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Egypt and Afreximbank are studying a pan-African Gold Bank to anchor gold refining, vaulting and trading on the continent and reduce reliance on offshore hubs.
After two years of tightening, African central banks split in 2025—some cutting aggressively as inflation eased, others holding firm to protect currency stability and anchor hard-won disinflation gains.
Inflation eased across much of Sub-Saharan Africa in 2025, helped by stable currencies and lower food prices, giving several central banks room to cut rates as price pressures receded.
After decades of protectionism, Ethiopia’s banking reforms are translating into higher profits, faster digital expansion and growing foreign interest, even as inflation, credit concentration and competition risks persist.
PMI surveys show Nigeria and Uganda sustaining expansion in 2025, while Egypt, Kenya and South Africa lagged, reflecting divergent inflation trends, currency pressures and uneven domestic demand.
The United States recently expanded travel restrictions targeting citizens from multiple African countries, suspending entry for several key visa categories starting January 1, 2026.
The NSE will integrate M-Pesa into share trading, a move that shortens settlement cycles and positions Kenya’s leading telco as a gateway to equity markets.
Africa’s largest lenders spent over $537m on acquisitions in 2025, led by South African banks, even as recapitalisation rules and uneven profits reshaped expansion plans today…
Africa heads into 2026 with sovereign credit assessments that reflect a continent moving at different speeds. Ratings from Moody’s, S&P Global Ratings, and Fitch Ratings now show a wider gap between countries
The figure reflects the combined value of 10 FX auctions held by the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) between February and the second week of December 2025, aimed at deepening liquidity and strengthening the Birr
Standard Bank has agreed to provide a $138m facility to Safaricom Ethiopia, backing network expansion as the operator scales in Africa’s second-most populous market.
Many low-income countries had been struggling with mounting debt distress before COVID-19, but the pandemic worsened the problem. In the shadow of soaring Eurobond maturities and post-COVID economic scars, Africa’s low-income countries (LICs) have been facing a debt crisis.
Egypt’s inflation cooled more than expected in November, easing pressure on the central bank and strengthening the case for resuming rate cuts at its 25 December meeting.
Telcos, fintechs and open-finance platforms are exposing APIs that let African developers move money, verify identity and offer credit with just a few lines of code.
Kenya cuts its benchmark rate to 9% in a ninth straight easing move, bringing borrowing costs to their lowest since early 2023 as credit conditions and FX reserves strengthen.
An analysis by Finance in Africa revealed that US-bound exports grew from $674 million in January to $982 million in October, reflecting a 37% increase.
For decades, cross-border trade in Africa has depended on the U.S. dollar, an expensive middleman that small businesses can barely afford. Every time goods moved across a border, traders lost time and money converting local currencies through foreign banks.
South Africa was the only country to remain in contraction, with a PMI of 49, underscoring the economy’s continued divergence from an otherwise strengthening regional trend.
When Nigeria ratified the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) in 2020, it was sold as a once-in-a-generation opportunity, a chance to plug Africa’s largest economy into a single market of 1.3 billion people…
The CBN’s new APP fraud draft rules shift liability across Nigeria’s payment system, introducing mandatory refunds, stricter timelines and Board-level oversight.