Africa's Business Snapshot

Christmas Edition

December 25, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

Merry Christmas, my lovely people!

Wake up and thank God, and be there for your family, and if you happen to get some gifts to open, consider yourself blessed.

🚆 Infrastructure Is the New Aid

What’s happening: Europe, the U.S., and private capital are shifting away from classic aid toward hard infrastructure rail, ports, and logistics corridors, but is the West late to the game? China has been doing this for decades now (with mixed results).

The EU is backing major African transport routes like the Lobito Corridor, designed to move copper and critical minerals from Central Africa to global markets. Is this just a shrouded way to continue exploitation, or will the local economies benefit?

Brass tacks:
Africa’s growth story is increasingly tied to how fast and cheaply it can move goods. Rail corridors are becoming the quiet backbone of trade, industrialization, and geopolitical relevance. The ability to move goods intra-continentally can transform commerce on the continent. But (and it’s a big but), can Africa get out of its own way and actually implement these strategies?

Daily Chop take:
This Christmas money comes with strings. The willingness for African leaders to give up access to their rare earth mines to salivating western vultures, may end up biting them in the behind. Sure, deals should be made. But, Africans should lay down the terms of these deals.

🗳️ Politics Meets Business: Guinea’s Resource Bet

What’s happening: Guinea’s military leader looks set to retain power, with much of his legitimacy tied to progress on the Simandou iron ore project — one of the world’s largest untapped deposits.

Brass tacks:
Simandou is not just a mine. It includes railways, ports, and export infrastructure that could reshape Guinea’s economy and West Africa’s resource map. It has the potential to morph into a regional hub for mining, freight, and trade cooperation.

Daily Chop take:
In resource economies, infrastructure is politics, and investors are watching closely, but stability is key, and investors need a calm, predictable, transparent environment that fosters confidence. Coups, or pretend coups do nothing but scare big money investors away.

⚖️ Quiet Signal: Global Law Firms Are Expanding in Africa

What’s happening: Dentons just opened a new office in Cameroon, even as some global firms pull back elsewhere. Lawyers are usually not scared to put their noses in business, even when the business is in the third world.

Brass tacks:
Law firms expand where deals are coming. This suggests growing demand for:

  • Cross-border transactions

  • Infrastructure contracts

  • Regulatory navigation

Daily Chop take:
When lawyers show up, money usually follows. And lawyers will be needed to handle complicated trade and cross border transactions. Those firms that show up early and gain a strong foothold, will be well positioned to win.

Diplomatic Gaps, Business Consequences

What’s happening: Dozens of U.S. ambassador posts across Africa remain vacant after recent recalls from U.S. President Donald Trump. This has left a gaps in political influence going both ways. It also makes trade deals and potential projects in limbo, for now. Is this a political lever being pulled by the U.S.? Do the Africans have any leverage of their own?

Brass tacks for business:
Diplomatic presence supports trade deals, investment protection, and private-sector advocacy. Gaps slow momentum just as competition for African markets heats up. So will this mean more pivoting to the East?

Daily Chop take:
You can’t out-trade competitors if you’re under-represented on the ground. Internal focus (throughout the continent) is one way to offset some of these issues, but we cannot compete on the global stage without direct access to the world marketplace.

🚄 Rail Momentum Is Spreading

Worth noting quickly: Rail is no longer a nostalgia project. It’s a commercial one and it has real momentum, right now.

  • Southern Africa is attracting private freight rail investment

  • West Africa is seeing renewed interest in rail-port integration

  • East Africa continues to push regional connectivity

Did you see our last article - “Africa’s Rail Moonshot”? If not, its a must read and deep dives into the rail ambitions across Africa. Check it out.

🎄 Africa’s Christmas Wishlist (Business Edition)

If Africa could unwrap a few things this Christmas, they’d look like this:

1) Fewer Borders That Act Like Walls
Harmonized customs, faster clearance, and fewer “informal fees” would do more for trade than any summit. Why cant we travel across the continet freely!

2) Maintenance Budgets That Actually Exist
Africa doesn’t lack infrastructure. It lacks upkeep. The wishlist item: fund maintenance like it matters — because it does. So many well intended projects languish and decay due to lack of maintenance.

3) Energy That’s Reliable Before It’s Perfect
Businesses need power now. Gas, renewables, grids — just make it stable and affordable. The sooner the better!

4) Capital That Thinks Long-Term
Not just quick exits. Infrastructure, manufacturing, and logistics need patient money.

5) Execution Over Announcements
Less ceremony. More delivery.

🎁 Bottom Line

This Christmas season, global consumers are cautious. Africa, meanwhile, is placing long-term bets on rails, corridors, and connectivity.

The big question for 2026 isn’t whether Africa has vision.
It’s whether execution finally shows up on time.

That’s today’s Christmas Chop.