The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has issued the first batch of final licences to 82 Bureau De Change operators under its 2024 Regulatory and Supervisory Guidelines, part of its move for a tighter FX market, aimed at shrinking the space for unregulated operators and restoring confidence after years of parallel-market distortions.

It is also part of the CBN’s push for a tighter, compliance-heavy FX framework aimed at shrinking the space for street trading, sanitising the supply chain, and restoring confidence across the market.

Under the revamped regime introduced in 2024, the CBN created two licence classes — Tier 1 and Tier 2 — with significantly higher entry thresholds. Tier 1 operators must maintain a minimum capital base of ₦2 billion ($1.38 million), while Tier 2 operators require ₦500 million ($344,385.82). The rules also shut out commercial banks, payment service banks, fintechs, IMTOs, and other regulated financial institutions from obtaining BDC licences.

Of the newly licensed BCD operators, only two operate as Tier 1 BCDs, while the other 80 remain Tier 2 BCDs and must therefore be operational only in one state. This directive aims to clean up Nigeria’s informal foreign exchange (FX) market by reducing illegal operations and restoring confidence in retail FX transactions. 

In a statement signed by Hakama Ali, Acting Director of Corporate Communications, the CBN said the new licences became effective on November 27, 2025, issued pursuant to the Bank and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2020.

“By this notice, only Bureaux De Change listed on the Bank’s website are authorised to operate from the effective date,” Ali said. “While the CBN will continue to update the list of Bureaux De Change with valid operating licences for public verification on our website (www.cbn.gov.ng), the Bank advises the general public to avoid dealing with unlicensed Foreign Exchange Operators.”

Operating a BDC without a valid licence now attracts sanctions under Section 57(1) of BOFIA 2020, meaning that they are liable to a fine of up to ₦10,000,000 ($6,887.72) and an additional ₦200,000 ($137.75) for each day the infraction continues.

The cleanup follows a turbulent period for the FX market. In 2024, the CBN revoked the licences of over 4,000 BDCs for failures ranging from non-payment of regulatory fees to non-compliance with AML/CFT reporting obligations. It was also the year the regulator deployed the EFCC to clear FX street traders, a practice the new guidelines have now expressly prohibited.

“What we’re hoping to accomplish by this, frankly, is to bring some sanity to an industry that arguably no longer serves the interests of those whom it was meant to protect,” CBN governor Olayemi Cardoso said in 2024.

The reforms come as the naira’s official and parallel rates converge at a little less than ₦1,500, an outcome the CBN hopes to solidify by tightening control over one of the most porous segments of the FX market.

As the regulator continues to update the list of valid BCD operators on its website, the public is urged to verify the status of any BDC before initiating a transaction to ensure compliance with the new financial order.

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Anthropic is launching Claude Code in Slack, allowing developers to delegate coding tasks directly from chat threads. The beta feature, available Monday as a research preview, builds on Anthropic’s existing Slack integration by adding full workflow automation. The rollout signals the next frontier in coding assistants isn’t the model; it’s the workflow. 

Previously, developers could only get lightweight coding help via Claude in Slack – like writing  snippets, debugging, and explanations. Now they can tag @Claude to spin up a complete coding session using Slack context like bug reports or feature requests. Claude analyzes recent messages to determine the right repository, posts progress updates in threads, and shares links to review work and open pull requests.

The move reflects a broader industry shift: AI coding assistants are migrating from IDEs (Integrated Development Environment AKA where software development happens) into collaboration tools where teams already work.

Cursor offers Slack integration for drafting and debugging code in threads, while GitHub Copilot recently added features to generate pull requests from chat. OpenAI’s Codex is accessible via custom Slack bots.

For Slack, positioning itself as an “agentic hub” where AI meets workplace context creates a strategic advantage: whichever AI tool dominates Slack – the center of engineering communication – could shape how software teams work.

By letting developers move seamlessly from conversation to code without switching apps, Claude Code and similar tools represent a shift toward AI-embedded collaboration that could fundamentally change developer workflows.

While Anthropic has not yet confirmed when it would make a broader rollout available, the timing is strategic. The AI coding market is getting more competitive, and differentiation is starting to depend more on integration depth and distribution than model capability alone.

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That said, the integration raises questions about code security and IP protection, as it adds another platform through which sensitive repository access must be managed and audited – while also introducing new dependencies where outages or rate limits in either Slack or Claude’s API could disrupt development workflows that teams previously controlled locally.

TechCrunch has reached out to Anthropic and Slack for more information.

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Solomon Akinsanya has spent the last five years helping some of Africa’s fastest-growing tech companies reshape how digital brands connect with customers.

From leading the marketing and CX engine that drove Taeillo’s 510% revenue growth, to building RedCloud’s content strategy across Nigeria and South Africa with over 2,800% increases in reach, his work sits at the intersection of cultural storytelling, digital innovation, and community-led brand building.

