Hi, Quartz Africa readers!
Five stories from this week
All eyes were on Kigali. Rwanda pulled out all the stops as host of the 26th World Economic Forum on Africa. During the conference, president Paul Kagame took on the elephant in the room and hit back at critics of his bid for a third term. According to Kagame, it’s for the sake of democracy, writes Yinka Adegoke from Kigali.
Nigeria is no longer Africa’s top oil producer.
Attacks on oil pipelines and installations by a new group called the Niger Delta Avengers has seen production levels fall to 20-year lows
. The militant avengers say their goal is to “cripple the Nigerian economy.”
Facebook launched Free Basics in its biggest African market. In continuation of Mark Zuckerberg’s plan to help millions of people around the world access the internet for free, Facebook has launched Free Basics in Nigeria. The service will allow users access to a range of websites at no cost.
Kenya is threatening to close the world’s largest refugee camp. Every few years, Kenya threatens to send the 600,000 refugees that it hosts home. The government has closed its Department of Refugee Affairs, a sign that this time the threat might be real, writes Lily Kuo from Nairobi.
South Africa is obsessed with mall culture.
South Africa is already seventh in the world. ahead of Europe, in shopping center space and the new Mall of Africa is a 1.4 million square foot example of the country’s obsession,
.
[insertSponsor]
Chart of the week
Other Things We Liked
Uganda’s top export is mercenaries. One of the world’s poorest countries is also one of its leading providers of private military contractors, writes David Gauvey Herbert in Bloomberg Businessweek.
Ethiopians are desperate to keep their coffee fix. In the birthplace of coffee, a conflict is brewing between the government and its rising middle class over who gets Ethiopia’s best beans, writes Katherine Dunn in the Wall Street Journal (paywall). The government wants to increase coffee exports to build infrastructure but Ethiopians, Africa’s top coffee consumers, want to keep the beans at home.
Keep an eye on
African startups in energy and water.
The
is being held betwee
n May 17-
19 in Cape Town, South Africa. Fifteen startups working in things like waste sorting and power demand management have been selected to showcase their products.
Mozambique’s president courts China.
After a series of Western donors pulled funding from Mozambique over more than $1 billion in undeclared debt, president Filipe Nyusi
for a week-long state visit starting o
n May 16
.
Jacob Zuma answers questions in Parliament on May 17th.
Members of the
the president’s last speech.
Union strikes in Nigeria?
After Nigeria pulled its controversial subsidy on petrol last week the country’s two many labor unions are threatening to go on
general strikes from Wednesday
unless the government reverses the decision.
Our best wishes for a productive week ahead. Please send any news, comments, Mall of Africa vouchers and Ethiopian coffee beans to
. You can follow us on twitter at @qzafrica for updates throughout the day.