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Published 9th May 2024

Vol 65 No 10

Nigeria

Crypto cross words

Pic: Unshu / stock.adobe.com
Pic: Unshu / stock.adobe.com

Top cryptocurrency platform Binance is accused of tax evasion, currency speculation and money laundering by Abuja

Officials in Abuja say that Binance, an online platform to trade cryptocurrencies, came close to destroying what is now only Africa's third largest economy by facilitating money laundering on an epic scale. The trading of billions of naira through the Binance platform worsened the currency's instability at critical periods in late 2023 and early this year, they add.

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The juntas are running out of excuses

General Abdourahamane Tiani and Colonel Assimi Goïta. Pic: @GoitaAssimi
General Abdourahamane Tiani and Colonel Assimi Goïta. Pic: @GoitaAssimi

Populist rhetoric and ethnic targeting by the military regimes are deepening the region's fault-lines

The lean season in the Sahel this year is starting under the toughest economic and political conditions for generations. Mali and Burkina Faso have been baked by a...

Pollsters vie for credibility with politicians

Copyright © Africa Confidential 2024
Copyright © Africa Confidential 2024

Opinion surveys struggle to keep up with the changing shape of this intensely contested election

Activists and politicians across the spectrum agree on one point: opinion surveys in South Africa are often wide of the mark, undermined by poor methodology, and sometimes institutional...

BLUE LINES
THE INSIDE VIEW

The European Union's offer of data access deals at the summit of African Data Protection Authorities in Nairobi on 7 May should prick the interest of more than just pointy-heads. Brussels wants Kenya, whose 2019 data protection law was modelled on the EU's, to be the first of a group of African states to obtain regulatory equivalence, paving the way for an African Single Digital Market, one of the long-term goals of the African Continental Free Trade Area.

Obtaining equivalence &ndash...

The European Union's offer of data access deals at the summit of African Data Protection Authorities in Nairobi on 7 May should prick the interest of more than just pointy-heads. Brussels wants Kenya, whose 2019 data protection law was modelled on the EU's, to be the first of a group of African states to obtain regulatory equivalence, paving the way for an African Single Digital Market, one of the long-term goals of the African Continental Free Trade Area.

Obtaining equivalence – known in EU jargon as an 'adequacy' agreement – would require African states to align their data protection laws with the EU's General Data Protection Regulation – a landmark law, in force since 2018, which sharply increased individual control over storage and use of data.

There are commercial incentives to embrace the offer. Adequacy status would open access to the EU's €800 billion data economy, business process outsourcing and digital services exports to African states. Organisations in Africa that offer goods and services in the EU or work with an EU business where personal data is shared are already bound by the GDPR.

Most African states are signed up to the African Union Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection. But this has no legal status. Of 55 African states, 36 have data protection laws, of which Nigeria and Somalia have the newest. Many are over a decade old and three are considering drafts.

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SWAPO's prospects lag behind economy

Geingob's death and a row over the German genocide make for an awkward transition in this year's polls against a strong opposition

The lavish and lengthy obsequies for President Hage Geingob, who died aged 82 on 4 February, turned out to be just an interlude in the drama on whether...

Parliamentary speaker flounders in corruption saga

Facing British travel bans and asset freezes over state theft scandal, Speaker Anita Among claims she is being targeted for her anti-LGBTQ+ stance

When asked about her involvement in corrupt schemes, Anita Among, Speaker of the parliament in Kampala, usually argues she is being singled out by foreigners for her energetic...

Yet another changing of the guard

Questions surround President Ruto's security plans after he reshuffles the top military jobs for the second time in two months

Regarded as sure-footed on politics and diplomacy, President William Samoei Ruto's management of security policy in a troubled region has been prompting questions about where he wants to...

Premier Meloni woos President Saïed

The authoritarian regime in Tunis is at the heart of Rome's grand plans for its African axis

Migration and energy deals topped the agenda of Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's flying visit to Tunisia – her fourth in a year – on 17 April. Flanked...

Elections and wars consume cash

Kenya's William Ruto has hosted a pledging summit for the World Bank but experts predict more demands on a smaller funding pot

Hopeful promises emerging from the Kenya-hosted summit for the International Development Association, the World Bank's soft loan affiliate, on 29-30 April have to be set against wider cuts...

The Gnassingbé dynasty prolongs its grip on the state

The ruling party won a sweeping majority in parliamentary elections, allowing the Gnassingbé family to continue its 57-year rule

The scale of the ruling Union pour la République (UNIR) victory in the parliamentary elections on 29 April dashes the hopes of opposition parties that the vote might...

No Bretton Woods moment

Bold plans to restructure the international financial institutions are being drawn out by political opposition and bureaucratic inertia

At the International Monetary Fund and World Bank spring meetings In Washington DC on 19 April the Fund's International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) – comprising IMF Managing...

Coup zone election pits votes against tanks

New details about President Kaka's break with the US have emerged as the election exposes some of the political manoeuvring within the elite

The campaigning which culminated in national elections on 6 May proved livelier than expected. Yet nobody doubts that President Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno 'Kaka' will win, probably with...

Pointers

HYPREP's no-shows

Ogoni activists say most of the companies contracted by the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) to carry out remediation work on disastrously polluted Ogoniland have not turned up...

Ruto's UDA in chaos

The United Democratic Alliance existed only on paper in 2021. Three years later, President William Ruto's dominance over Kenyan politics is such that having the UDA ticket can...

The prize goes to Chapo

The ruling Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (Frelimo) party has finally chosen its presidential candidate for October's general election. In a process which saw the party's politburo wait...

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