Cell C, plan C

Good morning. ☀️

Welcome to another week.

The English Premier League has kicked off. While it wasn’t the best start to the campaign, we (Man United) still had it better than a certain fanbase that outspent us—embarrassing, but yes, I want to take things to a new low. All protests against this logic will fall on deaf ears.

In Silicon Valley, tech bros are fighting about whose AI research model is better; the folks at Inherent say theirs is. Who knows? Anthropic could just be cooling off on research to convince investors that it’s not trying to sell them a bubble ahead of its public listing.

Keep scrolling to see what we’ve got for you today in African tech.

—Emmanuel

Cell C, the South African mobile operator, is borrowing infrastructure to connect its customers to the Internet. Now, it wants to add space to the mix.

What happened? Jorge Mendes, Cell C's chief executive officer, said the company is in talks with satellite Internet service providers (ISPs) Starlink and Amazon Leo about reselling their broadband services to its customers and potentially offering direct-to-device connectivity.

What would this mean? If this happens, Cell C subscribers could possibly connect to the Internet in two ways: through terrestrial networks, such as mobile towers, or satellite networks that beam connectivity from space. Cell C already relies on MTN and Vodacom's network infrastructure instead of operating its own. 

The operator could use satellite broadband to reach places where building fibre or mobile towers is expensive, or resell satellite Internet to customers who need connectivity outside its traditional coverage. 

The space race is getting crowded: The move comes shortly after Herotel, a South African ISP, signed a distribution deal with Amazon Leo. Herotel said it plans to sell Amazon Leo’s satellite service under the ‘Evry’ brand from 2027. The deal, however, is non-exclusive, so other companies can also partner with Amazon. 

Traditional telecom companies have been eyeing partnerships with satellite Internet firms to extend broadband reach, with potentially lower capital expenditure—compared to fibre—and arguably better Internet access. Starlink reached a similar agreement in the Democratic Republic of Congo and launched in August.

Despite talks with Cell C on a potential collaboration, Elon Musk-owned Starlink still hasn’t secured an operating licence in South Africa—its attempt marred by local rules keeping it out and disagreements that have turned into a political fight.

South Africa's connectivity market is heating up: MTN and Vodacom, South Africa’s two largest telecom firms, are also testing their own satellite-to-phone services through partnerships with US firm Lynk Global and AST Spacemobile, although neither has launched commercially. The coming months could get very interesting, as more players look to space for the next way to keep South Africans connected.

South Africa’s e-hailing rules are moving from the app store to the government database. Gauteng, the smallest yet wealthiest province in South Africa, wants every e-hailing driver in the province to register on its public transport system—and foreign drivers will have to identify themselves as such.

What happened? Gauteng’s Department of Transport is asking ride-hailing operators, including Uber, Bolt, Wanatu (a local operator), and inDrive, to register their drivers on the Gauteng Integrated Public Transport Administration System (GIPTAS). The system stores information on public transport operators, routes, licences, and conflicts. 

Drivers will submit details including their Professional Driving Permit, vehicle registration, and ID number. Foreign drivers without South African ID numbers can use a Traffic Register Number, a profile created on the national road-traffic system for people without the country’s 13-digit ID.

State of play: The registration drive follows South Africa’s amended National Land Transport Amendment Act, passed in 2025, which formally brought e-hailing into the country’s public transport system. The wider rules mandated ride-hailing companies, local and foreign, to secure e-hailing licences, brand their vehicles, and install panic buttons for passenger safety. However, Gauteng hasn’t set a specific deadline for ride-hailing companies and drivers to comply.

Explain like I’m new here: Gauteng is the inland province at the heart of South Africa’s economic engine. It includes Johannesburg, the country’s main financial and industrial centre, and Pretoria, the administrative capital. So this is not a small-town transport experiment: it is happening in the province where a huge share of the country’s business, commuting, and airport traffic converges.

Between the lines: Gauteng is also the country’s biggest ride-hailing battleground. Uber held an estimated 60–65% of Johannesburg’s market in 2025, with Bolt taking most of the remainder, according to Bobby Ramagwede, chief executive officer of the country’s Automobile Association. 

