Mauritania slams telcos over poor service

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Mauritania slams telcos over poor service
Rayda ditches asset tracking, goes all-in on sourcing
PayU Kenya shuts down after six years

Mauritania slams telcos over poor service

Mauritania’s telecom watchdog is once again calling out the country’s three operators — Chinguitel, Mauritel, and Mattel — for failing to meet quality standards on voice and data services. Despite past fines and penalties, service levels remain poor, and the regulator has now issued a fresh formal notice giving them 30 days to fix things.

The latest warning follows an inspection carried out between July and August, which flagged network shortcomings in 62 cities, several localities, and 11 major roads. The findings were damning: Mattel struggled with voice services in 24 cities and 4G in 22; Mauritel had gaps in 24 cities for voice and even more for 3G and 4G; while Chinguitel fared worst, with failures recorded in dozens of localities across all services.

This isn’t the first time Mauritania’s Autorité de régulation (ARE) has taken action. In January, Chinguitel was singled out after 162 of its sites went dark for days. Back in November 2024, all three operators were slapped with heavy fines running into hundreds of millions of ouguiyas, along with temporary cuts to their 2G, 3G, and 4G licences.

And it’s not just Mauritania. In August, Chad’s regulator issued similar warnings to local operators over patchy service quality, while in Zambia, the ICT authority has also been on the operators’ necks, commissioning new towers and reminding telcos to deliver reliable coverage. Across the region, regulators are clearly stepping up pressure to push for better connectivity.

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Operators, on the other hand, say they’re making moves. Mattel wrapped up a major two-year network expansion last year, while Moov announced a $35 million investment plan to upgrade its systems. But for regulators like ARE, those promises mean little if customers are still dealing with dropped calls and weak Internet.

Industry groups like the GSMA caution that some regulatory targets may be unrealistic and could even discourage investment. They’re calling for co-regulation — more collaboration and transparency between regulators and operators — to set fair goals, track improvements publicly, and reward the companies that actually deliver.

Rayda ditches asset tracking, goes all-in on sourcing

When Francis Osifo worked at 54gene, a simple laptop purchase turned into a nightmare. Buying one in Kenya was too pricey, so the team ordered from Nigeria and shipped it over. That laptop sat in customs for two months, racking up costs and stress. By the time it was released, it would have been cheaper to buy it locally. That was Osifo’s first taste of how hard it was for startups with global teams to get IT equipment where it was needed.

After leaving 54gene in 2022, Osifo set out to solve the problem. He launched Rayda, initially as a fixed asset management platform to help companies track and manage their devices. Startups like Curacel, Mira, and Ajocard signed up, bringing in about $15,000 a month. But convincing firms to ditch Excel sheets was an uphill battle.

Then came Nigeria’s naira devaluation in 2023, and everything changed. Revenue in naira was growing, but when reported in dollars — the only number investors really cared about — it was shrinking fast. Clients were also cancelling or missing payments as their own costs ballooned. Rayda needed a new playbook.

By mid-2024, the startup doubled down on marketing and SEO. Soon, inquiries started flowing in from the UK and US, companies asking Rayda to help manage physical assets beyond just laptops. The big break came when a fintech needed to send a laptop to a Nigerian hire. Their supplier quoted $3,000 and a 12-week wait. Rayda got it done in two days, at 60% less.

From there, the pivot became clear. Rayda dropped everything else and went all-in on global equipment sourcing. Requests from Binance, Semrush, and others followed, and the company began shipping devices to employees in Nigeria, South Africa, and beyond.

Today, Rayda positions itself as the go-to partner for global companies with distributed teams. It helps them buy, store, manage, and recover IT equipment across multiple countries. And that first fintech client? They’ve now used Rayda to deploy devices in eight countries. But how does the startup work? Find out in Chimgozirim’s latest for Techpoint Africa.

PayU Kenya shuts down after six years

PayU Kenya is shutting down after six years in the market. The company has officially gone into liquidation and appointed Sonal Tejpal as the liquidator from August 19, 2025.

The move, filed under Kenya’s Insolvency Act and announced in a local paper, means Tejpal will now oversee the winding up of the firm’s operations and clear any pending liabilities.

PayU first entered Kenya in 2019 through a partnership with local fintech Cellulant. That deal gave the global payments company access to mobile money, card, and bank transfer options for online merchants.

At launch, PayU pitched itself as a bridge for global merchants eyeing the East African market. Backed by Cellulant’s local expertise, the partnership was seen as a strong play in Kenya’s fast-growing digital payments space.

But despite securing licences and setting up shop, PayU never really gained ground. Kenya’s payments sector remains dominated by mobile money giants, leaving little room for new players to scale.

The company hasn’t explained the reasons for its exit, nor is it clear if the decision ties into a wider global shake-up by its parent firm, Prosus. For now, creditors and interested parties have been invited to file claims under the ongoing liquidation process.

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