Insight

According to the Reserve Bank, the oil bill would have been 76 billion rand lower between 2021 and 2024 if refined products had accounted for 25% of imports. Meanwhile, CEF is preparing to restart SAPREF.

Kinshasa has submitted around fifty projects to the United States, while Gécamines plans to market 100,000 tons of copper from Tenke Fungurume to the American market in 2026. The next steps depend on financing and infrastructure capable of supporting these flows.

The WFP has received approximately $206 million this year compared to $645 million last year, while nearly 19.5 million people face acute food insecurity. The agency is already scaling back its assistance despite improved access in some areas.

The Siaya nuclear project can now reach 5,000 MW, while Kenya has approximately 3,300 MW of installed electrical capacity. This scale difference necessitates investments in the grid, financing, and regulatory framework.

In 2024, Bangladesh absorbed $480.6 million of the $525.7 million worth of cotton exported by Benin. In Glo-Djigbé, the challenge is to process more fiber locally and export more textiles and finished garments.

Commercial oil production is now not expected before the end of the 2026-2027 fiscal year. This new delay postpones anticipated revenues as the EACOP pipeline is 92.7% complete and debt servicing already weighs on public finances.

The IPO of Dangote refinery aims to raise approximately 2.15 trillion naira. Beyond the amount, the operation tests the ability of African markets to locally finance large industrial assets.

Sunday, April 7, 2025, Benin woke up shocked by an attempted coup that was quickly foiled. A group of soldiers briefly occupied the national television to announce the fall of President Talon, before being neutralized by loyalist forces. Although calm has returned, this episode—unprecedented in more than 50 years—raises many questions about the political climate, […]

Daniel Edah, a Beninese opposition political figure, has officially declared his candidacy for the April 2026 presidential election. The upcoming presidential vote in Benin will indeed see Patrice Talon give up his seat, and the ruling movement has already named his heir in Romuald Wadagni, the current Minister of State in charge of the Economy […]

With less than a year left in his current term, Beninese President Patrice Talon invited the youth to an unprecedented public exchange at the Republic’s palace. The event, held on July 28, 2025, aimed to be participatory, friendly, and educational. However, behind this apparent openness, several blind spots remain, and some governance choices are hard […]

As the 2025 presidential election in Ivory Coast nears, candidacies are multiplying. Certain familiar faces from the Ivorian political landscape, but also newcomers or peripheral figures, are announcing their intention to run for the highest office one after another. At first glance, this phenomenon might seem like a simple opportunistic effect of democracy. But looking […]

The official announcement of Alassane Ouattara’s candidacy for the presidential election in October 2025 is garnering a range of reactions and raising many questions. This decision reveals, beyond the stated intentions, what some observers perceive as reflecting three major collective failures, namely that of his own camp, that of the opposition, and that of a […]

As Patrice Talon prepares to leave office at the end of his second term, the Beninese presidential movement is organizing to designate its candidate for the 2026 presidential election. Amid internal rivalries, mastered electoral strategies, and a tight schedule, the major parties of the presidential camp—the Union Progressiste le Renouveau and the Bloc Républicain—intend to […]

Despite the billions invested and the promises of a brightly lit Grand Nokoué, public lighting remains the Achilles heel of Patrice Talon’s urban report card. Repeated breakdowns, acts of vandalism, deployment delays and areas still plunged into darkness; the lighting policy, which was raised to a national priority, has proven its limitations. Let’s take a […]

The results of Benin’s 2025 Baccalaureate, released on July 9, show a historic national pass rate of 73.02% – unprecedented since independence. This record figure has sparked national pride but also questions about its causes. Is it the result of major education reforms and improved school stability, or a “political rate” inflated by opportunistic measures? […]

We really do have to take our hats off to Togo’s undisputed master, Faure Gnassingbé. Say what you will, the man is very good at this. Not only has he just abolished the presidential election in his country in order to stay in power until his death, but on top of that he is having […]

Kinshasa and Washington are finalizing discussions around a strategic mining agreement aimed at attracting American investments in the critical minerals of the DRC, notably cobalt, lithium, and tantalum. The goal is to establish a regional value chain with extraction in the DRC, processing in Rwanda, and a transparent governance system to reduce dependency on China-dominated […]