Africa in focus

Kenyan workers prepare clothes for export at the Alltex export processing zone (EPZ) factory in Athi River, near the Kenyan capital Nairobi, July 31, 2009. Kenya's exports to the United States rose 8 percent to 20.6 billion shillings ($268 million) in 2008, largely due to U.S. legislation to promote African trade, Kenya's trade minister Amos Kimunya said. The U.S. African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) has granted duty-free access for many sub-Saharan African nations' products since 2000. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya (KENYA BUSINESS EMPLOYMENT) - GM1E57V1PAB01

Post-AGOA: Moving to a reciprocal US-Africa trade arrangement

Witney Schneidman and Moyombuya Ngubula · Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Passengers board a South African Airways the capital aircraft t the Hosea Kutako International Airport, outside Windhoek in Namibia, February 24, 2017. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko - RC1B88ACF170

Africa in the News: Tanzania seizes diamond shipment, Biafra separatists clash with Nigerian army, and South African Airways cuts flights

Friday, September 15, 2017

Construction workers direct a crane at the Radisson hotel site in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, September 12, 2015. From Abidjan’s packed airport arrivals hall to the buildings mushrooming across the capital, Ivory Coast is booming, a rare African bright spot as the world’s biggest cocoa producer bounces back from a 2011 civil war. Buyers of luxury apartments include Ivorians living overseas, while promoters from Morocco, Turkey and China are attracted by tax breaks. Elections - the source of national unrest four years ago - are due in a month but there is no let-up in investment given expectations of an easy victory for incumbent Alassane Ouattara. The government predicts 9.6 percent growth this year, making the former French colony the standout performer on a continent hammered by a slump in commodity prices, capital outflows and tumbling currencies. REUTERS/Joe PenneyPICTURE 14 OF 33 FOR WIDER IMAGE STORY "IVORY COAST IS BOOMING". SEARCH "BOOMING PENNEY" FOR ALL IMAGES - GF10000219116

Figures of the week: China’s rebalancing and African growth

Thursday, September 14, 2017

Opposition supporters walk along the street during the protest calling for the immediate resignation of President Faure Gnassingbe in Lome, Togo, September 7, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer - RC19F77FC770

Africa in the news: South Africa and Nigeria exit recession, Kenya prepares for election re-run, and Togo and Cameroon protest

Friday, September 8, 2017

An employee uses a money counting machine as she serves a customer inside a mobile phone care centre operated by Kenyan's telecom operator Safaricom; in the central business district of Kenya's capital Nairobi, May 11, 2016. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya - RTX2DU5T

Figures of the week: New findings in African financial and digital inclusion

Friday, September 8, 2017

A general view shows Alexandra Township, an informal settlement for thousands of South Africans who lack the means to get a proper home, located near the upper-class suburb of Sandton in Johannesburg, South Africa July 28, 2016. Picture taken July 28, 2016. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko - D1BETSJZFKAA

Spillover of Fed policy normalization to emerging market and developing economies: The case for optimism

Brahima Sangafowa Coulibaly

Wednesday, September 6, 2017

Kenyan Supreme Court judges arrive for a hearing of a petition challenging the election result filed by the National Super Alliance (NASA) coalition and Human Rights groups at the Supreme Court in Nairobi, Kenya August 28, 2017. REUTERS/Baz Ratner - RC17EBD239E0

Kenya: Presidential elections and the rule of law

John Mukum Mbaku

Wednesday, September 6, 2017

Opposition leader Raila Odinga speaks at a news conference outside the court after President Uhuru Kenyatta's election win was declared invalid in Nairobi, Kenya, September 1, 2017. REUTERS/Baz Ratner - RC185311A080

Africa in the news: Kenya election annulled, EU-Africa migration summit, and Nigerian oil leadership shakeup

Christina Golubski

Friday, September 1, 2017

People walk through the streets of a shopping area in Addis Ababa May 26, 2014. Ethiopia has pushed the door ajar for foreign retailers keen to enter the fast-growing market of 90 million people, welcoming them as managers but keeping the state in control. REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri (ETHIOPIA - Tags: BUSINESS) - GM1EA5R05A501

Figure of the week: Urbanization, poverty, and social protection in East Africa

Moyombuya Ngubula

Friday, September 1, 2017

Supporters cheer as Joao Lourenco, presidential candidate for the ruling MPLA party, speaks at an election rally in Malanje, Angola, August 17, 2017. Picture taken August 17, 2017. REUTERS/Stephen Eisenhammer FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY - RTS1CB66

Africa in the news: Angola votes, Glencore mining operations slowed in Zambia over power dispute, and Power Africa progress report released

Friday, August 25, 2017

A woman works in a plantation of rubber seedlings in San Pedro March 9, 2012. The acrid smell of rubber is the smell of money, say the farmers of the Ivory Coast, the world's top cocoa producer, who are felling their aging cocoa trees to plant the hot new crop. Picture taken March 9, 2012. REUTERS/Thierry Gouegnon (IVORY COAST - Tags: BUSINESS COMMODITIES AGRICULTURE) - RTR2ZFWD

Figures of the Week: Employment and labor productivity in Côte d’Ivoire

Wednesday, August 23, 2017

QUALITY REPEAT: Rescue workers search for survivors after a mudslide in the Mountain town of Regent, Sierra Leone, August 14, 2017. Pictures taken August 14, 2017. Sierra Leone Red Cross/Handout via REUTERS REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS PICTURE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVE - RTS1BWIG

Africa in the news: Kenya’s opposition disputes election results, Namibia cuts interest rates, and Sierra Leone mourns mudslide victims

Friday, August 18, 2017

A worker walks past boxes of cooking oil at the Bidco factory in Thika, north of the Kenyan capital Nairobi January 21, 2012. Bidco is based in Thika, a manufacturing town a half hour's drive from Nairobi, which made a name for itself in the 1970s because of its thriving textiles factories, bakeries and motor vehicle plants. In the early 2000s, though, it grew to symbolise Kenya's decline. Bidco survived the hard times. It exports 20 percent of its output to other African countries, with a value of $40 million a year, says Vimal Shah, who runs the company. Picture taken January 21, 2012. To match Insight AFRICA/SPENDERS-INFLATION REUTERS/Noor Khamis (KENYA - Tags: BUSINESS FOOD EMPLOYMENT SOCIETY) - RTR2WRCJ

Figure of the Week: Job growth in Kenya’s formal economy slows

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

A copy of the Wall Street Journal is pictured in a newsstand in New York, June 26, 2007. Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. and Dow Jones & Co. Inc. have "basically agreed" on a structure to protect the editorial independence of Dow Jones' news operations, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. News Corp. is offering $5 billion to buy Dow Jones. REUTERS/Keith Bedford (UNITED STATES) - RTR1R6CD

Exploring media sentiment around Africa: Positive or negative?

Monday, August 14, 2017

Kenyans queue to cast their vote during the presidential election outside a polling station in Gatundu, Kenya August 8, 2017. REUTERS/Baz Ratner - RTS1ATK9

Africa in the news: Elections in Rwanda and Kenya, AGOA Forum, and Ethiopia’s dropped state of emergency

Friday, August 11, 2017