There are now many more stock markets in Africa than there were forty years ago. Ethiopia is the latest country to join the club after re-starting its stock market this month.

But what role do they play in the economy of our countries, and how exactly do they work? The companies, the shareholders, the risks and the rewards are all explained as we look into whether stock markets are an engine of economic growth on the African continent. Presenter: Mpho Lakaje

Guests: Abena Amoah, the Managing Director of the Ghana Stock Exchange and Japhet Imhanzenobe, financial lecturer at the Pan-Atlantic University in Nigeria.

Life in remote villages without electricity can be challenging: it’s difficult to power phones, to run businesses, work or study at night, and to keep food fresh. Food needs to be cooked using firewood or expensive and polluting generators. Yet that is the reality for 600 million African people living south of the Sahara who make up 83% of the world’s population without access to electricity. This week in Dar Es Salaam, several heads of states will be meeting with private sector leaders and international partners to discuss an ambitious plan called ‘Mission 300’ – aimed at powering up half those people within the next six years. Presenter: Peter Musembi.

Guests: Miriam Hamisi or ‘Mama Shaban’ a food kiosk owner who was recently given access to electricity, and Joseph Nganga from Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet and the special envoy for Mission 300 at the conference.

US President Donald Trump’s return to the Oval Office raises pressing questions about how his policies will impact Africa.

From trade and aid to health programs and climate policies, Trump’s first term saw cuts to foreign aid, shifts in trade priorities and the controversial Prosper Africa initiative.

With his withdrawal from the WHO and the Paris Agreement, there are growing concerns about how these decisions will affect Africa’s health systems and climate change efforts.

Africa Daily's Mpho Lakaje speaks with the BBC’s Samuel Lando in Nairobi and the BBC’s reporter in Abuja, Chris Ewokor to explore the potential ripple effects of Trump’s re-election on the continent.

Minnesota is home to the largest Somali community in the United States, but for many Somali refugees finding stability and employment has been a struggle.

So Mariam Mohamed, a Somali woman living in Minnesota, co-founded Hoyo in 2015. It’s a business that provides empowerment and jobs to refugee women through the shared tradition of making sambusas, a popular Somali delicacy.

This savoury snack has now become a hit in school cafeterias across the state.

In today's episode, Alan Kasujja speaks to Mariam Mohamed and Hoyo co-founder Ghita Worcester about how sambusas have become a source of pride for Somali families and a culinary discovery for Minnesotans.

Today Africa Daily’s Mpho Lakaje sits down with firebrand South African politician Julius Malema, the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF). They discuss a variety of topics ranging from the party’s ideology, its policy on immigration to its stance on nation building. The EFF lost its position as South Africa’s third biggest political party, following the May 2024 election. “There was a phenomenon that arose in South Africa of MK (Umkhonto Wesizwe Party) which we underestimated and never thought would have the impact it did”, Mr. Malema says of his party’s election performance. He also opens up about the recent departures of key EFF leaders, including the party’s co-founder and deputy president Floyd Shivambu.

Robert Katende is a man with a mission to use chess to bring about social change.

In his home country of Uganda he works with thousands of disadvantaged children, those with disabilities, and even prisoners, to use chess as a means to provide useful skills for life. He’s even had his story portrayed in a film made by Disney, the 'Queen of Katwe'.

Alan Kasujja talks to Robert to hear how this ancient game can be a catalyst for changing lives. Guests: Robert Katende and ‘Coach’ Julius

“She was buried in the same place where she was murdered, at the field in the crops.”

Today on the podcast we hear about the life and death of Swedish-Somali journalist Amun Abuhulahi Mohamed, who also worked to advocate for the advancement of women in Somalia.

She was shot multiple times in the head by gunmen as she walked to her sorghum and watermelon farm in a rural part of Somalia, 40 kilometres from Mogadishu.

She’d moved back to Somalia after years of threats and intimidation in Sweden because of her investigation into Al Shabaab’s recruitment of Somali youths in Stockholm in 2009. Presenter: Alan @Kasujja Guests: Abdulaziz Ahmed, Amun’s husband, and Abdalle Mumin, secretary general of the Somali Journalists Syndicate Producer: Layla Mahmood

In Lagos, some tenants are starting the year with a harsh ultimatum; pay double your rent or move out.

With inflation at 34.8% and housing already consuming up to 60% of household income, many are struggling to keep up.

Meanwhile, landlords report 80% of their tenants are defaulting and investors are abandoning the buy-to-let market due to poor returns.

What’s driving this rental crisis and how is it impacting everyday Nigerians? BBC Africa Daily’s Alan Kasujja spoke to BBC journalist Bisi Adebayo who’s been following the story and Deyo, a tenant in Lagos navigating the fallout first hand.

It has become a worrying trend in Kenya. Out of nowhere, hooded men appear in unmarked vehicles wielding guns with the aim of kidnapping someone.

Victims are then blindfolded and taken to places that are not officially recognised police stations to be interrogated.

Foreign nationals have not been spared.

Tanzanian human rights activist Maria Sarungi Tsehai says she was abducted by armed men in Nairobi last Sunday afternoon but released hours later. She’d fled to Kenya in 2020 seeking asylum after facing increasing threats.

And last year, Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye was reportedly kidnapped and taken to Uganda where he is currently facing a military court.

In today’s episode, Alan Kasujja hears from a father whose son was abducted, and speaks to an investigative journalist about what’s behind this spate of kidnappings.

"I have seen presidents come and go, one after the other, but there’s no change. Poverty continues. So, I hope and pray that things change” - Armdando Sthole, Mozambican economic migrant in South Africa Today Mozambique’s president-elect Daniel Chapo will be inaugurated at a ceremony in the country’s capital, Maputo. It comes as the nation has been rocked by violence which has so far claimed the lives of more than 300 people. It all started on the 9th of October 2024, when the citizens of Mozambique voted in a national election. Daniel Chapo, the candidate of the ruling Frelimo, was subsequently declared winner over opposition leader Venâncio Mondlane, who rejected the election results. Since then, thousands of people have crossed the border into countries like Malawi and Eswatini. So, does the unrest in Mozambique threaten to destabilize southern Africa?

Presenter: Mpho Lakaje

Guests: Mozambican journalist Fernando Goncalves, Hilda Katema from Malawi’s Department for Refugees and Mozambican expat Armdando Sthole