👨🏿‍🚀 Daily –  No Uber rides on May Day |

If you’re in Lagos and planning to get around town on May 1st using a ride-hailing app, we hate to inform you that you might have to cancel those plans and refamiliarize yourself with the yellow danfo buses.

Why? Ride-hailing drivers—Uber, Bolt, and inDrive—across Lagos are planning to shut things down on May 1st.

The Amalgamated Union of App-Based Transporters of Nigeria (AUATON) says drivers are fed up. Poor earnings, weak safety protections, sudden account deactivations, and platform commissions have pushed them to the edge.

This isn’t their first protest. Nigerian gig drivers have been here before—demanding lower commissions, higher base fares, and a real voice at the decision-making table. Now, they’re back with a familiar list.

Top of the agenda is fairer pay. AUATON wants base fares increased and platform commissions cut from 25% to 5%. They’re also asking for price adjustments that reflect inflation and the surging costs of fuel and vehicle maintenance. But for Uber and Bolt, raising fares risks losing riders in a price-sensitive market like Lagos. Drivers also want job security. Specifically, clearer deactivation policies and a path to appeal bans.
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This protest mirrors broader tensions in ride-hailing across Africa. In Kenya last year, driver frustration boiled over into chaos, with passengers pulled from cars and drivers boycotting trips over fare disputes. AUATON’s 5% commission demand may be far below global norms, but unless platforms find middle ground, the fallout could hit everyone—drivers, riders, and the business model holding it all together
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The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) wants to bring blockchain into the heart of Kenya’s capital markets

The Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) has launched the Kenya Digital Exchange (KDX) , a blockchain-powered platform developed in partnership with Canada’s DeFi Technologies, Valour Inc., and SovFi. The KDX will let companies tokenize and trade assets like stocks, bonds, and commodities. Think of it as the NSE… with Web3 infrastructure.

The platform will be built on the Hedera blockchain and launched in three phases, starting with design and regulation and ending with full-scale trading by mid-2026.

Here’s why it matters: The KDX is a major step toward modernizing Africa’s capital markets. KDX could make capital markets faster, cheaper, and more accessible. Companies could issue tokenized assets in primary markets, while investors get a new way to buy in. It also marks a shift in tone from Kenyan regulators—who, like their Nigerian and South African counterparts, are starting to treat blockchain as infrastructure, not a threat.

Unlike Ethereum or Solana, where most tokenized assets live without oversight, KDX will be regulated, giving Kenyan companies a compliant way to create and trade digital assets. The move follows a similar initiative by Nigerian company Zone, which launched a regulated blockchain for financial services.

Know more: Regulated blockchains—also known as permissioned blockchains—are digital ledgers with gatekeepers. Only approved players can join, and the system is usually run by a central authority or consortium. That structure makes them a safer bet for banks and regulators than free-for-all public chains.

Zoom out: Kenya now joins other countries on the continent exploring similar moves. Mauritius being one of the earliest has been running a regulatory sandbox for tokenised finance since 2018. Nigeria’s Zone is also creating a blockchain infrastructure pegged to the naira, while South Africa’s Mesh.trade is already tokenizing assets under FSCA regulation.

Everyone’s been calling it: contactless is the future of payments. Visa is betting big on it in Africa.

On the sidelines of GITEX Africa 2025, Godfrey Sullivan, Visa’s SVP for Products, Solutions, and Digital Partnerships (CEMEA), told ’s Ganiu Oloruntade that the payments giant sees tap-to-pay becoming the default way people transact in Africa, just like it has globally

In Morocco, where Visa introduced contactless payment a few years ago, 41% of transactions are now contactless. Sullivan says it’s faster (Visa transactions clear in 200 milliseconds), more secure, and more scalable than fragmented real-time systems and QR-based solutions dominating markets like Nigeria and Kenya.

But Visa’s push isn’t just about cards. It wants to embed itself deeper in Africa’s digital payments ecosystem. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, it’s rolling out Visa Pay, a real-time B2B platform. It’s also eyeing stablecoin integration and leaning hard on local partnerships, with over 1,000 issuers across the continent.

It recently backed Nigerian fintech Moniepoint. That’s a big deal for Visa, especially as local fintechs grow wary of foreign fees and are turning to cheaper local alternatives like Verve and AfriGo.

Still, Sullivan insists Visa’s growth in Africa is “only getting faster.” With a $1 billion investment earmarked for Africa by 2027, Visa is making it clear: it doesn’t just want to be your card; it wants to be the rails.

South Africa is turning up the heat on EV adoption

Last week, we told you about Zimi, the local EV company testing vehicle-to-grid (V2G) tech—a system that lets EVs both draw power from and supply it back to the grid when needed.

Now, Chinese automaker Chery plans to launch 19 new hybrid models later this year across its key markets, including South Africa. The lineup includes HEVs (hybrid electric), PHEVs (plug-in hybrid), and REEVs (range-extender electric vehicles), all debuting under its new Chery Super Hybrid (CSH) brand.

The first models—Tiggo 7 CSH, Tiggo 8 CSH, and Tiggo 9 CSH—will premiere at Auto Shanghai this year. Chery says the new hybrid engines will hit 46.5% thermal efficiency and deliver fuel consumption as low as 3 litres/100km. Not bad for a petrol-electric combo.

In South Africa, expect to see plug-in hybrid versions of the Tiggo 7 Pro, Tiggo 8 Pro, and Tiggo 9 Pro later this year. Jay Jay Botes, Chery South Africa’s GM, says the local market is a key part of their plan to scale eco-friendly mobility.

Chery will roll out hybrid platforms in phases, starting with high-performance electric to extended-range and off-road platforms.

So while full EV adoption in South Africa still faces infrastructure challenges, hybrids like these could be the transition tech automakers are betting on. And clearly, Chery is betting big.