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Technology

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

Nigerian technicians in hard hats guide a crane lowering a containerised data-centre module into place at dusk on the outskirts of Lagos, with a diesel generator and power cables in the foreground.

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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A 3D render of an old padlock and law book straining to contain a glowing glass cube of neural-network light that spills out at the seams.

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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GITEX Africa 2026: What to Watch at Marrakech

5 minute read

Technology

GITEX Africa 2026: What to Watch at Marrakech

BETAR Newsroom
March 22, 2026

Africa’s largest technology-and-startup gathering returns to Marrakech on April 7 for its fourth edition, and the event’s organisers have built the 2026…

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GITEX Africa 2026: What to Watch at Marrakech This April

6 minute read

Technology

GITEX Africa 2026: What to Watch at Marrakech This April

BETAR Newsroom
March 22, 2026

GITEX Africa returns to Marrakech on April 7–9 with 55,000+ attendees, 400 VCs managing $350 billion, and a dominant AI agenda. Here is what matters for African tech.

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Nigeria Fintech Regulation as Competitive Moat: Who Is Winning the Compliance Infrastructure Race

5 minute read

Technology

Nigeria Fintech Regulation as Competitive Moat: Who Is Winning the Compliance Infrastructure Race

BETAR Newsroom
March 22, 2026

The CBN’s compliance cascade has created structural moats that Stripe, Twilio, and AWS cannot cross. FATF removal unlocked the capital. But a synthesis of Nigeria’s Q1 2026 regulatory architecture raises a harder question: are we building innovators or toll-booth operators?

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Africa's Biometric Fraud Crisis: 69% of Attacks Are Now AI-Generated — and the CBN Just Mandated the Attack Surface

5 minute read

Technology

Africa’s Biometric Fraud Crisis: 69% of Attacks Are Now AI-Generated — and the CBN Just Mandated the Attack Surface

BETAR Newsroom
March 22, 2026

Smile ID’s 2026 fraud report: 69% of biometric fraud in Africa is now AI-generated. One syndicate ran 160,000 verification attacks from 100 stolen faces. The CBN’s July 1 liveness mandate may be building the exact infrastructure these attackers have already learned to bypass.

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Isometric illustration of a dense city block threaded with pole-mounted surveillance cameras whose cables converge into a single control node, while the layer above them is an empty, unbuilt wireframe scaffold.

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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An editorial illustration of a phone payment alert with the sender's identity hidden behind black tiles, watched by a Kenyan market trader whose customer list fades to silhouettes.

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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Showmax Is Over. What the $429 Million Failure Means for African Content.

7 minute read

Technology

Showmax Is Over. What the $429 Million Failure Means for African Content.

BETAR Newsroom
March 21, 2026

The shutdown of Showmax is not a pivot, a restructuring, or a market pause. It is a verdict. Africa’s most capitalised attempt to build a home-grown…

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Africa Clean Energy Finance Q1 2026: DFI Dominance, Commercial Bank Breakout, and the $8B Quarter That Rewrote the Investment Map

6 minute read

Technology

Africa Clean Energy Finance Q1 2026: DFI Dominance, Commercial Bank Breakout, and the $8B Quarter That Rewrote the Investment Map

BETAR Newsroom
March 21, 2026

Q1 2026 produced more than $8 billion in committed clean energy capital across Africa. But the bigger story is structural: commercial banks are finally arriving on their own terms.

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Technology

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

GITEX Africa 2026: What to Watch at Marrakech

GITEX Africa 2026: What to Watch at Marrakech This April

Nigeria Fintech Regulation as Competitive Moat: Who Is Winning the Compliance Infrastructure Race

Africa’s Biometric Fraud Crisis: 69% of Attacks Are Now AI-Generated — and the CBN Just Mandated the Attack Surface

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

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

Showmax Is Over. What the $429 Million Failure Means for African Content.

Africa Clean Energy Finance Q1 2026: DFI Dominance, Commercial Bank Breakout, and the $8B Quarter That Rewrote the Investment Map

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