Since 2020, the British International Investment (BII) has significantly expanded its Africa portfolio. In 2021, the development finance institution (DFI) invested about £2.2 billion ($2.9 billion) in African businesses, exceeding a pledge made at the 2020 UK-Africa Investment Summit. Going forward, BII set a strategy to commit £1.5–2 billion ($2–2.6 billion) annually from 2022 to 2026, with Africa as a core focus. 

That focus has allowed BII’s annual commitments to Africa to explode, despite global headwinds. In 2023, £725 million ($970 million) was invested in Africa (about 55% of BII’s total that year) before surging to £1.09 billion ($1.45 billion) in 2024, nearly a 40% increase year-on-year. 

This period coincides with Chris Chijiutomi, a British-Nigerian with two decades of experience in investing across Europe, Asia, and Africa, becoming the managing director and head of Africa for BII. Now, Africa comprises roughly 60% of BII’s new investments by value in recent years, showing the continent’s priority in BII’s portfolio.

BII has also steadily expanded its exposure to early-stage ventures and technology startups in Africa, positioning venture capital as a core instrument of its development mandate. As a limited partner, it has anchored several Africa-focused funds, including TLcom Capital’s TIDE Africa Funds I and II, Sawari Ventures in North Africa, and Novastar Ventures in East and West Africa.

Alongside fund investments, BII has selectively deployed capital directly into startups like mPharma, to strengthen pharmaceutical supply chains; Moove, via structured credit to expand mobility financing for ride-hailing drivers; and equity investments in TradeDepot, Moniepoint, and Egypt’s Paymob. It has also backed off-grid energy companies such as M-KOPA and Lumos. 

For this week’s Ask an Investor, I spoke with Chijiutomi to understand the firm’s increased focus on Africa, the sectors that he’s willing to invest in, BII’s sudden profitability jump, how the firm picks its startups and funds, and the sector that has provided the most returns. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Is there any sector where you think your views have changed the most since you became BII’s Head of Africa?

When I started this role, I would say renewable energy—especially decentralised renewable energy—was fairly nascent. The solar panels were relatively quite expensive, including the battery, and the uptake was also quite limited. Therefore, the technical and commercial viability was still quite nascent.

But if I look at where I am now, and I remember driving from the airport to our office here, I could see a lot of solar panels on people’s rooftops. I could see solar panels on the streetlights. So I think, for me, what we call decentralised renewable energy—DRE—has been one area that has seen an absolute increase in uptake.

That’s obviously also a function of the gap that exists in a country like Nigeria in terms of electricity access. That’s one key area. And what have we been doing in this space? We invested this year in a $7.5 million facility for a company called Odyssey Energy Solutions, which is a company that’s specifically focused on energy access with renewables. We provided a facility last year—$30 million—to InfraCredit, and InfraCredit is supporting a lot of renewable energy developers in Nigeria. That’s one area that jumps out at me in terms of a key sector that has evolved. 

The other one—probably more broad—is the whole venture capital space, the VC space, where people are using technology to develop solutions for their day-to-day problems in markets like Nigeria and broader West Africa. So those two areas, I would probably say, were areas where I’ve seen the most change since I took on the Head of Africa role.

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What do you think is spurring this change? 

On DRE, it’s just the fact that no country can develop without energy infrastructure. The challenge we have in Africa—and especially Sub-Saharan Africa—is the lack of energy access.

A country like Nigeria, with over 200 million people—at least that’s the last count—has less than 6,000 megawatts of electricity on the grid. Then, when you think about the rural and the peri-urban areas, a lot of them lack access to electricity. Just that failure is what’s led people to think about alternative solutions, and I think that’s where the DRE solutions come into play.

I think on the VC side, with the uptake of the internet and the uptake of telecoms, that has really driven a lot of smart young Africans to think about how to use technology to solve their day-to-day problems—be it things related to payment systems, things related to logistics, or even things related to farming and climate-related data. I think all of this is all about problems that are preventing the continent from developing and growing. Those are the reasons why I think the uptake really has kind of moved onto that next level.

Since you became Head of BII for Africa, what has been your Africa tech strategy? Has it evolved from before you took on the role, or have you maintained the same strategy at BII?

I would say it’s evolved. Prior to me taking on the Head of Africa role, we’ve been investing in the venture capital space and also the private equity space, and the two kinds of interlink. I think since I’ve taken on the role, a big focus of mine has been: How can we find local African entrepreneurs to back? How can we make sure we go deeper in this area and we look for the right type of managers to basically give them our capital and the responsibility to manage it for us?

If I look at some of the things we’ve done in this market, we’ve invested in Ventures Platform, and they’ve been investing in some really smart companies. I had a breakfast meeting this week with Aruwa Capital, a female-led VC business that’s looking to invest in a range of sectors. We have companies like CardinalStone. We have companies like Verod Capital, which are also in some of these spaces.

The other big excitement for me, in terms of companies that we’ve backed here that we continue to see as growth, is companies like Moniepoint, which is now a unicorn in terms of valuation. And also, in Southern Africa, we backed a company called TymeBank. Again, these are two fast-growing companies that are employing a lot of young, smart, diverse people.

How do you pick the fund managers that you invest in, and how do you pick companies?

The first thing for us is alignment. Alignment in understanding their strategy—what exactly are they aiming to do? How have they thought through that strategy? How have they thought through even just the execution of that strategy?

That’s important because I need to match that against our own priorities and how we think about the sectors or the subsectors we invest in. That’s the first thing that enables a deep conversation: Does the strategy align?

I think the second one is about the promoter—in terms of the sponsor or founder—and the team that they have with them. Is this a team that you can back? Do they have the track record? What’s their reputation in the market? What’s their understanding of working with a development finance institution like ourselves? What is their long-term aspiration?

It’s a lot about understanding and getting very close to the founders. But also, do they have a deep bench of a team? Because, you know, if something does happen to a founder—we call it typically a key-man event—what’s the bench of people within the organisation to actually carry on and continue to execute that?

I think the other one is really around the market that they operate in—either the country or the region. Again, is there an alignment with us? Do they really understand this, or are they just putting it there because they think that makes sense for us? Why are they focusing on a particular area? We dig deep into understanding some of that. Um, I think trust is a massive word. You are giving responsibility to these promoters with your capital. My capital is UK taxpayers’ capital. So we have a financial responsibility, and we want to make sure they too understand that.

