👨🏿‍🚀TechCabal Daily – Nigeria hits refresh on telecoms

In partnership with

Lire en Français

اقرأ هذا باللغة العربية

Happy pre-salary week.

Dear tech worker, we made it to our favourite part of the month again. Soak it in. At sunrise (Monday), finance departments across the continent will suddenly become everyone’s favourite coworkers. 

Let’s dive in.

Get smarter about Francophone Africa with our newsletter, Francophone Weekly—the startups, tech policies, and institutions building the pipelines for ecosystem growth.

Subscribe

• Kenn Abuya: A GITEX Nairobi review
• Nigeria to review telecom rules
• Who secured the bag?
• World Wide Web 3
• Job Openings

events

GITEX arrives in Nairobi: A review

Image Source: GITEX Kenya

For three days, Nairobi became the centre of Africa’s AI sales pitch as AI Everything Kenya x GITEX Kenya convened startup founders, government officials, cybersecurity firms, cloud companies, and investors at the Sarit Expo Centre (Day 1) and the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (Days 2 and 3).

The event, GITEX’s first East African edition, was meant to signal that Nairobi is no longer just a startup city but a serious entry point into the continent’s AI and digital infrastructure market.

Exhibition halls were packed with AI demos, cybersecurity products, enterprise software pitches, and startup booths trying to pull attention away from bigger global vendors. 

ASUS and Lenovo, for instance, pushed their gaming and enterprise laptops. Kaspersky and Fortinet leaned heavily into cybersecurity. Business executives from multiple industries circled enterprise AI and cloud conversations, while policymakers discussed regulation, data infrastructure, and digital sovereignty.

What stood out was how quickly the conversation moved beyond chatbots and flashy demos. Most panels kept circling back to infrastructure, who owns Africa’s data, where AI systems will run, and whether local startups can compete in a market increasingly dominated by global cloud firms and enterprise vendors. 

Cybersecurity became one of the loudest themes at the event as companies warned banks, governments and businesses about AI-powered attacks and rising digital risks

I spoke with over 20 attendees who described the event as the closest Nairobi has come to hosting a Dubai-style tech conference, praising the networking opportunities and international presence. 

Others complained about overcrowded sessions, expensive passes, and panels that felt polished but thin on substance. One criticism kept coming up repeatedly: African startups were visible, but the biggest stages often belonged to large foreign vendors selling AI infrastructure into the continent.

Still, GITEX’s arrival matters because it reflects how global tech firms increasingly see Nairobi not just as a startup ecosystem, but as a commercial and geopolitical gateway into Africa’s next phase of digital growth.

We Have Secured the Bank of Ghana EPSP Licence.

Fincra has officially secured its Enhanced Payment Service Provider licence. This regulatory milestone authorizes Fincra to directly collect, process, and settle payments in Ghanaian Cedis, offering a highly streamlined financial pipeline for businesses operating within the region. Start here.

policy

Nigeria is reviewing its 26-year-old telecom policy

Image Source: Tenor

Apparently, it is not only humans who start rethinking their life choices after 25. Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the telecoms regulator, has now decided that Nigeria’s 26-year-old telecom policy needs a serious reset.

Here’s what happened: After 26 years, the NCC said it has begun reviewing its National Telecommunications Policy, proposing 15 major changes that could affect everything from data pricing and network quality to cybersecurity, AI infrastructure, satellite broadband, and online scams. The revised framework is expected to go live before the end of the year.

The NCC wants stronger competition rules, better infrastructure sharing, improved 5G spectrum management, support for AI innovation, satellite broadband integration, local telecom manufacturing incentives, and a Digital Innovation Fund for startups and research.

Why the sudden need for change? According to the NCC, the current telecom framework was built for an era when getting people online was the biggest challenge. Well, Nigerians are online now, with a 54.3% Internet penetration, but they also battle fibre cuts, unstable networks, expensive data, and digital fraud.

The NCC was already patching things together: Over the last few months, the NCC has introduced new frameworks: telcos, in collaboration with banks, must now flag high-risk phone numbers, issue airtime refunds for poor service, and upgrade their networks.

A lot could change if this works: The policy makeover could push forward some of Nigeria’s biggest digital ambitions. It could make broadband deployment cheaper and faster, extending reach to Nigerians. It could also support Lagos’ ambition to expand its data centre capacity to 250MW by 2030, accelerate 5G rollout, and strengthen cybersecurity.

We Empower Your Ambition

Insights

Funding tracker

Image Source: Success Sotonwa, TechCabal Insights

Electric Transits Africa, a Kenyan e-mobility startup, raised $695,000 from AVIA Weghorst, Invest International through the Dutch Good Growth Fund (DGGF), and additional angel investors. (May 19)

Here is the other deal for the week:

• EYST, a Tunisian Insurtech startup, raised undisclosed funding from 216 Capital. (May 18)

Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn for more funding announcements. Before you go,Nigeria’s healthtech startups are building around fragmented data systems. Find out how here.

Naira Life 2026 is here!

Join 2,000+ in Lagos on August 22 for unfiltered wealth strategies, investment clinics, pitch competitions, and real talk about building long-term financial power. Get 15% off early bird tickets.

CRYPTO TRACKER

The World Wide Web3

Source:

Coin Name	Current Value	Day	Month
Bitcoin	77,579	– 0.16%	– 0.59%
Ether	$2,131	– 0.11%	– 11.15%
XRP	$1.37	– 0.20%	– 6.00%
Solana	$86.90	+ 0.57%	– 1.36%

* Data as of 06.51 AM WAT, May 22, 2026.

JOB OPENINGS

• Big Cabal Media — Senior Motion Designer, YouTube Growth Strategist, Editor-in-Chief (TechCabal), Reporter, Enterprise & Policy, Editor (Analytical), Business Development Executive — Lagos, Nigeria 
• Moniepoint —Backend Engineer (Women in Tech Internship) — Lagos, Nigeria
• Airvend — B2B Technical Support — Lagos, Nigeria
• Bridgemax Technologies — Cloud Administrator — Lagos, Nigeria
• Union Systems — Software Technical Writer — Lagos, Nigeria

There are more jobs on TechCabal’s job board. If you have job opportunities to share, please submit them at bit.ly/tcxjobs.

• Nigerian fintech Sycamore wants $29 million in deposits after MFB acquisition
• Paystack’s first Dashboard rebuild in a decade brings AI into merchant operations

Written by: Kenn Abuya, Opeyemi Kareem, and Success Sotonwa

Edited by: Emmanuel Nwosu and Ganiu Oloruntade

Want more of TechCabal?

Sign up for our insightful newsletters on the business and economy of tech in Africa.

• The Next Wave: futuristic analysis of the business of tech in Africa.
• Francophone Weekly by TechCabal: insider insights and analysis of Francophone’s tech ecosystem

P:S If you’re often missing TC Daily in your inbox, check your Promotions folder and move any edition of TC Daily from “Promotions” to your “Main” or “Primary” folder and TC Daily will always come to you.