African markets and business updates

This African Business Women in Leadership 2026 special profiles 20 women leaders - among them founders, CEOs, innovators, entrepreneurs and change-makers - who have risen to senior roles in business and governance. In doing so, they have reshaped the narrative around women's leadership across the continent and the wider African diaspora. Make sure to read our series introduction , and Parts One , Two , and Four . Soraya Hakuziyaremye Governor…

This African Business Women in Leadership 2026 special profiles 20 women leaders - among them founders, CEOs, innovators, entrepreneurs and change-makers - who have risen to senior roles in business and governance. In doing so, they have reshaped the narrative around women's leadership across the continent and the wider African diaspora. Make sure to read our series introduction , and Parts One , Three and Four . Owen Omogiafo CEO and President…

This African Business Women in Leadership 2026 special profiles 20 women leaders - among them founders, CEOs, innovators, entrepreneurs and change-makers - who have risen to senior roles in business and governance. In doing so, they have reshaped the narrative around women's leadership across the continent and the wider African diaspora. Make sure to read our series introduction , and Parts Two , Three and Four . Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala Director-General…

An average of around 50m people will need to be connected to electricity each year between now and 2030 in order to achieve Mission 300's goal of 300m electricity connections by 2030. According to the Rockefeller Foundation, one of the partners supporting the initiative led by the World Bank and African Development Bank, Mission 300 has connected around 44m people since the beginning of its official reporting period in July 2023.…

At the same time as the country's macroeconomic recovery, the Bank of Ghana (BoG) has embarked on a wide-ranging series of reforms, particularly in the microfinance, rural and community banking segments, aimed at strengthening the sector for the long term. High levels of inflation and government debt triggered a sovereign debt default in December 2022, with a $3bn three-year IMF bailout needed in May 2023 to stabilise government finances and keep the economy afloat.…

In the rough world of African mining there is tough, very tough, and then there is Daphne Mashile-Nkosi. The flinty queen of manganese has been through the mill: poverty; prison; police batons; gnawing pain of loss, corporate theft and the persistent pinpricks of casual misogyny. "For steel to be hard and beautiful and shiny it has to go through fire! Maybe I had to go through the pain I went through for me to achieve what I have achieved," she says.…

The volume of daily equity trades on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) soared two or three times compared to previous levels after Safaricom launched its retail-focused Ziidi Trader platform in early February. The new platform opens buying and selling shares to nearly 38m active subscribers of the M-Pesa mobile money platform and strips away layers of form-filling and minimum transaction amounts. The daily volume of deals started to climb when Ziidi began pilot trading on 5 February. There were 25…

The United States and Israel launched "Operation Epic Fury" against Iran over the weekend, in a move that has had immediate ramifications on global financial markets and could have significant implications for African economies. Missile attacks on Iran began on Saturday, with the US and Israel assassinating the country's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameini and other regime figures, and President Donald Trump calling for the Iranian people to "take over your government.…

How has your professional journey prepared you for the role of Group Managing Director and CEO, and what barriers did you overcome as a woman rising to the top of a major financial institution? My journey to becoming Group Managing Director and CEO of Zenith Bank has been defined by discipline, strategic execution and consistent performance. Rising through the ranks gave me deep exposure to the Bank's governance model, risk management, operations and stakeholder engagement.…

In 2025 just 0.9% of the total funding raised by start-ups in Africa was raised by women-only founders or teams, and just 8% by teams that were gender diverse, according to data provider Africa: The Big Deal . In comparison, men-only founders or teams accounted for 91% of startup fundraising in Africa. Despite evidence indicating that women-led startups generate 2 to 2.5 times more revenue per dollar invested than those led by men…