E-Business
Treepz Acquires Ugabus in Expansion Move, Closes its Seed Round @ $2.8M

In a bid to digitize the public transportation system and provide safer, reliable and comfortable commute options across Africa, Toronto-based shared mobility company, Treepz, has announced its acquisition of a similar Ugandan bus company Ugabus.
Treepz was founded in 2019 and currently operates in Nigeria and Ghana. It is simply a platform that powers road transportation systems using technology. Treepz operates a digital platform allowing passengers to book daily rides along fixed routes within Lagos and Accra.
They also serve as an aggregator for over 12 bus travel companies including the likes of GUO, Efex Executive, Libra Motors, ABC Transport who commute customers on Treepz across 21 cities in Nigeria in the last 6-months since launching this product.
Transport operators can now make better use of their bus systems by replacing manual servicing and ticketing with digitalized offerings and services from Treepz.
Ugabus started in 2016 and currently has 70% of all bus operators in the East African country on its platform with a mobile money technology for easy payments.
Speaking on the acquisition deal, the CEO and Co-founder of Treepz, Onyeka Akumah said, ‘Everyone at Treepz is excited to welcome the team at Ugabus to the Treepz Family. This has been in the works for sometime, along with our deal that happened in Ghana a few months ago, and so, we are really happy about closing the deal successfully.
East Africa is an exciting target for Treepz and from Uganda, we would work with this new team led by Hakiza in Uganda to explore our growth plans across the neighbouring countries as we aim towards building the largest shared mobility platform in sub-saharan Africa.”
The Treepz all in one app allows passengers to search, compare and book rides within cities and from one city to the other, conveniently from the comfort of their homes.
Ugabus’s indegious intercity-focused technology therefore complements Treepz’ progressive model to bring on-demand public transportation and shared mobility to a new terrain in Africa including mobile money technology.
“We care alot about how people move from one city to another, and we did our best to build the most reliable bus booking app in Uganda. Now we’re joining the TREEPZ family to accomplish a bigger vision-one that we think we can better achieve with TREEPZ.
“We have known and respected the exploits of the founding team led by Onyeka Akumah and today, we are very happy that we would be pioneering the business growth of Treepz in East Africa starting with Uganda.” said Ronald Hakiza, CEO and Founder Ugabus.
The exact terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the 100% acquisition will see Treepz impressively extend its geographic footprint in East Africa, given that Ugabus operates in all cities in Uganda.
Ugabus will now be renamed as Treepz Uganda and will begin operations on the 1st of December 2021 with the support of the Ugandan Government expected that day. Also, Ronald Hakiza who was the CEO of Ugabus will now become the Country Manager for Treepz Uganda and will be bringing on board his team to support the business growth plans.
In addition to expanding into new markets and building the largest shared mobility in Africa, Treepz has announced today that is has raised an additional $1.6 million USD in seed funding with new investors coming on board.
The company has now successfully closed its oversubscribed seed round after raising a total of $2.8 million USD in the last 3 months starting in August 2021 when their seed round was announced with $1.2 million in investment.
The impressive growth at Treepz has also attracted attention of the team at Google with extra funding from the Google Africa Black Innovation Funds announced in October 2021. According to Onyeka, the 2-year-old startup will be using all of these funds to aggressively expand it’s on-demand ride-sharing and intercity bus ticketing services in Africa.
The new investors joining the round includes Japanese VC, Uncovered Fund along with Dubai based venture capitalists including Blanford Capital and Jonomi Capital. Also, Egypt-based fund, Jedar Capital participated in the round with follow-on investments from previous investors.
According to Takuma Terakubo, CEO & General Partner of Uncovered Fund Inc, he discussed their investment and said, “Treepz has impressed us with their remarkable traction in the latter part of the year and are poised for even further expansion, particularly through strategic partnerships. Treepz is building the most important mobility infrastructure in Africa’s megacities.
The development of public transportation is essential in African countries where urbanization is advancing. We look forward to their building the infrastructure for people’s mobility through digital value. As a Japanese VC who places importance on the mobility industry, we would like to provide a lot of value to them.”
Also speaking on investing, Founding General Partner, Jedar Capital, Sherif Nessim had this to say; “I am happy to be supporting Onyeka and treepz team on their mission to modernize daily transportation for African people.
