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Do you ever borrow money and call it “investing in your future”? African Bank did. Its regulator wasn’t amused.

South Africa’s Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) has slapped African Bank with a R700,000 (~$38,000) fine for false advertising after a December 2023 social media campaign blurred the lines between loans and investments. The ads, featuring a popular South African celeb, pitched personal loans with the tagline: “It’s not a skoloto chomi! Ke investment.” (Translation: It’s not debt, friend! It’s an investment.)

Nice try.

The FSCA says this marketing move misled consumers by painting a credit facility as an investment product, violating section six of its conduct standards that require financial ads to be clear, fair, factually correct, and free from false promises or forecasts.

Beyond the bad copywriting, the regulator also flagged oversight failures in African Bank’s governance process, over the approval and review of advertising materials, further breaching another part of section 6 of the Conduct Standard.

The bank is cooperating with the probe and has taken corrective steps. A portion of the fine—R200,000 ($10,642)—is suspended for two years, provided the bank behaves and remains compliant with the Conduct Standard during this period.

Zoom out: Misleading fintech or finance marketing isn’t new in Africa. Nigeria’s FCCPC has gone after loan sharks for threatening borrowers via SMS and WhatsApp. Kenya’s regulator recently kicked dozens of digital lenders off the map for lack of transparency. And Ghana’s SEC issued warnings to unlicensed “investment platforms” promising 20% monthly returns—spoiler: they weren’t investing in anything real.

As Africa’s financial sector modernizes, regulators are catching up—and fast. The message is clear: if you’re selling loans, don’t dress them up like savings accounts.

Rwanda is racing to ditch paper medical records by the end of 2025 and it’s building the infrastructure to do it.

The country’s Ministry of Health has launched e-Ubuzima, a homegrown digital medical records system that synchronizes patient data across hospitals, health centers, and community clinics. Already deployed in 15 districts, the platform will eventually cover all 520 public health facilities nationwide.

e-Ubuzima? With real-time access to health records, appointment booking, doctor search, and integrated alerts, e-Ubuzima is designed to cut down hospital congestion, reduce prescription errors, and save patients hours of waiting time. A companion mobile app helps users find facilities and schedule visits. The system will also double as an official health alert platform for outbreaks and public advisories.

Here’s why it matters: Rwanda’s decentralized health system is often held up as a model in sub-Saharan Africa. But gaps—especially in non-communicable disease care and timely information access—still persist. Digitizing records is a critical step toward plugging those gaps and making care delivery faster and more accurate.

Still, hurdles remain: Only 25% of health centers have the required tech setup, and digital literacy among older healthcare staff is a work in progress. The government plans to fix this with more training, nationwide WiFi, and smartphone distribution to frontline workers in rural areas by mid-year.

Zoom out: Rwanda joins a growing list of African countries scrapping analog systems for digital ones. Nigeria is digitising birth and death records , Kenya and South Africa have piloted electronic prescriptions and health data sharing , and Ghana recently rolled out drone-powered medical supply delivery. Even in finance, countries like Namibia and Uganda have moved to digital tax filing and ID systems.

A stop-work order and extended review process at USAID earlier this year disrupted dozens of health programs in Ghana. As the supply chain froze, stocks of malaria vaccines, antiretrovirals, and other essential health supplies plummeted, raising the risk of a surge in preventable diseases across the country.

As the disruptions persist, Ghana has partnered with Zipline , an autonomous drone logistics company, to provide an uninterrupted supply of essential medical supplies to the country’s health facilities.

The country’s partnership with Zipline is an important effort in maintaining the flow of health supplies amidst logistics breakdown. The Ministry of Health will use Zipline’s existing network of drone delivery hubs to distribute malaria test kits and treatments, medications for pain, cough, parasitic infections, nutrition supplements, and other medical essentials to the northern and eastern regions of the country.

Ghana’s partnership with Zipline runs on a flat monthly fee for unlimited deliveries, meaning more reach with no extra cost.

ICYMI: Zipline recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the Nigerian government to expand operations to five additional states within the country. This means quicker and more efficient access to essential medical supplies for the country’s healthcare system and a national blood solution in place by the end of 2025.

As Ghana clings to Zipline for its medical deliveries, it begs the question: is this partnership a sustainable solution or a temporary fix?

Ogun State is Nigeria’s gold standard for fibre deployment.

The state, located in southwestern Nigeria, charges ₦9,477 ($5.88) per metre for Right-of-Way (RoW)—more than double the average jollof rice plate in Lagos. This, despite already having a solid 4,189km of fibre optic laid.

Before you ask why you’re reading this, Right-of-way (RoW) fees have long been a barrier for telecom operators trying to lay fibre optic cables—critical infrastructure for internet access, especially in underserved areas. Last week, Niger State joined 12 other Nigerian states in waiving these fees to attract more telecom investment and accelerate broadband rollout.

TechCabal looked at RoW charges across each state in the country, and the disparity across states looks less like infrastructure planning and more like a telecom-themed reality show. Osun State, not comes second in right-of-way charges. The southwestern state charges ₦6,850 ($4.26) per metre for RoW… and has just 64km of fibre to show for it.

Lagos, with a whopping 7,864.6km of fibre, charges ₦6,264 per metre. Others playing in the high-fee league include Oyo, Cross River, Rivers, Edo.

Back in 2013, the National Economic Council suggested every state stick to ₦145 per metre, but without legal backing, many states tossed the advice like expired SIM cards. Since then, only 16 states have revised their fees, and 12—like Niger and Anambra—have ditched them altogether to lure investment.

ALTON President Gbenga Adebayo says that while free RoW is cute, it's not enough. He’d rather states demand telcos build community projects than pile on mystery levies and taxes.

Until Nigeria figures out a consistent RoW playbook, broadband rollout will remain a patchy mess—like a download stuck at 48%.