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.
