Airtel Africa has announced plans to list shares on the Uganda Securities Exchange.
The company plans to sell 20% of its shares—equivalent to 8 billion shares— to the public via an initial public offering and It will do this through its subsidiary in Uganda, Airtel Uganda Limited.
Airtel Africa stated that the offer is expected to result in significant local ownership of Airtel Uganda Ltd., prioritising Ugandan investors. Additionally, this initiative is anticipated to play a role in advancing the development of the capital markets within Uganda.
The shares will be made available to investors through conventional channels as well as the Airtel Money platform.


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Kenya’s National Assembly is considering a petition to ban the social media platform, TikTok. Bob Ndolo, CEO of the digital consulting firm Bridget Connect Consultancy, submitted the petition to the assembly.
Ndolo, says the country’s Communications Authority has failed to regulate the social media platform, which he claims is promoting violence, explicit sexual content, hate speech, and offensive behaviour among the youth.
The assembly is considering the petition but has suggested that a complete ban may be impossible due to the growing socioeconomic significance of the platform among young people.
Ndolo says that the lack of regulation and the app’s addictive nature could cause a decline in academic performance and a rise in mental health issues among Kenya’s young people.

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The Central Bank of Nigeria has shared new guidelines for the sale of FX by Bureau De Change operators in the country, ending a 25-month ban. The apex bank is hoping that the new policy will stabilise Nigeria’s FX market.
Nigeria’s Central Bank is ending a two-year ban on FX sales to the Bureau De Change operators in its newest move to stabilise Nigeria’s volatile FX market.
The CBN says the spread on buying and selling of FX by BDCs will fail within a range -2.5% to +2.5% of the FX window’s average rate from the previous day. The naira jumped this week, exchanging for N855/$1 on the parallel market as of Friday morning and trading at around N744 on the I&E window.
The CBN will also require BDCs to submit periodic financial reports on the Financial Institution Forex Rendition System.

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The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation a statutory body that protects depositors’ funds, might investigate the directors of 183 banks whose licenses were revoked to determine if financial malpractice contributed to the revocation.
The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation says that the Inter-Agency Task Force may soon be called to investigate the conduct of the directors of the 183 microfinance banks and Primary Mortgage Banks that have had their licences revoked. Notable institutions within this group are Eyowo and Purple.
Bello Hassan, the managing director and chief executive of the NDIC, also noted that the agency is already taking legal action against suspected defaulters.

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India’s ambitious push for self-sufficiency in mobile phone assembling is yielding results. India shipped 2 billion domestically assembled smartphones and feature phones between 2014 to 2022 as part of its Make in India initiative.
A staggering 98% of all mobile phone shipments within the Indian market in 2022 were domestically produced and 16% of the production was exported, according to Hong Kong-headquartered market and research firm Counterpoint.
Counterpoint says it took India just two years to assemble the last 500 million smartphones and feature phones, a milestone that has cemented India’s position as the world’s second-largest mobile phone producer.

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The Cyber Administration of China released a new proposal that will reduce screen time for minors to two hours.
The Chinese government implemented new laws that limited the number of hours minors can spend gaming online.
Minors were barred from gaming during the weekdays, and weekend gaming was limited to three hours.
Douyin—China’s alternative to TikTok—also implemented new policies that limited the amount of time children under 14 could spend on the app to 40 minutes per day.
Internet service providers and creator platforms have been urged to create content that disseminates core socialist values and forges a sense of community of the Chinese nation.

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Safaricom Ethiopia has bagged significant funding from the World Bank’s private investment arm for its greenfield telecommunications project.
The telecom finalised an agreement with the International Finance Corporation and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, to receive $257.4 million in funding.
The IFC is providing a loan of $100 million to Safaricom and investing $157.4 million Ksh22.5 billion in Global Partnership for Ethiopia BV.
This investment will give the IFC a smaller ownership stake in GPE, with Safaricom PLC remaining the major shareholder.
The investment is intended to support Safaricom Ethiopia’s ongoing greenfield telecommunications project to deploy and operate 4G and 5G mobile networks across the country.


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South Africa’s competition regulator has rejected Vodacom’s acquisition of Maziv, a holding company that owns Dark Fibre Africa, the country’s second-largest fibre network operator.
The competition commission of South Africa has recommended against Vodacom’s acquisition of Maziv, a holding company whose assets include fibre network operators Dark Fibre Africa and Vumatel.
The commission stated that the public interest commitments provided by the merger parties did not outweigh the competition concerns.

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Nigeria’s Central Bank has published its audited financial statement for the first time in years, weeks after President Tinubu appointed a special investigator to examine the bank.
Nigeria’s Central Bank has published its consolidated financial statements for 2015 through 2022. The apex bank has made its audited financial statements publicly available for the first time in seven years.
Weeks after Emefiele was suspended, President Tinubu appointed a special investigator to examine CBN’s operations. Jim Obazee, a former CEO of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, was appointed to set up a team and lead the probe.

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Payment processor Mastercard Inc. has agreed to buy a minority stake in the fintech business of MTN Group Ltd., a major telecom company in Africa.
MTN’s CEO, Ralph Mupita, says that they’re finalising the investment arrangements, The cornerstone of MTN’s fintech endeavours is its mobile money product, MoMo, which has been valued at $5.2 billion, nearly 40% of MTN’s total market capitalisation.
This follows Mastercard’s $100 million investment in Airtel Mobile Commerce BV, the holding company for Airtel Africa’s mobile money operations.
Mastercard has previously connected its virtual payment service to MTN wallets, enabling MTN customers to make international payments online without needing a bank account.

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