Africa

1. PayPal plans wallet launch
2. Kenya bans US health deal…
3. …Uganda, Lesotho sign
4. Transsion’s Africa ambition
5. Benin seeks coup leader
6. Côte d’Ivoire seeks US help

Weekend Reads, and celebrating the New Afrika Shrine.

Anyone curious about trends in Africa’s relationships with the rest of the world need only look at the contrast between Washington and Abu Dhabi in the last week.

The White House’s new National Security Strategy presented a very brief assessment of US priorities when engaging with the continent: in essence, it will chase deals on critical minerals and energy. Here in the UAE, where I’ve been attending Abu Dhabi Finance Week, it’s clear the Emirate is positioning itself as the center of global finance — the relentless branding of Abu Dhabi as the “capital of capital” is a giveaway. But, crucially, that marketing story features Africa as a chapter, rather than a footnote.

The numbers point to a level of commitment: The UAE is one of the biggest investors in Africa — it recently said its total investments there were over $118 billion between 2020 and 2024. Last month, it said it will invest $1 billion to expand AI infrastructure and services across the continent.

The UAE’s relationship with Africa has a deeply problematic dimension, of course. It has repeatedly faced accusations by human rights groups of providing military and financial support to Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces, which has been accused of committing genocide in the country’s civil war; Abu Dhabi has denied the claims. Some of the Emirate’s business dealings in Africa have also highlighted the challenges of investing on the continent, raising questions of how many of this week’s grand announcements will translate into activity on the ground. This year I reported on a troubled $1 billion data center project in Kenya, spearheaded by UAE AI firm G42, that has faltered due to the lack of a viable business model. A carbon credit deal in Liberia has similarly stalled.

Still, many in Africa’s business community see benefits in forging closer ties with the UAE. At a time when Europe and the US are making it increasingly onerous to secure a visa, business leaders say it is relatively straightforward to visit the Gulf state to secure deals, financing, and investment. Ali Abulhasan, CEO of Kuwait-headquartered fintech Tap Payments, told me during a panel at Semafor’s Next 3 Billion on Tour event that “a lot of investment bridging between African countries is happening from the UAE.”

PayPal plans Africa wallet launch

Payments giant PayPal is in talks with fintech players in Africa to launch a new cross-border digital wallet platform on the continent in 2026, Otto Williams, its head of Middle East and Africa, told Semafor, as the company seeks to capture a slice of a fast-growing market.

PayPal World, a new global platform, will allow people with local digital wallets to make cross-border payments or shop overseas. Users will connect with their local digital wallet, rather than setting up an account with the US payments company. The company announced the project in July — unveiling partnerships with digital wallet providers in Brazil, China, and India — and said it would go live this year.

Williams, speaking at Semafor’s Next 3 Billion event at Abu Dhabi Finance Week, said the platform would launch in Africa in 2026. “We’re looking to enable as many markets as possible on the continent” through local “wallet partners,” he said, and would also enable international merchants to accept payments from local wallets without investing in new technology. PayPal already partners with fintechs in Africa, including M-Pesa and Flutterwave, to enable local payments.

Kenya court suspends US health deal

A Kenyan court temporarily blocked the government from implementing a health aid agreement with the US, citing privacy concerns over the potential storage and use of citizens’ data.

The $2.5 billion pact would see the US government invest up to $1.6 billion into Kenya’s health programmes to combat HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases. The court’s injunction was in response to a lawsuit brought by consumer rights groups who argued that the partnership with Washington would involve sharing sensitive health information outside Kenya.

US health assistance for Africa has taken the form of bilateral partnership agreements in which both parties agree to fund programs under a new America First approach. The pact with Kenya, announced on Dec. 4, requires Nairobi to increase domestic health expenditure by $850 million over a five-year period.

US signs health deals with Uganda, Lesotho

The combined value of two separate five-year health cooperation deals between the US and Uganda and Lesotho. Washington will invest $1.7 billion in Uganda’s efforts to combat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and other infectious diseases, while the East African country will commit $500 million to the endeavor, according to the US State Department. Lesotho will receive $232 million and provide $132 million for a similar initiative.

The agreements advance the “America First Global Health Strategy” launched in September, months after US President Donald Trump revised his government’s approach to humanitarian assistance following the dismantling of USAID, which hit African countries particularly hard. The Trump administration will continue to enter bilateral health cooperation agreements with countries around the world, the State Department said.

Transsion IPO points to Africa ambitions

Transsion, the biggest seller of phones in Africa, could raise up to $1 billion via an initial public offering on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange after filing paperwork this month. The Shenzhen, China-based company, already valued at around $13 billion on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, is seeking the dual listing to gain access to Hong Kong’s capital markets and a wider pool of global-facing investors.

Transsion’s brands — Tecno, itel, and Infinix — have become ubiquitous across Africa over the last decade and the firm has been able to use its dominance on the continent to support its expansion into Asia and other markets to become the world’s fourth-largest phonemaker, according to the International Data Corporation: Last year, Transsion said it sold more than 200 million mobile phones in more than 100 countries. Longtime watchers of the company suggested it could use the new funds to expand into EV mobility products on the continent.

Person of Interest: Pascal Tigri

Colonel Pascal Tigri, the alleged leader of a failed coup in Benin, has sought refuge in neighboring Togo, according to Beninese officials, who are demanding his extradition. It comes amid rising tensions between the two nations in a region that has been hit by a spate of military takeovers in recent years. If the Togolese government does not extradite him and other accused coupmakers believed to be hiding in Lome, one official said, “that will be the proof that Togo was involved in the coup attempt.”

