Sunday, 13 September 2026
African Development Bank, Abidjan
The board signed off on 1 September on a Global Energy and Fertilizer Crisis Response Framework worth five billion dollars, aimed at import bills for fuel, fertiliser and food across the continent. The bank is adding 4.1 billion dollars of further lending, with up to 960 million more from its concessional window, taking the group's 2026 lending target to roughly 12.7 billion. Four pillars: economic stability, essential supplies, household protection, future resilience. The document does not yet say how a state actually draws on the money, under what criteria, or how fast. Fertiliser prices themselves sat still on Friday, urea at 450.75 dollars a tonne and DAP at 800, both unchanged.
The Government Printer, Lusaka
Gazette Notice 1421 cancelled the passports of six government critics, which voids the documents rather than merely grounding the holders. Residents of Kabwe have given police formal notice of a demonstration against the general election results, the first organised protest of the post-poll period, and newly elected Mafinga South MP Faith Munthali has been charged with being armed in public and conspiracy. A separate treason matter still has no trial date, with a custody petition now before the Lusaka High Court. COMEX copper closed the same week down 2.8 per cent at 6.548 dollars a pound, or 14,436 a tonne.
The diesel screen, New York
ULSD futures rose 4.4 per cent to 4.7683 dollars a gallon, about 1,492 a tonne, while RBOB gasoline fell 4.1 per cent to 3.1198 a gallon, about 1,114 a tonne. That leaves distillate roughly 378 dollars a tonne above gasoline on the same day, a spread that decides whether a Gulf cargo turns east to the Indian Ocean or west. Brent finished 6.8 per cent higher at 104.61 a barrel. Freight has not yet answered: the Baltic Dry index was unchanged at 3,507.
Lunzua Power and Valinor, Mwandi District
Ground broke on 3 September on a 10 MWac solar plant in Western Province, an eight million dollar joint venture financed 30:70 equity to debt and built by SANY International (Zambia) on about 40 hectares at Mwilima. Installed capacity is 11 MWp, annual output around 22 GWh, enough for some 4,600 homes, with an evacuation line running into the ZESCO grid. Construction runs six months and employs roughly 100 people. It is the first renewable generation project in Mwandi, in a country where the grid deficit has been rationing smelters and mills alike.
India's food ministry, New Delhi
Mills have been told to sell and dispatch their fortnightly quotas on time or face action under the Essential Commodities Act, a sign Delhi is watching domestic availability closely into the new crushing season. In Sangli district, Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana activists halted cane lorries and let the air out of tractor tyres over cane pricing. The 2026-27 ethanol supply year now hangs on whether sugar economics or grain economics wins the feedstock argument. New York raw sugar barely moved, up 0.3 per cent at 18.15 cents a pound, about 400 dollars a tonne.
On the wire
- First Quantum put 5.7 million kwacha into the emergency department at Trident Mine Hospital, Kalumbila.
- Kinshasa: an ordinance now formally creates the organising committee for the national dialogue, with the president keeping control of the preparation; UNICEF has stepped up support for the second national census, an operation costed at 192 million dollars.
- France: Intact Regenerative opened a 75 million euro legume flour and alcohol plant; logistics group Idea, 250 million euros of revenue and 2,400 staff, says EDF's six EPR2 reactors will need close to 100,000 square metres of new logistics platforms.
- Cobalt unchanged at 42,940 dollars a tonne, Chinese sulphur unchanged at 8,639.25 yuan, about 1,288 dollars.