Takealot wants a lot

After three years, Nigerian banks have finally opened the gates for naira debit cards to roam globally again. That means you can now pay for your Apple Music, Amazon orders, or even that random item on AliExpress with the same card you use for Jumia.

United Bank for Africa (UBA) and Wema Bank are leading the comeback, confirming that their Premium Naira Cards and Naira Mastercards are once again enabled for international transactions—online transactions, POS machines, and ATMs abroad.

Why was there even a restriction? The year was 2022 and the survival of key sectors in the Nigerian economy were under threat. Foreign exchange was scarce, oil revenues were shaky, and Nigeria's Central Bank’s managed exchange rate wasn’t helping. Eventually, financial institutions pulled the plug on global naira transactions. To keep their playlists going, people turned to virtual dollar cards from fintechs like Chipper Cash, Eversend, Cardtonic, and Payday.

What changed? It appears the confidence in Nigeria’s foreign exchange market is slowly creeping back to Nigeria’s Central Bank. The naira has shown signs of appreciation and diaspora remittances are now over $20 billion.

This is a curveball for virtual card providers. When banks locked international payments, startups like Chipper Cash, Eversend, Cardtonic, and Payday, stepped in with dollar cards. But now? These companies will have to step it up: offer better rates, more flexibility, or risk becoming irrelevant. 

This is because not everyone will keep paying extra for what their naira card can now do natively. And in Nigeria’s fast-moving payment space, only the most adaptable will survive the next chapter.

18,000 workers who lost their jobs at South Africa’s Post Office, one of the country's largest public employer, are about to get a new home.

Takealot is in talks to hire up to 18,000 retrenched workers from the South African Post Office, as part of a government-backed plan to repurpose state talent for private sector growth. 

The plan, confirmed by the Department of Communications on July 3, is still under discussion. But the direction is clear: Takealot is ramping up its logistics workforce at scale ahead of a delivery war with the likes of new entrants Amazon, Shein, and Temu.

Why does it matter? Takealot is expanding aggressively to maintain its lead in South Africa’s e-commerce market. Amazon’s full local launch in 2024 changed the game. In response, Takealot has grown its revenue by 15%, offloaded non-core assets like Superbalist, and invested in AI tools, dark stores, and delivery operations. Now it’s looking at labour—skilled, available, and already trained in logistics basics.

This potential hiring wave reveals where Takealot’s focus is: building delivery muscle and shifting to an operations-heavy setup. Many of these former Post Office workers already know routing, package handling, and customer service. They also live close to the communities that Takealot wants to reach.

The online retail giant is also exploring township delivery programmes and driver development. It wants to build a national last-mile network that’s faster, more flexible, and harder for Amazon to replicate.

The state sees this as an opportunity to soften the blow of the Post Office collapse. Takealot sees a logistics edge and political capital. South Africa may get both jobs and an improved service delivery. A win for everyone involved.

Telekom Egypt and SubCom just pulled off two key landings of the SEA-ME-WE-6 subsea cable system—one on the Mediterranean and the other on the Red Sea. 

SEA-ME-WE-6: Southeast Asia-Middle East-Western Europe 6 (pretty cool, huh?)

Why does this matter? This isn’t just confusing wiring talk, and the SEA-ME-WE-6 isn’t just a shiny new pipeline. It is built to deliver a design capacity of 126 terabits per second, enough to handle millions of high resolution video calls all at the same time. Think faster internet connection, fewer network outages, and better protection against cable disruptions, like the seismic shock that hit West Africa in 2024.

For Egypt, it strengthens its role as a digital transit hub. The country already hosts 10 cable landing stations, supports 15 live subsea cables, and has five more under construction. But the SEA-ME-WE-6 puts Egypt back at the centre of the internet map. With growing demand for high-speed connections driven by cloud services, remote work, and digital trade, Egypt is well-positioned to monetise its geography.More global players will pay to move traffic through its routes, and more investors will look at Egypt’s internet economy seriously. With this, comes more economic power and digital influence for Egypt.

The signal is clear: Egypt isn’t just hosting internet traffic, it is routing the future. Soon, the world won’t just be connecting to Egypt, it will be connecting through it.

Dear Nigerians, the next time your internet glitches midway through your Netflix binge or a Zoom call, the NCC wants you to know who is responsible.

In a sweeping change, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the regulator for telecom firms and internet service providers (ISPs), has said it will introduce a portal for tower companies to report downtimes on their network facilities. It has also given them an August deadline to improve their infrastructure or face fines.

Why does this matter? According to the NCC, Nigeria experiences an average of two network outages daily, with a total of 349 major outages recorded across the country between January and June 2025.

The NCC wants every company involved in the network connectivity value chain to be held accountable. When your internet connection frustrates you next time, it's not enough to blame MTN, Airtel, Glo, or 9mobile. There are more players behind the scenes that make internet connectivity happen. Tower Companies (TowerCos) are one of them; they manage and maintain the cell towers you see in your streets, lease them to telecom companies, and charge for it. When their infrastructure fails, it affects you too.

Zoom out: Since the telecom tariff hike took effect in February, Nigerians have been paying more for internet, voice, and SMS services. Now the NCC is saying: if consumers must pay more, then service providers—especially TowerCos—must deliver more. And fast. 

In September 2024, the telecom regulator reviewed its Quality of Service (QoS) benchmarks for mobile operators to improve internet quality and call drop rate. As part of that review, mobile operators now face a fine of ₦5 million ($3,300) if they fail to improve their service, and an additional ₦500,000 ($330) daily for the period the infraction lasts.

TowerCos too, like mobile operators, will get the same accountability treatment. No more excuses about diesel costs or unpaid bills from mobile operators. The Commission has made it clear: downtime has a deadline. And it expires in August.