BUSINESS - The African Mirror

Sep

02

2025

By TRACY-LYNN FIELD; ANGELA VAN DER BERG, and CHIEDZA MACHAKA

Should governments pay businesses for climate disasters? Researchers unpack huge lawsuits in South Africa

BUSINESS

THE most catastrophic natural disaster ever recorded in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province – also the worst flood in South Africa for more than a century – has sparked two major lawsuits by insurance companies whose business clients suffered massive flood damage. The April 2022 floods in eThekwini municipality, South Africa, claimed 544 lives, displaced more than 40,000 people, and damaged or destroyed over 4,000 homes and businesses. The economic losses were staggering, with major production facilities, logistics routes and informal settlements submerged after record-breaking rainfall. Floodwaters destroyed machinery and interrupted production in several large companies. In a legal first, two…

Aug

30

2025

By DANIEL CASH

Senegal’s rating downgrade: credit agencies are punishing countries that don’t check their numbers

BUSINESS

SENEGAL’S dramatic two-notch credit rating downgrade in February 2025 by the credit rating agency Moody’s was followed by a Standard & Poor’s downgrade in July. Moody’s decision marked a three-notch deterioration in Senegal’s rating in four months. The scale of the revisions was rare, especially for countries not already in default or active restructuring. The ratings collapse triggered a selloff in Senegal’s Eurobonds. It also cast a shadow over the country’s ongoing negotiations with the International Monetary Fund. More broadly, it sent a signal about how the credit rating agencies are now responding to governance failures, not just macroeconomic trends.…

Aug

30

2025

By BONFACE ORUCHO, BIRD STORY AGENCY

New digitized credit plans put farmers first

BUSINESS

FARMERS in Africa are building digital credit profiles from their seeds, soils, and harvests. Beyond boosting yields, this is transforming agricultural activity into financial visibility. Alma Nwosu, a Ghanaian agronomist, still remembers her first phone call with a farmer named Kofi Mensah in the Eastern Region of Ghana. Mensah had just harvested maize grown from seeds supplied on credit by Degas, an Accra-based agri-fintech. Each bag of seed carried a QR code, and every repayment was logged into a digital file. “When he told me he had a credit history now, not with a bank but with his seeds, it…

Aug

29

2025

By The African Mirror

Tanzania launches $63 million food safety initiative to combat aflatoxin contamination

BUSINESS

PRESIDENT Samia Suluhu Hassan has launched a groundbreaking $63 million initiative to tackle deadly aflatoxin contamination in Tanzania's staple crops, in what officials are calling a transformative step toward ensuring food safety and boosting agricultural exports. The Tanzania Initiative for Preventing Aflatoxin Contamination (TANIPAC), officially launched in the capital Dodoma, represents one of the largest food safety investments in East Africa and is projected to benefit over 60,000 farmers across the country. "We cannot talk about food security without food safety," President Hassan declared during the launch ceremony. "TANIPAC is not just a health intervention—it is an economic imperative." The…

Aug

27

2025

By CONRAD ONYANGO, BIRD STORY AGENCY

The rise of women-tailored insurance policies in Africa

BUSINESS

INSURERS are re-writing the playbook by introducing women-first covers to test whether gender-specific solutions can raise uptake and narrow financial inclusion gaps. They are changing an unspoken status quo that has existed for decades— women’s protection has remained largely tucked under family insurance plans. This is despite women making up over half of Africa’s population and living, on average, four years longer than men, according to data by the World Health Organisation and the World Population Prospects. But the insurance model is fast changing on the continent, where the penetration rate has, over the period, hovered at below 3% of…

Aug

23

2025

By BONFACE ORUCHO, BIRD STORY AGENCY

Senegal and Mercedes-Benz partner to build trucks

BUSINESS

MERCEDES-BENZ is betting on Senegal’s push to become an industrial manufacturing hub, committing to building a truck assembly plant by 2026. The project will begin with vehicles for defence and emergency services, designed to meet West Africa’s growing automotive demand while aligning with continental industrial strategies. According to experts, the dual-use approach can guarantee early demand and stable off-take, while also building the technical capacity for broader civilian markets. Daimler Truck Middle East/Africa CEO Michael Dietz, Franziska Cusumano, CEO Mercedes-Benz Special Trucks, during the signing of the Letter of Intent for the Senegalese plant. Photo courtesy: Daimler Trucks “Defence and…

Aug

22

2025

By The African Mirror

Ghana, Japan pledge deeper economic ties as infrastructure funding gap persists

BUSINESS

GHANA and Japan committed to expanding economic cooperation and accelerating key infrastructure projects during high-level talks at the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD 9), with Ghana's cocoa dominance in Japanese markets taking centre stage in discussions. President John Dramani Mahama and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba met on the sidelines of the conference in Yokohama, where Ghana's position as Japan's primary cocoa supplier emerged as a focal point for deeper investment ties. Ghana supplies approximately 70% of Japan's cocoa imports, a strategic relationship both leaders acknowledged as fundamental to future cooperation. Cocoa Value Chain Investment Push Mahama called on…

Aug

20

2025

By BONFACE ORUCHO, BIRD STORY AGENCY

Border reforms are easing travel for West Africa’s women traders

BUSINESS

AT the Aflao–Lomé border crossing between Ghana and Togo, the line of women carrying tomatoes, textiles, and household goods snakes past customs booths and into a dimly lit corridor. For years, women traders here have described the same routine: long waits, confusing paperwork, and the risk of losing cash or goods to “informal charges.” Now, flyers pinned to the wall advertise a new legal clinic. Traders are told they can seek help if officials harass them or if they are asked for unreceipted payments. Some carry a phone app that explains in plain language which forms they need and what…

Aug

20

2025

By PHOEBE MASONGOLE, AFRICAN WOMEN IN MEDIA

Malewa, the local food is going global

BUSINESS

ON the slopes of Mount Elgon, where Uganda borders Kenya, bamboo forests nurture the base of a locally-cherished dish known as malewa— dried and smoked bamboo shoots. Once a ritual food of the Bagisu people, malewa has become a cultural artefact that has crossed borders and gained popularity across East Africa and beyond. Its journey could be seen as one that mirrors the aspirations of the East African Community (EAC) and tells a compelling story of free movement, food diplomacy, and women’s economic empowerment. Today, malewa graces tables in Nairobi, Mwanza, Kigali, Juba, and Dar es Salaam, not only as…

Aug

15

2025

By KARA NEL; NADIA MANS-KEMP, and PIERRE ERASMUS

Investing that protects people and the planet is growing: new study maps the progress in South Africa

BUSINESS

INSTITUTIONAL investors who invest on behalf of others are increasingly considering environmental conservation and safe working conditions as investment criteria. Sustainable investment has gained momentum in the last 20 years as asset managers – people who manage the day-to-day activities of institutional investors – have accepted the need to include sustainability criteria in their decision-making. In particular, environmental, social and governance factors. A study done in 2023 in North America, Europe, and Asia reported that 80% of asset managers had sustainable investment policies. Five years earlier, it was only 20%. In South Africa, this trend has been particularly marked since…