Africa's public-markets pipeline keeps growing. Banque du Caire, Egypt's sixth-largest commercial bank by assets, announced on October 11 that it plans to sell a 30% stake on Egypt's stock exchange, setting up the country's second major IPO this month after MNT-Halan. The announcement follows a run of African listings covered in the previous edition of TechCabal Daily, including Airtel Money and OPay. Together, these deals are putting both the supply of new shares and the rules governing public-company ownership under closer scrutiny.

Meanwhile, Abuja, Nigeria's capital, is hosting the Defence Futures Summit on October 14–15, 2026, bringing together Nigeria's technology, creative, and defence communities to explore homegrown innovation.

Fintech: Pepkor's $1.3 billion deal draws shareholder pushback

When Pepkor, the South African retailer behind PEP and Ackermans, announced its Flash–Shop2Shop merger in July, the pitch was growth: combine two large merchant networks, build a bigger fintech business, then list it separately. Three months later, the R21.3 billion ($1.3 billion) transaction is attracting attention for a different reason — some Pepkor directors and investors believe shareholders should have been allowed to vote on it.

Under the deal, Pepkor will own 57.1% of the combined entity, FintechCo. Chief executive Pieter Erasmus will indirectly hold 13.2%, a stake worth roughly R2.8 billion ($170 million) at the deal valuation, according to the company's filing. Erasmus recused himself from discussions and decisions, and Pepkor obtained independent valuations and a voluntary fair opinion.

JSE rules did not require a shareholder vote: the deal is classified as a Category 2 transaction, which must be publicly disclosed but does not need shareholder approval, and Erasmus's interest falls below the threshold that would make it a related-party transaction.

Erasmus's link to Shop2Shop is not new. An associated company owned 31.2% of Shop2Shop before the merger, and Flash and Shop2Shop had been doing business together since 2020 — relationships Pepkor disclosed in previous financial statements.

Some investors still argue that a transaction this important, particularly one in which the CEO holds a financial interest, should have gone before shareholders. FintechCo is central to Pepkor's next phase, and its chief executive stands to own a valuable stake in the private company being brought into the group; a shareholder vote, even a non-binding one, would have given investors a direct say on that conflict.

The dispute lands as Pepkor pushes beyond retail. Financial-services revenue jumped 41.6% in the first half of 2026, and the group plans to launch a bank in April 2027. As more of Pepkor's growth comes from finance and payments as well as other private deals, investors will care as much about how those businesses are put together as how fast they grow. The next points to watch are the proposed separate listing of FintechCo and the governance disclosures around Pepkor's planned banking business.

E-commerce: Quickmart cuts founder-linked contracts before IPO

Quickmart's owners are selling half the supermarket chain to the public, but before those new shareholders come on board, the retailer has been cleaning up old arrangements with the people who built and owned the business.

In July, months before its initial public offering (IPO), Quickmart terminated several consultancy and management contracts with founder- and director-linked businesses. In 2025 alone, the company paid KES 208.4 million ($1.6 million) in management fees to its parent companies, KES 268.7 million ($2.1 million) to Basic Land Investment, and KES 161 million ($1.2 million) to Resource Business Investments — three payments totalling about KES 638 million ($4.9 million), roughly 43% of Quickmart's KES 1.5 billion ($11.6 million) net profit that year.

Founder-linked transactions are not automatically a problem: private companies often lean on their owners for property, advice, or other services. The calculation changes once outside investors are invited to buy shares, because they want to know that money leaving the company is spent on the best available terms rather than simply routed to insiders.

Ending the contracts makes Quickmart easier to scrutinize as a public company, but it does not mean the entire KES 638 million ($4.9 million) suddenly becomes profit. The retailer may still need some of those services and could pay outside advisers or build the work in-house; the more important change is who gets to decide what those services cost.

Some links to the founders remain. Eighteen Quickmart stores are still leased from businesses connected to founders or directors, though the retailer says those leases are on normal commercial terms. Those leases will therefore remain part of the related-party arrangements investors can review after listing.

Governance matters more here because Quickmart itself is not raising money. Its owner, Sokoni Retail Kenya, is selling two billion existing shares for KES 15 billion ($116 million) and will collect the proceeds from the public offer — a much-needed listing for Kenya's capital market. The offer is already open, with full trading expected by November 12.

E-mobility: Eskom opens its first public EV chargers in Durban

Eskom has spent decades keeping South Africa's lights on, mostly by burning coal. Now the state-owned electricity company wants to help keep the country's electric cars moving, too, with its first public electric vehicle (EV) charging stations at the Gateway Theatre of Shopping in Umhlanga and The Pavilion Shopping Centre in Durban.

