Africa

Later this evening (U.S. hours) there’ll be an American football match in the midst of some of the most expensive commercials ever aired during the NFL’s Super Bowl extravaganza. Notably, one NFL promo commercial was shot in Accra, Ghana as part of a wider push by the league to perhaps persuade Africa there’s another type of football that’s just as exciting a spectacle as, well…football.

A teaser of the campaign tagged ‘Born to Play’ shows a young schoolboy staying up late to watch a game, his bedroom a galaxy of posters and cut-out figures of pro players. Saquon Barkley, a running back for the New York Giants, comes alive from the wall to chat with young Kwesi. Dawn brings a game-like running sequence that involves two other pro players rumbling through Accra’s busy Makola market, ending with doing the Azonto dance with Kwesi. It also features Justin Jefferson of the Minnesota Vikings, and Cameron Jordan of the New Orleans Saints.

With an estimated 125 players of African descent playing in the NFL, the campaign continues the league’s push to broaden appeal and “building pathways for more international athletes to play in the NFL,” a league executive said last year. In 2022, the league held its first official Africa events in Ghana, featuring camps and flag football. It followed up with another last year in Kenya under an ‘NFL Africa’ program that will be a “long-term, multi-market commitment.”

The 58th Super Bowl between the San Francisco 49ers and the Kansas City Chiefs could eclipse last year’s haul of 115.1 million viewers to become the most watched in history. It’s a prospect that has seen advertisers shell out up to $7 million on average to secure a 30-second spot.

— Alexander Onukwue

How AFCON’s global visibility skyrocketed

THE NEWS

Nearly 2 billion people watched the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) 2023 over the past month, according to Patrick Motsepe, president of the Confederation of African Football, at a press conference in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

Analysts say the AFCON’s global viewership, online engagement and commercial revenue are all expected to grow significantly compared to previous editions thanks to expanded broadcast rights and media coverage, an uptick in commercial partnerships, and the impact of social media. Matches were aired in around 180 countries spread over multiple deals with partner broadcasters including Sky, Canal+, beIN Sport, BBC and MultiChoice, as well as 45 Free To Air broadcasters.

London-based market research firm GlobalData estimates that CAF will earn around $75 million in sponsorship revenue from this year’s AFCON. This year’s AFCON had 17 commercial partners including title sponsor TotalEnergies, 1xBet, Orange and Unilever.

James Torvaney, managing director of Africa-focused sports media group Pulse Sports, told Semafor Africa that there were “far more deals and far more coverage (of AFCON) than there ever has been before.”

Social media, particularly TikTok, Twitter and Instagram, also helped drive visibility for teams, brands and federations alike, according to new data by sports market intelligence platform #AfricaScores.

UK-based sports data company Opta crowned it “the most exciting AFCON ever”, noting that the goals-per-game rate of 2.47 in the group stages was the highest in 15 years.

MARTIN’S VIEW

CAF, which hired sports marketing powerhouse IMG to secure its global broadcast deals and corporate sponsorships, deserves credit for making it easier for fans around the world to engage with AFCON. The success of this year’s AFCON will not only attract more sponsors and broadcasters to future editions, but also put CAF in position to negotiate bigger, more lucrative commercial agreements.

“Right now there’s a way to watch AFCON anywhere in the world, that wasn’t always the case,” said Ndeye Diarra Diobaye, founder of #AfricaScores.

Hosts Côte d’Ivoire, who reportedly spent $1 billion to host the tournament, are the other big winners, regardless of how it goes for the Elephants in the final against Nigeria’s Super Eagles. The country’s ambitions to boost itself as a finance, tourism, and culture hub would benefit from a memorable AFCON.

Much more, however, needs to be done for AFCON’s viewership and revenues to match or surpass continental competitions such as the Euros. Large swaths of empty seats during some matches remind long-time watchers of the limited access fans have had to tickets during this tournament. The situation has been blamed on bulk ticket purchases.

