Africa Confidential
Raising capital was the main priority for the African Development Bank, said President Sidi Ould Tah when he took office last September, and he is using his first annual meeting in Brazzaville this week to try to rebuild the continent’s financing architec...
Africa Confidential
South Africa’s Constitutional Court has stripped away the procedural cover that had protected President Cyril Ramaphosa and resurrected the scandal over US$4 million in cash hidden under a sofa in his Phala Phala farmhouse. The court ruled that Parliament...
Africa Confidential
The decision by the United Arab Emirates to leave the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) on 28 April threatens the cartel more than at any time since its establishment five decades ago. It’s bad news for Africa’s oil-producing countr...
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, ...
