The most important developments in sub-Saharan Africa. Six days a week.
Australia's Bannerman Energy and CNNC Overseas, a unit of China National Nuclear Corporation, took a final investment decision on 23 October to build the Etango uranium mine in Namibia. The open-pit mine will cost about $353 million before production and should produce an average of 3.5 million pounds of uranium oxide a year from 2028. The joint venture, 55% owned by Bannerman, will build without project debt after the Chinese partner committed $320.4 million; in return it will buy 60% of the output. Etango gives Namibia, Africa's largest uranium producer, a new source of export earnings as its diamond revenue collapses, and ties most of the mine's output to Chinese buyers.
Burkina Faso's Council of Ministers created a presidential electrification initiative, Faso Wa-Fulu, on 22 October, with more than 2,800 billion CFA francs (about $4.8 billion) earmarked over ten years. It targets universal electricity access by 2030: 6,700 newly electrified localities, 3.5 million more households and businesses connected, and about 30,000 km of medium-voltage and 29,000 km of low-voltage lines. About 34% of the population had electricity in 2024, according to the government's national energy compact; the World Bank estimated in 2025 that the pace then would delay universal access until at least 2072. Meeting the target means roughly trebling the access rate in four years, and the government has not yet said how the programme will be financed.
