When a Nigerian senator called this week for the revocation of MTN and DStv licences over renewed attacks on Nigerians in South Africa, it was not the first time economic retaliation had been proposed. Since the end of apartheid, the rivalry between Africa’s two largest economies has been punctuated by waves of xenophobic violence in South Africa followed by reprisals on South African businesses in Nigeria.

The latest outbreak erupted between April 27 and 29 in Pretoria, Johannesburg and other cities, leaving two Nigerians, identified as Amaramiro Emmanuel and Ekpenyong Andre, confirmed dead, according to the Nigerian Consulate in Johannesburg.

More than 118 Nigerians have been killed in xenophobic incidents between 2015 and 2026, according to Nigerian officials. In response, the Nigerian government has summoned South Africa’s acting high commissioner and begun arranging voluntary repatriation, with 130 Nigerians already registered for evacuation flights.

Major attacks in 2008, 2011, 2015, 2017 and 2019 have left many Nigerians displaced, traumatised and forced to abandon their livelihoods. In 2008, at least 62 people were killed in South Africa in xenophobic violence that also targeted Zimbabweans, Mozambicans and Malawians. In 2015, the attacks came to a head, leading several countries to repatriate their nationals. In 2019, mobs looted shops and torched trucks in Johannesburg, killing at least 12 people.

Each wave has triggered a familiar diplomatic and economic backlash. After the 2019 attacks, Nigeria recalled its high commissioner and boycotted the World Economic Forum on Africa.

In Lagos and Abuja, mobs vandalised Shoprite outlets and MTN offices, forcing the telecoms giant to close all its stores in Nigeria. Nigeria’s information minister warned at the time that targeting South African companies was “akin to cutting off one‘s nose to spite the face” because the investors and employees in those firms were Nigerians.

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The 2026 episode has raised the stakes. Senator Adams Oshiomhole proposed revoking the licences of MTN and MultiChoice, arguing that Nigeria should hit South Africa‘s economy where it hurts.

Oshiomhole, senator representing Edo North, made the proposal during a heated Senate plenary on Tuesday, invoking the principle of reciprocity in international relations. “I don’t want this Senate to be shedding tears to sympathise with those who have died. We didn‘t come here to share tears,” he said. “If you hit me, I’ll hit you. It’s an economic struggle.”

The senator proposed that MTN be nationalised and its licence withdrawn, arguing that the company repatriates substantial revenue while Nigerian citizens face hostility abroad. “This Senate should adopt a position that MTN, a South African company that is cutting away millions of dollars from Nigeria every day, should be nationalised,” Oshiomhole said.

Oshiomhole extended the call to MultiChoice Nigeria, urging the Federal Government to revoke DStv‘s licence. “By the time we withdraw MTN’s licence, revoke DStv licence, those workers from South Africa will have good jobs to do here,” he said. “When we balance this madness, there will be sanity.”

The senator linked the resurgence of violence to South Africa’s domestic political dynamics, noting that anti-immigrant rhetoric had increasingly shaped public attitudes toward foreigners, including Nigerians.

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The Senate rejected the call, opting for diplomacy led by Senate President Godswill Akpabio. “We must not allow emotion to override diplomacy. Nigeria will act firmly, but responsibly. We cannot solve this crisis by escalating it into economic warfare,” Akpabio said, announcing that he would lead a fact-finding delegation to South Africa.

But the House of Representatives has urged the government to suspend business permits for South African firms, and a joint ad hoc committee will engage South African lawmakers.

Meanwhile, there are unconfirmed reports that Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu has issued a 48-hour ultimatum for South African citizens to leave, while Botswana has threatened to restrict electricity supply across its border. Ghana has also summoned South Africa‘s acting high commissioner.

For South African companies with deep roots in Nigeria—MTN Nigeria generated service revenue of NGN 5.2 T (USD 3.82 B) in 2025, while MultiChoice remains dominant in Nigeria’s pay-TV market—the prospect of coordinated African retaliation represents a serious commercial threat.

