Market Intelligence

OP-ED - Who controls the narrative? First-party data, truth and power in Africa’s digital economy

As powerful actors spin persuasive stories, the challenge is documenting reality with first-party evidence, resisting myths, and shaping narratives that serve more than self-interest.

Health Economics

OP-ED - A son's grief and gratitude in a world of unequal healthcare

Dr Leonard Masuku's death within Zimbabwe's constrained hospital system serves as a stark reminder of healthcare's global inequities.

Fintech

OP-ED - The education of April Long: a Chinese entrepreneur's humbling lessons building for Africa's $286 billion trade gap

After a decade in East Africa, fintech founder April Long reflects on the tough pivots, misread assumptions, and modest wins behind building Pyxis for Africa-China trade.

Digital Transformation

OP-ED - Namibia’s network disruptor wants your customers, whoever you are

Paratus Namibia is tearing up telecom playbooks, eyeing 5G mobile markets and crossing industry lines. In a game of territory and tech, no customer is off-limits.

Infrastructure

POD - Paratus Namibia's Andrew Hall on infrastructure investment in Southern Africa's most sparsely populated giant

Managing director Andrew Hall discusses building sustainable telecoms infrastructure across Namibia's challenging geography: vast distances, low population density, and competition from state-owned enterprises.

Banking

OP-ED - KCB Group builds on groundwork laid by 'Gov-preneurs' in Ethiopia as banking liberalisation accelerates

Following Safaricom's lead, KCB's imminent Ethiopian entry leverages policy frameworks informed by 'Gov-preneurs' who embedded with government to safeguard 'fin-sovereignty'.

Market Intelligence

POD - Bridging Africa and Tokyo, Bernard Laurendeau explains why Africa needs strategic global partnerships over patient capital

Bernard Laurendeau argues that telling investors to "think long-term" about Africa is the wrong message. The managing partner at Laurendeau & Associates shares how he's building bridges between Japanese corporations and African markets from his new base in Tokyo.

Digital Transformation

OP-ED - Zero human error? What AI’s financial wins might be hiding

AI promises fewer mistakes, leaner teams and more cost efficient businesses. But do these wins blind us to deeper ethical, societal, and economic trade-offs we must confront?

Artificial Intelligence

OP-ED - The end of SEO as we know it? AI search and the future of discovery

With AI reshaping how we find answers online, the rules of engagement are shifting. Here's what creators, founders, and strategists need to understand now.

Career

POD - From Maputo to Shopify and why Guidione Machava says 'African Designer' is a career-limiting label

Guidione Machava argues that leading with geographic identity in a global market can unconsciously devalue your talent. He shares how he's built a cross-continental product design career, from founding Mozambique’s top dev community to working at Shopify and 23point5.

Sona's Field Notes

Sona's Field Notes #04: Strong Founder or Wrong Founder?

After three Field Notes on external challenges, Sona Mahendra turns inward: exploring founder archetypes, market timing, and the uncomfortable truth about what constitutes winning.

Market Intelligence

OP-ED - How routine township shopping in South Africa now buys you 'invisible' funeral cover through embedded insurance

SAG Ventures’ Purchase Pal, underwritten by Sanlam, tucks funeral insurance into everyday grocery purchases. No forms, no intermediaries, no premiums. Prince Nwadeyi shows what happens when deep consumer research drives product design.

Career

POD - Wabo Majavu on early AI, strategic foresight, and digital activism

South African strategist Wabo Majavu traces her technical roots at CSIR, MTN, and Intelsat to reveal how they've informed her executive strategy work—balancing digital inclusion, AI innovation, and commercial success.

Fintech

OP-ED - Stablecoins promise efficiency for Africa's fintech future, but at what cost?

As stablecoins promise fast, cheap transfers, African businesses must weigh efficiency against surveillance risks and shifting gatekeepers in a new digital financial order.

Digital Transformation

OP-ED - Can fibre optic manufacturing joint ventures like YOA Cable drive Africa’s next industrial wave?

Pieter E. Viljoen, a physicist-turned-optic cable manufacturing boss, is betting that rethinking fibre from first principles could help restart Africa’s stalled industrial ambitions.

Fintech

POD - Inside Verto's fintech strategy for cracking Africa's $286 billion trade puzzle

Ola Oyetayo shares how Verto is tackling cross-border payment challenges, exploring stablecoin potential, and scaling a profitable fintech serving businesses across key African markets.

Ecosystem

OP-ED - Alesimo Mwanga on why strategic partnerships are the secret to scaling African innovation beyond funding

Ecosystem strategist Alesimo Mwanga explains how strategic partnerships unlock cross-border venture growth where funding alone falls short.

Artificial Intelligence

OP-ED - Claude, deepfakes, and the death of 'real'

As AI blurs the line between truth and fiction, our collective indifference to reality could prove more dangerous than the technologies reshaping our world.

Venture Building

POD - Funema's vision for venture building, AI and scaling impact in Africa

David Ogundeko unpacks Funema's contrarian venture development philosophy, long-term investment sensibilities, and lessons from nearly a decade of building startups in Nigeria, South Africa, and the US.

Venture Building

Sona's Field Notes #03: Principles Over Playbooks

Sona Mahendra challenges the African tech ecosystem's reliance on startup playbooks and frameworks, arguing instead for first principles approaches to venture building.

Banking

OP-ED - Africa isn’t India, but Capitec Bank’s success shows the value of local insight

South Africa’s largest retail bank, Capitec, shows how aligning with real consumer behaviour—not imported models—can unlock value in Africa’s fragmented, stratified, and misunderstood markets.

Career

OP-ED - When AI comes for your craft: a personal reckoning in Africa's creative scene

AI is disrupting African creative work—and it’s personal. Andile Masuku confronts hard truths about his own voiceover career and what comes next for creatives all over the continent.

Artificial Intelligence

POD - Why African filmmakers must stop raising millions and embrace AI or risk irrelevance

Marie Lora-Mungai joins the African Tech Roundup Podcast to explore how AI is democratising filmmaking in Africa—and why adopting emerging tools is now more practical (and necessary) than pursuing conventional production models.

Venture Capital

OP-ED - Why ‘venture capital’ in Africa is a misnomer, and what to do about it

Africa’s startup funding landscape is often mislabelled as venture capital, but the reality is starkly different. It’s time for honest, context-driven investment models that truly fit.

Venture Building

Sona's Field Notes #02: The Market Size Misconception

Sona Mahendra unpacks the pervasive founder habit of prematurely abandoning promising ideas due to perceived market size limitations.