In this conversation with Raphael Fabunmi, Solomon breaks down why AR, VR, and narrative-driven experiences will define the next chapter of Africa’s tech ecosystem, and what brands must do today to stay relevant tomorrow.

Q: Solomon, you’ve worked across some of Africa’s fastest-growing digital brands, Taeillo, RedCloud, BuyPower, CareerBuddy. When you look at the next wave of African tech companies, what do you think will separate the winners from everyone else?

Honestly? The brands that will win are the ones that can make people feel something, even inside a digital experience. Africa’s consumers are evolving fast; they want technology, yes, but they also want connection. They want to see themselves inside the products they use.

That’s where AR, VR, and storytelling come together. The companies that understand how to merge these three will build deeper trust, deeper loyalty, and much faster adoption than those who rely on traditional marketing.

A lot of people still see AR and VR as “future tech” fancy, expensive, or unnecessary. From your experience, are they really practical for African brands?

Absolutely, if you understand what they’re meant to do.

AR and VR aren’t toys. They’re clarity machines.

At Taeillo, for example, one of the biggest barriers was simple:

“What will this furniture look like in my space?”

AR solved that. Suddenly, a customer in Lagos, Nairobi, or Accra didn’t have to imagine. They could see it. In their room. In real time.

And when you remove imagination friction, you remove buying fear. That’s why you see global commerce shifting toward immersive experiences, and it’s why Africa’s tech brands can’t afford to sit this wave out.

The technology isn’t the blocker anymore. The mindset is.

You talk a lot about storytelling as a growth engine. How does storytelling tie into immersive tech?

 Think of storytelling as the heart, and AR/VR as the stage.

One gives emotion, the other gives experience.

When a customer tries a product in AR, they’ve already stepped into the story, your story.

When they explore a VR environment that shows your product’s journey, your mission, or your community impact, they’re not just buying a product… they’re buying meaning.

At Taeillo, that mix helped drive 510% revenue growth and community expansion from 21K to 75K, because people didn’t just see furniture. They saw culture. Identity. Innovation. Possibility.

Storytelling made AR not just “cool,” but commercially powerful.

From your time managing digital strategy at RedCloud across Nigeria and South Africa, what are you seeing on the ground that proves AR/VR is becoming more relevant?

The biggest indicator is how brands now measure success.

It’s shifting from “reach and impressions” to engagement, trial, and emotional connection.

We ran campaigns that had a 2,800% increase in reach and a 932% surge in content interaction, and it showed one thing clearly: people stay longer when the content feels alive. They click more. They explore more. They try more.

AR/VR gives brands that “stay longer” effect by default.

And in markets like Nigeria and South Africa, where competition is brutal, and customers make fast decisions, anything that buys you more time inside the customer’s mind is a growth advantage.

What do you think African brands get wrong when approaching AR and VR?

They treat it like a feature instead of a philosophy.

AR/VR shouldn’t just sit in an app somewhere, waiting for someone to tap it. It should be part of how the brand communicates, educates, and builds desire.

Most brands launch AR the same way they launch brochure PDFs: quietly and without a story.

But when you use AR with human narrative, showing users, communities, behind-the-scenes, real stories, it becomes sticky. It becomes memorable.

The biggest mistake is thinking immersive tech is about visuals alone.

It’s actually about emotion.

You’ve also worked with partnerships like the AR/VR Association, Social Media Week Lagos, Ingressive4Good, and AltSchool Africa. What did those experiences teach you?

Africa is ready. The creative ecosystem is hungry.

Students, designers, product teams, influencers, they’re all looking for ways to create deeper, more interactive experiences.

These partnerships showed me that we’re entering a phase where brand experience will matter more than brand messaging. If your experience isn’t memorable, someone else’s will be.

And immersive tech doesn’t remove the human element; it actually amplifies it, if you use it right.

So, what’s your prediction? What’s the “big shift” coming?

The next decade in African tech will be won by brands that do three things exceptionally well:

1. Use AR/VR to remove friction from the buying journey

   (no more guessing, no more uncertainty).

2. Tell human, relatable stories around their products

   (not generic marketing language, actual stories).

3. Build community experiences, not just customer bases

   (Community is the new distribution).

If a brand can combine all three, it will grow faster, spend less on ads, and build loyalty that can’t be copied.

If you had to give one final piece of advice to African founders or marketing leaders reading this, what would it be?

Don’t wait until AR and VR become mainstream before you adopt them.

The brands people call “innovative” tomorrow are the ones experimenting today.

And don’t think of immersive tech as technology.

Think of it as a new way to tell your story.

Because at the end of the day, people don’t remember products, they remember the experiences that made them feel seen.

Solomon Akinsanya is a content marketing and digital strategy professional with a track record of driving rapid growth across African tech brands. He led Taeillo’s 510% revenue surge and has driven digital strategy at RedCloud, BuyPower, and CareerBuddy.

