Author: Kaluka wanjala

Cellulant has appointed Darren Makarem as its new Chief Financial Officer. Makarem brings more than two decades of experience across fintech and digital platforms. He joins Cellulant after holding senior roles at global companies including Agoda, where he served as Global CFO and oversaw a payments network handling approximately $12 billion in annual transaction volume. “Darren doesn’t just understand the numbers; he understands the customer,” said Peter O’Toole, CEO of Cellulant. “His experience as a high-volume user of payment services gives him a unique perspective on what businesses need to grow.” His career also includes leadership roles at Binance, where…

New data from a report by Bolt in partnership with Ipsos shows that over 50% of gig workers in Kenya now rely on it as their primary source of income. According to the report, Kenya’s gig economy now supports approximately 1.5 million workers. This accounts for about 5–6% of the country’s labour force. The sector generates an estimated $1.09 billion (KES ~140 billion) annually. Soyinka Witness, Strategy Director, Ipsos said, “The findings from this study highlight the increasingly important role platform-based work is playing in Kenya’s evolving labour market. More than half of ride-hailing drivers rely on these platforms as…

Equity Group has reported the highest profit in Kenya’s corporate history. The bank has posted a 55% jump in profit after tax to KSh75.5 billion for the financial year ending 2025, up from KSh48.8 billion the previous year. Total income rose 12% to KSh217.7 billion, supported by a 17% increase in net interest income and a 7% growth in non-funded income. The Group’s balance sheet expanded to KSh1.97 trillion, with customer deposits reaching KSh1.46 trillion. Over 98% of customer transactions were conducted outside branches, with 88.4% happening through digital channels. This is a similar trend from what we reported a…

Cassava Technologies has announced the deployment of its AI factory, which is powered by NVIDIA AI platform in South Africa. The company has laos announced plans to scale the same to Kenya, Nigeria, Egypt and Morocco.  Speaking on this, Ahmed El Beheiry, Group COO and Group Chief Technology & AI Officer at Cassava Technologies. Said, “For Cassava, building Africa’s AI ecosystem is an act of empowerment, not just a technological milestone. As the continent’s first NVIDIA Cloud Partner, we are ensuring that African businesses aren’t just consumers of global tech—they are the architects of it.” “Our goal is to give…

Safaricom has entered into a strategic partnership with Indosat Ooredoo Hutchison aimed at advancing inclusive digital ecosystems through artificial intelligence, fintech innovation and smarter network investments. The partnership is focused on practical use cases that can directly improve customer experience, strengthen digital trust and optimise network planning. Both companies plan to deploy advanced AI-driven decision-making to deliver more proactive and personalised customer engagement. This includes predictive care systems capable of identifying and resolving network issues before they impact users. It also includes smarter product recommendations for prepaid customers. The partnership will also explore conversational AI tools designed to make customer…

Safaricom is rolling out a major privacy upgrade to M-Pesa that will change how customer information is shared in transactions. Starting March 24, M-Pesa users will see less personal information in transaction notifications, with Safaricom introducing data minimisation across peer-to-peer payments. With data minimization, only two names (first and last) will be displayed and the phone numbers will be partially masked (e.g. 0722***000). Key transaction details like amount, date and reference number will remain unchanged. Why Make the Changes According to Sharon Holi, the move is driven directly by customer concerns. “We receive regular feedback from our customers… one of…

Safaricom is preparing to introduce Tap-to-Pay functionality for M-Pesa in Kenya, according to its CEO, Peter Ndegwa.   The feature is already live in Tanzania and will allow users to make contactless payments by simply tapping their phones. This will eliminate the need to enter a PIN for smaller transactions. The company is still testing this feature internally and roll out is expected soon. How It Will Work According to CEO Peter Ndegwa, users will be able to: For higher-value payments, users will still be required to enter their M-Pesa PIN and this helps maintain the balance between convenience and security.…

Standard Bank Group has once again been ranked as Africa’s Most Valuable Banking Brand by Brand Finance, marking the fifth consecutive year the lender has secured the top spot. Brand Finance evaluates more than 5,000 of the world’s largest brands annually. It assesses factors such as brand strength, financial performance and stakeholder perception. Standard Bank’s continued dominance reflects a combination of consistent delivery, strong brand purpose and its ability to inspire confidence and growth among clients and employees. “Five consecutive years as Africa’s Most Valuable Banking Brand is not something we take for granted,” said Sim Tshabalala. “The recognition affirms…

Nutanix has announced a new Agentic AI solution, a full-stack platform designed to help organisations build, deploy and scale AI agents in production environments. The solution is built to address a growing challenge in the AI space: while building models and agents is becoming easier, managing the infrastructure required to run thousands of them securely and efficiently is becoming significantly more complex. According to Nutanix, enterprise AI adoption is hitting a tipping point. Instead of running a few isolated AI models, companies are now looking to deploy “AI factories”—large-scale environments where multiple AI agents operate simultaneously, interact with enterprise systems,…

Samsung has announced that it has maintained its leadership in the audio-visual sector as the world’s top soundbar brand for the 12th year in a row. According to new research from Future Source, Samsung captured 21.5% of global soundbar revenue and 19.7% of unit volume in 2025, continuing its leadership streak that began in 2014. This milestone, along with two decades of global TV leadership,[1] reinforces Samsung’s position at the forefront of the home entertainment industry. Samsung’s sustained success in the soundbar market is driven by advanced audio technology, immersive sound and seamless integration with Samsung TVs. Building on this foundation,…