Even when the tickets were easily available there’s also the logistical and cost challenges for fans from other countries to make it halfway across the continent. Torvaney suggested that it is essential to make intra-African travel more convenient and affordable for fans to follow their teams around the continent, and for CAF to pursue opportunities in streaming.

Lastly, for the vast majority of fans watching at home across Africa, and around the world, confusion surrounding media agreements, some of which were sealed just days before the tournament could undermine global visibility of future tournaments. These will all need to be addressed pretty quickly ahead of next year’s tournament.

Here’s a face we haven’t seen for a little while, former DR Congo president Joseph Kabila. He recently had his doctoral dissertation approved by the University of Johannesburg for his research titled “Geopolitical Turn: USA-China-Russia rivalry and Implications for Africa.” Kabila, who is his country’s only living former president, served for 18 years from 2001 to 2019, and made key decisions that continue to shape the country’s economic trajectory to date.

Notably, his government entered a $6.2 billion minerals-for-infrastructure pact with China in 2007, which included a venture called Sicomines to explore cobalt and copper deposits. Last week the government of President Felix Tshisekedi, a long time critic of the deal, announced it had mostly unraveled that agreement and would be receiving up to $7 billion in financing. Sicomines said the new deal will give DRC’s state-miner Gecamines a 1.2% royalty of Sicomines earnings and the right to market 32% of its output.

🇬🇧 More West African restaurants with a wider reach have opened up in upmarket parts of London raising awareness of these cuisines, writes Toyo Odetunde for Condé Nast Traveller. Odetunde notes that these restaurants are moving beyond traditional migrant community neighborhoods as Londoners branch out and are more frequently treating their taste buds to the subregion’s diverse flavors.

🇨🇩 The UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld, who died in a plane crash in 1961, was one of the architects of the Congo crisis that led to the removal and murder of the country’s first leader, Patrice Lumumba, writes Ludo De Witte in Review of African Political Economy. De Witte explains that although Hammarskjöld, the only Nobel Peace Prize laureate to have received the award posthumously has been portrayed as a hero, he fully supported the secession of Katanga province when he led a peacekeeping force in the country.

🇬🇭 Ghana is determined to preserve and showcase its rich cultural history with world-renowned artists including Ibrahim Mahama, El Anatsui and Amoako Boafo, and as a center of restitution discourses. For the New York Times, Grace Linden explores Ghana’s contemporary art scene and how the global attention in recent years has impacted it.

🇺🇸 🌍 The United States should reauthorize its preferential trade program with Africa if it intends to compete with China on the continent, argues Carnegie’s Zainab Usman in the Financial Times. She adds that for the African Growth and Opportunity Act to succeed “it must be recast to advance American strategic interests in synergy with African development priorities.”

🇪🇹 Ethiopia’s cheap power and friendly relations with China are attracting Chinese Bitcoin mining firms in droves, making it one of the world’s top recipients of Bitcoin mining machines, David Pan and Fasika Tadesse report for Bloomberg. So far, 21 Bitcoin miners, all but two of them Chinese, have struck power supply deals with the state power monopoly owing to heavy power reliance when mining. But that could put miners in competition for electricity with factories and households, exposing them to political backlash, the authors explain.

🗓️ Nigeria’s ex-central bank governor Godwin Emefiele is scheduled to stand trial on fraud charges including obtaining $6.2 million under false pretenses. (Feb. 12)

🗓️ Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics is expected to release its latest inflation data. Food inflation has continued to spike across the country as widespread insecurity in food producing areas and exchange rate pressure continue to drive up prices. (Feb. 15)

🗓️ Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will visit Egypt on Thursday and Friday, where he will meet President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. He will proceed to Ethiopia, where he will participate in the African Union Summit. (Feb. 15-18)

🗓️ The 37th African Union Summit will take place in Addis Ababa. It will be attended by most of Africa’s leaders and heads of state. A 10-year plan that guides Africa’s development program will be approved. (Feb. 17-18)

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• A new U.S. congressional committee report accuses U.S. venture capital firms of backing blacklisted Chinese AI firms.

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