The most important developments in sub-Saharan Africa. Six days a week.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) raised its 2026 growth forecast for sub-Saharan Africa to 4.5% in its World Economic Outlook on 13 October, up from 4.3% in July. Ethiopia leads the region at 9.2%, followed by Rwanda at 7.4% and Benin at 7.0%, while Nigeria is projected at 4.2% and South Africa at 1.0%. The IMF credits Nigeria's outlook to steadier macroeconomic policy and better terms of trade, but warned that higher prices for essential goods could deepen poverty. The gap between fast-growing East and West African economies and slow-growing South Africa is widening, which shifts investor attention towards the region's smaller markets.
The Bank of Uganda called an unscheduled meeting of its Monetary Policy Committee for 14 October after the shilling fell to a 33-year low of about 4,140 to the dollar on 13 October. The currency has lost about 12.8% since the end of 2025 as foreign investors sold government bonds and importers bought dollars. The bank has kept its policy rate at 9.75% since October 2024 and has avoided direct intervention, saying it does not target a specific exchange rate. A rate rise could slow the slide and limit imported inflation, but would raise borrowing costs for businesses and the government. The decision at the bank's first emergency meeting since July 2022 will show whether it chooses higher rates.
A group of holders of Senegal's international bonds has chosen Alvarez & Marsal as its financial adviser for debt talks with the government, Reuters reported on 13 October, citing three sources. The appointment gives creditors a formal negotiating structure a month after Dakar said it would rework its debt to secure a $2.2 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme. A director of the Group of 24 (G24) developing countries said the same day that Senegal was close to a final settlement with creditors. The size of any loss for bondholders will set Senegal's future borrowing costs and could become a reference for other African issuers.
Microsoft is restructuring its Africa Development Centre in Nairobi, where staff were told that fewer than ten of about 400 engineering jobs may remain, Kenyan technology media reported on 13 October. Microsoft confirmed that proposed changes affect its Kenyan engineering department but gave no numbers or date, and said it would keep operating in Kenya. The centre opened in 2019 as one of two African engineering hubs; Microsoft earlier closed the other, in Lagos. The cuts remove several hundred skilled technology jobs and weaken Nairobi's case as a regional technology hub, although laid-off engineers may strengthen local start-ups.
Chad's President Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno met France's President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace on 13 October, where their defence ministers signed a declaration of intent to strengthen Chad's defence industry. The two leaders also discussed economic cooperation and regional security, including the Sahel, the war in Sudan and Libya. Chad ended its defence cooperation agreement with France in November 2024, and the last French troops left N'Djamena in January 2025. The declaration is the first defence accord since that rupture and gives France a role in Chad's security without troops on the ground.
BW Energy said on 13 October that it had signed a $208 million, 12-year lease with China's Minsheng Financial Leasing to fund the Akoum wellhead platform for the Bourdon oil field, offshore Gabon. The lease covers the full capital cost of the platform, a converted drilling rig, and replaces short-term financing; the company also extended a $250 million credit facility with DNB Bank to August 2028. The Bourdon project reached a final investment decision in May and targets first oil in the first quarter of 2028. Secured funding lowers the risk of delay for new Gabonese output and shows Chinese leasing firms financing African oil projects.
Nigeria's government has paid about $920 million of its debts to electricity generation companies, Power Minister Joseph Tegbe said in Lagos on 13 October, adding that the rest would be settled in 2027. The payments were made through bonds, and Tegbe said the government would avoid building up new arrears. Generators have for years received only part of their invoices because tariffs and collections do not cover costs, and the state-owned Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading began paying legacy debts this month. Clearing arrears improves generators' cash flow for gas and maintenance, which could raise supply, but new debts will build up if tariffs stay below cost.
Rwanda signed a 10-year agreement with Formula One to host a Grand Prix from the early 2030s, President Paul Kagame announced in Kigali on 13 October. The six-kilometre circuit will be built near the new Bugesera International Airport, about 40 kilometres south of Kigali, to the top standard of the International Automobile Federation (FIA). It would be the first Formula One race in Africa since 1993 and extends Rwanda's strategy of using sport sponsorship and conferences to attract visitors. Neither side disclosed the fee or construction cost, which will decide whether tourism and investment gains outweigh the burden on public finances.
