Author: John Nyabuto

MoneyGram has launched MGUSD, a native US dollar stablecoin. This is designed to power its global payments infrastructure and expand access to digital dollar-based financial services for cross-border money transfers. The stablecoin will serve as the foundation of MoneyGram’s blockchain-based payments stack. It will enable users to hold, send and convert dollar-denominated balances through a self-custodial wallet embedded in the MoneyGram app. MGUSD launches in the United States first but there are plans to expand it globally. “The stablecoin market has largely focused on the asset itself. MoneyGram is taking a fundamentally different approach. Starting with our distribution platform, we’re using stablecoin as a…

Binance has announced the appointment of Sammy Mutua as the new General Manager for Africa. Mutua brings over two decades of experience in the financial services industry in Africa. He has previously worked and held senior leadership positions at M-Pesa Africa, Visa Sub-Saharan Africa and Letshego Group. Mutua will work closely with regulators, industry players and institutional partners to support the development of sustainable digital asset ecosystems as part of his new role. His focus will include building trust, strengthening collaboration, and identifying use cases where blockchain can deliver tangible value. “Africa represents one of the most important regions for…

In its latest Industry Trends report, TheBoardroom Africa argues that the era of expansion-led growth is giving way to what it calls “institutional proof”. This is a model where performance, governance and sustainability take precedence over narrative-driven growth. Drawing insights from 30 senior leaders across more than 20 sectors including, financial services, healthcare, energy and technology, the report highlights a major shift in how capital is deployed across the continent. Contributors such as Omoyemi Akerele, Beatrice Murage, Steve Cadigan, Lavina Ramkissoon and Sangu Delle point to four structural shifts reshaping Africa’s economic trajectory. One of the most notable changes is…

ACI Worldwide, an original innovator in global payments technology, today announced the extension of its long-standing partnership with UBX Tanzania Limited, Tanzania’s leading national payment service provider. The extended partnership marks a significant milestone in a relationship that spans nearly two decades and is focused on strengthening infrastructure resilience, enhancing scalability and enabling innovation to support Tanzania’s rapidly evolving digital economy. UBX currently powers the core payments infrastructure for 18 banks in Tanzania, supporting a nationwide network of over 250 ATMs and processing more than 1.3 million transactions monthly. Through this extended collaboration, UBX is positioned to accelerate the onboarding…

Tanzanian fintech, Swahilies, has been granted a Payment Service Provider (PSP) license by the Central Bank of Tanzania. The fintech announced the development via LinkedIn, noting that it has worked with more than 15,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through its bookkeeping and embedded finance solutions. If you have a startup you want featured on TechArena, let us know through this contact form here. With the new license, Swahilies will now be able to develop and roll out its own financial products in partnership with licensed institutions. It will also be able to scale services designed for higher transaction volumes. “This license now…

Tata Motors has announced the launch of new electric trucks for the Kenyan market. The company unveiled four electric vehicle (EV) models, including tippers, pick-ups, and mini-trucks. These trucks are targeting industries such as logistics, construction and mining. Tata plans to begin by testing the vehicles locally with select customers before moving toward a wider rollout and eventual local assembly. Tata currently assembles vehicles in Kenya through Associated Vehicle Assemblers (AVA) and says its EV strategy will follow a similar path, positioning Kenya as a potential hub for electric commercial vehicle production in the region. This comes as commercial transport…

Payoneer has announced an extension of its strategic partnership with Upwork, marking 15 years of collaboration supporting the global freelance economy. Under the renewed agreement, Payoneer will continue to serve as a primary wallet and “Direct to Local Bank” payout partner for Upwork, supporting both existing and new international Upwork customers across Africa, Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East—backed by Payoneer’s reach across 190 countries and territories. The collaboration also marks a new phase of joint innovation. Upwork will join Payoneer as a Design Partner to explore stablecoin-enabled payouts to help address rising demand from freelancers seeking faster, more flexible access to…

In conjunction with its participation at the AI Everything Kenya x GITEX Kenya conference, global cybersecurity company, Kaspersky, has revealed that from January to the beginning of May 2026, Kaspersky solutions detected more than 92,000 attacks of malware and potentially unwanted applications worldwide disguised as popular Artificial Intelligence (AI) agents and AI services. Cybercriminals exploited trusted brands to lure victims into downloading malicious files, with fake ChatGPT applications accounting for 49% of all detected attacks, while Claude and Gemini each represented 18%.  Since the beginning of the year, Kaspersky researchers have identified more than 15,000 samples of malware masquerading as agentic AI software, including…

Westcon-Comstor has unveiled OneSOC, a new vendor-agnostic, white-label Security Operations Centre (SOC) service designed to help channel partners deliver advanced cybersecurity services under their own brand without the need for upfront investment. The SOC market is projected to grow from $47 billion last year to $104 billion by 2035. Entering the SOC space has traditionally been difficult for many partners. Building an in-house SOC requires significant capital expenditure, access to scarce cybersecurity talent and the complexity of managing multiple tools, telemetry streams and workflows. OneSOC aims to eliminate these barriers. The platform makes it easier for partners to quickly launch…

TikTok has released its Q4 2025 Community Guidelines Enforcement Report, highlighting its continuous commitment to fostering a safe and trusted space for its users. In the fourth quarter of 2025, TikTok removed 820,552 videos in Kenya for violating its Community Guidelines. 99.9% of these videos were proactively removed before anyone reported them, while 98.4% were taken down within 24 hours of posting. These figures underscore TikTok’s continued investment in advanced detection systems and rapid response mechanisms designed to limit the spread of harmful content. Additionally, TikTok banned 108,752 accounts in Kenya for policy violations. A significant portion of these ,…