Africa

1. Political fight over refinery
2. Tanzania ponders job pressure
3. Mercenary losses in DRC
4. OPay readies New York IPO
5. Ecobank agrees yuan shift
6. DP World’s Angola expansion

A new documentary looks at the life of MKO Abiola.

Kenya refinery sparks political battle

The $16 billion project to build Aliko Dangote’s refinery on the Kenyan coast is at the center of a high-stakes political battle as government and opposition square up ahead of elections in 10 months. It’s one of several infrastructure projects that President William Ruto touts as economy-boosting as he bids for a second term.

But his opponents have launched legal and parliamentary action that threaten to delay the refinery’s construction, saying that the opaque nature of the deal is part of a pattern of how agreements are made. Key Ruto rival Nairobi Senator Edwin Sifuna described them as “secretive deals negotiated in the dark.”

The president and his allies argue that legal hurdles and uncertainty affecting major projects could impact investor confidence. Having lost the support of many young people in recent years, Ruto needs the projects to come online to convince the large number of unemployed youths to stick with him.

Tanzania seeks investors to create jobs

Tanzania is counting on increased investment to accelerate industrialization and create jobs for its young population, the prime minister said. The government has targeted $15 billion in annual foreign direct investment, roughly triple last year’s figure, as part of its long-term economic plans that include rail and port infrastructure development.

Mwigulu Nchemba told reporters at a London event that increased industrialization would boost local processing of natural resources leading to more employment opportunities. The UN estimates 42% of Tanzanians are aged 14 or under. He said the only way to “absorb” the country’s school leavers and “solve the issue of job creation” was by “empowering the private sector to create those vacancies for our youth.”

Tanzania has large offshore gas resources and deposits of minerals needed for the energy transition and digital infrastructure — such as copper, lithium, and cobalt — as well as precious metals and stones, including gold and diamonds. Like governments across the continent, it is looking to increase local processing to add value instead of exporting raw minerals.

Mercenaries suffer DRC losses

The forces of US private security contractor Erik Prince suffered major battlefield losses in DR Congo last month, a new report found, calling into question his controversial firm’s actions in the country. Prince, employees of whose previous company Blackwater carried out a civilian massacre in Iraq in 2007, has focused on expanding his presence in the central African nation — where the army is fighting Rwanda-backed M23 rebels — to curry favor with US President Donald Trump.

DR Congo has sought to speed up the implementation of a strategic mining partnership with Washington, which is looking to rival China’s access to critical minerals in Africa. However, insecurity remains a major challenge in the country.

Prince’s forces have been deployed to secure mineral-rich areas and curb smuggling to provide investor-friendly access to conflict-hit areas. DR Congo, the world’s largest producer of cobalt, a key component in electronics, has already received US investment under the agreement and is looking to attract more Western funds.

OPay readies $4B New York IPO

OPay, the Lagos-based fintech controlled by Chinese billionaire Zhou Yahui, more than doubled revenue in the first half of 2026 as lending overtook payments as its biggest income source, according to a filing ahead of a planned New York Stock Exchange listing.

Revenue jumped 137% to $467.1 million in the first half of 2026, from the same period a year earlier. The company has applied to trade under the ticker OPAY, though it has yet to disclose a price range or listing date, however pricing could come in mid-November based on the usual IPO timetable. Previous reports put its potential valuation at around $4 billion.

A potential Nigerian secondary listing is expected to follow, giving local investors access to a business that generates nearly 90% of its revenue at home. But the filing warns that Lagos-traded shares may not be exchangeable for the New York-listed securities, potentially limiting liquidity and allowing prices to diverge.

A handful of African tech companies have successfully listed in the US, notably e-commerce platform Jumia and telecom towers provider IHS but have had mixed performances. An OPay listing in the US would be the first by a fintech company with a mostly Nigerian customer base.

Ecobank agrees to yuan settlements

Ecobank agreed a partnership with China’s payment system to enable transaction settlements in the yuan currency. The Togo-based bank, which operates in 34 African countries — more than any other continental lender — will sign an agreement this month to join the China Interbank Payments System (CIPS). South Africa’s Standard Bank and the African Export Import Bank have taken the same step in the last year.

The move follows increasing demand from businesses on the continent to transact and settle deals using China’s currency. An 18% rise in China-Africa trade last year — marked by a surge in the continent’s imports of Chinese solar power equipment — underscored the growing commercial relationship between both parties, highlighting the appeal of financial systems that make transactions easier to complete.

China this year removed tariffs for imports from all African countries except Eswatini. Its move to increase bank integrations with its payments system furthers a push led by the BRICS bloc against the US dollar’s dominance in international trade.

— Alexander Onukwue

DP World to double Luanda capacity

DP World will invest $90 million over two years to expand its terminal at Angola’s Port of Luanda, more than doubling capacity as the Dubai-based firm deepens its bet on African trade. The expansion will lengthen the quay and add 15 cranes, allowing the terminal to handle two large container ships at once and cutting turnaround times by up to half, the port and logistics operator said.

Angola also extended DP World’s concession by 10 years, to 2051. The company has spent more than $260 million on the terminal since it began operating there in 2021, and volumes have nearly doubled to more than 350,000 containers. The investment extends a two-decade buildout across at least nine African territories that has kept DP World profitable through the Iran war. The company plans to commit another $4 billion to the continent, its Africa chief told Bloomberg.

• Oct. 12-16: Two of the years’ biggest deal-making events, African Energy Week and African Mining Week, kick off in Cape Town.
• Oct. 13: South Africa releases its mining-production data for August.
• Oct. 13-15: Climate leaders from across the continent gather for the Carbon Markets Africa Summit in Kigali.
• Oct.13-17: Johannesburg hosts the innovative tech leaders at the 2026 Fak’ugesi Festival.
• Oct. 15: September inflation data is due to be published for Botswana, Eswatini, and Nigeria.

Sam Altman, Co-Founder & CEO, OpenAI, has joined the Silicon Valley & The World as a Co-Chair, a first-of-its-kind, multi-year initiative connecting the leaders building transformative technologies with the policymakers shaping their deployment.

It brings together leaders across technology, business, finance, and public policy to foster dialogue, generate new ideas, and move the conversation beyond debate toward action on the decisions shaping the global AI economy.