Semafor Africa

Former Nigerian VP Atiku wins election nomination Former Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar won his party’s nomination to challenge President Bola Tinubu in January’s elections in which the latter is seeking a second term on the back of a three year economic revamp. Abubakar,

South Africa hikes key interest rate as Iran war drives inflation South Africa’s central bank raised its benchmark interest rate for the first time in three years, in effect blunting a $1 billion fuel relief package designed to soften the blow of surging oil prices. The move posi

Health workers carry out hand sanitizing, handwashing and temperature screening procedures for travelers at the Kanyaruchinya checkpoint near Goma. Health workers screening for Ebola in eastern DR Congo. Stringer/Anadolu via Getty Images A barrage of legal challenges threaten to

Blackstone’s VFS banks mega profits on African, Asian visa applicants VFS Global application center in Istanbul, Turkey. Sign up for Semafor Africa: A rapidly growing continent’s crucial stories. Read it now. A multibillion dollar outsourcing agency used by European countries to

View / Africa’s tax push is clashing with the reality of its informal economies Sign up for Semafor Africa: A rapidly growing continent’s crucial stories. Read it now. In much of Africa, the informal economy is not a side story to the formal economy — it is the economy. Nearly 90

Ghanaian artist El Anatsui dominates Frieze New York sales Ghanaian artist El Anatsui led sales at Frieze New York’s 2026 fair, one of the world’s most prestigious contemporary art showcases. LuwVor I — an aluminum, copper, and wire sculpture — sold for $2.2 million, more than do

$100M philanthropy backed fund launched to support manufacturers A fund that will invest in new African manufacturing companies launched with the aim to mobilize $100 million over the next five years. The Africa Jobs Fund founded by Daniel Yu, former CEO of Kenyan e commerce logi

Ghana offers lessons on Chinese power projects — report African countries can secure better outcomes from Chinese supported power projects by learning from Ghana, a new report argued. The Energy for Growth Hub, a Washington based think tank, said the West African nation delivered

Chinese vehicle trade deficit with S.Africa hits $3.5B South Africa’s automotive trade deficit with China reached $3.5 billion in 2025, twice the size it was four years earlier and its largest bilateral automotive trade deficit with any country. Chinese brands have aggressively s

Ramaphosa launches defense against fresh impeachment push South African President Cyril Ramaphosa launched a legal bid to block revived efforts to impeach him, a counter offensive that ties his political survival to the credibility of Pretoria’s most respected institutions. The c