Africa’s New Railway Age
July 23rd, 2024
Courtesy of The Economist, a look at how Sino-American tensions in Africa are playing out on the tracks: “Every inhabitant of Thiès”, wrote a Senegalese novelist, Ousmane Sembène, in 1960, “depended on the railway.” Like many African cities, Thiès was a product of the continent’s first, colonial-era rail revolution. The French-built railway that ran through it […]
Read more »The Rollercoaster Ride of Foreign Investment In The Sahel
July 19th, 2024
Courtesy of The Africa Report, a report on the rollercoaster ride of foreign investment in the Sahel states: Over the last three years, the member states of the newly christened Confederation of Sahel States have been hit by a fall in foreign investment, particularly Burkina Faso. In its World Investment Report 2024, the United Nations […]
Read more »In Hot Mali, Ice Costs More Than Bread or Milk
April 29th, 2024
Via BBC, a report on the economic impact of rising heat in Mali: Record-breaking heat means ice cubes now cost more than bread and milk in parts of Mali. “I’ve come to buy ice because it’s very hot now,” says 15-year-old Fatouma Yattara as she visits her local vendor in the capital, Bamako. With no […]
Read more »Mali’s Minerals Exploration Budget Slips
March 30th, 2024
Via WhyAfrica, a report on Mali’s mineral exploration budget, which declined in 2023 as the risks of doing business in the country mount: According to the report, Africa’s exploration budget was USD1.27-billion for 2023, down 3.4%, slightly more than the global average. The largest decline came from Mali as the country’s budget dropped by USD71-million, or 46%, […]
Read more »Niger, Morocco: Prime Ministers Meet Amid Plans To Diversify Port Access
February 17th, 2024
Courtesy of Rane’s Worldview (subscription required), a report that Niger and Morocco are working to advance plans to help western Sahelian countries diversity their maritime access through Morocco’s ports: What Happened: Nigerien Prime Minister Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine met with Moroccan Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch as part of a two-day trip to Morocco, Radio France Internationale […]
Read more »Can Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso Maintain Growth Outside ECOWAS?
February 13th, 2024
Courtesy of The Africa Report, a look at whether Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso can maintain growth outside ECOWAS: The three countries shaken by coups have economies with growth prospects above the regional average as they close the door on the regional bloc. On 28 January, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger jointly announced their withdrawal […]
Read more »Focusing primarily on The New Seven Sisters - the largely state owned petroleum companies from the emerging world that have become key players in the oil & gas industry as identified by Carola Hoyos, Chief Energy Correspondent for The Financial Times - but spanning other nascent opportunities around the globe that may hold potential in the years ahead, Wildcats & Black Sheep is a place for the adventurous to contemplate & evaluate the emerging markets of tomorrow.