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At the African Prosperity Summit 2025, held from November 12 to 14, 2025, founders, fund managers, policymakers, and investors gathered to discuss the state of capital in the continent’s technology system

The main event, held on November 13, 2025, featured a plethora of conversations with key players in the African business ecosystem and African private capital leaders. 

Setting the tone of the event, Kola Aina, founding partner of Ventures Platform, highlighted that there is a significant gap between capital raised and exits achieved in the tech ecosystem.

Kola Aina – Founding Partner of Ventures Platform, during his opening speech at the African Prosperity Summit 2025

In his opening speech, Aina shared that since 2020, African startups have raised a total of $18 billion, and fund managers with dedicated African strategies have raised an additional $2.3 billion. Using a Venture Capital (VC) return on investment projection, Aina estimated that in total,  “If you piece that together, we’re talking about something in the region of $20 billion  [range] dedicated to African VC strategies.” 

In VC economics, a 3x return (DPI—Distributed to Paid-In capital) is generally considered the benchmark for a successful fund. With a 2x to 3x return, Aina shared that the DPI expectation by 2035 is $40 to $60 billion for the VC market to be regarded as a sustainable market that makes an impact and delivers returns on investment. 

The deadline for these returns is “by about 2035” based on the standard 10-year lifecycle of a venture capital fund. If capital is raised between 2020 to 2025, the fund must liquidate (exit) its assets between 2030 to 2035. 

Image source: TechCabal

Aina urged VCs to engage in the conversation: “There is a direct correlation between liquidity and participation.” It is clear, and he emphasised, there is a $60 billion to contend for, and this dilemma is what the summit set out to answer, especially as this number is growing with capital pouring every day from the venture ecosystem.

The strategic pivot: Unicorns vs. SMEs

The first step to returning this capital would seem to be an operational reality check. During the Liquidity as Leverage panel, industry leaders argued that the “growth at all costs” model often creates companies that are too expensive to be bought. 

Bunmi Akinyemiju, CEO of Venture Garden Group, argued that founders must be clear on whether they are building a venture company or an SME (small to medium-sized enterprise). 

Akinyemiju said, “If you’re building an SME, you price the SME…and you sell it to somebody that buys an SME,” or simply generate dividends. The disconnect arises when founders build SMEs but price them like Unicorns, making exits impossible.

On the same panel, discussing catalysing exits to sustain the cycle, Ross Strike, SVP, Investor Relations at Moniepoint, added that exit readiness isn’t just about sales; it’s about building a “business machine” with strong governance and financial controls from day one. 

However, Daniel Adeoye of Verod Capital warned founders of a “strategic debt,” noting that the market can sometimes penalise companies for becoming too big, limiting the pool of potential acquirers to international giants. He said, “Usually ticket sizes in this market [in this continent] are $50 to $100 million. So there’s such a thing as being a strategic fit.” By this, Adeoye implied, there is a sweet spot where local banks, telcos, and conglomerates can comfortably acquire a company in Africa.

The  ‘strategic debt’ growth trap he warns of can happen when a startup becomes too expensive for local acquirers, yet too risky or complex for global ones. As companies are defining their operational landscape, they should be wary of this. By raising at a high valuation today, founders are “borrowing” the expectation of a massive exit tomorrow, and if companies cannot repay the debt by securing one of the few global buyers available, they default on their liquidity promise to investors. It is often better to sell earlier to a local strategic buyer for a modest, guaranteed return than to hold out for a massive global unicorn exit that might never happen.

The capital shift: Patience and alternatives

If the operational model must change, so must the capital timeline. Chirantan Patnaik, Director at Ventures Platform, noted in his presentation, ‘A View from the Capital Stack’, that for a $5 billion fund to succeed, the ecosystem requires a $160 billion exit value. He questioned whether the standard 10-year fund lifecycle is realistic for the African context.

Image source: TechCabal

This sentiment was echoed by Bolaji Balogun, CEO of Chapel Hill Denham, during the panel session on ‘Policy and markets: building for the long term.’ Balogun argued that the traditional private equity model of a three-to-five-year exit horizon has “failed in Africa”. The traditional Private Equity (PE) model is time-bound. A PE firm raises a fund with a mandate to return the money in roughly 10 years. This forces them to invest, grow the company, and exit (sell) within a three-to-five-year window

L_R – Chirantan Patnaik (Director, VC – BII), Temi Popoola (GCEO, NGX Group), Fatu Ogwuche (Founder, Big Tech Week), Bolaji Balogun (Chapel Hill Denham), and Michelle Chikezie (Partner, G.Elias)

“Create long-duration funds,” Balogun advised. ”There’s a world-class model that works [and can be] found in the UK market. 103 of the 350 companies in the FTSE 350 are listed investment trusts. And what listed Investment Trusts allow you to do is basically to bring liquidity to an inadequate asset class.”

