Africa

1. Critical minerals on the table
2. MTN plans to buy IHS
3. S. Arabia, UAE boost funding
4. Deadly aid cuts fallout
5. A mega TikTok deal
6. Fela Kuti’s legacy

Weekend Reads, and new hopes for a banned Kenyan film.

Washington’s inaugural critical minerals summit this week — bringing together officials from 54 countries including several from Africa — was, on the surface, a diplomatic gathering. Behind the scenes, it served a message to investors: The US and its allies are ready to spend to reshape global mineral supply chains.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio never mentioned China in his remarks. He warned, instead, of supply chains that have become “heavily concentrated,” and said that decades of outsourcing had left advanced economies vulnerable in materials essential to clean energy and defense. The subtext was unmistakable: Securing these resources will require new strategies and capital.

That approach is already visible. A day prior, Swiss commodities giant Glencore agreed to sell 40% of its copper and cobalt assets in DR Congo to a US government-backed consortium for $3.6 billion, a valuation that raised eyebrows. “It reflects how Western capital is now willing to spend to secure non-Chinese control of key assets,” said Calisto Radithipa, co-founder of Botswana-based mining chemicals supplier Kemcore.

Rubio’s broader plan aims to make these premiums sustainable. Officials outlined a Preferential Trade Zone with price floors intended to stabilize markets battered by oversupply and price suppression. The goal: give investors confidence that non-Chinese projects can deliver predictable returns.

The US is also pushing a $12 billion strategic stockpile for critical minerals — a tool already being studied by the EU and Japan as they explore parallel reserves to cushion shocks and counter market manipulation.

For African producers including Angola, DR Congo, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Zambia, the shift opens a rare window of leverage. The Glencore deal shows that Western governments are willing to put money on the table. But turning this moment into lasting advantage will require careful planning, not just short-term opportunism.

🟡 Alexis will be at Mining Indaba in Cape Town next week to meet and hear more from industry and national policymakers in what is a seminal moment for Africa’s producers. If you’ll be there, email him to let him know.

US talks focus on DRC minerals

DR Congo’s president spent the week in Washington, courting the White House, lawmakers, and US investors as he pushed to strengthen his country’s hand amid intensifying Western interest in critical minerals. Speaking at a US Chamber of Commerce event on Thursday, Félix Tshisekedi cast DR Congo as a “strategic partner” in Washington’s push to secure supply chains for technologies used in everything from electric vehicles to AI technologies.

Like other African countries, DR Congo, the world’s largest source of cobalt, wants to move beyond the export of raw materials toward processing and manufacturing: “We want industrial projects that create local jobs, transfer technology, and respect environmental and social standards,” Tshisekedi said. The central African country’s supply chain is dominated by Chinese players who are involved in everything from mining the metals through to processing and refining, which mostly takes place in China.

Tshisekedi, who last December signed a US government partnership to prioritize US investors in its mining sector, linked the latest investment opportunity directly to security, arguing that illicit mining and informal supply chains help fuel violence in eastern DR Congo. Formalizing those chains and strengthening traceability, he said, were essential to stabilizing the country and protecting long-term investments.

— Yinka

MTN plans to buy IHS

South African telecoms giant MTN said it plans to buy all of IHS Towers for $2.7 billion, in a reversal of its earlier strategy to divest from tower businesses over the last half decade.

IHS owns and operates thousands of telecom towers in five African countries, including Nigeria and South Africa, as well as in Brazil and Colombia. Founded in Lagos, IHS went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2021 and completed a purchase of nearly 6,000 towers in South Africa from MTN the following year. MTN also exited tower businesses in Ghana and Uganda in 2020 to focus attention on bigger markets.

IHS confirmed MTN’s takeover approach but said it was “non-binding” for now and that there was “no certainty that a transaction will be agreed upon.” Tower companies are a key part of the infrastructure mix that extend essential digital services: Mobile network operators like MTN have moved beyond call and text services to become crucial players in digital finance in Africa with a growing portfolio of mobile money services.

— Alexander Onukwue

Saudi Arabia, UAE bet on infrastructure

Clean-power investment into Africa from Gulf nations is surging, but the financing could have even greater impact if it was more targeted toward power infrastructure, a new report argued. Rival powers Saudi Arabia and the UAE, the biggest investors, have in recent years driven money into intermittent-renewable energy generation and hydrogen projects, according to Clean Air Task Force research shared first with Semafor.

Riyadh and Abu Dhabi pledged some $175 billion of funding into the continent between 2010 and 2024, largely as investments rather than loans, which CATF characterized as a more sustainable financial relationship. But the two countries could have greater impact — environmentally, economically, and geopolitically — if they shifted the focus of their state-linked funds to financing grid improvements and transmission infrastructure, found the researchers. “Our hope is that the sources of capital that can be more patient… go into projects that enable knock-on investment,” CATF’s Director of Climate Policy Innovation David Yellen told Semafor.

— Prashant Rao

‘Catastrophic’ aid cuts

Global foreign aid cuts have hit sub-Saharan Africa the hardest, a new report warned, estimating that a drop in funding could lead to 22.6 million additional deaths by 2030. Of the 93 low- and middle-income countries analyzed by The Lancet Global Health Study, 38 nations on the continent are “particularly at risk,” facing cuts of up to 28% last year. “Sudden and severe reductions in ODA funding could have catastrophic consequences,” it said, adding that “even modest defunding” was likely to lead to “sharp increases in preventable adult and child mortality.”

