By James Sserumaga

Uganda’s bancassurance industry is emerging as one of the strongest drivers of insurance penetration and financial inclusion, demonstrating remarkable growth as more individuals and businesses seek protection against an increasingly complex risk environment.

According to the latest industry performance report, Uganda’s 22 licensed bancassurance providers generated more than UGX 80.8 billion in Gross Written Premiums (GWP) during the first quarter of 2026. Equity Bank Uganda ranked fourth in the market, generating UGX 6.69 billion in premiums and capturing an 8.28 percent market share.

These figures reflect a broader shift in how Ugandans view insurance. Increasingly, insurance is no longer regarded as a product purchased only after a loss occurs. Instead, it is becoming an integral part of financial planning, helping individuals, families and businesses safeguard their future while recovering more quickly from unexpected setbacks.

Whether the risk arises from a medical emergency, an accident, business interruption, property damage, theft or cyber threats, insurance provides the financial resilience needed to preserve livelihoods, protect investments and sustain growth.

One of the key factors driving this transformation has been the rapid growth of bancassurance — the distribution of insurance products through banks. By bringing insurance closer to customers through institutions they already trust, bancassurance is helping overcome many of the barriers that have historically constrained insurance uptake, including limited access, low awareness and perceptions that insurance is complicated or only relevant to high-income earners.

The industry’s first-quarter performance illustrates this growing importance. Of the UGX 80.81 billion generated through bancassurance, UGX 62.89 billion, representing 78 percent, came from life insurance products, while UGX 17.92 billion, or 22 percent, was generated from general insurance. The trend suggests that both households and businesses are increasingly prioritising financial protection as part of their long-term planning.

For Equity Bank Uganda, bancassurance is more than an additional banking service. It is a strategic component of our broader mission to promote financial inclusion by helping customers not only build wealth but also protect it.

At Equity Bank Uganda, we believe that protecting what matters is just as important as creating wealth. Insurance enables customers to manage risk, absorb shocks and recover from unexpected events without losing years of financial progress.

Our own first-quarter performance reflects this growing demand. Of the UGX 6.69 billion generated in premiums, UGX 4.94 billion, representing 74 percent, came from life insurance products, while UGX 1.75 billion originated from general insurance solutions. This growing demand demonstrates that customers increasingly recognise the value of protecting income, assets, businesses and family wellbeing.

Over the past four years, Equity Bank Uganda has expanded access to insurance through its branch network, relationship managers, digital banking channels and the growing Equi-Duuka agency banking network. This integrated model allows customers to access insurance alongside savings, lending, payments and investment services, creating a more holistic approach to financial wellbeing.

Equally important has been the role of customer education. Insurance remains one of the least understood financial products across many developing markets. Yet as financial literacy improves, more customers are beginning to appreciate that insurance is not merely an expense but an investment in stability and resilience.

Today, customers require protection across a broad range of needs. Entrepreneurs seek cover for business assets and operations. Contractors require protection against project-related risks. Schools want safeguards for learners and staff. Families increasingly prioritise medical and life insurance to protect household finances.

To meet these evolving needs, Equity Bancassurance offers a wide range of solutions, including medical, life, personal accident, motor, property, burglary, fidelity guarantee, machinery breakdown, professional indemnity, contractors’ all-risk, public liability and specialised business risk protection products.

Demand is also growing among corporate clients. As Uganda’s economy becomes more sophisticated and interconnected, businesses are increasingly seeking comprehensive risk management solutions covering areas such as professional liability, cyber security, property protection, business interruption and employee medical benefits. These products are becoming essential tools for strengthening governance, protecting investments and enhancing organisational resilience.

Importantly, the role of banks in insurance distribution extends beyond policy sales. Financial institutions have a responsibility to help customers understand risk and make informed decisions about protecting their financial future. The objective is not simply to increase insurance uptake, but to improve financial security and economic resilience across households, enterprises and communities.

Looking ahead, technology is expected to accelerate the next phase of growth. Digital banking platforms, customer analytics and integrated financial ecosystems are making it easier to provide personalised insurance solutions that align with customers’ life stages, financial goals and risk profiles. Insurance is increasingly becoming a seamless component of the overall banking relationship rather than a standalone purchase.

The broader implication is significant. Bancassurance has the potential to play a central role in expanding insurance penetration across Uganda by leveraging trusted banking relationships to reach millions of customers who may otherwise remain underserved.

Financial wellbeing should not be measured solely by the ability to accumulate wealth. It should also be measured by the ability to protect it.

As Uganda’s bancassurance industry continues to mature, the opportunity before us is clear: to make financial protection more accessible, more affordable and more relevant to the needs of ordinary Ugandans. By doing so, we can help individuals, families and businesses build greater resilience, pursue opportunities with confidence and contribute to a more secure and inclusive economy.

 James Sserumaga is the Head of Bancassurance, Equity Bank Uganda

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Twenty years after the passing of former Principal Judge and Supreme Court Justice Arthur Haggai Okello Oder, family members, judicial officers and Uganda’s legal fraternity gathered to honour a man whose life remains synonymous with integrity, fairness and unwavering commitment to the rule of law.

The memorial service, held at All Saints’ Cathedral, Nakasero, on Sunday, June 28, was more than an occasion to remember a distinguished judge. It became a reflection on the values that sustain strong institutions and a reminder that the Judiciary’s greatest inheritance is the character of those who serve it.

In a tribute released to mark the anniversary, Justice Oder’s family described him as a jurist whose influence extended well beyond the courtroom.

