African markets and business updates

Today, as a thriving social business, SATO has reached 103 million people globally - approximately 44 million of whom are in Africa. The milestone not only represents the role the private sector can play in addressing global health and social challenges but also highlights the importance and impact of the sector's involvement. Everyone who makes up the 103 million total has their own story…

Solving Africa's energy challenges is often framed as a matter of generating more power, whether it be from solar panels, wind farms, hydroelectric dams, gas turbines or coal-burning power stations. But another element is vital: transmission. Without a solid transmission backbone, it is impossible to move power from where it is generated to where it is consumed. Indeed, in Africa and around the world, major electricity generation projects are often delayed by the lack of a grid connection.…

In November 2025 Hossam El-Din Mustafa, an Egyptian deputy minister of transport, announced that about 80% of the Cairo to Cape Town Highway had been completed: a transcontinental corridor that after leaving Egypt traverses Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa. Egypt is primarily funding and completing the sections of the Cairo to Cape Town Highway that lie within its own territory.…

Africa's universities are at a pivotal moment in the digital age. A recent study, Harnessing AI for Higher Education in Africa , led by the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) in partnership with The Education Collaborative at Ashesi University, UM6P, and AfriLabs, paints both an optimistic and sobering picture of how artificial intelligence is reshaping higher education across the continent. Drawing on feedback from nearly 3,900 stakeholder, including faculty, administrators, students, and policymakers…

Two weeks of competition wraps up in Italy this weekend as the Winter Olympics draws to a close. While the medal table is, unsurprisingly, dominated by northerly and Alpine nations, the Milan and Cortina event saw a record 15 African athletes from eight countries taking part. Several of African athletes that did make it to this year's Winter Olympics are dual nationals. Madagascan skier Mialitiana Clerc (pictured above), for example, grew up in the French Alps.…

Analysts are forecasting a boom of activity on South Africa's capital markets this year, with listings on the JSE expected to increase amid a steep rise in commodity prices and improved investor sentiment as the country's macroeconomic reforms begin to yield results. Simon Denny, the chief executive of investment bank Goldman Sachs' business in South Africa, has said that "we expect activity across the board and our pipeline has broadened across sectors...…

Africa does not suffer from a lack of opportunity. It suffers from a shortage of institutional capital platforms capable of mobilising long-term, patient, and disciplined capital at scale. The numbers are well known, yet still sobering. African SMEs face an estimated financing gap exceeding $350bn; annual infrastructure needs are assessed at $130-170bn while actual investment consistently falls tens of billions short each year. At the same time, Africa's population has surpassed 1.5bn billion…

Italy's prime minister Georgia Meloni visited Ethiopia last week in a bid to shore up the country's diplomatic and commercial relationships in Africa. Meloni attended an Italy-Africa summit in Addis Ababa, two years after the previous summit was held in Rome, before addressing a meeting of the African Union (AU) at its headquarters in the Ethiopian capital. In her address to the AU…

Water and sanitation were the main themes of the 2026 African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, with governments, development partners and business talking about how to transform a life-giving sector that has enormous, mostly unrecognised, economic value. It is a major challenge. Across sub-Saharan Africa, about one in three people still lack access to basic drinking water services while about two in three lack access to sanitation services. The situation is particularly dire in rural areas. For years…

As artificial intelligence becomes a defining driver of global economic competitiveness, the India AI Summit has emerged as an influential convening platform for governments, investors and technology builders. For African economies, the clearest message from the gathering was that AI is no longer viewed as a distant prospect, but as an immediate business and policy priority. With participation from more than 100 countries and a strong emphasis on applied AI, digital public infrastructure and emerging markets…