Each of the two new stations has two fast direct-current (DC) charging ports capable of delivering up to 120 kilowatts (kW), plus one alternating-current (AC) port offering up to 22 kW. For a utility, charging cars is a natural extension of the core business, applying operating experience with electricity infrastructure to the growth of electric transport — a playbook already used by E.ON, one of Europe's largest investor-owned electric utility service providers, which operates public and home EV charging infrastructure across Europe and the UK.

Eskom has been easing into clean business for a while. In August 2024, in partnership with GridCars, a South African charging-network operator, it launched a pilot with 10 charging stations across five of its properties, kept closed to the general public. In September 2025, it introduced 20 electric vehicles and said it wants to transition its entire fleet to electric by 2035, alongside plans to roll out 55 public charging stations over two years. Eskom has signed an agreement with Chinese carmaker BYD to support electric mobility and expand public charging infrastructure in South Africa.

Entering the charging business gives Eskom an advantage because it already runs South Africa's electricity system. Charging operators make money by selling power to drivers, but they also pay for equipment, maintenance, grid connections, and demand fees. Some industry players have raised concerns that Eskom may have secured lower demand charges at certain sites, which could let it price charging more cheaply than rivals; Eskom says its pilot pricing follows existing tariffs and regulations.

For drivers, Eskom's new DC chargers cost R5.88 ($0.045) per kilowatt-hour (kWh), compared with R7.35 ($0.057) at GridCars' public stations, making Eskom's rates 20% cheaper. A driver buying 50 kWh of electricity would pay R294 ($2.27) at an Eskom station instead of R367.5 ($2.83) at GridCars, the country's largest EV charging station operator, saving about R73.50 ($0.57) on a single charge.

Eskom's lower prices offer a cheaper alternative to existing charging networks, though its ability to compete with established operators will depend on how widely it expands its public charging stations. South Africa recorded sales of over 16,000 new-energy vehicles in 2025, and expanding the public charging network remains important to making electric driving more practical, especially for drivers who cannot charge at home or travel frequently between cities. The rollout will make station coverage, reliability, and the treatment of charging costs under applicable tariffs important markers of how the public network develops.

Capital markets: Dangote Refinery IPO extended by two weeks

The Dangote Refinery initial public offering (IPO), originally scheduled to close on October 13, has been extended by two weeks, Bloomberg reported on Monday, giving retail investors more time to buy shares amid growing interest from investors in other African countries. The IPO opened on September 14 and will now remain open until October 27.

Dangote Refinery says it has received strong interest from eligible investors across Africa and other markets. Each share costs ₦525 ($0.40), and the company plans to sell 4.1 billion shares to raise ₦2.15 trillion ($1.6 billion). The extra two weeks will allow it to bring in investors from more African countries and complete the arrangements needed for them to buy shares across borders.

Cross-border demand is already visible. In Kenya, Renaissance Capital, a Kenyan investment bank, worked on a new vehicle that would allow Kenyan investors to participate in the IPO through Kenya's stock exchange, at KES 49 ($0.38) per share. In Zimbabwe, asset manager Bard Santner Investors is facilitating local participation by securing the required approvals and moving clients' money from Ecobank Zimbabwe to Ecobank Nigeria.

More time does not necessarily mean more shares. The extension gives additional investors time to participate; it does not automatically increase the number of shares on offer. Dangote has regulatory approval to sell additional equity if demand warrants it, potentially raising up to $2.1 billion, but the company has not said the extension itself will trigger a larger offer.

Dangote's IPO has become a major test of how easily investors can buy shares across African borders. Kenya's route and Zimbabwe's bank-transfer arrangement show that investors are finding ways in, and Dangote wants a pan-African shareholder base. The closing date and the arrangements being built in each market will show how much of that demand can be converted into completed subscriptions.

Also this week

Seed G3 2026, organised by Stanford Seed Transformation Network Nigeria, brings business leaders, founders, and investors together on October 14–15 at the Landmark Event Centre in Lagos for two days of conversations on raising capital, building resilient businesses, and expanding into global markets. Scheduled speakers include Bosun Tijani, Nigeria's Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy; Pat Utomi, professor of political economy; Iyin Aboyeji, co-founder of Future Africa; and Tokunbo Abiru, Nigerian senator and former bank CEO.

This article is based on the October 13, 2026 edition of TechCabal Daily, reported by Emmanuel Nwosu and Yemi Kareem and edited by Emmanuel Nwosu and Ganiu Oloruntade.