Yet each crisis has also produced diplomatic mechanisms meant to prevent a repeat. After 2019, both countries established an early warning system and joint consular forums to protect citizens. The late President Muhammadu Buhari visited South Africa for a three-day state visit in October 2019 to discuss diplomatic and trade relations following xenophobic violence. Later, President Cyril Ramaphosa visited Nigeria in December 2021 for the 10th Session of the Nigeria-South Africa Bi-National Commission.

The latest violence suggests those mechanisms have failed to break a cycle that has now spanned nearly two decades.

Feature Image Credit: Thuthuka Zondi/BBC

Uganda’s parliament passed legislation on Tuesday targeting foreign influence but significantly softened provisions that would have required any Ugandan receiving money from abroad to register as a foreign agent, after the central bank governor warned the original measure risked an “economic disaster” by choking off remittances.

Remittances from Ugandans living abroad are a vital source of foreign exchange for the East African nation, with inflows reaching roughly USD 2.5 B in 2025, equivalent to about 3.8% of GDP. The earlier version of the Protection of Sovereignty Bill would have required anyone receiving money from overseas to register and disclose all incoming funds, a provision that could have discouraged the steady flow of diaspora cash that helps stabilise Uganda’s balance of payments.

Central Bank Governor Michael Atingi-Ego warned lawmakers last week that the original proposal would diminish financial inflows and risk depleting foreign exchange reserves. “A country without reserves is not sovereign,” he said. “The moment you tamper with these inflows here, we risk running down our reserves, and that is economic disaster for our country.”

The final legislation, which now awaits President Yoweri Museveni’s signature, amended the provision to apply only to people receiving funds for political purposes that advance foreign interests. The change came after intense pushback from economic actors, including the World Bank, which warned the original bill could expose routine development activities to criminal liability.

The law still imposes penalties of up to 10 years in prison for violations. It bans anyone working on behalf of foreign interests from developing or implementing policy without government approval, and criminalises promoting the “interests of a foreigner against the interests of Uganda”.

Rights groups say such broad language would allow the government to criminalise political opposition. The government has accused critics of exaggerating the bill’s impact.

Museveni, in power since 1986, and his allies regularly decry outside influence, accusing domestic rivals of receiving foreign funding to push agendas such as LGBTQ rights. Several opposition parties have traditionally received some of their funding from abroad.

The World Bank halted new lending to Uganda in 2023 after the government enacted a harsh anti-homosexuality law but resumed funding two years later after authorities agreed to some compromises.

At least half a dozen African countries have proposed or implemented restrictions on social media access for minors in the past year, signalling a continent-wide shift toward tighter regulation of digital platforms as governments grapple with rising online risks to children.

Rwanda proposed legislation last week prohibiting children under 16 from using platforms including Facebook, TikTok and YouTube. An estimated 46% of schoolchildren in Rwanda access online platforms via mobile phones

Gabon imposed a sweeping ban on social media use for under-16s earlier this year, requiring platforms to enforce a digital age of majority at 16. Zimbabwe is moving to restrict minors’ access, citing concerns over cyberbullying, online exploitation and addiction. Information and Communication Technology Minister Tatenda Mavetera said the government wants to ban social media for children who have not reached the “maturity age of 18.”

Egypt is also pushing for a similar move. Meanwhile, Nigeria launched a nationwide public consultation in March to gather views on potential age restrictions, with officials considering stronger age-verification systems and enhanced platform accountability. South Africa is exploring age-verification requirements, though Communications Minister Solly Malatsi has cautioned that blanket bans could become “cosmetic interventions” if the state lacks enforcement capacity.

“I don’t think we’ll ever get globally to a perfect solution, but there have to be enough guardrails in place,” Malatsi said in February.