Unlike a standard VC fund that must liquidate after 10 years, a Listed Investment Trust is a company listed on a stock exchange (like the London Stock Exchange or NGX). This way, the fund is permanent. The fund can hold the company for 10, 15, or 20 years without being forced to sell. If an investor wants their money back, they don’t force the fund to sell the startup. Instead, they simply sell their shares in the Trust to another investor on the stock market.

Hayo Afman, Regional Director Africa for Alder Tree Investments, offered a solution from the family office perspective. Speaking on the panel on ‘Betting on Africa: The Global Investor Perspective,’ he noted that family offices, which manage generational wealth, do not have the same aggressive liquidity timelines as VCs. 

“We don’t need to see liquidity for the next [couple of] years,” Afman stated, emphasising that patient capital allows assets to mature properly.

Also, equity is not the only route, and this concept was elaborated in the panel session about structuring alternative capital pathways.

Image source: TechCabal

Lexi Novitske, General Partner at Norrsken22, noted that debt financing is an effective alternative for asset-heavy models, predicting a rise in “consumer-backed financing” where customers essentially fund the product they use. 

“What’s going to come longer-term in some African markets is more consumer-backed financing, [by] consumers [who]  want to have an [earned] product,” Novitske said. “ I think Piggyvest already does this for several of its customers. But it could be anything from owning a share of property to having a portfolio of maybe super credits.” 

The market unlock: Domestic liquidity

Returning $60 billion requires a marketplace that can absorb it. Patnaik used India as a case study, noting that its ecosystem matured because domestic institutional investors eventually outpaced foreign ones. This means seeking participation from non-traditional investors, such as financial institutions and corporate venture capital (CVCs), and building for the continent’s near-term evolution rather than its current state. 

Chirantan Patnaik – Director, Venture Capital – BII

With India, he showed:

• Domestic capital is key: India’s ecosystem matured not just because of foreign VC, but because domestic institutional investors eventually outpaced foreign ones.
• Retail participation: He highlighted the role of “Systematic Investment Plans” (SIPs), where ordinary citizens invest small amounts (e.g., $3/month), creating a massive pool of domestic capital.

To put Patnaik’s thoughts simply, startups earn in local currency (Naira, Cedi, Shilling) but raise in Dollars, and domestic capital can speed up returns by aligning the currency of investment with the currency of revenue.

Image source: TechCabal

Ultimately, the path to returning $60 billion involves a shift from relying solely on foreign acquisitions to engineering local exits, embracing patient capital, and building businesses priced correctly for the market they serve.

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TikTok is launching “Shared Collections,” a new way for users to share and organize TikTok content in one place with friends or family. The company also teased the upcoming launch of “Shared Feeds,” which will let users watch TikTok content together through a shared interest-based feed.

TikTok rolled out individual Collections earlier this year to let users save content in custom folders. With Shared Collections, users can now do things like create a space to share cookie-swap plans and holiday-dinner ideas with their family. Or, they can create Shared Collections to organize decor inspo or secret Santa ideas.

“Whether it’s content from their favorite creators, inspiration for a home design project, or a new skill they’re learning together, Shared Collection makes it easy for people to stay organized as they discover and save on TikTok,” the company explained in a blog post.

Image Credits:TikTok

You can only create a Shared Collection with someone if you’re both following each other. Collections can stay just between friends and family, or they can be made public.

Shared Collections are available globally to accounts over age 16.

As for Shared Feeds, which are launching in the coming months, TikTok sees them as a way for users to discover content together. Users can generate Shared Feeds in one-on-one direct messages.

Shared Feeds will surface new content tailored to both users’ tastes, such as sports, winter activities, and their favorite creators. The feeds are generated based on users’ TikTok activity, such as what they like, watch, and comment on.

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It’s worth noting that the feeds aren’t continuous, as users will find a selection of 15 videos in their Shared Feed each day.

Image Credits:TikTok

The feature is similar to Instagram Reels’ Blend feature that lets you create a custom, personalized reels feed for you and your friends.

Users will be able to create a Shared Feed by sending an invite to another user. Once the invitation is accepted, they can create a feed and chat about it in DMs. After both people have watched all the videos, they can view metrics, including which videos they both liked, in their “Shared Likes” history.

TikTok also announced that it’s launching greeting cards that users can send each other. Users will be able to select a greeting card inside their chats, write a message, and send it. The receiver will get a festive animation alongside the message.

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Photo by Cemrecan Yurtman / Unsplash

If you’ve ever taken a portrait of someone in a dim restaurant or at a concert, you know how iPhones usually handle it. Recent Pro models could brighten the shot with Night Mode and still keep the soft background blur that Portrait mode adds. It was one of those features people relied on without thinking about how it worked.