We also look at the other partners that they might already have. Some of these founders have raised their own first money to start up. Who have they raised the money from? Are these partners that align with our values? Are there other shareholders that we believe are creating alignments—that are also looking to invest in either the direct VC companies or actually the funds?

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How do you think about tech here in Africa, and what are the things that excite you, tech-wise?

Let me maybe go through the bits that excite me. I think the fintech space—we talked about Moniepoint and TymeBank. There are other fintech businesses that we’re looking at, which are basically really opening the inclusion story for people that are underserved—people that ordinarily would not have been able to open a bank account, or even had the time to go into a branch to try and withdraw money or move money.

The second one is the commerce space. So basically: How can you combine tech with logistics—the ability to purchase, buy, and deliver goods? We’ve seen businesses where you have—you know, let me call them market women, largely because a lot of these businesses are dominated by women—who have been able to use their app and their phone to basically order inventory that then gets delivered to them. They then use that same app to pay or get credit from suppliers that are giving them [inventory]. And I remember visiting a business in Nigeria a year ago, where we were able to talk to the store owner, and what she explained was that she now doesn’t need to shut her shop to go to Lagos Island market to buy all these goods, because everything can be done from her phone. Just the utilisation of tech to support the MSME—micro, small, medium enterprise—I think is a game changer, because the majority of businesses in Africa fall within that category.

Agritech, too, because of the size of arable land in Africa. I still say that the largest employer of people on the continent remains in the agri sector. How can we use technology to help get inputs, such as fertilisers and seeds, to farmers? How can we utilise technology to provide farmers with real-time information on the cost of their crops and how they can sell them, ensuring they are not being cheated by shifts in economics that favour those who buy them? How can you use technology to help farmers understand climate change—predicting the weather patterns, when they should plant, when they should harvest—all of this?

Agritech—and where I have seen agritech investment the most from us is in East Africa, because the farming sector there is a lot more advanced.

Climate tech is becoming an area of interest. So all things like electric vehicles—two-wheelers, three-wheelers, and at some point four-wheelers. I’ve just come back from Ghana, and I’ve started seeing people driving four-wheelers because of the challenges of fuel. In Nigeria, I was at Marina the other day, where I saw a bank that has an EV fleet (electric vehicle fleet), and they had solar panels on the top of their car parking port, and they’re using technology to determine when they now need to inject electricity for charging. I was very impressed.

I was going through your report from last year, and something that jumped out to me was a focus on profitability in the reports. I found that really interesting because I haven’t really seen that with other DFIs—talking about profitability and putting it on the front foot. What’s inspiring that focus? Because—from 2023—it was a £44 million loss, then you quickly jumped the next year to like £213 million pounds in profit. How do you guys think about profitability? How was that jump achieved?

There are different dimensions to it. When we invest, we invest with two things in mind, and all of this is really around understanding risk.

First thing is: what impact is our investment going to create, and is our money needed? Then the second thing is sustainability—what’s the return expectation? So we’re always matching the impact you create versus the return. So that’s always a balance: anytime the teams are bringing opportunities, we always have to consider the two.

Profit matters in the sense that we have to ensure that we are building businesses that can stand alone, that can grow in time without DFI capital. For that to occur, these companies, at some point, need to start returning dividends or making a profit so that they become self-sustaining.

So for me, profitability is something that’s inbuilt if you really want these businesses to grow without our capital. If we want to mobilise commercial money into these businesses—for example, a big objective for BII in the upcoming strategy is what we call capital mobilisation. How can we mobilise, in an African context, local pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, and high-net-worth individuals to invest in some of our assets? A lot of them will not invest unless these assets are making a profit. Therefore, that consideration.

Impact—which we define around inclusivity, productivity, and sustainability—is embedded in what we do, and then the commercial side is also linked. Why have we shown a result, as you’ve just indicated? A number of things.

I think one is timing. You know, there are some bets we’ve made in terms of companies we’ve invested in that are now starting to yield dividends or yield returns back to us. You know, we’re a long-term investor, so sometimes there’s an element of the cycle.

There are companies like Moniepoint—just using that as an example—when we invested, Moniepoint was nowhere near a unicorn. It’s become a unicorn. So that means some of our capital has now increased in value. Again, that flows through to our annual accounts.

We have a number of funds that we’ve invested in, which are longer-term. Some of the businesses have now matured, and then they’re starting to deliver returns. I think because our portfolio—which is just under $9 billion—there is variability in terms of when some of these investments start to return commercial value, and really that’s what’s translated into our accounts that you’ve just indicated.

You have mentioned Moniepoint a lot; how did the exit from the company happen?

There was a capital raise by Moniepoint where they wanted to bring in a number of different investors. So you had other investors coming into the company, and we realised some of our gains from that. But we still remain an investor in Moniepoint today.

So it was a partial exit?

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Yes. When we invest equity, we sometimes have board seats. We typically invest, and we are typically a significant minority. By exception, we’ve done the majority. But what we do is we enable these companies to have the right governance structure and to have the right board composition, and with management and the board, they make the decisions. At some point in its journey, the board and the management of Moniepoint indicated that for them to continue to grow, they needed capital. The way to do that was to raise capital.

One of the kind of strong investors in Moneypoint is DPI—which is a fund manager that BII is also invested in—and they’ve worked with the company to get the company kind of ready in terms of the delivery of its business plan, in terms of the right governance structure, and in terms of the team build-out. Through that, they’ve then helped and worked with the company management and board to decide when to go out and raise capital.

It’s not something that BII exclusively drives or influences. It’s something that is driven by the management and the board of the companies we invest in. And of course, we then can vote or have a view, but ultimately it’s really a majority-led decision, driven by the governance of these companies.

Where have you seen the most returns in all your investments since you became Head of BII for Africa two years ago?

In terms of where I see returns, not in the sense of monetary, but in terms of impact, for every dollar we’ve invested, I will probably say digital infrastructure. The reason is that it includes telecom, so our telecom and technology division is because I have seen and witnessed the direct impact of technology on the continent. 