The Trump administration’s decision to shut down USAID — the world’s largest humanitarian and development funding agency — has already had a devastating effect on the continent, adding to the impact of foreign aid cuts by other Western donors such as the UK, France, and Germany.

— Preeti Jha

Chinese firm to run TikToker’s AI avatar

A controversial Chinese firm will control the commercial activities of the world’s most popular TikToker in a deal that will test whether China’s massive livestream e-commerce model can be transplanted to Western markets. Khaby Lame, a Senegalese-Italian influencer, has acquired more than 160 million TikTok followers thanks to his wordless reactions mocking overly complex viral videos.

His management company recently struck a $975 million all-stock deal with US-listed Rich Sparkle Holdings, a Hong Kong-based printing and PR firm with only $6 million in annual revenue. As part of the transaction, Lame is becoming a major shareholder in the company, which has set an audacious target of bringing in $4 billion in annual revenue by an unspecified date. His AI avatar, meanwhile, will be operated by Chinese influencer agency, Three Sheep Group, which has previously faced a $10 million fine for hawking mooncakes that came from mainland China but were falsely promoted as luxury Hong Kong products.

View: Why Fela Kuti lives on

“There are artists who make music, and there are artists who change the world. Fela Aníkúlápó Kuti belonged decisively to the latter,” Obi Asika, director-general of Nigeria’s National Council for Arts and Culture, wrote in a Semafor column.

Last week the Nigerian star, who created the original Afrobeat sound, posthumously received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammy Awards — almost three decades after his death at the age of 58. “It was long overdue,” wrote Asika, a former music label founder.

“More than a musician,” he wrote, “Fela was a political force, a philosopher of sound, and one of the most important African voices of the 20th century. His enduring relevance lies not only in what he said, but in how he said it — through rhythm, consistency, and fearless truth-telling.”

• A slide toward autocracy in the US is bolstering a sense of impunity across Africa, Ebenezer Obadare argues in a column for US think tank the Council on Foreign Relations. Trump’s “second coming has caused a significant shift in the political mood” — both in the US and Africa. The White House’s decision to stop commenting on the integrity of foreign elections and to abandon spreading liberal ideologies is seen on the continent as a signal “to abandon restraint,” Obadare says.

• Elon Musk’s recent posts on X have taken a particularly dark turn, appearing to anticipate — and sometimes promote — a race war. Musk’s views draw on “his own reading of civilisational failures in post-apartheid South Africa,” Unherd columnist Glenn Loury argues. The billionaire is “importing a post-colonial model of race politics into Western multicultural societies where it does not apply,” says Loury.

• The testimonies of people who survived kidnap and torture during Tanzania’s election season last year are recounted in a new BBC Africa Eye documentary. In just one example, two prominent activists say they were subjected to sexual, physical, and psychological abuse after attending a trial of Tanzanian opposition figures. But, activist Maria Sarungi Tsehai explains, political violence is no longer restricted to journalists, rights campaigners, and opposition figures: “Now we’re seeing many other people being abducted out of nowhere… It’s rapid, it’s brutal, it’s really well-organised.”

• Lesotho previously suffered one of the highest HIV burdens in the world: In 2016, 25% of the kingdom’s 2 million population were living with the virus. Significant progress over the past decade, in part due to financial support from the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief initiative, risks being undone by the shuttering of USAID, Majirata Latela writes for The Dial. “The cuts don’t just cost lives — they reverse decades of progress,” one health director tells her.

• The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has outlined trends to watch out for on the continent in 2026. As several state leaders age, the prospect of succession looms and comes at a time of increased youth mobilization, the think tank notes. Meanwhile, new leaders in Malawi and the Seychelles face hefty in-trays as they seek to win over the public. “Supporters of democracy — both inside and outside of the continent — will have to remain ready to seize windows of opportunity for progress.”

Business & Macro

🇿🇼 Zimbabwe agreed a 10-month program with the IMF that will see the Washington lender’s staff monitor the implementation of economic programs with a view to a possible financing package.

🇰🇪 National Social Security Fund, a Kenyan agency that oversees retirement savings for private sector employees, plans to invest $233 million in a real estate development in Nairobi.

Climate & Energy

🌍 French development fund Proparco invested in Helios Climate, a climate-focused fund managed by private equity firm Helios Investment Partners that has raised $250 million.

🇳🇦 TotalEnergies acquired a 42.5% stake in an offshore Namibian oil exploration license, holding the same stake in the asset as Brazil’s Petrobras.

Geopolitics & Policy

🇬🇭 Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama said African countries must have “greater sovereignty over natural resources” if they are to create prosperity in a speech to Zambia’s parliament.

🇨🇬 Congo Brazzaville President Denis Sasso Nguesso, who has ruled since 1997, plans to run in elections scheduled for March 15.

Tech & Deals

🇪🇹 British International Investment invested $5 million in food company Lovegrass Ethiopia.

A critically acclaimed Kenyan film banned in Kenya may finally be screened after eight years. Rafiki, a love story between two teenage girls in Nairobi, was the first Kenyan film selected for the Cannes Film Festival. It was released in theaters worldwide, except in its home country where homosexuality is criminalized — “an absurd situation where a Kenyan story about Kenyan characters could be watched everywhere except Kenya,” wrote Brittle Paper, a digital magazine about African literature. Last month, a Kenyan court ruled that the 2018 ban was unconstitutional. African films depicting same-sex relationships have historically been censored on the continent, including those that garnered international accolades. The ruling signals a “subtle but significant shift” in how such films might negotiate censorship, an academic argued, as it becomes harder to ignore their overseas “visibility, prestige and market value.”