TechCabal's daily briefing for October 2, 2026, led with Meta's legal challenge to a Nigerian court ruling over its advertising data practices, alongside regulatory movement on MTN's takeover of IHS Towers and South Africa's decision to abandon its investigation of streaming and messaging platforms. The edition also rounded up a week of funding deals for African agritech and cleantech startups.

Meta appeals Nigerian court ruling on behavioural ad tracking

On September 25, a Lagos High Court ruled that Meta unlawfully processed Nigerians' personal data on its Facebook and Instagram platforms, using it for behavioural advertising without valid consent. The court ordered the company to stop the processing, comply with Nigeria's data protection laws, and pay the applicants $100,000 in damages. Five days later, Meta filed an appeal.

The case centres on behavioural tracking — the practice of building patterns from a user's activity on social media, including what they click, watch, search for or engage with. It underpins the familiar experience of an ad following a user across Facebook and Instagram after a single search — the consequence of tapping "Accept" on terms and conditions. The court held that Meta cannot make this kind of behavioural tracking a condition for using its platforms.

Meta's position was that its platforms are free and funded by advertising, and that users agree to its terms and privacy policy when they sign up. The court disagreed with the notion that advertising-related profiling is automatically necessary just because ads pay for the service.

This is not Meta's first Nigerian privacy dispute. In 2024, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) imposed a $220 million penalty on Meta and WhatsApp after a 38-month investigation into their data practices, consumer protection and competition issues. The latest case is different, but it raises the same question of how much control Nigerians have over what Big Tech companies do with their data.

For now, nothing in users' feeds is changing. Because Meta has appealed, the September ruling is not yet a final verdict. If the judgment survives, however, Meta could have to rethink how it obtains consent and how it handles Nigerian users' data when it is processed outside the country — an issue that grows more pointed as Nigeria pushes harder on data sovereignty and keeping locally generated data within the country.

MTN clears another regulatory hurdle for full takeover of IHS Towers

MTN's bid to take full control of IHS Towers has cleared another regulatory hurdle, but the deal remains subject to conditions. South Africa's Competition Commission has recommended that the Competition Tribunal approve the acquisition, provided MTN, Africa's largest telecom company, complies with rules designed to protect competition, customers and jobs. The recommendation is not a final sign-off: the Competition Tribunal still has to rule on the transaction.

The conditions include requirements for fair, non-discriminatory access to IHS infrastructure; protections against preferential treatment for MTN; safeguards for customer information; and measures to support historically disadvantaged ownership and small businesses. In effect, MTN can acquire the tower company, but it cannot treat the towers as a members-only club.

The recommendation comes as MTN moves to acquire the remaining shares in IHS for about $2.2 billion, taking its ownership of one of Africa's biggest tower companies to 100%. IHS has nearly 29,000 towers across Africa, many of them used by multiple mobile operators, making the transaction more than a simple change of ownership.

Nigeria is particularly important to the deal. In August, MTN received conditional approval from the FCCPC, including a requirement to eventually sell down up to 30% of its IHS Nigeria stake to local investors. The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has also granted an Approval-in-Principle, with conditions including no exclusivity for MTN Nigeria, protection of existing contracts and a measurable investment plan.

The broad picture: while MTN moves closer to owning IHS outright, regulators are working to ensure the telco does not get to own the towers and write all the rules as well.

South Africa drops plan to investigate Netflix and WhatsApp

South Africa's telecommunications regulator has dropped its planned investigation into how streaming and over-the-top (OTT) platforms such as Netflix and WhatsApp affect local telecom and broadcasting companies. On September 30, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) withdrew its notice to investigate OTT services.

Before the withdrawal, ICASA had issued a notice to examine how OTT service providers benefit from infrastructure that telecom companies built in the country. With the approval of the Association of Comms and Technology (ACT), the telecom industry group, the regulator highlighted arguments for why OTT platforms should contribute significantly to the local economy: without broadband penetration, people cannot access the internet, and without the internet, Netflix and other OTT services cannot reliably reach South African users. In that framing, telecom and broadcasting companies built the technology that those services rely on.

OTT services deliver video content over the internet, bypassing traditional cable or satellite distribution; the category includes YouTube and most online entertainment platforms.

ACT had pushed a "fair contribution" proposal that would require OTT players to contribute financially to the maintenance and upgrade of bandwidth-heavy systems, while the regulator had an obligation to listen and conduct its due diligence. With the investigation withdrawn, two scenarios remain in play: foreign OTT platforms could still be mandated in some way to contribute to the local economy beyond the taxes they pay, or face some of the regulatory obligations that apply to local telecoms and broadcasters — a possibility the report itself flags as potential overreach.

For now, the matter is a wait-and-see, and consumers' access is ultimately at stake. Restricting foreign OTT platforms that fail to comply with a potential requirement could cut users off from services they enjoy; on the other hand, the regulator appears keen to take a balanced approach.

African startups secure fresh funding

SunCulture, a Kenyan agritech startup, raised $10 million in debt funding from the Mirova Gigaton Fund on September 27.

Other deals announced during the week:

• Rhea, a Kenyan agritech startup, secured $100,000 in a convertible note financing round led by Obudu Capital (September 28).
• Tomato Jos, a Nigerian agritech startup, raised $2 million in debt funding from Sabou Capital (September 28).
• Wuchi Wami, a Zambian agritech startup, secured an undisclosed amount of funding from Inside Capital Partners (September 28).
• Lersha, an Ethiopian agritech startup, secured a $100,000 grand prize from Heifer International (September 29).
• Ororo Waste, a Nigerian cleantech startup, raised $1 million from Rising Tide Africa (September 30).
• Farm to Feed, a Kenyan agritech startup, raised $171,000 from Proparco (September 30).
• Prado Power, a Nigerian cleantech startup, secured an undisclosed amount in debt funding from REPP 2 (October 1).

Taken together, the week's announcements leaned on debt facilities, convertible notes and prize money, and reached startups in Kenya, Nigeria, Zambia and Ethiopia.

Crypto market snapshot

The edition's crypto tracker, citing data as of 6:38 a.m. WAT on October 2, 2026, showed all tracked coins in positive territory, with day gains ranging from +0.56% to +1.73% and month gains between +9.42% and +18.69%.

Who is hiring

Open roles listed this week includedn

• Bumpa — Social Media Associate — Lagos, Nigeria
• Paystack — Product Manager, Financial Systems, and several other roles — hybrid, Lagos, Nigeria
• Paystack — Product Manager, South Africa, and Account Manager — hybrid, Cape Town, South Africa
• Paystack — Platform Security Engineer — Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa
• Qore — Engineering Specialist, Offensive Security — Lagos, Nigeria
• OPay — PR Strategist — Lagos, Nigeria
• RadioNow — Videographer — Lagos, Nigeria

Also from the edition

The briefing also pointed readers to TechCabal's feature "Nigeria's healthcare system is broken. Who fills the gaps?", part of the health edition of the Nigerian Life Compendium — a collection of eight essays on the cracks in Nigeria's healthcare system, covering emergency response, mental health law, donor dependency, vaccine manufacturing and the informal healthcare economy, and documenting the state of the health system ahead of Nigeria's 2027 elections.

The edition was written by Yemi Kareem, Frank Eleanya and Sucess Sotonwa, and edited by Emmanuel Nwosu and Ganiu Oloruntade.

Source: TechCabal Daily - Meta's ad-verse ruling