March 2026 - Page 4 of 16

Business

MTN Group FY2025: West Africa Takes the Crown as Revenue Climbs 23%

MTN Group reports R218.5 billion in service revenue for 2025, up 23%. Nigeria overtakes South Africa as top revenue hub for the first time. West Africa ARPU and data penetration drive the shift.

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Airtel Africa FY2025: The Telecoms Rival MTN Coverage Missed

5 minute read

Business

Airtel Africa FY2025: The Telecoms Rival MTN Coverage Missed

BETAR Newsroom
March 22, 2026

Airtel Africa posted $4.955 billion in FY2025 revenue and swung to a $328 million profit. Its mobile money arm generates 21% of group revenue — five times MoMo’s share at MTN. Here’s why that gap matters.

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M-PESA's Phone Number Decision Is East Africa's Biggest Merchant Data Change in a Decade

7 minute read

Technology

M-PESA’s Phone Number Decision Is East Africa’s Biggest Merchant Data Change in a Decade

BETAR Newsroom
March 22, 2026

M-PESA begins phone number masking on March 24 for P2P transactions. By year-end, merchants won’t see full customer numbers at all. What PSPs and merchant-side fintechs need to rebuild — and why Kenya’s ODPC made this inevitable.

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Africa's Data Protection Default: Why AI Regulation Without AI Laws Falls Short

6 minute read

Technology

Africa’s Data Protection Default: Why AI Regulation Without AI Laws Falls Short

BETAR Newsroom
March 22, 2026

Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, and Rwanda are using data protection laws to govern AI by default. It is working — up to a point. Here is what data protection law cannot reach, and what the continent’s emerging dedicated AI frameworks change.

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Nigeria's Regulatory Architecture Is Building the Next Unicorns. The Hard Question Is Whether They're Innovators or Gatekeepers.

6 minute read

Technology

Nigeria’s Regulatory Architecture Is Building the Next Unicorns. The Hard Question Is Whether They’re Innovators or Gatekeepers.

BETAR Newsroom
March 22, 2026

The CBN…

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Africa Spent $2 Billion on Chinese AI Surveillance. No Country Has Laws to Govern It.

6 minute read

Technology

Africa Spent $2 Billion on Chinese AI Surveillance. No Country Has Laws to Govern It.

BETAR Newsroom
March 22, 2026

Eleven African countries spent $2B+ on Chinese-financed AI surveillance. Not one has laws that adequately govern it. BETAR maps the country-by-country regulatory gap and the compliance risks for African businesses.

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Africa's AI Data Centre Race: MTN's $240M Lagos Bet, Microsoft's Kenya Gamble, and the Energy Problem That Could Derail Both

7 minute read

Technology

Africa’s AI Data Centre Race: MTN’s $240M Lagos Bet, Microsoft’s Kenya Gamble, and the Energy Problem That Could Derail Both

BETAR Newsroom
March 22, 2026

MTN is spending $240 million on an AI-optimised data centre in Lagos. Microsoft and G42 have committed $1 billion to a geothermal-powered campus in Kenya. Google’s Johannesburg region is live and its Umoja subsea cable is coming. Africa’s data centre investment wave is real — but the continent still holds less than 1% of global compute capacity, and energy constraints may keep it that way.

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Google's African AI Push: 13 Languages Get AI Search, 21 Get Open Speech Data — But 2,000+ Are Still Waiting

5 minute read

Technology

Google’s African AI Push: 13 Languages Get AI Search, 21 Get Open Speech Data — But 2,000+ Are Still Waiting

BETAR Newsroom
March 22, 2026

In February and March 2026, Google made two distinct African language AI moves — the WAXAL open speech dataset for 21 languages and AI Overviews for 13 African languages in Search. Together they define what tech companies think African AI localisation looks like. The gap between 13 and 2,000 is the story.

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Google's African AI Push: 13 Languages Get AI Search, 21 Get Open Speech Data

5 minute read

Technology

Google’s African AI Push: 13 Languages Get AI Search, 21 Get Open Speech Data

BETAR Newsroom
March 22, 2026

Google made two announcements, six weeks apart, that together represent the most significant commitment to African-language AI in the company’s history. WAXAL released open speech data for 21 languages. AI Overviews rolled out across 13. The gap between them is the story.

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Month: March 2026

MTN Group FY2025: West Africa Takes the Crown as Revenue Climbs 23%

Airtel Africa FY2025: The Telecoms Rival MTN Coverage Missed

M-PESA’s Phone Number Decision Is East Africa’s Biggest Merchant Data Change in a Decade

Africa’s Data Protection Default: Why AI Regulation Without AI Laws Falls Short

Nigeria’s Regulatory Architecture Is Building the Next Unicorns. The Hard Question Is Whether They’re Innovators or Gatekeepers.

Africa Spent $2 Billion on Chinese AI Surveillance. No Country Has Laws to Govern It.

Google’s African AI Push: 13 Languages Get AI Search, 21 Get Open Speech Data — But 2,000+ Are Still Waiting

Google’s African AI Push: 13 Languages Get AI Search, 21 Get Open Speech Data

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