Onyeka’s reputation as an award winning entrepreneur and ex co-founder of successful startups as well as the strong team brought me to a strong conviction that this a team focused on executing a great vision to become the largest mobility and transportation provider in Africa, supporting in-country and intra-countries travel for Africans where many depends on travelling to neighboring countries for work every day, this round will help them boost and fuel their expansion plan in West and East Africa and I am sure they will continue to grow across these regions the coming 12-18 months”.
Treepz is now one of the leading mobility startups in Africa in the just 2 years since launching in Nigeria focused on powering public transportation systems starting with buses. With its presence in Nigeria, Ghana and now Uganda, the startup is leveraging local expertise, its technology-focused solutions, a strong leadership team and well-managed government relationships across Africa to digitize the transportation space one country at a time.
E-Business
NFIU Credits AML/CFT Reforms behind Nigeria’s Nears Exit from FATF Greylist

Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) has credited a series of strategic reforms under the national Anti-Money Laundering, Counter-Financing of Terrorism, and Counter-Proliferation Financing (AML/CFT/CPF) framework, behind Nigeria’s significant strides toward exiting the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) greylist, marking a critical milestone in the country’s fight against money laundering, terrorist financing, and financial crimes.
In a statement, Chief Executive Officer of NFIU, Hafsat Bakari, praised the collective efforts of government agencies and stakeholders. “Congratulations and a job well done as Nigeria comes closer to exiting the FATF grey list. The results achieved as part of the strategic reforms must be applauded,” she said.
She said the NFIU, serving as the Secretariat of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on AML/CFT/CPF, spearheaded the development of a comprehensive roadmap to address deficiencies highlighted in Nigeria’s 2021 mutual evaluation report. She explained that the roadmap was recently reviewed and endorsed at the FATF Plenary in Strasbourg, France, where it was acknowledged that Nigeria has completed the implementation of its Action Plan within the agreed deadline—a rare achievement among listed jurisdictions.
Bakari emphasised the pivotal role of political leadership in this success: “The clear focus and leadership of His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR, provided an enabling environment for the reform processes. His dynamic leadership, alongside the support of the Federal Executive Council and the National Assembly, has been a critical success factor.”
She also highlighted the crucial contributions of the Judiciary, which has demonstrated the effectiveness of Nigeria’s legal framework in combating financial crimes. The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, and the Minister of Interior, who led the Inter-Ministerial Committee, were credited for providing strategic direction.
“The commitment of these key officials, along with support from the National Security Adviser and various ministers, has been instrumental in driving the reforms forward,” Bakari noted.
A broad coalition of agencies formed the backbone of the national effort, including the Central Bank of Nigeria, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Nigeria Customs Service, Nigeria Police Force, and many others. Their coordinated efforts have strengthened Nigeria’s defenses against illicit financial activities.
Despite the progress, Bakari cautioned that key steps remain before Nigeria can officially exit the greylist. “A critical upcoming milestone is the onsite assessment by the FATF in the next few weeks. This assessment is an opportunity to demonstrate Nigeria’s highest political commitment to sustaining the reform programme and to showcase the impressive results achieved by both public and private sectors in preventing, detecting, and disrupting serious crimes.”
She reaffirmed the NFIU’s dedication to the ongoing fight: “The NFIU remains committed to supporting and working with all stakeholders in strengthening our collective defenses against money laundering, terrorist financing, and other serious crimes.”
E-Business
AfCFTA Positions Africa to Tap into $712bn Digital Trade Market by 2035

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is strategically positioning Africa to tap into a $712 billion digital trade market by 2035, leveraging key partnerships and trade-enabling infrastructure to deepen continental integration and economic sovereignty.
Wamkele Mene, Secretary General of the AfCFTA Secretariat, made this known on Wednesday at the 2025 Afreximbank Annual Meetings (AAM2025) in Abuja.
According to him, the Protocol on Digital Trade is central to AfCFTA’s strategy for unlocking the potential of Africa’s growing digital economy.
“We intend to harness this significant market, which is estimated to be over $712 billion by the year 2035, presenting opportunities for young entrepreneurs, investment in data centres, the commercialisation and movement of data, and the development of digital public infrastructure,” Mene said.
He emphasised the critical role of Afreximbank in providing the financial architecture required to support the AfCFTA’s implementation, especially in reducing and eliminating tariff and non-tariff barriers.
“Without the support of Afreximbank, the AfCFTA will not succeed. It requires trade finance tools, support for industrial development, green trade, and green industrialisation,” he added.
Among the tools introduced in collaboration with Afreximbank is the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS), which enables intra-African payments in local currencies, reducing dependence on the US dollar and lowering transaction costs. Mene stressed that trading in foreign currencies like US dollar between African countries is no longer sustainable.
