Episode overview: Guidione Machava has a confession: he's tired of being called an "African designer." The Mozambican product designer, now based in France and fresh from stints at Shopify and Paris-based 23point5, reckons that geographic qualifiers automatically strip away a third of your professional value before you've even started. It's a provocative stance from someone who's built his career bridging African markets and global tech giants. Since launching- MozDevz - Mozambique's largest dev...
Jun 17, 2025•54 min
Episode overview: In this conversation, South African strategist Wabo Majavu, executive strategy and business operations leader at Africa Data Centres, unpacks how technical expertise at organisations like MTN and Intelsat laid the foundation for her distinctive approach to strategic leadership and digital activism. From building radar applications at the CSIR to optimising cellular networks through late-night, township-sourced sheep's head dinners with seasoned veteran technicians, Majavu's jou...
May 30, 2025•1 hr 9 min
Episode overview: In this conversation, Verto co-founder and CEO Ola Oyetayo shares the journey of building a cross-border payments platform that tackles the unique challenges African businesses face when making international transactions. Since graduating from Y Combinator in 2019, Verto has established itself as what Oyetayo describes as a profitable and cashflow positive fintech serving multiple African markets. Incidentally, the company recently made headlines after winning the prestigious $...
May 14, 2025•38 min
Episode overview: In this conversation, David Ogundeko shares the journey of Funema, an impact-focused alternative investment firm operating for nine years across Nigeria, South Africa, and the US. He discusses his approach to venture building for early-stage founders, why Africa needs a unique investment approach, and how his firm addresses the "chicken and egg" challenge that idea-stage founders face: needing traction to raise funds while needing the right talent to gain that traction. Andile ...
Apr 25, 2025•51 min
Meet Marie Lora-Mungai, expert advisor in African creative industries and sports business and founder of Restless Global - whose 20-year journey from CNN journalist to production company founder to industry advisor gives her a unique vantage point on Africa's creative economy. In thought-provoking conversation with Andile Masuku, Lora-Mungai makes a compelling case for African filmmakers to stop seeking funding for traditional productions and instead leverage AI tools to create content independe...
Apr 06, 2025•29 min
Episode overview: In this conversation, Fatu Ogwuche shares insights into her transition from working at Meta and consulting for Nigeria's Electoral Commission to launching her own media platform, Big Tech This Week. She discusses her entrepreneurial spirit, creative approach to storytelling, and the unique position independent creators hold in today's media landscape. Andile Masuku describes Ogwuche as "low-key the industry's head of intelligence" - a title earned through her knack for asking t...
Mar 21, 2025•42 min
This episode features an engaging conversation with Rob Bergman, Chief Investment Officer at Unicorn Factory, exploring the nuanced intersection of digital infrastructure investment and internet connectivity ecosystem development across Africa. Episode overview: Andile Masuku engages with Bergman to unpack his 12-year journey in African investment, examining how Unicorn Factory's distinctive two-pillar approach combines operational expertise with strategic advisory and deal brokering services to...
Feb 21, 2025•27 min
Episode Overview: This episode features a relaxed, peer-to-peer conversation between two media entrepreneurs—African Tech Roundup co-founder and executive producer Andile Masuku, and Money & Moves founder and writer Tinashe Mukogo. They explore how Mukogo draws on his background in consulting (Deloitte), corporate venture capital (Next47), and organisational finance (Siemens), along with his CA and INSEAD MBA credentials, to deliver sophisticated yet accessible analysis of African businesses...
Feb 07, 2025•58 min
Episode Overview: This episode features a deep conversation with Joshua Bicknell, co-founder of Balloon Ventures, exploring how the organisation evolved from a non-profit connecting young people with informal entrepreneurs to becoming a financial institution that's deployed over $14 million in loans to SMEs across Kenya and Uganda, while openly sharing portfolio data to prove the viability of SME lending as an asset class. Key topics: - The false gospel of universal entrepreneurship - Defining a...
Jan 25, 2025•41 min
This episode features a brief check-in with Ochuko Ogra, Chief Transformation and Strategy Officer at Backbone Connectivity Network (BCN), sketching Nigeria's digital infrastructure landscape. Episode overview: BCN has over 1,000 km of wholly-owned fibre infrastructure, primarily in the North-Central and North Eastern parts of Nigeria. Citing its stronghold in Northern Nigeria to its expanding national footprint, Ogra shares how BCN is leveraging its two decades of experience in Nigerian telecom...
