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South African lender Nedbank completed its takeover of about 66% of Kenya's NCBA Group on 19 October, after holders of 79.9% of the shares accepted its offer of cash and new Nedbank shares worth about 13.9 billion rand ($800 million). NCBA is Kenya's fourth-largest bank by assets, which reached Sh716 billion ($5.5 billion) at the end of 2025, and also operates in Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda. Nedbank, more reliant on South Africa than its local rivals, until now had only a representative office in East Africa. The deal gives it a ready regional network and a large digital lending business, while NCBA keeps its brand and its Nairobi listing, with 34% of shares left with public investors.
Ghana's Petroleum Hub Development Corporation (PHDC) signed a $28 billion build-operate agreement on 19 October with a consortium led by Global Sphere for the second phase of its petroleum hub at Jomoro. The phase includes a 300,000-barrel-per-day refinery, two petrochemical plants, four million cubic metres of storage and a jetty; construction is due to start in early 2027 and finish by 2031. The first phase, a $12 billion complex of the same refining capacity agreed in 2024, still has no commissioning date as land transfer and compensation drag on. A second phase would add capacity far beyond Ghana's own fuel demand, so its future rests on export markets and on the consortium raising the money.
Orion Minerals said on 19 October that a $40 million prepayment from Glencore has become unconditional, allowing it to start developing the Prieska copper and zinc mine in South Africa's Northern Cape. The first drawdown is due by the end of October, and Orion targets first concentrate from the shallower "Uppers" section by the end of 2027. The money is the first tranche of a $250 million deal agreed in February and repaid with concentrate; the $210 million second tranche for the deeper ore body still needs other financing. The restart revives a mine that produced about 430,000 tonnes of copper and one million tonnes of zinc until 1991, and ties its future output to Glencore.
Rwanda's state-owned Energy Development Corporation has invited independent power producers to prequalify for a 200-megawatt (MW) floating solar plant on Lake Sake in Eastern Province, with batteries storing 800 megawatt-hours. The winner would design, finance, build and operate the plant for 25 years under a power purchase agreement; applications are due on 12 November and completion is expected within 18 months. Rwanda has about 473 MW of installed capacity, solar supplies only about 4.2% of its generation, and the government plans to reach 1,066 MW by 2034. The plant would add capacity equal to about two-fifths of today's total, and its four-hour storage would shift daytime solar output to the evening peak.
The OPEC Fund for International Development has started appraising a €150 million loan for Uganda's standard gauge railway from Malaba, on the Kenyan border, to Kampala, and aims for board approval by 30 November. It would be the fund's largest commitment to Uganda since 1976 and follows €650 million approved by the Islamic Development Bank in June. The line costs €2.7 billion (about $3 billion): export credit agencies are to cover about 60%, development lenders 25% and the government 15% through a sukuk, an Islamic bond, before financial close planned for January 2027. The railway is meant to halve freight costs to about $0.07 per tonne-kilometre and cut transit from 8.5 days to one, lowering trade costs for landlocked Uganda.
Kodal Minerals, which mines lithium at Bougouni in Mali, signed a binding agreement on 19 October to earn up to 80% of the Asamankese lithium project in Ghana, about 75 kilometres from Accra. Kodal paid $300,000 for an initial 10% and can reach 80% over about five years with staged spending of $12.75 million tied to a resource estimate and a feasibility study; drilling should start before the end of 2026. Its sampling found 95 of 164 rock samples above 1% lithium oxide. On the same day, President John Mahama told a mining conference that Ghana will phase out exports of unprocessed minerals, including lithium, by 2030, so any future mine would need to process its ore locally.
