Category: Africa

Covid-19 is the introduction and closing to many personal and business conversations these days. It is also the starting point for most economic discussions across the globe. Discussions on the African continent are no different. But, in the context of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), the Covid-19 pandemic may be a distraction from the realities of deeper economic problems…

The distribution of vaccines is changing the economic outlook in 2021 with most politicians and investors forecasting a continued recovery. Yet the political and economic risks that preceded the covid-19 pandemic remain alongside the lockdown measures necessary to combat the virus. The year will be turbulent for some countries as public confidence and investor sentiment vacillates with optimism and skepticism on vaccine acceptance rates and economic output numbers. Several countries are likely to be bellwethers for the markets, or at least, provide some directional insight on the global economy’s recovery…

There are many elections in Africa in 2021, but they won’t all be competitive. Some of the countries on the calendar, like Benin, Chad, and the Republic of the Congo, have very strongly entrenched incumbents. The 2021 election calendar in Africa, in comparison to 2020, however, will have many international observers from afar and maybe on the ground, as in Libya…

Africa, in the eyes of some political analysts, has been an after-thought for Washington these last four years. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing; it speaks to the political and economic stability that dominates most of the 54 countries on the continent. That said, Biden will encounter a few major issues that may not test bipartisanship but will surely require more than an after-thought approach…

Can Nigeria’s President employ the strategy of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince in privatising a state oil corporation?

American President Donald Trump explicitly floated the idea of delaying November’s presidential election by way of a tweet on 30 of July…

COVID-19 has disrupted the global economy with the uprooting of supply chains. The decades-long, single-minded focus on optimising supply chains helped the world minimize costs, reduce inventory, and boost asset utilisation…

Ghana was the first sub-Saharan African country to ease restrictions when it lifted lockdown measures on 20 April. The country’s Minister of Finance Ken Ofori-Atta argued the 21-day lockdown of Ghana’s biggest cities had become financially unbearable for most of the population, a concern that gave the government little choice but to lift the restriction…

An investor called me and asked, “One question for you, where would you take a risk in Africa today?” The COVID-19 crisis has the globe in a massive selloff, creating significant dislocation in the capital markets. But what does this mean for Africa’s private markets…