“A distinguished Judge of the Supreme Court of Uganda, Justice Oder dedicated his life to the pursuit of justice, integrity and service to humanity,” the family said.

They remembered him not only as a respected judge, but also as a devoted husband, father, grandfather, mentor and friend whose compassion reached far beyond his immediate family.

“Though twenty years have passed since his departure, our father’s values remain firmly rooted in our hearts. The life lessons he imparted, his passion for uplifting others and his witty sense of humour are qualities we frequently draw from,” the family noted.

They added that his legacy of integrity, humility, service and commitment to doing what was right continues to inspire generations.

That message resonated throughout the memorial service.

Paying tribute, retired Justice Okumu Wengi Richard urged Ugandans to remember not only Justice Oder but also the generation of judicial pioneers who helped build the country’s legal institutions.

“As we remember Justice Arthur Haggai Okello Oder, we also remember other great justices, including Harold Platt, George W. Kanyeihamba and others who served this nation with distinction,” he said.

Justice Okumu also paid tribute to former Chief Justices Benjamin Odoki and Alfonse Owiny-Dollo, congratulating them for their service to the Judiciary and wishing them continued good health.

Justice Benjamin Odoki

His remarks reflected a broader concern that Uganda’s judicial history should be preserved alongside ongoing efforts to modernise the administration of justice.

Justice Oder occupies a unique place in that history.

Before serving on the Supreme Court, he chaired the Commission of Inquiry into Violations of Human Rights, which investigated abuses committed between 1962 and 1986. The commission’s work became a significant milestone in Uganda’s post-conflict efforts to strengthen constitutional governance, accountability and respect for human rights.

He later served as Principal Judge before joining the Supreme Court, where he participated in several landmark constitutional and presidential election petitions that helped shape Uganda’s jurisprudence. Throughout his judicial career, he earned a reputation for independence, intellectual rigour and principled decision-making.

Justice Oder died in June 2006 while still serving on the Supreme Court, bringing to an end a distinguished legal career that left a lasting imprint on Uganda’s justice system.

Yet messaging at the memorial suggested that his greatest legacy lies not only in the judgments he wrote, but in the example he set.

At a time when institutions around the world are increasingly judged by public trust, Justice Oder’s life was presented as evidence that the strength of a judiciary ultimately depends on the integrity, humility and courage of the individuals entrusted with dispensing justice.

As Uganda continues to reform its legal system and expand access to justice, the memorial served as a reminder that progress is measured not only by new laws or modern court infrastructure, but also by preserving the values of those who laid the foundations of the country’s constitutional order.

Twenty years after his passing, Justice Arthur Haggai Okello Oder’s legacy remains woven into the fabric of Uganda’s Judiciary—a testament to a life in which justice was not simply a profession, but a public trust faithfully upheld.

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The death of Alan Greenspan at 100 closes one of the most consequential chapters in modern monetary history—an era in which US interest rate decisions increasingly functioned as a global pricing mechanism for capital, risk, and debt. While his policy remit was domestic, the effects of his framework extended deep into emerging economies, including Africa, where external financing conditions, commodity cycles, and sovereign balance sheets were repeatedly reshaped by liquidity waves originating in Washington.

Africa inside the Greenspan cycle, outside the decision room

Greenspan did not design policy for Africa, nor did African economies feature explicitly in his mandate. Yet over nearly two decades at the Federal Reserve, his approach to monetary stabilisation became embedded in global financial architecture in ways that made African economies highly sensitive to US cycles.

Low-interest rate regimes in the United States encouraged global portfolio expansion into higher-yielding emerging and frontier markets. African sovereigns and corporates increasingly tapped international capital markets through bonds and syndicated lending, often during periods of abundant global liquidity. These inflows supported infrastructure expansion and fiscal space in the short term.

The reverse cycle was more constraining. When the Federal Reserve tightened monetary policy, dollar strength increased and global liquidity contracted. For African economies with dollar-denominated obligations, debt servicing costs rose sharply, while refinancing conditions tightened. The result was a structural asymmetry: expansion phases offered access, but contraction phases amplified stress.

Commodity markets reinforced this mechanism. Oil, metals, and agricultural prices—key revenue sources for many African states—became increasingly sensitive to global liquidity conditions. Loose monetary cycles tended to support higher commodity prices and capital inflows; tightening cycles often produced simultaneous fiscal and external pressure.

In this framework, Africa became structurally embedded in what economists later described as the “Greenspan cycle”: not as a policy participant, but as a liquidity recipient shaped by external monetary impulses.

From $45-a-week economist to Washington’s most powerful technocrat

Before becoming the face of global monetary authority, Greenspan’s career developed within the technical and institutional core of American economic policymaking.

He worked at Brown Brothers Harriman and the National Industrial Conference Board before spending three decades at the Townsend-Greenspan consulting firm, which specialised in macroeconomic forecasting and policy analysis. His career trajectory briefly shifted into public service when he served as chairman of President Gerald Ford’s Council of Economic Advisers from 1974 to 1977.

He later chaired the National Commission on Social Security Reform from 1981 to 1983, a politically sensitive assignment that reinforced his reputation for technocratic problem-solving.

By the time he received his doctorate in economics in 1977, Greenspan had already moved through the intersection of government policy and private financial intelligence. His early reported earnings—around USD 45 a week—stood in stark contrast to the scale of influence he would later command as central banker.

Greenspan’s appointment as chairman of the Federal Reserve in August 1987 came only weeks before one of the most dramatic financial events of the late 20th century: Black Monday.

