Tom van den Berg will become COO on January 1, replacing Mark Farren. He will oversee Kamoa-Kakula, Kipushi, and Platreef as production ramps up. Transition focuses on stabilizing Kamoa-Kakula after this year’s seismic incident. Tom van den Berg, currently a senior operations executive at the Kamoa-Kakula copper mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo, will become Chief Operating...

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu launched the Global Flood Disaster Management Project on 25 November 2025 to shift Nigeria from reactive to proactive flood management. The project rests on four pillars: advanced early-warning systems, flood-resilient infrastructure, capacity-building with knowledge transfer, and community engagement. Nigeria faced worsening floods in 2024, with inundated farmland...

Cameroon’s pineapple exports fell by an average 18.1% between 2020 and 2025. Exports to the EU, Cameroon’s main market, declined 19.5% over the same period. Cameroon holds only 0.1% of global pineapple market share, far behind Côte d’Ivoire’s 0.9%. Cameroon faces a sustained contraction in pineapple production, and the decline has accelerated over the past five years. The...

Africa50 urges DFIs to adopt speed KPIs after cutting its project development timeline to 3.5 years, far below the 7–10-year norm. CEO Alain Ebobissé says slow approvals worsen Africa’s $130–170bn infrastructure gap, with only 10% of projects reaching financial close. At AIF, Africa50 highlighted asset recycling, a Kenya transmission deal, and a $400m fund mobilizing African...

President Donald Trump removed tariffs on more than 200 food products on November 14, 2025, easing pressure on exporters including African suppliers. African agricultural exports to the US grew at an average annual rate of 6.05% from 2020 to 2024, reaching $3.96 billion. The expiry of AGOA in September 2025 threatens Africa’s competitive position despite the latest tariff...

The DRC launched an international call for interest to build a national rail-manufacturing plant, with bids due by March 9, 2026. The project includes three industrial sites—Kisangani, Kinshasa and Banalia—covering steel rolling, machining, raw-material extraction and logistics. Authorities plan to structure the project as a PPP under BOOT or joint-venture models with...

Vodacom Tanzania launches M-Pesa Global Payments, enabling seamless international transactions through partnerships with Visa, Alipay, MTN Uganda, and others. Tanzanian users can now pay global merchants directly from their mobile wallets, including Visa-enabled terminals, Alipay merchants in China, TerraPay merchants in Dubai, and MTN MoMo merchants in Uganda. The launch aligns with...

Lobito Corridor enters EPC bid evaluation, with AFC expecting construction start in 2026 in Angola and Zambia. Investor interest shifts toward agriculture, with agribusiness enquiries surpassing minerals along the corridor. Rising farm output and planned processing zones position Lobito to drive $1.2bn in annual agricultural trade by 2035. The $6 6bn-plus Lobito...

Mastercard expects Africa’s AI market to reach USD 16.5 billion by 2030, creating demand for machine-learning talent. Salaries for ML engineers already exceed most IT roles, with annual pay reaching $181,556 in the U.S. and up to $122,355 in South Africa. Africa faces a structural talent gap: only 31% of 174 universities offer dedicated AI programmes, according to the...

Government plans to vaccinate more than 7 million cattle to secure “FMD-free with vaccination” status from WOAH. Authorities aim to import 2 million vaccine doses by February and build domestic production capacity of 1.5 million additional doses. Persistent outbreaks threaten major export markets including China, Egypt, the UAE and the broader Middle East. South Africa faces...