SME Finance Push (Nigeria): Atiku Abubakar says he’ll launch a $100bn start-up and entrepreneur financing programme in 2027, arguing Nigeria’s cost-of-living squeeze is weakening small businesses and blocking access to jobs and capital. Credit Gap Focus (Ghana): A Bank of Ghana-linked analysis puts Ghana’s SME credit gap at about $4.8bn, saying the real bottleneck is “assessment” for lending—not just money. Women-Led SMEs (Sierra Leone): UNDP begins verifying women-led SMEs in Sierra Leone’s post-rice production value chain under the EWASME project, aiming to improve access to finance, markets and skills. Digital Commerce Investment (Africa): The World Bank Group invests $25m in Jumia Technologies to expand digital commerce infrastructure, targeting tens of thousands of sellers and creating income opportunities for large numbers of sales agents. Right-to-Repair Rules (South Africa): South Africa’s Competition Commission drafts guidelines to curb manufacturer restrictions on spare parts and repair information that can raise costs and exclude small repair businesses. Energy for Business (Nigeria/South Africa): Nigeria’s CNG rollout is attacked as too slow to offset petrol subsidy removal, while South Africa’s Eskom and officials meet Philippi businesses to tackle grid reliability and illegal connections. Startup Capital (Pan-Africa): Ventures Platform closes a $84m pan-African seed fund to back early-stage startups across fintech, healthtech, agritech, edtech and AI. Trade & Logistics (India–East Africa): PIL enhances Imara Express with direct loops linking India to Mombasa and Dar es Salaam, aiming to support growing corridor trade.