Roughly twenty African countries now run some version of a sovereign wealth fund. Collectively they oversee a slice of a global sovereign investment industry that has swollen to well over USD 14 trillion, though Africa’s share of that pool remains stubbornly under one percent — a reminder of how thin the continent’s fiscal surpluses are relative to the Gulf states or Norway.

Yet within that modest total, a handful of funds have begun to do something that matters more than raw size: they have started to compound. They have built governance structures that outlast the ministers who created them, they publish numbers that can be checked, and they are, increasingly, delivering returns that would not embarrass an endowment manager in London or Toronto.

What separates these funds from the many African sovereign vehicles that remain, in effect, government slush accounts with a fancier name? The answer turns out to have less to do with how much oil, gas or diamonds a country has, and rather more to do with four unglamorous things: independence from the treasury, discipline about withdrawals, a genuine investment mandate rather than a political one, and transparency that is enforced by habit rather than by law alone.

The scoreboard that keeps everyone honest

Any serious conversation about sovereign fund performance in 2026 now runs, sooner or later, through the Governance, Sustainability and Resilience Scoreboard published annually by the research firm Global SWF.

The seventh edition of the index, released at the end of June, assessed 25 separate governance, sustainability and resilience criteria across the world’s 200 largest state-owned investors, which between them manage some USD 34 trillion.

Only nine institutions worldwide earned a perfect score. One of them is African: Nigeria’s Sovereign Investment Authority, universally known by its acronym NSIA. It sits alongside NBIM of Norway, Singapore’s Temasek, Australia’s Future Fund and Canada’s La Caisse — genuine company for a fund capitalised with a comparatively modest USD 1 billion in seed money fifteen years ago.

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It is worth dwelling on that fact before moving to the numbers, because it reframes the entire debate. The story of Africa’s best sovereign funds is no longer a story about scale. It is a story about institutional design.

Nigeria’s NSIA: the outlier that proves the rule

NSIA has become, almost by default, the reference case for what an African sovereign fund can achieve when insulated properly from political interference. Established by an Act of the National Assembly in 2011 and structured around three ring-fenced pools — a Stabilisation Fund, a Future Generations Fund and a Nigeria Infrastructure Fund — the Authority has now posted thirteen consecutive years of earnings and asset growth, a run that has taken its net asset value from roughly USD 2 billion in seed and government contributions to USD 3.4 billion, a compound annual growth rate of close to 11%.

The 2025 numbers, presented in Abuja earlier this year, show total assets rising 10.9% year-on-year to nearly 4.91 trillion naira, driven by fresh capital contributions and core earnings of 478.8 billion naira.

Strip out the headline naira figures, which were flattered in 2024 by a weak currency and then normalised in 2025 as the naira stabilised, and the underlying story is one of patient, diversified asset allocation rather than one-off windfalls.

The Future Generations Fund returned 15.44% against a policy benchmark of US inflation plus four percentage points — an outperformance of more than 800 basis points. The Nigeria Infrastructure Fund returned 14.55% against its own inflation-linked target, and the Stabilisation Fund, which by design holds the most liquid and conservative assets, still managed 9.27% against a target pegged to US CPI alone.

Management has been candid, too, about the parts of the balance sheet that look less flattering on paper. Pre-tax return on equity fell from 73.4% in 2023 to 57.8% in 2024 once the currency effects are stripped out, and headline profit for 2025 dropped sharply once the one-off foreign exchange gains of the previous year washed out of the base.

NSIA’s leadership has framed this, reasonably, as a return to a more normal earnings pattern rather than a sign of deterioration — the kind of frank public accounting that is itself part of what earns a fund credibility with outside analysts.

Three structural choices explain why NSIA keeps outperforming both its African peers and its own modest starting capital.

First, the tripartite fund structure separates money that might be needed tomorrow from money that will not be touched for a generation, which allows each pool to be invested according to its actual time horizon rather than a single, compromised risk appetite.

Second, the Authority has been unusually aggressive about co-investment and blended finance, pairing its own capital with partners such as Japan’s development agency JICA on start-up financing, and with private investors on healthcare infrastructure, including a diagnostics and cancer-treatment network under its Medserve platform that is expanding well beyond its original three centres.

