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The Lomé-headquartered West African Development Bank (Boad) has approved a CFA15bn ($24.2m) loan for the 30MWp Niakhar solar PV plant, which includes a battery energy storage system.

The International Monetary Fund has agreed to extend $1.3bn to Rabat under its resilience and sustainability facility, to support renewables and energy efficiency schemes, and to strengthen Morocco’s resilience against natural disasters. It comes just ahead of the IMF and World Bank Group annual meetings, which are going ahead as scheduled in Marrakech on 9-15 October.

Uganda has got itself into hot water with donors and investors on several fronts, but President Yoweri Museveni’s new Anti-Homosexual Law and his robust response to the campaign against the controversial Eacop pipeline play very differently to a domestic audience. As Museveni has taken umbrage at ‘being lectured to’, finding a way out of the donor row will be a tough challenge for all concerned, writes Thalia Griffiths.

The Malawi Off-Grid Market Development Fund (OGMDF) – also known as the Ngwee Ngwee Ngwee Fund – has awarded five financing agreements to local privately-held, off-grid solar companies Yellow, Vitalite Group, Zuwa Energy, Green Impact Technologies and StarTimes.

German development bank KfW has offered a €200m ($214m) loan to Eskom to help the state utility  improve transmission grids in the Northern and Western Cape, as western nations look to step up their support for South Africa’s creaking electricity system.

Cairo is pressing on with the implementation of its existing electricity supply industry (ESI) strategy in the face of severe headwinds. Some major reforms, including energy sector liberalisation, are certain to be delayed, but the authorities continue to drive big ticket projects forward – and to pile on new ones – while striving to keep international investors on-side in a highly precarious financial situation.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has named Olayemi Cardoso to head the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Cardoso was Lagos state’s economic planning and budget commissioner from 1999 until 2005, when Tinubu was governor. He is the latest member of that team to be appointed to high office. Cardaso fills the vacancy left by Godwin Emefiele’s suspension and arrest in June, as the ex-governor was closely linked to disastrous policies enacted by outgoing president Muhammadu Buhari’s government.

‘Last mile’ access software and hardware provider Okra Solar has secured fresh debt and equity in a series-A round of financing intended to scale up its mesh-grid technology for off-grid projects in Nigeria.

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.

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.

Climate change – closely linked to the intractable issues of poverty and inequality – is an issue preoccupying policy-makers around the world, but its impacts are particularly acute across swathes of Africa. But while calls for swifter action to unlock larger amounts of financing were paramount at the inaugural Africa Climate Summit (ACS), held in Nairobi on 4-6 September, it was also apparent that views differ widely on how to address the challenge.

Initial projections from the African Union’s Continental Power System Master Plan show what an interconnected power market might look like, driven predominantly by renewable energy – but the plan also sets out in stark relief the vast gap between current levels of supply and what is needed for universal electricity access to help raise economies out of poverty, write John Hamilton and Jon Marks in Nairobi.

Sorely-needed investments in the power, mining and energy sectors have been hampered by the putsch in July. With the government heavily dependent on foreign funding, Niamey’s new prime minister will likely struggle to balance the books as sanctions bite, writes Marc Howard.

Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa has been sworn in for a second five-year term after an election widely condemned as flawed. The fallout could stifle efforts to put the economy back on track and undermine his plans to reengage with the world, writes Nicholas Makombe.

A $3bn emergency loan secured by Nigerian National Petroleum Company from Cairo-based Afreximbank has reinforced Nigeria’s tight relationship with one of the few multilateral lenders still willing to support oil and gas spending, and underlined Abuja’s urgent need for financial support to underwrite President Bola Tinubu’s reform agenda.