples are still isolated exceptions, not yet the rule.

“PAPSS volumes are still modest compared to large players like MFS Africa or NIBSS because the network is still expanding. It is processing steady activity, but not yet at scale,” Adegoke told WT.

“The real comparison will look different once all major banks and mobile money operators across West, East, and Southern Africa are fully plugged in. We are not there yet.”

A fair reading is that PAPSS is promising and unfinished, with the biggest near-term constraint being network effect, according to Adegoke, adding that banks and mobile money operators must finish integration and agree on common liquidity arrangements.

It is also true that businesses need awareness and simple onboarding, and regulators must be confident that the system can absorb shocks.

The Lotus Bank exec is optimistic that resilience will grow with scale. He is aware, though, that cross-border rails are political as much as technical. “Possible risks include slowdowns if a country faces liquidity stress, or temporary limits if a regulator adjusts local rules,” he said.

Look ahead five years and the contours are clear. If PAPSS reaches a critical mass, ordinary traders could pay a supplier in another country without ever touching dollars. That would cut delays and hedge businesses against sudden FX squeezes for day-to-day commerce. Moreover, a functioning local-currency rail could help reduce dependence on foreign currency reserves for routine trade.

But PAPSS remains at best an emerging backbone for now. The question for traders, banks, and policymakers is how fast they want that backbone to become the continent’s default way of moving money.