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Intelligence for the New World Economy

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Intelligence for the New World Economy
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Bright Simons

Bright Simons

Honorary vice president, Imani think tank

Email Bright Simons

Bright is an honorary vice president at Imani, a think tank in Accra, Ghana and a visiting senior fellow at ODI Global, a London-based think tank.

The missing link in Africa’s infrastructure boom

Dangote’s planned refinery in Kenya illustrates why ports, pipelines, power, and industry should be funded as interconnected systems rather than standalone megaprojects.
Developments at the new 32-berth Lamu Port in Lamu County, Kenya.
Presidential Press Service/Handout via Reuters

How to fix Ghana’s gold export challenge

Accra must learn from countries such as Thailand and build a knowledge ecosystem around its precious reserves.
Excavators transport ore as commercial gold production begins in the Ahafo Region, Ghana. Oct. 29, 2025.
Francis Kokoroko/Reuters

Trump didn’t blow up foreign aid — he’s trying to rebuild it in his own image

Washington’s $150M African expansion deal with Silicon Valley’s Zipline reveals its new “America first” approach to global assistance.
Flight operators perform pre-flight checks on a Zipline drone on April 16, 2020.
Zipline/Handout via Reuters

The fallacy that unites Trump’s strategists and pan-Africanist champions

Africa has less of the world’s share of critical minerals than many seem to think.
Congolese artisanal miners, among them people internally displaced by the Islamic State-affiliated Allied Democratic Forces rebels, dig in an open-pit mine in Mangaredjipa, near Beni, North Kivu Province, DR Congo, on Aug. 31, 2025.
Artisanal miners in DR Congo. Gradel Muyisa Mumbere/Reuters.

The problem with AU’s bigger map proposal

The African Union has prioritized geopolitics over geopolicy and will likely end up not winning its argument.
Equal Earth map projection.
Equal Earth map projection. Šavrič/Patterson/Jenny.

Afreximbank downgrade raises questions about bank’s strategy

The African Union has pushed back against the New York-based Fitch Ratings’ downgrade of the continent’s leading development bank.
Outgoing Afreximbank President Benedict Oramah.
Outgoing Afreximbank President Benedict Oramah. Luc Gnago/Reuters.

Analysis: How to rethink climate finance for Africa

African countries need to drop complicated strategies aimed at the global development bureaucracy and instead focus on attracting best-fit investors.