From being able to video call my uncle in the village and physically see him, and the kind of impact I feel from that, to being able to transfer money to him without having to leave my base. And you can also then think about the multiple people who are able to support their direct or extended families. All of this is possible because of the technology that now exists—because of the digital infrastructure—from data centres to cables to mobile phones to towers.

So I think that is one subsector that I feel has been able to create a big impact, in terms of my vantage point, and this is across the continent.

In 2024, BII invested over £1 billion on the African continent. If you were allocating the next billion into Africa, what three themes or sectors would you bet on—and which one would you totally not touch at all?

I think about: how can we create quality jobs for Africans? How can we empower more women or those who are excluded from society? How can we develop solutions to mitigate the effects of climate change? There are quite a few various things in there, but some of our conversations so far have centred around technology. Digital infrastructure, for me, is driving a lot of growth in a lot of countries in Africa.

All things digital—be it from digital telecom infrastructure, data centres, cables, towers—anything that enables humans and businesses to ultimately communicate, store data, exchange data, and use that platform for growth.

We are a big investor in the telecom space, and I hope we will continue to find the right business opportunities to invest in.

The other one—and I think if I look at what Africa went through during COVID, during the Russia-Ukraine war, and more recently with what’s happened across the Atlantic in terms of the US pulling out USAID in a lot of countries in Africa—I think this is the right time for Africans to try and take more control of their destiny.

Africans need to think about local production. Local production enables jobs. It also prevents African companies from relying on imports, which people found during the Russia-Ukraine war, where Africa realised a lot of its wheat was coming from Ukraine and Russia.

All things local manufacturing and value addition in terms of food processing—these are big areas for us, and big areas where I would love to invest. Cobalt, copper—all of these things are raw materials in the continent, but how do we add value in processing such that we’re not just exporting raw and then paying a lot more for processed goods?

Anything to do with energy—climate-related: from energy to water, in terms of adaptation and resilience, to food systems. Africa suffers the most from the impact of climate change, either through drought or through flooding and excessive rainfall.

Those are the three categories that I would focus on: digital infra, manufacturing, and then all things related to climate/energy.

I would avoid sectors that are solely reliant on things like subsidies—100% dependent on government actions—because I think we understand that when you have a change of government, a single policy can totally unbundle some of these types of businesses. So businesses—or sectors—where subsidy is playing too much of a role are probably sectors that I would personally avoid investing in for now.

When you look at your exposure on the continent—you’re heavily invested in Nigeria, Kenya, a bit of Egypt, and several other African countries—where do you feel you are underinvested and can probably do more in this country because of what you’re seeing on the ground?

Not that I’m biased, but just if I look at the demographics, and just driving around, or when you fly over Nigeria, you see just the sheer lack of sustainable infrastructure. Nigeria, just for its size and its importance in the region, continues to be a country where I think we can invest more. I think today we’re already very heavily invested in Nigeria, but the opportunity here is huge.

As a countercyclical investor, I do believe we will continue to see the right type of opportunities to increase our exposure here, but also to diversify our portfolio. I have a great team based in Lagos—a team that has really grown our footprint and exposure here.

Another place where I want us to actually ramp up more is the French-speaking West and Central Africa. This year, we recruited a director of West African origin—French-speaking— and she’s also come from a development finance institution. She’s based in the region, and that’s one region I do believe we have the opportunity to grow. It’s not been a traditional region for BII, but in the last 12 months, we’ve invested—and I’ve been investing—in the financial services area.

We’ve just done a co-investment with an influential bank in West Africa. We are invested in another microfinance-type bank. I have just literally come back from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where we’re building a port with Dubai Ports World—that’s in DRC, a French-speaking country. We have an agro-processing business, but that’s not enough. We can absolutely do more, and the opportunities there are huge.

Another thing I noticed from the report was: Africa now takes 60% of BII’s new commitments. That’s a 40% jump from 2023. What changed—internally, or maybe it’s external conditions—that justifies that acceleration?

We are a countercyclical investor. We should be investing when things are going badly, because that’s when other capital is moving out. In the last three or so years, the continent has faced some significant challenges: the effect of COVID, Russia-Ukraine—um—all of this has had a knock-on impact. And, you know, we’re still feeling it. We increased our investment appetite during that period.

Particularly, we’ve seen a lot in climate investing. You know, a minimum of 30% of our capital has to go into climate finance transactions, and we’ve beaten that. And again, that’s been something where it’s been more targeted and very focused.

I think we’re focusing on partnerships—and those partnerships are helping us to identify the right opportunity in the frontier markets. I mentioned earlier that we have an initiative called the Africa Resilience Investment Accelerator. This is a collaboration between BII, Proparco (the French DFI), and the three of us. We’re going into countries that we all individually don’t have specific experience in—working with companies, finding the right opportunities, and investing.

That’s what’s led us to invest in Ethiopia—in a bank there. That’s what’s leading us to make some investments in Sierra Leone. Those types of initiatives have really helped us accelerate activities we’re doing.

Then mobilisation: we are now starting to originate to share, where we’re bringing other capital providers into some of our investment deals. The last one I’ll end with is: We’ve increased our presence in Africa. We have more people in our local offices who are now closer to markets, who are closer to companies, who are closer to the opportunities, and therefore we’re able to transact and invest for market-level impact better. I would say everything I’ve described—the big catalyst—has been having the right type of people in Africa to drive our investment activities.

If you look ahead to 2033, what would you count as a successful decade for Chris, being Head of BII for Africa?

I would like to continue to shift and build our volume of people in Africa. Again, I believe that having people close to the market creates a closer relationship with the companies that we’re backing, but also with the stakeholders in the markets—be it government, be it industry bodies. BII continuously having the right profile in Africa, for me, is a success.

My visit to West Africa this week—some people that I’ve spoken to are still shocked about the amount of business we’ve been doing here. Therefore, it means we need to publicise more, for me, because if you publicise more, then some of these opportunities will come knocking.

In terms of success: more people and more activity.

I think continuing to deliver on our climate target is important, because 30%—I mentioned earlier—is our target. I want us to continue to exceed that, but make sure we’re driving climate investing in Africa.

A big success for me—and I’m sure my boss will be putting this in my KPI—is how I can mobilise more African pension fund money alongside BII into new asset classes? You know, the days of just sitting there and investing in government securities, T-bills—it’s just not sustainable when you look at inflation, and when you look at some of the experiences of pension funds. You want them to invest in areas that match the liabilities and the assets that they have. So, infrastructure, maybe private credit funds.

