Long reads on African history, governance, economics, culture, and what comes next.
Charles Soludo, as Central Bank of Nigeria governor from 2004 to 2009, executed the most consequential structural reform of Nigerian banking since independence: the 2005 recapitalization mandate raising …
Flutterwave's legal-and-corporate structure is more complex than the press framing of the company as a 'Nigerian fintech' suggests. The Mauritius-domiciled Flutterwave Inc. is the parent holding entity; the …
The Mombasa–Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) opened in June 2017 — the largest single infrastructure investment in Kenya's post-independence history at USD 3.2 billion, financed approximately 90% by …
African startup venture funding peaked in 2022 at roughly USD 4.8 billion in disclosed deals (Big Four total: Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, South Africa), per Briter Bridges and the …
Across West Africa they are called *susu* (in Akan and adopted into Caribbean English). In East Africa they are *chama* (Swahili). In Cameroon they are *tontine*. In Egypt …
Cocoa was supposed to be the politically stable commodity. Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire produce roughly 60% of the world supply, the Ghana Cocoa Board (Cocobod) has run a …
Gum arabic is the polysaccharide you have eaten today without knowing it. It stabilizes the Coca-Cola formula, holds the sugar coating on M&Ms, and is the emulsifier in …
Andela was founded in Lagos in 2014 by Jeremy Johnson, Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, and co-founders as a developer-training-and-placement company aimed at the global remote-engineering market. The original model — …
Ethiopian Airlines flight 302, a Boeing 737 MAX 8, crashed near Bishoftu on 10 March 2019 killing all 157 people on board, six minutes after takeoff from Addis …
Diaspora remittances to sub-Saharan Africa reached approximately USD 54 billion in 2024 according to World Bank Migration and Development Brief data, exceeding both foreign direct investment and official …
The CFA franc — the common currency of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU, eight states) and the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC, six …
The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), headquartered in Cairo and founded in 1993 under AfDB and OAU sponsorship, is the African institution that most consistently delivers operational outcomes against …