Over the past two years, the #EndSARS movement in Nigeria and widely reported abuses by police enforcing pandemic restrictions have drawn renewed scrutiny to the behaviour of Africa’s security forces. Massive demonstrations against police brutality hav …

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) opened for business on January 1, 2021, promising opportunities for people from all socio-economic strata to share in economic growth in the world’s largest free-trade zone. Signed by 54 African countrie …

Home to some of the world’s fastest-growing economies, Africa has attracted the attention of leaders and economic strategists everywhere, including China. Over the past two decades, political and economic relations between China and Africa have grown r …

In Uganda, restrictions on Internet and social media use are becoming common. Since 1 July 2021, Internet users have begun paying a 12% tax on Internet data, in addition to an 18% valued added tax. The Internet tax replaces the over-the-top tax, popula …

Public protests and civic actions have been an integral part of Liberia’s political history. In April 1979, an 18% increase in the price of rice led to violent protests against the government, resulting in the deaths of about 40 protesters. Like the 19 …

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) opened for business on January 1, 2021, promising opportunities for people from all socio-economic strata to share in economic growth in the world’s largest free-trade zone. Expected to cover 54 African …

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set ambitious targets for countries and societies to improve lives and livelihoods around the world. While the expectations of meeting these goals largely fall on governments, it is widely recognized that joint …

In 2019, President Julius Maada Bio declared rape and sexual violence a national emergency in Sierra Leone. This followed intense pressure and protest by civil society groups after the rape and subsequent paralysis of a 5-year-old girl. While such hein …

Liberia has won international praise for its response to the coronavirus. Perhaps drawing on its experience with the Ebola pandemic, the government moved early with measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, including screening at airports and a Speci …

Home to some of the world’s fastest-growing economies, Africa has attracted the attention of leaders and economic strategists everywhere, including China. Over the past two decades, political and economic relations between China and Africa have grown r …

With echoes of the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States, massive demonstrations against police brutality have recently rocked Nigeria. Protests that initially focused on the notorious Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) have broadened to dema …

Over the past three decades, Ghana has taken a variety of steps to promote gender equity. Its 1992 Constitution guarantees equality and freedom from discrimination. In 1998, Ghana began working on – but has still not passed – an Affirmative Action Bill …

Like many other countries, Ghana has been grappling with its share of fake news about COVID-19. On the one hand, rumors that the “foreign disease” targets only whites and the affluent heighten nonchalant attitudes toward fighting the disease. On the ot …

In late March, the Ghanaian government locked down parts of the Greater Accra and Ashanti regions to slow the spread of COVID-19 and deployed security personnel to enforce the restrictions. In announcing the measures, President Nana Akufo-Addo said he …

Effective Monday, 30 March, parts of Greater Accra and Ashanti regions – the areas of Ghana most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic – were placed on lockdown, in accordance with President Nana Akufo-Addo’s announcement in his fourth address to the natio …

A decade-long civil war (1991-2002) and a 2014 Ebola outbreak left Sierra Leone’s healthcare system in a poor state, including inadequate infrastructure and staff. With 1,165 deaths per 100,000 live births recorded in 2017, Sierra Leone has one of the …

Sierra Leone dropped by 18 places on the Global Peace Index between 2018 and 2019, ranking now at No. 52 out of 163 countries, and is listed among the five sub-Saharan countries recording the worst deterioration due to political and economic instabilit …

Ghana has made giant economic strides over the past decade. In 2011 the country climbed from lower-income to middle-income status, and both per-capita income and gross domestic product roughly doubled between 2008 and 2018. Fueled in part by newly disc …

Ghana’s banking sector is the second-largest in the West African Monetary Zone and recorded a 33.9% increase in total assets between June 2016 (GHS 66.29 billion) and June 2018 (GHS 100.35 billion). But during the past two years, the country’s financia …

Migration has become a staple of the news in many countries, filled with images of desperate Africans fleeing an impoverished continent, poised to descend on the West. These reports are not necessarily false, and they can be valuable in highlighting th …

In Africa, as elsewhere, mass media face increasing opportunities and threats. New technologies have made it easier for producers to share content widely and cheaply, resulting in a proliferation and diversification of information sources. And broader …