The ability where I’m able to stand up and say I’ve been able to mobilise capital from pension funds in Africa into African assets—I think is a big one for me. And for us to continue to be seen as the lead investor in frontier markets. I think that’s the type of thing I would like to reflect on in 2033 as success measures for me in my current role.

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Meta’s social network Threads is expanding the number of topics available through its newer communities feature, the company announced on Monday. This expansion might nudge people to use communities less on Reddit and X.

The platform initially launched over 100 communities in October, including those dedicated to basketball, television, K-pop, books, and more, to better compete with other social networks. With today’s expansion, Threads now has more than 200 communities, with additions that include team-specific spaces like Lakers Threads, Knicks Threads, and Spurs Threads.

The company is testing flairs within the community as well, which is also very common on Reddit. This feature lets you add a customizable label underneath your username. For instance, in the NBA community, you can show off what team you support using flair, or in the books community, you can indicate if you’re an author.

Image Credits: ThreadsImage Credits:Meta

Threads is also testing a “Champion” badge to reward members who are highly engaged in a community. The company said that it is giving badges to only a limited number of people who are highly followed in the community and who converse actively.

Image Credits: ThreadsImage Credits:Meta

The social platform, which competes with Elon Musk’s X and startups like Bluesky, crossed 400 million users in August, two years after its launch. The company also noted this fall that more than 150 million people now visit the site daily.

To date, Threads has been focusing on engaging and retaining users with features like DMs, Group chats, and ephemeral posts, and other additions.

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Seasonal variations have been very important in shipping and delivery business. Holiday and promotion times, and changes in weather may significantly influence the volume of orders, delivery time and customer satisfaction.

Companies unable to foresee these changes usually experience postponements, high expenses and unhappy clients. Through seasonal shipping patterns, the companies are able to come up with plans to cope with the increased demand, streamline their logistics, and ensure a smooth running of operations all year round. The knowledge of these trends enables enterprises to make informed choices based on the data, which improves their efficiency and customer experience.

Knowing the Seasonal Patterns

The first step is to analyze the seasonal shipments to establish some high and low seasons. Past sales data may demonstrate trends of volume of sales that take place in particular times of the year. The identification of such trends aids business in predicting a boom in shipments and aligning resources to enable this. Being aware of the time when the volumes of shipping will be highest, firms can plan more employees, reorganize the work in warehouses, and equip the transportation means to satisfy the demand effectively.

The awareness of these trends also enables companies to deal with customer expectations. Reporting approximate delivery periods in the busy seasons helps to eliminate frustration and increase trust. Marketing approaches can be based on seasonal data, so that promotions can be made at a time that can be covered by fulfillment and shipping capacity. Adequate planning along the seasonal trends avoids last minute scramble that may lead to poor quality and reliability of delivery.

Cost Optimization

Shipping costs are directly affected by the seasonal shipping trends. The carriers may usually charge more during times of high demand because of the large quantities and any delays may result in extra costs. Through the trends, a business is able to make the shipment plan earlier, negotiate lower prices with the carriers and minimize the chances of paying high prices to get the shipment delivered promptly. Shipping scheduling will be optimized using seasonal observations to control the costs and achieve timely deliveries.

Another way of cost optimization is through the use of technology. The delivery management software would be capable of delivering real-time data on the performance of the shipping process, volume trends, and inefficiency. By incorporating these tools in the process of logistics planning, business organizations can minimize unnecessary spending and enhance the process of resource distribution. Seasonal analysis as well as technology make companies stay profitable even during high demand periods.

Further Customer Satisfaction

Shipping reliability is directly related to customer satisfaction. Delays and errors are more likely to occur during peak seasons, and this could be a negative influence on the experience of the customer. Seasonal trends enable the business to be proactive in dealing with challenges that might arise and also deliver consistent performance. Given the seasonal variations, firms aware of them can introduce solutions to such problems as delayed shipping schedules, enhanced packaging, and inventory management to satisfy customers.

Customer loyalty is also achieved with high customer satisfaction. Employees who ensure customers receive their services on time even during hourly demand will find it easier to become repeat customers. With the knowledge of the seasonal shipping patterns, companies will be able to minimize late deliveries, avoid stock outs, and communicate the realistic delivery schedule. The practices can ensure that the businesses maintain customers and earn the reputation of being trustworthy.

Strategic Foresight and Planning

To succeed in strategic planning, it is necessary to analyze the seasonal shipping trends. The history of the business can be used to predict future demand to enable business decisions on staffing, inventory, and transportation resources. Firms are able to efficiently distribute their resources both in terms of over staffing as well as under preparedness at peak times. Strategic planning will make the supply chain flexible and responsive within the whole year. With route optimization software and a seasonal trend analysis, business organizations can end up with the most optimal delivery routes, which minimize delays and transportation expenses during high seasons.

Long-term forecasting also becomes better with seasonal analysis. Observing the trends of several years, businesses are able to determine the repeated patterns and readjust their business. Adding seasonal information into logistics planning helps to make prior decisions, minimize the risks of operations, and improve the level of efficiency. Proper forecasting helps businesses to be competitive and able to respond to the needs in the market.

The shipping season analysis is a very important activity to any company that depends on effective delivery processes. The seasonal analysis is essential in understanding the trends in demand, cutting down on expenses, increasing customer satisfaction and improving the strategic planning. The implementation of such tools as delivery management software can make it more efficient to offer real-time insights and data to take action. Firms that invest in seasonal trend analysis are in a better position to handle high demand seasons, hold stable deliveries and enhance customer loyalty during the year.

Updated

December 15, 2025

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Funke Akindele’s Behind The Scenes has become the first Nollywood film to hit the N200 million mark on its opening weekend in 2025. The announcement was first made on Monday afternoon by the film’s distributor, FilmOne Entertainment.

Behind The Scenes had its advanced screening on December 10 and 11, before officially opening in cinemas nationwide on December 12. The film was described as a five-time box office opening weekend record holder and the biggest weekend admissions of 2025. It also recorded the biggest weekend admission (34,548) of 2025. 

