By Aduragbemi Omiyale

After its launch in the United States in 2023, PayPal USD (PYUSD) is now available in 70 markets worldwide, including in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and North America. providing stable purchasing power and enabling lower-cost global commerce for users.

In a statement on Wednesday, PayPal said this dollar-backed stablecoin enables users to send funds globally, with faster settlement and lower cost than traditional payment methods.

Users in newly supported markets can buy, hold, send, and receive PYUSD directly from their PayPal account. Additionally, eligible users can earn rewards on their PYUSD holdings, transfer funds to friends and family, whether on PayPal or to third-party digital wallets, and convert PYUSD to local currency when withdrawing funds for everyday spending.

Businesses that accept PYUSD can use proceeds in minutes rather than days or weeks, improving liquidity and reducing reliance on traditional settlement cycles. Faster access to funds can help businesses manage working capital, support cross-border operations, and participate in global commerce.

As global commerce becomes increasingly digital, individuals and businesses are looking for faster and more seamless ways to transact across borders. Stablecoins like PYUSD help power an inclusive, fast, lower-cost, global commerce system.

“Consumers and businesses around the world are looking for faster, more seamless ways to transact globally, and the current system still charges too much, takes too long, and settles on timelines that were designed for a different era,” the Senior Vice President and General Manager of Crypto for PayPal, May Zabaneh, stated.

“We are working to change that. Enabling PYUSD in users’ accounts across 70 markets gives people faster access to their funds, lower-cost ways to send money across borders, and a more direct path to participating in the global economy, and that is what drives commerce forward for everyone,” Zabaneh added.

Also commenting, the Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Middle East and Africa at PayPal, Otto Williams, said, “Bringing PYUSD to Africa is about delivering tangible value to the people and businesses driving growth in these dynamic markets.

“Consumers gain a flexible, stable way to move funds faster, while businesses can streamline cross-border payments, improve settlement times, and unlock new growth opportunities. By increasing access to a regulated, USD-backed digital currency, we’re breaking down barriers and helping reduce friction in global commerce across the region.”

By Adedapo Adesanya

AVIAN, a Zurich-based industrial AI company building 24/7 thermal monitoring for the world’s most fire-prone facilities, has announced a $2.6 million pre-seed round, led by Founderful.

After two profitable bootstrapped years, the Zurich-based industrial AI company will accelerate deployment of its end-to-end thermal monitoring platform across sawmills, recycling, mining, chemical processing, oil and gas, and maritime operations – categories where fire and downtime risk are increasingly outpacing what insurers are willing to cover.

Industrial operators across Europe and North America are facing challenges, including fine dust, friction, electrical faults, and ageing equipment, which are pushing fire and downtime risk into territory that insurers will no longer underwrite at viable premiums. Sites that were insurable five years ago are being deemed too risky today.

AVIAN continuously monitors critical industrial equipment with thermal cameras, learning normal operating temperatures, and detecting early heat anomalies (thermal drift) to trigger smart, targeted alerts before failures or fire occur. It also generates automated predictive maintenance reports and backs the platform with 24/7 human support.

“Every alarm event is reviewed and fed back into the models, so detection keeps improving across the fleet and each new site benefits from what AVIAN has already learned in the field,” it said in a statement.

Over the last two years, AVIAN has prevented $50 million in damages from fires and equipment failures and is deployed in approximately 50 sites across 9 countries, including Germany and Switzerland.

“AVIAN has developed a solution to a problem which probably affects everyone in the industry directly. For us, it is a great partnership as it helps us make our operations much safer and improves the monitoring process. You will never be able to reduce the risk of fires to zero, but you can do everything you can to minimise the danger as much as possible – and AVIAN makes that possible simply and straightforwardly,” said Mr Ernest Schilliger, CEO of Schilliger Holz.

On his part, Mr Drew Hanover, Co-Founder and CTO of AVIAN, said, “We bootstrapped the business for two years because we wanted to build something operators actually trusted. We raised with Founderful for one reason: to keep doing that, in more markets, faster, without changing what we are. We spent zero minutes on a deck.”

The company was founded after one of Switzerland’s largest sawmills saw Mr Hanover’s robotics and AI research in the Swiss media and reached out about escalating fires, downtime, and rising insurance pressure. It currently has a 10-person team based in Zurich.

Mr Alex Stöckl, Partner at Founderful, added: “Within a year of incorporation, the team at AVIAN already served dozens of manufacturing businesses in the US and Europe, preventing real fire incidents daily. With their thermal-vision technology, there’s an immediate ROI and a new industrial intelligence layer that unlocks further use cases and value for customers over time – backing them to accelerate their go-to-market and product roadmap was a no-brainer.”

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) said it has arrested suspects vandalising its facilities along the Nkalagu–Abakaliki 132kV single circuit transmission line in Ebonyi State.

Its General Manager for Public Affairs, Mrs Ndidi Mbah, in a statement in Abuja, stated that preliminary investigations at the scene established that structural tower members valued at ‘billions of naira’ were removed and sold to illicit scrap metal dealers.

The TCN said that the suspects were indigenes of the Ezza Umuhuali Community in Ishielu Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, stressing that they were apprehended by local youths and members of a vigilante group acting on a tip-off.

“The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) wishes to inform the general public that two suspects were arrested in connection with the vandalism of Towers T15, T16, and T17 along the Nkalagu–Abakaliki 132kV Single Circuit Transmission Line. The arrests were made on May 9, 2026.

“The suspects are both indigenes of the Ezza Umuhuali Community in Ishielu Local Government Area of Ebonyi State. They were apprehended by local youths and members of a vigilante group acting on a tip-off.

“Preliminary investigations at the scene established that structural tower members valued at billions of naira were systematically removed from the affected towers and allegedly sold to illicit scrap metal dealers. Further investigations revealed that the criminal activity had been ongoing from January 2026 until the suspects’ apprehension,” the TCN stated.

The suspects, it explained, were subsequently handed over to the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) at Ishielu Police Station, Ntezi, and have since been formally charged before the Ebonyi State High Court.

It added that while the two principal suspects are currently in custody, investigations are ongoing to identify and apprehend remaining accomplices believed to still be at large.

“TCN strongly condemns this act of economic sabotage, which not only constitutes a grievous assault on national infrastructure but also undermines the stability of electricity supply to Ebonyi State and surrounding communities.

“We commend the vigilance and swift action of the Ezza Umuhuali youths and vigilante group in bringing these suspects to justice. TCN further urges host communities across the country to remain alert and to promptly report any suspicious activity around high-voltage transmission installations to the nearest security agency or TCN office,” the company noted.