Victoria from Techpoint highlights significant developments across Africa's tech landscape, focusing on Safaricom's M-Pesa privacy enhancements, the impending shutdown of Showmax, and Starlink's launch in the Central African Republic.

Safaricom is taking a crucial step to address fraud risks and enhance user privacy within its M-Pesa platform. In Africa's rapidly evolving fintech ecosystem, data privacy has become a paramount concern. Traditionally, sending money via mobile platforms often exposed users' full phone numbers, leading to issues like spam, scams, and unwanted contact. Safaricom is rolling out phone number masking for M-Pesa transactions, which means only partial digits and limited identity details will be visible to recipients. Full details can be requested by recipients, but are subject to the sender's approval. This initiative aligns with the principle of “data minimisation” for everyday payments, whether for merchants via Till or PayBill, or peer-to-peer transfers. Approved by the Central Bank of Kenya, this move is critical given that M-Pesa processes tens of millions of transactions daily, making it a vital financial infrastructure across Africa. Masking phone numbers is expected to significantly reduce fraud, unsolicited communication, and social engineering attempts, reflecting a broader shift towards “privacy by design” systems as mobile money platforms expand into diverse services like savings and stock trading.

In the entertainment sector, the subscription video-on-demand model is facing challenges in Africa, as evidenced by the announced shutdown of Showmax. Investment analysts have questioned the scalability of subscription-heavy models on the continent due to factors such as low card penetration, high data costs, and a consumer preference for flexible, pay-as-you-go spending. Canal+ and MultiChoice Group have confirmed that Showmax will cease taking new subscribers from March 31 and will fully shut down by April 30, 2026. Showmax's content, including its Originals, will be integrated into the DStv Stream app, initially with a dedicated section. This transition effectively pushes customers up a pricing ladder, as affordable Showmax subscriptions (e.g., R50–R99 monthly) are being replaced by DStv packages starting at R299, without a direct streaming alternative at similar price points. This change is significant because Showmax was one of the few platforms offering relatively affordable access to African content and live football on mobile, particularly for younger and mobile-first audiences. The shutdown raises questions about the viability of global subscription streaming models in African markets. Showmax, once envisioned as MultiChoice’s growth engine, became a financial burden, exacerbated by ballooning losses and a costly partnership with NBCUniversal, signaling the end of an experiment that did not fully align with market realities.

Meanwhile, in the Central African Republic (CAR), Starlink has officially launched to address the country's severe internet access issues and bridge the digital divide. With an estimated 88% of its population offline in 2025, CAR's government is leveraging satellite technology to provide connectivity. Starlink’s commercial launch, following regulatory approval, is set to deliver high-speed, low-latency internet to areas beyond the reach of traditional telecom infrastructure. This allows CAR to potentially leapfrog conventional infrastructure development cycles, providing immediate access via satellite rather than waiting years for fibre or mobile towers. Improved internet access is crucial for expanding digital services in education, healthcare, e-commerce, and financial tools, enabling businesses to reach new markets and individuals to participate in the digital economy. While satellite players like Starlink are competing to close Africa’s significant connectivity gap, challenges such as high hardware costs and affordability remain, prompting questions about whether satellite internet can scale broadly across the continent or if it will primarily serve as a premium solution.