Third, and most important, NSIA has resisted becoming a piggy bank. Where other African funds have been raided during fiscal emergencies, Nigeria’s has largely been left alone to compound — a political discipline that is rarer on the continent than any investment technique.

Botswana’s cautionary counter-example

No feature on African sovereign funds would be complete without Botswana’s Pula Fund, and it earns its place here as much as a warning as a model. Established in 1993 to preserve diamond export revenues for future generations, the Pula Fund was for years held up as the African gold standard: professionally run out of the central bank, invested conservatively in global equities and bonds, and governed under the same Santiago Principles that underpin best practice worldwide.

But a fund is only as disciplined as the government that owns it, and Botswana’s fiscal position has deteriorated as the diamond industry, hit hard by falling global demand and competition from lab-grown stones, has passed its peak contribution to the economy.

Repeated withdrawals to plug budget and balance-of-payments gaps have shrunk the fund from roughly USD 1.8 billion in 2018 to a reported USD 142 million by August last year, according to Bank of Botswana data cited by regional media — a startling collapse for what was once southern Africa’s flagship savings vehicle. The economy contracted an estimated 3 percent in 2024, with the IMF projecting a further contraction into 2025, and diamonds still account for roughly 80% of exports and a third of fiscal revenue, leaving Gaborone dangerously exposed to a single commodity cycle.

Botswana’s response has been to launch an entirely new, more ambitious fund, tasked not only with investing surplus revenue but with restructuring loss-making state enterprises that have required repeated bailouts.

Officials say only investment returns, not capital, will be drawn from the new vehicle. Whether that discipline holds where the old fund’s did not is the open question — and it underlines the central lesson of this entire sector: a well-designed mandate is worth little without a legal or political firewall that keeps a finance ministry from treating the fund as a current account.

Rwanda’s Agaciro: small, deliberate, and citizen-owned

If NSIA demonstrates what independence and diversified mandates can achieve at reasonable scale, Rwanda’s Agaciro Development Fund shows what discipline can achieve almost regardless of scale. Launched in 2012 following a national dialogue chaired by President Paul Kagame, Agaciro — the Kinyarwanda word for dignity — remains unusual globally for having been seeded not by oil or mineral windfalls but by voluntary contributions from Rwandan citizens, the diaspora and the private sector, later supplemented by government transfers.

The fund has grown steadily to around USD 400 million in assets, modest by continental standards but run with a consistency that shows up in the governance data: Agaciro scored 48% on the 2026 Global SWF assessment, respectable for a fund of its size, with particular strength on governance criteria.

Roughly 70% of the portfolio sits in equities, with the balance in government securities, a relatively aggressive stance for a fund explicitly designed to reduce Rwanda’s dependence on aid and donor goodwill.

Management has signalled ambitions to grow the fund toward USD 1 billion partly through more infrastructure and co-investment activity, including in data centres and power generation to support the country’s push into digital services.

What Agaciro offers that larger, resource-backed funds cannot is a genuine political constituency. Because part of its capital came from citizens rather than the state alone, withdrawing from it carries a reputational cost that goes beyond fiscal arithmetic — a subtle but real form of accountability that has, so far, kept the fund from becoming a target for emergency raids.

Angola’s FSDEA: proof that redemption is possible

Perhaps the most dramatic turnaround on the continent belongs to Angola’s Fundo Soberano de Angola. Established in 2011 with an initial USD 5 billion endowment, FSDEA spent its early years mired in allegations of self-dealing and opaque investment practices under the fund’s first chairman, who happened to be the son of the then president — a textbook illustration of the governance failures that give African sovereign funds their poor global reputation.

Since 2017, under President João Lourenço’s anti-corruption drive, the fund has been rebuilt almost from scratch. A new board, greater disclosure and a transparency score of eight out of 10 from the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute have accompanied a genuine financial recovery: FSDEA posted record net profit in 2023, more than tripling the prior year’s result, and has more recently reported annual returns in the region of 10%.

Armando Manuel, who returned to lead the fund in late 2023 after helping launch it more than a decade earlier and later serving stints at the IMF and World Bank, has been explicit that rebuilding trust meant insisting investment decisions no longer flow through the presidency.

