Africa

The amount of free cash flow that West Africa-focused Tullow Oil said it would deliver over the next two years as part of its target of $800 million from 2023 to 2025. The London-listed oil and gas explorer said the opening of its Jubilee South East offshore Ghana had driven production and boosted 2023 cash flow ahead of its expectations. Tullow’s chief executive said the company last year reached a “major inflection point” as it “moved from a period of investment focus to delivery of free cash flow growth.”

Biden’s Africa director leaves White House

THE SCOOP

Judd Devermont, the special assistant to U.S. President Joe Biden on African affairs, will step down from his post by the middle of February to join an Africa-focused private equity firm, according to two people with knowledge of the plans.

Devermont, who joined the White House staff in October 2021 as National Security Council Senior Director for African Affairs, was the author of the influential “U.S. Strategy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa” white paper for the Biden administration, which was announced in August 2022. The strategy was followed by the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in December 2022, in which Biden pledged $55 billion towards supporting a revamped vision for the U.S. on the continent.

KNOW MORE

Devermont is joining Washington D.C.-based Kupanda Capital, a private equity investor whose Africa-focused portfolio includes Fraym, a geospatial data company, climate fintech platform Nithio , and Lagos-based music label Mavin Records whose roster features some of the hottest Afrobeats stars. He will have a role as the firm’s Operating Partner, focused on innovation.

The U.S. presidential election will take place in November. There is typically a shake-up in White House staff in the run-up to presidential elections as the team retools for the campaign.

YINKA’S VIEW

Devermont is a veteran Africa specialist who relished influencing U.S.-Africa policy from the inside, having previously worked as a CIA analyst and at the U.S. diplomatic service with stints in Nigeria, Somalia and South Africa among others. While there were several obvious highlights during his tenure, such as the U.S.-Africa strategy paper and December 2022’s Leaders’ summit, there was also a higher profile for U.S.-Africa affairs in general terms. This included 17 U.S. cabinet level visits to the continent last year — and ongoing this year with Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s current four-country tour. It also saw the U.S. lend support to Africa securing a third seat on the IMF’s executive board and become a permanent member of the G20.

This change in approach was striking because of what it followed, as much as anything else. The Biden administration immediately followed the Trump years that were colored by an abrasiveness and dismissiveness towards Africa. That was a time when African affairs were almost only ever discussed only in the context of confronting China or other vaguely conceived notions. So, in a sense, a U.S. president discussing Africa with some level of thoughtfulness and insight was a welcome relief for those who care about appearances.

In reality, the difference in the substance of the policy is less clear. U.S-Africa policy is one of the few remaining areas of bipartisan agreement on Capitol Hill and the Biden administration is as concerned about China and Russia’s influence in Africa as the previous administration — they’re just been more considered about it.

It was unclear who will take over from Devermont as we went to press but it’s unlikely to be a long-term appointment given the election coming up in a few months.

Rebel group restricts movement in Ethiopia’s Oromia region

A rebel group in Ethiopia’s central Oromia region is placing restrictions on the movement of people and commercial activities following a surge in violent crime.

The Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), which is fighting federal troops and has been designated as a terrorist organization by the Ethiopian government, stated that the restrictions will take effect on Jan. 28 for an indefinite period. Unrest across the restive region in recent weeks has included a spate of hijackings and killings.

“All the roads in Oromia leading to Addis Ababa to be closed”, the directive read, including the closure of hospitals, public schools and the transportation of food to the capital as a means to disrupt delivery of emergency assistance to the hungry and vulnerable civilians.

The move will halt the delivery of humanitarian assistance to a region staring at a possible famine and an ongoing exodus of international investors. The fighting comes as the conflict in northern Amhara continues, displacing thousands and upending a region once considered to be the nation’s breadbasket.

The Ethiopian government and the OLA, who have been locked in a conflict since 2018, met in Tanzania twice last year for talks but the peace efforts stalled.

The rebel group has previously demanded control over regional security while remaining armed, which the federal government has rejected. The OLA also wants the government to address longstanding Oromo grievances and demands for self-determination.

— Samuel Getachew in Addis Ababa

Africa’s most mature startups felt the toughest end of the tech funding crunch of 2023, a new report by venture capital firm Partech said. The average investment into African growth stage startups last year was $34.7 million for equity deals, 31% lower than in 2022. Except for 2020, it was the lowest average since 2018 and part of a trend that saw fundraising fall by 46% to $3.5 billion last year, Partech said.

Growth startups have typically attained stability on product and customer focus after a few rounds of fundraising. A number of them — Flutterwave, OPay, Andela, and M-Kopa — are Africa’s most funded startups. But “​​growth stage tickets are mostly driven by large global VC players,” Tidjane Deme, general partner at Partech, told Semafor Africa. The withdrawal of those big-ticket firms like Tiger Global, Softbank, and affiliates of Sequoia Capital, resulted in a hit on African growth startups, he said.

“Most of these global investors retrenched and focused only on their existing portfolio, driving reduction in the pricing and volume of growth-stage deals,” Lexi Novitske, partner at Africa-focused firm Norrsken22, told Semafor Africa. It is unlikely that Tiger Global or Softbank will invest in Africa in the next 12 months because those firms are now conservative, investing in “sub sectors and geographies they have an expertise in and where there is a more liquid market for big $1billion-plus exits,” Novitske said.

