In today's edition: New wine, old wineskins || Terra Industries appoints ex-Palantir exec || Mozambique creates AI forum || JSE suspends tech firm Labat Africa
In partnership with
Lire en Français
اقرأ هذا باللغة العربية
**Happy last day of August. **
It sure feels like we sped through August. Now, September is almost here. What has been your favourite African tech story so far this year? With one month left in Q3, what are you still looking forward to?
Click “Reply” and write back to us.
Let’s dive in.
Become smarter about tech and commerce in Francophone Africa, and the policies shaping them. Read previous editions here first and subscribe below.
Subscribe
Image Source: Reuters
Finally, Nigeria is investing in assistive technology for people with disabilities, something the disability community has been clamouring for.
At its fourth Hackathon Live Show in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, the telecom regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), challenged 20 innovators to build solutions under the theme “Technology Without Barriers.”
Their ideas included AI-powered speech-to-text, real-time sign language translation, voice-enabled complaint systems, accessible customer care services, image-to-voice navigation, and inclusive employment platforms.
**Between the lines: **It is a welcome development. But there is a problem: many of the digital platforms these technologies are meant to help people access remain inaccessible.
Nigeria already has standards for building accessible government websites. The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA)’s guidelines require government institutions to provide equal access to information and functionality and to adopt the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
Yet repeated audits have found accessibility problems across government websites; in June 2025, TechCabal published an investigation documenting similar barriers on banking, fintech, e-commerce, and other digital platforms.
This raises a bigger question about Nigeria’s approach to digital inclusion. Assistive technologies can solve barriers that require specialised solutions, but they cannot replace accessibility built into the original product. A screen reader, for instance, can only interpret what a website makes available to it.
**Zoom out: **As Nigeria builds new tools to help people navigate the digital world, perhaps it also needs to fix the world those tools are being built to navigate.
Our reporter John Adoyi wrote a deep dive on this; read it here.
The business questions you Google, answered by experts. Watch for free.
Image Source: Tenor
Terra Industries, the Nigerian defence-tech startup that recently closed a $52 million seed round, announced last Friday, splitting Twitter users between fierce criticism and enthusiastic praise for a company that doesn’t seem to be short on surprise announcements.
On Friday, August 28, its chief executive officer and cofounder Nathan Nwachuku said on the social media platform that former Palantir director Todd Stiefler was joining the defence-tech startup as Director of Commercial.
Explain like I’m new here: Terra builds autonomous security systems for critical infrastructure, including power plants, mines, and other assets that governments and companies need to keep running. Stiefler’s job will be to help turn that technology into a bigger commercial business, particularly among companies operating critical infrastructure across the Global South.
His background makes the appointment interesting. Before Terra, Stiefler was a Vice President of Enterprise at WHOOP, a US-based fitness and wearable tech company, and worked in business development at Palantir, where he helped build go-to-market teams around its Apollo and FedStart platforms for defence and dual-use technology companies.
Why now? Terra has just raised one of the biggest seed rounds in African tech this year, opened a London office, and is expanding manufacturing in Ghana. The company says its systems have already been used to protect about $11 billion worth of nationally critical assets across several African countries.
That is a lot of momentum for a company still at the seed stage, and it helps explain why its moves are drawing strong reactions online.
Zoom out: Stiefler’s appointment suggests Terra is entering its next phase. The question is not whether African-built defence technology can work; Terra seems to be proving it with domain expertise and an experienced board. But the company seems to be aggressively building and expanding its commercial flywheel, targeting institutions and likely governments.
If you’re a Health Logistics Buyer in Nigeria, participate in our report by filling out the survey by 4 September. It takes less than 10 minutes.
Image Source: Tenor
It’s easy to think of an AI ecosystem as startups building chatbots and researchers training models. But before any of that scales, countries need institutions figuring out how the technology should be built, funded, regulated, and used. Mozambique has taken a step in that direction with the launch of the Mozambican Association of Artificial Intelligence (AMIA) in Maputo, its capital city.
Explain like I’m new here: AMIA will assemble government institutions, companies, universities, researchers, entrepreneurs, and civil society working on AI. Its goal is to encourage research, skills development, collaboration, and the adoption of AI solutions that fit Mozambique’s needs. A local association could also provide policymakers with a forum to hear from people building the technology before rules are written.
**Catch up: **Mozambique’s push to build an artificial intelligence ecosystem did not start with the AMIA. In 2025, the government began work on a national artificial intelligence strategy with support from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). In March 2026, it created a National Artificial Intelligence Commission to guide the technology’s development and regulation, while also working with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a UN body, on an artificial intelligence regulatory sandbox, a controlled environment for testing AI systems and regulatory approaches.
