On today's episode of the Techpoint Africa Podcast, our hosts, Oluwanifemi Kolawole and Chimgozirim Nwokoma discuss African tech stories making the waves this week.
The podcast dives into really captivating trends in African technology, offering depth, thoughtful analysis, and possible safety measures on the week’s stories. Our hosts kicked off the podcast with M-KOPA's verdict after the tribunal ruling.
M-KOPA Holdings, an asset financing company, has been ordered to settle its tax obligations in Kenya after a recent tribunal ruling. The company, which offers pay-as-you-go solar systems, smartphones, and electric bikes across Africa, had appealed a $6.8 million tax demand covering the years 2017-2019.
However, the Tax Appeals Tribunal rejected M-KOPA's argument that it shouldn't be subject to Kenyan taxes due to its UK incorporation, citing the Kenya-UK Double Taxation Treaty (DTT).
The contention is that M-KOPA is managed and controlled from the UK, claiming that most of its directors are based outside Kenya. As against their claims, the tribunal cites that M-KOPA's key decisions are actually made by its top executives, including the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chief Financial Officer (CFO), and Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), who are all based in Kenya.
I want to believe a proper investigation to that effect should have been conducted by the tribunal before arriving at their verdict.
Moving on to the next story, Egypt's edtech, Farid, recieves $250 pre-seed to address children's mental health. As beautiful as that might sound, what is the possibility of this startup scaling? Listen to what our host had to say about Farid, and its product.
Wrapping up the podcast is a thought-provoking issue: Financial fraud. According to the Financial Institutions Training Centre (FITC), 11,532 fraud cases were reported in Q2 2024, up from 11,472 in Q1.
While the number of fraud cases may have seen a negligible increase, the true extent of the issue is masked by this statistic. What's more concerning is the exponential growth in the amount of money involved in these cases. In the first quarter, a staggering ₦2.9 billion was lost, which skyrocketed to an alarming ₦56.3 billion in the second quarter alone.
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