Author: Contribution

By Gustavo Pessoa, professor of economics and finance at Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV) in Brazil. The proposed split for Sonatel shares would reduce the size of an investment unit. Its appeal to savers will also depend on the cost of orders and resale conditions. Intermediaries can make this opening truly useful for small budgets. A single share can commit more savings than a household wishes to expose to a company. In the resolutions project prepared for its assembly on October 8, Sonatel proposed to transform each share into ten, with an expected effective date of October 26. This change in…

By Raphaël Nkolwoudou Afane, PhD in Law (PhD – Université Paris Cité), Contract Manager at Teragone Solutions, Paris – France The decision of Ivorian authorities to engage in a process with Meta to open up the monetization of digital content is probably one of the most structuring regulatory initiatives in the African creative ecosystem in recent years. After several months of technical experimentation requested by the Ivorian government, the tests were deemed successful, paving the way for direct remuneration of content creators on Facebook and Instagram. South Africa serves as a precedent in terms of access to monetization on digital…

By Youssaou Koanda A statement published on October 2 makes PI-SPI mandatory starting from November 2 and revises its fee schedule. For the first time, the BCEAO explicitly names the emergence of new uses as an objective to achieve, an evolution that can be interpreted in several ways. On October 2, the BCEAO issued a statement that changes the game on PI-SPI, its instant payment interoperability platform for the eight UEMOA countries. Starting from November 2, the use of PI-SPI becomes mandatory for all interoperable electronic money transactions within the UEMOA. The connection, previously a voluntary step under regulatory pressure,…

By Dr. Mohamed H’MIDOUCHE, Economist, author, researcher, and former international civil servant Global crises, geopolitical shocks, and climate disruptions make the energy transformation of Africa more urgent. In addition to the efforts of states and development banks, there must now be a stronger mobilization of African private capital. Aliko Dangote’s industrial initiative and Azito’s financial structure illustrate two complementary paths. The challenge is clear: to convert the savings and assets of the continent into useful infrastructure, jobs, industrial capacities, and reliable, affordable, and sustainable energy. A Global Crisis on an Ancient Divide An enterprise that interrupts its production, a health…

By Gnagna Koné, specialist in public affairs and regulatory strategy A year ago, seventeen years after the effective commercial launch of the first mobile financial services, the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) officially launched its interoperable instant payment infrastructure. The Interoperable Instant Payment System (PI-SPI), a project that many in the industry thought was an obsolete “machine that would take another century before anyone cared”, materialized into a tangible public good that seeks to break down private proprietary silos by technically placing the rails of digital finance under regional monetary authority. The BCEAO demonstrates that from a systemic…

By Lansana Gagny SAKHO Adm.A, C.M.C, President of the Circle of Public Administrators | Chairman of APIX-SA. We cannot distribute wealth that we do not produce 2026 Amended Finance Bill (PLFR): Submitted to the National Assembly on September 18, 2026, the PLFR 2026 revises the growth from 5% to 2.7%, reduces revenues by 451.4 billion CFA francs and cuts investment by 555 billion as an adjustment variable. Meanwhile, energy subsidies soar from 250 to 790.3 billion CFA francs and the wage bill reaches 1,532.8 billion CFA francs. There is a simple economic truth that political speeches and union demands stubbornly refuse to integrate: we cannot distribute wealth that we…

By Dr. Moussa K. Fall, Economist, Cofounder & Dean Marselya Tech. Given the deterioration of macroeconomic fundamentals in some countries of the ECOWAS zone, it would be wiser to allow more convergence between economies and postpone the adoption of the Eco. By readapting the optimality criteria of a monetary zone to the dynamics of the economies of the ECOWAS zone, the latter is indeed an optimal monetary zone in the making. The integration of Ghana and Nigeria, although involving somewhat systemic risks, contributes to the credibility and political will, essential for a monetary zone. The ECOWAS has set a date.…

