👨🏿‍🚀TechCabal Daily – Nigerians get freeTV

Happy pre-TGIF

If you don’t think about it too much, it’s the weekend already and you have approximately 36 hours of rest before a new week begins.

—Zia

Banks used to compete to be the destination for your salary account. Now they want you to buy your data bundle from them too.

What’s happening? Standard Bank, South Africa’s largest bank by assets, has launched embedded SIMs (eSIMs) on Standard Bank Connect, its mobile virtual network operator (MVNO). The update means customers can activate mobile plans digitally without needing a physical SIM card.

Why does a bank have a mobile network? An MVNO sells mobile services without owning mobile towers or network infrastructure. Instead, it rents capacity from traditional telecom operators and sells mobile plans under its own brand. Standard Bank used to run on Cell C’s network until it moved to MTN in 2024. The attraction is obvious:banks already have millions of customers using their apps daily. Selling them data and airtime becomes another way to deepen relationships and generate revenue.

It’s a trend: Standard Bank is only one out of several banks and companies across the continent that have their own mobile networks, and South Africa is Africa’s MVNO capital. Retailers and banks, including FirstRand Bank Limited, Capitech, Pick n Pay, Boxer, and Mr Price, have entered the industry that is worth more than R8.6 billion ($543 million) and serves roughly 4.5 million subscribers. Nigeria is trying something similar. The country has licenced about 46 MVNOs, including Vitel Wireless, even though adoption remains low.

Morocco’s Mohammed VI Foundation for Science and Health has signed an agreement with ABA Life, a local healthcare technology company, to build AI-powered health infrastructure across the country. First deployments land in October 2026; several facilities go live by 2027; and a second phase will roll the model out to other African countries.

Is it just one hospital? Not even close.The venture spans medical research, clinical AI, telemedicine, disease surveillance, emergency response, and startup incubation, closer to an operating system for Morocco’s entire health sector than a single product.

The big picture: Morocco has been stacking AI bets for over a year now, notably theMaroc IA 2030 roadmap, a Mistral AI research lab, the Jazari Institutes, and$145 million already committed to digital projects. Healthcare is just the latest sector getting the treatment. By 2030, the venture aims to haveover 50 research programmes running and over 100 scientific papers published.

What next? Morocco’ssecond phase explicitly plans to export this model regionally. This was never just a domestic play. It’s auditioning to be the continent’s AI healthcare exporter.

Mobile technologies contributed $240 billion to Africa’s economy in 2025, accounting for 7.8% of the continent’s GDP, according to GSMA’s latest Mobile Economy Africa report. The sector supported 13 million jobs and generated $45 billion in public revenue. By 2030, that contribution is projected to hit $290 billion.

Here’s the interesting part: 63% of Africans live in areas with mobile broadband coverage but don’t use mobile internet, compared to a coverage gap of just 9%. For a decade, the industry’s fight was building towers. That fight is mostly won. The harder part is getting people who already have a signal to actually go online.

What next? Operators have noticed.Three-quarters of them now call becoming digital transformation partners a core objective, deploying AI, opening up networks, expanding services beyond just selling data. Operators also plan toinvest over $76 billion in infrastructure between 2024 and 2030. GSMA’s own evidence showscutting device and digital service taxes accelerates adoption, meaning affordability, not infrastructure, is the next fight.

Some television channels have a special ability to make 2026 look like 2006. Well, the Nigerian government thinks it has a fix for that.

What’s the fix? This week, stakeholders in Nigeria’s broadcasting industry agreed on a new roadmap for the country’s long-delayed Digital Switch Over (DSO) programme. At the centre of that plan is a hybrid model that combines digital terrestrial TV, satellite TV, and streaming platforms.

What’s the DSO? It’s Nigeria’s plan to move from analogue television broadcasting to digital broadcasting, overseen by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), the country’s broadcasting regulator. Analogue TV is like a single road, but digital broadcasting turns that single road into multiple lanes where broadcasters can carry more channels, better picture quality, clearer audio, and additional services using the same spectrum.

Speaking of more channels: The government also unveiled FreeTV, a national digital television platform that will offer more than 100 channels without monthly subscription fees. The service will make news, sports, movies, music, educational programmes, and children’s content available in local languages through satellite, terrestrial broadcasting, and a mobile app. 

Why is Nigeria doing all these? A benefit of digital migration is that it frees up radio spectrum currently occupied by analogue television signals. That spectrum can then be reassigned to mobile broadband, wireless internet services, and other communications technologies.

Why should you care? This is one of those projects that sounds technical until it starts affecting what you can watch and how you access the internet. If the digital migration works out, you could get more channels and better picture quality. After over a decade of delays, the government appears determined to drag Nigeria’s television industry into the digital age