On October 19, 1987, global equity markets collapsed, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 22.6pc in a single session. The scale and speed of the crash tested the credibility of modern financial systems and the capacity of central banks to respond in real time.

Greenspan’s response was immediate and unambiguous. The Federal Reserve signalled that it would act as a source of liquidity to stabilise the financial system. This shift marked a turning point in central banking practice. Liquidity provision became a first-line defence against market collapse.

Equity markets recovered a significant portion of losses within days. But more importantly, the episode established a behavioural expectation that would persist for decades—monetary authorities would intervene to prevent systemic breakdowns in financial markets.

This expectation later became known as the “Greenspan put” – the implicit assumption that central banks would cushion severe downside risk in asset markets.

The “Maestro” era and the doctrine of liquidity

 Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange after the closing bell September 29, 2008 in New York City. U.S. stocks took a nosedive in reaction to the global credit crisis and as the U.S. House of Representatives rejected the $700 billion rescue package, 228-205. The Dow Jones Industrials recorded it’s biggest closing drop in history, as it fell 777 points in trading. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Over the next 18 years, Greenspan presided over a sequence of global financial shocks that progressively expanded the scope of central bank intervention.

These included the early 1990s US recession, the Asian financial crisis of 1997, the Russian default and Long-Term Capital Management collapse in 1998, the dot-com boom and bust, and the economic aftermath of the September 11 attacks.

This period coincided with what policymakers later described as the “Great Moderation”—a phase of relatively low inflation and reduced macroeconomic volatility in advanced economies. However, beneath this surface stability, financial markets grew in importance as the primary transmission channel of economic activity.

Monetary policy increasingly responded to asset price movements, credit conditions, and systemic risk indicators rather than inflation alone. Interest rate adjustments became more frequent and more sensitive to financial market sentiment.

In 1996, Greenspan’s warning about “irrational exuberance” briefly unsettled global markets. Yet the equity boom continued, reinforcing his reputation as a central banker whose signals could move trillions in valuation without necessarily altering underlying momentum.

Credit, housing, and the limits of low rates

Greenspan’s policy philosophy emphasised inflation control, market flexibility, and limited regulatory interference in credit allocation. Supporters credit this approach with contributing to sustained US growth and relatively stable inflation over nearly two decades.

Critics, however, argue that prolonged periods of low interest rates and aggressive liquidity support encouraged excessive risk-taking in credit markets—particularly in housing finance.

The expansion of mortgage lending, including subprime segments, became a focal point of post-crisis analysis. Greenspan later acknowledged that while he was aware of evolving risk structures in lending markets, he underestimated their systemic interconnections.

He defended the policy stance on the grounds that lower rates supported broader homeownership and financial inclusion, while regulatory frameworks—not monetary policy alone—were responsible for credit quality oversight.

The collapse of the US housing market after his tenure ended intensified a long-running debate in macroeconomics: whether monetary accommodation stabilises economic cycles or merely delays the accumulation of financial imbalances.

A demonstrator from the Occupy Wall Street campaign holds aloft a sign as the march enters a courtyard near the New York Police Department headquarters in New York September 30, 2011. Protesters who have camped out near Wall Street for two weeks gathered on Friday to march to police headquarters over what they viewed as excessive force and unfair treatment of minorities and Muslims.The Occupy Wall Street movement, whose members have vowed to stay through the winter, are protesting issues including the 2008 bank bailouts, foreclosures and high unemployment. More than 500 people were gathered ahead of the start of the planned late afternoon march to One Police Plaza, the center of police operations, in downtown Manhattan. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson (UNITED STATES – Tags: BUSINESS CIVIL UNREST)

Intellectual legacy and the question of control

After leaving the Federal Reserve in 2006, Greenspan remained an influential commentator on global financial systems. He consistently defended central bank independence and criticised fiscal policy decisions across successive US administrations.

In his later reflections, however, he acknowledged a fundamental limitation of monetary authority: that financial crises are ultimately driven by behavioural cycles that lie outside precise policy control.

“Fear and euphoria are dominant forces,” he observed in post-Fed commentary. “Contagion is the critical phenomenon which causes the thing to fall apart.”

This view reflected a shift in interpretation of his own legacy—from confidence in policy steering mechanisms to recognition of systemic complexity and feedback loops in global finance.

The final assessment

Greenspan’s legacy occupies an uneasy position between stabilisation and amplification. He expanded the role of central banking into real-time market support, helping prevent systemic collapse in multiple crises. At the same time, his framework reinforced expectations of intervention that may have increased leverage, risk-taking, and financial fragility over time.

For Africa, his impact is best understood not as direct policy influence but as structural exposure. Through global liquidity cycles, interest rate transmission, and dollar strength dynamics, African economies became deeply embedded in a system shaped by Federal Reserve reactions to US domestic conditions.

Debt costs, capital inflows, commodity cycles, and refinancing risks all became partially dependent on decisions made in Washington.

In that sense, Greenspan was not merely a US central banker. He was a key architect of a global monetary environment in which liquidity became the dominant pricing signal—and in which Africa, though absent from the decision-making table, remained fully inside the system’s consequences.

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By Asiya Muhammed

Uganda’s industrialisation story is compelling. Starting from Kampala Industrial to Business Park at Namanve, Jinja, Mbale, Mbarara, etc, factories are producing products ranging from medicine, steel, textiles, and food products at a scale that was difficult to imagine 20 years ago. As of the 2023/24 financial year, over 625 companies had been allocated land within Uganda Investment Authority’s industrial parks, with nearly 300 fully operational and more than 122,000 jobs created.

