Africa

1. Rail funding
2. Niger’s oil boom
3. Carbon credit clashes
4. Crypto crackdown
5. Sickle cell breakthroughs

Also, the history of an earth-shattering breakup.

Hello! Welcome to Semafor Africa, where we’re deeply enamored with the wonders of modern medicine. The power of science was clear for all to see during the pandemic when a new breed of vaccines was rolled out. But those breakthroughs, followed by wealthy countries securing early access to vaccines, also highlighted the need to ensure African countries aren’t left behind.

A pioneering new gene-editing treatment for sickle cell, which I write about in this edition, is an important reminder. The breakthrough could provide a cure for the condition, which disproportionately affects Black people. But the treatment is, so far, only being rolled out in the US. In a separate development, a landmark drug offering a different form of treatment has been approved in the UK. It isn’t clear when these costly treatments will be accessible in African countries.

We need more cost effective solutions to ramp up access to medical innovations across Africa. And this is happening. We’ve reported on the drive to eliminate malaria, through genetically modified mosquitoes and mass vaccination programs. And a new vaccine patch, that was trialed in The Gambia and is the size of a plaster, offers hope. It uses microscopic needles to administer medicine and could be an effective, pain-free way to protect children against measles. It’s exactly the kind of innovation we need.

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Connecting East Africa’s railways

The amount of funding needed to extend a railway meant to simplify the transportation of goods across East Africa’s so-called Northern Corridor. The funding will help to link Kenya’s Standard Gauge Railway — which runs from the port of Mombasa and terminates in Naivasha — to the Kenyan border town of Malaba and Uganda’s capital of Kampala, before extending it further to Rwanda and South Sudan. Rwanda, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan on Friday joined Kenya and Uganda’s SGR joint ministerial committee and committed to mobilizing funds for the project by engaging development partners.

Niger joins Africa’s oil producer club

Niger is expected to export its first shipment of oil this month, part of a $400 million commodity-backed loan agreement with state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC). Under the loan agreement, Niger will send oil to China over 12 months as payment with a 7% interest rate. CNPC has already built a 1,200-mile pipeline to move oil from Niger to neighboring Benin, part of a $4.6 billion investment in Niger’s petroleum industry. The increased oil production is expected to help expand Niger’s economy by more than 12% this year, making it the fastest growing in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the World Bank. The loan is seen as a lifeline for Niger’s beleaguered military junta which took power in July last year. S&P Global Commodity Insights expects Niger to start shipping 90,000 barrels per day this month, and projects that number will reach 110,000. China is Niger’s “great friend,” said Prime Minister Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine. Niger has cut ties with former colonial administrator France, and long-time ally the US.

Kenya’s Maasai fight carbon project that sold credits to Meta, Netflix

NAIROBI — Members of Kenya’s Maasai pastoralist community are clashing with managers of a major carbon project, raising new concerns that international demand for carbon credits generated in Africa could have damaging consequences for local communities.

The Northern Kenya Rangelands Carbon Project (NKRCP), which describes itself as the world’s largest soil carbon removal project, has sold carbon credits to corporations including Meta, Netflix and UK bank NatWest. It restores and maintains grasslands to absorb carbon by managing the grazing patterns of livestock herds on the 4.7 million acres it covers. Absorbing carbon allows it to generate carbon credits, which can be purchased by corporations to compensate for their greenhouse gas emissions.

Many members of affected local communities say the project is disrupting their ways of life and denying them access to their ancestral land. Some also say it puts women at risk due to harsh work conditions in some areas.

Community activists working in Baringo, Narok and Kajiado counties in Kenya, where the project operates, told Semafor Africa that NKRCP had failed to undertake proper public participation or educate local communities, leading to complaints from members of affected communities and resistance to the project’s efforts to fence off land in some areas.

They claimed that the Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT), which runs the project, has failed to gain the informed consent of affected communities for the carbon project as is legally required, despite the NRT’s insistence that it has letters of consent.

NRT did not respond to Semafor Africa’s requests for comment by the time of publication.

Nigeria draws closer to resuming crypto trading ban

Nigerian fintech startups that provide online-only banking services have warned customers that trading cryptocurrency will lead to account closures, and have said they could report traders to law enforcement officials.

Lagos-based Moniepoint, whose digital banking operation is one of the largest in Nigeria, told customers on Monday that it would close crypto trading accounts in compliance with regulations by the Central Bank of Nigeria. OPay, the Chinese-backed digital banking provider that is one of Africa’s most valuable startups, sent a similarly worded warning to customers.

Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission held a meeting with local crypto exchanges on Monday to express “concerns regarding crypto peer-to-peer traders and their effect on the naira,” said the commission’s director-general Emomotimi Agama. Nigeria wants the naira currency to be delisted from trading platforms and crypto exchanges’ compliance with regulation that will be released “in the coming days,” he said.

