Your curated selection of weekly Africa business and investment headlines.
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Headlines
📸 Africa’s Top Uranium Reserves: Niger, Namibia and South Africa
🎦 Apple Suspends Minerals from DRC and Rwanda
📸 Nigeria Cornered the Market in Extreme Poverty
Africa
📰 Trump 2.0 Won’t Reverse Critical Minerals Push
It was then-President Trump who in 2020 declared the country's "undue reliance" on "foreign adversaries" for critical minerals a national emergency. Trump in his second presidency is unlikely to reverse the drive to metallic self-sufficiency. He may even prove to be an accelerator..… Read More
📸 Africa’s Top Uranium Reserves: Niger, Namibia and South Africa
📰 Ghana Blocks Pension Funds from Offshore Investment on Currency Concerns
Assets under management by the pension fund industry were 78.2 billion Ghanaian cedis ($4.93 billion) in June, of which over 73% were managed by 39 private fund management firms.… Read More
📰 How Is China’s Economic Transition Affecting Its Relations With Africa?
In mineral and metal trade, African exports to China are on a rapid ascent, reaching nearly $50 billion in 2021 from $15 billion in 2010. Moreover, Chinese investments are beginning to cover not only the extraction of ores but also the refining and processing of them on the continent. Recently announced refining projects by Chinese companies include a $300 million lithium processing plant, opened in Zimbabwe in June 2023 by Prospect Lithium Zimbabwe; a $250 million lithium processing plant, opened in October 2023 in Nigeria by Ganfeng Lithium Industry Limited; and others, including in Morocco..… Read More
🎦 Apple Suspends Minerals from DRC and Rwanda
"As conflict in the region escalated earlier this year we notified our suppliers that their smelters and refiners must suspend sourcing tin, tantalum, tungsten, and gold from the DRC and Rwanda.”
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📰 UAE Becomes Africa’s Biggest Investor Amid Rights Concerns
Between 2019 and 2023, Emirati companies announced $110 billion in projects, double the value of the pledges from the UK, France, and China. Only time will tell if the announcements materialize into investments… Read More
📰 Why Netflix Struggled in Nigeria but Thrived in South Africa
Despite Nigeria's thriving Nollywood film industry, Netflix has struggled to gain the expected foothold in the country… Read More
📰 The Long-Neglected Mining Sector in Nigeria
The oil boom and other factors have kept Nigeria from having a thriving minerals sector as it once had under British rule.
There have been some important attempts by the Nigerian government to revitalize its mining sector, the value of which it estimates at US$ 700 billion. It has established the Nigerian Solid Minerals Corporation to promote mining investments. In 2023, the Africa Finance Corporation entered into a partnership with the Nigerian Sovereign Wealth Fund for the creation of the Solid Minerals Development Fund.… Read More
📸 Nigeria Cornered the Market in Extreme Poverty
Fifteen years ago, Nigeria had far fewer people in extreme poverty than either China or India. Today, it has more than both combined:
Almost 2/3rds of Nigerian households are going hungry, according to a Bloomberg report published just last week.
The number of Nigerian households that reported not having enough food to eat because of lack of money doubled from 2019 to 2023.
By 2030, sub-Saharan Africa will house over 80% of the world's extreme poor — driven by Nigeria.
📰 Zimbabwe Plans to Pay $331 Million to White Formers For Illegal Land Seizures
In 2000, the Zimbabwean government seized approximately 4,500 farms under its controversial land reform program, leading to economic decline and international isolation.
Now, nearly 25 years later, the government is making significant efforts to compensate affected landowners. A total of 439 individuals have been officially recognized as beneficiaries of the settlement, representing around 10% of the original dispossessed farmers.
During this time, Zimbabwe's economy contracted by over 50%, unemployment surged past 80%, and inflation reached a peak of 89.7 sextillion percent in 2008, turning a once-thriving nation into a pariah state… Read More
📰 Top African Fund Manager Backs Grit’s $100 Million Property Push
Africa’s largest pension fund (AUM of $165 billion), the Public Investment Corporation, has provided $48.5 million in cash to the UK-listed Africa real estate investor and developer. The capital will be injected into Gateway Real Estate Africa, part of the Grit Real Estate Income Group… Read More