“We must use our own currencies. We must ensure the economic sovereignty of our continent and guard ourselves against ever-shifting global geopolitical tensions that affect payment systems,” he said.
He also disclosed that $10 billion has been mobilised under the AfCFTA Adjustment Fund to support countries implementing the agreement, with an initial ZIP package of $1 billion. Furthermore, a $1 billion AfCFTA Automotive Fund has been established to support component manufacturers and vehicle assembly on the continent. The sector, if well-supported, could generate $46 billion by 2035.
Additional initiatives include the AfCFTA E-Tariff platform, the Rules of Origin Manual, and the soon-to-be-launched Transit Guarantee System, which are all geared towards simplifying trade procedures and boosting intra-African trade.
“We have moved beyond political aspirations to establishing a functional and legally binding multilateral African trading system. This includes protocols on investment, competition policy, and digital trade,” Mene said.
Despite these milestones, he warned that numerous challenges persist. These include inefficient customs systems, high trade costs that limit SME market entry, political instability, and persistent food insecurity which blocks smallholder farmers from accessing markets. He called for continued collaboration between political leaders and development finance institutions to address these obstacles.
“We should be proud of what we have achieved, but also mindful of the difficult journey ahead. Conflict and instability, particularly in rural regions, continue to prevent millions of farmers from accessing markets. We must tackle these issues with urgency if the full potential of AfCFTA is to be realised,” Mene said.
During a question and answer after the launch of African trade and economic outlook report, Yemi Kale, Group chief economist and managing director of Research and Trade Intelligence at the African Export Import Bank, said between May 2024 and 2025 transaction volume through Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) increased by over 1,000 percent, reflecting increased adoption of the payment system.
E-Business
Kaspersky Discovers SparkKitty a New Trojan Spy on App Store and Google Play

Kaspersky researchers have discovered a new Trojan spy called SparkKitty which targets smartphones on iOS and Android. It sends images from an infected phone and information about the device to the attackers.
This malware was embedded in apps related to crypto and gambling, as well as in a trojanised TikTok app, and was distributed on App Store and Google Play, as well as on scam websites.
Experts suggest that the goal of the attackers is to steal cryptocurrency assets from residents of Southeast Asia and China. Users in Nigeria are also potentially at risk of facing a similar cyber threat.
Kaspersky has notified Google and Apple about the malicious apps. Certain technical details suggest that the new malware campaign is linked to the previously discovered SparkCat Trojan — malware (the first of its kind on iOS) with a built-in optical character recognition (OCR) module that allows it to scan image galleries and steal screenshots containing cryptocurrency wallet recovery phrases or passwords. The SparkKitty case is the second time in a year that Kaspersky researchers have found a Trojan stealer on App Store, following SparkCat.
iOS
On App Store, the Trojan pretended to be an app related to cryptocurrencies — 币coin. On phishing pages mimicking the official iPhone App Store, the malware was distributed under the guise of TikTok and gambling applications.
“One of the vectors for the Trojan’s distribution turned out to be fake websites where the attackers tried to infect the victims’ iPhones. iOS has several legitimate ways to install programs not from the App Store. In this malicious campaign, the attackers used one of them — special developer tools for distributing corporate business applications.
In the infected version of TikTok, during authorisation, the malware, in addition to stealing photos from the smartphone gallery, embedded links to a suspicious store in the person’s profile window. This store only accepts cryptocurrencies, which increases our concerns about it,” explains Sergey Puzan, a malware expert at Kaspersky.
Android
The attackers targeted users both on third-party websites and on Google Play, passing off the malware as various crypto services. For example, one of the infected applications — a messenger called SOEX with a cryptocurrency exchange function — was downloaded from the official store over 10,000 times.
Experts also found APK files of infected apps (these can be installed directly on Android smartphones bypassing official stores) on third-party websites that are likely related to the detected malicious campaign. They are positioned as investment crypto projects. The websites on which these applications were posted were advertised on social networks, including YouTube.
“After the apps were installed, they functioned as promised in their description. But at the same time, photos from the smartphone gallery were sent to the attackers. The attackers may later try to find various confidential data in the images, for instance, crypto wallet recovery phrases to access the victims’ assets.
There are indirect signs that the attackers are interested in people’s digital assets: many of the infected apps were related to crypto, and the trojanised TikTok app also had a built-in store that accepted payment for goods only in crypto,” comments Dmitry Kalinin, a malware expert at Kaspersky.
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