Provide WiFi or pay fines

The COMESA Competition Commission (CCC) said on Monday that it is investigating the merger between Kenya’s Wasoko and Egypt's MaxAB, which was finalised in August 2024. The deal, which created a $500 million entity, is being probed for creating a business that stifles fair competition, with the regulator suggesting it could “substantially prevent or lessen competition in the common market.”

Between the lines: At its peak, Wasoko was the most-funded B2B e-commerce startup in Africa. However, operational struggles led the company to pause its operations in Uganda and Zambia and lay off staff. At the time of the merger, Wasoko was nowhere near its 2023 $625 million valuation.

Zoom out: The CCC is concerned that the merger creates an e-commerce business that operates across several markets, widening its market reach. Yet the poser here is whether such scrutiny is warranted when both companies entered the deal from positions of weakness rather than dominance. Wasoko and MaxAB were each struggling with cash burn, dwindling investor confidence, and the heavy costs of scaling in fragmented markets.

Yet, the CCC has invited competitors, suppliers, and users to submit their thoughts before October 24, ahead of its decision on whether the merger harms competition or simply gives two faltering giants a second chance.

Telkom, one of South Africa’s largest telecom operators, has been delivered a new public mission by the country’s communications regulator, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa). The telecom operator must connect South Africa’s Thusong Centres to free WiFi or pay up to R1 million ($57,500) in fines.

Thusong Centres? These are one-stop public access service interventions used to provide essential government information and services, including Home Affairs, the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA), and Health. These centres have long struggled with poor connectivity, which limits citizens’ access to essential services.

What did Telkom do to deserve this “assignment?” It’s the Universal Service and Access Obligations (USAOs), a licence condition that requires operators to extend connectivity beyond profitable areas. ICASA has now refocused those obligations Telkom is meant to achieve toward 171 Thusong Centres. Telkom must connect the first batch by April 2026 and complete all 171 by October 2028.

Or else what? Icasa can slap Telkom with $28,700 – $57,500 fines or escalate the matter to its compliance committee if Telkom misses its deadline. Each site must offer uncapped WiFi at 30 Mbps with fair-use limits of 300MB daily and 2GB monthly to keep it equitable. Telkom will handle everything from routers to cabling, firewalls, and maintenance, and submit progress reports twice a year.

TL;DR ICASA is using Telecom’s infrastructure muscle to deliver on its national connectivity goals by turning a license condition into a tool for digital inclusion.

Altron, a data and technology company, has just handed South Africa its first fully operational AI factory powered by Nvidia’s AI software and infrastructure.

What makes it so serious? Apart from it being South Africa’s first AI factory, local data remains local, it strictly adheres to regulatory standards, and users can get infrastructure, training, and support under one roof.

So, what will this factory do? See it as a production line for AI. It provides the infrastructure that companies need to build, test, and deploy AI solutions faster without worrying about building their own infrastructure. It is also where researchers can scale prototypes and train large language models on African data for them to be tailored to African problems.

The platform is already live and has five businesses using it, including Dataviue, which creates customised systems that transform data into actionable insights, Lelapa AI, an AI research & product lab, and MathU, a platform for developing math and science skills.

Why this matters: South Africa’s artificial intelligence market size reached $809.34 million in 2024, and is projected to pass $5 billion by 2033. This factory is infrastructure for serious scale in the AI market. Having local capacity helps local companies avoid issues with data sovereignty while building models tailored to their environment.

Zoom out: Across Africa, countries like Uganda and Zimbabwe are setting up their own AI hubs, with national strategies and growing ecosystems. Altron’s AI factory could give South Africa a lead in homegrown AI creation.