However, the drop in growth stage funding reflects a global trend not unique to Africa and is “an expected market correction after the unusual highs of recent years,” says Eloho Omame, partner at Lagos and Nairobi-based firm TLcom Capital. As part of this correction, startups — many of whom raised money at huge valuations — could need more time to grow from early to growth stage, as investors raise the bar on diligence and outcomes. “Fostering solid fundamentals and scalability is good for company-building and value creation in venture,” she told Semafor Africa.

— Alexander Onukwue

Semafor’s 2024 World Economy Summit, on April 17-18, will feature conversations with global policymakers and power brokers in Washington, against the backdrop of the IMF and World Bank meetings.

Chaired by former U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker and Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein, and in partnership with BCG, the summit will feature 150 speakers across two days and three different stages, including the Gallup Great Hall. Join Semafor for conversations with the people shaping the global economy.

Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader calls it quits

Zimbabwean opposition leader Nelson Chamisa, who came a close second in the country’s August 2023 election won by President Emerson Mnangagwa, has quit the Citizens for Coalition Change (CCC) party.

He lost control of the CCC, the main opposition party, after its members of parliament were recalled by a party associate named Songezo Tshabangu, just two months after August’s general election. Tshabangu had declared himself interim party secretary general.

Chamisa, whose parliamentarians lost numerous court cases contesting the recalls, said on Thursday that he was leaving the troubled opposition party. “Fellow citizens, this is to officially and under my hand inform you that with immediate effect I no longer have anything to do with CCC,” he said. The recalls triggered a raft of by-elections in December, with more due in February.

Close associates of the opposition politician on Thursday said he was forming a new party to battle Mnangagwa whom he has repeatedly alleged stole last year’s election.

Dr Pedzisai Ruhanya, director of local think-tank group the Zimbabwe Democracy Institute (ZDI), said opposition followers were likely to jump over to Chamisa’s new party as the CCC had been infiltrated by the state. However, political researcher Alexander Rusero said the “dissolution of the CCC” through the resignation of Chamisa had effectively “put to rest conspiracies of a Zanu PF hand.”

Mnangagwa’s ruling Zanu PF has, however, already gained control of some of the seats left vacant after the recalls of Chamisa’s parliamentarians following last month’s subsequent by-elections.

— Tawanda Karombo in Harare, Zimbabwe

🇳🇬 U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday said the United States was committed to supporting security efforts in stabilizing the Sahel region. Blinken, speaking in Nigeria after a meeting with President Bola Tinubu, touted the U.S. as the best partner in fighting insurgents and promoting democracy in the region. He accused Russia’s Wagner mercenary group of exploiting coup-hit and conflict-hit nations in the Sahel region. Blinken is on a four-nation African tour to strengthen bilateral relations.

🇨🇮 Côte d’Ivoire successfully raised $2.6 billion through the issuance of two bonds that drew interest from more than 400 investors, the finance ministry said on Tuesday. It was the country’s first dollar bonds in almost seven years and generated an order book exceeding $8 billion — the highest order level ever recorded by a sovereign in West Africa. The funds will primarily be used to repurchase and refinance the country’s existing eurobonds, as well as international bank loans, the ministry added.

🇲🇿 Mozambique approved a 25-year extension for the operation of its largest port by a group including Emirates-based DP World, South Africa’s Grindrod, and Mozambique’s state-owned ports and railways operator. The deal will allow them to continue running the port until 2058. The deal also involves investments of nearly $1.1 billion by 2033 to expand the port, in the capital Maputo, which in recent years has drawn cargo away from neighboring South Africa which has struggled with logistics problems.

🇰🇪 Kenya says it has struck “large deposits” of coltan, a mineral used in the production of smartphones and laptops among other devices. The country’s mining minister said deposits have been discovered in six counties in central and northern Kenya and plans are under way to ramp up exploration and testing. Kenya hopes the discovery will boost mining’s contribution to its economy, which is largely anchored on agriculture, services and manufacturing. About 80% of the world’s supply of coltan is currently found in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The U.K. is set to lend Ghana some of the Asante gold artifacts it looted from the country about 150 years ago, the BBC reports. London’s Victoria & Albert Museum and the British Museum will send 17 and 15 pieces respectively under the three-year loan deals, with an option to extend for a further three years. The items, which include a sword of state and gold badges worn by officials charged with cleansing the soul of the Asante king, will reportedly go on display at the Manhyia Palace Museum in Kumasi city. The deal is between U.K. and Otumfo Osei Tutu II, the current Asante king. The V&A’s director Tristram Hunt said the arrangement is not a permanent return of ownership to Ghana, but insisted that it “is not restitution by the back door.” Some British national museums are banned by law from permanently giving back contested items in their collections.

• The feud between Netanyahu and Qatar goes public.
• The Republican National Committee chair urges Nikki Haley to end her presidential bid.
• Exxon’s latest shareholder lawsuit marks the end of the ESG era.

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— Yinka, Alexis, Alexander Onukwue, Martin Siele, and Muchira Gachenge