The most important developments in sub-Saharan Africa. Six days a week.
Zambia's Finance Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane presented a record 2027 budget of 284.8 billion kwacha (about $14 billion) to parliament on 6 November, raising value-added tax (VAT) from 16% to 16.5% from January. Mining companies, so far exempt, will pay a 15% withholding tax on the dividends they distribute. The government targets a fiscal deficit of 3% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2027 and growth of 4.9%. Higher VAT will push up consumer prices, while the dividend tax cuts the returns of the foreign owners of copper mines just as Zambia courts investors to more than triple copper output by 2031.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) issued regulations on 5 November requiring existing stablecoin issuers and other virtual asset providers to obtain a licence within 180 days. Issuers of naira-pegged tokens need paid-up capital of 10 billion naira (about $7.4 million) and issuers of dollar or other foreign-currency tokens 15 billion naira; all must hold reserves of at least 102% of tokens in circulation and redeem at face value, while algorithmic stablecoins are banned. The CBN will supervise tokens used for payments, remittances and foreign exchange, and the Securities and Exchange Commission keeps investment activity. The rules give firms a legal route to issue naira and dollar tokens, but the capital threshold favours banks and large fintechs over start-ups.
South Africa's National Energy Regulator (NERSA) registered 144 private power plants with 3,129 megawatts (MW) of capacity between July and September, it said on 5 November. Three wind farms account for 1,063 MW and 139 solar plants for 2,045 MW, with investment of about R78.2 billion ($4.7 billion). The total is nearly four times the 804 MW registered in April–June and lifts registrations since the regime began in 2018 to 23.3 gigawatts. Larger plants connecting to Eskom's grid show private investors building utility-scale supply for the national system, not only rooftop panels for their own use. Registration is a permit step; NERSA has not said how many of these plants are under construction.
Canadian miner Iamgold said on 5 November that Burkina Faso has granted its Essakane mine a temporary exemption from a new rule requiring gold to be refined in the country. A ministerial order of 12 October obliges industrial miners to deliver all their unrefined gold to approved domestic refineries from 1 November; Essakane, the country's largest gold mine, produced 110,500 ounces in the third quarter. The rule followed the opening in September of Raffinor, Burkina Faso's first gold refinery, which is not on the London Bullion Market Association's list of accredited refiners. The exemption shows the refinery cannot yet meet international buyers' standards, so the plan to keep refining value at home depends on accreditation.
Nigeria's customs service began releasing 98 containers of transformers, cables and switchgear on 6 November that had been left uncleared at Lagos ports for 14 to 20 years. The equipment was imported for the Ministry of Power, the Transmission Company of Nigeria and the Niger Delta Power Holding Company, and the government waived port charges to free it. President Bola Tinubu ordered the release after Power Minister Joseph Tegbe raised the case in the Federal Executive Council. Serviceable items will go to stalled substations and transmission lines, easing a grid bottleneck that limits how much generated power reaches consumers. The government aims to clear the remaining consignments within a month.
Cabo Verde's government has authorised an agreement with Searcher Geodata UK to acquire, process and sell offshore seismic data, under a resolution published in the official gazette on 4 November. The first campaign covers 1,600 kilometres of two-dimensional lines, with an optional second phase of up to 5,000 kilometres, or 5,000 square kilometres of three-dimensional data. Searcher bears all costs and keeps 90% of data-sale revenue until it recovers them, after which it splits revenue equally with the state, which owns the data. The survey lets the archipelago market its offshore energy potential to investors at no cost to the budget, though the deal grants no rights to explore for or produce oil and gas.
