🔅 A Kenyan Redefines History, China to Open $300 Million Lithium Processing Plant, And More
Plus, The Debt Dilemma, Senegal's Investment Pitch, & South Korea's K-Ricebelt Project.
Photo of the day: Conakry, Guinea
Markets: Year-t
🟢 Nigerian SE: 63,040.41 (+23.00%)
🟢 Johannesburg SE: 74,113.22 (+1.46%)
🟢 Ghana SE: 2,966.32 (+21.38%)
🔴 Nairobi SE: 111.37 (-12.63%)
🟢 US S&P 500: 4,435.70 (+15.99%)
🟢 Shanghai Composite: 3,196.61 (+2.57%)
*Data accurate as of the close of markets across the continent
Brief & Bright: Africa's Top Five Highlights
🇰🇪 Chao Tayiana: Writing History From a New Perspective | Growing up in Ngong, Kenya, Chao Tayiana heard a lot of stories about the Tsavo man-eaters, two lions who terrorised African and Indian railway workers in the late 1800s. But she was surprised to learn that some communities believed the lions were actually the spirits of chiefs resisting the construction of the railway. Intrigued by this interpretation, she decided to find out what the railway had meant to other Kenyans who lived around the stations or worked in them. Over the next four years, Chao visited more than 55 stations across the country, taking photos and speaking to people. She found out that the railway had different meanings for different people – for some it was a way to get to school or work, for others it had alienated their community lands. Her project, Save the Railway, validated her sense of history “as a living thing” and gave her a new perspective on her role as a historian. Chao later co-founded the Museum of British Colonialism, a volunteer collective that aims to provide a more truthful account of British colonialism. The museum doesn’t have any physical artefacts, but it does feature reconstructions of largely undocumented and forgotten concentration camps where British soldiers held 1.5 million Kenyans during the Mau Mau rebellion. Her goal is to provide a visual representation of what happened in Kenya because, as she says, "We are so deprived of visual imagery that we are not even able to fully picture what happened in this country..."
🏦 Africa's Debt Dilemma: Pay the Bankers or Invest in the Future? | It’s a tough spot for African countries: Paying off their external debts or investing in the future? With 23 countries facing unsustainable debt burdens, you’d think that more of them would default, but only two states have done so. Why? Because the consequences of default can be dire. In Kenya, debt-service payments have tripled over the past six years, while spending on development, health, and education has been halved. In Sierra Leone, debt-service payments have more than doubled since 2015, while real public spending per person is expected to be 20% lower this year. In the four years before its default, Zambia cut public spending by 20%. The situation is only getting worse. This year, 20 low- and lower-middle-income countries are spending more than a quarter of their government revenue on external debt service, and those costs are expected to rise further. The result is a generation of under-educated children with poorer health outcomes, and the African workforce of tomorrow paying the price.
🇸🇳 Senegal's Investment Pitch: We're Not Difficult | Senegal’s President Macky Sall took the opportunity of an investment forum in Dakar to assure potential investors that the West African nation was working on reforming its “difficult and repressive” customs and tax rules. He also promised to digitize trade and investment protocols, improve investor protections, and offer tax breaks. Senegal’s business climate is considered easier to navigate than other countries on the continent, according to British Trade Commissioner for Africa, John Humphrey. As for the stats, foreign investment in Senegal has been stuck at around $2.5 billion for the last year, and investment flows to West Africa as a whole fell 35% last year. But Senegal's economic growth is expected to hit 8% this year, thanks in part to BP’s involvement in the country’s first natural gas projects.
🍚 South Korea's 'K-Ricebelt Project': Sharing the Love (and Rice) | South Korea is pledging to make Africa a better place—by helping it feed itself. The Asian nation is planning to sign an agreement next week with eight African nations to help boost rice production and cut their dependence on imports. Dubbed the “K-Ricebelt Project”, the program will build facilities in Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Gambia, Senegal, Cameroon, Uganda, and Kenya to produce rice seeds that better suit local conditions and have yields two to three times higher than domestic varieties. The move comes after President Yoon Suk Yeol pledged to make South Korea a “global pivotal state”, and Agriculture Minister Chung Hwang-keun said he heard the calls for help during his visits to the continent. South Korea plans to spend more than $77 million on the project over the next four years, with a goal of distributing 10,000 tonnes of rice seeds every year from 2027. The United Nations’ World Food Programme welcomed the move.
🇿🇼 Lithium Goes Local: China Opens a $300 Million Processing Plant in Zimbabwe | Lithium has been getting a lot of buzz lately, and now China has jumped into the game in southern Africa with a massive $300 million investment. Prospect Lithium Zimbabwe, an arm of Chinese company Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt, opened a lithium processing plant in Zimbabwe on Wednesday. Zimbabwe is the largest holder of lithium reserves in Africa, so it’s no surprise that China would want to get in on the action. With the plant’s capacity to process 4.5 million metric tons of hard rock lithium into concentrate for export per year, Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa said that the country would now be “an emerging and competitive player in the global lithium value chain.” He also encouraged the company to “beef” up expertise that would help Zimbabwe and other southern African countries “eventually” manufacture lithium batteries and other components locally.
Food for Thought
“The pillar of the world is hope.”
— Nigerian Proverb.
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