The statement from FilmOne Entertainment’s Facebook page reads:

“We call her the Queen of Box Office for a reason! Thank you, Nigeria, for showing up, filling cinemas, and spreading the word. Behind The Scenes crossed N200M in just one weekend, broke five opening-weekend records, and became the biggest opening of 2025! It’s your love that made this possible.”

Behind The Scenes features Scarlet Gomez in the lead role, alongside Iyabo Ojo, Funke Akindele, Destiny Etiko, and Tobi Bakre. Others are Uche Montana, Uzor Arukwe, Ini Dima-Okojie, Adebowale ‘Mr Macaroni’, Ibrahim Chatta, Kamo State, and reality TV stars Handi and Wanni Danbaki, among others.

The film is a comedy-drama that spotlights the chaos, ego clashes, and hidden struggles in Nollywood film production and focuses on themes of pressure, healing, and hidden truths. It lights up an ambitious young filmmaker navigating betrayal, ambition, and on-set drama.

In addition, Behind The Scenes touches on broader societal issues like ‘black tax’ and self-sacrifice through characters such as successful entrepreneur Aderonke “Ronky-Fella” Faniran.

As Nigerians cheered the feat, fellow Nollywood artists remarked on the efforts and the milestone. In an X post, Tobi Bakara said, “Thanks to you guys! Opening weekend was good! Let’s make this week even better my beautiful people!”

Funke Akindele’s Behind The Scenes has now dethroned “Iyalode,” which previously held the record of the best opening weekend of the Nigerian box office with N138.41M. 

Also Read: Nigerian box office rakes in ₦573m in October, one of its best months this year.

Behind The Scenes: Funke Akindele in the spotlight yet again 

The latest development has further strengthened Funke Akindele’s footprints in Nollywood. Before the opening weekend, Behind The Scenes’ preview saw N27.2 million, according to the Nigerian Box Office. 

Her December 2024 film, Everybody Loves Jenifa, became Nollywood’s biggest opening weekend of all time, surpassing the earlier record set by A Tribe Called Judah, which opened with N113 million.

Funke Akindele

Everybody Loves Jenifa was on another level as the film saw an admission count of 38,353, including advance screenings, and became the highest-grossing Nollywood film ever at N1.8 billion in Nigeria. The film also raked in additional revenue from international markets.

In addition, the film crossed the N1 billion mark in late December 2024 and continued its cinema run into early 2025, going on to set new box office records across West Africa. 

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This past March, when Google began rolling out its AI Mode search capability, it began offering AI-generated recipes. The recipes were not all that intelligent. The AI had taken elements of similar recipes from multiple creators and Frankensteined them into something barely recognizable. In one memorable case, the Google AI failed to distinguish the satirical website the Onion from legitimate recipe sites and advised users to cook with non-toxic glue.

Over the past few years, bloggers who have not secured their sites behind a paywall have seen their carefully developed and tested recipes show up, often without attribution and in a bastardized form, in ChatGPT replies. They have seen dumbed-down versions of their recipes in AI-assembled cookbooks available for digital downloads on Etsy or on AI-built websites that bear a superficial resemblance to an old-school human-written blog. Their photos and videos, meanwhile, are repurposed in Facebook posts and Pinterest pins that link back to this digital slop.

Recipe writers have no legal recourse because recipes generally are not copyrightable. Although copyright protects published or recorded work, they do not cover sets of instructions (although it can apply to the particular wording of those instructions).

Without this essential IP, many food bloggers earn their living by offering their work for free while using ads to make money. But now they fear that casual users who rely on search engines or social media to find a recipe for dinner will conflate their work with AI slop and stop trusting online recipe sites altogether.

“There are a lot of people that are scared to even talk about what’s going on because it is their livelihood,” says Jim Delmage who, with his wife, Tara, runs the blog and YouTube channel Sip and Feast.

Matt Rodbard, the founder and editor-in-chief of the website Taste, is even more pessimistic. Taste used to publish recipes more frequently, but now it mostly focuses on journalism and a podcast (which Rodbard hosts). “For websites that depend on the advertising model,” he says, “I think this is an extinction event in many ways.”

The holiday season is traditionally when food bloggers earn most of their ad revenue. For many, this year has been slower than usual. One blogger, Carrie Forrest of Clean Eating Kitchen, told Bloomberg that in the past two years, she has lost 80% of her traffic.

[People are] absolutely trusting in the [search] results that are getting thrown in their facesKaren Tedesco

Others, like Delmage and Karen Tedesco, the author of the blog Familystyle Food, say their numbers, and ad revenue, have remained steady – so far. They attribute this to focusing their energies less on trying to game the search engines than on the long-term goal of attracting regular followers – and, in Delmage’s case, viewers.

Tedesco’s strategy has been to create recipes that rely on her experience and technical knowhow honed by years in restaurant kitchens and as a personal chef. Her Italian meatball recipe, for example, based on her mother’s, includes advice about which meat to use, an explanation of why milk-soaked breadcrumbs are essential for texture, and a dozen process photos and a video.

But she is still worried about the potential impact of AI. When she recently did a Google search for “Italian meatballs”, Familystyle Food appeared as the top result. Then she switched to AI Mode. There, she found the recipe had been Frankensteined – or “synthesized” as Gemini put it – into a new recipe with nine other sources (including Sip and Feast and a Washington Post recipe for Greek meatballs). The AI-generated recipe was little more than a list of ingredients and six basic steps with none of the details that make Tedesco’s recipe unique.

AI Mode linked to all 10 recipes, including Tedesco’s, but, she says, “I don’t think many people are actually clicking on the source links. At this point, they’re absolutely trusting in the results that are getting thrown in their faces.”

Other bloggers have seen a more definite impact on their viewership. Adam Gallagher, who runs Inspired Taste with his wife, Joanne, and who has become an outspoken critic of AI on social media, told the podcast Marketing O’Clock that since spring, he has noticed that while the number of times viewers saw links to the site on Google has increased, the number of actual site visitors has decreased. This indicates, to him, that users are satisfied with the search engine’s AI interpretation of Inspired Taste’s recipes.

