Breaking News Today - Wednesday 30 September 2026

African Start-up News Headlines:

South African fintech and payments gateway Walletdoc have announced that merchants on its platform can now switch on Visa Payment Passkeys at online checkout. Shoppers can now approve a Visa card payment with face, fingerprint or device PIN on their smartphone, without a bank redirect or SMS one-time code. Enrolment binds the card to the device once and later purchases done on that handset utilise the same credentials. Walletdoc already accepts Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Google Pay; the passkey layer extends biometric confirmation to any Visa card, not only wallet tokens. The company cites Visa figures that biometric authentication can cut fraud by up to half versus SMS OTPs. The launch sits inside a live Capitec bid for Walletdoc (R400 million, Competition Commission recommended approval with conditions in August).
Ghana’s Propartners Impact Note Small Business campaign opens this week on 1 October with around a $207,000 raise targeted for funding two pre-qualified SMEs. It is a regulated crowdfunding structured capital support program and a welcome new SME capital pipeline in the country. The raise is a local-currency, listed-style note wrapping SME credit, sold on a licensed digital platform to local investors. Propartners Exchange Limited originates and runs the campaign, with First National Bank Ghana as the note trustee. Zenith Bank Ghana is custodian and escrow bank, with Fincap Securities advising on the structure.

Headline News Today

New Dangote Fuel Refinery in Kenya to Open in 30-Months

Aliko Dangote, said yesterday that he believes Africa will largely supply its own refined fuel needs by 2030. with the new $16 billion fuel refinery plant set to break ground today, with a planned capacity of 700,000 barrels per day once completed. Dangote s said he sees the refinery as part of efforts to stop the continent exporting raw materials and start selling finished products. "By 2030, the majority of African countries will be self-sufficient. It does not matter where it is refined, but it should be in the African continent, on the soil of Africa,” he said.

He said Africa currently exports almost five million barrels per day, but the continent does not “refine much”. While there are many new oil exploration projects being launched across Africa, initially he expects to source crude oil from the Middle East and the United States, and would be ready to absorb additional crude production anticipated from Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique, as they start producing more

SA’s Q2 FDI surge - Real but Narrowly Based

South Africa’s foreign direct investment inflows (FDI) more than doubled in the second quarter of 2026, rising to R49.8 billion ($3.03 billion) from R20.3 billion in the first quarter, the Reserve Bank said in its Quarterly Bulletin released yesterday.

The jump was driven primarily by debt funding a local telecommunications company received from its non-resident parent. The bank did not name the telco company because the deal was not public. The figure is the strongest quarterly FDI print since 2023, but it reflects one large intra-group transaction rather than a broad wave of new greenfield projects.

Portfolio flows moved the other way, swinging to a R9.0 billion outflow after a R9.0 billion inflow in Q1. Non-residents sold R34.2 billion of domestic equities and bought R25.1 billion of local debt. Government’s redemption of a $1.25 billion international bond partly offset those bond purchases.

South African Employment Numbers Down Again

South Africa’s formal non-agricultural business sector shed another 14,000 jobs in the second quarter of 2026, according to the latest Statistics South Africa report released yesterday. Employment fell 0.1% quarter-on-quarter to 10.425 million in June from a revised 10.439 million in March, and was down 95,000, or 0.9%, from June 2025.

Manufacturing, a sector under increasing contraction due to energy and policy headwinds, accounted for the largest quarterly loss, cutting 20,000 jobs (-1.6%). Business services lost 13,000, trade 8,000 and transport and adding 5,000 to the job number fall. Community services (mostly government positions) added 29,000 jobs, with small gains of 1,000 each in electricity, mining and construction.

Full-time employment dropped 40,000 on the quarter and 96,000 year-on-year, while part-time employment numbers lifted by 26,000 quarter-on-quarter.

Breaking Business and Market News Shorts:

Kenya has received its first major shipment of refined petroleum products for Rwanda, establishing a new supply route for the landlocked country. A 40,000-tonne cargo supplied by Oman’s OQ Trading arrived in Mombasa, marking the start of a Kenya-Rwanda petroleum corridor.

South African farmers are expected to harvest 5.2% more maize in the 2025/2026 season compared with the previous one, the government’s Crop Estimates Committee (CEC) said yesterday. The CEC’s eighth summer crop forecast estimated the 2026 maize harvest at 17.52 million metric tons, up from 16.65 million metric tons harvested in the 2024/2025 season.

Neal Froneman, the former Sibanye Stillwater CEO, has urged the United States to apply targeted sanctions against specific government officials and individuals. According to Froneman, the officials continue to promote policies that are unsupported by the majority of South Africans and cause damage the local economy

Angola's government has banked $228m after selling seized Standard Bank shares. Luanda sold off a 34% stake in Standard Bank de Angola, via shares that had been seized from jailed businessman Carlos São Vicente.

Brent crude futures are holding just above $96.00 per barrel today following a sharp dive in prices, late in yesterday's trading session. This was driven as signs of improving energy flows from the Middle East and another major release of emergency reserves in the US helped ease supply concerns.

Markets by Numbers

Currencies:

Currency markets indicate the US dollar fairly flat today. The Greenback is trading against the Euro at 1.13376 while trading against the Pound at 1.32376. The Yen is currently trading at 156.95 to the US dollar. The rand (ZAR), is currently trading at the 16.37 against the US dollar this morning.

Commodities:

Gold futures have lost around -0.15% this morning, and currently trading at around $4174.86 per ounce.
Copper prices are up around 0.3% today, with prices currently around $6.5629 per pound
Silver futures are down by around -0.6%, and currently trading at around $61.075 per ounce.
Platinum futures are up around 1.2% this morning, and currently trading at $1700.60, While Palladium is up by around 1.15% today, and currently trading around $1228.00 per ounce.
Lithium is trading -0.49% lower today, and currently at CNY/T 122 800
Brent crude oil prices are trending flat today, and currently trading around $96.15, with WTI trading at $89.46 currently
Cocoa futures have dropped around -3.4% today, and currently trading at $5408 per ton.
Coffee futures are up around 0.24% today, and currently trading at around $2.8945 per pound

Crypto Currencies:

Bitcoin prices are down around -0.2% today, and trading at around $83 411 per coin currently
Ether prices are flatthis morning, and currently trading around $2677.02

(All prices quoted at approximately 07H45 Central African Time)

African General News Briefs:

Yesterday was an historic day in African politics, as Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri was appointed as the Morocco’s first ever female prime minister by King Mohammed VI. Mansouri's centrist Authenticity and Modernity Party (Pam) won the majority of seats in last week's parliamentary elections. Mansouri has brought younger age group Moroccans into central focus of her political platform, promising to "restore hope" in a country facing mounting economic and social pressures.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, in a public address yesterday, has admitted that the government has failed women and had not done enough to protect them. Ramaphosa said the state needed to correct its failures towards women, including failures in policing, protection orders, forensic processing and the way in which cases are handled. This follows on years of promises made by the current administration to deal with gender based violence that has been highlighted by a spate of murders on women in South Africa recently. Ramaphosa’s admission of failure plus a concrete four-point plan he has launched, lands against a grim body count in the eastern Gauteng Ekurhuleni region, and two high-casualty tavern/barbecue attacks in South Africa.