Ethiopia’s National Bank (NBE) has announced a cap on all foreign-exchange (FX) transaction fees at 4 percent, effective May 26, 2025. The move—part of a broader series of reforms to modernize the forex market—also bans supplementary service charges and mandates transparent, publicly disclosed pricing on the NBE website from June onwards (National Bank of Ethiopia). […]

Introduction In a landmark decision for Sub-Saharan Africa, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will officially begin operations in Benin, Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria from July 2025. This follows the formal amendment to the EBRD’s founding treaty, approved by its shareholders in April 2025, which extends the Bank’s mandate beyond its traditional Eastern […]

On May 22, 2025, Egypt’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) surprised markets by trimming its key overnight deposit rate by 100 basis points to 24 percent, and its lending rate by the same margin to 25 percent. This move, the second rate cut in 2025 following a pause of nearly a year, fell short of the […]

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 […]