That makes the province a high-stakes test of whether South Africa can bring app-based transport into the same regulatory net as taxis and buses without making it harder for drivers to earn a living—or for passengers to find a ride.

Zoom out: The government says it needs a clear record of who is operating on its roads; however, ride-hailing platforms are still working through the practicalities of feeding driver data into a new system. For passengers, registration could offer some reassurance, creating a nationally enforceable way to track down wrongdoers in cases of incidents, a possible sigh of relief in South Africa’s torrid history of ride-hailing violence.

Kenya was looking for a way to make digital services and identity verification less herculean. It may have found a way to solve this with IN Groupe, a French secure-identity company. The firm, looking to play a more expansive role in Kenya, is now in talks with the government about building a national platform for verifying citizens’ identities online.

What happened? IN Groupe is eyeing a bigger role in Kenya after its team met with the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Digital Economy on August 20 in Nairobi. According to local publication ITWeb, the company is aiming to build a national digital identity authentication platform that could allow Kenyans to use one verified identity across government and private-sector services. While the talks are still early, Kenya’s government could find the pitch fascinating: the country has been moving toward secure identity after rolling out the Maisha Namba framework in November 2023. 

Under that rule, Kenyans were assigned lifelong unique personal identifiers (UPIs) to track benefits and other national services, the Maisha Card, which enables them to travel regionally, and access to e-Government services. Like digital identity, Kenya has been strengthening its public systems, including tax collection systems, to streamline how citizens access services and how the government delivers them.

What does IN Groupe do? If you have a national ID card in your wallet, IN Groupe was likely involved. The company specialises in secure identity solutions, including physical ID documents, digital identities, authentication, and the technology governments use to issue and verify credentials. It operates in Egypt, Morocco, Kenya, Gabon, Madagascar and Rwanda. 

Zoom out: Kenya's Ministry of ICT and the Digital Economy and the IN Groupe are still discussing the fine print around governance, delivery, and the policies that ensure who oversees what. Kenya would be keen to retain relevant control and access, as citizens’ data is a very sensitive and critical asset that it must protect.

Malawi wants to make smartphones and the Internet cheaper

Malawi wants to make getting online a little cheaper, starting with the devices in your hands.

What happened? The country’s information and communications technology minister, Shadric Namalomba, has called for the removal of a 10% surtax on internet services and a review of the 17.5% value-added tax (VAT) on smartphones.

Catch Up: These taxes have been part of Malawi’s tax system for decades. The country replaced its old surtax with VAT in 2005, setting the standard rate at 17.5% before cutting it to 16.5% in 2008. In 2015, Malawi later introduced a 10% excise duty on data transfers, including Internet traffic and text messages, to raise more revenue. In 2025, the government raised VAT back to 17.5% as part of efforts to strengthen revenue collection and reduce the fiscal deficit.

Now, the country’s tech ministry is questioning whether those taxes make sense when the government is also trying to get more Malawians online.

Explain like I’m new here: Malawi has poor mobile network coverage; at the end of 2025, only 18% of its population had access to the Internet—Mayamiko Nkoloma, director general at the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA), the country’s telecoms regulator, estimated online penetration is at a more modest 12.5%. 

Yet, the government wants to push that figure to 80% by 2030—a lofty goal, but showing a bit of ambition can do no wrong. The country is succumbing to the idea that building more towers is not enough if smartphones and data remain too expensive.

MACRA is also exploring using its Universal Service Fund, a national budget that funds telecoms and postal service projects, to subsidise devices and support digital literacy programmes. There’s even talk of a “one tablet, one student” programme.

What does this mean for you? If these plans go ahead, buying a smartphone and getting online could become cheaper for Malawians. The bigger test, however, will be whether lower taxes and device subsidies are enough to turn network coverage into actual Internet use.

Written by: Yemi Kareem, Zia Yusuf, and Emmanuel Nwosu

Edited by: Emmanuel Nwosu & Ganiu Oloruntade