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As President William Samoei Ruto celebrated his first year in State House on 13 September, he has been able to bask in the global leadership opportunity offered by Kenya’s role in crafting an unprecedented African policy approach to the climate crisis ahead of COP28 in Dubai.

While Ghana remains hamstrung by enormous debts, there are tentative signs the economy may be turning a corner as Ghanaian politicians limber up for an election year. As debt restructuring deals continue to be hammered out with independent power producers and other creditors, there are grounds for cautious optimism, even if deep structural issues have yet to be addressed, writes Marc Howard.

Ghana’s improving economic indicators have provided some much-needed relief for the embattled New Patriotic Party (NPP) government, which is now at the tail-end of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s constitutionally allowed two terms.

The installation of the reactor core at the first unit of the Dabaa nuclear plant on 6 October confirms the project as an anchor of Cairo’s political and financial alliance with Moscow for the next 50 years. It is a step which will have a more meaningful impact than Egypt’s recently agreed membership of the enlarged Brics alliance, writes John Hamilton.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on 4 October it had reached an agreement with Côte d’Ivoire (CdI) to release a further $500m in financial support, following a review of its economic reform programme. 

Momentum continues to build for the two large export-oriented liquefied natural gas projects on Mozambique’s Afungi peninsula. TotalEnergies has confirmed longstanding speculation that work will resume at Mozambique LNG this year, while ExxonMobil is aiming for a final investment decision on its Rovuma project in 2025 – underpinned by the continuing role of foreign security forces in Cabo Delgado, writes Marc Howard.

Abu Dhabi has yet to give a clear explanation for the extensive airlift to Amdjarass in north-eastern Chad that has been under way since May, but recent reports by a number of US media outlets suggest the UAE has been using the operation to supply anti-tank missiles and drones to Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti)’s Rapid Support Forces, one of the two main protagonists in Sudan’s civil war.

There are pockets of progress in building infrastructure across Democratic Republic of Congo, with commercial operators and development finance institutions supporting a range of projects. But with eastern regions traumatised by violence and an uncertain election looming in December, the country remains as challenging an environment as ever, writes Jon Marks.

Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed triumphantly announced on 10 September that the fourth and final filling of the $4.2bn Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (Gerd) reservoir had been completed, raising the 74km3 reservoir’s water level to 625 metres; last year’s third filling had brought levels to 600 metres.

Egyptians are hoping for cooler weather and with it the end of severe rolling power outages which have caused difficulties throughout the summer. However, the social and economic legacies of the electricity supply crisis will outlast the ferocious Mediterranean heatwave, which has provided the government’s only – but far from satisfying – explanation for why the outages happened, writes John Hamilton.

Disasters in Morocco and then Libya in the first half of September – the first a natural disaster, the second largely the product of human mismanagement – have put renewed pressure on the authorities in both countries.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has appointed the little-known Edgar Moyo as his energy and power development minister in a new, bloated cabinet – in which the re-elected president stirred up a storm by naming his son David Kudakwashe Mnangagwa (Kuda) as deputy finance minister and his nephew Tongai Mnangagwa as deputy tourism and hospitality minister.

Washington has added to its support for the Lobito Corridor by backing a new spur to north-western Zambia. With Brussels now also on board, western efforts to counter Chinese influence over critical minerals are gathering pace.

All of Kenyan President William Ruto’s personal energy, facility with words, public charm and ruthless cultivation of influential allies was on show at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC) in Nairobi, with a very hands-on performance as host of the Africa Climate Summit (ACS) on 4-6 September.

The long-awaited signing of the Simandou iron ore development infrastructure agreement is a watershed moment for Conakry, which has also set in motion ambitious plans for domestic alumina processing. Both industries will require significant investment in gigawatts of energy and power capacity, write Marc Howard and a Special Correspondent in Conakry.