EMEA Daily: Nigeria Begins Regulating Mobile Devices via 5% Tax

In today’s top stories from Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), the Nigeria announced the implementation of a 5% tax on mobile devices.

Nigeria Implements 5% Mobile Services Tax

Nigerian Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed announced a 5% tax in a statement outlining the country’s fiscal predicament, as it spends more on debt servicing than it takes in, in revenue. Ahmed didn’t say when Nigeria will start collecting the tax, which is in addition to a 7.5% value-added tax on calls and data. In the first four months of the year, the country generated 1.63 trillion naira (about $3.9 billion) in revenue and made 1.94 trillion naira (about $4.6 billion) in debt service payments.

Klasha Adds Former PayPal Executive to Help Transform African Commerce

Klasha has appointed former PayPal executive Ayman Jawhar CPO, saying his experience will help the company scale its B2B and B2C products for cross-border African commerce. Jawhar joins the San Francisco and Lagos, Nigeria-based technology company with 15 years of experience at PayPal, Miro, Prodigy Finance and Next47, during which time he led new product line expansions in EMEA. Klasha has designed a simple payment solution that works via WhatsApp, email or another messaging channel, enabling businesses to link recipients and make payments with a bank account, debit or credit card, or one of the supported mobile money services.

German Regulators Considering Whether Microsoft Subject to Competition Rules

German regulators are reportedly considering whether Microsoft should fall within the scope of new competition rules, as they have determined several other Big Tech companies do. The country’s competition regulator may launch proceedings under the German Competition Act. Google, Meta and Amazon have already been determined to be subject to the rules, and Apple is being looked at too. Under the act, which went into effect in January 2021, Germany can move fast to prohibit conduct that is anti-competitive, such as self-preferencing and pre-installation of services.