Agro-exports Drive Growth: A new look at Africa’s trade shows the continent’s top farm exports are increasingly judged by profitability and premium-market access, with cocoa, coffee, cashews, tobacco, olive oil, tea, cotton, sesame, sugar and horticulture leading foreign-exchange earnings. Connectivity Costs and Coverage: Starlink is live in 26 African countries (with South Africa still missing) and priced around $30–$55 monthly, while the kit remains the biggest upfront barrier; median downloads top 100 Mbps across live markets. Banking Leadership in the Region: Orabank Togo CEO Guy Martial Awona, a former Ecobank executive, leads a lender serving 440,000 customers via 39 branches and pushes stronger corporate and SME financing. IMF Support for São Tomé and Príncipe: IMF Africa chief Zeine Zeidane warns Middle East conflict fallout could keep trade, energy and fertilizer disruptions going for months, while noting the Fund has already approved augmented financing for São Tomé and Príncipe. Oil Deal Signals New Exploration Push: Petrobras and Pemex signed a two-year MoU to cooperate on Gulf of Mexico exploration, including deepwater and ultra-deepwater evaluation. Reparations Momentum: African and Caribbean leaders meeting in Ghana backed a 19-point reparations plan calling for formal apologies, a Global Reparations Fund, debt relief, compensation, and restitution of cultural property—while Ghana’s Mahama also set up three global panels to move the agenda forward.