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Business & Economy
Senegal’s Hidden Debt Crisis: What Role for the IMF?
Senegal is set to accept a $2.2 billion IMF programme under the Extended Credit Facility after its public debt was revised to 132% of GDP. Academic Souleymane Gueye argues the Fund is intervening in a crisis it failed to anticipate and warns that fiscal consolidation alone risks repeating the structural adjustment cycle of the 1980s.
Business & Economy
Africa Credit Rating Agency Launches After Nearly a Decade of Planning
The Africa Credit Rating Agency has formally launched after nearly a decade of planning, beginning with a 2017 African Union mandate and culminating in a Mauritius headquarters. The agency is framed as complementary to Moody's, S&P and Fitch, with a mandate to produce fair, independent assessments of African economies.
Business & Economy
Africa Credit Rating Agency Deepens Capital Markets, Not Rival to Fitch, Moody’s, S&P
The Africa Credit Rating Agency is being read by some as a challenger to Fitch, Moody's and S&P Global. Misheck Mutize argues its real purpose is to deepen African capital markets, where fewer than 5% of an estimated US$4 trillion domestic capital base carries a formal rating.
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Women & Youths Empowerment
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Technology & Innovation
Africa’s Internet Shutdowns Are Assembly Bans in Disguise as Courts Lag
An international lawyer's monthly record of African technology and telecoms law counts more than 70 government-ordered network restrictions across 32 countries since 2014. He argues shutdowns are better understood as assembly bans than speech restrictions, and that courts have largely avoided ruling on that basis.
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Climate & Environment
ECOWAS Delegation Studies EU Civil Protection Model in Bonn and Brussels
A five-day ECOWAS Commission study visit to Bonn and Brussels examined EU civil protection coordination, early warning systems and space-based disaster response. The delegation included representatives from Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Togo, and the lessons will feed into the ECOWAS Emergency Operations Centre and a DG ECHO-funded regional preparedness project.
Business & Economy
ECOWAS Draws Up Provisional List of Certification Bodies to Issue ECOQMARK Label
ECOWAS has drawn up a provisional list of national certification bodies eligible to issue its regional ECOQMARK quality label after reviewing accreditation applications in Abidjan. The committee also approved a regional programme to certify the competencies of designers, installers and inspectors of off-grid solar photovoltaic systems.
Business & Economy
ECOWAS Business Council Taps Dangote to Lead ‘Power W.A.’ Industrialisation Push
The ECOWAS Business Council has unveiled "Power W.A.," a private-sector-led initiative to prioritise regional energy sufficiency for industrial growth, finalised at a meeting in Lagos between Commissioner Dehpue Yenpea Zuo and Prof. Hassan Mahmud, focal person for chairman Aliko Dangote. The plan will establish industrial power corridors backed by a regional electricity demand-and-supply gap study and engage lenders including Afreximbank, the AFC and the IFC, with an inaugural council meeting set for late October to early November 2026.
Climate & Environment
ECOWAS Seeks German, Swiss Backing for Climate Mobility Project After Addis Talks
ECOWAS has asked German and Swiss cooperation partners to back a new regional project on climate-induced human mobility, raising the request at a bilateral meeting held alongside African Union sessions in Addis Ababa. The wider programme of meetings, held from 12 to 15 October 2026, included a workshop on loss and damage finance and a validation meeting that adopted the English version of a draft AU continental strategy on migration and climate change.
Climate & Environment
ECOWAS Economic Affairs Commissioner Meets Togo Environment Minister on Climate, Coastal Protection
ECOWAS Commissioner for Economic Affairs and Agriculture Dehpue Yenpea Zuo met Togo's environment minister on October 9, 2026, to discuss cooperation on environmental protection, natural resource management and sustainable development. The talks cited Togo's coastal groynes and forest conservation targets as areas for regional collaboration.
Health Care Programmes
ECOWAS and GIZ Assess Hospital and WASH Needs in Guinea-Bissau
ECOWAS and GIZ are conducting a joint mission in Guinea-Bissau from 13 to 23 October 2026 to assess capacity-building needs at the regional hospitals of Bafatá and Gabú, with particular attention to water, sanitation and hygiene services. The delegation has consulted national ministries in Bissau and visited the regional hospital in Bafatá, with the assessment continuing in Gabú before preliminary findings are presented to national institutions.