This week, though, iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max owners noticed that the option has quietly disappeared. Switch to Portrait in low light, and the Night Mode icon no longer appears. The phone also stops saving the depth data needed to add blur later. Users flagged the change on Reddit and Apple’s forums, and Apple’s documentation confirms that the 17 Pro series simply no longer supports the combo.

Night Mode Portraits used to work because the camera captured depth information even in very low light. On the iPhone 17 Pro lineup, that depth data simply isn’t saved in those conditions, which means the blur effect can’t be applied. The practical impact translates to low-light portraits that now require choosing between brightness and background separation. Moments that depend on fast, flattering low-light shots, birthday dinners, concerts, and late-night events lose a feature many people never realized they depended on.

Apple Reportedly Delays Next iPhone Air as Ultra-Slim Design Struggles to Catch On

The company will now focus on its traditional lineup while taking a more cautious approach to this experimental design.

Apple hasn’t explained the decision, but there are technical factors that make the change plausible. Combining Night Mode’s long exposures with Portrait’s depth mapping can introduce motion blur, increase noise, or force the camera to drop resolution.

Older Night Portraits often landed at 12MP, while the iPhone 17 Pro shoots at higher native resolutions. Maintaining image quality at those levels may have required Apple to remove the combined mode entirely. Multiple outlets have pointed to these trade-offs as the most likely reason.

For now, iPhone 17 Pro users have to pick between a bright Night Mode shot or a blurred-background Portrait. Third-party apps can simulate depth or background blur after the fact, but results vary. Unless Apple reverses the decision in a software update, Night Mode Portraits are effectively gone from the newest Pro models, and low-light portraits will require a bit more planning.

iPhone 17 vs. Google Pixel 10

Which flagship should you buy?

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On Saturday, December 6th, 2025, top Nigerian creators asserted their dominance at the 2025 TikTok Awards in Sub-Saharan Africa by securing six awards out of ten categories.

The annual Award night themed “New Era, New Icons” took place in Johannesburg, South Africa.

According to TikTok, this year’s event celebrated the most impactful and inspiring creators across Sub-Saharan Africa. It also highlighted the extraordinary ways creators have engaged, inspired, and connected communities on and off TikTok. 

Boniswa Sidwaba, TikTok’s Head of Content Operations for Sub-Saharan Africa

“With Nigerian creators securing six of the ten awards, we are honoured to celebrate their impact, especially as these victories were voted for by the TikTok community, who continue to champion the stories shaping culture”, Boniswa Sidwaba, TikTok’s Head of Content Operations for Sub-Saharan Africa, said.

She added that the annual ceremony was a gathering of the trailblazers who have redefined what it means to be a creator in Africa. 

“This year, we are honoured to see West African creators who turned short video clips into cultural movements be recognised,” she said.

Read also: Full list: Nigerian creators dominate 2025 TikTok SSA nominations

Here is the full list of Nigerian winners from TikTok’s 2025 Sub-Saharan Awards

Creator of the Year (Sponsored by NIVEA)

Winner: Raja’atu Muhammed Ibrahim @diaryofanortherncook (Nigeria)

Raja’atu is a food content creator based in Sokoto, Nigeria. She was recognised for her mastery of visual storytelling through food with the rich sounds of northern music and Nigerian cuisines.

Storyteller of the Year (Sponsored by inDrive)

Winner: Brian Nwana @briannwana (Nigeria)

On the second of the list is Brian Nwana, an Abuja-based food content creator who claimed the Storyteller of the Year award through his food content. From street interviews to compelling personal narratives woven into his food adventures, Brian has a rare gift for capturing the human experience bite by bite.

Education Creator of the Year

Winner: Izzi Boye @izziboye (Nigeria)

Making tech accessible to the masses, Izzi Boye is the go-to guy for gadget reviews, hacks, and digital tips. He won the education creator award, which proves that TikTok is a powerful classroom for the digital age.

His runner-up was Michelle (@michelle_expert) from South Africa. She empowers her audience with expert advice and actionable insights from career development and financial literacy to personal growth and everyday decision-making.

Belove Olocha, Entertainment Creator of the Year

Entertainment Creator of the Year (Sponsored by PEP)

Winner: Belove Olocha @beloveolocha (Nigeria)

Fourth on the list is Belove Olocha, a Lagos-based content creator who was awarded for her consistent ability to entertain and engage audiences with relatable movie content. She also stands out for incorporating her love for movies, sharing film moments and recommendations that resonate with her community.

Her runner-up was Jabulani Macdonald @jabu_macdonald from South Africa. He is a staple of South Africa’s entertainment scene, known for his quick wit and engaging presence.

Social Impact Creator of the Year (Sponsored by Dis-chem)

Winner: Dejoke Ogunbiyi @noositiwantiwa_ (Nigeria)

The Social Impact Creator of the Year was awarded to Dejoke Ogunbiyi, also known as Noosi Tiwantiwa. Using the platform for good, she is driving conversations that matter. From Ibadan, she tackles social issues with grace and impact, mobilising her community for positive change.

