Africa

1. S. Africa’s next US envoy
2. UK eyes climate spending
3. DR Congo-Rwanda talks
4. Absa’s hiring coup
5. Africa’s biggest airport
6. HIV drug shortfall

Fine dining in Lagos.

S. Africa US envoy frontrunner

A veteran politician in South Africa’s African National Congress has emerged as the leading candidate to be the country’s next ambassador to the US after the expulsion of its top diplomat in Washington deepened tensions between the nations.

Andries Carl Nel, a deputy justice minister, is the early favorite, according to three senior members of the ruling ANC that are familiar with the matter. Pretoria has been scrambling to appoint a new US ambassador since Ebrahim Rasool was booted out of Washington last week after criticizing US President Donald Trump during a webinar.

Colleagues described Nel as an uncontroversial figure: “He won’t speak out of line. He is a smart guy and his messaging will be disciplined,” said an ANC official. Nel is of Afrikaans heritage, though people familiar with the matter said that is not why he is being proposed: The US cut funding to South Africa over a land law it said discriminates against white farmers and offered asylum to Afrikaners. Nel was part of South Africa’s liberation struggle and has been a deputy minister since 2009.

UK eyes Africa climate projects

Britain’s development finance body is working with London’s financial district to ramp up funding for sustainable energy projects in Africa as the impact of Washington’s withdrawal from global climate commitments intensifies.

Leslie Maasdorp, who was appointed British International Investment’s CEO late last year, said the UK sought to play a “bigger global leadership role” on climate finance by mobilizing capital from institutional investors, pension funds, and insurance companies.

Maasdorp said BII — which directed around 60% of its £1.3 billion ($1.7 billion) in investments in 2023 to projects in Africa — had begun “engaging” with the City of London after receiving £100 million from the UK government in September to attract private capital. He said BII also played a key role by de-risking climate projects across Africa. “There’s clearly a gap between what people perceive as the risk and what the real risks are,” he said.

DRC, Rwanda leaders hold direct talks

The presidents of DR Congo and Rwanda met in Qatar for their first direct talks since the Kigali-backed M23 rebels accelerated their offensive in eastern DR Congo. All parties called for an “immediate and unconditional ceasefire” at the meeting on Tuesday, committing to further discussions “to establish solid foundations for lasting peace.” Kigali’s participation is notable: Rwanda has denied backing the M23, and had earlier insisted on direct dialogue between Kinshasa and the rebels. It was unclear if M23 would heed the call for a truce. The group pulled out of a separate planned meeting with DR Congo leaders in Angola on Tuesday over sanctions imposed by the European Union on some senior M23 members.

The talks also cast a spotlight on Qatar, which has worked as a mediator in several conflicts in recent months, most notably between Israel and Hamas. Doha shares close ties with Rwanda: Qatar Airways has been closing in on a long-discussed deal to take a 49% stake in Rwanda’s national airline and a 60% stake in a new international airport outside Kigali.

Absa hopes to break ‘leadership curse’

South African bank Absa poached a leading executive at giant rival Standard Bank to be its new CEO, ending months of speculation over who would take the top job. The move also raises questions about succession planning at Standard Bank, which is Africa’s largest bank by assets.

Analysts described the hire of Kenny Fihla, Standard Bank’s deputy CEO, as a win for Absa, whose shares rose 3.5% after the announcement. Absa — South Africa’s third-largest bank by assets — had lost market share under the leadership of its last CEO, an appointment that prompted South Africa’s most powerful investor, Public Investment Corp, to criticize Absa for choosing a white man as its CEO in a corporate environment with few Black leaders.

“The board will need to back Kenny fully to make difficult cultural and strategic changes at Absa that are necessary,” one analyst told News24. In an editorial, Business Day put it more bluntly, asking if Fihla “could break Absa’s leadership curse.” Sim Tshabalala has been Standard Bank’s CEO since 2013 and maintained its position as Africa’s largest lender by assets. Fihla was widely seen as being groomed to succeed Tshabalala, who is now 57, and his departure has created uncertainty over a succession plan.

