Safaricom, Kenya's largest telco, has secured regulatory approval for its second money market fund, Ziidi, in a strategic move to expand its financial services offerings. The new product, a collaboration between Safaricom, Standard Investment Bank, ALA Capital Limited, and Sanlam Investments East Africa Limited, is expected to go live next week.

Ziidi will likely integrate with M-PESA, allowing customers to invest and withdraw earnings directly through their M-PESA wallets. This move is a logical extension of Safaricom's strategy to boost earnings, given the declining profits from voice and SMS services. M-PESA already generates a significant portion of its service revenue, with KES 77.22 billion ($596 million) in the first half of 2024, according to its latest financial report.

In other news, GT Bank, a Nigerian tier-1 bank, has apologized to its customers for weeks of service disruptions caused by its migration to a new core banking software, Finacle. The bank's execution of the migration has raised questions about its preparedness for such a significant shift, with customers experiencing incorrect account balances, unauthorized debit and credit alerts, and outright inaccessibility of services.

Meanwhile, MTN Nigeria is leading the 5G race in West and Central Africa, with download speeds of 95.62 Mbps and upload speeds of 17.01 Mbps, according to Ookla's Q2 2024 Speedtest Intelligence. The telco has invested $120 million in 5G infrastructure, covering 11% of Nigeria's population with over 2,100 sites.

In related news, analysts are hopeful of an end to interest rate hikes in Nigeria, following the Central Bank's 25-basis-point increment, which is seen as a sign of slowing down its aggressive monetary tightening cycle. The CBN governor expressed optimism that inflationary pressures will begin to wane, with results expected as soon as the first quarter of 2025.

Finally, the World Wide Web3 crypto tracker shows Bitcoin at $95,946, Ether at $3,618, and Solana at $240.34, with significant gains in the past month.

The tech landscape in Africa is rapidly evolving, with fintech, banking, and telecommunications playing critical roles in shaping the continent's economic future. As Safaricom expands its financial services, GT Bank works to recover from service disruptions, and MTN Nigeria leads the 5G charge, one thing is clear: the stakes are high, and the players are moving quickly.