The fund, now with roughly $4 billion under management, has diversified into regional infrastructure, including a USD 1 billion commitment to the Lobito Corridor rail project linking Angola, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo — a bet that connectivity, not just financial assets, is where long-term African sovereign capital can do the most good.

FSDEA’s case matters because it demolishes the idea that governance failure is a permanent condition. A fund that was, ten years ago, a byword for cronyism now scores among the better-governed institutions on the continent, according to Global SWF’s most recent assessment.

The lesson is less about any particular investment technique than about political will: reform happened because a president decided it should, and was sustained because the new leadership treated the Santiago Principles as a floor rather than a public-relations exercise.

Ethiopia, Egypt and the new generation of “strategic” funds

Not every fast-growing African sovereign vehicle fits the classic savings-fund mould, and the newest entrants complicate the performance conversation in useful ways. Ethiopia Investment Holdings, barely two years old, has already amassed an estimated USD 150 billion in assets under management by consolidating some thirty state-owned enterprises, including Ethiopian Airlines, under one holding structure — making it, at least on paper, the largest sovereign fund on the continent.

Its mandate is less about generating portfolio returns than about modernising the management of state assets, entering partnerships such as a solar power joint venture with the UAE’s Masdar, and preparing to launch the Ethiopian Stock Exchange.

Whether EIH’s headline asset figure translates into anything resembling Norway-style investment performance is a question that will only be answerable once its accounts mature and its state-enterprise holdings are independently valued — a caution worth noting given how differently “strategic” funds like Ethiopia’s, Gabon’s FGIS or Angola’s FSDEA are constructed compared with pure savings vehicles like Botswana’s.

Egypt’s Sovereign Fund, known as TSFE, sits somewhere in between. Established in 2018 to monetise underused state assets, the fund has been expanding rapidly, with plans to absorb hundreds more state enterprises and to launch dedicated sub-funds for tourism, healthcare, financial services and infrastructure, alongside an Africa-focused vehicle.

Its 40% GSR score reflects a fund still building out its governance architecture even as its balance sheet grows quickly, a reminder that scale and institutional maturity do not always arrive together.

TSFE’s approach — attracting private co-investors into state assets rather than accumulating a traditional savings pool — mirrors a broader shift among newer African funds toward what practitioners call “strategic” investing: less concerned with hoarding foreign exchange reserves, more concerned with catalysing private capital into infrastructure, healthcare and industry at home.

Ghana’s petroleum funds: small, rules-bound, and quietly effective

Ghana offers a smaller but instructive case of rules-based discipline. Its two petroleum funds, the Ghana Heritage Fund and Ghana Stabilisation Fund, were created in 2011 under a Petroleum Revenue Management Act that legally mandates the split of oil revenue between the two vehicles and requires regular public reporting by the Bank of Ghana.

Together, they held about USD 1.42 billion at the end of the first half of 2025, with the Heritage Fund’s closing book value alone reaching USD 1.36 billion on the back of steady investment income.

The framework has not been immune to political pressure — recent amendments to the governing law have loosened some spending restrictions in favour of infrastructure financing, prompting warnings from resource-governance watchdogs about the risk of diversion into short-term political priorities.

But the underlying architecture, with parliamentary oversight and a published, auditable track record stretching back over a decade, remains one of the more transparent among Africa’s commodity-financed funds, and offers a template smaller producing nations continue to study.

Senegal’s FONSIS and the diversification play

Senegal’s Fund for Strategic Investments, known as FONSIS, illustrates a different route to relevance: rather than accumulating a single large pool of liquid assets, it operates through five specialised subsidiaries spanning healthcare, agriculture, real assets and private equity, and has built roughly USD 1 billion in assets under management since its creation in 2012.

Its model — smaller, sector-specific investment vehicles feeding off a central sovereign platform — has influenced how several newer West African funds are being designed, including Guinea’s planned USD 1 billion fund, expected to launch by mid-2026, built around revenue from the giant Simandou iron-ore project.

The common threads

Pull these case studies apart and a pattern emerges that has little to do with geology and everything to do with institutional plumbing. The funds that perform best over time — NSIA above all, but also the reformed FSDEA and the disciplined, citizen-anchored Agaciro — share a few features.

