World
Russians Acknowledge New Approach Working With Africa
By Kester Kenn Klomegah
For the second round this year, the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry together with the Coordinating Committee for Economic Cooperation with African Countries (AfroCom) have gathered corporate business leaders, urging them to look at the African market with much interest and work more systematically and consistently.
The African market is competitive and complex, Russian business needs to work on it thoroughly and systematically in order to succeed, emphasized Sergey Katyrin, President of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, opening the meeting with the heads of business councils for cooperation with African countries.
Russia lives in fundamentally new economic realities, supply chains are disrupted, many ties are broken, logistics are disrupted, and businesses are forced to adjust their strategies for working with foreign partners and look for new opportunities for their development.
The logical solution here is the development of cooperation in friendly countries, in particular, on the African continent. The Business Chamber has already received lots of requests from territorial chambers regarding the opportunities for developing trade and economic relations between small and medium-sized businesses with Africa, Katyrin emphasized in remarks at the meeting.
At the same time, while noting the low presence of Russian business footprints on the continent, he also acknowledged that today’s Africa requires new approaches to work from business, and from the state, long-term programs to support entrepreneurship and foreign economic activity.
Chairman of the Coordinating Committee for Economic Cooperation with African Countries, RF Senator Igor Morozov spoke at length about what the organization had already done and about its future plans. His organization established back in 2009, is supposed to help businesses to navigate African realities, find a niche for their work, learn about the conditions for entering certain markets, et cetera.
With the United States and European sanctions currently hitting hard on Russia, the business organization now turns to Africa. It opens its offices in Kampala (Uganda) and in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), where the headquarters of the African Union is located.
In Africa today there is a great demand for IT technologies, and this must be borne in mind. Companies can turn around there, create their own digital platforms and work successfully. There are many technology parks on the continent, for example, there are ten of them in Ethiopia alone; they offer significant benefits.
Senator Igor Morozov further noted that it is necessary to create a Russia-Africa trading house, through which Russian firms could more successfully in entering African markets. “We really need a specialized investment fund to support entrepreneurs. In general, if we work seriously and with the prospect of working with African partners for many years, more serious state support is needed,” he said.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, many ties in Africa disappeared, much was lost, and new players came to the continent, but Russia can still take its rightful place here. But over the years, Russians oftentimes going forth and back, have been highly inconsistent with business pursuits with African partners.
In attendance was Yaroslav Tarasyuk, Deputy Director of the Department of Asian, African, and Latin American Countries of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation. Among the speakers was also Anton Razlivaev, Deputy Director of the Department for the Development of Bilateral Cooperation of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation.
Both spoke about the work to promote Russian interests on the African continent while emphasizing the need to revise many current approaches to organizing work in this direction.
In this regard, Sergey Katyrin noted that since many exhibitions in Europe planned by ministries were suspended due to the recent Russia-Ukraine crisis, the money allocated for them should be used to hold exhibitions in African countries.
But at the same time, there is the need to work quickly, since it takes at least six months to organize any exhibition. The situation is changing dramatically, and what is quite possible today may turn out to be difficult to implement tomorrow.
Russian financial institutions are slow in showing interest in Africa. To promote this idea and ask banks to offer financial support, the participation of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation is very important. Another important issue is transaction insurance. Of course, there are more problems, as it always happens in business, but the listed ones are among the most important, the participants of the discussion emphasized.
Sergey Katyrin summed up the meeting, noting that Africa is an extremely interesting and important field of activity for business, and the authorities should prepare and consolidate it into one document supported by the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Nigeria regained its position as Africa’s leading destination for equity startup investment in the first half of 2026, raising $214 million in equity financing and a total of $254 million across equity and debt, according to the latest Africa: The Big Deal report.
The report, titled H1 2026: Mapping the Money, showed that Nigeria ranked second on the continent in total funding, behind Egypt, which attracted $327 million, while Kenya and South Africa followed with $126 million and $83 million, respectively.
However, the report noted that Egypt’s top position was largely driven by a single fundraising by electric mobility company Spiro, which secured $327 million, including $270 million in equity and $57 million in debt. Excluding debt financing, Nigeria emerged as Africa’s largest equity funding market in the first six months of the year.
According to the breakdown by Africa: The Big Deal, Nigeria’s equity funding of $214 million was higher than Egypt’s $183 million, while South Africa and Kenya attracted $66 million and $46 million, respectively.
Beyond funding value, Nigeria also led the continent in the number of startups that raised at least $100,000 during the review period, reclaiming the top spot after what the report described as an “underwhelming” second half of 2025.
The publication observed that Nigeria’s fundraising performance has remained relatively stable over the past few years and exceeded the $250 million mark for the first time since 2022, pointing to renewed investor confidence in the country’s startup ecosystem.
