The most important developments in sub-Saharan Africa. Six days a week.
South Africa's state utility Eskom has submitted a feasibility programme for 5,200 megawatts (MW) of new nuclear capacity, Electricity and Energy Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said on 10 November. He put the preliminary cost at about R250 billion ($15 billion) and said the units would enter service between 2036 and 2039; final costs and financing are still being assessed. The 2025 Integrated Resource Plan set the 5,200 MW target, and the energy department is preparing a determination for public comment, the legal trigger for procurement. The build, the country's first in about 50 years, would add baseload capacity as Eskom reviews which coal stations to retire, but its cost could fall on tariffs, Eskom's balance sheet or the state.
President John Dramani Mahama announced on 10 November a gas and condensate discovery at the Nya Gyidie-1X well in the Deepwater Cape Three Points block off Ghana. Ghanaian firm Planet One Oil and Gas drilled the well, about 148 km offshore, with Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) and GOIL Upstream and found hydrocarbons in carbonate rock. Ghana's producing fields lie in sandstone, so this is the country's first successful test of a carbonate play; the size of the find is not yet known. The result opens a new exploration target in the Tano Basin as the government courts oil majors for nearby blocks, several of which remain unlicensed. Appraisal will show whether it is commercial.
Madagascar's draft 2027 finance law would raise customs duties from 20% to 30% on imported finished goods that are also made locally, the finance ministry detailed on 9 November. The list includes biscuits, chocolate, beer, sugary drinks, canned fish, soap and smartphones, while industrial inputs would carry a floor duty of 5% if they are genuinely processed in the country. The bill also more than doubles the tax on diesel to bring it into line with petrol, a commitment under the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) Resilience and Sustainability Facility. The tariffs make imported consumer goods dearer to favour local factories, while the diesel tax raises transport costs and state revenue. Parliament has yet to vote on the bill.
Nigeria's Senate on 10 November passed a bill that lets the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) designate large fintech firms and other non-bank financial institutions as systemically important and supervise them more closely. Designation would depend on size, transaction volumes, customer numbers and links with other institutions, and would bring stress tests and stricter governance and cybersecurity rules. The amendment to the 2020 banks and financial institutions law passed second reading in December 2025 and went through a public hearing in March. It would give the largest payment companies bank-style oversight, which the central bank says their scale requires; the competition regulator wants clear limits between prudential and consumer rules. The bill still needs House approval and presidential assent.
Mobile subscribers in Gabon and Cameroon can call, text and use data in each other's country at local rates from 10 November, Gabon's digital economy ministry announced. The bilateral scheme links Airtel Gabon and Moov Africa Gabon Telecom with MTN Cameroon and Orange Cameroun. It is a rare working part of the free roaming that the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) states agreed in 2021: in April 2024, the region's telecoms regulators counted only two of 213 planned operator links in place. Cheaper calls and data help cross-border traders and hauliers, but the model will spread only if operators agree how to share roaming revenue and regulators set fair-use limits.
