Africa Confidential
The cost of borrowing for African countries rose by a staggering 91% between 2020 and 2024, according to a report published on 15 April by the ONE Campaign. It says suggests that by 2024 African countries were paying 5.1% interest across all creditors, up...
Africa Confidential
Ethiopia has become the latest African country to roll out the red carpet for investors – and it appears to be paying off. In March, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government announced a 10-year ‘golden visa’ for investors prepared to inject at least US$10,0...
Africa Confidential
Dozens of African farm workers die each year from exposure to hazardous chemicals that are banned in the EU but used to make products that are then sold into Europe. That was the picture presented to a European Parliament committee on 18 March by a South ...
Africa Confidential
The effects of the United States and Israel’s war on Iran are multiplying as the conflict spreads across the region hitting both economic and political targets. The first blows on Africa were economic. The resulting spike in oil prices will spark inflatio...
Africa Confidential
Fiscal pressures more than green energy ambitions are tilting Ethiopia’s transport system towards electric vehicles. Since 2024, the share of EVs in Ethiopia has risen from 1% to 6% – the global average is 4%. To cut oil imports, the Addis Ababa governmen...
Africa Confidential
Africa did not escape the reach of Jeffrey Epstein, the human trafficker, sex offender, financier and intelligence asset according to the three million pages of emails published by the United States Department of Justice this week.The cache of documents i...
Africa Confidential
A leaked email to staff by Nick Checker, the head of the United States State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs, in which he urges staff to trumpet the ‘generosity’ of the American people despite the Trump administration’s decision to shutter USAID, ...
Africa Confidential
The reshaping of the international system – reflecting a shift of global power eastwards and the west’s reaction to it – will intensify in 2026, adding to the pressure on African states. The growing economic influence and military power of the Gulf States...
Africa Confidential
Raising capital was the first major challenge facing Sidi Ould Tah, president of the African Development Bank (AfDB), when he was elected in May. Part of Ould Tah’s appeal was his previous role as head of the Banque Arabe pour le Développement Économique ...
Africa Confidential
As Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame and Congo-Kinshasa’s Félix Tshisekedi prepared their smiles for the cameras at the signing of their peace agreement in the White House on 4 December, it was hard to disguise the bad blood in the air. Congolese diplomats,...