Blue Lines
Caught between a more slowly growing China and the nationalist and
protectionist reflexes of President Donald
Trump's United States
government, Africa is in pressing need of an economic boost. Last year
marked a harsh coda to the commodity boom, with the ...
Patrick Smith
This week we have a whistle-stop tour of international meetings, negotiations and even court cases. We start with the spring meetings of the Bretton Woods institutions in Washington, and then on to South Africa, reeling from a ratings agency downgrade. Ou...
Blue Lines
Among the most stubborn collateral damage wrought by the West's
financial crisis of 2008 was the cutting of international credit lines
to Africa. The initial rationale for severing the lines was knee-jerk
and computational: if Western banks and ratings ag...
Patrick Smith
This week we start in Milan, Italy, where the state prosecutor is to open preliminary hearings on two multinational oil companies accused of massive corporate fraud in Nigeria's oil industry. Then to Nairobi where a committee of the opposition alliance ha...
Patrick Smith
Again, we start in the week in South Africa as the country and its
politicians react to President Jacob
Zuma's sacking of Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan. A different level of
power play is going on in Abuja where the head of Nigeria's anti-corruption
org...
Blue Lines
The verdict from the Tahrir Square generation that took to the
streets
in January 2011 to such dramatic effect was clear and concise. 'Mubarak
is on the asphalt, the youths are in prison,' an activist known as 'Mohamed 303' tweeted on hearing the
news tha...
Patrick Smith
We start in Pretoria, from where South
Africa's Finance Minister Pravin
Gordhan has just been summoned to return from London, sparking
more speculation
that President Jacob Zuma is
about to sack him. And then to Zimbabwe
which
is, despite the political ru...
Patrick Smith
This week we start in the spa town of Baden-Baden, Germany, where the finance ministers of the world's 20 richest countries have been meeting. They spent part of their time discussing a set of investment deals in Africa. Then to Pretoria, the political ca...
Blue Lines
The announcement this week by the United Nations that over 13 million
people in Africa face starvation in what it calls the biggest
humanitarian crisis since the Second World War is a reminder of
continuing failures in food production across the continent...
Patrick Smith
This week has more than its fair share of policy announcements as governments do battle with the effects of the sluggish global economy. We start with the homecoming of President Muhammadu Buhari to Abuja via Kaduna air base and expectations that he will...