Kenya’s parliament rejected an outright TikTok ban in February, instead backing tougher regulation, including age-verification mechanisms and improved content moderation. The government cited employment opportunities for young creators as a reason to preserve access. Tanzania has called for nationwide digital literacy efforts and is finalising a national action plan to monitor children’s online activity through SIM card safeguards.

The wave of proposed restrictions across Africa follows landmark legislation in other regions. Australia’s ban on under-16s took effect in December 2025, with more than 4.7 million accounts deactivated. France approved a ban for children under 15 in January 2026. Spain, Malaysia and Indonesia have adopted similar measures.

The African Union is developing a model law on child and youth online safety to be finalised by the end of this year, aiming to create a coordinated continental framework addressing cyberbullying, grooming and trafficking.

In Uganda, State Minister for Youth and Children Affairs Balaam Barugahara said the government plans to restrict children from accessing TikTok, calling it an “adult-only platform.”

Experts have questioned whether outright bans are feasible. “Children will still use their parents’ phones,” said Damon Wamara, executive director of the Uganda Child Rights NGO Network. “We need to focus more on digital literacy and parental guidance.”

The growing regulatory scrutiny reflects a fundamental tension as African governments move to protect children from online harm while navigating the economic opportunities digital platforms provide for youth creators and the practical challenges of enforcement.

Gabon’s ordinance, published in April, requires social media users to provide their name, address and personal identification number for age verification, going beyond the requirements of many Western countries.

Feature Image Credit: Lakshmiprasad S/Getty Images

Aunty Bisi in Lagos usually gets money from her son in Houston every two weeks. That cash pays for school fees, market supplies, and the occasional emergency. When her son sent USD 200.00 a few days ago, she expected the usual text alert. Instead, nothing came for six hours. When it finally arrived, the amount seemed short by a few thousand naira.

This is the new reality under the Central Bank of Nigeria’s latest directive, which took effect on May 1. Every International Money Transfer Operator, or IMTO, must now settle payments through local bank accounts. Recipients can no longer receive dollars directly. The policy aims to fix Nigeria’s chronic FX shortage and neuter the parallel market.

But the people actually moving the money say the government overlooked a basic problem. Nigeria’s banks still process transactions in batches, not one by one in real time.

Pelumi Esho runs 91 Payments, a licensed IMTO that moves money between Nigeria, the US, and Canada. She says the new system shifts currency risk onto companies like hers.

“IMTOs face a funding gap between the moment of conversion and the final payout,” she tells WT. That gap exists because banks take hours to match incoming dollars with outgoing naira. Larger operators can survive the delay. Smaller ones may not.

The biggest bottleneck, according to Esho, is a clash of speeds. “IMTOs relied on agile Payment Service Providers to provide short-term liquidity that bridged funding gaps. Traditional banks are not fundamentally built for immediate real-time settlement.” During peak periods like Christmas, when millions of Nigerians abroad send money home, this mismatch could freeze up the entire pipeline.

For the average person sending USD 100.00 from Toronto or London, the immediate effect might be frustration. “Senders might see slower turnaround times, delayed payouts, or partial settlements,” Esho admits.

She calls this a transitional teething phase. But she adds that banks urgently need to upgrade their API layers, the digital connectors that let different systems talk to each other.

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The policy does include one smart feature. IMTOs must now reference live rates from Bloomberg’s BMatch platform. That centralised system makes it harder for anyone to hide bad exchange rates. “Margins will likely tighten,” Esho says, meaning senders could eventually get better value.

But there is a clear risk. If the formal system becomes too slow or unreliable, Esho fears people will go back to informal channels, the underground networks that have moved money across West Africa for decades.

“Diaspora senders are highly price sensitive,” she says. “If a significant disparity opens up between official rates and parallel markets, senders will inevitably pivot towards informal or peer-to-peer networks.” That would defeat the entire purpose of the reform.

As of May 4, the naira traded at NGN 1,376 per dollar on the official market. The gap with the parallel market has narrowed but not disappeared. Millions of Nigerians depend on money sent from abroad, with the World Bank putting the figure at just over USD 21 B as of 2024.

