Your curated selection of weekly Africa business and investment headlines.
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Headlines
📸 The Hidden War Over Rare Earths is Happening Now
🎦 Kigali: The Rising Entertainment Hub of the Region
🎦 Endeavor Seeing Growth in Africa’s Digital Banking, Payments & Blockchain
Africa
📰 IFC To Invest Up To $50 Million in Lagos Free Trade Zone
The February announcement is to support the development and expansion of Nigeria’s first deepsea port-based, private special economic zone, the Lagos Free Zone… Read More
📰 World Bank Calls on South Africa to End “Excessive'‘ Regulation and Revamp Black-Ownership Laws
South Africa should end its “excessive” regulatory burden and revamp its Black-ownership laws to remove the “signs of paralysis” that plague its economy, the World Bank said. GDP growth has averaged 1% over the last decade in Africa’s most industrialized nation… Read More
📸 The Hidden War Over Rare Earths is Happening Now
📰 Why Some Africans See Opportunity in Foreign-Aid Cuts
“Aid creates the wrong incentives for ruling elites,” argues Ken Opalo, a Kenyan scholar at Georgetown University in Washington. It leads policymakers to abrogate responsibility for their countries’ own development and makes them more sensitive to donors than their citizens. Mr Opalo says aid partially causes “the atrophy of elite ambition” that has stunted economic development…Read More
📰 EAAIF Contributes $45m to CrossBoundary Energy
The Emerging Africa & Asia Infrastructure Fund (EAAIF), managed by Ninety One, has made a $45 million funding contribution to CrossBoundary Energy which has a portfolio of 25 operational projects worth ~$100 million, comprising ~60 MW of generation assets and 22MWh of BESS, and an additional portfolio of projects under construction, signed or awarded of ~$560 million, including 440 MW generation assets and over 570MWh BESS.… Read More
🎦 Kigali: The Rising Entertainment Hub of the Region
[videos for subscribers only]
📰 African Tech Companies are Venturing Outside the Continent
Nigeria’s LemFi announced the acquisition of Irish currency exchange platform Buttercane to expand into Europe. Flutterwave has seen 48% of its business come out of new geographies in 2024, up from 12% the previous year. In 2023, Uganda fintech Asaak acquired Mexico’s FlexClub. To name a few examples… Read More
📰 Invest International Launches New Fund to Secure Critical Raw Materials for the Netherlands
“The Netherlands plays a pivotal role in the European raw materials supply chain, thanks to its advanced logistics infrastructure and the strategic access provided by the Port of Rotterdam. The port serves as a crucial hub for raw material imports and distribution across Europe. However, the Netherlands currently relies heavily on imported semi-finished products from a limited amount of countries, with only a handful of companies directly sourcing raw materials.”… Read More
🎦 Endeavor Seeing Growth in Africa’s Digital Banking, Payments & Blockchain
[videos for subscribers only]
📰 LoftyInc Secures First Close for $43M Africa Seed Fund
Operating out of Nigeria, Egypt, and Kenya, LoftyInc is one of the African VC ecosystem’s earliest and most successful investors, with early investments in prominent startups such as Flutterwave, Andela, Wave Mobile Money, RelianceHealth, Thndr, OmniRetail, and Moove.… Read More
📰 South Africa Public Investment Corporation Eyes Private Credit as a Key Growth Area in Africa
The PIC is Africa’s largest asset manager with R3 trillion in AUM having deployed R8 billion across Africa the past two years.
“We believe that to be successful in Africa, you need to focus on private markets,” Rikhotso [PIC’s CIO] stated. “Private equity hasn’t yielded the expected results, but private debt is showing promise. You invest, and you earn your interest.”.… Read More
