👨🏿‍🚀 Daily – No more Shein-nanigans |

Happy pre-TGIF.

Spotify Wrapped—the only “Wrapped” anyone actually cares about (catch your sub, YouTube Music fans)—is back, which means it’s officially judgement season for all your 2025 listening habits. My only gripe is that Harlem Shake didn’t trend among my party invites; I take this failure personally.

Let’s dive in.

—Emmanuel

South Africa is starting to take online complaints seriously. The country’s National Consumer Commission (NCC) has launched a probe into Chinese e-commerce giants, Shein and Temu, which entered the market in 2020 and 2024, respectively, looking into potential violations of the Consumer Protection Act.

What are they investigating? Launched in November 2025, the probe is investigating the Chinese e-commerce giants’ marketing claims relative to product quality, labelling, and hidden (platform) fees. The NCC said both companies were notified of the investigation and subsequently confirmed their cooperation.

Who snitched? Technically, no one. The investigation was prompted by online complaints from customers about Shein and Temu. If Shein and Temu are found guilty of the customer allegations, they will be required to pay fines up to R1 million ($58,000) or 10% of their annual turnover in South Africa. Worse, company directors could face jail time if they’re unable to prove that the claims are insubstantial.

This isn’t the first time the companies have clashed with regulators. In 2024, South Africa introduced new tax laws that closed loopholes that allowed companies to drop-ship packages valued at less than R500 ($28.12) from Chinese suppliers to South African consumers without paying value-added tax (VAT). Some international e-commerce companies were exploiting this loophole to avoid paying duties on small-package items, and Shein and Temu were allegedly part of this gang. 

International companies lost their pricing advantage because higher taxes made their goods more expensive, reducing the price gap with local retailers, and customers refused to pay more. Regulators now want Shein and Temu, e-commerce players that came in with a lot of glitz, to be more grounded and compete fairly. The tax change does that; the probe will serve as another corrective measure.

Takealot, the Naspers-owned South African retail giant, is testing “Get it Now,” a new instant-delivery service in Johannesburg, Pretoria, and Cape Town, promising customers can receive a wide range of products in minutes. The rollout builds on TakealotNOW, its on-demand platform first piloted over two years ago, and leverages the vast delivery network of Mr D.

The retailer’s experiment signals that e-commerce in South Africa is shifting from next-day and same-day deliveries to instant gratification, with last-mile customers being the obvious beneficiaries. Takealot said the launch for the “Get it Now” service is inching closer, but did not reveal how customers have been reacting to the pilot.

CEO Frederik Zietsman said customers value speed and convenience, and instant delivery is quickly becoming the norm in South Africa.

What does a ‘delivery in minutes’ system mean for the market? First, it challenges competitors to upgrade their delivery speed or risk losing relevance. Second, it highlights the value of data-driven, location-specific stock. Takealot says it is not simply offering faster delivery, but it is also tailoring product ranges to different neighbourhoods, reflecting local preferences and consumption patterns.

Takealot is making a bet that, in e-commerce, businesses that can combine speed, choice, and local relevance (hyperlocal delivery) will capture customer loyalty. What’s left to show is the result of its new thesis once it launches the service. Takealot already records about one million monthly deliveries, which brought its revenue to R14.95 billion ($872 million) in local currency terms, in 2024; yet it made a $13 million loss on earnings before interest and taxes. 

An operational efficiency rejig—focusing on high-brow areas like it is doing—could be the breath of fresh air it needs for its 2026 profitability target.

Nigeria’s Central Bank (CBN) is not letting banks and financial institutions breathe. On Tuesday, the regulator released new cash-management directives to curb the economy’s heavy reliance on cash.

So, what do the new rules say? From January 2026, all limits and fees on cash deposits are gone, and customers can deposit any amount of money without penalties. Withdrawals now come with a weekly cap of ₦500,000 ($345) for individuals and ₦5 million ($3,454) for corporates, with a 3% and 5% fee, respectively, kicking in for amounts above those limits. This fee will be split 40/60 between CBN and the financial institution involved.

Banks also have homework, as they must make monthly reports on all transactions exceeding limits and keep separate ledgers for processing charges before sharing them with the CBN. Government revenue accounts and primary mortgage banks keep their ‘no withdrawal limit’ privileges, but embassies and aid agencies are now under the same rules as everyone else.

All this comes just after the regulator released proposed guidelines on authorised push payment (APP) fraud that require customers to report scams within 72 hours and get refunds within 16 working days.

So, what does this all mean? CBN wants to modernise cash flow and reduce financial risks with these directives that follow each other. In the new system, CBN is hopeful of bringing a structure for banking and payments that is strict but doesn’t stifle participants.

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Taager, an Egyptian social e-commerce startup that operates in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, has expanded its operations to Morocco to strengthen its efforts in “democratising access to e-commerce” in the region.

Backed by a $6.75 million pre-Series B round in February that brought its total funding to $13.2 million (according to Crunchbase), Taager is betting its full-stack infrastructure—covering sourcing, inventory, payments, logistics, and delivery—can unlock a new wave of micro-entrepreneurs and social sellers in North Africa. The startup has built its business by giving creators, digital marketers, and small merchants the kind of operational backbone that would normally require significant capital and scale.

State of play: Morocco offers a strong strategic logic for Taager. Internet penetration is now well above 90%, representing more than 35 million connected people, and the country’s e-commerce market has surpassed MAD22 billion ($2.4 billion) in annual transactions. Growth has been driven by rising mobile usage, surging social-commerce behaviours, and government efforts to accelerate digital transformation through long-term national strategies. For a social e-commerce platform, this combination of connectivity, youthful demographics, and shifting consumer habits is a favourable demand curve.

Taager is also positioning itself carefully. The startup will not run local operations immediately. Instead, it will keep its operational backbone in existing MENA hubs while focusing in Morocco on community building and seller support, led by newly appointed country manager Salma Ammor, who is hiring for key commercial roles.

Yet challenges remain, such as the dominance of cash-on-delivery in Morocco, but Taager’s model is built for complex markets. If it executes well, Morocco could become its most meaningful North African growth engine yet.

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