Esho believes the long-term outcome depends on one thing. Will the banking system upgrade fast enough to keep people from walking away? “If the formal system fails to deliver fair value, or introduces severe settlement delays, the policy risks making informal channels more attractive purely by comparison.”

For Aunty Bisi and millions like her, convenience and speed will always beat policy intent.

By: Mayowa Olugbile, CEO, Itana

When Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu visited the United Kingdom in March, the growing diplomatic and commercial relationship between the two countries was on full display. Alongside the pageantry came a wave of major investment announcements: a GBP 746 M deal to modernise Lagos’s two largest ports, new agreements across the creative industries and education, and a steady drumbeat of deals from the private sector.

But perhaps some of the most interesting moves came in the world of tech. During the state visit, Nigerian fintech LemFi confirmed plans to invest GBP 100 M in the UK over the next five years, cementing London as its global headquarters. Nigerian unicorn Moniepoint is scaling its London team to 100, while Kuda Bank is preparing to double its UK footprint. At the same time, UK fintech Wise is moving closer to securing its first Nigerian license, opening the door to one of the world’s largest remittance corridors.

Taken together, these developments point to something deeper than a typical bilateral relationship. They reflect the growing reality of two digital ecosystems that are increasingly intertwined and fuelling mutual growth.

Deep Ties

The depth of this relationship is based as much on people as on technology. After all, the UK is home to roughly 300,000 Nigerian-born residents, with an estimated 500,000 people of Nigerian heritage overall, making it home to second-largest Nigerian diaspora globally after the United States. 

That diaspora is not just a cultural link but a financial one. In 2024, remittance flows into Nigeria accounted for more than 3% of GDP. A significant share of that flow runs through UK-based platforms, helping to explain why both British and Nigerian fintech companies are investing heavily in building a stronger presence on both sides of the corridor.

It is in this context that the UK–Nigeria tech relationship is continuing to evolve and deepen. Trade between the two countries has reached an all-time high of GBP 8.1 B annually, with growth increasingly driven by digital and tech services. The result is an evermore connected digital economy spanning London and Lagos.

The underlying dynamics are clear. London remains Europe’s largest tech hub and a global centre for finance. Meanwhile, Lagos has become one of the fastest-growing tech ecosystems anywhere in the world, particularly in fintech and digital services. Companies on both sides are increasingly recognising that the capital, talent, and ideas both sides offer can be a powerful mix.

With that said, for all this momentum, many founders on the UK side are quickly presented with a problem to resolve: how do they actually enter and operate in Nigeria in a way that is scalable?

Market Entry

For founders, the theoretical appeal of Nigeria is obvious. It is a large, young, mobile-first market with high levels of digital adoption and significant unmet demand across sectors. But market entry can still be a difficult, complex, and fragmented process. Companies have traditionally been required to establish local entities, navigate complex regulation, and build operations from scratch. Doing this in an unfamiliar market inevitably ends up being a costly, time-consuming process.

However, digital infrastructure is now being built as an answer to these problems, not least Digital Special Economic Zones. The concept is similar to traditional free zones built for manufacturing or physical exports, but are designed for digital-first businesses that operate across borders. Their purpose is to reduce friction: simplifying incorporation and creating more accommodative conditions for companies looking to thrive in global markets.

Itana, Africa’s first Digital Special Economic Zone, is part of this shift. The model is straightforward: to allow startups from the UK and around the world to incorporate in Nigeria entirely remotely and seamlessly access opportunities in the country.

The focus is on creating a fully digital, business-friendly regulatory environment that simplifies cross-border operations and enables companies to access global markets more easily. By streamlining compliance and reducing administrative burden, Itana allows startups to focus on building and scaling rather than getting bogged down in bureaucracy.

Just as importantly, Itana also brings companies into a dedicated ecosystem of high-growth, tech-centric firms. In turn, this creates the kind of network effects that fuel expansion and growth.