Jan 17, 2025•11 min
Listen in as Alan Knott-Craig Jr, son of Alan Sr, the pioneering co-founder and first CEO of Vodacom, one of South Africa's leading mobile network operators, and later the feisty CEO of challenger telco Cell C—takes us through a transformative career moment that set the stage for his future ventures. Episode overview This early 2016 conversation finds Alan Knott-Craig Jr in a moment of trademark forthrightness. Fresh from his tenure as CEO of Mxit, once Africa's largest social network with over ...
Jan 09, 2025•52 min
Episode overview This unfiltered 2017 archive dialogue captures Maya Horgan Famodu (Founder and Partner, Ingressive Capital) before she became known for straight-talking LinkedIn posts about founder insights and personal growth. Fresh from investment banking, she was forging new pathways between Silicon Valley capital and African startup innovation via carefully-curated investor tours—laying the groundwork for the launch of Ingressive Capital's investment months later. Listening back, you can he...
Dec 26, 2024•1 hr 15 min
As we wind down 2024, we're diving into our archives to serve up some memorable throwback conversations. Whether you're a long-time listener revisiting these gems or discovering them for the first time, these conversations capture pivotal moments in Africa's tech journey. In today's episode, we're rewinding to 2018... Episode overview: Join us as we eavesdrop on a fascinating corridor conversation from Afrobytes Tech Marketplace in Paris featuring Amadou Daffe, who has since transformed Gebeya f...
Dec 12, 2024•27 min
Meet Chijioke Dozie, the co-founder steering Carbon through Nigeria's increasingly noisy neobank scene. In this candid chat with Andile Masuku, Dozie makes a case for zigging while others zag—specifically, charging for value while competitors burn cash on free services. It's a stance that might raise eyebrows in Nigeria's price-sensitive market, but as you'll hear, it's backed by 12 years of hard knocks and savvy iteration. Episode Overview: Carbon spotted a massive gap in Nigeria circa 2012 - i...
Dec 05, 2024•20 min
Ambar van der Wath—who leads investor relations at one of Africa's leading accelerator slash VC firms, Baobab Network—discusses with Andile Masuku how the firm is creating accessible entry points for cautious investors interested in early-stage African tech startups. Episode Overview: Picture this: You're an international investor curious about African tech, but you're not quite ready to write million-dollar checks or commit to a 7-year fund lockup. That's exactly the puzzle Baobab Network is so...
Nov 28, 2024•16 min
This episode features an illuminating dialogue with Lanre Kolade, Chairman of ConnectedCompute, CEO of Koltronics Nigeria and former CEO of CSquared, exploring the intricate dynamics of infrastructure development and digital transformation across Africa. Episode overview: Andile Masuku engages with Kolade to unpack his 26-year journey in African broadband connectivity, examining the delicate balance between commercial viability and developmental impact in major infrastructure projects. Kolade sh...
Nov 21, 2024•20 min
This episode features a candid conversation with Jasiel Martin-Odoom, Africa Investment Officer at Accion Venture Lab, exploring the intersection of venture capital and connectivity-focused content creation and ecosystem building in African tech. Episode overview: Andile Masuku sits down with Jasiel Martin-Odoom to unpack his unique approach to ecosystem engagement, scaling personal impact through content creation and driving value for founders across Africa. Reflecting on his experience transit...
Nov 14, 2024•33 min
In a landscape where African tech startups often chase buzzwords and quick wins, some founders are taking a more fundamental approach to innovation. This episode explores how one Zimbabwean entrepreneur is building sustainable tech ventures by focusing on first principles. Episode overview: In this deeply candid conversation, Andile Masuku sits down with Victor Mapunga, the widely-covered founder of blockchain-based identity startup FlexID and authorised Starlink satellite internet service provi...
Nov 07, 2024•1 hr
In a rapidly evolving financial services landscape, traditional African insurers are racing to modernise their operations and product offerings to meet changing consumer needs. This episode explores how one of East Africa's largest insurance providers is navigating this transformation. Episode overview: In this first instalment of a special two-part miniseries on digital transformation across Africa's insurance and healthcare sectors, Andile Masuku, sits down with Evah Kimani, director of partne...
Oct 31, 2024•30 min
In October 2022, Safaricom launched its telecommunications services in Ethiopia, marking a major milestone as the first private operator to enter the Ethiopian telecom market. This move broke the long-standing monopoly of state-owned Ethio Telecom and was seen by many as a significant step towards liberalising the country’s telecom sector. The company had officially been licensed in July 2021, with a record $850 million licensing fee—the largest foreign direct investment in Ethiopia at the time....
