Breaking News Today – Wednesday 5 August 2026

African Start-up News Headlines:

• PalmPay, one of Africa’s fastest-growing digital payments companies, is in discussions for a new funding round of roughly $150–200 million that would set a value of more than $1 billion. This would formally make it Africa’s next unicorn. At the same time, the company is exploring an initial public offering in Hong Kong as a next step, according to people familiar with the plans cited by several reports. The company has not yet confirmed the exact size, timing or valuation of a possible IPO. PalmPay launched in Nigeria in 2019 and has grown rapidly into one of the country’s major mobile payments and agent-banking platforms. It now serves tens of millions of users and more than a million merchants, competing directly with players such as OPay
• Pan-African payments infrastructure company Moment has closed a $22 million Series A funding round. The round was led by AlphaCode Venture Partners, with participation from General Catalyst, MultiChoice, and a first-time investment from French media group Canal+. Total funding for the company now stands at about $55 million. Moment provides enterprise collection and billing tools and processes payments for large African brands.

Business News Today 

Nigerian Cement Production Set to Double

Dangote Industries has signed a Memorandum of Understanding worth more than $800 million with China’s Sinoma International Engineering to double the capacity of its Itori cement plant in Ogun State, Nigeria.

Key details:

• Current capacity: 6 million tonnes per year
• New capacity: 12 million tonnes per year
• Timeline: Expected to be completed in about 22 months
• The deal also includes expansion of Dangote’s Lagos export terminal to support increased cement shipments across West and Central Africa

This fits into Dangote Cement’s longer-term Vision 2030 target of reaching 90–100 million tonnes of annual cement production capacity across its operations. The company says the expansion will help meet growing Nigerian demand while boosting exports and foreign-exchange earnings.

Electric Ambitions in South Africa Seeks Chinese Partnerships

South Africa has secured Chinese backing for a R2.2 trillion ($122 billion) energy investment programme aimed at expanding electricity supply and rebuilding its industrial base. The plan targets the development of 105GW of new generation capacity and 14,500km of transmission lines by 2039 as the country moves beyond years of crippling load shedding. Pretoria is also seeking Chinese companies to manufacture transformers, batteries, solar equipment, cables and other energy infrastructure locally in South Africa.

This was announced by Electricity and Energy Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa unveiled the investment drive during a visit to China, where he sought financing, technology and industrial partnerships to accelerate South Africa’s energy transition while expanding domestic manufacturing capacity. The government says local production would reduce import dependence, strengthen industrial capacity and create jobs while supporting one of the continent’s largest electricity expansion programmes.

Egypt Eclipses Kenya As Africa’s Startup Capital

According to data from tracker Africa: The Big Deal, Egypt has over-taken Kenya as Africa’s top startup funding destination in the first half of 2026. Nigeria comes in second and Kenya follows in third position.

Egypt recorded its highest share of continental startup funding since tracking began. Kenya’s $126 million was its weakest first-half performance since early 2021 (down from $227 million in H1 2025). However Nigeria regained strong momentum and actually led on pure equity funding ($214m vs Egypt’s $183m). The traditional “Big Four” African startup markets of Egypt, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, still accounted for about 58% of total funding, though their dominance has eased slightly.

Breaking Business and Market News Shorts:  

• Brent Oil futures fell to below $79 per barrel this morning, extending price deflation for a third consecutive session with a weekly decline, now above -10%. Optimism has grown over a potential agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. On Tuesday, Qatar said an interim proposal had been prepared with Washington and Tehran indicating that negotiations were making progress. 
• Hulamin shares spiked by 15.79% yesterday after releasing strong interim results. Headline earnings per share rose sharply to 79 cents (from 14 cents previously).The company said most of the operational problems from the second half of 2025 had been resolved and production was ramping up toward the upgraded plant’s design capacity.
• US stock indices continued to peak yesterday with Dow hitting a new a high yesterday. It is up 3% week to date and up 12.5% year to date. The S&P 500 also hit a high yesterday, lifting 3.3% in two days, and up 13% year to date.
• SpaceX released its second-quarter 2026 results, the first full earnings report since its IPO. Revenue came in at $7.81 billion, higher than expected with estimates around $6.8–$6.9 billion and dollars. SpaceX posted a loss of 9 cents a share. Revenue also nearly doubled from a year earlier.
• Nigeria’s All-Share Index (NGX) edged up 0.18% yesterday , but market breadth was negative, with banking stocks providing most of the lift. Top gainers were: Eterna – up 10.00%, Caverton Offshore Support Group up 10.00%, Omatek Ventures were up +9.88% and AVA Capital saw a 9.70% lift in share price.

Markets by Numbers 

Currency markets indicate the US dollar weaker today. The Greenback is trading against the Euro at 1.15347 while trading against the Pound at 1.34519 The Yen is currently trading at 157.42 to the dollar. The rand (ZAR), is currently trading around the 16.35 mark against the US dollar this morning.

Commodities:  

• Gold futures are trading 0.6% higher this morning, and currently trading at around $4104.42 per ounce.  
• Copper prices are around -0.17% lower this morning, with prices currently around $6.6073 per pound
• Silver futures are up by 0.7% today, and currently trading at around $59.966 per ounce.
• Platinum futures are up around 0.25% this morning, and currently trading at $1760.00 while Palladium is marginally higher today, and currently trading around $1363.00 per ounce.
• Lithium prices are trading level today and currently at CNY140 000
• Brent crude oil prices are trending over -0.8% lower today, and currently trading around $78.65 with WTI trading at $74.82 currently
• Cocoa futures are down by -0.25% today, and currently trading at $5924 per ton. 
• Coffee futures are up by around 1.44% today, and currently trading at around $3.2410 per pound

Crypto Currencies: 

• Bitcoin prices are up by around 0.5% today, currently trading at around $64 394 per coin.
• Ether prices are trending upwards by 0.3% this morning, and currently trading around $1874

(All prices as quoted at approximately 04H40 Central African Time) 

African General News Briefs:

• A Kenyan Air Aircraft, had a remarkable experience yesterday when one of the carrier’s aircrafts tyre burst ​on landing at Cape Town ‌International Airport on Tuesday afternoon, causing flight disruptions. The main runway was ​closed for several hours and fortunately all passengers ​disembarked the plane safely. The South Africa’s airports ⁠management company ACSA, said in a statement that the Kenya ​Airways  plane was disabled on the ​main runway for several hours before the runway could reopen and flights resume. Flights ​into Cape Town were ​diverted to other airports and international departures ‌delayed.
• Africa’s billionaire rankings have seen a new interesting development , with South African business magnate Nathan Kirsh seeing his net worth increasing by more than $10 billion this year, putting him among the continent’s wealthiest persons. Kirsh’s net worth soared to $19.7 billion in 2026 after selling Restaurant Depot LLC for about $29 billion. His fortune increase puts him close to joining the exclusive $20 billion club among African billionaires.