Seizing the Opportunity

The impact is tangible. Lower barriers to entry shorten timelines, reduce upfront costs, and allow companies to seize the opportunities associated with the Nigerian market without needing a physical presence in the country.

It also enables companies to think beyond Nigeria alone. Digitally incorporating in Nigeria is increasingly seen as a gateway into a wider African digital economy, which includes some of the fastest-growing markets anywhere in the world.

The recent state visit made clear that there is political will on both sides to deepen the relationship. But if the UK and Nigeria are to fully seize the opportunities presented by the growing digital economy, that intent will need to be backed up by infrastructure that makes cross-border business easier in practice.

The journey of OPay from a ride-hailing service to a USD 4 B US IPO prospect tracks the explosive growth of digital payments in Africa’s most populous nation, a rise that has drawn Wall Street’s top banks to Lagos.

The SoftBank Group-backed fintech has appointed Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan Chase to lead a US initial public offering seeking a valuation of about USD 4 B, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. The share sale could happen later this year.

The reported target marks a rapid ascent from the company’s USD 2 B valuation in 2021, when it raised USD 400 M in a Series C round led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2. Since then, OPay’s valuation has climbed steadily, reaching an implied USD 2.7 B in early 2024 based on Opera’s stake and USD 3.1 B by the end of 2025, according to recent Opera securities filings.

The valuation surge reflects aggressive user and revenue growth. OPay quadrupled its user base in 2023 and grew revenue by more than 60% on a constant currency basis during that period as Nigerians turned to digital payment apps during a cash shortage triggered by the central bank’s banknote redesign.

Today, OPay counts more than 50 million users in Nigeria alone, and handled roughly USD 12 B in monthly transaction volume by mid-2025.

The company’s path to a public listing has been deliberate. In December 2025, OPay appointed a new global management team, including former Opera CEO Lars Boilesen as co-CEO and James Perry, a former Citigroup managing director with over 25 years of investment banking experience, as chief financial officer.

Opera, the Norwegian browser group that incubated OPay in 2018, had already signalled strong confidence in an IPO outcome. An April securities filing showed Opera assigned an 85% probability to an OPay listing within two years, valuing its 9.5% stake at USD 294.6 M at the end of 2025.

The fintech operates in a competitive but concentrated market. OPay and rivals such as Moniepoint and PalmPay serve more than 90 million users between them, and control the majority of Nigeria’s mobile money segment. A recent Central Bank of Nigeria directive restricting point-of-sale agents to work with only one financial institution could further consolidate OPay’s position.

A successful listing would mark the largest technology IPO to emerge from Nigeria and could serve as a bellwether for African fintech, where funding has slowed in recent years. OPay would join Airtel Africa, which is also planning to list its mobile money unit at a USD 4 B valuation.

OPay has not publicly confirmed the IPO plans. 

Africa’s digital economy is entering a new phase of regulatory enforcement as 45 countries adopt data protection laws and 16 roll out national artificial intelligence strategies, according to a 2026 report by stablecoin infrastructure provider Yellow Card.

The report found that 39 data protection authorities are now fully operational across the continent, marking a significant shift from policy adoption to active enforcement.

Uganda secured its first criminal data conviction in July 2025, imprisoning a director of a digital lender for using personal data without consent, the report. Nigeria’s Data Protection Commission fined MultiChoice USD 500 K for “patently intrusive” privacy violations and dragged Meta into a settlement over data breaches, though new details of the agreement have caused some dissatisfaction.

In Kenya, banking, energy, and telecom firms have all been fined by the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner. Tanzania’s High Court imposed a fine on a company that used a newborn’s photo on Instagram without the mother’s consent.

Meanwhile, AI governance is emerging as the next regulatory frontier. Sixteen African countries have adopted national AI strategies, with Nigeria, Angola, Morocco and Namibia advancing toward binding legislation. Angola’s draft AI law proposes fines of up to USD 1.6 M and prison sentences of up to 12 years for intentional misuse.

