Breaking News Today- Thursday 5 November 2026

African Start-up News Headlines:

Yellow Card acquires Brazilian VASP GoMoney to open direct stablecoin operations in Brazil. Pan-African stablecoin payments infrastructure provider Yellow Card announced it completed the acquisition of São Paulo-based GoMoney in October, establishing its first direct operations in Brazil. Clients will gain local collections and disbursements in Brazilian reais, including via Pix, with settlement in stablecoins. GoMoney, founded in 2018, continues under its founders as a wholly owned subsidiary while its application for full Banco Central do Brasil virtual asset service provider authorisation is reviewed; it currently operates under the transitional regime. The move follows Yellow Card’s $40 million raise earlier in 2026 and expands its Latin American footprint.
Nigerian healthtech Helium Health has secured a $2.5 million grant from Google.org to deploy AI tools that identify pregnancy risks earlier and improve clinical decision support in primary maternal care. The company is the only Nigerian recipient among 15 global organisations selected for Google.org’s $30 million Impact Challenge: AI for Government Innovation. The HeliumMum programme aims to reach an additional 1.9 million women over three years across Lagos, Delta, Kano and Oyo states, with Lagos as the operational base.
Kenyan proptech PayServe profiles $1 million Series A raise for managed-estate billing platform. Disrupt Africa reported that Nairobi-based PayServe, founded in 2024, is raising a $1 million Series A to scale its platform that automates billing, payments and reconciliation for managed real estate. The system integrates smart water and power meters with M-Pesa and direct bank links (Absa, Co-op Bank, NCBA, Equity, KCB). It currently bills more than 10,000 units across over 50 properties, has deployed 3,000 smart meters and has processed roughly $7.7 million since inception.

Headline News Today

Morocco Lands Major Fuel Deal

Shell Trading Rotterdam has signed a long-term exclusive off-take agreement with Green Sky Manara LLC for sustainable aviation fuel from a planned HEFA plant at Port Nador in Morocco. The plant is expected to start in October 2028 and could produce about 150,000 tonnes a year of SAF or an equivalent volume of HVO, plus bionaphtha and biopropane. Shell will be the exclusive offtaker of the produced aviation fuel. The project, valued around $239–240 million and backed by Qatari investors through Green Sky Capital, is expected to create hundreds of construction jobs and more than 160 permanent positions.

Climate Funding Facility Launched

Africa Finance Corporation and the Green Climate Fund launched the Africa Sovereign Climate Facility on 3 November at a signing ceremony in Korea, with total financing of $690 million. The facility is designed to help African countries address climate impacts while advancing economic priorities. Its first phase covers Angola, Benin, Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria and will support clean energy, health, food and water security, and climate-resilient infrastructure. AFC will arrange and fully fund a parallel commercial facility of up to $260 million for up to 10 years through the countries’ finance ministries.

New African Agency AfCRA to Issue first Ratings By March 2027

Africa Credit Rating Agency's (AfCRA) interim chief executive Sifiso Falala has said that the Mauritius-based agency is in talks with 15 African sovereign borrowers and expects to publish its first sovereign ratings by the end of March 2027. Staff will conduct research in countries including Togo, Kenya, Seychelles, Burundi and Mauritius. AfCRA, was launched last month under an African Union initiative, is privately owned by Plus 94 Research, a South African firm co-founded by Falala and Tirhani Mabunda, and plans to raise $15 million so that African investors hold a two-thirds stake. Governments are barred from owning shares. The agency will offer solicited sovereign ratings in which governments pay for assessments and provide data access, and will also rate regional multilaterals and commercial lenders.

