#DigitalForDevelopment: Alexander De Croo on a tech mission to Kenya

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#DigitalForDevelopment: Alexander De Croo on a tech mission to Kenya

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African Mining Week (AMW) – taking place on October 14 to 16 in Cape Town - will highight the growing role of mining services companies as critical enablers of Africa’s transition from resource - rich to project - ready. As the continent works to unlock an estimated $8.5 trillion in untapped mineral wealth, these firms are emerging as key drivers of capital mobilization, technical delivery and accelerated project timelines. A structural shift is underway. Mining services companies are no longer confined to contractor roles - they are evolving into integrated project partners, shaping how mines are financed, engineered, built and operated. Their influence now sits at the intersection of capital markets, infrastructure development, energy systems and industrial policy, positioning them as central players in Africa’s next phase of mining - led growth. This evolution is already visible in project activity across the continent. In April 2026, Metso inaugurated a new regional hub in Cape Town, strengthening its bulk material handling and services capabilities across Africa. The facility enhances automation, logistics and lifecycle services across key commodity value chains - including coal, platinum group metals and manganese - directly supporting South Africa’s strategy to scale mineral exports and industrial output. Geopolitics is further amplifying this trend. Major global economies are increasingly leveraging their EPC and mining services companies as strategic tools to secure supply chains and expand influence. Institutions such as the Export-Import Bank of the United States are backing American participation in African mining, while China, Europe, Canada and Australia continue to embed their services companies into financing and development frameworks across the continent. Australia’s Lycopodium is advancing Namibia’s Twin Hills project, while China’s JCHX Mining Management is supporting copper production at Botswana’s Khoemacau Mine. In Guinea, XCMG Machinery is contributing to development at the Simandou iron ore project – one of the largest untapped deposits globally. Across key mining jurisdictions, this shift is accelerating project pipelines. Countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, Ghana, Liberia and South Africa are increasingly relying on mining services firms to fast-track national geomapping exercises, exploration, scale production and advance beneficiation. Against this backdrop, AMW will bring together global EPC firms, mining services providers, investors and African developers. The event is set to catalyze partnerships and deal-making, with a focus on strengthening execution capacity, unlocking financing and accelerating the delivery of mining projects that can anchor Africa’s industrial growth and global supply chain integration.

