Africa

1. Funding healthcare
2. Boosting gas production
3. Hunting debate
4. Ethiopia’s president
5. Mozambique decides

Also, a giant undersea crater off Guinea’s coast fascinates scientists.

Welcome to Semafor Africa, where we’re wondering whether the debt crisis that followed the pandemic is finally coming to an end. It certainly feels like it after last week’s news that Ghana had reached an agreement with its international bondholders to restructure $13 billion of debt. It was one of three African countries that were high-profile sovereign defaults, alongside Zambia and Ethiopia. But now, following protracted talks with investors, each member of the trio can see light at the end of the tunnel.

Zambia, which in November 2020 became the first African country to default after the start of the pandemic, earlier this year became a test case for using a G20-endorsed “common framework” to restructure its debt. And Ethiopia is ramping up negotiations, even though talks over a $1 billion bond restructuring have been fractious.

This is what progress looks like. The entire continent shouldn’t be judged on the difficulties of three countries faced during an extraordinary global health crisis. But each case has fed into a broader conversation about the economic fundamentals of African nations, which affects the ability of countries to borrow what they need to help fund their economic development. That’s why progress made by those countries matters.

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Transforming health

The final amount raised by private equity firm AfricInvest for its Transform Health Fund. The fund is targeted at improving quality healthcare access in sub-Saharan Africa by investing in companies providing direct healthcare solutions and those enabling supply chains on the continent. The fund was raised in partnership with the Health Finance Coalition, a group that includes Rockefeller Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, World Health Organization and the World Bank. The US government’s International Development Finance Corporation, and France’s Proparco were among other investors in the fund. It will be managed by AfricInvest.

Natural gas production increases

Africa’s natural gas production is expected to grow by 3% in 2025, after supply flattened in recent years. The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that two projects in Congo and the long-awaited Tortue field in Senegal are among new and improved facilities that will boost Africa’s contribution to gas supply next year. But the continent’s total exports will be impacted by “continued underperformance” in Nigeria and Egypt in particular, the IEA said. Africa holds 9% of global gas reserves, with 70% of production coming from North Africa, led by Algeria and Egypt. Nigeria leads the continent’s exports of liquefied natural gas but pipeline vandalism remains a challenge to its capacity, the IEA noted.

Tanzania doubles down on elephant hunting

NAIROBI — Tanzania plans to issue more hunting permits, prioritizing revenues and herd management over international conservation pressures.

Legal killings of elephants by trophy hunters in northern Tanzania near the Kenyan border have risen over the last year, prompting concerns over a dwindling elephant population and calls for a ban on the hunting of cross-border elephants.

While elephant hunting is permitted in Tanzania, it has been illegal in Kenya since 1973. Elephants which roam freely between the border areas have traditionally been protected by a gentleman’s agreement between the two countries, but conservationists say this has been ignored in the past year.

At least five elephants were legally targeted and killed by trophy hunters in northern Tanzania over the previous eight months, according to various conservation groups.

But in a letter dated Sept. 18, seen by Semafor Africa, senior Tanzanian officials and researchers doubled down on allowing the hunting of elephants in the area. They cited human-wildlife conflicts and the economic benefits derived from hunting.

The Tanzanian letter, addressed to the editor of Science magazine, was responding to a published letter from more than 20 zoologists and conservationists calling for an end to the hunting of elephants in the borderlands and for a harmonized conservation strategy between Kenya and Tanzania.

Ethiopian lawmakers choose new president

The Ethiopian parliament voted in a new president, replacing one embroiled in ongoing political differences with the government.

Taye Atskeselassie, who has been foreign minister for just eight months, will take over from former UN diplomat Sahle-Work Zewde.

The role of president is largely ceremonial in Ethiopia, with limited political authority. Executive power is mainly wielded by the prime minister. Sahle-Work became Ethiopia’s first female president in 2018.

The outgoing president was appointed during the early years of the Abiy Ahmed premiership that saw prominent women appointed in important positions in a bid to embrace gender parity for the first time.

In a post on X on Sunday that presaged her impending resignation, she quoted a famous Amharic song about hopelessness and silence being the only option, stating: “I tried that for a whole year.”

The outgoing president has been criticized for being indifferent with the affairs of the nation, including the Tigray war that saw thousands killed and ongoing fighting in the neighboring Amhara region.

