African markets and business updates

Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) ( www.AfricaFC.org ) and the Government of Kenya have signed a Host Country Agreement establishing AFC's first regional office in Nairobi, expanding the Corporation's platform for scaling infrastructure investment and industrial development across Africa. The agreement was signed by H.E. Dr. Musalia Mudavadi, Prime Cabinet Secretary (and Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs), and AFC President and CEO, Samaila Zubairu. The signing ceremony, witnessed by H.E.…

Data from the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) disclosed an unprecedented 23.1% decline in official development assistance (ODA) between 2024 and 2025. ODA by OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) members and associates amounted to $174.3bn in 2025, a 23.1% decrease over 2024. Bilateral ODA to least developed countries and sub-Saharan Africa fell by 25.8% and 26.3% respectively.…

Aliko Dangote, Africa's richest man, has announced plans to list approximately 10% of the Dangote Oil Refinery in a $40bn multi-exchange IPO. The proposed listing is designed to fuel the Dangote Group's plans to invest $40bn over the next five years in order to increase its urea fertiliser production and expand the Dangote Petroleum Refinery in Lagos. The refinery, one of the most significant industrial projects in Nigeria's history, began production in 2024.…

African finance ministers arrived in Washington last week not as supplicants, but as negotiators. After years of protracted debt restructurings, widening capital costs and multilateral commitments that have often fallen short of their headline figures, the 2026 IMF-World Bank Spring Meetings presented a rare moment of concentrated leverage. African delegations used it. The defining statistic circulating among policymakers was stark.…

Ongoing conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has raised concerns in some quarters that violence in the region could spill south into the country's mineral heartland of Katanga. However, with the United States playing a key role in protecting its increasing commercial interests in the DRC, analysts tell African Business that instability in Katanga remains unlikely in the short-term, even if the DRC faces broader challenges to its mining sector. In December last year…

Gender-inclusive finance in Africa has made clear strides in recent years, but the picture remains uneven. According to Carol Oyedeji, Group Head of Commercial Banking at Ecobank, the past decade has seen a meaningful expansion in access, driven largely by mobile money, digital financial services and increased lending. Millions more women are now part of the formal financial system, and institutions have begun to treat gender not as a peripheral concern but as a defined business segment.…

Côte d'Ivoire is steadily positioning itself as one of West Africa's most promising startup destinations. Long recognised for the strength of its agriculture and trade sectors, the country is now attracting growing attention from entrepreneurs and venture capital investors seeking opportunities beyond Africa's established technology ecosystems. Buoyed by sustained economic growth, a youthful population and rising digital adoption…

In a rural health clinic in Kenya, far from highways and cities, a nurse unlocks a compact steel box and checks a small screen: the temperature is just right. Crucial, because inside lie sensitive vaccines and medicines that have travelled long distances. If the temperature fails, they become useless. For many people, access to critical health products that require cold storage is a challenge. Why? Because in many rural areas of the world…

Shares gained 42.36% in 2025 and hit an all-time high of 37,500 CFA francs in 2026, delivering investors a sustained rally on the BRVM exchange The board now proposes distributing 80% of 2025 net income, up from 57.25%, adding a 2,606 CFA franc gross dividend on top of capital gains Non-performing loans rose to 8%, coverage fell to 82%, and cost of risk jumped 29%, absorbing most of the gains from net banking income growth Societe Generale Cote d'Ivoire (SGCI)…

Egypt has been a tourism success story in recent years. Visitor numbers ballooned from 13 million in 2019 to 19 million last year, according to government figures. Tourism helps sustain almost three million jobs and brings more than $15bn a year into the country's coffers. The surge in visitor numbers in recent years reflected the growing availability of cheap flights from Europe, as budget airlines and tour operators catered to holidaymakers attracted by Egypt's year-round sunny climate. Meanwhile…