Africa

1. S. Africa’s AGOA push
2. Ramaphosa’s restraint
3. PFL Africa’s TV ambitions
4. Processing critical minerals
5. Ethiopia coffee exports surge
6. Kenya leader contender
7. Weekend Reads

A new art installation about venomous snakes.

Hi! This week’s White House meeting with South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa and US President Donald Trump lived up to its theatrical billing but somehow managed not to go completely off the rails. You can thank Ramaphosa for that. He was ambushed with prepared false propaganda about “white genocide” in his country and maintained his cool.

But what was the point of this visit ultimately? Several South African sources we’ve spoken with have assured us that the meetings away from the cameras were more productive, with officials driving forward some of their primary concerns around trade and economic partnerships. Yet some critics on Capitol Hill question if this trip should ever have happened, as “neither side seemed to have a strategy,” one person told me.

One of my observations was just how often the words “critical minerals” get thrown around in US-Africa discussions in current times. On Wednesday, Ramaphosa was quick to suggest that he was looking forward to working with the US on enhancing South Africa’s supply of the key materials. It wasn’t immediately clear what that meant. But ever since the DR Congo/Rwanda peace talks came up with a critical minerals-backed deal, several African countries have privately or publicly suggested that they would be keen to work with this new transactional White House. There has been talk of figuring out a US government-sanctioned partnership with American companies to extract and process minerals to support the green energy transition. However it’s like many things in this space, it all sounds great on paper, while the reality is a lot more complicated.

S. Africa presses US on AGOA

South African officials privately tried to push their economic agenda during President Cyril Ramaphosa’s visit to Washington despite his heated televised discussions with US President Donald Trump. The future of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) remains uncertain, but a South African official told Semafor that Washington appears to share a “commitment to continue” the trade pact. AGOA, which allows African countries to sell billions of dollars in duty-free goods to the US, is due to expire in September and has been shrouded in uncertainty since Trump began his second term. However, ultimate responsibility for its renewal lies with the US Congress

Chrispin Phiri, the spokesperson for the department of international relations and cooperation who told Semafor about the mention of AGOA, said Pretoria also submitted a trade proposal to Washington, which showed an interest in purchasing more American liquefied natural gas and said South Africa hopes to partner with the US on enriching rare earth minerals.

Phiri also told Semafor they received “indications” that Trump will travel to South Africa for the G20 meeting in November, despite senior US officials boycotting an earlier bloc meeting in Johannesburg.

— Mathias Hammer

Ramaphosa’s diplomatic skills shine

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s diplomatic skills stood in sharp contrast to US President Donald Trump’s choreographed offensive during their White House meeting, the journalist Sam Mkokeli wrote in a Semafor column.

“Ramaphosa didn’t just hold his ground. He reminded the world — and perhaps his own party — that in an era of noise and populism, restraint is a kind of power,” Mkokeli argued. The president has two strategic options to address the influence of Pretoria-born tech billionaire Elon Musk, a key Trump ally who informs the US president’s rhetorical attacks: One is to wholly dismantle the Musk-backed “genocide myth” against South Africa’s Afrikaner minority. The other is to draw Musk’s Starlink into the country as an investor, not just a service provider, to create jobs, infrastructure, and partnerships. That “would be a symbolic coup,” Mkokeli said.

PFL Africa chases TV deals

Professional Fighters League (PFL) Africa is in talks to agree new media rights deals to grow the popularity of mixed martial arts across the continent. PFL Africa, which is chaired by ex-UFC fighter Francis Ngannou, is gearing up to host its first-ever tournament in Cape Town in July. The company behind the African arm of the US-founded league is in discussions with two pay-TV operators in East and West Africa and several free-to-air TV operators from across the continent to broadcast their events, PFL Africa’s CEO Elias Schulze, who is overseeing the franchise’s launch, told Semafor.

“Distribution is everything,” said Schulze, adding that the new deals would bring the fights “into millions of homes.” The partnerships under consideration would be in addition to existing deals with sports streaming service DAZN for international markets, and Canal+ and MultiChoice in Africa.

Africa needs better minerals infrastructure

Africa needs better transport infrastructure and energy supplies to benefit from its critical minerals, a new International Energy Agency report said. Countries also need greater resources for more complex processing, which is increasingly concentrated in a small handful of global players. Forecasts based on announced or existing projects still only put Africa’s contribution of refined materials at 4% of global market value by 2040, according to the IEA. Globally, the supply of critical minerals continues to accelerate rapidly, with some of the greatest increases in new mining projects and developments in Africa. DR Congo represents around 70% of global mined cobalt, and Africa as a whole is home to 11% of global lithium output and 17% of that of copper — reflecting a $50 billion market value for the continent.

— Paige Bruton

Ethiopia’s booming coffee exports

Ethiopia’s coffee exports revenue over the last 10 months — a new record for the commodity as arabica bean prices surge due to poor production this year in Brazil, the world’s top coffee producer. The milestone exceeded the country’s target by 142%, East African Agrinews reported. The surge reflects the sustained rise in arabica prices, as well as the Ethiopian government stepping up its “support to smallholder farmers through supply inputs, state-of-the-art irrigation systems, and better infrastructure,” David Luke, director of the Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa at the London School of Economics, told Semafor.

