Labas,
Victoria from Techpoint here,
Here’s what I’ve got for you today:
- Branch lays off staff despite posting $30M profit
- Cameroon is about to disconnect 700,000 phones
- South Africa’s ride-hailing violence is escalating
Branch lays off staff despite posting $30M profit
On April 17, 2026, Branch International carried out layoffs across its Kenya and Nigeria operations in a move that caught many employees off guard, even though the company says both markets were profitable. Staff were informed during a global all-hands meeting and immediately issued termination notices stating their last working day was the same day. The surprise wasn’t just the timing; it was the contrast with Branch’s own message: the company says it made around $30 million in global profit in 2025 and had strong cash reserves with no debt in its African units.
That contradiction is what’s driving the conversation. Branch insists the layoffs were not due to financial pressure but part of a broader restructuring. It did not disclose how many roles were affected or which teams were cut, but employees described the process as abrupt and unclear. Some said they only learned the full impact after individual notices went out, while the company framed it as a “difficult decision to reduce headcount across some markets.”
What’s filling in the gaps is the direction of the industry itself. Branch, like many fintechs, sits in a space increasingly shaped by automation, AI-driven credit scoring, and leaner operational models. In lending and neobanking especially, functions like risk assessment, customer support, and collections are becoming more automated, meaning fewer staff are needed to run larger customer bases. The company now serves over 13 million users across Africa and Asia, which adds to the sense that scale is growing even as headcount shrinks.
Branch’s evolution also matters here. Founded in 2015 as a mobile-first lender using phone data to judge creditworthiness, it has since expanded into a regulated neobank through acquisitions and licences in Kenya and Nigeria. It now offers deposits, transfers, and credit products, with more than $1.8 billion in loans issued since launch. That shift from startup lender to regulated financial institution has changed its cost structure, and likely its staffing needs, significantly.
The bigger picture is a familiar one in African tech right now: profitable companies still cutting jobs as they optimise for efficiency rather than survival. Branch stands out only because it is already profitable, well-funded, and offering relatively strong severance packages, including months of pay and extended benefits. But the underlying message is the same across the sector: in 2026, growth no longer automatically means hiring. In many cases, it means the opposite.
Cameroon is about to disconnect 700,000 phones
Cameroon is about to switch off hundreds of thousands of phones. On May 22, 2026, the country’s Director General of Customs, Fongod Edwin Nuvaga, ordered telecom operators Camtel, MTN Cameroon, and Orange Cameroun to disconnect mobile phones, tablets, or digital devices that have not been cleared through the government’s new customs platform, CAMCIS, starting today, May 25. The system works through IMEI numbers, the unique 15-digit identity tied to every device. The moment a phone tries connecting to a local network, the telecom operator checks its IMEI against the customs database. If there is no customs clearance record, the phone can be blocked from the network. And because telecom companies themselves are now legally liable for unpaid duties on devices they allow onto their systems, the operators have little room to ignore the directive.
Victoria Fakiya – Senior Writer
Techpoint Digest
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The scale of what Cameroon is trying to do is massive. Customs authorities say nearly 700,000 new phones connected to local networks between April 1 and April 25 without proper customs clearance. Those devices are now at risk of disconnection unless users regularise them. The process itself is straightforward: CAMCIS automatically identifies the phone model, calculates the 33.3% customs duty based on market value, and allows the owner to pay directly through MTN Mobile Money or Orange Money. Once payment is confirmed, the IMEI is cleared, and network access is restored. There are exceptions, including tourists using roaming services for under 90 cumulative days, who are exempt, as are devices covered under a tax amnesty programme, but for ordinary users, the message is simple: pay the customs duty or lose your signal.
The government’s urgency comes from a dramatic collapse in tax revenue from imported devices. Cameroon says monthly revenue from phone imports has crashed from nearly CFA 2 billion in the 2000s to around CFA 100 million by 2025 because of smuggling, under-declaration, and the country’s huge informal electronics market. Officials estimate the state has been losing roughly $21.5 million every year from undeclared devices alone. CAMCIS is supposed to reverse that collapse completely. Authorities are projecting annual revenue of at least CFA 25 billion under the new system, compared with roughly CFA 1.3 billion previously. Early signs suggest enforcement is already having an effect: customs says it collected more than CFA 200 million in a single week ending May 8, with over 51,000 devices declared through the system. But compared to the estimated 700,000 undeclared phones currently active, that is still only a fraction of the market.
What makes this crackdown especially significant is that it did not happen overnight. The legal basis actually dates back to Cameroon’s 2023 Finance Law, which introduced mandatory digital customs clearance for imported phones and tablets. But the infrastructure needed to enforce it took years to build. On March 31, 2026, Finance Minister Louis Paul Motaze and Customs Director Nuvaga officially launched the system and gave the public a one-month grace period running through April. During that transition phase, undeclared phones were not automatically blocked, and users were encouraged to voluntarily regularise their devices. That grace period ended with hundreds of thousands of phones still outside the system. The May 22 directive is essentially the government deciding the awareness campaign is over, and enforcement begins now.