A former cadet of the country’s top military academy, Tigri rose up the ranks to serve in Benin’s national guard and later became commander of the special forces. Many colleagues were surprised to hear claims that he spearheaded the coup. “He is a disciplined officer, respectful of the hierarchy. He is not the type to rebel and is also very discreet,” one security source close to the palace told The Africa Report.

Abidjan seeks help against jihadi threat

Côte d’Ivoire wants the US to station spy planes in the country to help it fight jihadists who have gained territory across much of West Africa in recent months, according to Reuters. Extremist groups, including some linked to al-Qaida, have turned the region into one of the world’s terrorism hotspots, forcing millions to flee and further destabilizing economies where the cost of living has risen sharply as militants restrict access to farmland, jeopardizing food security. Their territorial expansion has been aided by several regional countries breaking long-term security alliances with Western nations, replacing their assistance with help from Russia, which analysts say is a far weaker partner. Some experts now fear that fighting between jihadi groups could turn West Africa into an “insurgency corridor” spanning 1,000 miles, Bloomberg reported.

• Africa is “entering a decisive chapter” in its journey “toward economic self-determination,” an expert on the continent’s emerging economies writes in Time magazine. Gillian M. Marcelle, CEO at Resilience Capital Ventures, flags that longstanding structural failures in global finance, including the mispricing of African risk, have prevented the continent’s nations from taking advantage of their natural resources and demographic dividend. She points to the recent G20 summit in South Africa as a gamechanger and argues that “unlocking trapped capital” will be key for the continent to meet its potential.

• Kenya’s government has failed to protect women working overseas despite mounting evidence of abuse, The New York Times writes. Earlier this year the Times published an investigation showing President William Ruto’s government downplayed or ignored the mistreatment of Kenyan women working in Saudi Arabia. The latest accounts of stranded Kenyan mothers and children trapped in the kingdom have “prompted rare criticism” of the government from a member of the ruling party, the Times’ Abdi Latif Dahir and Justin Scheck note, with a senator saying that “heads must roll.”

• Africa was the biggest loser at the divisive COP30 summit last month, the speaker of Kenya’s Young Parliamentarians Association argues in Foreign Policy. Nathaniel Mong’are points to the paradox of China walking away as “the summit’s de facto climate champion,” as its emissions have flatlined in recent months, while “simultaneously offshoring ecological destruction to the global south.” Mong’are says African communities will “absorb the fallout.” A Chinese firm’s recent toxic waste spill in Zambia and the hazardous working conditions endured by African workers in Guinea’s open-pit mines, operated by Chinese consortiums, are just two of the examples he cites.

• Jihadi attacks on fuel convoys bound for Mali’s capital have destroyed more than 130 tankers since September, a Bellingcat investigation finds. The al-Qaida-linked Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin is using “economic warfare tactics” to undermine the legitimacy of the country’s military regime. The fuel shortages have upended everyday life in Mali, with soaring food prices and suspended university classes among the consequences of the obstructions to transport and trade. Bellingcat’s open source evidence illustrates the large scale of JNIM’s campaign.

• The perspectives of African diaspora writers can sometimes “flatten the experiences” of those they seek to connect with on the continent, a Nigerian-American writer reflects in Lit Hub. Itoro Bassey draws on her own experience of living in Nigeria for the first time as an adult, recalling a conversation with a literary event organizer who noted that “Africa often becomes a site for spiritual reclamation” for diasporic writers. “We’re often not wrong in our understanding, but we tend to write to find ourselves,” argues Bassey.

Business & Macro

🇳🇬 UK-based consumer goods company PZ Cussons will not proceed with a planned sale of its Africa business after failing to receive offers it considered fair value, and now plans to grow the unit.

🇨🇩 DR Congo’s mining regulator said the first cobalt shipments under a new export quota regime will begin “within days.”

Climate & Energy

🇰🇪 The African Development Bank provided a $150 million debt facility to Kenyan banking group KCB for lending to businesses in renewable energy and green transition sectors.

🇳🇦 Oil and gas giant Shell will launch a drilling campaign offshore in Namibia by April 2026, in partnership with QatarEnergy and Namibia’s national oil company NAMCOR.

Geopolitics & Policy

🇹🇿 Tanzania’s main opposition party Chadema called on the UN and African bodies to oversee a transitional government and for a new election to take place, describing October’s poll as “invalid.”

Tech & Deals

🇿🇦 Talks between MultiChoice owner Canal+ and Warner Bros. Discovery over renewing access to channels, including CNN, have stalled over price.

🌍 Sun King, a provider of solar energy products in Africa, raised $40 million in equity financing from London-headquartered investor Lightrock.

The New Afrika Shrine, a cultural hub in Lagos built by the children of Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti to preserve his legacy, turned 25 this year. Fela’s oldest daughter Yeni Kuti, spoke to the BBC about building the open-air arena where fans of the musician and political activist come to pay their respects and party. The legendary club, modeled on the original Afrika Shrine night club run by Fela, hosts an annual Afrobeat festival and remains a musical pilgrimage site for fans. Yeni recalled the different people who have danced at the center over the years including Bono, Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu, and even French President Emmanuel Macron who in 2018 returned to the club he first visited as an intern in Nigeria in 2002. “I can’t tell you everything that happened when I used to come to the Shrine — because what happens at the Shrine stays at the Shrine,” he said at the time.