Africa

1. AfDB’s new president
2. Africa’s growth projections
3. Kabila surfaces from exile
4. 50 years of Ecowas
5. SPAR’s Europe strategy
6. Benin Bronzes to be returned
7. Kenyan literary giant dies
8. Weekend Reads

A new restaurant in Lagos inspired by Afrobeats.

Mauritania’s Sidi Ould Tah is new AfDB head

Mauritania’s former finance minister was named the next head of the African Development Bank, taking over the multilateral lender at a time when Western countries are pulling support and amid a global trade war. Sidi Ould Tah, who won after three rounds of voting by AfDB shareholders, pledged during his campaign to strengthen Africa’s financial systems, leverage its natural resources to help the continent industrialize, and unlock new pools of capital.

Tah built a strong reputation reshaping the finances of the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa, a smaller, but fast-growing lender. While there he tapped into Gulf financial support and there are hopes he can replicate that approach on a larger scale with the AfDB as the continent grapples with fears of a global economic slowdown and the curtailing of aid and financial support by Western powers.

After the vote, Tah thanked shareholders in French, which was notable after calls from some Francophone countries for one of their own to replace the Nigerian Akinwumi Adesina. But he ended his speech with a rallying cry in English: “Now let us go to work, I am ready.”

Africa’s growth projections

The African Development Bank lowered its forecast for continent-wide economic growth, warning of “recurring multiple shocks and tariff-induced global uncertainty.” It projected growth of 3.9% this year, down from 4.1% in a prior forecast, and 4% in 2026, a reduction from 4.4% previously.

East Africa will see the highest average regional growth and Southern Africa will have the lowest, with the continent’s largest economy South Africa expected to grow by just 0.8%. Inflation and interest payments on sovereign debt, which consumes 27.5% of government revenue across Africa, will remain key challenges to growth, the bank said. Still, Africa’s growth in 2025 will exceed the global average and outperform other continents, except Asia, the AfDB said.

Person of Interest: Joseph Kabila

Joseph Kabila, the self-exiled former president of DR Congo, appeared for the first time in public in the rebel-controlled east of the country.

The 53-year-old, who led DR Congo for 18 years, is wanted by Kinshasa on suspicion of crimes against humanity for his support of the M23 insurgents, which the UN says is backed by Rwanda, and has been out of the country since 2023. He has previously denied any links with M23 and his meeting with religious leaders in Goma was pitched as an attempt to broker peace. But President Felix Tshisekedi’s government has accused him of “positioning himself as the rebel leader.”

A Congolese political analyst told The Washington Post the current political situation represented a “dangerous standoff” between the Congolese government and Kabila. The former president’s surprise return could also threaten Washington’s plans for a peace deal between DR Congo and Rwanda. It’s unclear how long Kabila will remain in the country.

Half a century of Ecowas

The number of years since the Economic Community of West African States was formed. The bloc, created to foster economic integration and political solidarity between West African nations, has fractured in recent years following a spate of military coups. Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger — each now led by a junta — left in January, causing the biggest split to the body since its formation, reducing the bloc to 12 members. The trio formed the Alliance of Sahel States as an alternative to Ecowas, which they accuse of serving the interests of Western powers. Addressing an event to commemorate the anniversary, Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu, who currently chairs Ecowas, said the bloc’s challenge in the next 50 years was to “renew our compact with one another.”

S. Africa’s SPAR downsizes in Europe

South Africa’s SPAR Group said it will sell its retail businesses in Switzerland and the UK after a strategic review of its operations in Europe. SPAR’s Swiss subsidiary has more than 300 stores and contributes nearly $900 million to the South African firm’s revenue, while the UK operation adds $300 million. The South African group, which owns several country licenses of the Netherlands-based SPAR group, last year sold its loss-making Polish business. The coming sales will leave it with international operations in Ireland, its biggest overseas business, and a joint venture in Sri Lanka. At home the SPAR Group is increasingly targeting wealthier shoppers, with a chain of about 40 high-end grocery stores due to open in the fourth quarter of this year.

The global workforce is at an inflection point. New tech continues to impact how we work, and managers are struggling as organizations undergo major changes.

Join Semafor for newsmaking conversations in partnership with Gallup’s 2025 State of the Global Workplace report. Explore new data on how employees and managers are navigating ongoing uncertainty in the global labor market. Experts will discuss key findings on productivity, resilience, and well-being, and examine how leaders and policymakers are responding to shifting workplace expectations.

June 12, 2025 | Washington, DC | RSVP

Netherlands to return Benin Bronzes

The Netherlands is preparing to return 113 stolen ancient sculptures to Nigeria amid growing momentum in the campaign to restore treasures looted from Africa during colonial rule. The items, known as Benin Bronzes, were taken from the ancient Kingdom of Benin, in modern-day Nigeria, by British colonialists. The Wereldmuseum in Leiden will ship the sculptures to Lagos in June. “I think we all agree that this collection doesn’t belong in European museums. We do hope that other countries will follow this example,” the museum director told AFP.

