Kenyan TikTok creators could see changes to their payouts as the platform asks them to submit tax and residency information while preparing to comply with Kenya's digital content tax rules.

Kenya has applied withholding tax to digital content monetisation since 2023. The Kenya Revenue Authority lists rates of 5% for residents and 20% for non-residents. Withholding means the tax is deducted at source, before payouts reach creators. TikTok has not said when deductions will begin or which payouts will be affected.

e-finance shareholders approve Tamweely acquisition

e-finance, the publicly listed Egyptian fintech group, has received shareholder approval to acquire 99.32% of micro-lender Tamweely in a cash-and-share transaction valuing the lender at EGP6.4 billion ($122 million). The deal was first announced in August.

The acquisition gives e-finance greater exposure to Egypt's consumer and small-business financial services market. The company is best known for providing the digital infrastructure behind Egypt's government payments, while Tamweely adds lending and access to microfinance customers who need working capital. Microfinance typically serves borrowers who fall outside the reach of traditional bank credit.

The transaction includes an upfront cash payment of EGP956 million ($18 million), with an additional payment tied to Tamweely's future financial performance due in 2028. e-finance will also issue 146.1 million new shares to Turin Egypt, Tamweely's major shareholder. The issuance will give Turin a 4.04% stake in e-finance.

The deal follows e-finance's purchase in August of an 8% stake in Wilzy, a digital wealth-management platform, for EGP100 million ($2 million).

Taken together, the transactions point to e-finance expanding beyond payments infrastructure into a broader financial-services platform spanning payments, lending and investment. The strategy could allow the company to cross-sell products and generate more value from customers who already use its services. The longer-term question is whether those businesses can operate as an integrated ecosystem and become more valuable together than separately.

Spiro doubles Africa Go Green debt facility to $36 million

Pan-African electric-mobility startup Spiro has secured an additional $18 million from the Africa Go Green Fund, doubling the climate fund's debt commitment to $36 million in less than 10 months.

The new financing will support the expansion of Spiro's electric motorcycles and battery-swapping network in Uganda and Rwanda. Commercial motorcycle taxis are a major part of urban transport in Africa, while volatile petrol prices can reduce drivers' income. Spiro separates the motorcycle from its power source: drivers purchase the vehicle but subscribe to the battery service, swapping depleted batteries for charged units at street hubs. Swapping keeps motorcycles in service rather than parked while batteries charge, and turns the battery into an ongoing service relationship rather than a one-time sale.

Spiro secured $270 million in equity in June, taking its total funding above $550 million. The company is now using debt financing to expand its charging network.

Spiro has said that it aims to develop beyond vehicle sales and transport services. After acquiring UK-based engineering company Coexlion, it plans to open its battery infrastructure to third parties and explore the network's use as distributed energy storage for regional power grids.

Paymob raises $35 million in pre-Series C funding

Egyptian fintech Paymob has raised $35 million in a pre-Series C round co-led by Mubadala, the sovereign investor of the United Arab Emirates, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Mubadala announced the financing on Monday.

Paymob provides businesses with access to multiple payment methods through a single platform. Merchants expanding across the Middle East and North Africa can otherwise face separate integrations, payment methods and settlement processes.

Paymob said its revenue tripled over the past 18 months. Revenue from the Gulf grew sevenfold and now accounts for almost half of the company's business. Since receiving its UAE payments licence in January 2025, Paymob has added about 20,000 merchants across three Gulf markets.

The company raised $50 million in a 2022 Series B round and a further $22 million extension in 2024, bringing that round to $72 million. The latest financing takes Paymob's disclosed funding, including its Series A rounds, to $125.5 million. The "pre-Series C" label places the round between the completed Series B and a future Series C.

The funding marks a shift from demonstrating that Paymob can build a payments business in Egypt to proving that it can operate as regional financial infrastructure. Paymob has said it plans to expand further across the Gulf and develop what it calls agentic commerce.

The deal also adds to Mubadala's fintech portfolio. Its recent activity has focused on financial infrastructure, including helping small and medium-sized enterprises obtain capital, digitising financial access, building payment rails and supporting platforms that can expand from the UAE into the wider Gulf.

CredibleX, which raised a $15 million Series A led by Mubadala in May, and Paymob address two sides of the same small-business economy: obtaining financing and accepting payments. Reuters reported on September 14 that Mubadala was also among the previous investors in Tabby, a Gulf-focused fintech that has since reached a $6.5 billion valuation.

Tabby is more focused on consumer finance than Paymob. Together, however, the companies illustrate the breadth of the Gulf fintech market, where payments infrastructure, consumer finance, merchant finance and other financial services are increasingly converging.

Standard Chartered moves to auction property over Nakumatt debt

Standard Chartered Bank Kenya, a tier-one lender, is seeking to seize rental income and sell five prime properties to recover more than KES1.9 billion ($14.7 million) in defaulted loans advanced to collapsed retailer Nakumatt Holdings.

Nakumatt was once East Africa's largest retail chain, operating more than 60 stores before a severe cash-flow crisis and an estimated KES30 billion ($232 million) debt burden brought down the business in 2017. Before the collapse, affiliated companies Creative Enterprises and Nakumatt Investments charged real estate in Nairobi, Mombasa and Nakuru as security for the retailer's expansion.

Standard Chartered faced years of legal delays while attempting to serve statutory recovery notices on the companies' directors. In 2025, the bank won a High Court ruling allowing it to issue public notices. The statutory grace periods then expired without payment, clearing the way for the lender to liquidate the assets.

The properties were originally pledged between 2011 and 2012 to secure a principal sum of KES119 million ($922,000). That amount comprised KES26.5 million ($205,000) from Creative Enterprises and KES92.55 million ($17,000) from Nakumatt Investments.

Over more than 15 years, unfulfilled overdrafts and unpaid import-invoice financing worth KES967 million ($7.5 million), together with $7.33 million in foreign-currency facilities, increased the total balance to KES1.9 billion ($14.7 million). The case shows how recovery on defaulted corporate debt can stretch more than a decade past the original lending, outlasting the borrower itself.

The bank is also appointing receivers over rental income while pursuing forced sales. Standard Chartered is expected to begin public auctions after the statutory 40-day notice period ends. How much of the outstanding balance is ultimately recovered will depend on what the five properties raise at auction.

Crypto tracker

The newsletter's "World Wide Web3" tracker listed the following day- and month-based percentage figures: +4.42%, +11.82%, +1.79%, +14.19%, +12.37%, +285.66%, +3.47% and +24.41%. The data was stated to be current as of 6:30 a.m. WAT on September 22, 2026. The source text did not identify the corresponding coin names or values.

Opportunity

The Citi Foundation is offering $500,000 grants to 50 organisations that help low-income young people develop artificial-intelligence and other job skills. Eligible programmes may teach prompt engineering and digital content creation, help young people find work, provide access to devices and software, or add AI tools to existing employment programmes.

Applications close on October 6, 2026, at 5 p.m. Lagos time. Applications are available through the Citi Foundation funding page.

Other stories featured in the newsletter examined the use case for local stablecoins, the shortage of $100,000 cheques and the exit drought affecting early-stage African technology companies, Nigeria's new phone registry and its potential effect on smartphone prices, Apple's search for its next major product under John Ternus, and Bank Zero's break-even performance as Mukuru migration expands its customer base.

Written by Emmanuel Nwosu and Kenn Abuya. Edited by Emmanuel Nwosu and Ganiu Oloruntade.