On this World Environment Day, with the UN’s #NowForClimate campaign urging every sector to send a signal back to an Earth already in crisis, Uganda’s industrial community faces a question its growth narrative often sidesteps: where is all the industrial waste going? Every factory that opens creates a waste stream. Every litre of effluent, every drum of solvents, every tonne of manufacturing residue must go somewhere. The question is whether it is going somewhere responsible or whether the cost of Uganda’s industrial ambition is being quietly transferred to its rivers, wetlands, and the communities living closest to its parks.

Namanve is instructive precisely because it is Uganda’s flagship zone. Studies indicate that industries in the park discharged effluents into the Namanve stream without adequate treatment, with contamination indicators flowing downstream toward the inner Murchison Bay of Lake Victoria a critical fishery and drinking water source for millions. The structural problem is familiar: waste management at the park has been largely individualised, each factory handling its own disposal, leading to inconsistency and predictable failures.

Uganda has a credible legal framework. The National Environment Act No. 5 of 2019 and the National Environment (Waste Management) Regulations S.I. No. 49 of 2020 place clear obligations on waste generators, with NEMA as the principal enforcement authority. The recent court conviction of PRO Industries for polluting the Ngaju wetland shows enforcement is possible. The challenge is scaling it commensurate with industrial expansion which requires funding, personnel, and political will to act against economically significant actors.

The Hidden Cost That Business Must Price In

Irresponsible industrial waste management is not simply an environmental failure it is a deferred cost that will eventually be paid, by someone. When effluents flows to Lake Victoria the fishing communities bear the immediate loss. When wetlands near industrial parks are degraded, the flood buffering and water filtration they provide disappear, raising costs for the broader urban economy. Workers in informal waste chain process industrial by-products without protection, they at a higher health risk. The regulatory frameworks for these waste streams are still catching up.

Uganda is moving forward with industrial and infrastructure expansion. The recently announced UGX 1.4 trillion (approximately $400 million) waste-to-power project at Namanve Industrial Park and is expected to process upto1,500 tonnes of waste daily and generate 45 megawatts for the national grid, once operational. It deserves both support and scrutiny: support because it demonstrates that waste management and economic value creation can be the same investment; scrutiny because waste-to-energy through incineration is only as clean as its emission standards, flue gas treatment, and ash management. The business community and civil society should insist on transparent, independently verified environmental monitoring as a non-negotiable condition of the project’s social licence.

For Uganda’s industrial parks, responsibility starts with infrastructure designed before investors arrive, not retrofitted after problems emerge. Each park needs a centralised effluent treatment facility with mandatory participation, independently monitored and publicly disclosed. Hazardous waste streams require digital chain-of-custody from generator to NEMA-licensed facility. At the firm level, waste audits type, volume, disposal route, compliance status should be standard practice and disclosed to investors. ESG expectations from international capital markets are moving in this direction regardless; Ugandan industry would be prudent to get ahead of it rather than be caught short.

Growth That Lasts

Uganda’s industrial ambition is legitimate. The jobs at Namanve and beyond are real improvements in real lives. The argument here is not against industrialisation it is for industrialisation built to last. Growth that contributes to contamination risk in Lake Victoria’s inflows, degrades Kampala’s flood-buffering wetlands, and externalises its costs onto fishing communities is not sustainable growth. It is growth that borrows from the future.

This World Environment Day, the #NowForClimate signal Uganda’s industrial sector has the opportunity to send is clear: that economic growth and environmental responsibility are not a trade-off, but a standard to be met simultaneously. Industrial growth without matched waste management infrastructure is not a development model. It is a debt ledger with the environment as the borrower and future generations as the guarantor.

About the Author

Asiya Muhammed Kochuveettil is associated with Mc Clelland Engineers Pvt Ltd. With a background in research and a commitment to sustainable industrial practices, she brings a cross-functional perspective to compliance, environmental safety, and operational infrastructure. She is also a Member of the Royal Society of Biology (UK).

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After another year of fast-paced innovation, media managers, experts and academics posed a few tough questions at this year’s Nordic AI in Media Summit (NAMS), hosted at the JP/Politikens former printing press. Both the ink-stained walls and the lyrics of Video Killed the Radio Star served as reminders that the news industry has survived previous rounds of technological changes. But Canadian AI expert Nikita Roy warned the audiences that survival is not a given: “Awareness is not immunity.”

The fourth edition of the summit, hosted in Copenhagen by the Nordic AI Journalism Network, shifted the focus from tools and experiments to some of the more fundamental issues AI is surfacing for the news industry. What will the news economy look like? What (and who) will be automated? What will journalism mean in the age of AI? Speakers and attendees agreed the jury is out for all of these questions. Or at least, no one has definitive answers for them yet.

NAMS is led by Olle Zachrison, head of news AI for BBC News, Kasper Lindskow and Sara Inkeri Vardar from JP/Politikens Media Group, and Agnes Stenbom Swedling from Schibsted, who until recently was a visiting fellow at the Reuters Institute.

The summit included keynote lectures by experts such as Ezra Eeman from NPO, Nikita Roy from Newsroom Robots and our senior research associate Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, now at the University of Copenhagen. There were also presentations of AI projects and tools from many organisations, and breakout sessions targeting specific issues, with most of the latter held under Chatham House rules.

If you couldn’t be in Copenhagen this week, here are five key takeaways from the summit, ranging from broad questions on how AI will change the future of journalism to more practical takeaways from newsrooms navigating these changes. You will soon be able to catch up with the conference programme in full here.