By Djiba DIAKITE, Chief of Staff Minister at the Presidency, President of the Strategic Committee of Simandou / Guinea. The signing that took place in New York on September 21, 2026 between the TransGuinéen Company (CTG) and the Wabtec group goes beyond mere commercial scope. This service contract, the largest ever concluded by Wabtec in Africa, brings to over 1.2 billion US dollars the cumulative commitment of this American partner alongside Guinea. It extends over more than fourteen (14) years, serving the locomotives that currently run on our double-track railway of over 650 kilometers. This agreement confirms the excellence of…

By Aboubakr Kaira Barry, CFA, Managing Director Results Associates, and Chair of the Omou Financial Literacy Center, Bethesda, MD, USA The Financial Times, in a September 13, 2026 article, “Benchmarking and Bonuses: Why Singapore Pays Its Politicians Like Bankers,” reported an increase of US$1 million in the salary of the Prime Minister of Singapore, bringing his total package to US$2.8 million (S$3.6 million)—seven times the salary of Donald Trump. You may ask why this is so. The answer goes back to the vision of Singapore’s founding father, Lee Kuan Yew, who passed away in 2015. At independence in 1965, Mr…

By Mohamed Ndiaye The conclusion of negotiations with the IMF is an important step. It reflects the ability of Senegalese authorities to engage in demanding dialogue with the IMF and to build a new economic and financial trajectory for the country. However, it is important to understand the real significance of this agreement. The $2.2 billion alone does not solve Senegal’s financial problems. The true value of this agreement lies in the confidence it can help restore, in the mobilization of additional financing, and in the possibility of gradually rebuilding the necessary leeway for development financing. The most important part…

By Cheikh Mbacké SÈNE The downgrade of Senegal’s sovereign rating by Moody’s on August 28, 2026, from Caa1 to Caa2 with a negative outlook, comes at a time of strong pressure on public finances. Beyond the apparent sanction to the sovereign rating, this decision should be seen as a strategic warning signal. It highlights the need for Dakar to review its financing architecture, reduce its exposure to short and medium-term refinancing, and accelerate the productive transformation of the economy. Moody’s decision is mainly based on the worsening risks of refinancing and the weakness of budgetary margins. Senegal’s gross financing needs…

” Banks no longer support us “: behind this recurring observation of Togolese entrepreneurs lies a structural crisis that stifles public procurement and weighs down bank balance sheets – with the Togolese market showing the only net loss in the UEMOA in 2025. In this article, Dr. LANDOZI decrypts the impasse of receivables related to the BTP and outlines a way out of the crisis: dedicated guarantee fund, escrow accounts, and securitization of arrears. An analysis without bias, calling for a real sharing of risks between the State, companies, and banks. By Dr. LANDOZI For several years, the consultation frameworks…

By Professor Amath Ndiaye, FASEG/UCAD The launch of Senegal’s Debt Treatment Plan (PTDS) and the agreement reached with the International Monetary Fund represent a major turning point in the management of the Senegalese financial crisis. According to economist Amath Ndiaye, these two decisions should be commended. They signify a break with the “utopian economic sovereignty” that characterized the initial directions of President Bassirou Diomaye Faye’s regime. A return to reality The IMF’s statement on September 1, 2026 marks a significant change. The institution explicitly states that “the authorities have announced their intention to seek debt treatment to restore its sustainability.”…

By Lansana Gagny Sakho The agreement at the services level of September 1, 2026: what it says, what it demands, and what the markets will observe In the economic history of a country, there are days whose significance surpasses that of all the speeches that accompany them. The 1st of September 2026 is one of those days. On that day, the IMF announced that it had reached an agreement with the Senegalese authorities on a services level agreement for an ECF program of $2.2 billion over 36 months, for the period 2026-2029. The speed with which this signal was sent…

By Chinedu Moghalu After a year in office, Sidi Ould Tah has begun to reshape how the African Development Bank raises money and prepares projects. Delivery, however, is the harder test. On 29 May 2025, shortly after his election as the ninth president of the African Development Bank Group, Tah stood before the Bank’s governors and guests at the Sofitel Abidjan Hôtel Ivoire. His expression gave little away. Stoic, almost solemn, he thanked Africa, the Bank’s partners and those gathered in the room, then said simply: “Let’s go to work now, I’m ready!” Three months later, on 1 September, he…

