THINKING OUT LOUD

Speaking With One Voice, Paying With Fifty-Two Purses

Africa's telecoms ministers left Abuja having "spoken with one voice" — but only 34 of 52 states turned up to vote for the Union's own leadership. That gap is the real story. From spectrum rents and diesel-powered towers to a $60bn AI fund that runs straight through 12,000 Nvidia GPUs, the Abuja Declaration commits a continent to coordination its politics are built to resist. The costs land nationally and now; the benefits land continentally and later. Here's what would actually move — and why even that is hard.

AUDA-NEPAD Launches Africa Semiconductor Technical Advisory Group (ASTAG) to Drive Continental Technological Sovereignty

Africa: Navigating the Gramscian Interregnum 🌍

We are living through a volatile "in-between" state where the old geopolitical and economic rules are cracking, and the new frameworks have not yet fully formed. In our latest report, Navigating the Gramscian Interregnum, Nina Jojer Africa maps how this transition has matured into a permanent reality across the continent. The generalised concept of "Africa" as a single, homogenous investment destination is officially obsolete. Instead, a clear hierarchy is emerging, driven by a high-stakes geopolitical contest over critical mineral corridors, aggressive local beneficiation mandates, and a rapid, tech-driven push for both monetary and digital sovereignty. To survive and thrive in this diverging landscape, global investors and corporate leaders must abandon old assumptions and embrace country-specific agility.

Beyond the Circular: Is Nigeria Entering the Era of Critical Infrastructure Regulation?

The Central Bank of Nigeria’s recent mandate on data localisation and beneficial ownership is more than a financial sector reform—it is a fundamental shift in regulatory philosophy. By treating essential payment services as critical national infrastructure, the regulator is signalling a new approach to oversight that prioritises national resilience over simple service provision. We analyse what this "direction of travel" means for Nigeria's essential industries.

AI Summit Communique 2026

On 16 June 2026, Microsoft convened AI Summit Nigeria in Abuja under the theme From Policy to Progress: Accelerating Responsible AI Adoption for Nigeria's Digital Decade. Organised by NINA JOJER Africa, in partnership with NITDA and MTN Nigeria, the Summit gathered government, regulators, development partners, academia, and industry to turn Nigeria's AI ambition into practical action. Across two plenaries and four working sessions, participants examined regulatory clarity, digital sovereignty, public-sector AI governance, and the pathways for adoption across Ministries, Departments, and Agencies. The Policy Communiqué below sets out the priorities that emerged, from strengthening trust and data governance to advancing Nigeria's role as a regional anchor in the African digital economy.

Africa Semiconductor Investors Forum — Forum Proceedings Report 2026

The Africa Semiconductor Investors Forum, convened by AUDA NEPAD, DSTI, CSIR, AAS and NINA JOJER, held on 20–21 April 2026 at the Hyatt Regency Westlands, Nairobi, under the theme From the Ground Up: Africa's Minerals-To-Microchips Moment.

The Africa Memo: The Great Divergence: A Global Order Struggling to Be Born

The Africa Memo: The Great Divergence explores the continent’s transition into a period of sobering realism in 2026.

Operationalizing AI for Economic Policymaking: Insights from ACET's Nigeria Creative Economy Hackathon

AfCFTA Impact Assessment Pilot: A Step Towards Africa's Productive Transformation

ADDIS ABABA - The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Impact Assessment Tool, developed under the Accelerated Industrial Development for Africa (AIDA) initiative, has reached a significant milestone with the completion of its Phase 2 pilot.