It also found that while the Big Four startup markets—Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya and South Africa—continued to dominate Africa’s investment landscape, their combined share of total funding stood at 58 per cent in the first half of 2026.
“Zooming back on the Big Four (110 out of 190 $100k+ deals, i.e. 58%), Nigeria is head and shoulders above its peers, with Egypt and Kenya almost tying, and South Africa in fourth position again,” the report noted.
The report highlighted contrasting performances among the continent’s largest startup ecosystems. While Nigeria and Egypt maintained strong funding momentum, Kenya recorded its weakest funding performance since early 2021 after a strong second half of 2025, and South Africa failed to attract $100 million in funding during the period despite leading the continent a year earlier.
Africa: The Big Deal also noted a broader shift in investor behaviour, with funding increasingly concentrated in larger transactions while early-stage investments continued to decline. According to the publication, the drop in smaller funding rounds reflects growing concerns about limited capital available for early-stage startups across Africa.
By Aduragbemi Omiyale
Accessing the US Dollar in the East Africa region has now been made easier with the expansion of the stablecoin settlement infrastructure of SCRYPT.
This development enables banks, payment providers and corporate treasury teams to move value into and out of the continent in real time.
Businesses paying international suppliers frequently have to convert local currency into USD before purchasing stablecoins for settlement, incurring FX conversions and spreads before any payment is made.
But SCRYPT is eliminating this intermediate conversion by enabling direct settlement corridors for local African currencies into stablecoins.
This development allows businesses to move from local currency to stablecoin settlement in a single licensed transaction, without first sourcing rationed bank dollars, as stablecoins are increasingly becoming settlement infrastructure rather than an investment product.
The expansion adds settlement support across four African currencies: the Kenyan shilling (KES), Tanzanian shilling (TZS), Rwandan franc (RWF) and Ugandan shilling (UGX). Each corridor is delivered through the same full-stack infrastructure our clients already use for trading, custody and treasury operations.
Speaking on this, the chief executive of SCRYPT, Norman Wooding, said, “Across Africa, stablecoin adoption is driven by economic need, not speculation.
“Businesses here are not chasing yield; they are trying to pay suppliers and manage treasury without losing margin to a banking system that rations dollars. Licensed, fair-rate dollar access is the clearest proof of what this infrastructure is for.”
Also commenting, the Managing Director of Markets & Trading at SCRYPT, Mr Gabriel Titopoulos, said, “Until now, reaching stablecoins from local African currencies meant buying scarce dollars and incurring several layers of conversion costs.
“SCRYPT removes this friction. Firms and payment providers can now settle straight from local currencies through live corridors, with local partners.”
World
African Graduates Association Promoting Multifaceted Initiatives With Russian Educational Institutions
By Kestér Kenn Klomegâh
In preparations for the third Russia-Africa Summit, scheduled for late October 2026, Dr Francois Ngan, deputy chairman of the Union of Associations of African Graduates of Soviet and Russian Universities, during an official working visit, has held a consultative meeting with Professor Vladimir Filippov, the President of the Russian University of Peoples’ Friendship (RUDN), and former Minister of Higher Education of Russia, Chairman of the National Commission for Accreditation of Higher Education.
RUDN is an educational institution established in 1960, primarily to provide higher education to Third World students. It has now become a popular multidisciplinary spot for many students, especially from developing countries. The university offers various academic programmes and has research infrastructure that comprises laboratories and interdisciplinary centres. The university is named after the former Congolese leader, Patrice Lumumba.
Dr Francois Ngan and Professor Filippov discussed the importance of the Graduates Association as a continental platform dedicated to strengthening unity, cooperation, and promoting shared progress among African graduates who studied in the former Soviet Union and in the Russian Federation. They also reviewed multifaceted initiatives that could bring together alumni associations from across Africa, whose members obtained education and professional training, and cultural experiences in Soviet and Russian institutions of higher learning.
Professor Filippov expressed optimism in addressing emerging challenges as a result of shifting geopolitical changes, emphasised strategic cooperation in the educational sphere with Africa, in general, and with the Republic of Cameroon, in particular, and further about the integration of African students during their studies in the Russian Federation.
The meeting also touched on academic and scientific work, the possibility of rewriting a scientific thesis, and the official organisation of transferring versions translated into six languages for the library of RUDN. Significant questions relating to Russia’s educational opportunities, collaborations and partnerships involving African countries were thoroughly discussed.
The Union of Associations of African Graduates of Soviet and Russian Universities was created under one continental umbrella to promote friendship, for professional networking, to engage in cultural exchange, and with particular emphasis on forging strategic cooperation between Africa and Russia.
