Africa

1. Tinubu’s record so far
2. Trump’s S. Africa influence
3. Ghana leader slams Trump
4. AfDB race heats up
5. Jumia’s China game plan
6. A contested radio fee

Namibia marks Genocide Remembrance Day for first time.

Tinubu eyes reelection at halfway point

The economic policy upheavals that have characterized Nigerian President Bola Tinubu’s two years in power and sparked a deepening cost-of-living crisis are giving way to a less disruptive approach ahead of his likely reelection bid in 2027.

Tinubu ended costly fuel subsidies and floated the naira currency upon taking office in an attempt to revive one of Africa’s largest economies. But it prompted a five-fold surge in petrol prices that drove a cost-of-living crisis. The shock therapy has slowed. Inflation, calculated with a new formula since January, has steadied and the central bank, reshaped by Tinubu, has generally held the benchmark interest rate, after multiple hikes last year. But Tinubu’s economic push remains intact — he recently asked parliament to approve a $24 billion foreign borrowing plan.

Tinubu’s ruling All Progressives Congress party last week declared the president their sole candidate for the polls, ahead of the second anniversary of his inauguration on May 29. Campaign posters for the 73-year-old hang on street lights in cities alongside massive billboards canvassing “door-to-door” support ahead of elections that are two years away. And two opposition governors from large, oil-rich southern states defected to the ruling party in recent weeks.

Trump’s growing influence on S. Africa

US President Donald Trump has become “an unlikely catalyst” in shifting South Africa’s economic and foreign policies, writes journalist Sam Mkokeli in a column for Semafor.

In a bid to stabilize relations following last week’s heated Oval Office meeting between Trump and the South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Pretoria has proposed importing around $1 billion of US liquefied natural gas annually in exchange for duty-free access for South African steel, aluminum, and vehicles. It has also dialed back its criticism of Israel, a senior ANC insider told Mkokeli, after filing a genocide case against the country at the International Court of Justice.

This pivot is shaped by both domestic coalition constraints and geopolitical pressure, writes Mkokeli, reflecting a move away from ideological orthodoxy and toward economic pragmatism.

Ghana calls out Trump’s attack

Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama said in a rare op-ed that US President Donald Trump’s “unfounded accusations” of a genocide targeting South Africa’s white minority was an insult to all Africans. The American president’s claims “conflict with the actual racial persecution and massacres” that took place in the country during the two centuries of colonization and nearly 50 years of apartheid, he wrote in The Guardian. “When it comes to interactions with the world beyond our continent, we are each other’s bellwether,” he wrote, arguing that even as Trump pressured Pretoria, “real genocides are happening in real time all across the globe.”

AfDB election race heats up

The campaign for the next president of the African Development Bank entered its final 48 hours on Wednesday without a clear frontrunner. The five candidates: Mahamat Abbas Tolli (Chad); Sidi Ould Tah (Mauritania); Amadou Hott (Senegal); Swazi Tshabalala (South Africa); and Samuel Munzele Maimbo (Zambia) have spent between 12 and 18 months campaigning across the continent and meeting other non-regional shareholders to win votes.

The election’s votes are weighted by the shareholdings, so countries including Nigeria (8.2%), the US (6.6%); Egypt (5.6%), Japan (5.5%), and South Africa (5.2%) will have a significant influence on how this plays out. The election is expected to go down to a second and possibly third round on Thursday.

Three people familiar with the process told Semafor that Mauritania’s Tah and Zambia’s Maimbo, have edged in front but there was still a chance South Africa’s Tshabalala and Senegal’s Hott could make the second round. The bank’s next president takes office in September and will face pressure to seek new sources of funds after the US cut its backing for the bank’s main African Development Fund.

— Yinka Adegoke

Jumia resets to take on Temu and Shein

Jumia, Africa’s biggest online retailer, is ramping up the number of Chinese merchants on its platforms as it struggles to counter fierce competition from China’s e-commerce giants Temu and Shein.

“We have significantly strengthened our relationships with international sellers, especially from China,” said Francis Dufay, Jumia’s CEO, on a call with investors this month. “Our Chinese vendor base is scaling rapidly, and the supply pipeline is more robust than ever.”

Temu launched in Nigeria in November 2024, gaining traction through aggressive advertising, deep discounts, and promises of delivery within two weeks. Shein, while more targeted, is using influencer-driven marketing to expand in major urban centers across Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa. Neither retailer has established full physical operations on the continent.

The timing of growing Chinese competition is especially difficult for Jumia at a time when it is less flush with capital than in its early years. Its market capitalization has tumbled to under $400 million from $1.5 billion less than three years ago.

Zimbabwe’s drivers face radio fee

The annual cost of a radio levy that Zimbabwean motorists must pay before their vehicles can be licensed and insured, under a controversial new law. Funds raised will go to state broadcaster Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, which is grappling with dwindling advertising revenue while struggling to make people pay for TV and radio licenses. Under the new rule, signed into law this week, exemptions will be available for motorists who do not own a radio. Critics, many of whom have accused ZBC of pro-government bias, have called for the fee to be scrapped. The levy could potentially generate millions of dollars for the country, which has around 1.2 million registered vehicles.

Business & Macro

🇰🇪 The World Bank revised its Kenya growth forecast for this year to 4.5%, nearly half a percentage point down from its previous projection, citing high debt levels and lending rates.

🇿🇦 South Africa’s communications minister said the country was not bending rules that mandate Black shareholding in foreign-owned companies to allow Elon Musk’s Starlink to operate in the country.

Climate & Energy

🇿🇲 Stanbic Bank’s $100 million financing of a 100 megawatt solar energy project in Zambia raised the bank’s total financing in the energy sector to $223.7 million in the last six months, it said.

🌍 Sweden’s development financier Swedfund will invest $10 million into a climate-focused fund by African tech investor Novastar Ventures.

Geopolitics & Policy

🇰🇪 Kenya canceled a planned opening of a Somaliland liaison office in Nairobi which was set to coincide with the Somaliland president’s visit to Kenya.

Tech & Deals

🇿🇦 South African gold producer Harmony Gold will buy Australian miner Mac Copper in a $1.03 billion deal.

🇳🇬 Blockchain.com, a crypto trading company founded in the UK, plans to open a physical office in Nigeria this quarter as part of an Africa expansion.

Namibia will today for the first time commemorate the killing of 70,000 Africans in a genocide by Germany that came decades before the Holocaust. German forces used concentration camps in the early-20th century to torture and kill local communities who refused to give up their property in what was then South West Africa. In recent years, Windhoek has pressured Berlin to pay reparations for the mass slaughter, with Germany so far offering about $1.3 billion in development aid to be paid over 30 years, albeit without describing the sum as compensation or reparations. Today’s Genocide Remembrance Day, a national holiday, will be marked by a minute’s silence and candlelight vigil outside Namibia’s parliament.

SolarWinds is eyeing double-digit revenue growth in the Gulf as the Texas-based IT software company rebuilds following a cyberattack in 2020, Semafor’s Kelsey Warner reported.

More than 80% of government entities in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar already use its software, and the now privately held company aims to accelerate the rollout of new tools for the artificial intelligence age, SolarWinds’ chief technology officer said.

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