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Executive Corner

Equity Bank’s New Look

Stanbic Holdings Plc (“the Company”) has posted a Profit After Tax (PAT) of KES 6.5 billion and delivered a return on equity of 17.4% in the half year ended 30th June 2025. Stanbic Holdings PLC’s performance for the period was underpinned by resilient non-interest revenue generation and lower credit impairment charges, which helped cushion the impact of a decline in net interest income. The listed lender, with operations in Kenya and South Sudan, noted that while year-on-year organic growth remained subdued, its continued focus on operational excellence and robust risk management enhanced its fortitude and strengthened its long-term growth outlook. During the period, Stanbic recorded a 9% increase in active clients, driven by the continued optimization of its products and digital platforms. This growth, coupled with targeted client support initiatives, strengthened the Bank’s credit position, contributing to a 4% expansion in the balance sheet from the December 2024 closing position. Speaking on the half-year performance, Dr Joshua Oigara stated, ‘’ The Kenyan economy remained stable amidst persistent headwinds. Nonetheless, some pressures persist as evidenced by sluggish private sector credit uptake, high fiscal deficits and geopolitical risks. Our focus in this period was largely on supporting our clients navigate shifting market conditions, while fortifying our growth through robust risk management, capital strength and well managed liquidity levels. We believe that our business will continue to demonstrate resilience and keep momentum even as the market continues to post recovery.’ During the reporting period, all four business lines demonstrated robustness and strategic execution. Corporate and Investment Banking played a key role in facilitating a new USD 1.5 billion Eurobond issuance, Tender Offer for the Republic of Kenya, reinforcing our leadership in sovereign advisory. Business and Commercial Banking continued to support the real economy, disbursing KES 16.4 billion in loans to SMEs across various sectors. Personal and Private Banking achieved a fourfold increase in scheme disbursements, reflecting growing client demand and effective distribution. We also made significant strides in digital banking, with the enhancement of our Omni Channel mobile app, introducing key features that drove active users beyond 100,000 mark. The Insurance and Asset Management business maintained positive momentum, with assets under management surpassing KES 4 billion (in nine months since launch), underscoring the strength of our diversified financial services offering. Notably, Stanbic Bank, the Company’s main subsidiary, was ranked among the top 5 banks in SME lending by the Kenya Banker’s Association, with the lender allocating capital to impact sectors, including agriculture, manufacturing, and trade, delivering both returns and national development outcomes in the first half of the year. The Bank was also awarded the 2nd runners up on the Best Bank to Borrow from and Best Bank in Mortgage Finance at the Think Business Awards. Commenting on the performance, Dennis Musau, Chief Financial and Value Officer said, ‘’ Our H1 2025 results signal steady progress, anchored in a stable macroeconomic climate and recovering private sector credit growth. Commercial lending to the private sector grew by 2.0% in May, up from a contraction of 2.9% in January—signalling a rebound in demand alongside easing interest rates. We continue to refine our strategic focus, leveraging our core strengths to unlock long-term value and deliver sustainable returns for our shareholders in an evolving market landscape.’’ The Bank recorded an NPL ratio of 9.5%, which is below industry levels at 17.6%, and representative of a healthy asset book. ‘’ Credit quality is a priority for us, which is why we have adopted a proactive, data-led approach to managing risk. We have strengthened our credit assessment frameworks and developed sector-specific models that enable us to better anticipate and support clients during volatile cycles," Musau added. The Bank also reduced its lending rates by 180bps cumulatively in response to Kenya’s easing monetary policy stance. Financial Performance Summary: During the first half of 2025, Stanbic Holdings Plc delivered a robust performance amidst a dynamic operating environment, with key highlights as follows: Profit after tax declined by 9% to KES 6.5 billion, largely impacted by lower net interest income and elevated operating expenses, primarily due to prior year base effects. Trading revenue contracted by 7%, reflecting the impact of narrower margins in the current period. Customer numbers grew by 9%, driven by effective market positioning and continued investment in customer experience. Other non-interest revenue excluding trading revenue rose by 9%, supported by higher customer transaction volumes and a more diverse suite of product offerings. Operating expenses increased by 16%, attributable to 2024 base effects, driven by the appreciation of the Kenya Shilling as well as investments in long-term strategic initiatives. The cost-to-income ratio stood at 48.1%, reflecting a contraction in total income alongside elevated cost levels. Credit impairment charges decreased by 26%, underlining enhanced risk management practices and improved credit portfolio quality. Customer deposits closed at KES 330 billion, a 4% increase from December 2024, while loans and advances stood at KES 233 billion, representing a 1% growth over the same period. The NPL ratio remained at 9.5%, as the Bank continues to prioritize asset quality and proactive credit management. The Bank recorded a Return on Equity (ROE) of 17.37%, supported by active capital and liquidity management across the portfolio. Strengthening Impact and Delivering Value – H1 2025 Highlights Stanbic Bank continued to advance its sustainability agenda during the first half of 2025, directing funding and capacity-building efforts across four key impact areas: enterprise growth and job creation, infrastructure development and a just energy transition, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and financial inclusion. Key sustainability achievements include: Issuance of KES 4.5 billion towards green infrastructure projects Lending of KES 1.2 billion to support climate-smart agriculture Disbursement of KES 900 million under the affordable housing program enabling over 200 new homeowners Facilitation of KES 94.8 billion in trade loans, driving economic activity Planted 30k trees as part of climate change mitigation Through the Stanbic Kenya Foundation, the Group deepened its social impact via strategic partnerships with GIZ, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, American Tower Corporation, and Microsoft Corporation. These collaborations supported job creation, financial inclusion, and youth empowerment. Notably, the Foundation disbursed KES 24 million in catalytic loans to MSMEs and delivered financial literacy and entrepreneurship training to over 33,000 women entrepreneurs across Kenya. In recognition of this performance and commitment to shareholder returns, the Group has recommended an interim dividend of KES 3.80 per share, marking a 106.5% increase year-on-year.

