Coronavirus

A nurse prepares a dose of the of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Dutywa

door policy

‘Smart Multilateralism’ Needed in these Omicron Times  To say that observers in Africa have been shocked by the abysmal myopia on display globally in the recent omicron episode would be an understatement.

talking africa podcast

Gates Foundation CEO: ‘Stop stockpiling, & deploy vaccines to Africa to avoid costly new variants’ The CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Mark Suzman argues that rather than hoarding booster shots, the West and other regions with spare vacci...
South Africa Mandela © In this image taken Friday June 14, 2013, A Mandela Foundation employee shows the archived passport of former South African President Nelson Mandela. Nelson Mandela’s condition in a Pretoria hospital remained critical for a second straight day Monday June 24, 2013, said South Africa’s president Jacob Zuma, who described the stricken anti-apartheid hero as being “asleep” when he visited him the previous evening.(AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

easy access

Coronavirus: African passports became more valuable during Covid-19 African passport holders grew the number of countries which they could travel to visa-free, during the pandemic. Growth occurred in some of Africa’s s...
Customers are served inside the Safaricom mobile phone customer care centre in the central business district of Nairobi

telecoms tax

Premium badgeHow has Africa’s mobile money market adapted to the pandemic?  Covid-19 led to widespread regulatory limits on mobile money transaction fees to boost financial inclusion through the pandemic. How have the controls...

Coronavirus top stories

© Prudential sees health insurance as a growth market in Africa. REUTERS/Francis Kokoroko

Stress Test

Premium badgePrudential says business growing across Africa, to roll out health-insurance app Global insurer Prudential has seen growth in premiums and numbers of policies sold across Africa this year, Eddie Brown, head of francophone Africa, t...
Streetlights illuminate the central business district in Cape Town

Red Tape Artists

Premium badgeSouth Africa: Tour operators sound the alert as bureaucracy chokes recovery South Africa risks shooting itself in the foot as regulatory failings for the licensing of tour operators cripple the industry’s capacity to respond t...

fears revived

Premium badgeShould we stop making a fuss about African debt? The economic consequences of the Covid-19 crisis have revived fears about the indebtedness of African countries. Is this alarmism justified? We invest...

Coronavirus top stories

© Prudential sees health insurance as a growth market in Africa. REUTERS/Francis Kokoroko

Stress Test

Premium badgePrudential says business growing across Africa, to roll out health-insurance app Global insurer Prudential has seen growth in premiums and numbers of policies sold across Africa this year, Eddie Brown, head of francophone Africa, t...
Streetlights illuminate the central business district in Cape Town

Red Tape Artists

Premium badgeSouth Africa: Tour operators sound the alert as bureaucracy chokes recovery South Africa risks shooting itself in the foot as regulatory failings for the licensing of tour operators cripple the industry’s capacity to respond t...

fears revived

Premium badgeShould we stop making a fuss about African debt? The economic consequences of the Covid-19 crisis have revived fears about the indebtedness of African countries. Is this alarmism justified? We invest...

Join a global community who rely on us for insight into power, markets and people on the continent.

Join Now
Madagascar faces ‘climate change famine’, warns U.N.

climate change

Covid & Droughts: Can Madagascar break the cycle of poverty? Considered to be one of the poorest countries in the world, Madagascar has been hit hard by both the pandemic and from several droughts. 
Firefox_Screenshot_2021-10-27T13-20-47.921Z From left to right: Uğur Şahin, BioNTech’s CEO, Ursula von der Leyen, head of the European Commission, Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda, and Macky Sall, head of state of Senegal, on 27 August 2021 in Berlin. © Kay Nietfeld/ZUMA Press/ZUMA/REA

Setting up shop

Coronavirus: A BioNTech vaccine plant to be built in Rwanda Rwanda will house the first vaccine manufacturing plant that uses BioNTech’s messenger RNA technology on African soil.
Firefox_Screenshot_2021-10-27T10-34-49.147Z © During the COP25 conference in Madrid, Spain, 2 December 2019. Susana Vera/REUTERS

Everyone who's everyone

Africa: Who will be attending COP26? Several of the continent’s heads of state will travel to Glasgow, Scotland, to attend the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), one of the first major...
Firefox_Screenshot_2021-10-20T12-09-33.959Z © DRC’s President Félix Tshisekedi at the African Union City in October. DRC Presidency

Pressure from all sides

DRC: President Félix Tshisekedi under pressure from the UN Two years have passed since a summit on the framework agreement on peace, security and cooperation in the DRC and the Great Lakes region was held. The...
© Digital Africa was created on the initiative of French President Emmanuel Macron. Ludovic Marin/Pool via Reuters

New Leaf

Premium badgeFrance’s Digital Africa outfit plans to create a strategic committee to end its governance crisis France’s Digital Africa association aims to draw a line under its crisis of governance with the appointment of a new strategic committee, executive di...
South Africa’s vaccine train aims to boost inoculation numbers in remote areas © People sit in line as they wait to register next to the Transvaco coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine train, after South Africa’s rail company Transnet turned the train into a COVID-19 vaccination center on rails to help the government speed up its vaccine rollout in the country’s remote communities, at the Springs train station on the East Rand, South Africa, August 30, 2021. Picture taken August 30, 2021. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

RISKS AND REWARDS

Premium badgeVaccine rollout, debt and climate change pose risks to Africa’s ‘fragile’ recovery – World Bank As Africa emerges from the economic shadow of Covid-19, the threat of climate change looms large on one of the regions worst-affected by adverse weath...