Their investment decisions are taken by professional boards operating at arm’s length from the finance ministry, not by presidencies or cabinets. Their withdrawal rules are either legally binding or politically costly to break.

They publish enough detail, consistently enough, that independent assessors such as Global SWF and the International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds can actually verify performance rather than take it on faith. And, critically, they have all, at some point, survived a moment when a government under fiscal pressure was tempted to raid them — and didn’t, or did and then rebuilt.

Botswana’s Pula Fund shows what happens when that last safeguard fails even after decades of good practice.

Angola’s FSDEA shows that failure is not necessarily terminal. Ethiopia and Egypt show that scale can now be built astonishingly fast when a government consolidates state assets under a single sovereign umbrella, though the jury is still out on whether size will translate into the kind of risk-adjusted returns that older, more conservatively run funds have delivered.

For a continent long defined in this space by extractive-industry dependence and governance scandals, that is a meaningfully different story than the one still told about it in most boardrooms outside Africa.

The best-performing funds are not the ones sitting on the biggest reserves of oil, diamonds or iron ore. They are the ones that have figured out how to say no to their own governments — and have been allowed, by design or by hard-won reform, to keep saying it.

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Recognising the critical role of connectivity in driving social and economic development, Ethio Telecom is making significant investments in expanding its network infrastructure, particularly in rural areas. One of Ethio Telecom’s most significant initiatives in recent years is the deployment of 100 new rural mobile solutions across 305 kebeles. This impactful initiative has already brought telecom access to over 903,000 residents, which will improve their lives and opportunities.

“We believe that access to communication and digital services is a fundamental right, not a privilege. We focus on bridging the digital divide and empowering all Ethiopians, including those in the most remote areas. While financial viability is a consideration, our commitment to inclusion and serving all segments of society takes precedence. We are driven by a vision of a connected Ethiopia where everyone has the opportunity to thrive,” Ethio Telecom stated.

The deployment of these 100 new rural mobile solutions is aligned with Ethiopia’s broader goals of achieving universal connectivity and leveraging digital technologies to drive socio-economic development.

These eco-friendly, solar-powered systems provide essential 2G and 3G services, with the potential for future 4G upgrades. Crucially, these solutions eliminate the need for rural residents to make long-distance travel to access telecom services, saving valuable time and resources.

The modular design of these systems allows for easy upgrades as technology advances, ensuring that rural communities remain connected to the latest digital innovations. These rural mobile solutions, however, are not only scalable and sustainable models for rural development but also solar-powered systems designed to operate efficiently in off-grid areas, reducing reliance on traditional energy sources and minimising operational costs. This approach ensures that the solutions are both economically viable and environmentally friendly, aligning with global sustainability goals.

These rural mobile solutions provide a gateway to essential digital services in critical sectors such as education, healthcare, agriculture, and finance. This access empowers communities to improve their livelihoods, access vital information, and participate more fully in the digital economy.

Additionally, it empowers the community to access mobile financial services through its mobile money platform, telebirr, promoting financial inclusion. This allows rural residents to perform transactions, save money, and access micro-loans without the need for physical bank branches.

Ethio Telecom’s dedication to connecting the unconnected underscores its commitment to building a more inclusive and connected Ethiopia. The company remains steadfast in its mission to expand connectivity and digital services, ensuring that all Ethiopians have the opportunity to benefit from the transformative power of technology.

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This airline crisis was just the tip of the iceberg. The reality is that Africa has become a hot zone of suffering for multinational corporations. The main culprit? Weak local currencies. These currencies made repatriating profits a nightmare. Assets held by local subsidiaries lost value. Unlike Emirates, which chose to make noise, most multinationals packed up and left without much fuss. Others, unable to leave entirely, have scaled back their operations, hoping to minimise their losses.

Irmgard Erasmus, a senior economist at Oxford Economics, said, “The high cost of doing business, bureaucratic red tape, and the looming risk of further currency devaluations have rendered operations in Africa unprofitable.”

Across Africa, the currency crisis is spreading. South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya, Ghana, Zambia, Ethiopia, and Zimbabwe are all facing the brunt of it. Egypt’s pound, for example, has lost over two-thirds of its value since early 2022. In 2023, Nigeria’s naira was ranked among the worst-performing currencies globally, having depreciated by 49.4%.