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Africa’s leading electric vehicle (EV) and clean energy infrastructure platform, today announced the successful closing of its latest funding round at $270 million. This milestone follows a newly finalized $55 million investment from NewTrails Capital, a prominent Chinese growth-stage investment fund focusing on emerging markets with strategic locations in Shanghai, Shenzhen and Nigeria. Scaling Africa’s next-generation mobility and energy ecosystem This capital injection positions Spiro among the continent's most heavily backed Africa’s e-mobility and energy ecosystem. Building on the support of long-standing institutional partners such as FEDA, Spiro’s latest equity round also draws global capital from Europe and Africa, Impact Fund Denmark, Equitane and FEDA, on top of the recent backing from Nithio and the Africa Go Green Fund. "I would like to thank NewTrails Capital for believing in Spiro’s model and supporting our unique tech, energy and innovation journey. Having deployed 100,000 electric vehicles and 2,500 smart-swap stations across seven active markets, Spiro has firmly moved past the proof-of-concept phase. Partnering with NewTrail Capital’s deeply experienced team marks a powerful new chapter for Spiro as we prepare for the next steps of our pan-African and international expansion”, stated Gagan Gupta, Founder of Spiro and Chairman of Equitane. Yufan Zhang, Founding Partner of NewTrails Capital, added: “We believe Spiro is driving a profound “energy revolution” across mobility use cases in Africa. This represents not only a vast and highly imaginative market opportunity, but also the potential to grow into an infrastructure-like business that creates meaningful commercial, social, and environmental value. In our view, Spiro’s core strengths lie in its deeply localized operating capabilities, vertically integrated supply chain, digitally enabled ecosystem, sound unit economics, and strong ability to scale rapidly. More importantly, Spiro has systematically integrated vehicles, batteries, energy replenishment, payments, and service networks into a solution that is truly tailored to the needs of African users, effectively addressing long-standing structural pain points in the local market. As a Chinese fund committed to investing in Africa’s energy transition and green technology, we are also very encouraged to see Chinese supply chains and financing playing an increasingly important role in this process. Spiro is still a young company, and everything today is only the beginning. We look forward to continuing to fulfill our role as a long-term investor, contributing our resources and experience, growing together with Spiro, and helping accelerate Africa’s new energy transition.”, This partnership will be instrumental to support Spiro’s current manufacturing and supply chain localisation effort on the continent in particular with Chinese suppliers.