It’s the latest episode in Nigeria’s clampdown on peer-to-peer crypto trading, in an apparent push to stabilize the naira that has weakened significantly since President Bola Tinubu took office a year ago. Nigerian officials have blamed crypto exchanges for encouraging inflated demand for the dollar against the naira.

— Alexander Onukwue in Lagos

Sickle cell treatment innovation is taking off

New treatments for sickle cell disease are being rolled out in the US and UK. This could have long term implications for treatment of the disease in Africa, where it is most prevalent. Of the more than half a million babies born with sickle cell in 2021, more than three-quarters were in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the Lancet medical journal.

A 12-year-old boy from Washington last week became the world’s first commercial patient to undergo gene-editing treatment that could cure the condition. Sickle cell is a genetic disorder that affects the shape of red blood cells, blocking the flow of blood. It can cause pain, organ damage, and stroke. Bone marrow transplants, which feature unwelcome side effects, have long been the primary treatment for the condition.

The boy was treated with Lyfgenia, one of two gene therapy treatments approved by the US Food and Drug Administration late last year. The treatments target the problematic gene in the bone marrow stem cells. Lyfgenia inserts modified genes into the body through disabled viruses.

In the UK, a new treatment for the disease has been recommended for use on the National Health Service in England. Voxelotor, a drug taken as a daily tablet, reduces the need for blood transfusions and therefore cuts hospital visits — a change described as “life changing” by people living with the condition.

— Alexis

Elections

🇹🇩 Chad held its presidential election on Monday in a bid to end three years of military rule. Interim president Mahamat Deby Itno is expected to win, analysts believe. About 8 million people in the oil-exporting country of nearly 18 million citizens had registered to vote in the largely peaceful election, with 10 candidates on the ballot.

🇲🇿 Mozambique’s ruling Frelimo party said it picked regional governor Daniel Chapo, 47, as its candidate for the Oct. 9 presidential election to succeed the outgoing President Filipe Nyusi.

🇹🇬 Togo’s ruling Union for the Republic party won a parliamentary majority in legislative elections held on April 29, the electoral commission announced on Saturday. The win follows the contested new constitution, which would allow President Faure Gnassingbé — in office since 2005 — to extend his time in power.

Deals

🌍 The European Investment Bank is considering an investment of $50 million in a fund by Quona Capital, a venture capital firm that has invested in over a dozen African startups.

🇲🇦 Africa-focused private equity firm Mediterrania Capital Partners exited its investment in TGCC, a construction and civil engineering company that is near €1 billion ($1.1 billion) in capitalization on the Moroccan Stock Exchange.

🇳🇬 Seamfix, a Nigerian digital identity startup, raised $4.5 million from Alithea IDF, an investment firm. It is the startup’s first institutional investment, which it hopes to drive expansion beyond Nigeria.

🇿🇦 Energy multinational Shell told the Daily Maverick it will exit its South African retail, transport and refining operations. The decision follows a business-wide review.

Governance

🇱🇷 Liberian President Joseph Boakai signed an executive order to create a long-awaited war crimes court to deliver justice to the victims of the country’s two civil wars. The wars killed an estimated 250,000 people between 1989 and 2003.

Geopolitics

🇰🇪 Kenya is preparing to deploy police officers to Haiti in a UN-backed security mission after several months of delays. Civilian contractors supporting the mission have already begun arriving in Haiti and the officers are expected to deploy later this month, reports the Miami Herald.

Tech

🇬🇭 Ghana will integrate its instant payments system with India’s Unified Payment Interface to enable direct bank transfers between residents in both countries.

🇰🇪 iProcure, a Kenyan agriculture logistics startup, was placed under administration over debt repayment and cash flow problems. It had raised about $17 million since launching in 2013.

🇿🇦 South Africa launched a military and defense-focused AI hub because the tech will lead to “a structural transformation in national security,” communications minister Mondli Gungubele said.

Ancient rocks and fossils from long-extinct marine reptiles found around Angola’s southern coast are strong evidence of a geological split between South America and Africa, and the subsequent formation of the southern Atlantic Ocean. This is according to a new study published in the journal Geological Society by a team of scientists from Southern Methodist University. The researchers analyzed rocks and fossils between 71 million and 130 million years old, and concluded that they were the most complete geological land record of the separation of the regions. South America and Africa were once connected in the ancient supercontinent called Gondwana, itself part of a larger landmass known as Pangea.

• YouTube star Mr. Beast breaks with management company.
• Ex-Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has a new mission in LA.
• Russia orders nuclear weapons drills to deter the West.

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