Africa

1. Ethio Telecom’s IPO
2. Kenya to overtake Ethiopia
3. Reframing Africa
4. DRC, Rwanda peace plan
5. Nigeria fund targets women
6. Ebola over in Uganda
7. The Week Ahead

Ghana’s first genetically modified crop.

The consensus emerging among policymakers, business leaders, and development banks is that Africa’s private sector needs to take on a bigger role in driving growth across the continent. It will also need to play a key role in buttressing the continent’s economies against the volatility caused by Washington’s trade policies and the overhaul of its development funding, policymakers and bankers told me last week at Semafor’s World Economy Summit.

The International Monetary Fund, in its most recent regional outlook for the continent, warned that sub-Saharan Africa is “still acutely vulnerable to external shocks, especially to commodity prices and funding flows,” against the backdrop of uncertainty around Washington’s policy agenda. The IMF stressed that, amid fiscal constraints, “the private sector will need to do much of the heavy lifting — not only in creating high-quality jobs, but also in responding swiftly to unexpected shocks.”

But the continent’s businesses face a raft of challenges, not least high interest rates, which means many struggle to service their debts — a point the head of the World Bank’s private investment arm raised with me when we spoke this month. That makes private equity investments more appealing for many African businesses.

I’m in Lagos this week to attend the annual African Private Capital Association (AVCA) conference where I’ll be gauging investor appetite, finding out which sectors are taking off, and learning about innovations aimed at attracting private investment. If you’re in town, I’d love to hear from you.

Ethio Telecom’s lackluster IPO

Ethiopia’s state-owned Ethio Telecom sold only 10.7% of shares in its initial public offering aimed at boosting investment in the country’s struggling economy.

The mobile operator raised 3.2 billion Ethiopian birr ($24.5 million) from the 47,377 investors who took part in the IPO, a small fraction of the $240 million it had hoped to drum up, despite extending the deadline.

Ethio Telecom now says it will look at a second round of sales aimed at attracting foreign investors, admitting that a decision to only offer shares to Ethiopian citizens last year had not worked.

Kenya to overtake Ethiopia in E. Africa

Kenya is set to surpass Ethiopia as East Africa’s biggest economy this year, according to the International Monetary Fund. The IMF estimates Kenya’s GDP will reach $132 billion, overtaking Ethiopia’s projected $117 billion, after the Ethiopian currency was devalued last year. The move — which saw the birr depreciate more than 55% against the dollar — allowed Addis Ababa to unlock billions of dollars in loans from the IMF and World Bank as well as restructure its external debt. Kenya, meanwhile, saw its shilling appreciate by 21% in 2024, becoming the world’s best-performing currency.

Reframing an optimistic Africa

Projecting a singular narrative of Africa as a story of opportunity could help unlock the continent’s potential, the executive director of advocacy group Africa No Filter argues in a new Semafor column.

“We’ve been warned about the danger of a single story, but I would argue that maybe that’s not such a bad thing if that single story was deliberate,” writes Moky Makura. Perception of the continent today is “fragmented … caught between images from charity campaigns, wildlife, Afrobeats, and emerging market potential,” she says. Instead, Makura argues for reframing stories around opportunity, focusing on three sectors where countries hold a natural advantage — the creative, digital, and green economies. “Opportunity is a framing that doesn’t sugarcoat the continent. On the contrary, it exposes both its challenges and its immense potential.”

DRC, Rwanda agree to draft peace deal

DR Congo and Rwanda agreed at a US-brokered ceremony in Washington to draft a peace deal by Friday, as part of diplomatic efforts to end the fighting in eastern Congo between Kinshasa and Kigali-backed rebels. The foreign ministers of both African countries signed an agreement at the tense meeting, during which they did not shake hands, Al Jazeera reported.

The move came after Qatar brokered an unexpected truce between the two nations last week. The US has also played a key role, with Kinshasa offering Washington access to its minerals in exchange for help in ending the conflict: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio hosted the recent signing and the text of the agreement says both sides now expect significant investments facilitated by the US government and private sector. On Monday the Financial Times reported that KoBold Metals, a mining startup backed by Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, is expanding into DR Congo. Around 3,000 people have been killed since the longstanding conflict escalated in January, displacing around 7 million more.

