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Why Is Olkaria’s Geothermal Power Not Yet Winning Kenya the AI Data-Centre Race?

KenGen has built Olkaria into one of the world’s largest geothermal power hubs, but the stalled $1 billion Microsoft-G42 data-centre project exposed a problem that now requires political commitment, regulatory coordination and a financing model built for hyperscale demand. Kenya must find a way to deliver hundreds of megawatts quickly, finance dedicated transmission and make technology buyers carry the cost without pushing more risk onto the Treasury or household power bills.

By Duncun Motanya · Policy & Regulation · 9 min read · 16 October 2026

Why Is Olkaria’s Geothermal Power Not Yet Winning Kenya the AI Data-Centre Race?

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Seven things African fintechs are asking regulators for.
First Reading.

Seven things African fintechs are asking regulators for.

Licences that take months, rules that leave founders guessing and few safe places to test new products. FINTAK’s work with innovators and regulators across Africa points to seven fixes. Kenya’s draft payments law has just taken up one of them.

Policy & Regulation · 6 min read

No business person actually shares the truth of how they started.
Opinion

No business person actually shares the truth of how they started.

The journey from an idea to a functioning business is less about polished strategy than survival, improvisation and learning which mistakes can kill the company before it develops scale. Ian Ortega argues that capital can sometimes postpone rather than remove that apprenticeship, while founders who bootstrap their way from zero to one learn the suppliers, customers, hidden costs and informal rules that no business-school framework can fully teach.

Africa Business Stories · 6 min read

From Safaricom to VunaPay, Gatwĩri Njogu-Mokaya Targets Africa’s Smallholder Payment Gap
Inside the Rails

Conversations with the people designing, regulating and operating financial systems

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From Safaricom to VunaPay, Gatwĩri Njogu-Mokaya Targets Africa’s Smallholder Payment Gap

After 15 years in corporate technology, Gatwĩri Njogu-Mokaya left to tackle a problem she had watched affect farmers in her own family: working for months without access to their earnings. VunaPay now works with 40 cooperatives to digitise farmers and accelerate payments through financing partners including KCB Bank and a government fund, while Njogu-Mokaya sets her sights on expanding the model beyond Kenya to smallholders across Africa and other emerging markets.

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Who gains control over data, pricing, identity and access when a technical change lands.

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