TechCabal Daily – Safaricom cleans house

Safaricom fired 118 workers for fraud within the yr to March, roughly one each three days. It is the fourth yr in a row that the quantity has risen at Kenya’s largest telecom firm and M-PESA’s operator.

What occurred? Dismissals jumped from 113 within the earlier yr. Safaricom additionally issued three disciplinary warnings and referred 14 instances to regulation enforcement. The misconduct included theft, falsifying firm information, and unauthorised entry to buyer name information.

Safaricom individually recovered KES 953 million ($7.4 million) in inflated commissions paid to brokers after its monitoring techniques flagged irregular funds. The firm has not linked these recoveries on to the 118 workers who have been fired.

Explain like I’m new right here: Fraud is especially delicate at Safaricom as a result of the corporate sits on way more than cellphone information. M-Pesa processed KES 41.68 trillion ($323 billion) throughout 46.4 billion transactions within the yr to March. Employees, sellers and brokers can subsequently entry buyer identities, SIM registrations and a funds community utilized by tens of thousands and thousands of individuals.

Safaricom has handled insider fraud for years, together with unauthorised system entry, fraudulent SIM swaps and misuse of M-PESA processes. It has steadily added automated monitoring and machine-learning instruments to catch suspicious exercise.

Between the traces: More dismissals don’t robotically imply fraud is getting worse. Safaricom has expanded the operations its fraud reporting lined in recent times, whereas higher analytics can uncover misconduct that beforehand went unnoticed.

A extra helpful measure is whether or not precise losses and profitable assaults fall. Safaricom says its new SIM-swap system, which runs 18 automated checks earlier than a line could be changed, has already minimize fraudulent swaps by 65%.

What to observe: Safaricom is more and more taking delicate selections away from particular person workers and brokers and placing them into automated techniques. If these controls work, future fraud studies ought to finally present greater than folks getting caught. They ought to present fewer profitable fraud makes an attempt within the first place.

On October 19, Moniepoint, a Nigerian fintech unicorn, informed employees of an internal restructuring affecting roles throughout backend, frontend, cellular, high quality assurance, and product administration. The firm says some positions will turn into redundant because it strikes to smaller groups that personal merchandise from begin to end. Moniepoint has supplied affected workers 5 months’ wage to depart voluntarily, whereas saying it’s going to first search for appropriate roles elsewhere within the enterprise. The firm has not disclosed what number of workers might be affected. 

Explain like I’m new right here: Moniepoint became a unicorn in 2024 after elevating $110 million, bought a 78% stake in Kenya’s Sumac Microfinance Bank in March, and says its subsidiaries now course of greater than $400 billion in annual digital funds. In October, one worker stated the corporate employed greater than 120 folks, whereas Moniepoint has beforehand stated it was struggling to fill lots of of senior technical roles. However, in August, Moniepoint phased out MonieWorld, its UK-Nigeria remittance product, lower than 18 months after launch. 

Why the restructuring? The fintech says the restructuring is a part of a daily strategic evaluate because the enterprise strikes into its subsequent development stage. It is shifting to a platform-group mannequin, the place smaller groups personal particular product areas, and additionally it is creating platform architect roles to supervise the shared expertise beneath these groups. The restructuring and development replicate an organization nonetheless increasing, however turning into extra selective about the place it places folks and cash.

The larger image: Moniepoint can also be becoming a member of a tech-industry shift in the direction of smaller groups. Block, the mother or father firm of Square and Cash App, minimize about 40% of its workforce earlier this yr, citing AI and a leaner organisational construction. Jumia and Zap Africa have additionally tied workforce modifications to effectivity and AI. Moniepoint says AI just isn’t the rationale for this restructuring, though the corporate has mentioned internally how AI might streamline product-management work.

Stablecoins are having their second in African funds, and Circle, the corporate behind USDC, is backing the infrastructure that desires to make them really helpful.

What occurred? CrissCross, a South African cross-border funds firm, has received an undisclosed funding from Circle Ventures, Circle’s company enterprise arm. The funding was made via CrissCross’s mother or father firm, Stitch Group. The cash will assist CrissCross develop its cost connections and liquidity throughout Africa, whereas constructing out stablecoin settlement for enterprise prospects. 

Explain like I’m new right here: Stablecoins reminiscent of USDC are digital tokens designed to keep up a secure worth towards a foreign money, normally the US greenback. That makes them helpful for shifting greenback worth between markets. African fintechs are starting to construct round this concept.

Flutterwave announced a Circle Ventures funding in July and added USDC settlement to its funds platform. Onafriq has additionally been working with Circle on regulated stablecoin settlement throughout its community of greater than 40 African markets. CrissCross partnered with Velocity in October to attach institutional stablecoin liquidity to native collections and FX throughout greater than 30 African markets.

Why Circle is : Every new cost platform that builds USDC into its infrastructure probably creates one other route for the stablecoin to maneuver via the monetary system. Sub-Saharan Africa additionally acquired greater than $205 billion in on-chain crypto worth between July 2024 and June 2025.

CrissCross says it operates throughout greater than 30 markets and helps greater than 20 currencies. The funding ought to assist it deepen these native connections and provides enterprises extra methods to maneuver between stablecoins and native currencies.

The World Wide Web3

Source:

Coin Name	Current Value	Day	Month
Bitcoin	$79,869	– 0.30%	– 5.46%
Ether	$2,390	– 2.19%	– 14.03%
XRP	$1.31	– 2.20%	– 19.85%
Solana	$103.84	– 1.51%	– 13.17%

* Data as of 06.49 AM WAT, October 28, 2026.

Written by: Emmanuel Nwosu and Yemi Kareem

Edited by: Emmanuel Nwosu & Ganiu Oloruntade