Kenya literary giant dies

The legendary Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, a fierce advocate for African self-determination, died aged 87, leaving behind a legacy of pioneering modern African literature. The author’s experiences during the late stages of British colonial rule in Kenya had a profound influence on his early work, with his family among the hundreds and thousands devastated by the crackdown on Mau Mau independence fighters. That partly inspired his first book Weep Not, Child, published in 1964 after he shared a manuscript with Nigerian author Chinua Achebe at a writers’ conference at Makerere University in Uganda. In the 1980s Ngũgĩ became a strong champion for writing in local African languages. “If you know all the languages of the world but don’t know your mother tongue, that is enslavement,” he argued in a 2015 interview.

Weekend Reads

• Many African countries could fill the US aid gap with tax revenues, argues a public finance and development specialist in a blog post for the London School of Economics. Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Kenya, Niger, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda are among those that are taxing below their potential and could replace their foreign aid allocation through taxation, writes Kylee McVicker. African leaders and researchers are also increasingly calling for self-reliance.

• Advocates are pushing for “equal area” map projections that more accurately represent the African continent than the dominant Mercator Map projection that shrinks Africa and much of the Global South, Al Jazeera reports. Abimbola Ogundairo from the nonprofit Africa No Filter, which works to change negative perceptions of the continent, is leading the “Correct the World” campaign. “We live in a world where size is often equated with power,” Ogundairo tells the outlet.

• Can plans for a new AU-sanctioned African credit ratings agency change the financial fortunes of the continent’s economies? That’s what Catherine Nzuki from the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank discusses with Ashton University’s Daniel Cash in a new podcast. They explore the claims of bias by the “Big Three” credit rating agencies — Fitch, Moody’s, and S&P — while breaking down the prospects of the planned Africa Credit Rating Agency. They also examine the impact that weak sovereign credit ratings can have on young Africans.

• Europe is losing out in the race to access Africa’s critical minerals because its environmental, social, and governance standards are too strict, argue two energy researchers. The hyper-focus on ESG is preventing Europe from establishing mineral supply chains that are independent of China, write the visiting fellows at the European Council on Foreign Relations. “The EU’s ESG-first approach overlooks other African policy priorities, notably industrialisation and job creation, making it less attractive to African governments,” they say.

• Russia is recruiting hundreds of African women to assemble Iranian drones in its factories, The Economist reports. Many of those recruited seem to be unaware of the work they’ve traveled to do, according to the publication, with roles advertised as work-study programs in sectors such as hospitality and catering. The “unusual presence of African workers on Russian assembly lines” raises important questions for African governments. “What, if anything, will they do to help them?”

Business & Macro

🇿🇦 South Africa’s central bank cut its benchmark rate by 25 basis points to 7.25% as inflation stayed below expectations since the last rate review in March.

🇰🇪 Kenyan bank Equity Group fired 1,200 employees after an investigation revealed alleged suspicious transactions from their bank accounts.

Climate & Energy

🇦🇴 Quilemba Solar, a joint venture between TotalEnergies, Angola’s state oil company Sonangol, and French oil company Maurel & Prom has begun building a 35-megawatt solar plant in Angola expected to open in 2026.

Geopolitics & Policy

🇸🇩 Sudan faces a potential health emergency in the capital Khartoum following a cholera outbreak attributed to drone strikes by the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary that hit water and electricity supplies.

🌍 Somaliland President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi said formal “recognition is on the horizon” for the country, which broke away from Somalia in 1991, in an interview with The Guardian.

Tech & Deals

🌍 The African Development Bank will invest $100 million in Arise Integrated Industrial Platforms to fund the latter’s developments of African industrial parks and special economic zones

🇿🇦 Telecoms company MTN South Africa will begin decommissioning 3G network facilities in the country by 2027 to increase 5G rollout, though 2G will be preserved for legacy systems that require it.

A new restaurant inspired by Afrobeats opens in Lagos today. The Afrobeat in Victoria Island takes inspiration from the “spirit, rhythm, and soul” of the West African-rooted sound, with Culture Custodian calling it “a living tribute to Africa’s most influential music genre.” Traditional dishes from Nigeria and across the continent will be on the menu but the exact offering is yet to be revealed. “We’re serving fire food and killer beats,” said a post on the restaurant’s Instagram page, asking guests to bring their appetite, crew, and dance moves.

AI-generated social-media slop has become a barometer of political fame, and some lawmakers are starting to worry, Semafor’s David Weigel and Kadia Goba reported.

“Clearly the algorithm loves my name, so people do stuff with my name,” said Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett, whose busy — and fictional — Tuesday included a closed-door confrontation with Elon Musk and rhetorical smackdowns of Republican representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert. Cabinet secretaries, members of Congress, and presidential family members regularly appear in fake stories with tidy narratives, which sometimes get more views than real-world political reporting that’s not built for the algorithms.

If you’re enjoying the Semafor Africa briefing and finding it useful, please share with your family and friends. We’d love to have them aboard too.

Let’s make sure this email doesn’t end up in your junk folder by adding africa@semafor.com to your contacts. In Gmail you should drag this briefing over to your ‘Primary’ tab.

You can reply to this email and send us your news tips, gossip, and good vibes.

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