All our stories, in order, Dakar time (GMT).
Monday 12 October
Senegal, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Guinea and Benin have adopted joint guidelines to provide a framework for the development of artificial intelligence. The aim is to promote responsible AI that is tailored to African realities and less reliant on rules devised elsewhere. The challenge now is to translate these principles into concrete measures.
Friday 9 October
Founded in 2024, NeoFleet Capital doesn’t lend to drivers but to the people who run fleets. It has just closed a $4 million first round and wants to grow from 650 to 5,000 vehicles by the end of 2027.
Six years after putting its first 76 cars on Lagos roads, the mobility unicorn is shutting its Nigerian business and leaving drivers vehicles valued at ₦35 billion. A generous gesture, and an admission that a model built on a single partner, Uber, no longer worked.
Solar power, electric motorbikes, online payments: African startups raised $260.3 million in September. That is twice as much as a year earlier, but 85% of it went to ten companies. Senegal got just $1.3 million.
Thursday 8 October
Since 7 October, anyone can submit an image, video or audio file to synthid.com to find out whether it bears the invisible watermark of AI systems from Google, OpenAI, NVIDIA or Kakao. Here’s how to use it – and, crucially, the limitations of a tool that doesn’t detect everything.
Wednesday 7 October
The Dakar-based refurbisher of professional printers has secured $1.36 million from Saviu Ventures and its own managers. It is a first for this Francophone Africa-focused fund, which is backing an industrial business rather than an app, with Côte d’Ivoire next in its sights.
Tuesday 6 October
While installing Senegal’s Youth Advisory Council, the president urged young people to drop TikTok, Telegram and Instagram when they only serve to kill time, and to behave better online. The message drew strong reactions… mostly on social media.
Monday 5 October
In Kinshasa, digital technology is starting to play a bigger part in thinking about the city’s future. The Congolese government and the organisers of Expo Béton want to explore how technology can improve mobility, public services and urban planning.
Sunday 4 October
The BCEAO is revising the fees for its PI-SPI platform less than a year after its launch. From 2 November 2026, domestic transfers of up to 8,000 CFA francs a day will remain free, while transactions above that threshold may be charged up to 0.8%. A change that could reshuffle the cards for mobile money and digital payments across WAEMU.
Saturday 3 October
Ghana is seeing strong growth in digital payments, driven largely by mobile money. But this transformation is also widening the attack surface for cybercriminals. The authorities want to strengthen the security of the digital financial sector while keeping users’ trust.
Friday 2 October
A critical vulnerability affecting Fortinet FortiMail is currently being exploited by attackers. CISA has added it to its catalogue of exploited flaws, and administrators concerned are urged to apply the security measures recommended by Fortinet without delay.
Thursday 1 October
A month after succeeding Tim Cook, Apple’s new chief wants to ship products more often, flatten the hierarchy and cut costs. Management jobs are already going, according to Bloomberg. Inside the company, the pressure is rising.
Wednesday 30 September
Authorised in November 2025, launched in February and billed as a pillar of the state’s digital strategy, Starlink had its licence suspended on 7 September after a legal challenge by Orange Sonatel. The story of a showdown that goes well beyond satellite internet.
In its report on the hack of France’s tax administration (DGFiP), the cybersecurity agency ANSSI describes an attack with no genius involved: credentials stolen from personal computers, portals without two-factor authentication and data thefts nobody noticed. Commonplace flaws found in many administrations, in Africa too.
At the White House, some twenty AI bosses signed a “morally binding” pledge to regulate themselves. No federal law, no agreement with China. Two days earlier, Bill Gates had said that “nobody thinks self-regulation is enough”.
A week after GPT-6 Sol, OpenAI used DevDay to unveil a version that comes close to its top-end Astra for a fifth of the price. Good news for developers, in Africa too. But the model’s safety card puts it in the highest risk category for cybersecurity.