Oct 17, 2024•18 min
In the opening episode of the Future in the Humanities podcast mini-series, titled "Touching Brains", Wits University research collaborators Sahba Besharati and Victoria Williams let us in on their multidisciplinary exploration of the complex impact of COVID-19 on human interaction and touch. Featuring insights from various studies and discussions around the experiences of parents and caregivers during the pandemic, Andile Masuku (host), examines the significance of physical contact, the resilie...
Sep 26, 2024•27 min
In this episode, Wits University media researchers Samuel Olaniran and Iginio Gagliardone guide an audio tour into the complex world of conspiracy theories in the era of social media and global crises. Drawing from multiple research findings and expert dialogues, Andile Masuku (host) grapples with the complex function of conspiracy theories in our society. Rather than dismissing them solely as social ills, he investigates their potential as tools for challenging authority and frameworks for unde...
Sep 26, 2024•17 min
In the third and final episode of the Future in the Humanities podcast mini-series, titled "The Gig Economy's Hidden Costs", Wits social scientist and researcher Fikile Masikane guides an exploration of the complex realities facing gig workers in the Global South, particularly food courier riders in Africa. Featuring insights from a study conducted with Edward Webster, Andile Masuku delves into the challenges and contradictions of the gig economy, examining how promises of entrepreneurship and f...
Sep 26, 2024•26 min
In this special edition of the African Tech Roundup podcast, taped at the fringes of the inaugural Africa Digital Transformation Strategy Summit (convened by NOVACOM Summits), Refiloe Mpakanyane investigates the state of digital transformation in Africa through conversation with four seasoned corporate C-suite executives spearheading corporate innovation in Africa. Dr Juliet Ehimuan is formerly Director of Google West Africa. Juliet posits three critical pillars of digital transformation: access...
Oct 02, 2023•38 min
In this African Tech Conversations episode, guest host Kate Bryne chats with avid AI proponents Jania Okwechime (Partner at Deloitte - West Africa Data Analytics Leader) and Wessel Oosthuizen (AI Lead - Deloitte Analytics). Listen in for deep insights about the pros and pitfalls of AI and to grasp the profound potential impact AI might have on the Web3 universe as we build it out. EDITORIAL DISCLAIMER: While the Celo Community Fund supports this African Tech Conversations episode, African Tech R...
Oct 03, 2022•55 min
In this UNAJUA episode, Kate Byrne parses through majorly-hyped trends like "play-to-earn" to pinpoint the true potential of the extraordinary new level of connectivity and engagement enabled by applied Web3 technologies. This podcast is the third and final instalment of the three-part UNAJUA Series focused on distilling a handful of global Web3 buzz trends like crypto, NFTs, the metaverse and even AI— reflecting how they are unfolding within an African context. Kate has served as a C-Suite exec...
Sep 12, 2022•11 min
In this UNAJUA episode, Kate Byrne gauges the ongoing fallout of the current global meltdown in crypto markets and speaks on the current international tenor in crypto adoption. This is the second instalment of a three-part UNAJUA Series focused on distilling a handful of global Web3 buzz trends like crypto, NFTs, the metaverse and even AI— reflecting how they are unfolding within an African context. Kate has served as a C-Suite executive leader at blue chip brands such as Katapult X, SOCAP Globa...
Aug 29, 2022•18 min
This is the first episode of a UNAJUA Series focused on distilling a handful of global Web3 buzz trends like crypto, NFTs, the metaverse and even AI— reflecting how they are unfolding within an African context. Offering minimum viable insight in this series is the inimitable Kate Byrne. Kate has served as a C-Suite executive leader at blue chip brands such as Katapult X, SOCAP Global, Inc, Fast Company and the George Lucas Education Foundation. She is currently the Chief Impact Officer of PopVen...
Aug 18, 2022•15 min
This is the final episode of the three-part UNAJUA Series focused on what sets blockchains apart. Seasoned Kenyan blockchain developer and Web3 enthusiast Jordan Muthemba is on strike for this series. In this podcast, Jordan Muthemba explains how blockchain (network) users vote and elect delegates to validate the next block using a concept called Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS). Jordan is a full-stack developer with over five years of experience in Kenya's buzzy IT scene. He is currently serving...
Aug 02, 2022•9 min
This is Part 2 of a three-part UNAJUA Series focused on what sets blockchains apart from each other. Seasoned Kenyan blockchain developer and Web3 enthusiast Jordan Muthemba shares insights on this series. Jordan is a full-stack developer with over five years of experience in Kenya's buzzy IT scene. He is currently serving as a smart contract developer and Web3 project advisor on a handful of projects for the likes of Canza Finance, SendVillage and Ubrica. He is also an active Celo Community edu...
Jul 25, 2022•10 min
