Africa’s 30 Most Influential Figures of 2026

Appointed head of government on September 29, 2026, she became the first woman to lead a Moroccan government, after her party (PAM, 97 seats) won the September 23 legislative elections. Her cabinet, formed on October 16, handed the Economy and Finance ministry to Fouzi Lekjaa.

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Faced with soaring prices, the Algerian president ordered seven emergency measures on October 18, 2026 for the daily monitoring of prices and the availability of basic consumer goods, including an investigation into importers accused of hoarding imported meat and the creation of a digital price-monitoring database.

On June 26, 2026, the Minister of Economy and Planning unveiled the 2026-2030 development plan, targeting average annual growth of 4.2% and 5% by 2030, alongside a draft new investment code (premium licence, single agency).

The Libyan Parliament appointed Fawzi Abou Khazam governor of the Central Bank on November 2, 2026, by 78 votes out of 90. He inherits an institution in the grip of a currency crisis, following the resignation of his predecessor and a raid on the bank’s Tripoli headquarters.

The Finance Minister secured approval on July 1, 2026 for a second package of tax reforms — VAT exemptions on industrial equipment, replacing the stock-market capital-gains tax with a stamp duty, and shorter VAT refund timelines — to spur private investment.

The former Economy and Finance minister won the April 12, 2026 presidential election with around 94% of the vote. Sworn in on May 24, he succeeds Patrice Talon, who did not seek re-election, for a seven-year term.

The Nigerien Prime Minister presided on May 18, 2026 over the signing of several oil agreements with China: a cut in the export-pipeline transport tariff from $27 to $15 per barrel, a 45% state stake in WAPCO and $1 billion of investment.

On June 19, 2026, the Guinean president announced a permanent ban on the export of raw gold, requiring its refining on national soil — notably at the Nimba Gold refinery in Gbessia — under the Simandou 2040 industrialisation programme.

The Ghanaian president inaugurated a five-member independent fiscal council on September 8, 2026, tasked with enforcing budgetary discipline and debt sustainability, as Ghana completes its $3 billion IMF programme.

The BCEAO governor cut the benchmark rate to 3% on March 16, 2026 — the zone’s lowest level — before holding it in June, while cautiously advancing work on a central-bank digital currency for the West African monetary union.

Re-elected on March 15, 2026 in the first round with 94.82% of the vote, he secures a fifth term keeping him in power until 2031 at the head of this oil-producing country, in near-continuous power since 1979.

The governor of the Central Bank of Congo decided on April 9, 2026 to reserve to the bank the physical import of foreign currency from April 2027 and to ban any cash transaction in foreign currencies, while cutting the benchmark rate from 15% to 13.5% — a historic turn towards de-dollarization.

The BEAC governor brought the central bank into the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System (PAPSS) on June 9, 2026, connecting the six CEMAC countries to a network now spanning 28 African states.

During his state visit to Algiers on April 22-23, 2026, the Chadian president oversaw the signing of 34 bilateral agreements, including a Sonatrach-SHT protocol to build a refinery with a capacity of 20,000 barrels per day.

On April 24, 2026, the Central African president signed two decrees creating the Permanent Secretariat for Mineral Certification (SPCM), in charge of gold and diamond traceability, and turning the mining police into a paramilitary force to close informal export channels.

Re-elected on January 15, 2026 for a seventh presidential term with 71% of the vote, in an election marked by opposition arrests, an internet shutdown and the house arrest of rival Bobi Wine.

Ethiopia held its first national legislative elections on June 1, 2026 since the end of the Tigray war. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s Prosperity Party won 438 of the 486 seats filled in the House of Peoples’ Representatives.

The Kenyan president signed the 2026 Finance Act into law on June 23, 2026, paving the way for the execution of the 2026/27 budget of 4.8 trillion Kenyan shillings, about $37 billion.

On January 12, 2026, his government annulled all agreements with the United Arab Emirates, including the Berbera, Bosaso and Kismayo port deals and defence cooperation, accusing Abu Dhabi of undermining Somali sovereignty.

At the close of the African Union’s 39th summit in Addis Ababa, the Burundian president succeeded Angola’s João Lourenço on February 15, 2026 as chairperson of the African Union for 2026.

The governor of the South African Reserve Bank announced a unanimous 25-basis-point rate hike on September 23, 2026, taking the policy rate to 7.25% — the year’s second increase — amid price shocks linked to the war in Iran, with the 2026 growth forecast cut to 1.2%.

The Zambian electoral commission proclaimed him president-elect for a second five-year term on August 18, 2026, with about 61.4% of the vote, following the August 13 presidential election.

Botswana’s Minister of Minerals and Energy announced on February 10, 2026, at the Cape Town Mining Indaba, a plan to step up mineral exploration across roughly 70% of the country’s still-unexplored territory, to reduce its dependence on diamonds.

The Namibian president launched the Dangote Namibia Tank Farm and Regional Pipeline project in Walvis Bay on November 4, 2026 — a $2.5 billion investment covering 600 million litres of storage and a pipeline network to four neighbouring countries.

The Angolan president sealed on September 8, 2026 a coordination with Botswana — the two countries accounting for nearly 30% of global rough-diamond output — to defend natural diamonds against synthetic stones and weigh on pricing.

Africa’s richest man launched in September 2026 the continent’s largest-ever initial public offering — his refinery, a $1.6 billion raise closed in late October and about three times oversubscribed — to double capacity to 1.4 million barrels per day by 2028.

The African Union Commission chairperson officially launched the African Credit Rating Agency (AfCRA) on October 7, 2026 — a continental institution meant to produce independent African sovereign ratings and lower states’ borrowing costs.

The president of the African Development Bank Group presented the ‘New African Financial Architecture for Development’ (NAFAD) on November 3, 2026 at the Africa Financial Summit in Luanda — a framework to coordinate the continent’s financial institutions and better mobilise African savings.

The WTO Director-General opened the 14th WTO Ministerial Conference in Yaoundé on March 26, 2026 — the organisation’s first ministerial conference held in Africa since Nairobi in 2015.

Cassava Technologies, the pan-African digital group he founded, became on October 27, 2026 an authorised reseller of Anthropic’s Claude models via Amazon Bedrock, giving African businesses direct access to these AI models.