[With] so many pop-up windows and so much crashing, we kind of lost as publishersMatt Rodbard

After the Gallaghers posted about the discrepancy on X and Instagram, a number of readers replied to say they had not realized there was a difference between the recipes on the blog and the version that showed up in Google searches. They had just appreciated the convenience of not having to click on another website, especially when Google’s page design was so clean and uncluttered.

Rodbard acknowledges that many food blogs have gotten ugly and overloaded with ads, which has exacerbated the problem. “Ad tech on these recipe blogs has gotten so bad, so many pop-up windows and so much crashing, we kind of lost as publishers,” he says.

According to Tom Critchlow, the EVP of audience growth at Raptive, a media company that works with many food bloggers to find advertisers, it isn’t ads that are driving viewers away. It’s Google itself, with its changes to the algorithm and now with AI Mode, that’s making the sites harder to find.

There is some hope though: a survey of 3,000 US adults commissioned by Raptive showed that the more interaction people had with AI, the less they wanted to engage with it, and nearly half the respondents rated AI content less trustworthy than content made by a human.

Food bloggers are now feeling the pressure to move to a subscription model to stay afloat; ‘If I were to give up my website or even try to go over to Substack, I would be broke,’ says Lauren Tedesco. Photograph: Maskot/Getty Images

But unless the public rebels against AI Mode, there is only so much bloggers can do. They can block OpenAI’s training crawler, which gathers information that ChatGPT uses to create content, including its own recipe generator, but theyare not necessarily willing to make themselves invisible to web searches; as Delmage puts it: “You can’t bite the hand that feeds you.”

There is also the option of moving over to a subscription model, such as Substack or Patreon, and keeping the recipes behind a paywall, but both Tedesco and Delmage point out that the most successful Substackers, like Caroline Chambers or David Lebovitz, came to the platform with much more substantial followings than they have. “If I were to give up my website or even try to go over to Substack, I would be broke,” Tedesco says.

Rodbard suggests that the analog version of the recipe blog, the cookbook, might be due for a comeback. Cookbooks, after all, offer the same experience of spending time and learning from a trusted source, and it’s likely the recipes have been tested. As a bonus, unlike phones or laptops, they don’t go dark when you neglect them for too long and you can splash tomato sauce on them without inflicting permanent damage. According to the market research firm Circana (formerly BookScan), sales of baking cookbooks are up 80% this year, but other areas have been relatively flat.

But AI bots are stealing from published cookbooks, too. When Meta was training its own AI, it compiled thousands of books into a dataset called Library Genesis (LibGen). Now unscrupulous publishers have raided LibGen and repackaged some of the books into dupes, which they are selling on Amazon.

As more people become aware of the amount of AI slop on the internet and how to identify it, Critchlow believes they will develop a greater appreciation for content produced by humans. “People will ultimately place a higher premium on being able to know that these recipes have been tested and made by somebody that I follow or somebody I respect or somebody that I like,” he says.

The recipe creators themselves are not so sure. “I’m putting my faith in that there’s always going to be a segment of people who really want to learn something,” Tedesco says. But as for the business of blogging itself, “it’s like a rolling tide. It’s always up and down and you have to roll with it and adapt.”

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Scientists have long debated a chilling question: Did the US military weaponize ticks during the Cold War?

Now, Congress is demanding answers with a newly filed amendment that directs the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to investigate whether federal agencies experimented with pathogen-laden ticks as tools of war.

The provision, authored by New Jersey Representative Chris Smith and filed on Friday, calls for a review of military, National Institutes of Health and US Department of Agriculture projects conducted between 1945 and 1972 involving Spirochaetales and Rickettsiales, two families of bacteria linked to tick-borne illnesses.

Smith, who co-chairs the Congressional Lyme and Tick-Borne Disease Caucus, said the effort is driven by New Jersey’s unusually high infection rates and concerns for civilians and military personnel stationed at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst.

‘The hundreds of thousands of New Jerseyans suffering from Lyme disease deserve to know the truth about the origins of their illness,’ Smith said.

Smith is not the first public official to raise such questions, as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has previously suggested that Lyme disease may have emerged from a failed US bioweapons program in the 1970s, allegedly involving research at Plum Island, New York.

Scientists, however, have repeatedly rejected those claims, calling them a debunked conspiracy and pointing to evidence that Lyme-causing bacteria existed in North America long before the 20th century.

Lyme disease, caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, is reported in 30,000 to 40,000 cases annually to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, though the agency estimates that as many as 476,000 infections may occur each year and go undiagnosed.

Congress is demanding answers with a newly filed amendment that directs the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to investigate whether federal agencies experimented with pathogen-laden ticks as tools of war

Much of the theory traces back to the 2019 book ‘Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons’ and related interviews with the late Swiss-born scientist Willy Burgdorfer, who identified the Lyme disease pathogen in 1981 and previously worked as a US military bioweapons specialist during the Cold War. 

According to the book and related sources, Burgdorfer and other researchers allegedly injected ticks and other insects, including fleas and mosquitoes, with pathogens such as those causing Q fever, tularemia and relapsing fever to study their potential use as biological weapons.

The accounts also describe experiments in which ticks were force-fed infectious agents through glass capillary tubes and discussions about dispersing ‘weaponized’ ticks from aircraft to incapacitate enemy populations. 

The book further alleges that hundreds of thousands of radioactive ticks were released in Montana and along the Atlantic Flyway to track how far they could spread.

Those allegations prompted previous congressional amendments directing the Department of Defense to investigate whether the US military experimented with ticks as biological weapons between 1950 and 1975, resulting in reports issued by the Department of Defense Inspector General’s office.

The new amendment revives two similar efforts Smith introduced in 2019 and 2021 that passed the House but stalled in the Senate. 

Smith said the latest GAO probe could either substantiate or finally put to rest theories about government involvement in the spread of Lyme disease.

‘If the investigation finds that our bioweapons program had nothing to do with it, we turn the page,’ Smith said. ‘But the American people deserve answers.’

Within 3 days to a month, a red, bull’s-eye rash will appear in 70 to 80 percent of cases involving a tick bite

Lyme disease is a bloodborne bacterial infection. The bacteria enters the skin from a tick bite, then travels through the bloodstream to spread to other parts of the body (STOCK)

Smith called for an investigation in 2020 into claims that secret research was conducted on Plum Island and at Fort Detrick in Maryland on weaponizing ticks. 

