Hej,
Victoria from Techpoint here,
Here’s what I’ve got for you today:
- Kenya’s tax regulator is coming for crypto transaction records
- MTN is reversing a decade of asset-light strategy in one $2.2B move
- Bolt Kenya raises fares by 6% as fuel prices bite harder
Kenya’s tax regulator is coming for crypto transaction records
Kenya is tightening the screws on crypto, and this time, it comes with names, numbers, and the threat of prison. The country’s Finance Bill 2026, currently before parliament, proposes new amendments to the Tax Procedures Act that would force crypto exchanges and virtual asset service providers to submit annual reports to the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), detailing exactly how Kenyan users are trading digital assets. That includes how much they bought crypto for, how much they sold it for, profits made, wallet activity, and even payments made for goods using cryptocurrencies.
And the penalties are serious: false information could attract fines of KSh 100,000 (about $775) per false entry, up to three years in prison, or both. Missing information could carry similar penalties. The bill also introduces a cross-border element, allowing the KRA to share crypto-related financial information with foreign tax authorities through international agreements. In simple terms, Kenya is trying to formally end anonymous crypto trading.
Interestingly, the country has been gradually building its crypto regulatory framework for years. Back in 2023, Kenya introduced a 3% digital asset tax, requiring exchanges to deduct taxes directly from transactions. Then, under the Finance Act 2025, the government scrapped that model and replaced it with a 10% excise duty on transaction fees charged by crypto platforms instead. But the Finance Bill 2026 goes much deeper than taxation. It’s about visibility and surveillance.
Why should you care? The proposal aligns Kenya with the OECD’s — the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development — Cryptoasset Reporting Framework, which officially kicked in globally on January 1, 2026. Starting in 2027, tax authorities across more than 40 countries are expected to begin automatically exchanging crypto transaction data with one another. Kenya is essentially plugging itself into that global reporting system early and doing it more aggressively than most African countries have so far.
Meanwhile, Kenya is basically going all-in on regulating crypto. For years, the government mostly just warned people that crypto wasn’t official money and left things alone. But crypto usage exploded anyway; people started using it for cross-border payments and imports.
Now the government wants tighter control. After creating rules and licences for crypto companies in 2025, the new Finance Bill 2026 takes things further by focusing on taxes and transaction tracking. If it passes, exchanges like Binance and Coinbase would have to collect and report user transaction data to Kenyan authorities, basically acting like reporting agents for the government.
Victoria Fakiya – Senior Writer
Techpoint Digest
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The big issue is privacy. A lot of crypto users liked the anonymity, but regulators now see that as a problem. Kenya processed an estimated KSh 2.4 trillion in crypto transactions between 2021 and 2022, so the government doesn’t want such a huge financial system operating outside oversight anymore.
At the same time, Kenya also wants to become Africa’s crypto hub, especially in Nairobi. That creates a balancing act: attract global crypto companies while also imposing strict reporting rules. Exchanges have warned that tracking every single crypto movement could become extremely difficult and expensive, especially for international platforms operating across many countries.
So the whole debate now is whether Kenya can regulate crypto hard enough to satisfy authorities without making the environment so strict that crypto companies decide to operate elsewhere instead.
MTN is reversing a decade of asset-light strategy in one $2.2B move
MTN is about to make money from buying back something it sold off years ago, and that twist says a lot about how much Africa’s telecom infrastructure story has changed. Back in June 2022, MTN Group sold 5,701 South African towers to IHS Towers for R6.4 billion (about $412.5 million at the time) as part of the industry-wide push toward “asset-light” telecom operations. The idea was simple: let tower companies own and manage infrastructure while telecom operators focus on customers, data, and digital services.
Fast forward to February 17, 2026, and MTN announced a $6.2 billion deal to buy IHS back. In the process, analysts say MTN could book an accounting gain of roughly R2 billion (~$108 million) on the South African towers alone because it’s effectively repurchasing those same assets at a lower implied valuation than what IHS originally paid for them. It’s one of the rare corporate stories where a company sells high, buys back lower, and somehow profits from the round trip.
The scale of the acquisition itself is massive. MTN’s deal values IHS at an enterprise value of $6.2 billion, while the equity portion for shares MTN doesn’t already own sits at around $2.2 billion. IHS operates nearly 29,000 telecom towers across Africa, including key MTN markets like Nigeria, South Africa, Côte d’Ivoire, Zambia, and Cameroon. Once completed, MTN will directly control more than 15,900 towers in Nigeria alone, infrastructure it has spent years leasing back from IHS while paying billions in rental costs. The catch? MTN is also inheriting nearly $4.8 billion in infrastructure-linked debt in a market where forex losses, energy costs, and refinancing pressure have already weakened tower company margins. So while the accounting gain makes headlines, MTN is still taking on a very expensive long-term bet.
