Opinion

A woman shows a screen of her smartphone, where Access bank mobile app is seen among others, in Abuja © A woman shows a screen of her smartphone, where Access bank mobile app is seen among others, in Abuja, Nigeria September 21, 2020. REUTERS

impact-driven investment

Why ESG makes great business sense for African fintech If you’re reading this, there’s a very good chance you’re already familiar with the acronym ESG. Standing for environmental, social, and governance, i...
Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema

marathon training

Indebted nations can learn from Zambia’s breakthrough debt deal Many developing countries are teetering on the cusp of default and may soon find themselves in debt-restructuring negotiations of their own. Zambia’s ...
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and Congo Republic President Denis Sassou Nguesso meet in St Petersburg

Faulty logic

10 reasons why Putin’s Africa forum flopped Russia’s 2023 Africa summit was a flop. Forget Western pressure and the Ukraine war: Moscow’s offering is simply too bland.
Deputy head of Sudan’s sovereign council General Mohamed Dagalo speaks during a press conference at RSF HQ in Khartoum, Sudan 19 February, 2023.

'tool of repression'

Sudan: An open letter to allies of the Rapid Support Forces Amgad Fareid Eltayeb argues that the RSF is a fascist militia guilty of serial war crimes and doesn’t merit a place in Sudan’s political arena.

Opinion top stories

President of Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, President of China Xi Jinping, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi and Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov pose during the 2023 BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, 23 August, 2023. (Gianluigi Guercia/Pool)

Group cheer

Premium badgeBRICS: Southern Africa’s unprecedented eco-political ‘Kodak moment’ For the region, the BRICS summit in Johannesburg could prove as tectonic as Zimbabwe’s hosting of the 8th Non-Aligned Conference in 1986 and South Afr...
Flags of South Africa, Brazil, Russia, India and China at the 2023 BRICS Summit at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg on 24 August 2023. (AFP/Marco Longari)

negatory

Premium badgeThe BRICS expands and Nigeria is not on the list While Egypt and Ethiopia were welcomed into the exclusive club of nations destined to dominate the world economy by 2050, Nigeria was left out. Why be...
Yevgeny Prigozhin, 25 May 2023. (AFP/Concord Group)

What’s next?

Premium badgeThe myth of Wagner in Africa Following the Wagner mutiny that shook President Vladimir Putin in June, and the recent coup in Niger, speculation about the activities of the private...

Opinion top stories

President of Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, President of China Xi Jinping, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi and Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov pose during the 2023 BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, 23 August, 2023. (Gianluigi Guercia/Pool)

Group cheer

Premium badgeBRICS: Southern Africa’s unprecedented eco-political ‘Kodak moment’ For the region, the BRICS summit in Johannesburg could prove as tectonic as Zimbabwe’s hosting of the 8th Non-Aligned Conference in 1986 and South Afr...
Flags of South Africa, Brazil, Russia, India and China at the 2023 BRICS Summit at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg on 24 August 2023. (AFP/Marco Longari)

negatory

Premium badgeThe BRICS expands and Nigeria is not on the list While Egypt and Ethiopia were welcomed into the exclusive club of nations destined to dominate the world economy by 2050, Nigeria was left out. Why be...
Yevgeny Prigozhin, 25 May 2023. (AFP/Concord Group)

What’s next?

Premium badgeThe myth of Wagner in Africa Following the Wagner mutiny that shook President Vladimir Putin in June, and the recent coup in Niger, speculation about the activities of the private...

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File photo of Othman Benjelloun.

not long now

Premium badgeRebrab, Fotso, Benjelloun… How much longer will Africa’s billionaire boys club be at the helm? In a few years, many leading figures in industry such as Rebrab, Fotso, and Benjelloun will have to pass the torch. Their contribution to the African ...
Zenophobia South Africa Zimbabwe protesters

homegrown aliens

Premium badgeZimbabweans: Strangers in their motherland Zimbabweans are subject to disdain in South Africa both officially and unofficially, but did you know they’re actually part of the same DNA pool?
© FILE PHOTO: A participant stands near a logo of the World Bank at the International Monetary Fund – World Bank Annual Meeting 2018 in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, October 12, 2018. REUTERS

clout & strategic importance

Africa should shape the World Bank reform agenda Africa could be on the cusp of economic transformation through providing climate solutions for the world.
Novelist Morrison smiles with President Obama as he prepares to award her a 2012 Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House in Washington © Novelist Toni Morrison with then US President Barack Obama as he prepares to award her a 2012 Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House in Washington, May 29, 2012. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Blue Lives Matter

Book Review: Toni Morrison stands astride the Afro-American age The New York Times spotted Toni Morrison’s potential early on. A review of her second novel Sula in 1973 by Sara Blackburn said that Morrison was “far...
© Migrants claiming to be from Darfur, Sudan cross the English Channel in an inflatable boat near Dover, Britain, August 4, 2021. Picture taken August 4, 2021. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls

HUMANITY VERSUS STATISTICS  

The migrants and the super rich: A tale of two seaborne tragedies Is the life of a millionaire of more value than the life of a migrant?
© File photo of Sierra Leoneans lining up to cast their vote at a polling station 2018. R(EUTERS/Olivia Acland)

crunch time

Premium badgeSierra Leone election: How to tell if the polls will be rigged The temperature is rising in Sierra Leone ahead of general elections on 24 June, and it is not because of climate change.