Long reads on African history, governance, economics, culture, and what comes next.
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 — …
The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) versus Rapid Support Forces (RSF) war that began on 15 April 2023 has killed an estimated 150,000 Sudanese, displaced over 10 million, and …
Touba, the holy city of the Mouride brotherhood, is the second-largest urban settlement in Senegal after Dakar, with population estimates ranging from 800,000 to 1.2 million depending on …
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 …
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam's fifth and final filling completed in September 2024. The dam now holds approximately 74 billion cubic metres at full reservoir, generating up to …
Cape Town's 2017–2018 drought brought the city within an estimated 90 days of 'day zero' — the point at which municipal water supply would have been shut off …
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 …
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 …
The African Development Bank's Desert to Power initiative, announced in 2018 with a target of 10 GW of solar generation across the Sahel by 2030, has been one …
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 …
The Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) framework — formally adopted by the FAO in 2010 and now embedded in the African Union's Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Malabo Declaration …
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 …