1. It’s time for a radical reimagining of the news economy

The impact of AI will bring a fundamental restructuring of both the supply and demand side of the news economy, said Shuwei Fang, a Shorenstein Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. As she explained in this powerful essay we published in March, she predicts four paradigm shifts: scarcity to abundance, a human audience to a machine audience, attention to intention, and artefacts to liquid content.

She believes these shifts will result in significant changes for the news ecosystem. For example, news production could shift from a “stock model,” where a news product is first produced and subsequently consumed by users, to a “flow model” where content is crafted at the moment of consumption specifically for a particular user.

Another shift could be news going from a B2C product to B2A2C (business to agent to consumer). Here, the “A” layer includes multiple agents with different needs in their own right, depending on their purpose.

The ecosystem emerging can produce answers to extremely niche, detailed questions addressing individuals’ needs, Fang said. While this presents opportunities, the distance that AI creates between audiences and news organisations could alienate publishers from important information about what audiences need from them.

Fang also predicted that the market for news could start to bifurcate between luxury and commodity, with extremes at either end and a hollowed-out middle. The luxury end would be defined by intangible qualities like brand identity and trust, with offerings like member communities and shared live experiences. The commodity end will be defined by infrastructure and integration.

There would be AI and human presence across both ends of the spectrum. The middle, where most news organisations sit today, would be dangerous ground, Fang said.

Despite the risks inherent to the scenarios she painted, Fang is not a pessimist. “The market for knowledge could get much bigger,” she said, with possible expansion both on the supply and demand side. Opportunities include lower production costs and the possibility to use AI to reach underserved audiences.

However, the value brought by AI may not be evenly distributed, and power could concentrate in a handful of players. For news organisations thinking about how to position themselves for the future, Fang heeded a warning: “Be suspicious of solutions that require the least amount of change.”

2. It’s also time to rethink what journalism is

If the news industry is to reorient itself in light of AI, it will need to redefine itself. “People don’t want news, as in facts, but they might want sensemaking,” said Florent Daudens, CEO and co-founder of Mizal AI, a startup offering production agents for media companies. This is why Substack is growing even as other forms of media struggle, he said.

Facts might not be a great bet in a news ecosystem increasingly mediated by AI either, Daudens said, as tech companies could get them by striking a deal with a single newswire.

This thought was echoed by Fang: there’s so much free information online such as research and press releases that AI companies could draw from, and that, for some, may be indistinguishable from journalism by news organisations.

Nikita Roy suggested we are at a turning point that, if missed, could spell disaster for the news industry. “We are in our Nokia and Kodak moment, where we are looking at a new product but thinking with the metrics of an old product,” she warned. Instead of worrying about how to recover lost web traffic and otherwise defend the status quo, we need to leave behind old assumptions.

AI is disrupting something more fundamental, Roy said: how information moves, how value is captured, what it means to be a media company.

This is a bigger shift than the one from print to digital, as then the role of the publisher remained largely the same. To Roy, publishers may be approaching this from a loss perspective, feeling their losses but not considering what they could gain.

Echoing Fang, she also asked those present to consider the people they could reach that it had not been possible to serve before. “We mistake the container for journalism,” she said, referring to an article, a podcast episode or a newsletter issue. And then she asked a fundamental question: “If you knew nothing about websites, but you knew people still needed verified information to navigate their lives, what would you build?”

A slide from Nikita Roy’s presentation. Image courtesy of NAMS.

3. Agents might be the future

Agents took centre stage at this year’s summit. In a future when many people navigate the web with their own personal agent, as David Caswell outlined in an essay we published last year, publishers’ relationships with audiences would be mediated through this middle layer.

Florent Daudens described how agents would surf the web on behalf of the humans they serve, visiting websites, extracting and repackaging information according to their person’s wants and needs. They may even be authorised to pay for news, in a sort of micropayment system as suggested by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in a recent conversation with the Atlantic CEO Nicholas Thompson.

For news publishers, this would mean learning how to embed instructions for agents on their websites, instructing them on how to use their content, and working out how to serve information to agents in a way that would preserve the organisation’s tone and identity.

Key to this is keeping your data in order, which isn’t something many news organisations have prioritised until now. “Very few news organisations structure their data properly, and that’s a huge problem,” said consultant Madhav Chinnappa, until recently a visiting fellow at the Reuters Institute.

Roy described how this kind of future might work. In this new world, “you no longer need to be found, you need to be worth monitoring,” she said. Publishers would find themselves creating for two audiences: humans and agents. The latter wouldn’t only be the personal agents Daudens suggested, but also platform agents, newsroom agents, and even adversarial agents.

“By the time agents are reliable enough, it will be too late. We can’t wait and see. We need to experiment now, as much as we can,” Roy warned.

This might still seem far-fetched to some, but agents have already improved substantially over the last year, with the biggest impact on coding.

Agents also began playing a role in newsroom AI tools. Norwegian local media network Polaris Media Vest uses agentic as well as vibe coding for a range of journalistic tools and widgets, some of which non-coding reporters built, said Kaja Distad, head of editorial development.

In Schibsted, video experts taught an agent to work like them to develop a tool now used to convert any content from its subsidiary VG into a social-ready video. Football World Cup-focused chatbots developed by Swedish tabloid rivals Aftonbladet and Expressen both use agentic workflows. Danish publisher Bonnier’s new internal tool Flows allows journalists to set up their own agentic systems, combining research, extraction and planning, decision and writing. This tool is used, for example, to monitor, summarise and notify them of a story they may want to cover. In some ways, agents are already here.

