African markets and business updates

Africa's digital economy is no longer viewed as a frontier story. It has become a serious investment thesis. With technology funding on the continent reaching $4.1bn in 2025, representing a 25% year on year rebound, the United States has deployed a growing range of initiatives aimed at ensuring that American companies, capital and technology remain central to Africa's digital transformation. Several flagship programmes now define this effort, combining development finance…

As President Bola Ahmed Tinubu's administration nears the three-year mark the country finds itself at an intersection of ambition and reality: sweeping reforms that seek to reset Nigeria's flailing economy, a public mood that oscillates between wary scepticism and impatient hope, and a foreign-policy choreography capped by a state visit to the United Kingdom this March. The trip, to be hosted by the king and queen at Windsor Castle, is being billed in official dispatches as both a diplomatic milestone…

The International Finance Corporation is providing a $30 million trade finance guarantee to Banco de Fomento Angola. The facility will support import-export transactions by covering payment risk for international banks. The move comes as Angola seeks to ease structural constraints in trade finance and restore international banking links. The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private-sector arm of the World Bank Group, has granted a $30 million trade finance facility to Banco de Fomento Angola (BFA).…

Captain Traoré's oracle: meet the AES's new oligarch

L’agence de notation S&P Global Ratings a abaissé la note souveraine du Botswana de BBB à BBB-, avec une perspective négative. Le gouvernement botswanais anticipe désormais une contraction économique proche de 1 % en 2025, contre une croissance de 3,3 % initialement prévue en début d’année. La Banque du Botswana a décidé jeudi de laisser son taux directeur inchangé à 3,5%. La Banque centrale du Botswana a relevé de manière significative son taux directeur, le faisant passer de 1,9% à 3,5%.

L’agence de notation Fitch Ratings a relevé la perspective associée à la note souveraine du Rwanda de Negative à Stable, tout en confirmant sa notation de long terme en devises étrangères à “B+”. Le Rwanda a émis, mardi 3 août, une euro-obligation de 620 millions USD sur les marchés financiers internationaux, à des taux « faibles », a annoncé le gouvernement. Ce montant servira à rembourser une autre euro-obligation, arrivant à échéance en 2023 mais également à financer des projets stratégiques.…

Microsoft has announced ambitious plans to boost adoption of its artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in Africa. The US tech giant has unveiled a plan to train 3 million Africans on AI technologies through partnerships with schools, universities, and other institutions, with a focus on the continent's major tech hubs: South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, and Morocco. Microsoft has also partnered with MTN Group, the continent's largest telecommunications company…

When Olayemi Cardoso became governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in September 2023, the monetary policy rate (MPR) stood at 18.75%. By February 2024, during the first Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting of the year, the CBN raised the MPR by 400 basis points to 22.75%. Explaining the decision in Communique No. 150, the Bank noted that it was responding to "current inflationary and exchange rate pressures, projected inflation, and rising inflation expectations…

The age-long rapport between Nigeria and the United Kingdom has withstood the test of time and is poised to grow in strategic strength, many believe, with President Bola Tinubu state visit to Britain on the invitation of King Charles III. One needs to truly dig into history to appreciate the durable ties welding Nigeria and the UK together. Nigeria gained her independence from Britain on October 1, 1960, "on a platter of gold", in the words of the country's first president, Nnamdi Azikiwe.…

Upon taking office, President Bola Tinubu wasted little time in confronting one of the most contentious pillars of Nigeria's fiscal architecture. The president announced that the fuel subsidy regime would be discontinued, signalling a decisive shift away from a system that had long strained public finances, distorted energy pricing and clouded transparency in Africa's largest economy. At the time, the question was not whether there would be pain. The pain was certain.…