👨🏿‍🚀TechCabal Daily – New tax chief, old problem

Happy pre-TGIF.

Disney+ has officially joined the “we’re raising prices” club, and unlike the six-month gym membership you signed up for this January, you actually use this one. The streaming platform has hiked its subscription price in South Africa, following other digital platforms Netflix and Spotify, all of which have raised prices this past year. 

Let’s dive in.

Kenya’s new tax chief hadn’t even settled in before the seat got hot.

Adan Abdulla Mohamed wasappointed Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) Commissioner General on May 18, gazetted the same day by Treasury Cabinet Secretary (CS) John Mbadi, andsworn in two days later at the Supreme Court. He replaced the ousted Humphrey Wattanga.

He hadn’t even settled in before the petitions arrived. On May 19, Bernard Opere filed before Milimani High Court, arguing that Mohamed, 62, exceeds the mandatory retirement age of 60 underRegulation 70 of the Public Service Commission (PSC) Regulations, 2020. 

The Consumers Federation of Kenya (COFEK) filed a second challenge at the Employment and Labour Relations Court (ELRC), adding violations of Articles 73 and 232 of the Constitution. Both are seeking conservatory orders. The High Court has scheduled a hearing for May 27.

Between the lines: This is not the first time the KRA has faced a dispute like this. In 2017, a petition challenged then-Commissioner General John Njiraini on identical grounds. The court ruled thatKRA Act Section 11(1) governs the Commissioner General’s appointment independently of public service retirement rules. The government will likely make the same argument. 

In January 2021, the PSC declared that it wouldno longer approve extensions past 60, anda near-identical dispute at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) earlier this year showed the government doesn’t always win this argument. Whether the 2020 regulations override the KRA Act will be decided on May 27.

Zoom out: Mohamed was sworn in before the courts could act. The KRA is targeting KES 2.97 trillion ($22.9 billion) in revenue this fiscal year.

Olatubosun Alake, Lagos State Commissioner for Innovation, Science, and Technology, is making a big bet: that Lagos will stop being known only as Nigeria’s startup capital and become one of Africa’s most important digital infrastructure cities. 

At the launch of the Kasi Cloud LOS1 data centre facility in Lekki, Lagos, Alake said that the state will push its data centre capacity to over 250 megawatts (MW) by 2030.

State of play: Lagos currently hosts nearly 77% of Nigeria’s 26 data centres, producing about 83.3 megawatts. Companies like MTN Nigeria, Airtel Africa, Rack Centre, and Kasi Cloud are building and maintaining data centres all over the state, with additional projects worth 146MW already in progress, said Alake.

Africa already has a data centre king, and it is not Lagos. South Africa still leads the continent with its 56 data centres, courtesy of stronger electricity infrastructure and investment from global players like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google.

Lagos is playing a bigger game than its power grid can currently support. Data centres are hungry for power, and Nigeria’s grid is notoriously unreliable. Cooling systems alone eat up a significant chunk, about an estimated 40%, of a facility’s energy.

Operators also have to deal with foreign exchange swings and patchy policy coordination around AI and cloud infrastructure.

Thousands of communities across West Africa could soon get better mobile connectivity, as the US government, through the United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA), funds a feasibility study to deploy 1,500 base stations across Nigeria, Benin, Ghana, and Côte d’Ivoire.

Vanu Inc, a US company focused on low-cost telecom systems designed specifically for rural and difficult-to-reach areas, will be in charge of conducting the study. Rural expansion tends to happen much more slowly because building towers in low-income or sparsely populated areas is expensive and often less profitable. This project aims to flip the narrative.

Internet usage is growing in Africa. The overall number of Internet users on the continent jumped to around 646 million from close to 181 million in 2014. Among these, West Africa has among the highest connectivity rates, with around 38% of people online, as of 2024.

A pattern, not a one-off attempt: In 2022, the USTDA awarded a grant to Nairobi-based Internet service provider Poa Internet for a feasibility study to help expand affordable internet connectivity to low-income urban areas. 

That same year, it deployed a grant to the Western Cape Provincial Government (WCG) for a feasibility study to expand broadband infrastructure in the Western Cape province in South Africa.

What’s the US’s play? The agency noted it aims to address West Africa’s urban-rural connectivity gap, but it could also be part of a much bigger geopolitical story, especially as Chinese companies like Huawei and ZTE continue dominating parts of Africa’s telecom infrastructure.