4. Large legacy newsrooms send out nimble explorers

Characterised both as speedboats sailing ahead of a large ship and as light drones compared to heavy tanks, legacy newsrooms shared how they are using relatively small and fast-moving AI experiments to test out new ideas while protecting their core brand.

The military analogy was shared by Amalie Kestler, editor-in-chief of Politiken, the Danish newspaper in whose former printing press the meeting was held. Newsrooms can be run like tanks, heavy and slow with a centralised hierarchy, she explained. Or they can be run like drones, light and quick. The tank model has its place, but in some cases newsrooms should opt for the drone approach.

For Politiken, AI experimentation has expanded beyond data journalism and its multiuse tool Magna into the quick-paced vibe coding, leading to interactive widgets to encourage audiences to engage with news stories.

An eye-catching example was the “death machine”, which asks users to input information about their lifestyle and uses statistics to predict when they will die. At the same time, Politiken is also highlighting the human aspects to its journalism with video podcasts and live debates.

Gard Steiro, editor-in-chief and CEO of Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang (VG), built upon past NAMS presentations to make the case for moving on from experimentation to scaling. For him, this also means doubling down on the human touch that AI cannot replace in journalism. “There are people out there who need to be met at eye level and tell their stories, and rest assured that Sam Altman doesn’t give a damn about them,” he said.

Steiro also sees a great need for change to make the most of the opportunities afforded by AI. “If we don’t make an effort to change, the untapped potential will be so great that any startup will overtake us,” he said.

Legacy newsrooms are slow like large ships, so VG is sending out speedboats to test the waters. These include VG X, a new app-based news service that replaces articles with summarised information updated around the clock and managed almost entirely by AI, using a clustering algorithm to group together VG articles and videos into stories. As there is no CMS, editors can request changes directly in the product, akin to talking to it.

Another of these speedboats is VG Lab, an internal tool to quickly test ideas and get an assessment of whether VG could execute it, whether there’s a market for it, how much it would cost, and what similar offerings exist around the world. This is led by two people and a team of agents, and led to the creation of Norway’s fastest growing app last autumn, Steiro said.

Gard Steiro’s presentation. Image courtesy of NAMS.

5. What do audiences want?

An underlying motif pervaded the summit: the idea that AI could be used by publishers to get a better idea of what their audiences want and need through a new ability to ask direct questions.

Daudens mentioned this as an advantage of personal agents: by looking at what agents are seeking out from websites, publishers may figure out areas that require further reporting. Also by analysing how audiences use AI chatbots and the kinds of questions they ask, news organisations can know what kinds of stories they want more of.

In a panel discussion moderated by our researcher Felix Simon, the conversation turned to the importance of building relationships with the audience. “We can create as much journalism as we want, but if people don’t want to be sources, or don’t want to read us, there’s no point,” said Stine Thorsgaard Kjær, head of innovation and development at TV2 Østjylland.

There is a potential problem for journalists who use AI. In a closing keynote, Rasmus Kleis Nielsen asked a key question posed by the Reuters Institute’s survey data: audiences tend to be sceptical of AI in journalism.

It could be that journalists who want to use AI and be explicit about their use aren’t making a good case for this to the public, he suggested. If we want to both use AI and foster trust, there are many factors that contribute to trust that have very little if anything to do with technology. As our Trust in News Project found, it’s about brand, presentation, language, bias, factual accuracy.

“It remains really important that you, as a professional community of practice, continue to judge your own work by your own standards” when it comes to AI use, Nielsen said. But that’s only one leg of value and trust, and probably not the most important one. The second, he added, is a public test: the need to convince members of the public, “what is in it for us?”

Marina Adami writes articles on the future of journalism worldwide and occasionally works with the Reuters Institute’s research team. 

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Dr. Kiyonga has dedicated many years to public service with commitment, integrity, and professionalism. His vast experience in leadership, public administration, and governance makes him exceptionally qualified for this responsibility, and I am confident that he will continue to serve our country with distinction.

I also wish to express my appreciation to His Excellency President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni for this thoughtful appointment. The decision reflects wisdom and confidence in a leader whose record of service, patriotism, and dedication to national development speaks for itself.

As Dr. Kiyonga assumes his new duties, I wish him every success and God’s guidance in the execution of his responsibilities for the benefit of Uganda and its people.

Justice (rtd) Richard Okumu-Wengi

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For decades, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) across Africa has largely revolved around donations, charity drives, and short-term community interventions. While these initiatives remain important, they rarely create long-term systemic transformation. Increasingly, the future of impactful corporate responsibility lies in sustainable investments that develop people, strengthen institutions, and shape future economies.

This is why the Equity Leaders Program (ELP), an initiative under Equity Group Foundation, stands out as one of the most compelling models of modern CSR on the continent. At its core, the Equity Leaders Program is not simply a scholarship initiative. It is a deliberate investment in human capital, leadership development, and socio-economic transformation.

By identifying academically exceptional students from across Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the program is intentionally building a pipeline of future African leaders equipped with the skills, exposure, and networks required to compete globally while transforming their communities locally.

In Uganda alone, Equity Bank recently commissioned 100 scholars into the fifth cohort of the program, bringing the total number of scholars supported to 512 since the initiative launched in the country in 2022. At the same event, the bank celebrated the graduation of 81 scholars from the maiden cohort who completed studies in disciplines ranging from Engineering and Statistics to Law and Technology.

What makes ELP fundamentally different from traditional CSR models is its long-term, ecosystem-driven approach. Instead of offering temporary support, the initiative provides scholars with mentorship, leadership development, paid internships, career coaching, networking opportunities, and university counselling support that extends throughout their academic journey.

