Africa Tech Weekly Radar - September 28, 2026: Bank AI, EV Charging Rules, and the Regulator's Ledger

The Central Bank of Kenya's 2025 Bank Supervision Annual Report, published on 22 September, restates its survey of AI use across 125 licensed institutions: commercial banks, microfinance banks, a mortgage finance institution, credit reference bureaus, and digital credit providers. Half had adopted AI, including 66 percent of commercial banks and 57 percent of microfinance banks. Among adopters, the leading uses were credit risk assessment (65 percent), cybersecurity (54 percent), and customer service (43 percent). Only 30 percent of respondents had a formal AI strategy, and 93 percent recommended that CBK issue comprehensive guidance on AI covering governance, risk management, and incident reporting. The survey was issued in March 2025 and first published that July, so these are last year's measurements. The report says the findings will inform a CBK guidance note on AI. That note is the receipt still to come.

Kenya's Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority has revised the e-mobility electricity tariff in a gazette notice dated 18 September, TechWeez and Citizen Digital report. The fixed 15,000 kWh monthly ceiling for charging stations is gone. Citizen Digital describes a replacement threshold set for each customer from its recent average consumption, with use above it billed at the discounted time-of-use rates; TechWeez reads the change as letting stations draw more power without moving into a costlier bracket. The rates stay at KES 16 per kWh, and KES 8 in the weekday off-peak window from 10 PM to 6 AM. TechWeez reports that some operators had limited how many vehicles they served to stay under the old ceiling, and names BasiGo and Spiro stations among those exceeding it. The notice also credits net-metering customers for half of the power they export and bills unapproved grid exports at the full base tariff. The change removes a constraint. It does not yet show more vehicles charged or lower costs per trip.

The Communications Authority of Kenya's sector statistics for April to June 2026 put fixed internet subscriptions at 2.84 million, up 32.4 percent in a year. Fibre remains the largest technology at 1.57 million subscriptions, up 29.7 percent. Satellite grew faster, by 54.4 percent to 27,695 subscriptions, almost all of them Starlink, but it is still about 1 percent of fixed connections. Mobile money subscriptions reached 54.0 million, a penetration rate of 101.3 percent that counts subscriptions, not people. In the authority's calendar-2025 revenue figures, a catch-all "other services" line that includes mobile money took the largest share of mobile service revenue, at 42.8 percent. Subscription totals show growth. They do not show where the new connections are being built.

The same report counts 72.2 million DDoS threats detected by Kenya's national computer incident response team in the 2025/26 financial year, up 114.3 percent from 33.7 million the year before. Business Daily reports that this was the fastest growth among the threat categories the regulator tracks; web application attacks rose 99 percent. The quarterly series moved the other way: DDoS detections fell 90 percent between January to March and April to June 2026. Detected threats are not the same as successful attacks, and the report does not say how many caused outages or losses.

Business Daily and TechWeez reported a Tanzania Fair Competition Commission notice, dated 21 August, on KCB Group's proposed acquisition of 22.23 percent of Pesapal Limited, which would give the bank indirect control of Pesapal Tanzania. The notice says Pesapal operates in Kenya with subsidiaries in Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Zambia. Pesapal announced the KCB investment in November 2025 without a stake size, no price has been disclosed, and the commission's review was still open at the time of reporting. Business Daily places the deal beside KCB's purchase of 75 percent of Riverbank Solutions, completed in December 2025. A competition filing records intent. The approval, and what a bank does with a payments platform that reaches Zambia, are the facts to watch.

Google took Gemini tools to Kenyan creators, media professionals, and university students at its Nairobi office, TechWeez reported on 22 September, demonstrating Gemini Live, Gems, the Nano Banana 2 image model, and Gemini Omni. The student offer behind the push was announced on 20 August: 12 months of Google AI Plus, free of charge, for eligible students across Africa, which CIO Africa reports covers 27 countries including Zambia. Google's Zambia page lists the plan for students aged 18 and over, with verification required and redemption open until 31 December 2026; it also says a valid form of payment is required at sign-up and that the plan renews at US$4.99 a month unless cancelled. Last year's version was a different plan, Google AI Pro, offered in six countries that did not include Zambia. Free access is an offer, not usage, and none of these sources reports how many students have claimed it.

Zambia appears this week through reach rather than a local operating result: Pesapal's Zambian subsidiary sits inside the KCB filing, and Zambian students are eligible for Google's offer. AfriAI's read: most of this week's receipts came from regulators' own ledgers — a central bank survey, a tariff notice, quarterly subscription counts, threat detections, and a competition filing. They record adoption, permission, and volume. The next useful receipts are CBK's AI guidance note, charging volumes under the new threshold, where new fixed connections are being built, confirmed incidents behind the detection counts, the commission's decision on Pesapal, and how many students actually use the free plan.