Policy & Power
How decisions are made across Africa, and who makes them.
EU’s steel tariff hits South Africa
The EU’s new steel import framework took effect July 1, imposing annual quotas with a 50% tariff on volumes above the thresholds, under regulation 2026/1384 published June 24. Quotas are allocated by product category…
Kenya awards JKIA rebuild to China
Kenya signed a Ksh154.2 billion ($1.2 billion) contract with China Road and Bridge Corporation on June 23 to modernise Jomo Kenyatta International…
South Africa’s fiscal turnaround gathers pace
South Africa’s National Treasury reported a primary budget surplus of R86.7 billion (1.1% of GDP) for 2025/26, exceeding the 0.9% Budget estimate…
South Africa’s June 30 shutdown arrives
Anti-immigration protesters marched across South Africa’s major cities on June 30, the deadline set by the March and March movement for undocumented…
US-Iran truce sends oil crashing
A US-Iran ceasefire agreement and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz have sent Brent crude crashing from a peak above $120 per barrel in April to…
South Africa braces for June 30
South Africa’s police service has activated joint operations in all nine provinces at a projected cost of R600 million ahead of the June 30 national…
Ghana’s 1,400bps rate cut leads Africa
Ghana’s Bank of Ghana cut its benchmark rate by a cumulative 1,400 basis points from 28% in January 2025 to 14% by March 2026, the most aggressive…
Nigeria slams the IMF’s tax prescriptions
A Nigerian think tank, the Alliance for Economic Research and Ethics, has criticised the IMF’s 2026 Article IV recommendations including excise…
Stop checking passports, SA minister warns
South Africa’s Justice Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi warned at an Inter-Ministerial Committee on Migration briefing on June 14 that private citizens…
Tanzania self-funds its $24bn budget
Tanzania’s Finance Minister Khamis Mussa presented the Tsh62.33 trillion ($24 billion) 2026/27 budget on June 11, targeting 75% domestic funding, up…
Cardoso wins Central Bank of the Year
Nigeria’s Central Bank was named Central Bank of the Year 2026 at the Central Banking Awards in London on June 10. Governor Yemi Cardoso accepted…
Rwanda’s Rwf7.8tn budget hits parliament
Rwanda Finance Minister Yusuf Murangwa presented the Rwf7.8 trillion ($990 million) national budget to Parliament on June 11, a 12% increase from…
China embeds deeper in Africa’s ports
China holds stakes in roughly one-third of African ports, has invested $50 billion in port infrastructure since 2013, and accounts for 22% of all…
Kenya wins the ICA-Africa chair
McLoud Malonza, Chair of Co-operative Bank Holdings and the Co-operative Alliance of Kenya, was elected Chairperson of ICA-Africa in Maputo on June…
TikTok’s AI purges 4m Nigerian videos
TikTok removed more than 4 million videos in Nigeria in Q4 2025, with 99.9% proactively identified before any user report and 98.4% removed within…
Tanzania and Singapore strike first partnership
Singaporean President Tharman Shanmugaratnam made the first-ever state visit by a Singaporean head of state to Tanzania on June 9, marking the 45th…
Ramaphosa tightens immigration amid unrest
President Ramaphosa announced a sweeping immigration crackdown in a June 7 national address, committing to tighter border controls, faster…
Salt River Market transformed into 970 homes
Cape Town’s Salt River Market site was formally handed to developer Communicare on June 8 after more than a decade in planning, enabling 970…
Rwanda locks in $250m IMF credit facility
The IMF Executive Board approved Rwanda’s $250 million, 38-month Extended Credit Facility on June 9, with an immediate $35.7 million disbursement.…
Berbera’s rise reshapes East Africa trade
Berbera Port in Somaliland has expanded to 500,000 TEUs annually and is positioning itself as a major trade gateway for Ethiopia and the Horn of…
Ghana-Jamaica pact ends two-decade silence
Ghana and Jamaica concluded the Third PJCC Ministerial Session in Accra on May 27, signing four bilateral agreements in health, defence, education…
Ethiopia clears IMF review, unlocks $468m
The IMF reached a staff-level agreement on Ethiopia’s fifth ECF review on June 3, paving the way for a $468 million disbursement that would bring…
Tanzania finally breaks its Moscow silence
Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan arrived in Moscow on June 2 for a three-day state visit, becoming the first Tanzanian head of state to…
Ethiopian Airlines confirmed a global competitor
US Ambassador to Ethiopia Ervin Massinga declared on May 26 that Ethiopian Airlines is no longer simply a regional carrier but a competitor on the…
Tinubu’s three-year reform scorecard is mixed
Three years into Tinubu’s reforms, Nigeria’s GDP averages 3.46% quarterly growth, external reserves stand at $49.26 billion and federal revenues…
Markets price Senegal for debt restructuring
JPMorgan’s May 26 research note revealed that Senegal’s 2033 Eurobonds are pricing in a restructuring scenario with a 15% haircut, five-year…
Brazzaville gives AfDB’s NAFAD a mandate
The AfDB’s 61st Annual Meetings closed in Brazzaville on May 29 with governors formally endorsing the New African Financial Architecture for…
AGOA clocks out in December 2026
The African Growth and Opportunity Act expires December 31, 2026. A one-year extension signed by Trump in February restored lapsed benefits, but the…
Ethiopia’s Eurobond talks collapse, bondholders sue
Ethiopia’s Ministry of Finance announced on May 28 that formal Eurobond restructuring talks with private bondholders collapsed after they rejected a…
NNPC challenges Dangote’s prices in court
NNPC filed a court counter-affidavit on May 27 arguing that Dangote Petroleum Refinery’s petrol is sold at significantly high and fluctuating…
AfDB: 12 fastest economies are African
The AfDB’s African Economic Outlook 2026, launched today in Brazzaville, reveals that Africa’s real GDP grew 4.2% in 2025, with 12 of the world’s 20…
Best countries to invest in Africa 2026
The best African countries to invest and do business in 2026 ranked by governance quality, business environment, growth trajectory and sector…
South Africa’s Starlink law fight escalates
South Africa’s Communications Minister Solly Malatsi announced plans to amend the Electronic Communications Act to embed Equity Equivalent…
AfDB opens in Brazzaville this weekend
The AfDB’s 61st Annual Meetings open in Brazzaville on May 25 under the theme “Mobilising Africa’s Development Financing at Scale in a Fragmented…
South Africa’s NHI loses in ConCourt
South Africa’s Constitutional Court struck down the Certificate of Need provisions in the National Health Act on May 18, removing the state’s power…
WHO declares Ebola continental emergency
WHO declared the Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak in DRC and Uganda a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on May 16. Africa CDC followed with…