Africa Archives - Page 3 of 29

MTN war chest Africa fintech acquisition strategy 2026

1 view
4 minute read

MTN’s $2 Billion War Chest: The Acquisition Plan That Could Reshape African Fintech

UphivaBETAR
April 4, 2026

With $2B+ in cash and 300 million subscribers, MTN Group is actively targeting fintech acquisitions in payments, lending and remittances. CEO Ralph Mupita confirms the strategy.

View Post

1 view
4 minute read

Africa’s Tech Consolidation Wave: 67 Acquisitions, Super-Conglomerates, and the End of Blitzscaling

UphivaBETAR
April 4, 2026

African tech recorded a record 67 M&A deals in 2025 — a 72% surge. From Flutterwave-Mono to Moniepoint-Sumac, the continent’s largest fintechs are buying capabilities rather than building them.

View Post

Africa satellite internet price war Starlink Kuiper SMEs 2026

Technology

1 view
6 minute read

Africa Satellite Internet: Starlink vs Kuiper for SMEs

UphivaBETAR
April 4, 2026

Starlink, Amazon Kuiper and Meta’s 2Africa are reshaping internet costs for African SMEs. What the 2026 price war means for businesses in Nigeria and Kenya.

View Post

Africa LNG expansion vs energy transition NDC contradiction 2026

Energy & Climate

1 view
6 minute read

Africa LNG Expansion vs. Energy Transition: $50B in Gas Infrastructure and a Continent Caught Between NDCs and Commercial Reality

UphivaBETAR
April 4, 2026

Africa has $50 billion in LNG and gas infrastructure under construction or at final investment decision — while 54 governments have signed climate pledges. As COP30 approaches, the contradiction is becoming impossible to ignore.

View Post

MTN IHS Towers capital allocation war chest MoMo 2026

6 minute read

MTN Spent Its War Chest on Towers. Now What?

UphivaBETAR
April 4, 2026

MTN’s $2.2B IHS Towers acquisition consumes 60% of its fintech war chest. BETAR analyses the balance sheet impact, dividend risk, and what it means for MoMo’s product ambitions in 2026-2027.

View Post

Africa school to work gap NEET youth employment crisis

Education

1 view
5 minute read

Africa’s School-to-Work Gap: The NEET Crisis Holding Back a Generation

UphivaBETAR
April 4, 2026

Across Africa, millions of young people are neither in education, employment, nor training. The NEET crisis is not a youth problem — it is a structural failure of education systems to connect learning to labour markets.

View Post

Africa Chinese AI surveillance spend 2026 — 2 billion dollars across 11 countries with zero legal oversight

4 views
6 minute read

Africa Spent $2 Billion on Chinese AI Surveillance. No Country Has Laws to Govern It.

UphivaBETAR
April 3, 2026

When Rest of World published its investigation into Chinese AI surveillance infrastructure across Africa in March 2026, the headline figure was striking enough: eleven African countries have collectively spent more…

View Post

For-profit school trap in Africa — private equity education investment failures, Bridge International collapse unit economics, and what works

Education

3 views
6 minute read

The For-Profit School Trap: Why Private Equity Keeps Betting on African Education and Losing

UphivaBETAR
April 3, 2026

Bridge International raised $180 million from Gates, Chan Zuckerberg, and Omidyar — then was forced out of Uganda and Kenya. Private equity is still entering African education. The unit economics explain why the model keeps failing, and who it can actually work for.

View Post

Africa AI surveillance regulatory gap — national security exemption in data protection law leaves state AI surveillance legally ungoverned across nine African countries

Policy & Regulation

3 views
8 minute read

Africa’s AI Surveillance Regulatory Gap: The Exemption That Swallows the Rule

UphivaBETAR
April 3, 2026

Nine African countries have operational AI surveillance systems and enacted data protection laws. In every case, a national security exemption renders those laws inapplicable to state surveillance. The result is a legal architecture that authorises, by omission, exactly what it formally prohibits.

View Post

Africa AI PhD pipeline researcher training — AMMI CMU-Africa AIMS Masakhane brain drain 2026

Technology

3 views
5 minute read

Africa’s AI PhD Pipeline: Why the Continent’s Most Ambitious Research Programmes Keep Losing Their Best Graduates

UphivaBETAR
April 3, 2026

Africa’s elite AI researcher training pipeline produces a fraction of what is needed — and most of those it does produce leave. BETAR.africa investigates the structural drivers behind the continent’s AI research brain drain and what three programmes are doing to close it.

View Post

Africa

MTN’s $2 Billion War Chest: The Acquisition Plan That Could Reshape African Fintech

Africa’s Tech Consolidation Wave: 67 Acquisitions, Super-Conglomerates, and the End of Blitzscaling

Africa Satellite Internet: Starlink vs Kuiper for SMEs

Africa LNG Expansion vs. Energy Transition: $50B in Gas Infrastructure and a Continent Caught Between NDCs and Commercial Reality

MTN Spent Its War Chest on Towers. Now What?

Africa’s School-to-Work Gap: The NEET Crisis Holding Back a Generation

Africa Spent $2 Billion on Chinese AI Surveillance. No Country Has Laws to Govern It.

The For-Profit School Trap: Why Private Equity Keeps Betting on African Education and Losing

Africa’s AI Surveillance Regulatory Gap: The Exemption That Swallows the Rule

Africa’s AI PhD Pipeline: Why the Continent’s Most Ambitious Research Programmes Keep Losing Their Best Graduates

Africa PE Exit Crisis 2026: $10B in Private Equity, Nowhere to Go

Q1 2026 Africa Tech Funding: What the Numbers Actually Say

Q1 2026 Africa Tech Funding: What $537 Million Actually Means

Q1 2026 Africa Tech Funding: What $537 Million Actually Means

Ethiopia Is Selling Electricity to Half of East Africa. Here Is What That Actually Means.

The IP Ownership Lesson That African Comics Learned the Hard Way

Africa’s Fashion Week Economics: Who Pays, Who Profits, Who Converts

Ghana Just Did What No West African Country Has Done: Put a Price on Charging an EV

Get Africa's tech & business briefing — free

Africa PE Exit Crisis 2026: $10B in Private Equity, Nowhere to Go

Q1 2026 Africa Tech Funding: What the Numbers Actually Say

Q1 2026 Africa Tech Funding: What $537 Million Actually Means

Q1 2026 Africa Tech Funding: What $537 Million Actually Means