Anwo Weekly Update: August 17, 2026

It was a week of consolidation and reckoning across African tech. Telecom operators moved to buy back the infrastructure they'd once sold off, fintechs proved they could turn a profit ahead of long-awaited listings, and regulators tightened their grip on crypto even as they built out AI-driven digital identity. Meanwhile, a sobering INTERPOL report made clear that AI is reshaping the continent's cybercrime landscape just as fast as it's reshaping everything else.

MTN cleared a major hurdle in its plan to fully absorb IHS Towers, with IHS shareholders approving the merger on the first vote on August 4. The deal sees MTN acquire the roughly 75% of IHS it doesn't already own for about $2.2 billion, taking its stake to 100%. IHS operates nearly 29,000 towers across five of MTN's key African markets, and the acquisition effectively lets MTN buy back infrastructure it sold to IHS back in 2022, a bet that owning towers outright matters more as data, cloud, and AI infrastructure demand climbs. The deal is expected to add roughly R2 billion in pro-forma profit, though it will push MTN's net debt-to-EBITDA ratio up from 0.3x to 0.8x.

Jumia secured a $50 million equity injection on August 11 from the International Finance Corporation and Axian Telecom, with IFC putting in $25 million and Axian and other investors covering the rest. The cash comes at a tight moment, Jumia's balance sheet had shrunk to $48.3 million by June, but operating numbers are trending the right way, with Q2 revenue up 14% and GMV up 20%. The e-commerce giant plans to funnel the money into logistics, warehousing, and JumiaPay as it targets EBITDA break-even by Q4 2026 and full profitability in 2027.

Nigerian fintech OPay posted a $72.5 million net profit for FY2025, a reversal from a $51 million loss the prior year, as revenue jumped 161% to $536 million. The figures, disclosed in investment documents tied to a planned US listing, also showed gross transaction value more than doubling to $358 billion and monthly active users climbing to 39.3 million. OPay is reportedly eyeing a roughly $4 billion IPO valuation, with JPMorgan, Citi, and Deutsche Bank involved, and Nigeria still accounts for 88% of its revenue.

Nigeria's Digital Assets Coalition is pushing back hard against tax guidelines that took effect August 3, warning they could drive the country's $92 billion crypto market — nearly triple South Africa's, offshore. The rules impose a 1.5% stamp duty on every naira-to-crypto conversion and a 1% withholding tax on sales, charged regardless of whether a trade was profitable. The coalition points to India and Kenya, where similar transaction-based levies pushed trading volume offshore rather than raising revenue, and is calling on Nigeria's tax authority to shift to taxing realized gains instead.

INTERPOL's African Cyberthreat Assessment Report 2026 found AI implicated in 55% of reported cybercrime across the continent, with financial losses more than doubling since 2024 to $484 million and confirmed victims rising to 87,000. South Africa alone accounted for 92% of ransomware detections tracked by one INTERPOL partner. Perhaps most alarming: criminals are now using AI to generate synthetic identities capable of bypassing biometric verification to open bank accounts and register SIM cards — exploiting the lack of real-time data sharing between banks, telecoms, and law enforcement.

South Africa's Home Affairs department confirmed it's now building a functional prototype of its national digital ID system while public comment continues on draft regulations published in May. The credential, delivered through the planned MyMzansi platform and backed by biometric verification, would carry the same legal weight as a physical ID and is intended to eventually extend into banking and other digital services — though the rollout has already slipped past its original end-of-2025 target.