Breaking Business and Market News Shorts:

Market Moves: The Johannesburg Stock Exchange was closed on 4 November for a public holiday. On 3 November the FTSE/JSE All Share Index closed at 109,275.30, down 0.23 percent. The rand traded near 16.42 to the US dollar in late sessions. US indices gained after the election results, with the S&P 500 up about 1.6 percent in one session. Nigeria’s NGX All-Share Index lifted 0.19% to 254,762.81 on Wednesday

Brent crude futures fell below $94 per barrel this morning, extending a decline of nearly -9% in the previous session and pushing prices to a two-month low. The drop came as a Democratic sweep in the US midterm elections fueled expectations that the Trump administration could face growing pressure to bring the war with Iran to an end. Crude oil exports from the Persian Gulf have begun recovering, with supply exceeding near-term demand. Overall, the international oil benchmark has fallen about -17% so far this week.
Gold climbed almost 2% to above $4,140 an ounce today, extending the previous trading session's gains. The precious metal found support from a weaker US dollar and declining Treasury yields, which enhanced its appeal to investors. Lower oil prices could ease inflationary pressures, reducing concerns over potential near-term interest rate increases.

Ghana’s annual inflation rose to 5.5% in October from 5.2% in September, reaching an 11-month high, the Ghana Statistical Service said yesterday. Government Statistician Alhassan Iddrisu of Ghana told a press conference in Accra that non-food inflation accelerated to 7.9% and services inflation to 11.5 percent, while food inflation eased to 2.8 percent.
The National Bank of Ethiopia’s Monetary Policy Committee held its eighth meeting on 3 November and kept the policy rate at 16%, with the interest-rate corridor unchanged at plus or minus 300 basis points. The bank will continue to monitor banks’ loan-to-deposit ratios and absorb excess liquidity through open-market operations.
Nigeria’s state oil company NNPC, is likely to sell a 5- 10% stake in an initial public offering focused on the domestic market, with a possible secondary listing in London or New York, Group Chief Executive Officer Bashir Bayo Ojulari of Nigeria told Reuters. Preparations will probably take at least all of 2027.

Markets by Numbers

Currencies:

Currency markets indicate the US dollar softer today. The Greenback is trading against the Euro at 1.12613 while trading against the Pound at 1.34918. The Yen is currently trading at 157.87 to the US dollar. The rand (ZAR), is currently trading at the 16.33 against the US dollar this morning.

Commodities:

Gold futures are up around 1.8% this morning, and currently trading at around $4133.83 per ounce.
Copper prices are -0.2% lower today, with prices currently around $6.3903 per pound
Silver futures are up around 1.2% today, and currently trading at around $52.912 per ounce.
Platinum futures are up around 1.8% this morning, and currently trading at $1526.10, While Palladium is up by around 2% today, and currently trading around $1024.00 per ounce.
Lithium is down around -1.2% today, and currently at CNY/T 91 700
Brent crude oil prices are down around -0.8% today, and are currently trading around $93.82, with WTI trading at $93.77 currently
Cocoa futures are up 0.7% today, and currently trading at $5456 per ton.
Coffee futures are down around -1.48% today, and currently trading at around $2.7975 per pound

Crypto Currencies:

Bitcoin prices are marginally down today, after a big jump yesterday, and currently trading at around $80320 per coin currently
Ether prices are marginally lower this morning, and currently trading around $2415.70

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

African General News Briefs:

South Africa held its local municipal elections yesterday. More than 29 million people were registered to vote for council seats in 257 local and district councils. Counting continued into 5 November. This year's local election vote tally is a key test for the African National Congress, who lost its majority in the national elections in 2024 and the possibility of coalitions, particularly in the major Metro municipalities is high. Early vote count estimates indicate that vote count aligns with pre-election estimates with the ANC holding around 32.45% and the Democratic Alliance at 30.34% of total votes counted. In the economic stronghold region of Gauteng, the Democratic Alliance currently holds 38.26% with the ANC having 18.91% of total votes counted so far as indicated by the Newsday election portal.
Nigeria's Dangote has held talks with African stock exchanges about broadening access to its $1.6 billion refinery IPO beyond its home market, the head of West Africa's regional bourse said, but regulatory differences have ‌complicated the effort. One option was to use Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs), allowing instruments representing the shares to be listed on other African exchanges, akin to what has been done in Kenya and Botswana, he said. The Dangote refinery IPO, which closed on October 28, drew around 6.4 trillion naira ($4.77 billion) in demand from Nigerian retail and institutional investors.