Africa

1. Kenya’s new PR strategy
2. Rethinking climate finance
3. Debt in focus
4. Mobile gender gap narrows
5. Afrikaners leave for US
6. E-tricycles come to Lagos
7. The Week Ahead

Tributes pour in for Cameroonian curator Koyo Kouoh.

Greetings from Abidjan, where hundreds of the continent’s top business leaders have gathered for the annual Africa CEO Forum. The official theme of this year’s two-day event, organized by Jeune Afrique and co-hosted by the International Finance Corporation, is “Africa in a transactional world.” It reflects the way Donald Trump’s presidency is reshaping the continent’s business, economic, and political terrain.

The talks here have focused on the ways in which governments can work with the private sector to close development gaps opened up by Western aid cuts. Côte d’Ivoire’s President Alassane Ouattara — at a glitzy opening ceremony attended by the presidents of Rwanda, Senegal, and South Africa — said countries need a “dynamic private sector” while the continent would need “a shared vision of development’ to navigate the turbulence thrown up by US President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs. IFC Managing Director Makhtar Diop, whom I interviewed last month, told delegates the continent needs a “new deal” between the public and private sectors to create new value chains and generate much needed jobs.

All of these ideas are laudable but, even if there’s broad agreement on the need to harness the private sector’s potential to drive growth, there can’t be a single answer to challenges faced across an entire continent. Yinka and I will be juggling interviews and meetings to deliver insights on the approaches being taken by various countries and companies. Please say hi if you see us — we’re always keen to talk.

Kenya’s bid to avoid fresh protests

Kenya’s government has deployed an elaborate communications strategy around its latest finance bill to avoid a repeat of last year’s deadly protests, two sources in the administration told Semafor. The plan combines appearances by public officials on mainstream TV and radio stations to explain the bill, town halls, and the use of social media influencers to shape messaging on platforms including X and Facebook.

The government blames misinformation for last year’s widespread protests in which more than 50 people were killed and hundreds injured. The protests were initially triggered by frustration over plans to hike taxes and create new ones. President William Ruto’s messaging focused on the need to make tough decisions to pay off Kenya’s significant external debt.

This year’s bill does not include new taxes but contains provisions, including a VAT shift, that could raise the prices of basic goods such as drugs, as well as motorbikes and mobile phones.

Rethinking climate finance

Climate finance in Africa needs a radical rethink, argues Bright Simons, an honorary vice president at the Accra-based think tank IMANI, in a column for Semafor.

African countries need to drop complicated strategies aimed at the global development bureaucracy and instead focus on attracting best-fit investors to meet the urgent challenge of adapting to and mitigating the effects of climate change.

“Let’s be honest: There is precious little new donor money available for climate finance,” he writes, saying it’s now time for the continent to leverage its advantage as a historically low carbon emitter. “Africa is strategically positioned to attract a considerable proportion of the West’s “transitional brown” industries”: sectors such as cement, lime, and industrial chemicals, Simons says.

Debt talks to focus on global reform

African policymakers will address the continent’s spiraling debt crisis during three days of talks that start in Togo’s capital Lomé on Monday. Africa will pay nearly $89 billion to service external debt this year, according to the ONE Campaign, a US-based advocacy group. The debt service bill amounts to about a quarter of Africa’s combined GDP in 2023, up from about 15% a decade ago.

The talks, convened by the African Union, will enable policymakers to compare notes on their debt management experiences amid “signs that the region has taken lessons” from recent defaults in Ghana and Zambia, said economist David Omojomolo of London-based firm Capital Economics.

Western aid cuts “might lead to pressure on governments to borrow more” as they try to replace lost aid funding which supported health and education budgets, Charlie Robertson, of asset management firm FIM Partners, told Semafor. He said that funding won’t be cheap but African countries have learned that cheaper, more competitive currencies can reduce real interest rates, lowering the risk of debt defaults.

— Alexander Onukwue

Mobile gender gap narrows

The gender gap in mobile internet use narrowed in sub-Saharan Africa for the second year in a row, a new report found, though it remains the region with the highest proportion of women who have yet to adopt the technology.

The gulf between men and women using mobile internet dropped from 36% in 2022 to 29% in 2024, the telecoms industry body GSMA wrote in the report seen by Semafor and due to be published on Wednesday. Yet around 205 million women in sub-Saharan Africa are still unconnected to mobile internet services, equivalent to nearly two-thirds of the adult female population.