The internship component alone is a powerful example of shared value creation. Scholars undergo a 3–6 month paid internship within Equity Bank branches and departments, gaining practical workplace exposure, professional discipline, and hands-on experience early in their careers. This simultaneously allows the institution to identify, nurture, and build relationships with highly talented young professionals who may later contribute to the workforce and broader economy.

For businesses, this is where CSR becomes strategic rather than symbolic. Companies investing in youth empowerment are not merely supporting communities; they are investing in future talent, future innovators, future consumers, and future leaders.

The program’s results are already measurable. Across the region, ELP scholars have secured admissions to some of the world’s most prestigious institutions, including Harvard University, New York University, University of Waterloo, University of Delhi, Moscow Aviation Institute, universities in China, and Frankfurt University, all through fully funded scholarships and global university pathways facilitated under the program.

This global exposure matters immensely for Africa’s future. Many scholars return with international networks, technical expertise, leadership capabilities, and a broader worldview that directly contributes to local industries and institutions. In effect, the program is strengthening Africa’s future leadership and innovation ecosystem.

Importantly, the Equity Leaders Program also demonstrates the power of inclusive CSR. Scholars are selected from districts across Uganda and the wider region, ensuring that opportunities extend beyond traditional urban centres and elite schools. This creates social mobility, bridges opportunity gaps, and gives talented young people from underserved communities access to life-changing opportunities.

Modern stakeholders increasingly expect companies to demonstrate authentic and measurable social impact. Consumers, employees, investors, and regulators are no longer impressed by visibility-driven CSR campaigns with little long-term value. Programs like ELP resonate because their outcomes are tangible, transformational, and deeply human.

As Equity Bank Uganda Managing Director Gift Shoko recently noted during the commissioning ceremony, the program is “not only supporting academic excellence but also nurturing leaders who will drive innovation, integrity, and sustainable growth for Uganda.” That statement captures the broader significance of the initiative: this is not charity; it is nation-building.

The program’s success also highlights a broader lesson for corporate Africa: meaningful CSR requires ecosystem thinking. Financial support alone is not enough. Young people require mentorship, coaching, workplace exposure, leadership development, emotional intelligence, and access to professional networks if they are to successfully transition into leadership and economic participation.

Africa possesses one of the youngest populations in the world. This demographic reality presents either one of the continent’s greatest risks or its greatest opportunity, depending on how institutions respond. Companies that intentionally invest in education, leadership, innovation, and employability will play a defining role in shaping Africa’s future competitiveness.

The Equity Leaders Program proves that corporate responsibility can move beyond philanthropy and become a strategic driver of sustainable development, economic inclusion, and leadership transformation. If more corporate organizations adopted this approach, CSR would no longer be viewed as a compliance obligation or public relations exercise. It would become what it was always meant to be: a long-term investment in shared prosperity, institutional growth, and the future of society itself.

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Every year on May 22, the world commemorates the United Nations International Day for Biological Diversity, a moment dedicated to raising awareness about the accelerating loss of species and ecosystems across the planet.

The day serves as a global call to action, reminding humanity that protecting biodiversity is not simply an environmental concern, but a necessity for food security, clean water, public health, and climate stability.

This year’s theme, “Acting locally for global impact,” underscores a powerful reality: ambitious global conservation frameworks such as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework will only succeed if they are implemented at the grassroots level. Lasting environmental change is not forged in conference halls alone; it is achieved in communities where people actively restore and protect the ecosystems around them.

For the last 27 years, the Environmental Conservation Trust of Uganda (ECOTRUST) has embodied this principle. By channeling international climate finance directly to Ugandan smallholder farmers, the organization has demonstrated that empowering local communities remains one of the most effective pathways to protecting biodiversity while improving livelihoods.

At the heart of this effort is ECOTRUST’s Trees for Global Benefits (TGB) program, which operationalizes the core message of this year’s biodiversity theme. By aggregating thousands of small-scale restoration efforts undertaken by individual households, the program transforms localized action into measurable landscape-level impact.

Through its performance-based payment model, conservation financing has been decentralized, enabling rural families to directly benefit from restoring degraded ecosystems while strengthening household incomes.

To date, more than 51,000 households across 26 districts in Uganda have benefited from the initiative. By integrating indigenous trees into family farming systems, participating farmers have restored over 34,000 hectares of land, creating a growing woodland network projected to sequester approximately 7.518 million tonnes of atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Yet biodiversity protection cannot be sustained without socioeconomic resilience. Communities struggling with poverty, food insecurity, and water scarcity are unlikely to prioritize conservation unless environmental protection is directly linked to economic opportunity.

Recognizing this reality, ECOTRUST supports communities to establish sustainable enterprises such as beekeeping and shea nut production, allowing households to generate reliable incomes while conserving fragile ecosystems.

These interventions provide tangible evidence of how local action delivers global environmental outcomes.

In the Murchison-Semliki landscape, for example, ECOTRUST works with private landowners to restore fragmented forest corridors, reconnecting isolated habitats and securing migratory pathways for endangered chimpanzees while reducing human-wildlife conflict along agricultural frontiers.

Further north, the organization’s newly launched Transformative Approach to Sustainable Landscapes and Livelihoods (TASLL) project is extending this community-centered conservation model into the climate-vulnerable Agoro-Agu region.

Supported by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the initiative seeks to conserve 65,000 hectares of natural forest through the planting of six million mixed native trees. Importantly, the project integrates marginalized groups within the Palabek Refugee Settlement, ensuring that biodiversity conservation also advances social inclusion and community resilience.

