Africa Faces Mounting Risks Just as Growth Gains Take Hold
you are currently viewing::Africa Faces Mounting Risks Just as Growth Gains Take HoldApril 23, 2026- To weather the shock, policymakers should ensure that any near-term measures are time-bound and targeted at the most vulnerable, and maintain the focus on medium-term development objectives. Countries such as Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, and Rwanda led the charge, with growth exceeding 6 percent. The median inflation rate fell to about 3.5 percent and public debt levels had started to decline. These gains were hard-won, the fruit of politically difficult but meaningful reforms such as exchange-rate realignments, better spending allocation, and tighter monetary policies. Progress on the fiscal front has been particularly impressive. The region's general government primary balance has been steadily improving and is now near balance. By contrast, primary deficits in both advanced economies and other emerging markets remained noticeably wider in 2025 than before the pandemic. Source: imf.org |
August 10, 2026---Câte d'Ivoire remains largest economy in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), expected to grow by 6.5% in 2025
West Africa demonstrated economic resilience in 2025, recording growth of 4.8%, above the continental average of 4.4%, amid geopolitical tensions, insecurity in parts of the region, increasing fragmentation of the global economy and heightened volatility in international financial markets.
August 10, 2026---Chairman of the House Committee on Insurance and Actuarial Matters, Ahamadu Usman Jaha, has said Nigeria's fintech ecosystem has become one of the largest in Africa, noting that the country's growing payment ecosystem continues to attract significant investment.
August 6, 2026--Zimbabwe ended last month as Africa's best-performing equity market, overtaking Nigeria, the continent's most populous nation, after months of sustained gains driven by easing inflation, a more stable domestic currency, and renewed investor appetite for local equities.
August 5, 2026--The Nairobi Securities Exchange is building East Africa's first exchange traded fund focused on AI stocks, with plans to offer it to investors before year-end- though its chief executive says the launch could be delayed if the global AI rally starts to look overdone.
July 29, 2026--Southern Africa must urgently mobilise development financing at scale to turn a gradual and uneven economic recovery into real gains in living standards, according to the African Development Bank's 2026 Regional Economic Outlook for Southern Africa: Mobilising Southern Africa's Development Financing at Scale in a Fragmented World, released on Tuesday.
July 29, 2026--Africa's private capital market posted a mixed first half in 2026. Deal volume fell 16% year on year to 211 transactions, the first H1 drop since 2023. Investment value rose 65% to $3.7 billion, the second highest first-half total in five years. The gap between average deal size, $32 million, and median deal size, $5 million, points to a market driven by a few large transactions rather than broad growth.
July 22, 2026--The African Union (AU)'s Director of Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment, Hersen Nyambe, stated on Wednesday (22,) in Luanda, that the continent's blue economy currently generates over 298 billion dollars in annual value, with projections pointing to USD 405 billion output by 2063.
July 21, 2026--Artificial intelligence can boost productivity, create better jobs, and improve public services in sub-Saharan Africa, but realizing these gains will require reliable power, affordable internet, stronger skills, and rules people trust
A farmer in Kenya gets weather and planting advice on a basic phone. A teacher in Nigeria uses a chatbot to help students catch up in math. South Africa's revenue authority uses data analytics to better target tax audits. These are not futuristic examples from Silicon Valley.
June 23, 2026--Chaka Technologies Ltd has launched Hisa, a new investment application that replaces the company's existing Chaka trading platform and introduces a range of new features aimed at making investing more accessible for retail users.
June 16, 2026- U.S. dollar-pegged digital tokens reduce payment frictions but raise new policy trade-offs
Nigerian households and small firms are moving money across borders in a new way: via smartphones, digital wallets, and U.S. dollar-pegged crypto assets known as stablecoins.