Zimbabwe has fared no better. Its dollar has lost over 70% of its value on the official market since January 2024. Traders have abandoned it, favouring US dollars. In response, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe launched a new currency, the ZiG, backed by gold reserves and foreign currencies. But for ordinary citizens, the shift has not brought immediate relief. Many are struggling with rising prices and diminishing purchasing power, with basic commodities slipping further out of reach.

Out of Africa

The currency crisis has led to widespread suffering and sleepless nights for policymakers. For foreign companies, the impact has been devastating. Many have found it impossible to endure the economic pain. UK’s financial conglomerate Atlas Mara cited currency volatility as a key factor in its 2021 decision to exit Africa, reporting a staggering $145 million decline in the dollar value of its assets due to depreciating local currencies.

Barclays Bank, Procter & Gamble, GlaxoSmithKline, Cadbury, Eveready, Bayer, Nestle, and Unilever have all exited or drastically scaled down operations. Although other factors have been involved, weak currencies were the common denominator.

Foreign investors in Africa’s capital markets are also feeling the pain. The Johannesburg Stock Exchange saw $53 billion in foreign investment outflows over the past eight years. In 2023 alone, equities worth $8.3 billion were dumped. In Kenya, the situation has been similar: foreign investors sold $17 million worth of stocks in the first quarter of 2024.
The biggest hit for investors is not just repatriation issues; it’s the conversion loss when weak African currencies are exchanged for dollars or pounds.

Jonathan Munemo, an economics professor at Salisbury University, said, “The exits and outflows are a sign of how quickly foreign investors will flee when a cratering currency shakes their confidence.”

The causes of this crisis are both internal and external. Structural imbalances within countries are coupled with pressures from the outside. Tight global funding conditions, geopolitical risks, and aggressive rate hikes by the United States Federal Reserve since March 2022 have all played a role. The result? The dollar soared, and African currencies dived. Many countries are stuck in a cycle of dependency, reliant on external borrowing to stay afloat, with each new loan increasing vulnerability.

Turning up the heat

Global food and energy prices soared due to the war in Ukraine, adding more fuel to Africa’s inflation fire. High debt loads meant countries spent dwindling revenues on costly debt repayments. About 40% of Africa’s public debt is external, and over 60% is in US dollars. Countries like Kenya, burdened with an $82 billion public debt, have faced persistent deficits and shrinking reserves.

Between March 2022 and December 2023, the Kenyan shilling fell by 22% against the dollar. The decline only stopped after Kenya’s government concluded a buyback operation on a maturing $2 billion Eurobond in early 2024.

The broader impact of these conditions has been devastating for ordinary citizens. Inflation has eroded purchasing power, with prices for staples like bread, cooking oil, and fuel surging across the continent. In Ghana, the inflation rate hit 54% in late 2023, and many households have had to make difficult choices: cutting back on meals, delaying healthcare, and even pulling children out of school to save money.

The depreciation of currencies has forced foreign companies to rethink their African investments. Hasty actions by governments to stabilise domestic currencies have, in many cases, made things worse. Risks associated with repatriation are acute, especially in countries with rigid forex regimes. Even in nations with flexible regimes, currency convertibility remains a thorny issue.

Desperation has driven many African governments to take extreme measures. Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu has pursued reform policies such as unifying exchange rates and allowing market forces to determine the exchange rate. His government aims to raise $10 billion to boost foreign exchange liquidity. These reforms have also included subsidy removal and public sector cost-cutting, moves that have made life tougher for ordinary Nigerians in the short term but aim to restore economic balance in the future.

Egypt, too, has been forced to acknowledge that economic transformation requires painful sacrifices. The country adopted a flexible exchange rate to access an $8 billion IMF bailout. Moreover, it secured $35 billion from the UAE, $7 billion from the European Union, and $6 billion from the World Bank.

These funds eased Egypt’s forex crunch and allowed the pound to float more freely. But the effects on the ground have been mixed; while foreign reserves have stabilised, the impact on inflation and the cost of living has been severe. Many Egyptians are finding it hard to afford necessities like bread and electricity.

