African markets and business updates

The Big Three firm has acquired Agusto & Co as it looks to deepen its coverage on the continent following criticism that it is out of touch. Africa's capital markets face a paradox. Investors are willing to put money into the continent and domestic savings are growing. However, the continent's fragmented financial systems make it difficult to channel that available capital into the infrastructure and businesses that it needs to reach sustainable and transformational growth. According to Samira Mensah, head of S&P Global's Africa National Ratings, the question that Africa currently faces is whether it can create the necessary conditions for capital to work in its favour.…

Tinubu looks vulnerable on the economy, but whether the opposition can turn discontent into voter support remains an open question. For Nigerian opposition parties, unity was always the surest path to winning an election against a wily incumbent such as President Bola Tinubu. As the build-up to the 2027 presidential election began, the top three runners-up in the 2023 election teamed up in the African Democratic Congress (ADC). Among them were former vice president Atiku Abubakar, now 80, who has been seeking the presidency since 1992 and scored 29.07% of the votes as the candidate for the People's Democratic Party, behind Tinubu's 36.6%, in the 2023 election.…

A summer of events at the Barbican in London built on a series of global events that have brought pan-Africanism back into prominence. When Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica closed at the Barbican in London in September, it marked the penultimate stop in a journey that began at the Art Institute of Chicago in December 2024, travelled to Barcelona's MACBA, and will conclude next spring at KANAL-Centre Pompidou in Brussels. Across its four iterations, the exhibition has brought together almost 500 works by around 100 artists, spanning the 1920s to the present and ranging across Africa, Brazil, the Caribbean, North America and Western Europe.…

Now is the time for coordinated investment in public interest media as an essential part of Africa's economic future. Public interest media are the lifeblood of Africa's economic infrastructure. When trusted information dries up, growth wilts. Talk of the infrastructure needed to unlock Africa's economic potential tends to focus on roads, ports, energy networks, and trade corridors. Yet markets run on information as surely as they rely on transport and power. The African Continental Free Trade Area is a $3.4 trillion opportunity. But the information infrastructure underpinning that opportunity is too often overlooked. In many places, it is being actively suppressed.…

An art show in Ikoyi, Lagos, exhibited works by young Nigerians with anarchic influences including punk, skating and Dennis the Menace. When I received the invitation to attend Wake Up! 2, the second of a series of youth art exhibitions curated by Awele Onwordi (pictured above right), I thought it would be a typical art soirée where the guests would leisurely sashay from one artwork to the next. Imagine my surprise when I stepped into the Angels and Muse gallery at Ikoyi and was greeted by sights and sounds that made me think I had accidentally crashed a house party. All around were young people dressed in casual wear, accessorised with tattoos and piercings.…

Mineral resources including copper are the defining economic question of Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema's second term. The morning sun is high in the sky by the time Bliss Mutale, a mine operator, clocks off after an overnight shift at Mopani Copper Mines, in Zambia's Copperbelt. He is weary, but at least he has a job. Operations here were suspended when prices sank a few years ago, and Mutale sold liquor to get by. Now, under new Emirati owners, the mine is up and running again. No wonder, when copper is trading in London at record prices - over $15,000 a tonne at one point in mid-September.…

Ghanaian fashion house BOYEDOE is taking its upcycling ethos to the global stage, with Afreximbank's CANEX programme providing the finance, expertise and market access to turn African creativity into globally competitive brands.

African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) ( www.Afreximbank.com ) has issued a US$ 29 million guarantee to BSMART Technology Ltd to support the implementation and scaling of the EAC Customs Bond, the technology-enabled regional customs guarantee solution that facilitates the movement of goods across East African countries.…

NSF Acting CEO joins Deputy Minister Dube-Ncube and Director-General Sishi in backing Team South Africa. Twenty-nine young South Africans are flying the national flag in Shanghai this week as they take on some of the world's best young skilled professionals at the 48th WorldSkills International Competition, taking place from 22 to 27 September 2026. Team South Africa is competing in 27 skills categories, including Mechatronics, Aircraft Maintenance, Plumbing and Heating, Refrigeration, Construction and Water Technology, among other technical and vocational skills.…

Ghana is taking steps to strengthen its capacity to conduct and oversee high-quality clinical trials, following an assessment of 15 public and private research and health institutions supported by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the National Vaccine Institute (NVI), with funding support from the European Union-funded Vax & Pharm Initiative. Clinical trials generate the evidence needed to develop and evaluate vaccines, medicines and other health technologies. Strengthening the institutions that conduct and oversee these studies can help Ghana accelerate health innovation, improve preparedness for health emergencies and expand access to safe and effective health technologies.…