Breaking News Today - Tuesday 22 September 2026

African Start-up News Headlines:

Egyptian-founded payments infrastructure provider Paymob has raised $35 million in a pre-Series C round co-led by Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Company and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. British International Investment, Global Ventures and DPI Ventures also participated. Paymob, which operates in Egypt, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Oman and serves more than 390,000 merchants with over 60 payment methods, will use the capital to scale digital payments acceptance across MENA, develop SME-focused products and support agentic commerce tools. Consolidated revenues have tripled over the past 18 months, with GCC revenues growing sevenfold and now approaching half of the total.
Pan-African electric-mobility company Spiro has secured an extra $18 million in debt from the Africa Go Green Fund (managed by Cygnum Capital), doubling AGG’s total commitment to $36 million. The new facility builds on a December 2025 debt arrangement in which AGG had already committed $18 million alongside Nithio. Proceeds will fund additional electric motorcycle deployments and battery-swapping infrastructure in Uganda and Rwanda. As of September 2026 Spiro reports more than 135,000 electric motorcycles in operation, over 2,500 swap stations and more than 50 million battery swaps across seven African markets.

Egyptian startup Bekia, who has developed a digitised waste collection platform, has raised a US$765,000 seed round to expand its consumer app and launch its first B2B software product. The US$765,000 funding round was laid by Madica, the Africa-focused investment programme affiliated with Flourish Ventures, and also features Catalyst Fund and Dakar-based Jambaar Capital. Bekia will use the funding to grow its engineering team, take Bekia Next to market, and begin testing the model in a second African market.

Headline News Today

African Power Gap Gains New Champion

Aliko Dangote, has revealed ambitious plans to invest $10 billion in securing sufficient electrical power generation, in Africa's power sector, to address the continent's large electricity deficit. He intends to divest from other business ventures, such as steel, to prioritise power generation initiatives. Dangote emphasised that access to electricity is fundamental for Africa's economic and industrial growth. Speaking in an interview on Al Jazeera, Dangote, the Nigerian billionaire, and founder of the Dangote oil refinery, said the lack of electricity is one of the greatest obstacles Africa faces concerning its productivity, and with the economy changes coming, this would need to be fixed. “In the next 3 to 4 years, there will be a major transformation in Africa, and that's why we (Dangote Group) are looking at power,” he said.

New Nissan SUV Launch In South Africa After Manufacturing Exit

Nissan has launched its new Tekton SUV model in South Africa, The first new model to launch in the country after the Japanese automaker exited its local manufacturing business this year and shifted to an import-focused business. Nissan sold its Rosslynn manufacturing plant in Pretoria to China’s Chery vehicle group, and moved its African manufacturing to Egypt, in a move that raised doubts about the brand’s future in the country. The Tekton, which is manufactured in India, is being introduced in South Africa as Nissan’s first African launch market for the model since its global debut in India and among the first launches worldwide.

Exports from Uganda Surge in July

Uganda’s export earnings saw a 10.2% year-on year growth in July. This was due to higher shipments of commodities including gold, cocoa and flowers, as announced by the finance ministry in an export report. The surge in export earnings should help cushion the local currency, the shilling, which had been weakening against the dollar in recent days.

Export earnings rose to $1.40 billion in July from $1.27 billion in July 2025, the ministry said in its report. The increase in export income was mainly driven by higher earnings from shipments of a range of commodities including gold, cocoa, flowers, maize and others. The value of gold shipments surged 35% to $788.45 million in July.

Breaking Business and Market News Shorts:

Brent crude future prices lifted around 1% today to around $101 per barrel, after falling for four consecutive trading sessions, and prices dipping below the $100 dollar mark yesterday. Brent has however held most of the decline amid easing supply concerns in the Middle East and growing diplomatic efforts to end the US-Iran war.
Nigeria has launched a $300 million Distributed Renewable Energy Fund, supported by the Nigeria ⁠Sovereign Investment Authority, bringing together public and private capital to fund clean-energy projects.The fund seeks to scale off-grid and distributed renewable energy investments and ‌connect ⁠around 300 million people across Africa to electricity by 2030.
US markets closed sharply higher yesterday with the S&P 500 up +1.5% it's best day since early August this year. The Nasdaq gained +2.3% to a record close, while the Dow was up +0.7%. Chipmakers led gains with Intel up +12%, and AMD +~10% hitting a $1T market cap.
Bitcoin prices lifted above $85,000 yesterday to trade at its highest level since late January. Bitcoin has gained around 13% in the last week. Other crypto majors Cardono - up over 26% in the last week while Ether is up 14% in the last week.
South Africa’s 10-year government bond yield has eased to around 8.78%, close to its lowest level since September, and tracking other peers. Falling prices of crude oil amid hopes of easing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East helped to alleviate concerns over energy disruptions and inflationary pressures.

Markets by Numbers

Currencies:

Currency markets indicate the US dollar stronger today. The Greenback is trading against the Euro at 1.14776 while trading against the Pound at 1.33852. The Yen is currently trading at 157.45 to the US dollar. The rand (ZAR), is currently trading at the 16.24 against the US dollar this morning.

Commodities:

Gold futures have gained around 0.07% this morning, and currently trading at around $4346.40 per ounce.
Copper prices are up by over 1% today, with prices currently around $6.7567 per pound
Silver futures are up by around 0.15%, and currently trading at around $66.073 per ounce.
Platinum futures are down around -0.39% this morning, and currently trading at $1794.40, While Palladium is down by -0.65% today, and currently trading around $1308.00 per ounce.
Lithium is trading marginally higher today and currently at CNY/T 134 450
Brent crude oil prices are trending more than 1.% higher today, and currently trading around $101.69, with WTI trading at $93.40 currently
Cocoa futures have gained around 0.45% today, and currently trading at $5351 per ton.
Coffee futures are down around -1.2% today, and currently trading at around $2.7640 per pound

Crypto Currencies:

Bitcoin prices are down around -1.6% today, and trading at around $85 202 per coin currently
Ether prices are around -2% lower this morning, and currently trading around $2718.01

(All prices quoted at approximately 07H20 Central African Time)

African General News Briefs:

Gabon's government, with an economic growth forecast at 4.5% in 2027, compared with 4.0% in 2026, plans to raise $2.01 billion from international markets in 2027. This is under a draft budget that assumes faster economic growth and a ‌rebound in oil output, while debt service and debt repayments rise sharply. Planned 2027 funding also includes 600 billion CFA francs raised from domestic or regional markets, 300 billion CFA francs in bank borrowing, 600 billion CFA francs in budget support and 287.3 billion CFA francs in project finance according to a Reuters report.
A group of seven Ethiopian para-military entities, including some who are longstanding enemies and who fought on opposite sides in the 2020-2022 civil war, said they have formed an alliance with the goal of overthrowing Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government. The announcement of the Ethiopian Peoples’ Forces Alliance for Survival brought together an ethnically diverse body of politically separate people based across the country.