Nigeria fund targets women

Lagos-based investor Aruwa Capital raised $35 million for a fund aimed at increasing bets on African businesses founded and run by women.

The firm, which writes checks of up to $3 million per investment, particularly hopes to carve a niche by tapping into “a very strong arbitrage opportunity,” taking advantage of the limited investor competition in Africa’s women, Adesuwa Okunbo Rhodes, Aruwa Capital’s founder, told Semafor.

Aruwa raised its first fund in 2022, deploying a $20 million pool in nearly a dozen businesses across fintech, health, and e-commerce logistics in Nigeria. For its second fund, the firm hopes to eventually raise $50 million by the end of this year, with Mastercard Foundation Africa Growth Fund, Visa Foundation, and British International Investment already signed on as investors.

Funding African businesses remains compelling and appealing for global investors with “relatively cheap valuations compared to other markets,” Okunbo Rhodes said.

— Alexander Onukwue

Uganda Ebola outbreak over

Uganda declared an end to its latest Ebola outbreak, three months after officials confirmed cases of the deadly disease. The health ministry said Uganda had gone more than 40 days without registering a new case. Ebola cases are frequent in Uganda, where the highly contagious virus thrives in its many tropical forests, and which borders the DR Congo, where the disease is also common. Earlier this year, the African Development Bank tapped funding to boost pandemic preparedness on the continent, where gaps in health care have been “exposed by the Covid-19 pandemic and other health crises,” an AfDB official said.

The Week Ahead

• Apr. 28-May 2: The annual African Private Capital Association (AVCA) conference and Venture Capital Summit takes place in Lagos.
• Apr. 29: South Africa publishes data on international tourism for March.
• Apr. 29: Nigeria’s statistics agency to launch pilot of improved food price tracker.
• Apr. 30: Africa Fintech Live, a gathering of financial technology experts, takes place in Nairobi.
• May 2: The 83rd Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human & Peoples’ Rights begins in The Gambia.

Business & Macro

🇧🇫 Burkina Faso granted a gold mining license for a 20-mile deposit to Nordgold, a Russian miner that already operates two mines in the country, in a move to deepen ties between the junta-led government and Russia.

🇦🇴 Angola may seek an IMF loan if oil prices drop to $45, setting off a need for a supplementary budget, its finance minister said.

Climate & Energy

🇳🇬 Sahara Group, a Nigeria-focused energy company, signed a 20-year sales and purchase agreement with Mexican firm Amigo LNG to export the latter’s liquefied natural gas products through Asia and Latin America.

Geopolitics & Policy

🇬🇦 Gabon’s constitutional court ratified General Brice Nguema, who seized power through a coup, as the winner of the presidential elections held in April.

🇹🇿 Tanzania lifted a retaliatory ban it imposed on farm produce from Malawi and South Africa to allow for a diplomatic resolution to their disputes.

Tech & Deals

🇬🇭 Majorel, a Meta contractor in Ghana, is set to face lawsuits from employees who allege “shocking abuses” amid insufficient mental health care in the course of performing content moderation work for the tech company.

🇳🇬 Nigeria-based e-commerce logistics startup OmniRetail raised $20 million in a round led by Norway’s development financier Norfund, and Timon Capital.

Ghana’s first genetically modified crop is resistant to one of its biggest enemies, new research found. Songotra-T, a GM variety of the indigenous sub-Saharan crop cowpea, was approved for commercial release in Ghana last year. It came to fruition after nearly 20 years of work by scientists trying to develop a variety resistant to an insect called the legume pod borer. Recent field trials in Ghana found that the GM cowpea achieved a higher yield than three conventional varieties and reduced the need to use insecticides by 80%. The results show “the potential of biotechnology to enhance agricultural productivity,” researchers wrote in The Conversation.

FedEx CEO Raj Subramaniam likes to say that his company connects 99% of the world’s GDP, giving it “a catbird’s seat” perspective on the global flow of goods amid an escalating trade war. But that view is increasingly cloudy, he cautioned.

“So far, things are okay, but I can’t tell you what happens next week,” Subramaniam told Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson at Semafor’s World Economy Summit. But the FedEx boss said he’s confident the shipping giant will “manage through” these “increasing operational complexities.”

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