Africa

1. A remittance startup boom
2. M23 claim Goma
3. School meals’ impact
4. Nigeria’s oil prowess
5. The Week Ahead

The Ghanaian artist making waves with sawdust.

Remittance startups expand

Startups that help Africans abroad send money home are rapidly expanding their businesses as remittances to sub-Saharan Africa scale new heights.

This month, remittance firm LemFi raised $53 million from Silicon Valley investors after crossing $1 billion in monthly transactions. The UK-headquartered company, which launched in 2021, already has more than a million users, including in Europe and North America, with most sending remittances to countries in Africa. Co-founder and CEO Ridwan Olalere, who is Nigerian, told Semafor that “the market has always been big” and is only set to grow.

Nala, a remittance startup born in Tanzania in 2017, also expanded this month, starting operations in the Philippines and Pakistan after raising $40 million in July.

LemFi and Nala are part of a wave of companies tapping into the remittance boom in sub-Saharan Africa, which received a record estimated $56 billion from overseas migrants in 2024.

M23 rebels claim key DR Congo city

Rwanda-backed rebels claimed control of Goma, a key city in DR Congo, a major advance in a days-long offensive. It is a significant escalation in a protracted conflict in the country’s mineral-rich east, which has resulted in a humanitarian crisis. Rwanda has denied any official ties to the M23 rebels, but UN experts say Kigali has provided notable backing. On Saturday the DR Congo government said it has severed diplomatic ties with Rwanda. Yolande Makolo, a Rwanda government spokeswoman, told Semafor in a statement: “We are now focused on reinforcing security at our borders and organizing safe passage” for both UN personnel evacuating through Rwanda and the Congolese refugees crossing over from Goma.

Fixing African schools in the kitchen

A systemic approach to school meal programs can have a major impact on the future of a continent set to produce one in four of the world’s workers by 2050, Wawira Njiru, founder of Kenya-based Food4Education, writes in a column for Semafor.

Njiru argues that building a tech-enabled system tied into the local food supply chain has immediate benefits for communities but also for the long-term economy: Every $1 invested in childhood nutrition generates as much as $138 in better health and increased productivity, according to the African Development Bank.

Nigeria praised for investor policies

Nigeria was Africa’s top destination for upstream oil and gas investment last year, new research showed. Three out of four Africa-focused financial investment decisions by oil majors in 2024 were in Nigeria, according to British research firm Wood Mackenzie. TotalEnergies and Shell were among the companies to announce new deals in the country valued collectively at more than $5 billion, Olu Verheijen, the Nigerian president’s top energy adviser, wrote on LinkedIn.

Last year Shell committed to investing in a deep-water reserve in southern Nigeria that could produce 110,000 barrels of oil per day, starting from the end of the decade. The African Energy Chamber, a South Africa-based collective of energy stakeholders, said Nigeria had “set a benchmark for investor-friendly policies,” crediting President Bola Tinubu.

The Week Ahead

Jan. 27-28: The Africa Energy Summit, hosted by the African Development Bank and World Bank, begins in Dar es Salaam.

Jan. 28: The 2025 Angola Oil & Gas conference and exhibition launches in Luanda.

Jan. 28-31: The African Energy Chamber holds a networking tour in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro.

Jan. 30: Airtel Africa announces its results for the nine-month period ending in Dec. 2024.

Jan. 30-Feb. 9: The 54th edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam, this year featuring over a dozen African films.

Business & Macro

🇰🇪 British investor Actis is set to sell Java House, a Kenyan restaurant chain, to two Africa-focused private equity firms Alterra Capital and Phatisa.

🇳🇬 Nigeria’s Debt Management Office will auction government bonds worth 450 billion naira ($296 million) this month to fund budget shortfalls.

Climate & Energy

🇸🇳 PAIX Data Centres, a provider of data storage in Africa, will build a new facility in Senegal, to expand its network of data centers in Djibouti, Ghana, and Kenya.

Geopolitics & Policy

🌍 The Japanese government is exploring a plan to provide guarantees to companies that invest in or lend in Africa, Nikkei reported, to lower the risk of doing business on the continent.

🇪🇹 Ethiopia will make a formal repatriation request to the UK to return artifacts seized from the country 160 years ago, according to The Telegraph, including items sacred to the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church.

Tech & Deals

🇰🇪 The number of mobile money accounts in Kenya rose to a new peak of 80 million in the first 10 months of last year, according to the Central Bank of Kenya, driven by increased adoption of digital payments.

Ghanaian artist Alfred Addo’s sculptures, with their signature use of recycled sawdust, are winning new acclaim around the world. Last month he won the best new exhibitor award during Miami Art Week for a collection developed with his three younger brothers. Addo, well-known for his reflections on waste and sustainability, told Resident magazine he is confident that African art has a key place in the global conversation “For me, it’s about more than just the art — it’s about telling stories and bridging cultures.”

Google has found a cheaper way to run AI models, Google DeepMind co-founder Demis Hassabis told Semafor’s Reed Albergotti. That efficiency could give the company a long-term edge in Big Tech’s high-stakes innovation race.

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— Preeti Jha, Alexander Onukwue, and Yinka Adegoke.