Her runner-up was Sinethemba Masinga (@ufarm_julia) from South Africa – A champion for agriculture and sustainability, proving that farming is the future.

Crown Uzama, Artist of the year

Artist of the Year

Winner: Crown Uzama @theycallmeshallipopipp (Nigeria)

The biggest moment came when the artist Shallipopi, nicknamed “Pluto Presido,” won the Artist of the Year Award. This superstar, who is from Benin City, has been extremely popular throughout 2025.

His huge hit song, “Laho,” was a massive success. It went to the top of the music charts and became a viral trend that everyone saw on their TikTok feeds. The song mixes his unique street language from the Edo area with a catchy Afrobeats rhythm.

The track became hugely popular everywhere, showing that when Nigerian artists make something new, it influences the world.

Read also: Why TikTok banned late-night live streams for Nigerian creators

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Increased use of social media by children damages their concentration levels and may be contributing to an increase in cases of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, according to a study.

The peer-reviewed report monitored the development of more than 8,300 US-based children from the age of 10 to 14 and linked social media use to “increased inattention symptoms”.

Reseachers at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and the Oregon Health & Science University in the US found that children spent an average of 2.3 hours a day watching television or online videos, 1.4 hours on social media and 1.5 hours playing video games.

No link was found between ADHD-related symptoms – such as being easily distracted – and playing video games or watching TV and YouTube. However, the study found that social media use over a period of time was associated with an increase in inattention symptoms in children. ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder with symptoms including impulsiveness, forgetting everyday tasks and difficulty focusing.

“We identified an association between social media use and increased inattention symptoms, interpreted here as a likely causal effect,” said the study. “Although the effect size is small at individual level, it could have significant consequences if behaviour changes across population level. These findings suggest that social media use may contribute to rising incidence of ADHD diagnoses.”

Torkel Klingberg, a professor of cognitive neuroscience at the Karolinska Institute, said: “Our study suggests that it is specifically social media that affects children’s ability to concentrate.

“Social media entails constant distractions in the form of messages and notifications, and the mere thought of whether a message has arrived can act as a mental distraction. This affects the ability to stay focused and could explain the association.”

The study found the ADHD link was not affected by socioeconomic background or a genetic predisposition towards the condition. Klingberg added that increased use of social media may explain part of the increase in ADHD diagnoses. Its prevalence among children has risen from 9.5% in 2003-07 to 11.3% in 2020-22, according to the US national survey of children’s health.

The researchers stressed the results did not imply all children who used social media developed concentration problems. But they pointed to increased use of social media by children as they got older and to children using social media well before they turned 13, the minimum age for apps such as TikTok and Instagram.

The report said: “This early and increasing social media use underscores the need for stricter age verification and clearer guidelines for tech companies.”

The study found a steady increase in social media use from about 30 minutes a day at age nine to two and a half hours a day by age 13. The children were enrolled for the study at the ages of nine and 10 between 2016 and 2018. The study will be published in the Pediatrics Open Science journal.

“We hope that our findings will help parents and policymakers make well-informed decisions on healthy digital consumption that support children’s cognitive development,” said Samson Nivins, one of the study’s authors and a postdoctoral researcher at the Karolinska Institute.

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A new strain of mpox has been discovered by scientists in England.

The new strain was found in a person who had recently travelled to Asia, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said.

Officials said they had identified a “new recombinant mpox virus” – meaning it has genetic material from different viral strains.

The UKHSA said genomic sequencing showed the mpox genome contained elements of clade Ib and IIb mpox.

Dr Katy Sinka, head of sexually transmitted infections at UKHSA, said: “It’s normal for viruses to evolve, and further analysis will help us understand more about how mpox is changing.

“Although mpox infection is mild for many, it can be severe.

“Getting vaccinated is a proven effective way to protect yourself against severe disease, so please make sure to get the jab if you are eligible.”

The NHS offers the mpox vaccine to those considered at higher risk of catching the virus, such as men who have sex with other men and have multiple partners.

The UKHSA said it will “continue to assess the significance of the strain”.

Read more:
Vaccine reminder as mpox strain spreads in Europe

Dr Boghuma Titanji, assistant professor of medicine at Emory University in Georgia in the US, said the identification of the new recombinant strain “is precisely what experts in the field feared would happen if the virus continued to spread globally without a decisive response to stop it”.

She added: “The key concern now is whether events like this will alter the virus’s transmissibility or virulence.”

What are the symptoms of mpox and how can it spread?

Symptoms include a skin rash with blisters, spots, or ulcers that can appear anywhere on the body, as well as fever, headache, backache, and muscle aches.

A rash usually appears one to five days after a fever, headache and other symptoms.

The virus spreads between people through direct contact with rashes, skin lesions or scabs caused by the virus, including during sexual contact, kissing, cuddling or other skin-to-skin contact.