Hard road ahead

The efforts to fix structural issues, such as liquidity problems, market distortions, and a lack of transparency in forex markets, have yielded mixed results. Nigeria’s naira took a turn for the better in early 2024, becoming one of the world’s best-performing currencies, rising 12% in April after a 14% rise in March, according to Goldman Sachs.

However, it’s a hard road ahead. Many African countries are willing to accept tough measures for long-term currency stability. Ethiopia, for instance, still clings to a rigid forex regime. As a result, foreign interest in Ethiopia’s ambitious privatisation and liberalisation plans remains lukewarm.

The government has tried to incentivise investment, in September 2023, the National Bank of Ethiopia approved offshore accounts for strategic investors, making it easier for them to manage their funds and guaranteeing currency convertibility for dividends and loans.

Despite these initiatives, progress has been slow. Ethiopia’s economy remains under pressure, and the reluctance to fully open up its forex market is holding back potential growth. Businesses continue to struggle with access to foreign currency, which has hindered imports of essential goods and stunted industrial activity. Meanwhile, inflation in Ethiopia climbed to 30% by early 2024, driven by rising food prices and a depreciating birr.

The parallel forex market is thriving across Africa. In some countries, it’s a lifeline, offering better rates than official exchanges. While the black market may provide a crucial source of foreign exchange, it also undermines stability.

When restrictions are imposed to stabilise exchange rates, companies and individuals look for ways around them. This fuels black market activity.

That entanglement with the dollar, and other hard currencies, has caused tremendous suffering for Africa. This is why leaders, including Kenya’s William Ruto, are calling for de-dollarisation and the development of local currency debt markets. There is a belief that advanced economies, in pursuit of stability, often ignore how their actions create havoc for developing nations. Borrowing in their currencies would shield African nations from volatile exchange rates and the impact of rising global interest rates. But this is easier said than done.

A lack of deep financial markets, political instability, and the sheer scale of existing foreign-denominated debt make de-dollarisation a daunting task. Still, some progress is being made. In 2024, Nigeria announced plans to issue more bonds in naira rather than in dollars, attempting to wean itself off foreign dependency. Ghana is also exploring options to tap into domestic capital markets to finance public projects.

Moving forward

To address this crisis, Africa will need support and must continue demonstrating the resilience it has always shown. Leaders must make tough decisions, often unpopular ones, to bring stability. Citizens must keep adapting, keep working, and keep believing that better times will come. And the rest of the world? It must not look away. Africa’s struggle is a shared challenge, one that demands a collective response.

International support must go beyond loans and aid. There is a need for technology transfer, capacity building, and fairer trade practices that allow African economies to flourish. The international community must help create an environment where African nations can stand on their own, reduce their debt burden, and build resilient economies.

Africa’s currencies may be shaky, but its spirit remains unbroken. It is this resilience that will ultimately prevail, because it always has. Within the hardship lies an opportunity for change, a chance for a more balanced and just global economy, where no nation is so vulnerable to another’s economic whims.

These nations are now taking steps to boost regional trade and reduce dependency on foreign goods. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), launched in 2021, aims to create the largest free trade area in the world by connecting over 1.3 billion people. This initiative could be a game-changer, reducing reliance on external markets and fostering intra-continental economic resilience.

However, for AfCFTA to fulfil its promise, political will and infrastructure development must align to remove trade barriers and streamline customs processes.

If successful, such initiatives could allow African economies to diversify, boosting manufacturing and value-added services that have long lagged. For now, Africa remains at a crossroads, one path leads to deeper crisis and greater dependency, while the other points toward sustainable development and self-sufficiency. The choice will depend on the decisions made by its leaders and the support provided by the global community.

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India is expected to lead the BRICS group with a predicted increase of 110% in wealth per capita by 2033, followed by China (85%), Ethiopia (75%), South Africa (60%) and Egypt (55%).

The report also states that the investable wealth held by the BRICS bloc currently stands at $45 trillion, and the millionaire population in the bloc is anticipated to increase by 85% over the next decade.

There are currently 1.6 million people in the world’s leading emerging economies who have investable assets of over $1 million. This group includes 4,716 centi-millionaires (individuals with more than $100 million in investable assets) and 549 billionaires.

