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Rothschild & Co South Africa Managing Director and Africa Co-Head Giles Douglas will join lender Absa Group as the continent’s third-largest bank builds a team to boost its competitiveness and win market share. Douglas will start as managing executive of Absa’s investment bank on July 27, the lender said in response to questions. He will report to Zaid Moola, who was also recently hired from Standard Bank Group as chief of corporate and investment banking. “Giles brings more than 30 years of investment-banking experience,” Absa managing executive for group communications Daniel Munslow said. “He has deep expertise across mergers a

Angola’s oil and gas sector is entering a new phase of digital acceleration, where artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing and enterprise IT systems are becoming integral to operational performance. Within this transition, IT services and consulting company Easy People is positioning itself as a partner of choice for operators seeking to scale efficiency through digital solutions. Easy

South Africa’s unemployment rate rose more than expected in the first quarter as job losses in sectors including construction and community services weakened the labor market, even as the full impact of the Iran war is yet to filter through. The rate rose to 32.7% in the three months through March from 31.4% in the prior quarter, according to data released by Statistics South Africa in Pretoria on Tuesday. The median estimate of three economists in a Bloomberg survey was 31.7%. The rise in the number of unemployed to 8.1 million is a blow for South Africa’s fragile economy that is also confronting fresh challenges from the war, whi

Court losses, Iran war and rare earth pressure blunt Trump’s trade ambitions Beijing — A year ago, US President Donald Trump predicted that towering trade tariffs would bring America’s main economic rival to heel. He heads to China this week with that ambition blunted by court rulings, narrowing his goals to a few deals on beans, beef and Boeing jets and enlisting China’s help to resolve his unpopular Iran war, political analysts say. The modest expectations for Trump’s May 14-15 meetings with Xi Jinping — the first since they paused a bruising trade war in October — underscore how Trump’s bombastic approach has fai

Libya’s Zawiya refinery resumes operations after clashes forced two-day shutdown Artillery shells struck refinery during security operation near Tripoli Refinery disruption threatens fuel supplies and Libya’s oil revenues

MTN Group reported strong first-quarter 2026 results, driven by continued growth in data and fintech services across its African markets.

Africa's agritech historically funded marketplaces and startups digitising midstream gaps. But the distributors and cooperatives who actually serve farmers got left behind. Amaya says it is fixing that.

Retailers link Bosman to operational challenges and reputational harm Consumer Industries Writer Wholesaler Spar has rejected a call by its retailer base to remove chair , despite a formal petition citing a “serious and collective loss of confidence” in his leadership. The petition, submitted on May 8 by elected representatives of the Spar National Council following a meeting with group executives led by CEO , calls on the board to request Bosman’s resignation “with immediate effect”. Spar operates more than 13,800 branded stores across 48 countries on four continents. The retailers said the call was prompted by

In N’Djamena’s Bakara district, the third edition of the “At the Heart of Art” festival closed with soaring voices, bold rhythms, and a shared conviction: for Chadian youth, art is not a luxury — it is a future.

About a third of South Africa’s labour force is without a job, and things are bound to get worse as the economic outlook sours with each passing day of the Middle East war triggered at the end of February by the US and Israeli attacks on Iran. South Africa’s unemployment rate climbed in the first quarter (Q1) of 2026 to 32.7% from 31.4% in the fourth quarter last year, a worrying sign as the economy has since had to grapple with soaring petrol prices and the twin spectres of accelerating inflation and slowing growth in the wake of the Iran conflict. The quarterly labour force survey data, released on Tuesday by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA), showed that the number of employed persons in