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The Daily Savannah · Edition Nº 60

Loan apps must now explain decisions their AI makes, and tell you when you are dealing with a bot

The Daily Savannah · · 6 stories

Kenya's new lending rules make apps explain credit decisions their AI makes and multiply licence fees twentyfold, Safaricom Ethiopia nears break-even mostly thanks to a calmer birr while M-PESA Ethiopia loses active users, Quickmart's IPO is 122.7% subscribed ahead of its listing on 12 November, Qatar offers foreign founders up to US$5.5 million to move to Doha, the ITU counts two billion people still offline, and Paratus brings Starlink to businesses in Lesotho.

Featured · Fintech

Loan apps must now explain decisions their AI makes, and tell you when you are dealing with a bot

Regulation 60 of the Central Bank of Kenya (Non-Deposit Taking Credit Providers) Regulations, 2026 requires lenders that use AI to make credit decisions to explain automated outcomes to customers, to say when a customer is interacting with AI, and to keep human oversight, with expectations on bias, accuracy and accountability. The regulations were gazetted on 29 September as Legal Notice No. 191 and extend CBK oversight from digital credit providers to all non-deposit-taking lenders. They also raise the cost of being in the business: a licence application now costs KSh100,000, up from KSh5,000, the annual fee for licensed providers rises from KSh20,000 to KSh500,000, registered providers pay KSh250,000 a year, and paying late carries a KSh1 million penalty. Separately, the CBK has proposed that lenders stop raising credit limits automatically and instead reassess a borrower's current finances before any increase. The market is growing fast. Digital lenders' outstanding loans rose from KSh110.1 billion in December 2025 to KSh153.8 billion in June 2026, across 8.9 million accounts averaging KSh17,281, and the CBK had licensed 281 digital credit providers by September. Most loans are under KSh20,000 and run from a week to two months. Repayment is the worry: in the 2024 FinAccess survey, 16.6% of borrowers had defaulted without repaying anything, up from 10.7% in 2021. If an app turns you down or cuts your limit, you can now ask why, and it has to answer.

Sources: TechTrends

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TELCOS

Safaricom Ethiopia is close to break-even, mostly because the birr calmed down, and M-PESA Ethiopia lost 510,000 active users

Its EBITDA loss shrank from KES 12.56 billion to KES 434.4 million in the six months to September, against a promise to break even by March 2027. About 69% of the improvement came from smaller currency losses, KES 1.07 billion against KES 9.39 billion a year earlier, but service revenue also rose 71.6% to KES 10.6 billion and 30-day active customers grew 43.4% to 12.2 million. M-PESA Ethiopia is the weak spot: three-month active users fell from 5.69 million in June to 5.18 million in September, and it earned just KES 10.1 million in six months. Safaricom doesn't say why users left.

Tech-ish

MARKETS

Quickmart's IPO is 122.7% subscribed, with foreign investors asking for three times their share

The supermarket chain received 18,492 applications worth Sh18.4 billion against a Sh15 billion target, at Sh7.50 a share. Foreign investors applied for Sh3.57 billion against a Sh1.2 billion allocation, retail investors from Kenya and the region asked for Sh2.38 billion, 32.6% more than reserved, and cornerstone investors took almost exactly their Sh7.2 billion. Quickmart is due to list on the Nairobi Securities Exchange on 12 November, which has added 333,043 investors this year to reach 2.36 million.

TechTrends

FUNDING

Qatar offers foreign founders up to US$5.5 million, a visa and subsidised housing to build in Doha

The Startup Qatar Investment Programme, run by the state-owned Qatar Development Bank, has two tracks: up to US$1.1 million for early-stage founders with at least a working product, and up to US$5.5 million for companies at least three years old. Money is released in stages as milestones are met, so it isn't a grant, and QDB hasn't said whether it takes equity. You have to set up or expand in Qatar. Target sectors include fintech, AI, agritech, health, education and enterprise software.

TechCabal

CONNECTIVITY

The world has 6.3 billion internet users, and two billion people are still offline

The ITU's Facts and Figures 2026 puts internet use at 76% of the world's population, up from 74%, but at 93% in high-income countries against 32% in low-income ones. 5G reaches 86% of people in rich countries and 4% in the poorest. Men are still more likely to be online than women, 79% to 74%, and city dwellers more than rural ones, 82% to 63%.

TechTrends

SATELLITE

Paratus starts selling Starlink internet to businesses in Lesotho

Paratus Lesotho, a joint venture between Paratus Group and Real Image Lesotho led by managing director Makali Lepholisa, is an authorised Starlink reseller and will combine the satellite service with Paratus's own network, with local support. Lesotho's mountains make fibre and towers expensive to build outside the towns.

TechTrends

KSh500,000a licensed lender's new annual fee, up from KSh20,000
KSh153.8bnowed to Kenya's digital lenders in June, up from KSh110.1bn in December
122.7%Quickmart's IPO subscription, ahead of listing on 12 November
2bnpeople still offline worldwide, says the ITU

The Daily Savannah is The Tech Hut's automated daily digest of Kenya's tech ecosystem, researched and written by Claude every evening at 9:00 PM Nairobi time. Every story links to its original source; figures are as reported by the cited outlets.