Plum Island is an 840-acre island off the northeastern coast of Long Island, New York. 

It’s home to the Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC) and has been used by the US government for research on infectious animal diseases since the 1950s. 

The US Department of Homeland Security has previously stated that the government facility at Plum Island ‘does not and has not performed research on Lyme disease.’ 

In 2024, RFK Jr made the same claims about the disease, alleging on his own podcast that government scientists were experimenting with ticks on this island in the Northeast. 

‘The ticks are an epidemic because of what happened at Plum Island and the other labs,’ the health secretary said in the January 2024 episode of the RFK Jr Podcast.

‘We also know that they were experimenting with diseases of the kind, like Lyme disease, at that lab, and they were putting them in ticks and then infecting people,’ RFK Jr added. 

A year later, during his US Senate confirmation hearing, RFK Jr was questioned about his reported belief that Lyme disease was created as a US bioweapon, saying that he ‘never believed that’ but the public should follow wherever the evidence leads. 

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Just about six months after Tesla started testing its fledgling Robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, the company is now letting those cars drive around the city with no safety monitor onboard.

The removal of the human safety monitors brings the company a critical step closer to its goal of launching a real commercial Robotaxi service, and it’s a step that’s been years in the making.

CEO Elon Musk spent a nearly decade promising Tesla’s cars were just a software update away from being fully driverless. Now he is on the precipice of launching a service meant to compete with Waymo, the Alphabet-owned company that he said last week “never really had a chance against Tesla.”

The removal of the safety monitors will most likely ramp up the scrutiny on Tesla’s ongoing testing in Austin, doubly so when the company starts offering rides in the empty cars. Tesla’s small test fleet has been involved in at least seven crashes since June; few details are known about the accidents since the company aggressively redacts its reports to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Video of a totally empty Tesla Model Y SUV started spreading on social media over the weekend, and on Sunday, Musk confirmed his company was testing “with no occupants.” Neither Musk nor Tesla has shared how quickly it plans to move to offer customer rides with no safety monitor. The company’s own X account provided a hint in a post Sunday evening: “Slowly, then all at once.” Tesla’s head of AI, Ashok Elluswamy, wrote: “And so it begins!”

Tesla started offering rides in Austin to hand-picked influencers and customers in June, with an employee in the passenger seat who could take over if the cars did anything unsafe. Those safety monitors moved to the driver’s seat in September. The company has since ditched the wait list, and gradually expanded its service area to cover a large portion of the greater Austin metropolitan area. But its fleet size never grew to more than about 25 to 30 cars by most fans’ counts.

Musk has claimed Tesla will operate its own fleet of Robotaxis, and said in July he believed this fleet would cover “half of the population of the U.S.” by the end of this year. That outrageous target, like so many Musk has set over the years, has been revised down to him claiming in November that Tesla would roughly double its existing Austin fleet, or around 60 vehicles.

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Tesla has been testing a ride-hail service in the San Francisco area for the last few months, in which drivers use the company’s advanced driver assistance software. California has regulations in place that mean Tesla will need to combine multiple permits if it wants to offer fully driverless rides in the state. Texas, on the other hand, does not.

Musk has also talked a lot over the years about allowing Tesla owners to add their personal cars to the company’s Robotaxi fleet. In 2016, he even promised that every car Tesla made had all the hardware required to eventually become autonomous. That was wrong, and that blog post has since been removed from Tesla’s website (the company faces a number of legal challenges over it). Tesla has gone through multiple versions of the hardware that powers its driver assistance software, meaning there are millions of cars on the road that, by Musk’s own admission in January, will need to be upgraded.

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Photo by Sajad Nori / Unsplash

Africa is one of the fastest-growing regions for crypto, blockchain, and decentralized finance (DeFi). In many countries, traditional banks still don’t reach everyone, particularly people without reliable access to formal banking services. That gap is why DeFi and blockchain projects are gaining traction across the continent.

By offering new ways to send money, borrow, lend, and store value without relying on traditional banks, these platforms are reshaping how financial services work. For millions of people, they promise faster transactions, lower costs, and more inclusive access to finance.

Here are some African DeFi and crypto projects worth watching:

WHAT IS: Decentralized Finance (DeFi)

If traditional banking is a toll road, DeFi is a jetpack of faster, cheaper, and way more control of your money.

/1. Yellow Card

Yellow Card is a crypto platform that helps people buy, sell, and use stablecoins and other digital assets across many African countries. It focuses on making crypto practical, especially in places where local currencies can lose value quickly because of inflation.

By allowing users to convert local money into stablecoins, Yellow Card helps individuals and businesses protect their money and move funds more easily. Its platform supports everyday use cases like payments, savings, and cross-border transfers, often at lower costs than traditional banks. With operations in multiple African markets, Yellow Card plays a key role in helping people access more stable digital money and participate in the global financial system.

/2. VALR

VALR is one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in South Africa. It allows users to buy, sell, store, and trade many cryptocurrencies using local currency. This makes crypto easier to access for everyday users and businesses.

Beyond trading, VALR also offers features like staking, which lets users earn rewards by holding certain digital assets. A key reason VALR stands out is its strong focus on transparency and compliance. As crypto rules continue to develop across Africa, platforms that take regulation seriously are more likely to grow and gain trust. VALR helps bridge the gap between traditional finance and crypto in a way that feels safer and more structured.

/3. Zone (formerly Appzone)

Zone is building blockchain payment infrastructure that connects banks, fintech companies, merchants, and payment providers. Instead of focusing on crypto trading, Zone uses blockchain in the background to make payments faster, cheaper, and easier to reconcile.

What makes Zone important is how it works alongside existing financial systems rather than replacing them. Businesses can continue using familiar payment methods while benefiting from blockchain efficiency. This approach helps modernize payment systems in Nigeria and beyond, showing how DeFi ideas can quietly improve everyday transactions.

/4. AZA Finance (formerly BitPesa)

AZA Finance focuses on cross-border payments and foreign exchange, areas where Africa faces major challenges. Sending money across African borders is often slow, expensive, and complex. AZA Finance uses digital assets and smart payment rails to reduce costs and speed up transfers.

