A Law student at the University of Abuja, Amra Onize Salihu, has emerged champion at the 9th Inter-Universities Speech Contest organised by the Intergovernmental Action Group Against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA), held in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Amra, a 500-level student in the Faculty of Law, represented Nigeria after winning the national selection conducted…
John L Esposito, a prominent scholar of religion and international affairs at Georgetown University, passed away on July 15, 2026, due to complications from heart surgery. He was a towering intellectual who published more than 55 books, mainly with Oxford University Press, which have been translated into dozens of languages. He uniquely shaped the modern…
Evidence points to digital infrastructure and education as critical investments. Abstract This study examines the relationship between digital exclusion and access to essential services across six West African countries, using Afrobarometer Round 9 data (2021-2023). We construct a multidimensional digital-exclusion index based on digital-technology access and usage, then rigorously distinguish individual-level effects from district-level contextual…
Jihadist groups are no longer content with launching attacks in West Africa and the Sahel: they administer territories, control trade routes, exploit new technologies and are gradually pushing their influence all the way to the Gulf of Guinea. Faced with this change, government responses are struggling to keep up, while a timid dynamic of regional…
Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire and Mali show how Washington is navigating security, commerce and sovereignty in a changing West Africa regional order. For Nigeria, the US Department of State’s Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Frank Garcia’s first official trip to Africa is worth watching closely. His planned visits to Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire and Mali…
Oxford — Bomi County Senator Edwin Melvin Snowe Jr. has called for far-reaching reforms to strengthen the ECOWAS Parliament, warning that democracy in West Africa stands at a critical crossroads as military coups, constitutional crises, insecurity, and weak institutions continue to threaten the region’s democratic progress. Delivering a public lecture at the University of Oxford…
The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) is partnering with Uganda-based Unwanted Witness (UW), Ghana’s Data Protection Commission (DPC), and the Hewlett Foundation to organise the eighth edition of the Privacy Symposium Africa (PSA), themed “Money. Data. Control.” The symposium, which will take place on 25 and 26 November 2026, seeks to examine the intersection…
Bridge Bank Group Côte d’Ivoire launched an initial public offering on the BRVM, offering 10 million shares at 6,750 CFA francs each in one of the regional exchange’s largest listings in recent years. The sale represents 20% of the bank’s capital and is expected to raise 67.5 billion CFA francs, or about $118 million. The…
Ouidah, Benin — It is barely noon, and a group of women sit near the beach on the outskirts of Djégbadji village, in West Africa’s Benin, sifting through mounds of salt harvested from the Gulf of Guinea’s ocean. Large concrete vats covered with black tarpaulin show traces of white salt sediment as the seawater slowly…
The ECOWAS Parliament has adopted a series of resolutions and recommendations aimed at expanding access to affordable, reliable and sustainable energy in rural communities across West Africa, with lawmakers calling for accelerated investment in renewable energy to drive economic growth and improve livelihoods. The resolutions were unanimously adopted at the conclusion of a five-day delocalised…
