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

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.