Youth Sustainable Development Network (YSDN)

The Youth Sustainable Development Network (YSDN) is a pan-African, youth-led organisation driving clean energy access, climate resilience, and sustainable development across the continent. Active in more than 20 countries, YSDN designs and delivers programmes that scale the productive use of renewable energy, advance climate-smart agriculture, and build youth capacity, while forging the policy and private-sector partnerships needed to turn market-driven solutions into lasting impact.

YES! Nigeria news

Energy access

West Africa’s regional electricity market enters its first full trading year in January

The grids are synchronised, all fourteen continental countries are connected and two national utilities have already moved into surplus by buying across a border. What has not been tested is whether a market with no new generation behind it can keep clearing. The West African Power Pool and the ECOWAS Regional Electricity Regulatory Authority now […]

Mining & Minerals

Nigeria mining licences now carry a processing condition that November will test

Abuja has issued licences on the condition that the holder builds domestic processing capacity. Four ministries convene in November alongside investors who will want to know how many of those conditions have been met, and what happens to a licence where they have not. Nigeria issues no mining licence without a plan for a local […]

Mining & Minerals

Zimbabwe lithium concentrate ban takes effect in January with one sulphate plant complete

Harare requires exports of concentrate to stop on 1 January and has made written commitments on plant timelines a condition of trading until then. Two facilities are still under construction. Producers have asked for the date to move, and the answer will decide who is exporting in February.

News

Ghana advances Mission 300 reforms with a $4.4bn energy investment pipeline behind them

Accra has moved on the commitments in its national energy compact, and the African Development Bank now describes a pipeline of that scale gathering behind the reforms. The sequencing matters more than the total, because compact reforms are what convert a pipeline into projects that reach financial close.

Leadership

Future 54 2026 includes six women working around the mines and in cleantech

Director Woman published its 2026 cohort on 12 August, fifty-four founders and executives from Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Botswana and Lesotho. Among them are the State Diamond Trader's chief executive, a steel fabricator in Kuruman, a Mpumalanga workshop owner preparing to supply the mining sector, and three founders turning waste and climate literacy into enterprises.

Finance

Mission 300 partner pledges pass $50bn while committed project finance reaches $15bn

The World Bank and African Development Bank have committed close to $15 billion directly, with $4.5 billion mobilised alongside it. The wider partner total is more than three times that. Officials are careful about the gap, because a pledge and a disbursement are separated by approval, preparation and years.

Sustainable Energy

Africa energy innovation challenge shortlists eleven finalists with six on battery second life

ACEP and Africa Change Lab have picked innovators from Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania and Ghana across two tracks. Their proposals cover recovery of retired lithium cells, swapping hubs inside urban markets, cold storage built on reused modules, and offline carbon finance for smallholders. They pitch in Accra this month.