CBN’s March 2026 circulars let customers opt out of instant payments, mandate multi-factor authentication and add a temporary BVN watchlist for operators.
Section
Money
Diamba Sud gold project in Senegal — capital structure the business case for investors
Who funds Diamba Sud’s near-$400m gold build, who carries the risk, and where Senegalese and regional capital can realistically enter the structure.
Recapitalisation: Nigeria’s Banks Raise N4.65tn to Rebuild Their Capital Base
By April 2026 the CBN completed its two-year recapitalisation, with Nigeria’s banks raising N4.65tn; 33 banks met new minimums and 72.55% of capital was local.
Trade finance: the quiet plumbing behind Africa’s exports to China
Tariffs and protocols open the market, but a shipment only sails when someone finances it. The credit, insurance and bonds behind African exports rarely make headlines, yet they decide who can trade.
NOFR: Nigeria Launches a Secured Overnight Benchmark for Its Money Market
On 17 April 2026 the CBN and FMDA launched NOFR, a secured overnight benchmark to sharpen price discovery, deepen Nigeria’s money market and align with global
CADFund: The state vehicle quietly underwriting China’s Africa investments
A China Development Bank fund built to coax Chinese firms into Africa has committed roughly US$7.6bn across 39 countries. Its job is less to spend than to make others spend.
Industrial Parks as Gateways: Ethiopia’s FDI Bet, Measured at the Exit
Ethiopia’s parks pulled in record FDI and tens of thousands of jobs. The IFC’s diagnostic is admiring and wary in the same breath: the gateway works, but the road past it is congested.
Green Industrial Chains: A US$700 Million Fund Bets on Africa Keeping the Value
A China-Africa Green Industrial Chain fund of about RMB 5 billion, with seven early projects approved, signals a next-phase pitch: not just power, but the supply chains around it – and the value they
Clean-Energy Contracting: RMB 21 Billion in Revenue, and a Question of Whose
China reports RMB 21.18 billion in contracted clean-energy project revenue since the Beijing Summit. The figure is real – the open question is how much of that contracting value lands in African