The company has been operating for over a decade, giving it deep experience in African markets. Today, it supports businesses and institutions that need reliable ways to move money between Africa and the rest of the world. Its work shows how blockchain can improve trade, remittances, and global financial connections.

/5. Mazzuma

Mazzuma is a Ghana-based fintech company that combines blockchain, mobile payments, and smart technology. It works with mobile networks and merchants to help users send money and make payments without relying on traditional banks.

This is especially important in regions where mobile money is more common than bank accounts. By fitting into existing habits, Mazzuma makes digital finance easier to use and understand. It shows how DeFi can support financial access by meeting people where they already are.

/6. Ubuntu Tribe

Ubuntu Tribe focuses on connecting real-world assets to blockchain technology. It works on tokenizing assets like gold, allowing people to hold digital tokens backed by physical resources.

This approach moves beyond speculation and helps build trust in digital assets. By offering gold-backed tokens that can be owned in small amounts, Ubuntu Tribe opens access to asset-based finance for more people. It also highlights how blockchain can support long-term value storage, not just trading.

DeFi: A New Level of Financial Freedom or Passing Trend?

The technology behind DeFi is a genuine financial innovation. It addresses fundamental inefficiencies in the legacy system.

Conclusion

African DeFi and crypto projects are proving that blockchain can be useful in everyday life. From payments and remittances to asset ownership and financial access, these companies focus on real needs rather than speculation.

As internet access and mobile usage continue to grow, projects like these could shape the future of finance across Africa. Watching how they develop helps explain where DeFi is going next, and how it can create real impact for people and businesses on the continent.

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Fidelity Bank has announced that starting January 1, 2026, accounts that are not linked to a Tax Identification Number (TIN) or a National Identity Number (NIN) will be subject to restrictions. This change is in line with the Nigerian Tax Administration Act (NTAA) 2025, which mandates that all bank accounts must be connected to a TIN. For customers without a TIN, a NIN will be required instead.

The bank has sent notifications to customers urging them to promptly update their account details to avoid any disruptions. The notice specifies that “Accounts that do not have a tax ID or NIN may be restricted from transacting starting January 1, 2026.” Customers are advised to link their accounts immediately to ensure uninterrupted access to banking services.

Mrs Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe, MD, CEO, Fidelity Bank Plc

This directive is a response to the federal government’s initiative for stricter tax compliance, which requires banks to ensure that all taxable Nigerians possess a Tax Identification Number (TIN). Taiwo Oyedele, the Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, confirmed that the Nigerian Tax Administration Act (NTAA) now provides the legal framework necessary for enforcing comprehensive compliance among all banks, starting next year.

Linking accounts to tax IDs: why it matters for not just Fidelity bank users

The new rule affects millions of Nigerians who have bank accounts but are not registered for tax. By linking Tax Identification Numbers (TINs) and National Identification Numbers (NINs), the government aims to enhance tax collection and ensure that everyone pays their fair share. This also helps banks verify accounts more easily and reduces the chances of unreported income.

Experts say connecting accounts to tax IDs will make financial tracking clearer and more responsible in the economy. “Enforcing this helps both the government and banks track taxable activities effectively,” said a tax compliance analyst. For customers, this means their accounts will remain fully functional and compliant with Nigerian law.

Mr. Taiwo Oyedele, Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Nigeria

This enforcement is expected to improve financial reporting. It will help banks like Fidelity monitor transactions better and reduce the chances of breaching tax laws. The NTAA framework was introduced in the 2020 Finance Act, but it was never fully implemented due to some gaps. The 2025 Act now addresses these gaps.

Also read: How to get a Nigerian Tax ID before Jan. 2026 deadline for bank account holders

Banks will now play a key role in making sure everyone follows the rules. Customers who do not link their accounts may face limits on transactions, like sending money, withdrawing cash, or making payments, as announced by Fidelity.

This will especially affect individuals and small businesses that have not registered a Tax Identification Number (TIN) or linked their National Identification Number (NIN). It is important for Fidelity Bank customers to act quickly before the January deadline.

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South Africa’s Standard Bank is currently experiencing a major outage in its online and mobile banking channels. The disruption stems from an issue affecting Sage, the banks’ software provider. The glitch has reportedly resulted in delayed transactions and prevented new customers from opening bank accounts.

Sage disclosed this on its communication platforms, tagging the glitch as a ‘partial outage’.

“We have identified an issue in South Africa with the bank feeds we receive from Standard Bank. As a result, all customers using the Standard Bank will experience delays getting their transactions, and new customers would be unable to onboard Standard Bank,” it said. 

It also clarified that the outage is primarily affecting Standard Bank customers, noting that the service is performing as expected for all other customers using different banks.

“The issue with Standard Bank is only on our Yodlee connection. Our Standard Bank (Powered by Sage) connection is still working as expected and therefore those with eligible account types can utilise this connection,” it said at 11:35 am (Nigerian time).

Initially, customers were unable to sign into the bank’s mobile app. However, the app became accessible later on with limited functionality. In addition, the app displays a mismatch in account balance, transaction histories, airtime and top-ups. 

Trends on downdetector, a website that tracks real-time problem & outage monitoring, also revealed a spike in complaints for users. Checks show that users started complaining around 11:00 am (Nigerian Time).

Further breakdown of the life report revealed that Sage users indicated issues with the provider’s website and login, while those for the Bank reports disruption with the mobile banking app and online banking services.

Status on Downdetector

As of reporting time, the Sage status page has yet to confirm normalcy.

Also Read: South Africa’s StandardBank shuts down 1,942 ATMs as cash withdrawals decline.

Standard Bank’s effort towards digital banking

Known as South Africa’s largest Bank, Standard Bank has significant investments in digital platforms and innovations. Its parent company, Standard Bank Group, serves over 19 million clients across 20 African countries. 

In its digital reforms, the Bank reduced its ATM network in South Africa by 1,942 between 2020 and mid-2025, a significant decrease from 5,390 to 3,448. The reduction reflects the banks’ adaptation to the increasing shift toward mobile and digital transactions, as well as the corresponding decline in cash withdrawals.

Aside from Standard Bank, other South African banks such as Absa, Nedbank, and First National Bank have also reduced their branch and ATM networks.

Also, online banks such as TymeBank and Bank Zero have expanded without investing in physical infrastructure, signalling the evolution of South African financial service consumers.

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