There is also a risk from contact with bodily fluids such as saliva or snot, as well as contact with bedding, towels or clothing. There is a possibility of spread through close and prolonged face-to-face contact, such as talking, breathing, coughing or sneezing.

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Since joining Crypto Valley VC (CV VC), a Swiss-based venture capital firm that backs blockchain-based startups, as Head of Investment for Africa in November 2024, Jarryd Kennedy has been at the centre of the firm’s push to spot businesses using blockchain technology to solve everyday problems across fintech, payments, and data infrastructure on the continent.

Kennedy’s career before CV VC began in investment banking, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), and private equity across London, New York, and South Africa. His experience gives him a dealmaker’s discipline and a technology-first lens, helping him identify use cases where blockchain reduces friction, improves trust and builds real economic infrastructure rather than hype.

In 2022, CV VC launched a $20 million Africa Blockchain Fund, which has invested in 13 early-stage Web3 startups across Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Egypt, and Ghana, including Nigerian podcast-hosting platform Jamit, South African crypto investment startup Altify, Kenyan Web3 agritech Shamba Records, and South African neobank Kasi.

The firm’s investment strategy writes direct cheques and backs early-stage startups from its accelerator. Through CV Labs, CV VC selects 7–9 startups to participate in a cohort each year, providing them with mentorship and growth strategy consultations. It backs nearly all the selected startups with $135,000 in funding in return for a 7% convertible note. It also writes $500,000 follow-on cheques for its portfolio startups.

After witnessing African startups’ struggles to access additional capital and infrastructure for growth, the VC firm adjusted its take rate to a 6% equity through debt, increasing its ticket size to $150,000. As of October 2025, the firm claimed more than half of the startups in its portfolio have raised follow-on funding.

Circle Ventures, the investment arm of the US-based issuer of the USDC stablecoin, is among the external backers of CV VC’s Africa Blockchain fund, signalling global interest in the firm’s thesis.

I spoke with Kennedy for this week’s Ask an Investor to understand his career, what it takes to lead CV VC’s African team, and global investor appetite for African blockchain products. 

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

What brought you into Web3 venture capital, and which past roles mattered most?

My entry into the Web3 venture capital ecosystem has been shaped by a decade of experience across investment banking, M&A, and private equity, with roles spanning London, New York, and South Africa. The bulk of my career has been at Deutsche Bank, gaining exposure to Telco, Media and Technology (TMT) across capital markets and M&A.

Over time, I moved into private equity with Convergence Partners, a pan-African private equity firm focused on digital infrastructure. There, I led and supported investments into technology and telecom businesses across markets like Rwanda, South Africa, Kenya, and Malawi. That experience was pivotal because it gave me a deep appreciation for how technology can drive inclusion and development in emerging markets.

Importantly, throughout my career, there has been an enduring focus on technology: I have always viewed it as a tool to revolutionise monolithic, legacy systems, enabling the creation of more efficient outcomes. That is what ultimately drew me to Web3: I saw blockchain as an evolution in the global technology stack that could enable new structures for decentralised ownership, efficient value exchange, transparent governance, and the removal of intermediaries, thereby lowering barriers to entry and creating entirely new economic models.

At CV VC, I lead our venture investments across Africa, applying that same technology-oriented lens to early-stage startups that are building transformative real-world solutions by utilising blockchain technology.

What does being CV VC’s Head of Investment for Africa mean from an operational lens?

At CV VC, no two days are the same. We are a Swiss-headquartered venture capital (VC) firm with a global footprint, and although we operate in a decentralised way, we stay tightly connected through daily team calls, cross-functional projects, and in-person engagements. 

On a typical day, I split my time across three areas: pipeline, portfolio, and investors. On the pipeline, it is all about travel, conferences, and networking, to enable relationship-building with the best startups and founders. Thereafter, we evaluate investment pitches and assess new opportunities through a data-driven lens to benchmark their performance.

On the portfolio side, I work closely with founders across our African investment portfolio, with a mix of relationship-building, hands-on support, and facilitating connections to other ecosystem participants. Finally, on the investor front, we are consistently engaged with investors to report on progress with the goal of leveraging investor expertise to bolster that progress, creating a flywheel of value creation across the ecosystem.

Across all three areas, staying sharp on market trends and emerging utility is important. This encompasses diving into data, strategic analysis, or contributing to knowledge-building efforts, which helps shape global understanding of blockchain’s real-world impact on the continent.

African Web3 startups raised $122.5 million in 2024, a decline in deal value from the previous year, despite high user adoption on the continent. Why is there a gap between usage and investor appetite?

It is important to distinguish between crypto and blockchain: Crypto is one of the first applications of blockchain technology. Investors are not necessarily focused on crypto itself, but on the broader capability of blockchain technology to improve upon legacy technology stacks and to create new structures for ownership, value exchange, governance, and the removal of intermediaries.