In January, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE joined the original BRICS cohort, which comprised Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

The BRICS bloc now represents more than 45% of the global population and accounts for nearly 36% of the world’s GDP, when adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP). This is more than the G7 countries, which account for 30% of global GDP when adjusted for PPP.

Henley & Partners CEO, Dr. Juerg Steffen, has stated that an expanded BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) presents new and attractive opportunities for investors and entrepreneurs worldwide.

China leads the BRICS HNWI ranking with 862,400 millionaires, including 2,352 centi-millionaires and 305 billionaires. Over the last decade, China’s private wealth has grown by 92%.

India is the second-ranked country in the BRICS HNWI ranking with 326,400 millionaires, including over 1,000 centi-millionaires and 120 billionaires. India’s private wealth has grown by 85% over the past 10 years.

The UAE has seen a surge in its millionaire population since 2013, with a growth rate of 77%. Currently, the UAE is home to 116,500 millionaires, including over 300 centi-millionaires. Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia have also witnessed robust private wealth growth, with their millionaire populations rising by 35% and 30%, respectively, over the past decade.

China claims five out of the top 10 wealthiest cities in BRICS. Beijing, the capital of China, is home to 125,600 millionaires, including 347 centis and 42 billionaires.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and India each boast two cities in the top 10. Dubai ranks third with 72,500 resident millionaires, including 212 centis and 15 billionaires. Abu Dhabi takes 10th place with 22,700 HNWIs (68 centis and five billionaires).

According to Andrew Amoils, the Head of Research at New World Wealth, five BRICS cities – Bengaluru, India; Cape Town, South Africa; Jeddah and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; and Sharjah, UAE – are expected to see strong wealth growth of over 80% in the next decade.

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According to the Aviation Herald, the pilots of the biggest airline in Africa slept off during flight ET343 from Khartoum, Kenya, to Addis Abeba, Ethiopia.

When the Boeing 737 approached the international airport on August 15 but had not yet begun to descend, alerts were raised. The autopilot system kept the jet cruising at 37,000 feet while the pilots were sound asleep (11,200m).

Air Traffic Control made numerous unsuccessful attempts to get in touch with the crew of Ethiopian Airlines.

The autopilot disconnected after the aircraft passed above the runway where it was intended to land. This set off an alarm, waking up the crew.

The pilots, who were awake and probably frightened, maneuvered the plane around and made a runway landing 25 minutes later.

Fortunately, nobody was hurt, and the plane made a safe landing.

The plane maintained a flight altitude of 37,000 feet and flew directly above the runway where it was intended to land, according to data from the aviation surveillance system ADS-B.

Before leaving on the subsequent flight, the aircraft remained on the runway for around two and a half hours.

On Twitter, aviation expert Alex Macheras called the event “deeply concerning”.

Alex Macheras wrote, “Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 #ET343 was still at cruising altitude of 37,000ft by the time it reached destination Addis Ababa. Why hadn’t it started to descend for landing? Both pilots were asleep.”

Alex Macheras put the blame on pilot fatigue for the untoward incident.

“Pilot fatigue is nothing new, and continues to pose one of the most significant threats to air safety – internationally,” Alex Macheras added.

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CEO Gregory Rockson told the media, “We saw this as an opportunity to leverage our pharmacies as virtual doctor offices so that patients could get examined remotely during a virtual consultation. This is what makes mPharma’s telemedicine unique.”

He also mentioned that mPharma already provides about 10,000 physician consultations to patients at the startup’s network of pharmacies. The virtual centres will enable them to do it electronically and expand their reach.

Earlier this year, mPharma, which already operates in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda and Zambia, announced their expansion in Ethiopia. The healthtech startup signed a franchise agreement with Belayab Pharmaceuticals through its subsidiary, Haltons Limited.

In this regard, Rockson said, “Ethiopia is one of the most closed economies on the continent. This has made it a bit hard for other startups to launch there just because the government rarely allows foreign investments in the retail sector.”

mPharma was founded in 2013 by Rockson, Daniel Shoukimas and James Finucane. So far, the startup has raised over $50 million in separate funding rounds. Last year, it raised around $17 million in its Series C funding round.

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In addition, the African nation is also planning to issue two new telecom licences this year. The country has recognised a lot of value in the telecom industry and it will enhance state-run sectors with a series of reforms. The Ethiopian government is optimistic that opening one of the last major telecom markets to competition will lead to enormous online job opportunities.

