African markets and business updates

If 2025 is remembered for one thing on the African continent, it should be progress on the energy agenda. But it was also a year in which that progress began to move in two different directions - and only one is likely to prove truly transformational. The first source of progress relates to Mission 300 - an initiative that was formally launched in April 2024 but shifted from ambition to implementation in January 2025…

The last time I interviewed Oliver Andrews was five years ago, just after he had reached the mandatory retirement age at the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC). He had spent more than a decade at the infrastructure-oriented investment organisation, latterly as executive director and chief investment officer, and was widely regarded as one of the institution's intellectual architects. He had helped mobilise tens of billions of dollars for roads, ports, power plants…

When discussions turn to African technology, innovation and venture capital, attention rarely drifts towards Mauritania. Overshadowed by larger and more established ecosystems such as Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt and South Africa, the country is largely absent from continental startup rankings, investment league tables and global accelerator programmes. Yet beneath this relative invisibility, Mauritania is beginning to assemble the early building blocks of a startup ecosystem shaped as much by promise as by constraint.…

According to a statement from the European Commission on 3 December, this year will be the last for the Union to receive Russian gas imports - a moment that the bloc has been building towards since Moscow's 2022 full-blown invasion of Ukraine. Before then the European gas landscape was dominated by Russia, which provided roughly 45% of the EU's total gas imports (approximately 150bn cubic metres per year). At that time, Algeria was a reliable but secondary partner, accounting for only 8% to 12%.…

In a sobering assessment of global development finance, The Great Reversal , produced by ONE Data, reveals how the financial architecture supporting low- and middle-income countries is undergoing a dramatic shift. For African economies still striving to meet the Sustainable Development Goals while building resilience against climate shocks, pandemics and inflation, this shift carries far-reaching implications.…

Extending 45,000 km across the seabed to link 33 countries, 2Africa is now the world's longest subsea cable project, designed to interconnect Europe, Asia and Africa. The start of 2026 marks a decisive milestone for the project. Following its launch in 2020, the core infrastructure was declared completed in late 2025 with the finalisation of crucial landings, including Egypt's Port Said and Ras Ghareb stations. This means the primary African "loop" is now fully operational…

There's something about Marrakech in early February that already feels like a statement. The light; the pace; the mix of people arriving from everywhere. It's the kind of city where art doesn't sit quietly in white cubes. It spills into hotel lobbies, terraces, private dinners, institutional openings and late-night conversations. This year, 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair leans into that energy with a format that's deliberately tighter. The 2026 edition brings together 22 galleries and more than 60 artists…

For decades, Africa's growth challenge has been framed as a shortage of capital. Policymakers look outward, investors cite funding gaps, and development debates revolve around how to attract more foreign money. But this framing no longer reflects the full reality. Africa today does not lack capital. What it lacks is coordination. Across the continent, pension funds and asset managers already steward more than $2.4 trillion in institutional assets…

Nigeria's diversification from a mono-cultural economy reliant on oil and gas exports is paying dividends according to new data announced by the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC). Presenting the results in Abuja on January 19th at a press briefing on the performance of non‑oil exports for 2025, the executive director and CEO of NEPC, Nonye Ayeni, described 2025 as "an impressive year" in which Nigeria "took giant strides in our efforts to diversify the economy and grow the non-oil export sector.…

In late December Israel became the first country in the world to recognise Somaliland as an independent sovereign state, in a move that could help stimulate investment in the previously isolated territory but which some analysts fear could also significantly increase risk levels in the Horn of Africa. Israel's foreign minister Gideon Sa'ar (pictured above left) announced that Israel and Somaliland would establish full diplomatic relations.…