Breaking News Today – Thursday 14 May 2026

African Start-up Breaking News:

• Investor Numbers in African Startups has hit a five-year Low. Data from Africa – The Big Deal shows only 162 unique investors in $100k+ deals in Jan–Apr 2026, down 26% YoY. The trend reflects global caution but also a more selective, quality-focused funding environment favouring proven models.
•  Paymentology, a leading global issuer-processor, yesterday announced a $175 million investment co-led by Apis, a private equity firm specialising in financial infrastructure and services, and Asperity, a pan-European Private Equity firm focused on Financial Technology & Services and Enterprise Technology & Connectivity Services. The capital will provide Paymentology the runway for further global expansion and product development.

Business News Today 

Dangote Cement in Early Talks for Secondary London Stock Exchange Listing

Nigeria’s Dangote Cement announced preliminary discussions for a secondary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), potentially floating around 10% of the company’s shares. The move, reviving plans from over a decade ago, aims to broaden access to global capital and investors amid UK FCA reforms making listings more attractive. It supports the company’s ambitious production target of 100 million tonnes capacity by 2030. The capital injection from an IPO could enhance liquidity, visibility, and foreign participation for one of Africa’s largest corporates, and will be subject to the stock exchange approvals and market conditions.

 Zambian Central Bank Lowers Interest Rate

The Bank of Zambia lowered its key Monetary Policy Rate by 25bps to 13.25% at its May 2026 meeting yesterday. The announcement will bring loan and borrowing costs to their lowest level since mid-2024. Policymakers cited expectations of a favourable maize harvest during the current crop marketing season, along with the relative stability of the Kwacha against the US dollar, as key factors supporting a more benign inflation outlook. These developments are expected to help keep inflation anchored within the central bank’s 6–8% target range.

However, the central bank also highlighted persistent upside risks and heightened uncertainty linked to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, prompting a cautious approach to monetary easing in order to maintain an appropriate monetary policy stance. Inflation is expected to remain within the target band and average 6.8% in 2026 and ease to 6.1% in 2027, before edging up to 6.6% in Q12028. Zambia’s annual inflation rate slowed to 6.8% in April, its lowest level since February 2018.

Egypt Pens New $1.5 billion Loan Deal with ITFC 

Egypt and the International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation signed a $1.5 billion loan agreement on Wednesday to ​support food and energy security in the North African ‌country. Under the agreement, the funding would be allocated between the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), which will receive $700 million, and the Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation, which ​will receive $800 million, Planning Minister Ahmed Rostom said. Since 2008, the ​ITFC has approved over $24 billion in funding for Egypt ⁠to finance the energy sector, contribute to food security, and support ​small and medium-sized enterprises, ITFC CEO Adib Youssef al Aama said during ​the signing ceremony.This includes $8.8 billion in funding to GASC to support Egypt’s imports of food commodities, most notably about 12.6 million tons of wheat.

Breaking Business and Market News Shorts:  

• Donald Trump’s Federal Reserve chair has been confirmed by the US Senate in a vote that fell largely along political party lines. Kevin Warsh won confirmation yesterday with 54 votes in favour and 45 against. He will succeed long-serving Fed chair Jerome Powell.
• South Africa has signed its first development policy loan with the OPEC Fund for International Development worth $150 million (~R2.5 billion). The funds target reforms to ease bottlenecks in energy (Eskom) and freight/logistics (Transnet) sectors. However with a 1% GDP growth rate additional debt accumulation, with an already high debt to GDP ratio of around 77%, has been criticised as poor policy.
• Copper futures declined nearly 2% toward $6.5 per pound today, easing from record highs as traders took profits while reassessing underlying supply and demand conditions. The metal has posted a strong rally this month, supported by a bullish long-term outlook tied to artificial intelligence-driven infrastructure buildouts
• At the US / China summit yesterday closed door negotiations between economic and trade teams on Wednesday had reached an “overall balanced and positive outcome”, according to a readout by China’s state-run ⁠Xinhua news agency. The latest round of negotiations aimed to maintain the trade truce struck between Trump and Xi last October and establish mechanisms to support future trade and investment

Markets by Numbers 

Currency markets indicate the US dollar flat against major currencies today. The Greenback is trading against the Euro at 1.17111 while trading against the Pound at 1.35209. The Yen is currently trading at 157.88 to the dollar. The rand (ZAR), is currently trading around the 16.42 mark against the US dollar this morning.

Commodities:  

• Gold futures are trending marginally higher after slipping below the $4700 mark earlier, and currently trading at around $4688.02 per ounce.  
• Copper prices are trending -1.4% lower today, with prices currently around $6.5384 per pound
• Silver futures are trending flat today, and currently trading at around $87.069 per ounce.
• Platinum futures are around -2.1% lower this morning, and currently trading at $2146.30, While Palladium prices are trending -1.3% lower, and currently trading around $1515.00 per ounce.
• Brent crude oil prices are trending 0.2% higher, and currently trading around $105.87. WTI is trading upwards at $101.29 currently
• Cocoa futures have slid by -4.23% this morning, with prices currently around $4393 per ton. 
• Coffee futures are trending upwards today, and currently trading at around $2.8075 per pound

Crypto Currencies: 

• Bitcoin prices are trending 0.69% higher this morning, after a drop off yesterday, and trading at around $79 814 per coin currently 
• Ether prices are trending 0.6% higher today, and currently trading around $2272.18
• $Trumpcoin are currently trading lower at around $2.368

(All prices quoted at approximately 08H15 Central African Time) 

African General News Briefs:

• Africans should welcome all foreign investors and put colonial hang-ups behind them, According to Nigerian businessman and philanthropist Tony Elumelu. Elumelu, 63, was commenting on the sidelines of this week’s Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi. He is one of Africa’s wealthiest people, Who also chairs banking and investment firms including Heirs Holdings, Transcorp and United Bank for Africa. “We should stop this victim mentality,” he told AFP. “We should be cognisant of the history, our history, but more importantly, we should commit to the future.
• Ghana says it will evacuate 300 citizens from South Africa following a recent wave of protests against foreign nationals. Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said in a post on X, that the Ghanaian president had granted approval for their “immediate evacuation”. He said the “distressed” Ghanaians had registered at the country’s embassy in Pretoria to be rescued in response to an advisory by the foreign ministry “following the latest wave of xenophobic attacks”.
• The US administration has said it will exempt football fans from 50 countries subject to a $15,000 (£11,000) visa deposit requirement, provided they are travelling to the US for the World Cup with valid match tickets. Five of these countries – Algeria, Cabo Verde, Ivory Coast, Senegal, and Tunisia – have qualified for the tournament, to be co-hosted by the US, Canada and Mexico from 11 June.