Ciao,
Victoria from Techpoint here,
Here’s what I’ve got for you today:
- Showmax struggles as Canal+ prioritises profitability
- Uber shuts down in Tanzania after nearly 10 years
- Telecoms regulator wants tax breaks to boost 4G adoption in Namibia
Showmax struggles as Canal+ prioritises profitability
Canal+, the French media giant that recently took over MultiChoice, is moving quickly to cut costs, and Africa’s creative industry is likely to feel the impact first. On January 29, Canal+ announced plans to save more than €400 million a year by 2030, as it tries to stabilise a business weighed down by subscriber losses and rising competition from global streaming platforms.
MultiChoice has lost 2.8 million pay-TV subscribers over the past two years, and its new owner is making it clear that the old spending habits are no longer sustainable. While Canal+ says it won’t raise DStv subscription prices or immediately cut internal jobs, it has already begun squeezing suppliers, including production houses, technical vendors, and content creators, to absorb the pressure.
Just weeks after the acquisition closed, Canal+ reportedly asked suppliers for a blanket 20% cut on invoices, pushing the burden of savings onto the wider ecosystem. Industry voices warn that many producers were already working on thin margins, and further cuts could cripple livelihoods, reduce production quality, and shrink opportunities across film and television.
Local content, once MultiChoice’s strongest competitive edge, is now emerging as a fault line. With less money to spend, commissioning decisions are becoming more conservative, favouring proven, high-impact hits over experimental or smaller productions. That dynamic could slowly hollow out Africa’s creative pipeline, limiting both cultural output and skills development.
The pressure is also visible at Showmax. Canal+ CEO Maxime Saada has openly admitted the platform is “not a commercial success” and signalled reduced investment going forward. While Canal+ insists it remains bullish on Africa’s long-term potential, its immediate focus is clear: fix the numbers first, even if that means reshaping the continent’s TV and film industry in the process.
Uber shuts down in Tanzania after nearly 10 years
Uber has officially pulled out of Tanzania after nearly a decade of tries, with its ride-hailing service ending on January 30, 2026. The company sent a short message to users saying its services would no longer be available, closing the book on years of operations in Dar es Salaam and other cities.
Victoria Fakiya – Senior Writer
Techpoint Digest
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What makes this departure notable isn’t just the exit itself; it’s why it happened. Uber struggled with a highly regulated environment set by Tanzania’s Land Transport Regulatory Authority (LATRA), which tightly controlled fares, commissions and pricing structures in the sector. Those rules squeezed Uber’s margins and limited its ability to adapt pricing, a flexibility that competitors like Bolt have handled better over time.
This matters for riders and drivers in Tanzania because Uber wasn’t just another app; for years, it offered an alternative to taxis and informal transport with mobile money and cash payment options. Its exit leaves thousands of drivers without one of the platforms they depended on for daily income and gives local rivals even bigger slices of the ride-hailing market.
Uber’s exit from Tanzania isn’t an isolated case in Africa. Last year, Uber left Côte d’Ivoire after six years, handing over market share to rivals like Yango and Heetch that have adapted better to local pricing and competition dynamics. These exits underscore how tough it can be for global tech giants to operate in regions with strict rules and price-sensitive customers unless they tailor their model.
Across the continent, regulators and markets vary widely. Kenya and Uganda have taken more flexible approaches that have kept Uber operating, but with occasional protests by drivers around commissions and payouts. For Africa’s broader digital economy, Uber’s departures highlight a key lesson: success often depends on adapting to local economics, regulations and user needs, not just relying on global brand power. Or what do you think?
Namibia still catching up on 4G
While some African countries are already talking up 5G, Namibia is still struggling to get people onto 4G, and that gap is starting to worry regulators. At the weekend launch of a new MTC tower in Kunene, the country’s telecoms watchdog made it clear: building towers alone won’t deliver digital transformation if people can’t afford the devices to use them.
Speaking at the event, Emilia Nghikembua, CEO of the Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia, said the real challenge isn’t infrastructure anymore but adoption. According to her, towers are just enablers, not transformation itself, and she called for tax breaks and incentives to make 4G-enabled devices cheaper and more accessible for ordinary Namibians.
The concern mirrors what MTC Namibia, the state-owned mobile operator, has been flagging for a while. Despite rolling out 4G across large parts of the country, usage remains low. In the Kunene region alone, where MTC has about 74 4G-enabled towers, utilisation is below 50 per cent, largely due to the high cost of compatible phones.
MTC’s acting board chairperson, Mercia Geises, said the underuse of these towers is holding back digital inclusion and economic growth. For her, the problem isn’t supply but demand; communities need to actually use the infrastructure to unlock its value. Sitting at 50 percent, she noted, shows just how much potential remains untapped.
To drive adoption, the government is already experimenting with small interventions. Namibia’s ICT minister, Emma Theofelus, used the event to distribute 100 mobile phones from the Universal Service Fund to top-performing students at Ehomba Combined School. Her message was blunt: a tower means nothing if the community around it can’t connect to it.
In case you missed it
- Google partners African universities to launch WAXAL, a dataset of African languages
What I’m watching
- Early Retirement Expert: A House Vs Stocks… (Here Is The Truth)
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Opportunities
- Credpal is hiring for several roles. Apply here.
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Have a lovely Tuesday!
Victoria Fakiya for Techpoint Africa
