Breaking News Today – Thursday 9 July 2026

African Start-up News Headlines:

• South African-founded AI optimisation company Refiant, has launched Protea – a suite of long-context AI models, that are set to provide context windows that are ten-times larger than current AI tools like ChatGPT or Claude. A larger context window enables an AI model to process longer inputs and incorporate a greater amount of information into each output. Popular LLMs such as Claude, Google Gemini and OpenAI’s GPT offer users context windows ranging from a few thousand tokens to 1 million tokens. Protea’s context window provides up to 10-million tokens, one of the largest ever made publicly available.
• The Africa Women Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum (AWIEF) has opened nominations for its annual AWIEF Awards, which celebrate the achievements and contributions of women founders and entrepreneurs across Africa. AWIEF is a pan-African organisation dedicated to empowering women economically by closing gender gaps and promoting business leadership and entrepreneurship across the continent.

Business News Today 

Iran Conflict Ignites Oil Prices While Asian Stocks Firm

Asian shares saw a general lift in prices this morning, as semiconductors stocks got a respite from previous sessions of risk-off selling, though ​gains were capped by a surge in oil prices as a resumption of hostilities in the Gulf reignited ‌inflation fears and hammered bonds. India’s Sensex was up 0.7%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 0.45, China’s Shanghai Composite saw a lift of 0.2% while South Korea’s Kospi bounced more than 2% off a 1-month low this morning.

Oil prices rose for a third straight session after President Donald Trump said the interim peace agreement with Iran to end the war was “over”. The U.S. military also launched new strikes on Iran for a second day to open the Strait of Hormuz, after Iran had attacked several cargo ships, although Trump later said he did not ​expect a return to a full-fledged war, helping soothe concerns.

Gold Reserves Gain Momentum in Tanzania

Tanzania has lifted its gold reserves to one of Africa’s biggest reserve holdings, with its central bank purchasing close to 28 tonnes of gold over the past 18 months, worth an estimated 3.7 billion dollars. The build up of reserves aligns with the country’s national foreign reserve strategy to strengthen the country’s exchange reserves and support the Tanzanian shilling. In 2024, the country introduced a strategic gold purchasing policy, which requires mining companies and gold traders to sell 20 percent of their export gold directly to the Bank of Tanzania, allowing the country to build reserves directly from its own production rather than relying on international markets. Officials say the strategy has helped lift foreign reserves to around 6 billion dollars while also creating thousands of new bank accounts for small-scale miners and traders.

ExxonMobil and Partners Commit $1 Billion to Usan Infill Project Offshore Nigeria

Nigeria’s Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) announced that ExxonMobil and its partners will invest $1 billion in the Usan Infill Project, a development expected to add 40,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil production. The project marks a return to drilling activity by ExxonMobil’s affiliate (Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria) in the country, with the last major drilling campaign dating back to 2016.

Discovered in 2002, first production began in 2012, with the oil-field operated with a large FPSO vessel (capacity ~180,000 bpd). Production peaked above 100,000 bpd in the mid-2010s but has since declined due to natural field maturation. The infill project will involve drilling additional wells and new infrastructure to boost recovery from existing reservoirs. The targeted output of +40,000 bpd is meaningful, equalling roughly 5–10% of Nigeria’s current total output.

Breaking Business and Market News Shorts:  

• Oil prices rose to their highest point in weeks today after President Donald Trump declared the U.S. ceasefire with Iran over, responding to Iranian attacks on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz and on American military sites in other Gulf nations.
• The IMF has cut its 2026 global growth projection again yesterday, highlighting “uncertainty and risks” to the economic outlook as the Iran conflict reignited in the Middle East. Global economic growth is estimated at 3.0 percent this year, said the International Monetary Fund, down from 3.1 percent in its April forecast. 
• China’s producer prices increased 4.1% year-on-year in June 2026, accelerating from a 3.9% rise in the previous month and matching market forecasts. It was the fourth consecutive monthly increase and the steepest pace since July 2022, driven by firmer commodity prices and rising production costs 
• Ivanhoe Mines announced yesterday that copper production at its flagship Kamoa-Kakula complex in Democratic Republic of Congo is set to improve in the second half of 2026. The company cut its 2026 and 2027 copper output forecasts in April, following seismic disruptions at the Kakula mine. copper futures were marginally higher this morning at 6.0652

Markets by Numbers 

Currency markets indicate the US dollar slightly softer today. The Greenback is trading against the Euro at 1.14310 while trading against the Pound at 1.34025 The Yen is currently trading at 162.38 to the dollar. The rand (ZAR), is currently trading around the 16.38 mark against the US dollar this morning.

Commodities:  

• Gold futures are around 0.1% lower this morning, and currently trading at around $4067.71 per ounce.  
• Copper prices are around 0.26% higher this morning, with prices currently around $60703 per pound
• Silver futures are around -0.25% lower today, and currently trading at around $58.089 per ounce.
• Platinum futures are around 1.1% higher this morning, currently trading at $1605.20, while Palladium is around 0.16% higher today, and currently trading around $1226.00 per ounce.
• Brent crude oil prices are trending around 1.2% higher today, and currently trading around $78.97, with WTI trading at $74.47 currently
• Cocoa futures are surging and up by around 5% today, currently trading at $6052 per ton. 
• Coffee futures are down by over -2.4% today, and currently trading at around $3.0980 per pound

Crypto Currencies: 

• Bitcoin prices are 0.2% up today, currently trading at around $62 388 per coin.
• Ether prices are trending fairly flat this morning, and currently trading around $1743.89

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

African General News Briefs:

• Eleven more migrants deported from the United States have arrived in Eswatini as part of President Donald Trump’s wide-ranging immigration crackdown. It is the latest expulsion in line with the ​Trump administration’s unprecedented “third-country” deal that has already seen 19 people sent to Eswatini since July 2025. Two of them – a Jamaican and Cambodian – have been repatriated, but 17 remain in a high-security prison.
• Nigeria’s president has ordered an investigation into allegations that a fictitious government agency was set up within his own office, complete with public funding worth $950,000. According to a statement from the presidency, the letter from the president’s chief of staff creating the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC) was fake and had been forged. The police have launched a manhunt for Adeniyi Adeyemi Matthew, who had been presenting himself as the “PFIPC director general”, on suspicion of forgery, impersonation and related offences.