AMIA is another piece of that broader effort.
Zoom out: Mozambique is not alone in figuring out how to regulate AI—at least in Africa—ethically and beneficially. Kenya has a new framework that demands transparency in use. South Africa has pushed back its expected policy release to at least 2027 after the fiasco in April this year. And several others, including Mauritius, have taken additional steps. It seems AI is one part of the emerging tech puzzle that African regulators are still trying to wrap their heads around; Mozambique is doing so through dialogue.
Moonshot 2026 is coming! Join us at the National Theatre, Lagos on October 28 & 29 for two days of tech and innovation. Grab your early bird tickets now and get 15% off.
Image Source: Yarn
After 27 years of owning shares in Labat Africa, a South African technology and investment holding company, investors were told that their dividend was coming. Yet, the payment date came and went; nothing happened. Now, in a small dose of stock market justice, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) has suspended trading of the company’s shares.
What happened? In June, Labat Africa, a South African technology and ICT investment holding company, declared its first dividend since listing on the JSE in 1999. The company declared 1 cent per share, meaning about R22.7 million ($1.4 million) was due to shareholders across its 2.268 billion shares. After dividend tax, shareholders would receive about R18.1 million ($1.1 million). The payment was due on August 3, but just days before then, Labat postponed it until it released its audited financial statements.
**You don’t promise the market money and disappear: **The JSE said Labat failed to pay the dividend by the date it had set. It added that the company did not make alternative arrangements to ensure the full amount was transferred to Strate, South Africa’s central securities depository, which processes securities transactions. So, despite Labat’s objections, the JSE paused trading in its shares.
Explain like I’m new here: Buying a share means owning a tiny piece of a company. If that company decides to distribute some of its profits or reserves to its owners, that payment is called a dividend. Under South Africa’s Companies Act, directors must authorise the payment and satisfy a solvency and liquidity test; the company must still have enough assets to cover its debts and pay its bills when they fall due. Labat’s board said it met those tests. But two months later, the JSE said there was uncertainty over whether the dividend would be paid.
The JSE has had enough: This is not Labat’s first time in the penalty box. Trading of its shares was previously suspended in 2023 after the company failed to publish its financial statements on time. Trading resumed in December 2024 as part of the process around its acquisition of Classic International, a software and technology distributor.
Other companies have also faced JSE suspensions for missing reporting deadlines. Wesizwe Platinum, for example, was suspended for about a year after failing to publish its financial statements on time. Trading, for Wesizwe, resumed in June 2026.
**What happens to shareholders now? **If you own Labat shares, they still belong to you; however, you can’t trade them until the JSE lifts the suspension. And if you’re still owed a dividend, you’re now stuck waiting for Labat. The JSE has told Labat to publicly explain what happened and provide more information about how the dividend will be settled. Maybe then, after 27 years of waiting, shareholders may get some closure.
Source:
Coin Name
Current Value
Day
Month
Bitcoin $78,084
– 0.17%
+ 23.75%
Ether $2,437
– 0.82%
+ 30.47%
Teller $1.56
+ 2.24%
+ 88.06%
Solana $102.48
– 2.34%
+ 40.55%
* Data as of 06.30 AM WAT, August 31, 2026.
Flutterwave
—
Marketing & Strategic Research Specialist
— Lagos, Nigeria
Paystack
—
Senior QA Engineer
— Hybrid (Lagos, Nigeria)
Tether
—
Expansion Manager (Nigeria)
— Hybrid (Lagos, Nigeria)
Tether
—
Expansion Manager (Côte d’Ivoire)
— Remote (Yamoussoukro, Côte d’Ivoire)
Looking for more opportunities? There are additional openings on TechCabal’s job board. We’ve also cleared out outdated listings to keep opportunities fresh for job seekers. If you’re hiring and would like to feature an open role, please submit it via this form.
**Written by: **John Adoyi, Yemi Kareem, and Zia Yusuf
**Edited by: **Emmanuel Nwosu & Ganiu Oloruntade
Sign up for our insightful newsletters on the business and economy of tech in Africa.
The Next Wave
: futuristic analysis of the business of tech in Africa.
Francophone Weekly by TechCabal
: insider insights and analysis of Francophone’s tech ecosystem
P:S If you’re often missing TC Daily in your inbox, check your Promotions folder and move any edition of TC Daily from “Promotions” to your “Main” or “Primary” folder and TC Daily will always come to you.
Follow the story