What makes this especially interesting is that MTN is basically reversing a strategy the telecom industry spent more than a decade embracing. For years, operators across Africa sold towers to independent infrastructure firms to reduce costs and free up capital. MTN itself sold over 9,000 Nigerian towers to IHS in a deal worth roughly $2 billion in 2014, followed by another 4,696 towers in 2015 for an additional $533 million. IHS then became one of Africa’s biggest infrastructure success stories, eventually listing on the New York Stock Exchange in 2021 at $21 per share. Today, MTN is buying it back at $8.50 per share, a dramatic drop that reflects how hard currency instability and debt pressure have hit African infrastructure businesses over the past few years.
MTN buying back its stake in IHS Towers is shaking up the telecom space because it changes who controls the infrastructure everyone else depends on. Even though MTN says the tower company will still operate on an open-access model, rivals like Airtel Africa and others that rely on leasing towers are worried. The concern is simple: it feels different renting infrastructure from an independent provider versus renting from a company that’s now closely tied to one of your biggest competitors. Regulators in places like Nigeria and South Africa are expected to keep a close eye on whether pricing and access stay fair.
Zooming out, this move fits into MTN’s bigger strategy of becoming a full-stack digital infrastructure giant across Africa. It already has mobile networks, fintech through MoMo, and fibre and cable systems via Bayobab, and now it’s pulling tower infrastructure back under its control too. When you add that to strong profits and wider industry consolidation trends, it looks like a slow takeover of Africa’s entire digital backbone, from undersea cables to rural towers to the mobile money systems people use every day.
Bolt Kenya raises fares by 6% as fuel prices bite harder
Bolt users in Kenya are about to start paying more for rides again, and this time, fuel prices are carrying most of the blame. On May 12, 2026, the ride-hailing company announced a 6% fare increase following Kenya’s latest fuel price review by the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority (EPRA). Under the April review, pump prices in Nairobi were capped at KSh 197.60 per litre for petrol and KSh 196.63 for diesel, numbers that are still painfully high for drivers who spend most of their day on the road. Bolt says the adjustment came directly from mounting pressure and feedback from drivers struggling to keep trips profitable, especially shorter rides where fuel costs eat deeply into earnings.
But the increase is already being viewed as more of a temporary patch than an actual solution. For months, Kenyan ride-hailing drivers have argued that the platforms’ pricing structures simply no longer reflect economic reality. Earlier in 2026, driver groups demanded a minimum fare of KSh 450 for trips under 3 kilometres, saying rising fuel prices, maintenance costs, and inflation had made current fares unsustainable. Bolt’s 6% increase narrows the gap slightly, but drivers say it still avoids the real issue: commissions.
Under Kenya’s Digital Hailing Regulations of 2022, ride-hailing apps are supposed to cap commissions at 18%. Still, drivers have repeatedly accused companies like Bolt and Uber of charging beyond that threshold through various deductions and pricing mechanisms. So while riders now pay more, many drivers feel the platforms themselves are absorbing very little of the pressure.
What makes this bigger than just a Bolt story is how closely ride-hailing pricing now reflects Kenya’s wider cost-of-living crisis. Transport costs have been rising alongside food, rent, and electricity, and for many urban workers, ride-hailing apps are no longer occasional luxuries but part of daily commuting. Bolt argues that higher fares ultimately improve service quality because better-paid drivers stay online longer, reduce cancellations, and improve availability during busy hours. But there’s the catch: Kenyan consumers are also highly price-sensitive. Even a modest fare increase could push more riders back to matatus, boda bodas, or cheaper transport alternatives. And if ride demand falls, drivers could still end up earning less despite higher pricing. That tension is now defining the entire sector.
Kenya’s ride-hailing drama has been brewing for years. Drivers have repeatedly complained that fares are too low compared to fuel prices, commissions, and general operating costs. After strikes in 2024, Bolt and Uber increased fares, but drivers said the changes barely helped. By 2025, unions were threatening legal action over unfair labour practices, while the government pushed platforms to follow pricing guidelines that could raise fares by as much as 50%. Most companies acknowledged the rules but didn’t fully apply them.Now, another fuel price increase has brought the issue back again. The real problem is that nobody seems fully in control of pricing; not the apps, regulators, or even the market itself. Fuel costs keep changing every month; drivers want better guaranteed earnings; riders want cheaper trips; and platforms are trying to stay competitive. Bolt’s latest 6% fare increase might ease pressure for now, but it’s really just another temporary fix in a cycle that keeps repeating.
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Have a wonderful Wednesday!
Victoria Fakiya for Techpoint Africa