The future looks promising for Ethiopia’s coffee industry: The nation was hit modestly by Trump’s sweeping tariffs, due to take effect in July, unlike its rival Vietnam, which was hit with almost 50% tariffs. “US importers are likely to divert volumes toward Ethiopian coffee beans, offsetting any modest cost increase,” the Kiel Institute’s Finn Ole Semrau told Semafor.

— Paige

Person of Interest: Martha Karua

Kenya’s former Justice Minister Martha Karua said she was expelled from Tanzania over the weekend to prevent her from attending the trial of the country’s opposition leader.

Karua, a leading lawyer and human rights activist, has spoken out against “democratic backsliding” in East Africa. Earlier this year she launched her own opposition party, called the People’s Liberation Party, in Kenyar after serving as the running mate of former Prime Minister Raila Odinga in his failed 2022 presidential bid.

The 67-year-old, known as the “iron lady” of Kenyan politics, recently released her memoir Against the Tide, detailing her journey from a small village in central Kirinyaga county to the highest corridors of power in Nairobi. “By sharing my story, I hope it serves as a reminder that while the path is long and often gruelling, it is worth every step,” she wrote. Karua is expected to challenge President William Ruto for the top job in Kenya’s 2027 presidential elections.

Weekend Reads

• Ethiopia and Iran signed a security deal this month in a pact that will likely help Addis Ababa in its battles against rising ethnic militias, writes an international relations professor in The Conversation. Under the new agreement the two countries will share intelligence, experience, and training at a time when tensions between Ethiopia and Eritrea are growing. Meanwhile, Iran stands to gain growing influence on the continent, where it is trying to expand political and economic ties.

• Africa needs “a new global financial architecture” that reduces its dependence on expensive commercial debt, argues a senior fellow at the African Center for Economic Transformation. “Innovative instruments like debt-for-climate or debt-for-investment swaps can tie sustainability to solvency,” writes Joseph Atta-Mensah for LSE Blogs. He also makes the case for boosting tech transfer to help countries climb the value chain instead of relying on commodity exports.

• Hundreds of miners in eastern DR Congo labor by hand in search of coltan, a mineral vital for the world’s electronic devices, despite the ongoing conflict between government forces and Rwanda-backed M23 rebels. The Associated Press spoke to men working in a mine at the center of the conflict, finding that little has changed for workers. “I earn $40 a month, but that’s not enough,” one miner said, saying he doesn’t know where the minerals he unearths go once they leave the site.

• China’s driving role in the clean energy transition could establish an “electroyuan” system that is “reminiscent of the petrodollar system for a decarbonised world,” posits an energy consultant. For emerging markets like those in Africa, “yuan-denominated financing could offer lower borrowing costs, currency stability, and integration into China’s green manufacturing ecosystems,” writes Ebipere K. Clark for the London-based Africa Policy Research Institute.

• Africa’s history of failed parallel governments offers key lessons for Sudan, writes an international relations scholar for Democracy in Africa. As the country grapples with two rival administrations, its leaders should look to how parallel regimes in Angola, Libya, and Somalia exacerbated humanitarian crises, prolonged wars, and fostered extremism. “To avert deeper division, Sudan must pursue inclusive peace, justice, and reconciliation,” says Gehad Ahmed.

Business & Macro

🇰🇪 NCBA Bank Kenya’s net profit in the first quarter rose 3.4% year-on-year to $41.8 million following a rise in net interest income and a lower tax bill.

🇿🇦 South African mining group Sibanye Stillwater said it has begun efforts to rescue 289 workers trapped in an underground gold mine 37 miles west of Johannesburg.

Climate & Energy

🇬🇭 🇨🇭 Ghanaian electric bike maker Wahu Mobility will sell carbon credits from emissions prevented by its bicycles to Switzerland.

Geopolitics & Policy

🇲🇺 The UK signed a deal to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius and pay more than £100 million annually to guarantee the future of the US-UK owned Diego Garcia air base within the archipelago.

🇬🇶 Equatorial Guinea is the legal owner of the islands of Mbanie, Conga, and Cocoteros off the coast of Gabon, the International Court of Justice ruled.

🇳🇬 Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu, who is a week away from his second anniversary in office, received his party leaders’ backing to be their unopposed candidate in the next election in 2027.

Tech & Deals

🇷🇼 IHS Towers said it sold its Rwanda operations to Paradigm Tower Ventures for $274.5 million.

Sculptures of venomous snakes were unveiled at the World Health Assembly in Geneva as part of an initiative to end preventable deaths from snakebites. Snakebite envenoming is listed as one of the WHO’s Neglected Tropical Diseases and kills up to 20,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa each year. It is back on the official WHA agenda for the first time since 2020. “While the risk of snakebite may feel remote for many global leaders, the devastating and preventable human toll of snakebite envenoming can no longer be ignored,” said Elhadj As Sy, co-chair of the Global Snakebite Taskforce. “Nobody should be dying from a snakebite in 2025.” The 10 artworks on display aim to bring to life the threat and impact of snakebites, as well as the hope offered by scientific research.

TSMC, the Taiwanese chips giant of key strategic importance to the US, has sought advice from an unlikely place to help navigate Washington: middle market investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald, Semafor’s Rohan Goswami reported.

“While we do not comment on clients or potential clients, the statements regarding Cantor Fitzgerald are baseless and false,” said a spokesperson for Cantor — which, until this week, was majority-owned by longtime CEO and current Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

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