👨🏿‍🚀TechCabal Daily – Crypto vacancies at Kenya’s Central Bank

Wazzup.

I still think about the bust Meta–Manus deal, and find it shocking that something so close to closing, with Manus even saying it was “now part of Meta,” ended the way it did. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that the Big Tech company rushed to undo the acquisition after it had already integrated Manus’ AI technology shortly after the December deal. Four months later, Meta is staring down an empty barrel.

It’s going to be a long week at Meta, but more importantly, what does the US–China relationship strain mean for businesses looking to operate in China or Chinese companies seeking foreign (read: the US) capital? 

That said, this was my favourite tweet of the day. I’m tempted to say, “Don’t be Mark Zuckerberg,” but who am I kidding? 

Let’s get into it.

—Emmanuel

Are you an experienced virtual asset compliance professional? Are you dogged, patient, not shy to engage irate industry stakeholders who may hold conflicting views on how cryptocurrencies should be treated—or even worse, call you clueless? And aha, the cherry on top: do you have banking and finance experience?

The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) is hiring for virtual asset licencing and compliance roles as the country expands its move to regulate a sector that has thrived in informality and operated like a financial free-for-all for years. On Monday evening, the regulator opened four roles spanning licencing, product approval, compliance oversight, and regulatory analysis, all within its Digital Payment Services Division.

The timing is doing a lot of heavy lifting. Kenya passed its Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASP) Act in October 2025, but the actual rules that make the law usable are still in limbo. Draft regulations closed for public comment on April 10 and are yet to be gazetted. The CBK, it seems, is staffing up anyway.

Between the lines: This might be the most critical lock-in we’ve seen from a regulator since the crypto regulation fever hit African countries. Build the team first, figure out the rules later.

Yet, there is method to the scramble. Kenya’s crypto activity has long outgrown its experimental phase, driven by remittances, mobile money integrations, and a population comfortable moving money digitally. Oversight now looks less like a choice and more like a catch-up exercise.

Zoom out: Kenya is joining countries like Ghana and Rwanda in pulling crypto into formal oversight, but the pattern is familiar. Laws arrive first, details lag, and regulators are left racing to plug gaps in real time. In the meantime, the CBK is hiring people to enforce a playbook that industry stakeholders are still debating.

MultiChoice stock was delisted from the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), South Africa’s bourse, in December. If you’ve been waiting to buy shares in the company again, there’s good news: there’s now a date for this; soon, you’ll be able to buy two for one, but as a single company. 

Canal+, the French media group that acquired African pay-TV giant MultiChoice in 2025, has said it will list on the JSE on June 3. The company is planning a secondary listing on the local stock exchange, as it is already a public company listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). Following its announcement, Canal+’s share price rose by 0.7% on Tuesday to reach GBP 231 ($312).

Listing locally was part of the conditions set by South African regulators when the French media giant acquired MultiChoice.

Canal+ is not raising fresh capital here. The media giant is opting for an inward listing, which does not involve Canal+ issuing new shares or receiving any proceeds, so no fresh capital enters the company. What changes is where the existing shares can be traded. By listing on the JSE, those shares become accessible to South African investors who may have previously been unable or unwilling to buy on a foreign exchange.

This improves liquidity because it expands the pool of potential buyers and sellers for Canal+’s stock. More participants in the market generally means shares can be bought or sold more easily without significantly moving the price. Think of it less as Canal+ going to the market to raise money and more as Canal+ making its existing shares easier to reach for a new set of investors.

It exposes Canal+ to a broader set of investors, giving it a more liquid market for its shares.

Why this matters: Owning MultiChoice gives Canal+ distribution power across the continent and a massive subscriber base. Listing locally deepens that presence and signals commitment. Instead of being a foreign owner operating from afar, Canal+ is showing that it is present and can be accessed by locals. 

However, a JSE listing comes with more public scrutiny of its operations and how it is running its African strategy for Multichoice. With its imminent April 30 shutdown of MultiChoice’s streaming arm, Showmax, and planned voluntary staff layoffs, Canal+ is posturing as an operationally ruthless company that still wants to appeal to the investing public.

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Dodai, an Ethiopia-based e-mobility startup, raises $13 million in Series A round

Image Source: Dodai

Africa’s e-mobility battle is no longer about the bike. It’s about who owns the network.

E-mobility players, including Roam and Ampersand, are increasingly focusing on expanding their battery-swapping networks to unlock scale.

Dodai, an Ethiopia-based electric motorbike startup, has raised $13 million to scale battery-swapping infrastructure across Addis Ababa. The round—$8 million equity, $5 million debt—includes backing from British International Investment (BII) and a cluster of Japanese investors: UTokyo Innovation Platform, Nagase, and CBC Co.

The investor mix is worth noting. Japanese capital is financing the buildout. Chinese hardware—battery cells, motors, controllers—is likely running underneath it. Africa’s EV value chain is increasingly bifurcated this way: foreign investors provide the risk capital, foreign manufacturers supply the components, and local startups like Dodai navigate the gap. Local assembly is not the same as local manufacturing, and the distinction matters when asking who actually captures long-term value.

What Ethiopia provides, uniquely, is policy certainty. A 2024 ban on private internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle imports—later extended to trucks—has put roughly 100,000 EVs on its roads. That removes the adoption problem most e-mobility startups spend years trying to solve elsewhere. It also makes battery-swapping infrastructure essential rather than experimental. When riders can’t fall back on petrol, a depleted battery becomes a business emergency. Dodai’s network becomes critical infrastructure, not a convenience feature.

But the capital math is uncomfortable. Dodai plans 1,000 battery-swapping stations across Addis Ababa within three years. At conservative estimates of $112,000 per station, according to The Conversation, that’s $112 million in infrastructure spend. When you view it from that lens, the $13 million looks like a down payment, not a destination.

Yet, Dodai is betting on a philosophy: Scale fast enough, and you don’t just serve the market—you set the terms for how it runs. With its plan to deepen its Ethiopia play, it is moving first and wide before most other e-mobility operators catch up on the opportunity that exists in the market. But getting there will require multiples of what’s been raised.