The investment case for blockchain has never been stronger. What the internet has done for the exchange of data is equivalent to what blockchain is doing for the exchange of value. Nobody talks about a “cross-border email” because of the ubiquity with which data flows around the world! Blockchain is creating this ubiquity for the exchange of value on the internet, enabling an economic value layer which is democratised and globally accessible.

Encouragingly, we see blockchain adoption rates which are reminiscent of early internet adoption, and the blockchain economy has never been stronger. Top academics, visionary founders and over 26,000 blockchain developers are converging within the blockchain ecosystem, resulting in significant capital invested in blockchain companies and over 500 million global crypto users.

Has Africa’s funding winter of 2023–2024 changed the quality or number of African Web3 startups raising capital?

Investor capital remains cautious, not just in Africa, but also across the rest of the world, which is mostly a reflection of heightened global uncertainty driven predominantly by geopolitical factors. Despite the slow start to the year, the remainder of 2024 was actually positive for Web3 venture funding, with blockchain startups taking an outsized share of venture investment in Africa.

Regardless of funding levels, blockchain builders on the continent have not been deterred in any way, with no shortage in quality or quantity of strong blockchain startups in Africa. Our pipeline is full of highly compelling investment opportunities across a wide range of sectors and geographies.

CV VC has kept writing cheques into African Web3 teams while others pull back. What explains that commitment?

Our commitment is rooted in a long-term investment philosophy and a belief in the transformative power of blockchain technology, especially in markets where it can solve real, structural problems. We focus solely on utility and ignore speculation. We’re not just investing in trends; we’re backing determined founders who are building infrastructure, improving access, and bringing trust to systems that need it most. That’s exactly what we see happening across Africa.

Despite global funding fluctuations, innovation hasn’t stopped; founders are still building, and the use cases for blockchain in multiple sectors are more relevant than ever.

How do accelerator programmes like CV Labs and ecosystem grants fit into your Africa strategy?

The proprietary CV VC accelerator program is designed to bring founders together, not just to gain investment but to share expertise, cross-pollinate ideas, and build resilience through community. Ultimately, it’s about catalysing innovation that can flourish long after the initial investment.

In Africa, where markets are often fragmented and infrastructure is still evolving, accelerators play a crucial role in strengthening local capabilities and expanding access to global networks. They allow us to identify promising talent early, provide tailored support, and help founders scale solutions that are contextually relevant and often globally competitive.

Besides being highly beneficial for founders and the ecosystem at large, the accelerator is ultimately an additional mechanism used to deploy equity cheques alongside our traditional direct venture strategy. Investors benefit through an extended due diligence exercise and favourable risk-reward profiles given the early entry point.

Which African sectors best match CV VC’s thesis on trust and decentralisation?

Our investment theme revolves around three key areas and applies to startups from any continent: first, applications built directly on blockchains. Second, we prioritise startups using blockchain to drive broader tech and social megatrends. Third, we also strongly consider service providers and infrastructure players that support the broader blockchain ecosystem.

From a sector point of view, we see a mature dispersion of activity across multiple sectors. Fintech leads the charge, which is in line with the broader African venture landscape and funding allocation. Beyond that, we see unique applications across the technology-enabled subset of agriculture, media, climate, property, mobility, healthcare, education, identity, gaming, and HR. Additionally, we see a focus on blockchain infrastructure development, including developer tooling and business-to-business (B2B) applications.

Given the global risk-off mood, are investors still cautious about Web3 in Africa? If so, why?

There is still some caution among investors when it comes to Web3 in Africa. This caution can be attributed to investors allocating capital based on a spectrum of risk, where blockchain, as an emerging technology and Africa, as an emerging market, are perceived as higher risk and therefore draw increased caution. This is influenced by the current risk-off sentiment globally, driven predominantly by geopolitical factors, and this is not, in our view, a critique of the technology or the market.

Having said this, many investors are intrigued by the potential of blockchain technology and its specific applications for the African continent, and appetite is growing. Investors are watching closely as African founders demonstrate real utility using blockchain to solve core issues like financial inclusion, identity, remittances, and land ownership provenance. 

We believe that as more success stories emerge from the continent, confidence will follow. Our role at CV VC is to be early in that cycle to back the builders today who will shape the narrative of tomorrow.

Do regulatory developments in key African markets matter? Which countries are leading?

Absolutely. Regulatory clarity is essential for economic competitiveness in the Web3 space. Well-defined policies attract risk-tolerant venture capital, as we’ve seen in Africa’s leading all-sector VC hubs of Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, and South Africa. In contrast, regulatory ambiguity drives talent and capital offshore, undermining trust and stalling innovation.

Investors are also encouraged by the global shifts happening, notably the US moving toward a more friendly stance in 2025. Many African lawmakers are pushing to replace fragmented oversight with clearer frameworks.

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