GOOD MORNING CHOP FAMILY!
Wake up or stay Woke? What do you prefer? We like to say “keep your head on a swivel”. With the rate of change, volatility, and craziness in the world, it behooves us all to be alert … Happy Tuesday!
🌿 Proverb of the Day
"When the music changes, so must the dance." — Nigeria
World leaders will gather at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in NYC this week to talk about things. What’s there to talk about, you ask? Oh, not too much, just the war in the Middle East, oil prices, the fragility of the world economy, and the looming AI apocalypse😃.
We glanced at the provided agenda and, beyond all the procedural mumbo jumbo, there were some mentions of a few interesting categories:
Climate
Poverty
Agricultural Development
Do these meetings actually get anything done? Has the world realized any tangible benefits from these gatherings?
Does Africa benefit, or are we still at the small kids’ table?
🧠 Brain Chop: Quick Quiz
Test your geopolitical instincts before reading on:
Out of the 15 current seats on the United Nations Security Council, how many permanent seats with veto power are held by African nations?
A) 2
B) 1
C) 0
D) 3 (on rotating terms)
(Scroll to the bottom for the answer and context!)
MARKET MOVES
BUSINESS
Dangote's next big move isn't another refinery. It's the road out.
Ah ah - does this man sleep? First he launches the biggest IPO in African history; now he is building a pipeline? God bless this man.
Aliko Dangote is looking beyond refining with a reported $3.5 billion, 2,650-kilometre pipeline designed to move fuel across Southern Africa.
As complicated as refining petroleum is, and making it into a usable fuel like gasoline, kerosene, diesel, etc., the next challenge is to get it from point A to point B.
And in Africa, we all know that isn’t as easy as it sounds.
If the project advances, it could reshape parts of the region's fuel logistics. But the headline number is only the beginning. Construction, financing, regulatory approvals, cross-border coordination, and competition will determine whether the plan delivers.
The Chop: The refinery was the blockbuster. The pipeline is the distribution sequel. And in energy, owning the product is powerful—but controlling how it moves can be just as consequential. And if success leaves clues - as they say - I put my money on Dangote the Big Homey to make this happen.
FINANCE
Africa's internet needs more than good Wi-Fi. 📶
Gif by TEAMAF on Giphy
I don’t know about you, but one of my biggest frustrations when traveling or chillin’ across the continent is the lack of fast, consistent internet access. I mean, access to the internet is a mandatory necessity - like electricity.
Everyone wants to create the newest and greatest app or fintech company - but no one wants to create the rails and tracks on which they run - the data centers, fibre networks, and subsea assets.
This is because this infrastructure backbone isn’t sexy; it doesn’t make good content or an IG flex.
But…
The WIOCC Group has secured a combined $300 million investment from Africa Finance Corporation and Saudi Arabia's Vision Invest to support its digital infrastructure expansion.
Why it matters: Reliable digital infrastructure is foundational to everything from fintech and e-commerce to cloud computing and AI. Expanding that infrastructure could help businesses connect with customers, move data, and scale across markets.
The Chop: We spend a lot of time talking about the apps Africans are building. The less glamorous—and potentially just as consequential—story is who owns the digital highways those apps run on.
⚡Quick Bites
🏆 The Winner: Decentralized Clean Energy. The newly operational $300M DRE fund marks a concrete shift toward Mission 300, prioritizing commercial off-grid solar over bureaucratic state energy projects.
🍋 The Squeeze: Upstream Oil Exporters. With crude slipping slightly and refiners adjusting margins worldwide, state treasuries reliant on high crude prices face renewed pressure to balance their budgets.
🃏 The Wildcard: Cross-Border Fibre Corridors. Regional telecom operators wrapped meetings in Lagos pushing for the unification of terrestrial fibre and cloud data hubs across borders, turning digital bandwidth into a liquid cross-border commodity.
🌍What Else is Cooking?
A European aerospace consortium completed maiden test flights of a regional turboprop airliner running on hydrogen fuel cells, producing zero operational emissions.
Researchers in South Korea developed an ultra-thin thermoelectric film that converts ambient body heat into enough electrical current to run fitness trackers without batteries.
💡 Brain Chop: The Reveal
Answer: C) 0
Despite comprising over 54 sovereign states, representing 28% of all UN member nations, and accounting for the vast majority of peacekeeping operations, Africa holds zero permanent seats on the UN Security Council. The continent is limited to three non-permanent, rotating seats without veto power, which is why demands for structural reform remain front and center at every UNGA summit.
Hungry for more? If this newsletter was forwarded to you, hit that subscribe button to get the Daily Chop in your inbox every week!
