Key Takeaways A Third Time’s the Charm: From VAT Hike to Budget Consensus Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana delivered his third iteration of the 2025 Budget speech on 21 May 2025, having twice postponed the exercise amid coalition wrangling over a proposed VAT rise (Government of South Africa, Xinhua). In March, he had outlined a phased […]

In response to swirling media reports and diplomatic rumblings, South Africa’s Department of Agriculture has officially denied ever imposing a ban on the importation of Tanzanian bananas. Instead, officials emphasize that market access for this staple fruit has simply never been formalized—meaning neither a ban nor approval has been put into effect. The clarification comes […]

Introduction When U.S. President Donald Trump announced reciprocal tariffs on April 2, 2025, African exporters braced for impact. Eight member states of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) found their goods suddenly subject to duties ranging from 10% up to 50%, even as critical minerals remained exempt. Faced with this abrupt policy […]

A New Chapter in Ethiopia’s Green Mobility Journey In a landmark event on May 17, Chinese automaker Guangzhou Automobile Group Co., Ltd (GAC Group) unveiled two of its electric vehicle (EV) models—the AION Y and the Trumpchi ES9—to the Ethiopian market in Addis Ababa. This marks GAC’s official entry into East Africa’s burgeoning EV space, […]

Moody’s Investors Service has elevated the City of Cape Town’s long-term local-currency issuer rating from Ba3 to Ba2, bringing it just one notch below South Africa’s sovereign rating of Ba1. This milestone reflects Cape Town’s disciplined financial governance, robust liquidity, and a cautiously improving economic outlook—despite the broader challenges facing the national economy (Engineering News, […]

South Africa’s labour market showed renewed stress in the first quarter of 2025, with the official unemployment rate climbing to 32.9 percent, up a full percentage point from 31.9 percent in Q4 2024. The unexpected rise—well above economists’ forecast of a 0.2 point uptick—underscores persistent structural challenges in what remains one of the world’s highest […]

China has taken decisive action by suspending all imports of beef and related products from South Africa with immediate effect. This stringent measure follows the confirmation of ongoing and concerning outbreaks of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) in several key agricultural provinces within South Africa, namely Mpumalanga, Gauteng, and KwaZulu-Natal. The Red Meat Industry Services […]

Koidu Limited, the preeminent diamond mining company operating in Sierra Leone and a significant contributor to the nation’s economy, has made the drastic decision to halt all mining operations. This shutdown has resulted in the layoff of virtually its entire local workforce, comprising more than 1,000 employees, marking a severe blow to the local economy […]

In a landmark move to shore up public finances, Nigeria’s Senate on May 9, 2025 approved four crucial tax reform bills designed to raise government revenue, streamline tax administration and strengthen fiscal discipline. Spearheaded by President Bola Tinubu’s administration, these measures mark the culmination of a sweeping overhaul that began with subsidy removals and multiple […]

In early May 2025, global markets were rattled when JPMorgan Chase issued a $200 million margin call against Angola’s $1 billion loan facility, arranged as a Total Return Swap (TRS) last December. That request for additional collateral—triggered by a sudden drop in the price of Angolan government dollar bonds used as security—thrust the oil‐rich nation’s precarious public […]