By Aboubakr Kaira Barry, CFA, Managing Director, Results Associates, and Chair, Omou Financial Literacy Center, Bethesda, Maryland, USA BusinessDay carried a story on August 24 raising fresh questions about the $5 billion Total Return Swap (TRS) the National Assembly approved on March 31, 2026 — a facility now being drawn in tranches. The paper quoted Dele Oye, chairman of the Alliance for Economic Research and Ethics Ltd/GTE, saying the government needs to be far more transparent about the terms of the deal and how the proceeds are being spent. As of now, Abuja still hasn’t published a term sheet or…

Gregory P. Tosi, a lawyer in Washington, D.C., and former legal advisor to the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, believes that the extension granted to the AGOA (African Growth and Opportunity Act), a U.S. trade law that allows eligible sub-Saharan African countries to export products to the U.S. market duty-free, should not be wasted. While the U.S. Senate has voted to extend the program for three years, the author urges African governments to take the initiative and present a concrete proposal for a permanent trade framework between the United States and Africa, based on reciprocity, critical minerals, and the…

By KONÉ Péléni Jonathan Aimé, PhD in private law, specialist in banking law, credit law, and consumer law. Temporary teaching and research assistant (ATER), Toulouse Capitole University – Business Law Center. Independent consultant. The rapid rise of cryptoassets is one of the most significant changes in contemporary financial architecture. Born from the convergence of cryptography and distributed ledger technologies, these instruments deeply question the traditional foundations of currency, banking intermediation, and prudential regulation. In the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA), this dynamic takes on a particular dimension. As an integrated monetary zone, sharing a common currency – the…

By Lansana Gagny SAKHO Adm.A, C.M.C The recent increase in fuel prices in Senegal has reopened a debate that cyclically resurfaces in our public space: could we not do things differently? Could we reduce taxes, contain subsidies, maintain artificially low prices to preserve the purchasing power of households? These questions are legitimate in their social concern. They become intellectually problematicwhen formulated without answering the fundamental question they inevitably raise: who will pay the difference? After nearly a decade at the heart of the Senegalese state, arbitrating real budget constraints and managing public institutions under financial pressure, I can say one thing with the…

What twenty-eight years in telecoms, postal services, and payments have taught me about the Africa we are building I remember the silence in the room. I said this almost spontaneously, in front of an international audience that, once again, was measuring our African postal services against the giants of global logistics. “Don’t ask us to be Amazon here in Africa.” It was neither a confession of weakness nor a surrender. It was the opposite: the calm assertion of our own path. Since then, this phrase has stuck with me. It is quoted to me, challenged, demanded. Despite myself, it has…

By Soukeyna LY, Energy Engineer and Macroeconomist, Founder of the think tank PRONA FUTURES. Montreal, August 18, 2026 When oil becomes more expensive on international markets, the increase eventually makes itself felt. The State absorbs part of it through subsidies; companies, through the increase in their costs; and households, through their daily expenses. The recent increase in fuel prices in Senegal must be understood in light of this reality. The debate is therefore not only about a few more francs at the pump. It raises a more fundamental question: who will bear this increase? The State, companies, or households? Since…

By Emmanuel LoWilla*, President of the East Africa Caucus of the Pan-African Parliament Rio Tinto left Bougainville unrepaired for thirty-seven years. The same pattern is unfolding in Madagascar and may now threaten Guinea and Mozambique as well. In 1989, a mine on the island of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea stopped work. Rio Tinto had been extracting copper and gold there for seventeen years, and close to a billion tonnes of waste had entered the rivers. The landowners rose against it. What followed was a civil war that killed thousands. Rio Tinto never returned. In 2016 it handed over its…

By Aboubakr Kaira Barry, CFA, Managing Director, Results Associates and Chair of the Omou Financial Literacy Center, Bethesda, Maryland, United States The IMF’s 2026 Article IV consultation on Nigeria includes a dedicated annex on the rapid spread of cryptocurrencies in the country. Between July 2023 and June 2024, Nigeria received approximately $59 billion in crypto-asset value, according to Chainalysis data cited by the IMF. Stablecoins accounted for more than 65 percent of crypto inflows in 2024, and Nigeria represented around 60 percent of all stablecoin inflows into Sub-Saharan Africa between late 2019 and early 2025. What Are Stablecoins? Stablecoins…