“The ability to innovate and modernise payment rails is deeply tied to navigating complex cross-border regulatory landscapes,” Thelma Okorie, Yellow Card’s group data protection and privacy counsel and author of the report, said in a statement.

For financial institutions using stablecoins for treasury management and cross-border payments, times are changing. Regulators are increasingly requiring Data Protection Impact Assessments and Algorithmic Impact Assessments before deployment, raising compliance costs for non-adherent firms.

“Stablecoins are powerful tools for business efficiency and mitigating FX volatility risk,” Okorie added. “But the infrastructure powering them must operate in lockstep with the strictest data protection and AI governance frameworks.”

When Kenyan data workers told Swedish newspapers in February that their job involved watching Meta smart glasses users use the toilet and have sex, it appears they not only exposed a privacy nightmare but may have also signed their own termination notices.

Less than two months after the revelations, Meta ended its multimillion-dollar contract with Sama, a San Francisco-based outsourcing firm operating in Nairobi’s digital hub. Sama notified 1,108 employees on April 16 that they would be laid off, with just six days’ notice. 

The workers had been labelling sensitive footage captured by Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses to train the company’s artificial intelligence.  They reported seeing everything from undressing women to bank card details and sexual acts. 

The timing ignited a fierce dispute. Meta told the BBC it ended the partnership because “they don’t meet our standards”.  Sama, which has defended the quality of its work, said it was never notified of any failure.  A Kenyan workers’ organisation alleged the real reason was the workers speaking out, an accusation Meta has not directly addressed. 

The workers’ accounts have already triggered a UK data watchdog inquiry, a Kenyan privacy investigation, and a class-action lawsuit in the US over Meta’s “designed for privacy” marketing claims.

But for the thousands of young Kenyans who power the global AI economy with low-cost labour, the layoffs feel like insult on injury. The Oversight Lab, an African technology policy group, called the move devastating, warning that “our current strategies are harming our youth, hurting our economy and in no way advance Kenya’s participation in the AI ecosystem.” 

The mass dismissal is the latest chapter in years of legal battles between Meta and its Kenyan contractors. Nearly 200 former content moderators are already suing Meta and Sama, alleging forced labour, human trafficking, and severe PTSD from reviewing graphic online content.  In a landmark ruling, Kenya’s Court of Appeal has already said Meta can be sued in the country, rejecting the tech giant’s bid to shield itself behind outsourcing contracts. 

“Power sits with large technology companies,” Kauna Malgwi, a former Sama worker, told The Guardian. “Risk flows downward, affecting outsourced workers, often in the global south, who have the least protection and highest exposure.”  As Mark Zuckerberg continues to wear his Ray-Ban smart glasses in public, the workers who trained the AI behind them are left jobless, asking whether speaking up is a right or a liability.

Feature Image Credits: NYT

The cost of extreme heat in Africa is rising rapidly, with lost crops, broken hospital equipment, and wages evaporating under a merciless sun. But money to fix it is not flowing nearly fast enough.

Africa needs an estimated USD 70 B annually by 2030 to adapt to a hotter climate. The actual finance it received in 2023 stood at just USD 14.8 B, and that gap is widening.

Now a new coalition of donors is betting on a different approach: funding small Nigerian startups to tackle heat right where it hurts most.

Ten ventures will each receive USD 56 K in funding and hands-on support from BFA Global, FSD Africa, ClimateWorks Foundation and the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office under the TECA Heat Action Wave programme.

More than 60% of Nigeria’s population is regularly exposed to dangerous heatwaves, with cities like Lagos, Kano and Abuja now experiencing heat indices above 50°C during peak months. A 2025 report from the Nigerian Meteorological Agency warned that nine out of the ten years from 2016 to 2025 ranked among the 12 warmest on record.