Cameroon’s phone crackdown is really about governments using digital systems like IMEI tracking, SIM registration, and mobile money to pull informal economies into the formal tax system. By turning telecom networks into real-time customs checkpoints, authorities hope to recover lost revenue from smuggled and undeclared devices. But the strategy carries major political risk. The 33.3% customs duty could make smartphones even less affordable for ordinary users who rely on informal imports. If thousands of phones lose network access after May 25, public frustration may hit MTN, Orange, and Camtel before it reaches the government.
South Africa’s ride-hailing violence is escalating
The latest warning sign for South Africa’s troubled ride-hailing industry came last week after two violent attacks on Uber and Bolt drivers in Gauteng went viral online, renewing fears that ride-hailing work in the country is becoming increasingly dangerous. One incident involved the hijacking of an Uber driver in Soweto, with Johannesburg Metro Police later arresting a 20-year-old suspect after footage of the attack spread across social media. Days later, another video showed an e-hailing driver arriving for a pickup in Johannesburg before being ambushed and assaulted by several men posing as passengers.
The attacks have intensified pressure on Bolt and Uber at a time when both companies are already facing scrutiny over safety failures, driver protections, and South Africa’s new e-hailing regulations. Bolt acknowledged growing concerns about criminals targeting drivers and said it continues investing in safety features such as rider verification, emergency assistance, trusted contact sharing, and live trip tracking. But driver groups argue the measures remain largely reactive and app-based, doing little to stop armed robberies, hijackings, and violent assaults before they happen. The National E-Hailers Federation of South Africa has repeatedly called for mandatory passenger verification using ID scans, biometrics, and RICA-linked phone numbers to stop criminals from using fake rider accounts.
What makes the situation more politically explosive is that the violence is no longer viewed as an isolated crime. It has become tied to a broader collapse of trust around South Africa’s gig economy. Drivers continue reporting intimidation from parts of the taxi industry, extortion demands, forced migration onto taxi-linked apps such as Shesha, and attacks in areas considered taxi territory. At the same time, passengers themselves are increasingly complaining online about deteriorating service quality, unsafe driving, poor vehicle conditions, account sharing, and weak accountability systems across both Bolt and Uber. Reddit discussions and local forums over the past year have become flooded with complaints about cash demands, unsafe driving behaviour, ride manipulation, and declining customer trust in the platforms.
The build-up to this moment has been years in the making. Uber entered South Africa in 2013 and almost immediately faced resistance from metered taxi operators. By 2017, government officials were already warning that recurring violence involving e-hailing drivers was damaging tourism and public safety perceptions. But despite years of protests, court battles, strikes, and driver demonstrations, the industry expanded faster than regulation. In September 2025, South Africa formally introduced new e-hailing rules under the National Land Transport Amendment Act, requiring panic buttons, vehicle branding, driver licensing compliance, and platform registration. Yet by February 2026, both Uber and Bolt were still racing to meet registration deadlines, with fears they could even be banned from operating legally if they failed to comply. Bolt eventually secured registration in late February, positioning itself as fully compliant, while Uber’s status remains under scrutiny months later.
Hovering over all of this is the February 2026 murder of 22-year-old Nigerian engineering student and Bolt driver Isaac Satlat in Pretoria West, a killing that many drivers now see as the defining symbol of the industry’s failures. Dashcam footage of Satlat being strangled by passengers inside his vehicle sparked national outrage, especially after Bolt confirmed his family would receive no compensation because he had allegedly been driving under another person’s account.
Since then, every new attack on an e-hailing driver has reinforced the same unresolved question hanging over South Africa’s transport economy: whether billion-dollar platforms can continue expanding while the workers powering them remain exposed to extreme violence, weak labour protections, and inconsistent enforcement from both government and the companies themselves.
In case you missed it
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What I’m watching
- Why Humans Should Merge with AI | D. Scott Phoenix | TED
- How I Set Myself Free | Keke Palmer | TED
Opportunities
- Qore is hiring for several roles. Apply here.
- Didii is recruiting for several roles. Apply here,
- Clarus Technologies, in partnership with Norrsken East Africa, has launched Scale Velocity, a go-to-market accelerator aimed at helping high-potential startups across East Africa refine growth, strengthen commercial systems, and scale faster. Applications for the first cohort are now open, and founders are encouraged to apply. Apply here.
- Moniepoint is recruiting for several roles. Apply here.
- Flutterwave is hiring for several roles in Nigeria, the UK, and the US. Apply here.
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Have a productive week!
Victoria Fakiya for Techpoint Africa