— Samuel Getachew in Addis Ababa

Mozambique prepares for elections

Mozambique is set to hold presidential and legislative elections on Wednesday (Oct. 9).

The ruling Frelimo party, which has governed the southern African country since it secured independence in 1975, is widely expected to retain its grip on power. And its candidate, Daniel Chapo, is the strong favorite to replace outgoing President Filipe Nyusi, who has completed two terms in office.

Independent candidate Venacio Mondlane, a banker whose rallies have attracted large crowds, is widely considered to be the strongest of the three other main candidates.

The candidates have all vowed to address development problems linked to an Islamist insurgency in the gas-rich northern Cabo Delgado province. Islamic State-affiliated rebels have killed thousands and forced 1.3 million people to flee their homes since 2017. Their attacks also prompted the halting of a $20 billion liquefied natural gas project by France’s TotalEnergies.

Chapo last week told Bloomberg he favors holding talks to end the insurgency.

Nearly 17 million voters in the nation of around 30 million people are registered to vote for the next president, as well as 250 members of parliament and provincial assemblies. The electoral commission will announce the results after 15 days before validation by the Constitutional Council.

Geopolitics

🇺🇬 Uganda’s defense chief Muhoozi Kainerugaba promised to ensure the US ambassador William W. Popp would leave the country if he did not apologize for undermining his father, President Yoweri Museveni.

🇦🇴 US President Joe Biden has postponed his upcoming trip to Germany and Angola, which was set for Oct. 10-15. He will stay back to oversee preparations for the significant impact of hurricanes across the United States’ southeast.

Health

🇷🇼 Rwanda’s health minister on Sunday said the country had started vaccination against the Marburg virus to combat an outbreak of the disease.

Global Finance

🇸🇱 British International Investment on Monday announced a $25 million risk-sharing facility with Ecobank Sierra Leone to help the bank increase private sector lending.

Deals

🇨🇲 Infrastructure developer Arise IIP signed an agreement with Cameroon’s Port Authority of Douala to create a Dibamba Industrial Port Zone. Spanning 517 hectares, it aims to be the country’s first project to combine port and industrial facilities.

🇨🇻 Private equity firm Injaro Investments, through its Investment Capital Partners subsidiary, completed an investment in Cabo Verdean poultry and animal feed company AGRA to finance its expansion.

Tech

🇰🇲 The African Development Bank approved a $10.4 million fund to support the digitization of Comoros’ economy.

🇳🇬 Nigerian fintech startup Okra will begin offering cloud services billed in African currencies, to compete with tech giants Amazon and Microsoft.

🇿🇲 South African fintech company Kazang Pay launched a service for vendors in Zambia to accept card payments on a portable point-of-sale device.

Governance

🇹🇿 Tanzania’s communications regulator has suspended the online operations of newspaper publisher Mwananchi Communications after one of its titles ran an animated advert depicting a President Samia Suluhu Hassan-lookalike referenced a recent spate of abductions and dissident killings.

🇸🇳 Senegal said it would lower its budget deficit after an audit ordered by President Bassirou Diomaye Faye revealed the 2023 budget deficit is over 10%, compared to the 5% reported by the previous administration.

🇿🇼 Zimbabwe’s finance minister said the government would pay an initial $20 million to local and foreign farmers who lost land under former leader Robert Mugabe in 2002.

Mining

🇧🇫 Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore said his government would withdraw mining permits from some multinationals, without specifying which would be revoked, as his country seeks to produce more gold — its main export.

Energy

🇳🇬 Nigeria’s state oil company reportedly pledged about 8.17 million barrels of crude per month in a series of crude-for-loan deals totalling $8.86 billion.

A massive underwater crater was created about 66 million years ago when a huge asteroid struck off the coast of Guinea. The 5-mile-wide crater was formed around the same time that a bigger asteroid struck and wiped out dinosaurs, according to a study published in the journal Nature Communications Earth & Environment. Researchers behind the study said it could even be part of the larger rock which struck near Chicxulub in Mexico at the end of the Cretaceous Period, throwing up enough dust to block out the sun. Researchers say they intend to drill down in the ocean floor near Guinea to collect samples of the crater in an attempt to reconstruct the strike and understand how the energy of the impact affected the surrounding area.

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Happy 62nd Independence Day to the people of Uganda!!! (Oct. 9) 🇺🇬

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— Yinka, Alexis, Alexander Onukwue, Martin Siele, and Muchira Gachenge.