Africa

1. Trump eyes DRC minerals
2. Measuring GEP, not GDP
3. Africa’s motorization
4. Investing in breweries
5. The Week Ahead

Inscribing a southern African language into an Oxford University building.

Trump to appoint key DRC envoy

US President Donald Trump is set to name his daughter’s father-in-law as his special envoy for the Great Lakes region in East Africa, according to two people familiar with the plans. It comes as DR Congo, which is in the grip of one of Africa’s biggest conflicts, looks to strike a critical minerals deal with Washington.

Lebanon-born businessman Massad Boulos, whose son Michael is married to Trump’s daughter Tiffany, was appointed as Trump’s senior adviser for Arab Affairs in December. Boulos, who worked in his family’s Nigeria-based motor vehicle distribution company early in his career, is expected to receive security and diplomatic clearances as early as this week and could visit the Congolese capital Kinshasa and Rwanda’s capital Kigali later this month, said one of the people. The White House did not respond to inquiries ahead of publication.

DR Congo is home to minerals that are key to producing electric vehicles and smartphones. Its armed forces are battling the rebel group M23 in eastern DR Congo. Kinshasa says the group is siphoning out valuable minerals with Rwanda’s backing, which Kigali denies.

Measuring Africa’s natural wealth

Africa could reshape its economic standing if it measured its wealth by Gross Ecosystem Product (GEP) instead of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the former head of Gabon’s sovereign wealth fund argues in a column for Semafor.

GDP has long been the metric by which the world measures economic success, rewarding activities that generate immediate financial returns. But Africa’s wealth encompasses far more if you include its natural capital — such as forests, wetlands, and biodiversity — valued at over $6 trillion, wrote Akim Daouda, the founder of Mwaana, a public-benefit company mobilizing capital for nature-based solutions in the Congo Basin.

“African countries integrating GEP into their economic analyses could reshape global finance,” he said, adding that debt negotiations, investment decisions, and credit ratings would look different if natural capital was properly valued. “Instead of being forced to extract resources for revenue, countries could use ecosystem services as financial leverage.”

Africa’s growing vehicle fleet

Africa’s vehicle fleet could double by 2050, according to a new report. The continent’s “motorization,” currently among the lowest in the world, is also among the fastest-growing. Most purchases are of low-cost used cars imported from overseas, so more drivers means worse air quality and a greater reliance on unaffordable fuel imports, a report from the think tank Energy for Growth Hub argued. There’s a major opportunity to increase the share of EVs in vehicle adoption, but this will only happen if financial institutions get more creative about payment options and governments invest more in EV infrastructure, the report said.

Investing in breweries

The amount that French malt producer Soufflet plans to invest in building a new factory in South Africa to supply Heineken’s brewery in the country. Soufflet will source its barley from local farmers, and the factory — which is expected to open in 2027 and will be the company’s second in Africa — will be sited close to an existing Heineken plant near Johannesburg. Both companies have agreed similar plans for Heineken’s operations in Brazil and India, Reuters reported.

The Week Ahead

• Mar. 11: Ghana’s budget is presented.
• Mar. 12: South Africa’s postponed budget is scheduled to be unveiled.
• Mar. 13: South Africa and the EU attend a summit in Cape Town.
• Mar. 14: Botswana releases inflation data.

In a polarized world, where do people find their happiness? Semafor, in partnership with Gallup and in coordination with the World Happiness Report editorial team, will present the latest data and insights at The State of Happiness in 2025: A World Happiness Report Launch Event, exploring key themes around kindness, generosity, and policies that enhance well-being.

Business & Macro

🇧🇼 Australian miner BHP will acquire a 75% stake in the Botswana projects of its competitor Cobre. BHP will provide Cobre with $25 million to fund exploration activities, as part of the deal.

🇨🇫 The UAE and the Central African Republic signed a trade deal, cutting nearly all tariffs on goods with a view to reaching $1 billion in trade within seven years.

Climate & Energy

🇳🇬 Nigeria’s House of Representatives reached an agreement with seven oil companies to settle debts of $37 million by August this year, part of a process of plugging “long-standing revenue leakages” in the oil and gas sector, a spokesman for the legislature said.

Geopolitics & Policy

🇿🇦 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will visit South Africa on April 10 for talks with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa aimed at forging “a path to peace” with Russia.

🇸🇩 Baykar, Turkey’s largest defense firm, which is co-owned by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s son-in-law, has secretly sent weapons and drones to Sudan to support its war efforts, according to documents reviewed by The Washington Post.

🇸🇸 The US State Department ordered its non-emergency staff in South Sudan to leave, after fighting between an armed group and the country’s army that led to the arrests of some government officials.

🇰🇪 Kenyan police fired tear gas to disperse protesters who tried to occupy a church that was recently given a $155,000 donation by President William Ruto. Demonstrators are angry about the donation at a time of rising costs.

Tech & Deals

🌍 Africa saw a record 21 internet shutdowns in 15 countries last year, according to digital rights groups Access Now and #KeepItOn, with governments, militias, and non-state actors being the typical perpetrators.

🇳🇬 Drone company Zipline is exploring an expansion in Nigeria to five additional states, following last year’s agreement with the government for the company to play a central role in distributing medical products around the country.

The southern African language ǀxam has been carved into a stone parapet at Oxford University. A statement “honouring the labour and suffering of those who worked to create this wealth” is a response to the contested legacy of the 19th-century British imperialist Cecil Rhodes, two literary scholars wrote in The Conversation. ǀxam — now considered a sleeping language, as it is no longer used by any group as a mother tongue — was spoken until the early 1900s. The new carving “signifies resistance to the takeover, control and possession of other lands and people that underpinned the colonial project,” the scholars wrote.

Key figures in American tech have softened their support for H-1B visas after a revolt from President Donald Trump’s MAGA base, Semafor’s Reed Albergotti reported.

“We have been in a 60-year social engineering experiment to exclude native-born people from the educational slots and jobs that high-skill immigration has been funneling foreigners into,” tech investor Marc Andreessen said on a podcast last month.

Yes, the program is “rife with abuse,” wrote Albergotti — it’s also an open question how the US competes without it.

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— Alexis Akwagyiram, Preeti Jha, Alexander Onukwue, and Yinka Adegoke.