Africa

1. Growth with hardship
2. Filling the void
3. Visa requirements
4. Debutant voters
5. Courting creditors

Also, Cape Town is on track to join the elite marathon circuit.

Nigeria’s growth amid hardship

Nigeria’s economy grew by 3.46% in the third quarter, surpassing expectations and marking the highest quarterly growth rate since the end of 2023.

The services sector grew by 5.19%, contributing more than half of the recorded gross domestic product for the period. The agriculture sector underperformed on its output last year but the industry sector improved by nearly half a percentage point.

After rising steadily for over a year, Nigeria’s inflation rate fell in July and August, before climbing up again to 33.88% last month.

The latest growth figure would be welcome news for the government but a sense of hardship persists in the country. A recent survey by the statistics office found two-thirds of Nigerian households reported being “unable to eat healthy, nutritious or preferred foods because of lack of money in the last 30 days.”

— Alexander Onukwue in Lagos

African tech investors look to fill funding gap

African investors say they are stepping up to fill the region’s startup funding gap created by many US venture capital firms who have stayed away in the last two years.

African startups are on track to raise a smaller sum in 2024 than a year ago, according to data by Africa: The Big Deal. The 2023 total was 37% down from the record high of the previous year. US investors created a “bubble” in the era of low interest rates but valuations have reset, said Kola Aina, founding partner at Ventures Platform.

Funds announced this year by TLcom Capital, Verod-Kepple Africa Ventures, Partech Africa, and Janngo Capital mean there is more than half a billion dollars that African startups can access. Aina said he knew of “two or three” other funds that may be announced in the coming weeks.

Rating African visa requirements

African countries have cut back the number of routes within the continent that require other Africans to seek a visa before setting off on their journey. The latest African Visa Openness Index by the African Development Bank shows that 47% of intra-Africa travel routes demand a visa before traveling, compared with more than half in 2016. Benin, Seychelles, Rwanda and the Gambia are the only countries that do not require visas from any African travellers, but 29 countries require a visa ahead of travel from citizens of at least half the continent’s 54 countries. Kenya, whose revised visa rules require online verification, slumped 17 places on the index’s ranking to number 46.

Côte d’Ivoire prepares for new voters

The number of first-time voters added to Côte d’Ivoire’s electoral roll as the country prepares for the October 2025 presidential election, the electoral commission announced last week following a census. The final electoral list is due to be published in June 2025. The world’s largest cocoa producer, widely regarded as the economic powerhouse of the French-speaking West Africa region, last held a presidential election in 2020, in which the incumbent President Alassane Ouattara secured a controversial third term. That election was largely boycotted by the opposition candidates.

Zimbabwe plots return to capital markets

Zimbabwe has laid out economic, governance and land management policies to its creditors in the hope it will pave the way for a return to international capital markets.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa presented the plans on Monday at a debt conference in Harare. The proposals include a $331 million package to compensate white farmers whose ranches were seized in 2000.

Zimbabwe’s debt currently stands at $21 billion — around 81% of GDP. This is made up of $13 billion in external debt and $8 billion owed to local lenders. The weakening of its recently introduced gold-backed currency has compounded the country’s long-running economic woes.

African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina, in his role as Zimbabwe’s chief debt negotiator, said he wants to secure a restructuring deal for Zimbabwe before his term ends next August.

— Martin K.N Siele

Semafor has announced Carlyle Co-Chairman David Rubenstein, Citadel Founder & CEO Ken Griffin, former US Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, and KKR Co-Chairman Henry Kravis as Co-Chairs of the World Economy Summit on April 23-25, 2025.

Their participation reflects the extraordinary prestige of this unique event in Washington, D.C., which brings together US Cabinet officials, global finance ministers, central bankers and Fortune 500 CEOs for conversations that cut through the political noise to dive into the most pressing issues facing the world economy.

Governance

🇲🇱 Mali’s military government last week appointed its spokesperson Abdoulaye Maiga as prime minister. His predecessor was fired after criticizing the junta for its failure to organize elections.

Tech

🇧🇯 🇨🇬 Telecom group MTN rolled out 5G in Benin and Congo Brazzaville, raising the number of countries in which it has launched the technology to six since debuting in South Africa in 2020.

Health

🇿🇲 Zambia signed an agreement with China’s JIJIA International Company for the manufacturing of a cholera vaccine.

Deals

🇿🇦 The CEO of South African property group Attacq said it plans to spend $1.1 billion to develop its flagship Waterfall City commercial hub on the outskirts of Johannesburg. It followed a deal with the Government Employees Pension Fund which owns a 30% stake in an Attacq subsidiary.

🇲🇼 Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet, a New York-based green energy group, and Malawi’s government began constructing a 20 MW battery energy storage system in the capital Lilongwe with a $20 million grant from the group.

🇿🇦 Asset manager Ninety One raised $260 million for the first close of its Africa Credit Opportunities 3 fund, with the International Finance Corporation, British International Investment, and the Swiss Investment Fund for Emerging Markets as lead investors.

🇿🇦 South African grocery retailer Pick n Pay said on Monday that it had raised 8.5 billion rand ($471 million) after selling 157.4 million shares of its discount chain Boxer in an initial public offering.

Geopolitics

🇷🇼 🇬🇳 Rwanda signed an agreement to modernize and digitize Guinea’s public procurement system to promote transparency, efficiency, and digital transformation, authorities from both nations said.

🇳🇪 The European Union said on Saturday that it would recall its ambassador to Niger after the West African nation’s ruling junta demanded an audit of aid funds, accusing the EU ambassador of misappropriating a 1.3 million euro ($1.36 million) fund meant to assist flood victims.

Cape Town could become the first African city to join the global elite marathon circuit, with the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon. Following an assessment in October, the Cape Town Marathon was last week approved to proceed to the second stage of the candidacy process in its bid to join the Abbott World Marathon Majors. The marathon will be required to meet various criteria when it hosts its next edition in October next year. If successful, the Cape Town marathon would officially join the majors in 2026. There are currently just seven major marathons in the world — New York, Tokyo, London, Boston, Chicago, Berlin, and Sydney.

Corporate executives have tasked their handlers with the job of transforming them into podcast-friendly figures by seeking out eclectic YouTubers and right-leaning online comic chat show hosts who can spread their message, Semafor’s Max Tani and Ben Smith reported. The shift is an acknowledgement that the public relations business has at times been slow to prepare itself for a world in which mainstream news outlets aren’t the only ones influencing public opinion, they wrote.

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