E-Mobility
The race to own the battery value chain
As countries compete to secure critical minerals and clean-energy industries, Africa faces a strategic choice. It can remain a source of raw materials or compete for a greater […]
TOP STORIES
The stories that shape business.
Market Moves
The fuel question: Why global oil prices do not dictate Kenya’s pump prices
Industry & Production
Kenya’s expensive electricity is costing manufacturers their edge
Responsible Business
The real test of responsible business is what companies can prove
LATEST
The news that moves markets.
Style & Living
Kenya’s wellness economy grows, but who can afford it?
From home delivery and digital shopping to fitness, personal care and wellness services, businesses are charging consumers for convenience, comfort and better…
Data Lens
What has become harder to afford in Kenya?
Personal & Institutional Wealth
The African offshore question: Why wealth moves abroad
Climate & Environment
How solar power is cutting the cost of doing business in Kenya
Newsbeat
Kigali carbon summit ends with a US$100m fund goal
Organisers announced a nature fund, a Rwandan financing idea and a national roadmap. They gave no figures for credits sold or capital…
Newsbeat
ABC Bank needs more than a new owner
The Competition Authority of Kenya has cleared Jayesh Umesh Saini’s proposed acquisition of African Banking Corporation, but the deal still faces a…
Newsbeat
South African delivery firm Store2Door eyes Kenya entry in 2027
Online shops and financed scooters, with Kenyan terms still to come By NewsBeat Desk Store2Door, a Johannesburg-based online retail and delivery platform,…
Trade & Development
East Africa’s trade boom has a problem: Not everyone shares the gains
Regional trade is expanding, connecting producers and consumers across borders. But the benefits depend on who can afford to trade, where goods move and how…
Macro & Policy
The economy Kenya’s statistics struggle to see
Informal businesses account for most new jobs in Kenya, yet employment figures reveal little about their productivity, profits or resilience. Better measurement matters for a…
Growth & Jobs
Growing output, stagnant pay: The disconnect in Kenya’s labour market
Kenya’s economy grew by 4.6% in 2025, but 87.2% of new jobs were created in the informal sector. The challenge is to turn economic expansion…
Capital Markets
FDIs in Africa: What global capital is buying and avoiding
As global interest rates shift and foreign direct investment to emerging markets undergoes a structural reset, institutional investors are replacing speculative growth bets in Africa…
Leadership
Peter Ndegwa’s Ethiopian gamble is turning a corner, but the returns remain elusive
Safaricom's chief executive has halved the losses on a costly Ethiopian bet and raised the dividend.
Leadership
Crude awakening
By bypassing public utility bottlenecks and financing a $20 billion refining complex, Africa's richest industrialist has forced regional governments …
Corporate Affairs
Between a rock and a hard rate
Commercial enterprises across Nairobi and the broader region face a turbulent landscape shaped by sudden tax shifts, county-level regulatory friction…
Enterprise
Crossing the divide
High production costs and squeezed domestic margins are forcing Kenya's top industrial firms to pivot across borders, turning former trade friction p…
Innovation
Scarcity is making Africa a laboratory for global innovation
Born from constrained capital and missing infrastructure, African frugal innovations are proving that doing more with less is no longer a localised…
Policy Pulse
One permit, four price lists: What a Nairobi licence costs
Nairobi has moved business licensing online and bundled its permit, and a national law now promises decisions within 28 days. The charges…
Policy Pulse
Kenya’s counties collect more, but still fall short
Kenya’s counties raised more of their own money in 2025/26 than ever before and still missed their targets. Beneath the total, the…
Policy Pulse
Devolution’s toll-booth maze: why commerce across forty-seven counties stumbles
Decentralised administration was meant to bring governance to the grassroots. Instead, it spawned a patchwork of internal trade barriers that treat domestic…
Development & Investment
Who is still building in Kenya?
High borrowing costs, volatile material prices, and tight liquidity reshape the country’s development landscape across residential, commercial, and industrial markets. By The…
Cities & Infrastructure
Africa’s urban century: The high-stakes economics of the great demographic shift
Hundreds of millions more people move into cities by 2050. As capital deficits and informal growth outpace infrastructure expansion, are Africa’s urban…
Property Markets
Africa property map 2026: Where institutional capital is chasing real yields
Commercial yields in major African urban hubs are diverging sharply as currency volatility, interest rate resets, and structural shifts in logistics redefine…
INDUSTRIES & LIFE
Business, life & Africa
Newsbeat
Farmers cannot cut emissions by cutting output
Climate policy is colliding with a harder arithmetic: feed a growing population, protect fragile incomes and reduce the gases coming from the farm.
Healthcare Innovation
Africa’s health systems do not have an innovation problem
The continent has plenty of ideas.
Newsbeat
Africa’s carbon bank is buried in the wetlands
The continent’s wetlands are natural infrastructure.
Health Business
A new paradigm for global health financing
As aid flows decline, more countries are articulating a new vision in which health financing would build on national resources, answer to domestic pr…
Newsbeat
Kenya’s tourism industry is about to get a new architecture
The country's tourism bureaucracy may soon have fewer chairs around the table.
Innovation
Kakuzi bets on algorithms as farming gets harder to predict
A machine now decides which macadamia nuts make the grade at Kakuzi’s processing plant.
THE LEDGER INDEX
Africa's business frontier
The Frontier 50Companies pushing African business into new territory. The flagship corporate ranking, recognising established and high-growth companies for innovation,…Explore →The SignalsBrands capturing where Africa is going. A recognition of brands that understand and influence changing African consumer behaviour,…Explore →The HorizonWhat Africa should be watching next. An editorial forecast identifying technologies, business models and emerging trends — from…Explore →The BreakthroughsSolutions tackling problems that have refused to go away. Ideas and initiatives with measurable potential to address major…Explore →The Ledger 100Africa's Business Shapers. A cross-sector annual selection of entrepreneurs, CEOs, investors, scientists, engineers, economists, designers and institutional leaders…Explore →
Ideas, analysis & argument
Sharp analysis, big stories and people shaping the next chapter of African business.
Analysis
Kenya’s housing ambitions meet the realities of household income
David Ndii argues that subsidised housing can make home ownership accessible to a wider section of society.
Explainers
Inside the sovereign debt machine: How Kenya issues and repays bonds
When the Kenyan government faces a budget deficit, it does not simply print money; it borrows from the public through government securities.
People & Ideas
How James Mwangi upended African banking by betting on the “unbankable”
By abandoning minimum balance rules, mandatory payslip verifications, and physical branch constraints, Equity Group Chief Executive James Mwangi turn…
Explainers
Beyond the paddock: How Kigali is pairing airport expansion with Formula 1
A historic 10-year Formula 1 agreement anchors Kigali's wider economic strategy to accelerate infrastructure development, expand regional aviation ca…