Threads

Economic Systems Medieval (500–1500 CE)

The Mali Empire's trade network — gold, salt, and scholarship from Timbuktu to Cairo

When historians describe medieval Mali they usually start with gold. That is the wrong end of the story. Gold was the commodity but the genius of the Malian …

5 min read · West Africa · 56 views

Economic Systems Contemporary (2000–present)

The CFA franc peg — what holds it together and what would break it

Two CFA franc zones cover fourteen African countries — the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU/UEMOA) running through the BCEAO in Dakar, and the Central African Economic …

3 min read · West Africa, Central Africa · 2 views

Economic Systems Contemporary (2000–present)

South Sudan oil — how a state managed its independence dividend, and didn't

South Sudan became independent on 9 July 2011 with control over approximately 75% of what had been Sudan's oil production — the Greater Nile, Petrodar, and Dar Petroleum …

2 min read · East Africa, South Sudan · 37 views

Economic Systems Contemporary (2000–present)

Common Framework restructurings — Zambia, Chad, Ghana and the costs of slow sovereign debt diplomacy

The G20 Common Framework for Debt Treatments, launched in November 2020 in response to the pandemic-era debt distress wave, has now been applied — formally — to four …

2 min read · Pan-African · 29 views

Economic Systems Contemporary (2000–present)

Fonio commercialization — what the Pierre Thiam supply chain leaves out

The premium-export fonio supply chain — Pierre Thiam and Yolele Foods, the specialty-grain channel through Whole Foods and Eataly, the Slow Food Ark of Taste recognition — is …

2 min read · Sahel, West Africa · 24 views

Economic Systems Contemporary (2000–present)

Kolwezi cobalt — the artisanal supply chain that doesn't begin at the smelter

The Democratic Republic of Congo produces roughly 70% of the world's cobalt. About 20% of that comes from artisanal and small-scale mining — *creuseurs* working with hand tools …

2 min read · Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo · 23 views

Economic Systems Contemporary (2000–present)

Ethiopian coffee smallholders after the 2008 commodity bill — what changed and what didn't

Ethiopia is the birthplace of *coffea arabica* — the wild progenitor still grows in Kafa and the Bonga forest. It is also Africa's largest coffee producer, exporting between …

1 min read · Horn of Africa, Ethiopia · 21 views

Economic Systems Contemporary (2000–present)

Burkina Faso cotton — the cooperative model after the Western donors left

Burkina Faso was, by the early 2000s, the largest cotton producer in sub-Saharan Africa, and SOFITEX — the state ginning company — was the institutional spine of a …

2 min read · West Africa, Burkina Faso · 24 views

Economic Systems Contemporary (2000–present)

Flutterwave's CBN compliance crisis and Nigerian licensing

Flutterwave's 2023 Kenyan regulatory dispute — the Asset Recovery Agency's freezing of accounts holding roughly USD 56 million on money-laundering allegations, subsequently substantially unwound by Kenyan courts — …

2 min read · West Africa, Nigeria · 23 views

Economic Systems Contemporary (2000–present)

Why Nigerian Payment Service Banks took fifteen years — and what the delay cost

M-Pesa launched in Kenya in 2007. The Central Bank of Nigeria's Payment Service Bank (PSB) regulatory regime — the framework that finally let MTN, Airtel, and 9mobile take …

1 min read · West Africa, Nigeria · 20 views

Economic Systems Contemporary (2000–present)

PAPSS — cross-border payments through the AfCFTA settlement layer

The Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) launched operationally in January 2022 under the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) as the settlement layer for the AfCFTA. PAPSS is designed …

2 min read · Pan-African · 18 views

Economic Systems Contemporary (2000–present)

Egypt IT outsourcing — ITIDA data and the engineering-services pivot

Egypt's IT outsourcing sector has, over the last fifteen years, grown into the largest English-and-French-language technology services export base in the Arab-speaking and African worlds. The Information Technology …

2 min read · North Africa, Egypt · 19 views