Plans to build Africa’s biggest airport

The cost of a proposed airport in Ethiopia to be built by Ethiopian Airlines and the African Development Bank. Known as Bishoftu, the new airport is expected to be Africa’s largest, surpassing South Africa’s O. R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg. A location previously occupied by farmers outside of the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa has been secured, Bloomberg reported. Ethiopian Airlines is Africa’s largest carrier by number of passengers carried. The new airport is projected to triple the country’s annual passenger capacity from 17 million now to more than 60 million by 2040.

Nations running out of HIV drugs

Several African nations could soon run out of HIV drugs following Washington’s freeze on foreign aid, although a US court ordered the decision reversed. The White House has sought to shutter USAID as part of efforts to cut government spending: Its funding program for HIV drugs is credited with saving 26 million lives, and its potential closure threatens to “undo 20 years of progress,” the World Health Organization chief said. Six African countries — Burkina Faso, Kenya, Lesotho, Mali, Nigeria, and South Sudan — are among the eight expected to run out of the medicines. A US judge said the move “likely violates” the constitution, although the administration said it would appeal, decrying “rogue judges.”

Business & Macro

🇿🇦 South Africa is exploring a deal to inject $28 million into the local unit of steelmaker ArcelorMittal to pay workers and keep its mills open, Bloomberg reported.

🇳🇬 Telecom towers operator IHS Holding’s  pre-tax loss narrowed by 17% to $1.6 billion for the 2024 full year, as its annual revenue fell to $1.7 billion from $2.1 billion in 2023 primarily due to Nigeria’s currency devaluation.

Climate & Energy

🇨🇮 🇨🇬 Italian oil giant Eni will sell its stakes in upstream assets in Côte d’Ivoire and Congo Brazzaville to commodities trader Vitol for around $1.65 billion.

🇿🇦 A 12-mile, or about 20-kilometer, area around a penguin colony near Cape Town will be designated a no-fishing zone, according to a legal settlement agreement reached by conservationists and fishing industry groups in South Africa.

Geopolitics & Policy

🇲🇱 Mali withdrew from the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, a group of French-speaking countries, following similar moves by Niger and Burkina Faso this week.

🇸🇸 South Sudan’s SPLM-IO party partially withdrew from a 2018 peace deal that produced a coalition government, following tensions between its leader Riek Machar and President Salva Kiir. 

Tech & Deals

🌍 British International Investment made a commitment to invest $20 million in the Alterra Africa Accelerator Fund, a private equity vehicle to support African consumer goods businesses.

🇰🇪 Kenyan logistics startup Leta raised $5 million in a funding round backed by Google’s Africa Investment Fund and climate-tech investor Equator.

NOK by Alára, a pan-African restaurant founded by a mother-and-daughter duo, topped a new Financial Times list of fine-dining spots in Lagos. Located in the city’s Victoria Island district, the eatery has “been around for nearly a decade and has certainly earned its legendary reputation,” the FT’s West Africa Correspondent Aanu Adeoye wrote, serving up dishes including Ethiopian red-lentil stew, Senegalese dibi, a dish of grilled lamb served with a tangy mustard sauce, and dambu nama, a spicy shredded beef floss from northern Nigeria.

US President Donald Trump’s claim that the pardons signed by Joe Biden at the end of his term are now “void” began with an outcry among Trump allies about Biden’s mental capacity, Semafor’s David Weigel and Shelby Talcott reported.

Some conservatives claimed that Biden’s use of an autopen to sign orders suggested he hadn’t seen or understood them, hence rendering them void. The controversy follows the current administration’s pattern of Trump or his allies elevating “stories that the rest of his party might not take seriously — but would, if the president did,” Weigel and Talcott wrote.

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— Alexis Akwagyiram, Preeti Jha, Alexander Onukwue, and Yinka Adegoke.