The barriers “disproportionately affect women because of structural inequalities around income and education,” Claire Sibthorpe, head of digital inclusion at GSMA, told Semafor. The lack of a smartphone and internet connectivity lowers women’s access to education and employment, according to development experts, which is why improving women’s digital connectivity is listed by the UN as a key indicator for achieving gender equality.

— Preeti Jha

Afrikaners depart for US

A group of 49 white South Africans set off for the US, having been offered refugee status. US President Donald Trump signed an executive order in February saying that Afrikaners — a minority group descended from Dutch settlers — were victims of racial discrimination and offering relocation to the US. The administration says the South African government’s land expropriation and affirmative action laws are racist against whites, a charge Pretoria called “completely false.” As the Afrikaner refugee program has been fast-tracked, campaigners have “questioned why the white South Africans are being prioritized ahead of people from countries wracked by war and natural disasters,” The Guardian reported, with some pointing out that several Trump confidants, including Elon Musk, grew up in South Africa.

Bolt launches e-tricycles in Lagos

The cost of acquiring an electric tricycle in Lagos under a lease-to-own system run by ride-hailing company Bolt. The tricycles are part of a 25-vehicle fleet unveiled in the city this month by the Estonian firm. The new electric offering by Bolt, a competitor to Uber in Nigeria as well as parts of Europe, builds on the company’s existing range of petrol-powered tricycles, known locally as keke, a popular mode of transport for short-distance trips. The electric tricycles require a down-payment of $130, Tech Cabal reported, and will operate on a battery swap model to avoid long charging times. The new vehicles come at a time of rising petrol prices in Nigeria: Bolt hopes to increase their number to 1,000 units by the end of the year.

The Week Ahead

• May 12: South Africa’s communications minister launches a roadmap of plans for the digital provision of government services and to establish a national digital identity.
• May 12-13: The Africa CEO Forum takes place in Abidjan.
• May 13: South Africa announces Q1 unemployment figures.
• May 13: Namibia publishes inflation data for April.
• May 15: Nigeria publishes April inflation data.

Business & Macro

🇬🇭 S&P Ratings upgraded Ghana’s long-term foreign debt rating from “selective default” to “stable” in recognition of the government’s efforts to restructure commercial debt.

🇰🇪 Kenya’s labor force added 782,000 jobs in 2024, two percentage points lower compared to the year before, with informal sector jobs accounting for the majority of the additions.

Climate & Energy

🇳🇬 🇲🇦 The $25 billion African-Atlantic Gas Pipeline connecting Nigeria and Morocco for supply to Europe will receive co-financing support from the United Arab Emirates.

Geopolitics & Policy

🇨🇮 Ivorian former Credit Suisse boss Tidjane Thiam resigned his leadership of the country’s main opposition party.

🇺🇬 Bobi Wine, the Ugandan opposition leader and singer, will seek the presidency for a second time in January elections in which incumbent Yoweri Museveni is expected to run.

🌍 🇯🇵 The Japanese government set up an initiative with local venture capital firms to facilitate promising African business partnerships for Japanese companies.

Tech & Deals

🇨🇮 Chinese fintech startup PalmPay will expand from its Nigeria operations to enter into Côte d’Ivoire, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda at the end of this year.

🇪🇹 Ethio Telecom, Ethiopia’s major internet service provider, launched an ecommerce app Zemen Gebeya with 1,000 products listed in its first week.

Tributes poured in for acclaimed Cameroonian curator Koyo Kouoh — the first African woman invited to lead the Venice Biennale — who died aged 57. Kouoh was due to present her plans for the prestigious exhibition next week. “Her passing leaves an immense void in the world of contemporary art and in the international community of artists, curators, and scholars who had the privilege of knowing and admiring her extraordinary human and intellectual commitment,” the Biennale said in a statement. Kouoh, described by the BBC as a “fierce advocate for African creatives,” is reported to have passed away in Switzerland. The cause of her death has not yet been made public.

The energy company that Google is counting on to power some of its US data center buildout is making a play for more Big Tech clients by expanding its services beyond just operating power plants.

When it comes to building and powering data centers, Google and its peers care about speed more than anything else, Sheldon Kimber, CEO of Intersect Power, told Semafor’s Tim McDonnell.

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