Dear Friends,

Your latest Africa Briefing. I hope you enjoy the read and if you do, please share!

• Africa50. The Morocco-based investment platform has set a $500 million funding target for its initial phase of its Infrastructure Acceleration Fund, focused on energy, transportation, telecommunications, and water projects (Bloomberg).

• Africa CDC. Devex takes a hard look at the overlapping (and sometimes wasteful) work of the WHO and Africa CDC.

• BMW. Commits $225 million to adapting its plant in Pretoria to produce X3 hybrids (Nasdaq).

• Botswana. De Beers and Botswana conclude negotiations, signing a new multi-year, multi-billion dollar agreement (Financial Times).

• China-Africa. The Hunan trade expo concluded with 120 deals worth $10 billion signed (SCMP).

• Ethiopia. Home of the African Union, has formally submitted a request to join BRICS (Al Jazeera).

• Phala Phala. Cyril Ramaphosa was cleared by South Africa’s legal ombudsman of wrongdoing over a scandal involving the theft of $580,000 in cash from Mr Ramaphosa’s sofa. The President claims to have received the money from the sale of a herd of buffalo (Financial Times).

• Senegal. Macky Sall, the country’s beleaguered president has announced he will not run for a third term.

• Tech slowdown. June was a tough month for tech companies. Techcabal reports a 70% decrease in investments when compared to 2022.

• Zulu King. South Africa’s Zulu king was apparently poisoned this week (BBC).

During the pandemic we came to know how worrisome Africa's vaccine manufacturing capabilities are. In this piece for Vaccine, I along with my co-authors present a roadmap for the development of Africa’s manufacturing capabilities.

In Context: Sierra Leone’s recent election is just one of the many to be held in 2023-2024. This year, Africa will hold a head of state (presidential or prime ministerial) and/or other national legislature elections in 17 states in 2023 with a further 13 states holding their elections in 2024. For some African states, elections are a reinforcement of their democratic ideals. In others, elections can be very unstable with a high risk of political protests, mass demonstrations and strikes. The EIU thinks upcoming elections in Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, the DRC, Libya, Madagascar, Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe could prove to be flashpoints for disruptive civil unrest in 2023/4.

“A World in Common”, an exhibition in the Tate Modern features some 36 artists. This is the first major show of contemporary African photography the gallery. The exhibit opens with portraits of Nigerian monarchs by George Osodi, a Nigerian artist.

BMW commits to developing plug-in hybrid vehicles in South Africa, making it the second country in the world to produce and export the X3 hybrid model (Voice of America). BMW will pour around 200 million euros ($218 million) into its factory at Plant Rosslyn, in Pretoria.

The Economist Intelligence Unit in its mid-year world economy forecast expects global inflation to ease slightly, from 9.2% in 2022 to 7.1% in 2023. High global commodity prices, supply-chain disruptions stemming from the invasion of Ukraine and the strong US dollar will keep annual inflation above its 2019 levels. The EIU thinks central banks will maintain their aggressive policy stance in an effort to bring inflation under control. Interest rates in most major economies will peak by mid-2023, and in most cases will then stay on hold until 2024.

The South China Morning Post reports on the bumper China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo. A focus of the summit was the establishment of ‘green lanes’ – trade corridors between China and Africa for the movement and processing of agricultural goods. China’s large population and Africa’s growing agricultural output saw many trade deals signed for goods such as honey, sesame, peanuts, tobacco, wool, cotton, soybeans, coffee and fruit. Speciality products included wine and Rooibos tea from South Africa, and flowers and black tea from Kenya.

Climate in Africa

Water and food insecurity brought about by climate change present significant challenges to peace and security along the Sahel, a hot semi-arid region stretching across the latitudes of northern Africa. The Washington Post reports that half of the 20 most vulnerable countries to climate change are experiencing armed conflict. Many of these countries are in Africa, with climate change compounding existing dimensions of long standing disputes.

Three stories about elections this week, building off our Graphic of the Week. First, Senegal’s incumbent President Macky Sall will not run for a third term in the presidential election next year. Should the 61-year-old have pursued a third term the integrity of the west African nation’s constitution, which limits presidents to two terms, would have been questioned (Financial Times).

Sierra Leone’s recent elections came on the heels of a law stipulating that 30% of jobs in public and private institutions be reserved for women—including government appointments and candidates for elections (Foreign Policy)

And finally, The Economist reports that Salva Kiir, South Sudan’s president since its independence in 2011, said that delayed elections set for next year would go ahead and that he would run for re-election. His rival and current vice-president, Riek Machar, is expected to stand against him.

Devex reviews the relationship between the Africa CDC and the WHO, writing that when a country needs health supplies, it sends two requests — one to WHO and the other to the Africa CDC. Medical supplies arriving first get used. Supplies arriving second go to waste or are put into stockpiles.

Encouraged by funders and African governments, the WHO and Africa CDC have agreed to turn things around and commit to working more cooperatively and with better communication. To this end, they have entered into a five-year Joint Emergency Preparedness and Response Action Plan.

The civil war in Sudan continues to rage and has now spilled over into Darfur — a long troubled region. The Economist asks whether this is genocide all over again.

As of June African tech startups raised $126.2 million from 25 fully disclosed raises. This presents a 70% drop when compared to June 2022 where startups raised $426.2 million. It’s also a 79% decrease from May 2023 when the total amount raised was $621.8 million. You know we love our graphics on The Africa Brief, so here are the June numbers by sector and region.

United States in Africa

After Ethiopia’s civil war erupted in November 2020, the United States stopped providing assistance to the Ethiopian government. Some 7 months after the war's official end, Washington has taken Ethiopia off its human rights blacklist. Doing so will allow economic aid to resume. Foreign Policy writes that the decision may be motivated more by politics than evidence. “The decision appears to contradict reports of continued human rights abuses and ethnic cleansing campaigns in the northern Tigray region of Ethiopia, potentially undermining the Biden administration’s pledge to elevate human rights to the top of its foreign-policy agenda” — Robbie Gramer, FP.

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