By Prof. Abderrahmane Mebtoul, university professor, international expert, Doctor of Strategic Management. Published on August 15, 2026, the Shanghai Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) offers a new snapshot of the international hierarchy of knowledge. Beyond the ranking of institutions, this edition highlights a fundamental reality: in an increasingly knowledge-based global economy, research, innovation, and human capital are now essential determinants of a nation’s power. According to the United Nations and the World Bank, good governance is based on five pillars: the rule of law, transparency, accountability, participation, and the effectiveness of institutions. But governance, important as it may be,…

By Dr. Mohamed H’MIDOUCHE* The tragedy of Ceuta prohibits reducing migration to border control alone. It requires Morocco, Spain, and Europe to protect lives, organize mobility, and offer young people credible prospects in their country. Our youth is not a threat to be contained: it is the primary capital of Morocco and Africa. On August 14, 2026, a national holiday throughout the Cherifian Kingdom, the 47th anniversary of the recovery of Oued Eddahab provides an opportunity to calmly revisit the migration crisis of July 30 and 31 in Ceuta. On August 2, the Moroccan Ministry of the Interior reported 40,000…

By Yves Daniel Adoum, Foundation for Innovation in Democracy Since 1999, International Youth Day has been celebrated every August 12th. A day that highlights the challenges and role of young people in society. This year’s edition coincides with the holding a few days earlier of the inaugural session of the Pan-African Youth Parliament for Democracy with a stated goal: to no longer let democratic decisions be made without them. From August 3 to 5, the inaugural session of the Pan-African Youth Parliament for Democracy was held in Accra. The event was co-organized by the Foundation for Innovation in Democracy, at…

By Diallo Safayiou And since everyone is talking about it, let’s not give Mr. Everybody’s answer. For us, it is important that our country, through the Central Bank of the Republic of Guinea (BCRG), manages to respect the commitments made at the level of the West African sub-region, with a view to a possible monetary union. But meeting convergence criteria does not mean blindly adhering to a project whose implications for the Guinean economy are largely underestimated in public discourse. A lesson not to forget: the previous CFA franc In our humble opinion, this monetary integration project should be publicly…

By Christian Kazumba* In the DRC, a digital tax suspended after twelve days of protest. A symptom of a larger problem: often, on the continent, governments choose the quickest fiscal solution rather than the most effective one. On July 20, 2026, the Democratic Republic of Congo signed a decree introducing new taxes on digital activities: up to $100,000 for certain categories of services and $5,000 for the authorization to operate fintechs or online banks. The objective, legitimate a priori, was clear: to increase state revenues. Twelve days later, a massive protest from the local ecosystem led to the suspension of…

By Mohamed Souleymane, former Secretary General of the Association of Mayors of Northern Mauritania. The incident that occurred in Dakar during the presentation of the book “Moroccan Sahara: Geopolitical Stakes of a Major Issue for Morocco” was not just a controversy between diplomats. It revealed a difficulty: that of distinguishing the memory of civilizations from the sovereignty of states. Cheikh Tidiane Gadio is an experienced diplomat, a talented speaker, and a man with longstanding ties to Mauritania. His esteem for the maraboutic family of Ahmed ben Mohamed Al-Aqil, his role in Mauritanian mediations, and his knowledge of regional balances are…

How Africa finances, every year, the mistake of those who rate it By Junior Mbuyi Kanganga, Founder & CEO of JPG Consulting Partners Group, President of Africa Risk – Strategic Institute for African Sovereignty & Transformation. Op-ed based on the author’s work and upcoming essay, From Chaos to Prosperity: Towards an African Revolution?(L’Harmattan Editions, September 2026, foreword by Dr. Cheikh Tidiane Gadio). The world we thought was stable is completing its dissolution before our eyes. Washington is breaking with its own multilateral dogmas, Beijing is advancing its pieces on critical infrastructure and minerals, Moscow is playing the diplomatic balancing act, and…