The most important developments in sub-Saharan Africa. Six days a week.
United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said on 2 November that President Donald Trump will remove South Africa and Rwanda from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) trade preferences from 1 January 2027, citing trade barriers and security and foreign policy concerns. South Africa, the programme's largest exporter, loses duty-free access for goods such as citrus, macadamia nuts and sorbets; its vehicles, steel and aluminium already face US tariffs of 25–50% that outweigh the preference. Trade Minister Parks Tau said South Africa has 60 days to appeal and will help affected firms find other markets. The added duties leave Western and Northern Cape citrus growers at a disadvantage against Peru and Chile in the US market.
Eni and its partners have started drilling and completing production wells for the Coral North floating liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in Mozambique's Rovuma Basin, Eni announced on 2 November. The campaign of up to six wells will take about ten months and uses the Saipem 12000 drillship, run by a joint venture of state oil company Empresa Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos (ENH) and Saipem: the first time a company with Mozambican participation takes a direct operating role in offshore drilling. The partners took the $7.2 billion investment decision in October 2025, and the National Petroleum Institute puts construction of the floating plant at 72%. Production from 2028 would double Mozambique's LNG output to about seven million tonnes a year.
Mauritania's state miner SNIM signed an agreement in Paris on 2 November to carry iron ore on the national railway for Essar Capital Mauritius Limited, which the mines ministry called the first opening of the line to private operators. Essar plans to start mining its Askaf permit in Tiris Zemmour within six months, at 7.5 million tonnes a year, with about 2,000 jobs during construction, the ministry said. Glencore's Sphere Minerals signed a transport deal for Askaf with SNIM in 2014, but the mine was never built. A second exporter would give SNIM fee income and shared track-maintenance costs, and lift Mauritania's iron ore exports beyond SNIM's own output.
DR Congo's justice minister, Guillaume Ngefa, on 2 November ordered the prosecutor-general at the Court of Cassation to investigate mining fraud after a joint mission seized more than 500 trucks and machines in Lualaba and Haut-Katanga provinces. The team of police, soldiers, military magistrates and mines ministry experts also secured several thousand tonnes of copper and cobalt around the Menda site, the ministry said. In October 2025 Ngefa had ordered prosecutions after an anti-fraud commission described smuggling networks involving soldiers, police and foreign nationals on Glencore and Eurasian Resources Group concessions. Ore moved outside official channels escapes royalties and taxes; the probe will show whether the crackdown reaches the security officers named in earlier reports.
President Mamadi Doumbouya inaugurated the Nimba Gold Refinery in Conakry on 1 November, Guinea's first plant for turning mined gold into bars at home. The company gives its capacity as up to 733 tonnes a year and says gold worth about $4.5 billion a year would pass through it at half capacity. Rules introduced in July oblige all producers, from artisanal miners to companies such as AngloGold Ashanti, to refine in Guinea after a 90-day transition, and the state plans to buy up to 30% of industrial and semi-industrial output for central bank reserves. The refinery will keep value at home only if the large miners, still negotiating compliance, send their gold there.
The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) provisionally proposes letting new firms apply directly for individual network licences, in a discussion document published on 30 October. Newcomers can now enter only by buying one of 470 existing licences, most of them dormant, and winning approval for the transfer; Icasa approves about 11 transfers a year, and a pair of licences costs over R1 million on the secondary market. Vodacom, MTN, Telkom and Rain were sceptical, while SpaceX, Amazon and Eutelsat backed direct licensing. The change would open the market to satellite and fibre entrants, but they would still face the 30% ownership requirement for historically disadvantaged groups. Comments close on 7 January 2027.
The Communications Authority of Kenya handed six refrigerated trucks to the state-owned Postal Corporation of Kenya on 2 November so that it can deliver vaccines, insulin and other temperature-sensitive medicines to remote health facilities. The Post4Health project cost about $500,000, paid by Kenya's Universal Service Fund and the Universal Postal Union, with which Kenya signed the scheme in April 2025. The post office needs new business: its domestic letter volumes fell by 70% year on year in the quarter to June, while private couriers keep gaining parcel traffic. The trucks give it a paying role in last-mile health logistics, but the service will grow only if county health departments use it.