Spiro secures $55M additional backing from Chinese investor NewTrails Capital

July 10, 2026

Radisson Hotel Group (RHG) (www.RadissonHotels.com) is helping drive a new era in healthcare meeting planning, contributing to the industry’s evolution from operational event delivery to a structured, strategic discipline focused on improving scientific exchange, decision-making, and healthcare outcomes. The findings emerge from the Radisson Hotel Group Knowledge Exchange: Healthcare Planning, Design and Strategy Summit held in Florence, Italy, where 75 experts from across the pharmaceutical, healthcare agency, and venue production sectors came together to explore the future of healthcare meeting design. Built to drive tangible outcomes, the two-day summit centered on collaborative working sessions and practical workshops that translated industry insights into actionable frameworks, rather than a traditional conference format. The resulting report identifies a clear industry shift: healthcare meetings are increasingly being recognized not as standalone events, but as strategic communication systems that require structured design, measurable methodologies, and continuous improvement. “Healthcare meetings are no longer simply logistical exercises—they are strategic communication platforms that can drive measurable educational, scientific, and organizational outcomes,” said Muriel Poulenc, Senior Director, Sales Strategy at Radisson Hotel Group. “Across the industry, we are seeing growing recognition that better outcomes require more than flawless execution. They require structured design, integrated workflows, and a more deliberate approach to how meetings are planned, delivered, and measured. The organizations embracing this shift will be best positioned to create meaningful impact.” Healthcare meeting design is becoming a discipline A central theme emerging from the Florence summit is the growing professionalization of healthcare meeting planning. As regulatory requirements, stakeholder expectations, and organizational complexity continue to increase, the industry is moving toward shared methodologies, frameworks, and measurement systems that support more consistent and effective outcomes. Building on discussions first initiated at the 2025 Knowledge Exchange, participants worked to translate industry insight into practical, repeatable tools designed to improve meeting effectiveness, compliance, and stakeholder engagement. The report argues that healthcare meetings should no longer be viewed as isolated events, but as intentionally designed systems that support learning, collaboration, and decision-making across the healthcare ecosystem. The healthcare meeting planner is becoming a decision architect As healthcare meetings become more complex, the role of the planner is evolving beyond coordination and logistics. The report highlights the emergence of meeting planners as strategic decision architects, responsible for aligning stakeholders, structuring workflows, and helping organizations make better decisions throughout the planning lifecycle. Workshop discussions revealed that many organizational challenges, including delays, inefficiencies, and rework, are often the result of fragmented decision-making rather than execution shortcomings. Participants concluded that better meetings depend on better decision structures, greater alignment, and earlier strategic involvement from planners. AI won't fix healthcare meetings. Better systems will While artificial intelligence (AI) continues to dominate industry conversations, the Florence summit challenged the assumption that technology alone will solve healthcare meeting challenges. According to discussions and data presented during the summit, while AI adoption across the industry is high, relatively few organizations are achieving its full value. Participants agreed that the real challenge is not technology adoption, but the integration of AI into coherent workflows, governance models, and decision-making systems. The report identifies fragmented processes, disconnected workflows, and inconsistent planning structures as some of the industry's most significant barriers to progress. In many organizations, as much as 40–60% of planning activity remains focused on non-value-creating work. To address these challenges, RHG advocates for the adoption of structured methodologies, including Lean Six Sigma, Agile, and Sprint thinking, to redesign healthcare meeting planning around flow, efficiency, and measurable outcomes. Build. Measure. Learn. One of the report's key contributions is the introduction and exploration of the Meeting Flow Efficiency Ratio (MFER), a framework designed to measure the balance between value-creating activity and reactive planning effort. The model demonstrates how organizations can increase productive planning time by improving workflow design, reducing friction, and creating greater alignment across teams and stakeholders. The report also reinforces the need to move beyond one-off event thinking toward a continuous engagement model. This evolution is particularly important given the report's finding that 66% of healthcare professionals change their clinical practice or prescribing behavior following participation in industry-sponsored symposia, highlighting the significant influence healthcare meetings can have on professional decision-making and patient outcomes. An industry ready to evolve A panel featuring senior leaders from Inizio Engage XD, MCI, Emota, and Open Audience reinforced the report's conclusions. Drawing on longitudinal industry data spanning 2018 to 2026, the panel identified a common challenge: not structural failure, but structural inertia. While participation remains strong and investment continues, many traditional meeting formats have failed to evolve alongside changing expectations and technological capabilities. The report concludes that the future of healthcare meetings will belong to organizations that combine methodology, intelligent orchestration, and strategic design to create more impactful, measurable, and scalable engagement. By combining sector expertise, collaborative industry engagement and methodology-driven approaches, Radisson Hotel Group continues to support the advancement of healthcare meeting design and contribute to the ongoing development of the discipline globally.

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Staff Writer

#DigitalForDevelopment: Alexander De Croo on a tech mission to Kenya

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