Balcha Reba, director-general of the Ethiopian Communications Authority, told the media, “The authority does not expect any delays, and we expect the bid for two new licences will be floated in a couple of weeks.”

MTN and a Vodafone/Vodacom-led consortium were the only two parties to bid for telecom licences in Ethiopia.

Shameel Joosub, chief executive officer at Vodacom group told the media, “We are submitting a strong tender as the Global Partnership for Ethiopia consortium led by Safaricom. It is never an easy job to open up a country’s telecom market, yet the Ethiopian government has managed to move forward with a large number of the regulations required for the benefit of 110 million Ethiopians.”

Recently, the Ethiopian Communications Authority (ECA) said it has issued a telecom licence to a consortium comprising Safaricom, Vodacom, Vodafone, Sumitomo Corporation, and CDC Group.

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The acquisition of Imperial Logistics, which has operations in Africa and Europe, will help DP World to expand the infrastructure of its ports, economic zones and terminals into Africa.
In a press release, DP World said, “DP World aims to improve connectivity between African producers along fast-growing trade lanes to the rest of the world.”

Group chair and CEO of DP World, Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem said, “The acquisition of Imperial will help DP World to build better and more efficient supply chains for the owners of the cargo, especially in Africa.”

After the acquisition, Imperial will be delisted and this will give DP World a much-needed presence in the South African region, thereby adding new capabilities and relationships with cargo owners.

DP World also signed an agreement to co-develop logistics infrastructure in Ethiopia. DP World signed a preliminary agreement with Ethiopia’s transport ministry. The preliminary agreement also involves setting up a joint venture logistics company. Further details of the deal were not disclosed.

Earlier this year, DP World finished the ‘go-live’ of a cloud-based Terminal Operating System (TOS) at the Commercial Port of Luanda in Angola. The platform, called CARGOES TOS+ (Zodiac) solution, offers real-time information on vessel, gate, and yard movements to the users.

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However, he did not explain the circumstances or the exact reason for the change of ownership. Vodafone’s stake has also gone up, as before it stood at 5 percent. The primary reason why Safaricom was given the leadership is because of its close geographical proximity to Ethiopia. Ethiopian Communications Authority (ECA) that Safaricom and another Safaricom consortium led by MTN Group were the only two parties bidding on the auction of two operating licenses.

Some media reports point that at some point they were a bit concerned by the alleged lack of transparency in the process and requirements that winners build their own network infrastructure such as towers. Additionally, they also felt that they were not ready to pay the amounts expected by the Ethiopian government.

Safaricom’s chances of winning one of the licences increased exponentially after nine other firms dropped out of the bidding process. The firms that dropped out of the bidding process are Orange, Etisalat, Telkom SA, Snail Mobile, Axian, Liquid Telecom, Electromecha International Projects, and Kandu Global Communications. The amount bid by Safaricom and MTN Group are expected to be disclosed after Ethiopia announces the result of the bidding.

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According to Ethio Telecom chief executive officer Firehiwot Tamru, Telebirr is a reliable, inclusive, easy transaction financial service that would enable a cashless society and transform the overall Ethiopian economy as it fosters a national reform.

He further added that he expects around 40 to 50 percent of the country’s economy related financial transactions would be carried out using Telebirr. The platform has the capability to carry out around 100 transactions in one second. However, it is expected to be scaled up to nearly 1000 transactions per second. It was developed by Huawei in just five months, while the initial target was to develop the platform in two years.

MTN and a Vodafone/Vodacom-led consortium were the only two parties to bid for telecom licences in Ethiopia, according to media reports. Ethiopia is looking to liberalise its telecom sector by offering two new licences and end a monopoly by state-owned telco Ethio Telecom. The government is also looking to sell a 40 percent stake in Ethio Telecom.

Shameel Joosub, chief executive officer at Vodacom group told the media, “We are submitting a strong tender as the Global Partnership for Ethiopia consortium led by Safaricom. It is never an easy job to open up a country’s telecom market, yet the Ethiopian government has managed to move forward with a large number of the regulations required for the benefit of 110 million Ethiopians.”

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