Tom Kayo

48 posts
Tight close-up of a thick rope tied into a knot, lit against a plain black background.
Analysis Zambia Ghana Ethiopia Debt Capital

After Zambia, Ghana and Ethiopia: What African Debt Restructuring Actually Taught the Continent

The G20 Common Framework was supposed to fix sovereign debt for the poorest countries. Its record is "very mixed." As Angola manages its own overhang outside the framework, the continent is drawing hard lessons — and demanding reform.

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5 Min
By: Tom Kayo
Aerial view over the dense rooftops and low-rise buildings of Lagos, Nigeria, seen from above in daylight.
Analysis Infrastructure Governance Policy

The African City Is the Future — If It Can House and Move Its People

Africa is urbanising faster than any region in history, and its cities are engines of growth and a rising middle class. But the housing and transport deficits are enormous, and the policy answer isn't demolition — it's incremental upgrading.

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4 Min
By: Tom Kayo
A dense, busy street in Lagos crowded with pedestrians and vehicles between buildings in daylight.
Explainer Policy Governance

Africa’s Demographic Dividend Is Real. So Is the Jobs Cliff.

The continent’s youth boom is routinely called its greatest asset. Whether it becomes a dividend or a crisis depends on a single number that isn’t rising fast enough: jobs.

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5 Min
By: Tom Kayo
A professional audio mixing console glowing in dim light, its controls illuminated during a session.
Analysis Nigeria Diaspora Technology Capital

African Culture as Global Infrastructure: Music, Film, Fashion, and the Diaspora Economy

Afrobeats fills global charts, Nollywood is a production powerhouse, and African design shapes runways. Culture is now one of the continent's most powerful exports — but the platforms that distribute it, and capture its value, are mostly owned elsewhere.

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5 Min
By: Tom Kayo
A packed football stadium at night, floodlit pitch and full stands under the dark evening sky.
Analysis Diaspora Capital

Football Is African Soft Power — And AFCON 2025 Proved It's a Business, Too

Morocco's Africa Cup of Nations turned a football tournament into a nation-branding and economic engine. From record prize money to record player valuations, African football is finally being run — and valued — like the global asset it is.

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5 Min
By: Tom Kayo
Burlap sacks of grain stacked in a dimly lit warehouse storage area in warm, moody light.
Analysis Angola Trade Policy

Angola's Second Diversification: The US$2 Billion Fight to Feed an Oil State

Angola imports more than half its food while farming barely a tenth of its arable land. A US$5.7 billion grain plan, a fertiliser gamble at Soyo and a coffee revival are testing whether the petrostate can relearn how to feed itself — before the next oil shock does the teaching.

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8 Min
By: Tom Kayo
A vast open-pit mine seen from above, with mining trucks working the terraced valley floor.
Analysis Angola DRC Zambia South Africa Mining Infrastructure Trade

Southern Africa's Power Triangle: How Angola, the DRC, Zambia and South Africa Are Being Rewired

Copper, cobalt, ports and rail are reorganising Southern Africa's economic geography. Four countries hold the pieces — but conflict, capacity and competing patrons will decide whether integration or extraction wins.

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5 Min
By: Tom Kayo
A freight train carrying shipping containers along rail tracks with an urban skyline behind, in Hamburg.
Analysis Angola United States Geopolitics Mining Policy

Washington’s New Africa Playbook Runs Through Luanda — And It’s Built on Minerals, Not Aid

The United States has made Angola the showcase of a transactional, infrastructure-and-minerals approach to Africa. For Luanda, that’s leverage. But a strategy built on copper and rail carries risks that development aid never did.

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5 Min
By: Tom Kayo
Close-up selective-focus shot of hands counting US dollar banknotes.
Analysis Angola China Debt Geopolitics

Angola and China After the Debt Boom: The Quiet Unwinding of the “Angola Model”

Angola was the flagship of China’s oil-backed lending in Africa. Now it’s paying that debt down fast, diversifying its creditors — and even letting banks count yuan toward reserves. The relationship isn’t ending; it’s being renegotiated.

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5 Min
By: Tom Kayo
A solitary figure silhouetted against an urban skyline at dusk as the city fades into golden light.
featured
Analysis Angola Power Elections

Angola After Lourenço: Why the 2027 Election May Be Decided Inside the MPLA First

João Lourenço is barred from a third term and has confirmed he will step down in 2027. But by keeping his grip on the ruling party, he has turned the succession into a controlled — and potentially destabilising — internal contest.

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5 Min
By: Tom Kayo
A vendor in white attire standing at his produce stand selling peppers in a market in Abeokuta, Nigeria.
Analysis Angola Capital Policy

Angola's Economy in 2026: An 11-Year Inflation Low, a Rate-Cutting Central Bank, and Households Still Under Strain

Disinflation is the good-news story of the year in Luanda. But behind the falling headline rate lies a harder question: whether ordinary Angolans feel a recovery that the data can now measure.

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5 Min
By: Tom Kayo
An offshore oil rig alone in the middle of the ocean at sunset, silhouetted against a red-toned sky.
Analysis Angola Energy

Angola's Oil Transition Is Already Here — The Question Is What Comes After the Barrel

Angola's crude output is in structural decline even as new deepwater money pours in. The country is being forced to build a post-oil state in real time — and the way it manages that squeeze will shape Southern Africa's economic map.

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6 Min
By: Tom Kayo

Showing 12 of 48 total posts

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