Good Morning, Chop Family!
Wherefore art thou Romeo? Has your Romeo found you? Or have you nabbed a Juliet? Anyway, apparently the famous play, Romeo and Juliet, is said to have been first performed on this day in history… just try not to end up like Romeo and Juliet, if you remember how the story ends…
📈 AROUND THE GLOBE
“Time is running out.” This ominous warning was given by Donald Trump to the beleaguered Iranian regime. The U.S. has built a strong presence in the Gulf region as a show of intimidation and preparedness.
Will the United States take action and preemptively strike Iran? Remember several months ago, they delivered air strikes targeting the Iranian nuclear program.
America’s assertive global stance has put many nations in an uneasy posture and has made America an unpredictable global force.
MARKET MOVES
BUSINESS
🌍 Tanzania revs up for LNG construction by year-end
Tanzania’s Deputy Energy Minister says the long-delayed $42 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) mega-project could finally break ground by the end of this year.
The facility, poised to tap ~47 trillion cubic feet of gas offshore, would be the country’s largest ever investment and could generate 100,000+ jobs while helping East Africa emerge as a big energy exporter.
📌 Key Markers -
• 🇹🇿 Big-ticket investment: A $42 billion LNG plant targeting first exports in the early 2030s.
• 🤝 Global partners: Consortium led by Equinor, Shell, ExxonMobil, and others.
• 📅 Timeline: Negotiations near finish, signing expected before June; construction hoped to start later this year.
• 💼 Jobs & growth: Potential 100,000+ direct/indirect jobs and a major boost for export receipts.
• 🔄 Regional impact: Could help position East Africa as a new LNG export hub to Asia and beyond.
🔥 Top 5 LNG Producers in Africa
🇩🇿 Algeria – #1 in Africa with ~25.3 million t/year capacity — long-established LNG exporter and one of the biggest globally.
🇳🇬 Nigeria – ~22.2 million t/year capacity at Bonny Island; Africa’s largest LNG hub for decades.
🇪🇬 Egypt – ~12.2 million t/year from Idku and Damietta LNG plants on the Mediterranean.
🇦🇴 Angola – ~5.2 million t/year capacity from its Soyo LNG plant.
🇬🇶 Equatorial Guinea – ~3.7 million t/year via its Bioko Island LNG facility
If you recall our post on the proposed continental rail project, one of the key components was to move LNG and other energy sources across the continent to provide cheap and readily available fuel to Africans.
Countries like Tanzania can position themselves to be a pivotal intersection in this important endeavor, and we hope others get on the trend.
⚡ FINANCE
🌟 Gold continues its wild ride
Gold prices surged to a fresh record above $5,300 per ounce this Wednesday, driven by a weaker U.S. dollar, heightened economic uncertainty, and investors piling into safe-haven assets ahead of key Fed policy decisions.
Spot gold climbed nearly 2% intraday, extending gains from the previous session and underscoring the precious metal’s appeal amid macro volatility.
💰 Why it’s moving:
• Dollar weakness makes gold cheaper for overseas buyers and boosts demand.
• Fed policy uncertainty and global policymakers weigh on confidence in fiat currencies.
• Central banks and institutional funds are rotating into bullion as a hedge.
🔥 Top 5 gold producers in Africa
Africa accounts for a huge chunk of global gold output, and as prices climb, so does the spotlight on its mining sectors:
🇬🇭 Ghana – Africa’s gold champion with ~4.5 M oz annual production 🌍
🇿🇦 South Africa – Deep history and big industrial mines 💎
🇲🇱 Mali – Major West African producer with rich greenstone belts ⛏️
🇧🇫 Burkina Faso – Rapid output growth and export potential 📦
🇸🇩 Sudan – Rising producer amid complex artisanal and industrial dynamics 📊
✨ Bullion buzz: As prices break records, export revenues in Africa’s gold economies could swell, but rising output also raises questions about sustainability and reserve holdings. While many African nations produce large amounts of gold, you couldn’t tell by looking at their reserves.
TECH
🚀 One year after DeepSeek, China’s AI engines are roaring
It’s been 12 months since DeepSeek’s debut shook the AI world, and now Chinese tech firms from Alibaba to Moonshot AI are racing to roll out new, more capable models that push into multimodal tasks like text, image, and video generation.
These upgrades show Beijing’s strategy of combining open-source accessibility and rapid deployment to close the gap with U.S. leaders and expand into global markets.
🌍 But where is Africa? While the world’s biggest AI labs sprint ahead, China, the U.S., and the EU are pushing frontier models, and Africa is still mostly on the sidelines of core AI research and foundational model development.
The big questions around compute infrastructure, R&D funding, data ecosystems, and native AI talent mean most AI innovation on the continent still builds on tools developed elsewhere. That’s left the continent trailing in the race to produce globally competitive foundational AI tech.
✨ Still, there are small shimmers of light trying to ignite across the continent:
• 🇷🇼 Rwanda has rolled out one of Africa’s most comprehensive national AI policies and is investing in institutional capacity for AI governance and innovation.
• 🇰🇪 🇳🇬 Across Kenya and Nigeria, vibrant startup ecosystems are using AI in real-world applications from predictive health tools to agritech solutions, showing demand and local ingenuity.
• 🌍 Major global tech players like Google are investing millions in AI skills development and community hubs in Africa to build human capacity and unlock the next generation of developers.
• 🎓 Pan-African convenings and research networks — like Deep Learning Indaba — are helping build technical AI talent and knowledge exchange.
Brass tacks: The global AI train is accelerating fast, and Africa isn’t yet in the driver’s seat, infact Africa is on the side of the road trying to hail an Okada (motorbike) to try and keep up. But seeds of innovation, policy momentum and human capital investments are growing. If the continent leans into these advantages, the next decade could look a lot more competitive and locally shaped.
SMALL CHOP
🌽 South African maize planting set to grow in 2026
South African farmers are lacing up for a bigger maize season this year, planting an estimated 2.67 million hectares of maize (that’s over 3.5 million soccer pitches!).
This is up about 3 % from last season as both white (for food) and yellow (for feed) varieties expand. This large-scale production is a promising sign that farmers are motivated to scale and improve. Can storage and distribution networks keep up, though?
🔥 Top 5 maize powerhouses in Africa:
🇿🇦 South Africa – the continent’s leader in maize output thanks to commercial farms and strong infrastructure 💪
🇳🇬 Nigeria – big yields from diverse agro-ecological zones across the country 🌍
🇪🇹 Ethiopia – staple maize crop crucial for food security and rural jobs 👩🌾
🇪🇬 Egypt – irrigated maize production defies arid conditions 💧
🇹🇿 Tanzania – strong regional producer with both domestic consumption and export roles 📈
🌍 Maize continues to anchor diets and agricultural economies across Africa, and shifts in planting areas show how farmers are responding to markets and climate patterns.
DISH OF THE DAY
Those late nights strolling back to the house usually led me to the street food stands. One stand, that was on the edge of our neighborhood, sold one of my fave snacks - roasted maize.
I would frequently visit this stand to get a few large ears of maize, and I enjoyed staring at the corn as it darkened under the hot coals.
I would slowly savor and enjoy the crunchy, hot kernels as I walked home. There was no butter, just a bit of salt, and it was so satisfying.
Did You Know? White maize, is preferred across much of Africa, and is less common globally , most of the world eats yellow maize.
Till next time,
Chop Team