Extreme heat “is rapidly becoming one of the biggest operational risks facing African economies,” said Tyler Ferdinand, TECA Director at BFA Global. “Our goal is not only to support these ventures but to prove that climate adaptation can become a powerful new investment frontier.”

The ventures span sectors that affect almost every Nigerian. Ofemini Global provides a heat-resilient logistics platform to help farmers transport perishable goods with heat monitoring to reduce spoilage.

Let-It-Cold offers a solar-powered portable cooling solution for small businesses and households. TheHyWing combines heat alerts and AI diagnostics to help outdoor workers avoid heat-related health risks. Others focus on hyperlocal early warnings, livestock health, soil diagnostics and even sanitation.

Six of the ten selected ventures have a female co-founder. The companies are based in Lagos, Kaduna and Edo States.

“This is the early stage of a market,” Ferdinand said. “If we can get this right in Nigeria, it becomes a model for the rest of West Africa.”

The programme runs through 2026, culminating in demo days and investor engagement opportunities for top-performing ventures. But the bigger test goes beyond Nigeria. Across the continent, adaptation finance remains a fraction of what is needed. Africa received just USD 30 B of the USD 300 B required annually for overall climate finance. Private capital remains largely absent, contributing only a small single-digit share of adaptation financing.

“If climate adaptation finance is going to scale in Africa, it has to be grounded in real, investable solutions,” said Juliet Munro, Director of Early Stage Finance at FSD Africa.

If these Nigerian startups can demonstrate real returns in one of the world’s most heat-stressed economies, they could help write a new playbook for climate adaptation.

The battle to connect the unconnected in Africa has just turned into a billionaire’s boxing match. Amazon, owned by Jeff Bezos, has formally applied for a license to roll out its satellite internet service in Kenya, firing the opening salvo in a direct challenge to Elon Musk’s Starlink. The move sets the stage for a high-stakes duel between the world’s two richest men over the future of internet access on the continent.

The application, filed through the Nairobi-based subsidiary Amazon Kuiper Kenya Limited, seeks a Tier 2 license from the Communications Authority of Kenya. This specific category allows operators to build and run communications infrastructure across the country. With the regulator now inviting public feedback, Kenya is positioned as a critical frontier in Amazon’s plan to deploy more than 3,200 low-earth orbit satellites by 2028.

As Kenya pushes to expand universal connectivity, the timing could not be more critical. Fixed broadband coverage remains uneven, with fibre rollout proving expensive and often commercially unattractive in sparsely populated counties.

Mobile broadband, while widespread, struggles with persistent coverage gaps in arid and semi-arid regions. This connectivity gap has already fuelled growth for Starlink, which entered Kenya in July 2023 and has grown to about 22,282 subscribers, representing 0.9% of the country’s fixed internet connections.

But Amazon is not entering empty-handed. The company is dangling speeds that eclipse its rival. For a standard terminal, Amazon is promising up to 400 Mbps, dwarfing Starlink’s offering of 150 Mbps.

For commercial users, Bezos’s company says it will deliver a 1,280 Mbps download rate, more than three times higher than Starlink’s maximum 400 Mbps. While Starlink currently enjoys a first-mover brand advantage, Amazon’s raw speed numbers could fundamentally shake up consumer expectations.

The deeper play, however, may not be about selling dishes to individual households. Amazon’s entry strategy hinges on a powerful partnership with traditional mobile operators, directly plugging into existing networks.

A March agreement with Vodafone, the overall parent firm of Kenya’s largest telco, Safaricom, will link Amazon’s Leo network to 4G and 5G base stations in remote locations, with initial trials set for 2026. This approach mirrors a similar partnership Starlink’s parent SpaceX made with Safaricom’s parent Vodacom, turning Kenya into a testbed for how orbital networks integrate with terrestrial giants.

Key details like pricing remain undisclosed, leaving a massive question mark over whether faster speeds can translate into affordable access for everyday Kenyans. For now, the battle lines are drawn, and the prize is connecting the continent’s most underserved populations.