To sustain and scale these efforts, ECOTRUST is also helping reshape environmental markets beyond traditional carbon financing.

During this year’s Uganda Water and Environment Week, the organization unveiled its Nature Credit Solutions framework, an innovative model designed to reward communities for safeguarding watersheds, restoring ecosystems, and developing nature-positive enterprises such as sustainable wild beekeeping.

ECOTRUST’s 27-year journey offers an important lesson for governments, financiers, conservation actors, and development partners alike: when local communities are trusted, empowered, and economically included in environmental stewardship, the benefits extend far beyond national borders.

Ultimately, global biodiversity restoration will not be achieved through policy declarations alone. It will be secured through millions of localized actions led by communities whose daily lives remain deeply connected to the health of nature itself.

Dr. Diana Nalwanga is the Head of Biodiversity at the Environmental Conservation Trust of Uganda (ECOTRUST)

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The death of genocide mastermind Félicien Kabuga in The Hague has brought a dramatic and symbolic end to one of the longest-running manhunts in modern international criminal justice.

The United Nations International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) confirmed on Friday that Kabuga died while hospitalized in The Hague, where he had been under UN detention following his arrest in France in 2020 after more than two decades on the run.

In a statement issued from Arusha and The Hague, the UN tribunal said Dutch authorities had commenced standard investigations into the circumstances surrounding his death, while Mechanism President Judge Graciela Gatti Santana ordered a full inquiry led by Judge Alphons Orie.

Kabuga, a wealthy Rwandan businessman once regarded as one of the world’s most wanted fugitives, had been charged with genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, incitement to genocide and crimes against humanity linked to the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

Prosecutors accused him of financing extremist militias, facilitating hate propaganda and supplying resources used during the massacres that killed more than 800,000 people in approximately 100 days.

For decades, Kabuga’s name occupied a near-mythical place in international justice circles.

An arrest warrant was first issued by the former International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), but Kabuga managed to evade capture across several countries for over 25 years before French authorities arrested him near Paris in May 2020.

His capture was hailed globally as a breakthrough moment for accountability over the Rwanda genocide — particularly because many believed age and time might permanently shield senior suspects from prosecution.

Yet the legal process that followed revealed the growing challenges confronting international war crimes tribunals.

Kabuga’s trial formally began in September 2022, but proceedings soon became overshadowed by concerns about his health and mental fitness. In 2023, judges indefinitely stayed the case after finding he was no longer fit to stand trial because of severe cognitive decline.

At the time of his death, he remained in detention while awaiting provisional release to a country willing to receive him.

That unresolved status leaves behind a deeply complicated legacy.

For survivors of the genocide, Kabuga’s death may represent the final disappearance of one of the men they viewed as central to organizing and enabling the killings. But it also means one of the most anticipated genocide trials of recent decades will never reach a verdict.

The development therefore carries implications far beyond Rwanda.

Kabuga’s case had increasingly become a measure of whether international justice institutions established after the atrocities of the 1990s could still deliver meaningful accountability decades later. Instead, his death before judgment highlights a recurring dilemma: justice mechanisms often move more slowly than history itself.

The case also revives broader questions about the effectiveness and future of international criminal tribunals.

Supporters argue that Kabuga’s eventual arrest demonstrated that genocide suspects can never fully escape accountability, regardless of how much time passes. Critics, however, contend that delayed prosecutions risk depriving victims of closure while consuming enormous institutional resources.

For Rwanda, the symbolism is especially powerful. The genocide remains the defining event in the country’s modern political identity, shaping everything from governance and national reconciliation to regional security policy and diplomatic relations across Africa and beyond.

Kabuga’s alleged role was particularly significant because prosecutors portrayed him not as a battlefield commander, but as part of the financial and ideological machinery that enabled mass violence. His prosecution was expected to deepen historical understanding of how economic elites, media structures and political networks helped fuel genocide.

Now, that judicial process ends without a final courtroom reckoning.

Still, Kabuga’s death is unlikely to diminish the historical consensus surrounding the atrocities of 1994 or the global legal precedents established in their aftermath.

The institutions created after Rwanda and the Balkans transformed international law, expanding the principle that individuals — including financiers, propagandists and political actors — can be held personally accountable for crimes against humanity and genocide.

Even so, the conclusion of Kabuga’s case without a verdict may reinforce calls for faster, more adaptive systems of international justice capable of handling aging suspects and prolonged conflicts more effectively.

More than three decades after the genocide, the world is once again reminded that while history can pursue fugitives for decades, time itself often remains the ultimate adversary of justice.

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Michael Wakabi

The easiest answer in African aviation today may not be immune to hidden risk.

As airlines across the continent struggle with grounded aircraft, delayed spare parts, engine shortages, and fragile maintenance systems, many fleet planners are arriving at what appears to be the obvious conclusion: lean harder into Boeing.

The argument is simple enough. Boeing already commands roughly 70 percent of Africa’s commercial aircraft market. Its installed base is large. Engineers are familiar with its systems. Pilots are easier to source. Lessors are more comfortable financing it. Spare parts networks are deeper. Maintenance ecosystems emerge faster around scale.

On paper, it sounds like common sense. If Africa’s biggest aviation problem is weak support infrastructure, then surely concentrating around the largest existing platform is the safest route.

That logic mistakes convenience for resilience. What Africa needs is not deeper dependence on a single manufacturer, but deliberate fleet diversification. As recent events have demonstrated, concentration can easily become exposure.

This is not an argument against Boeing. It is an argument against dependence. And in aviation, overdependence can turn one manufacturer’s problem into a continental crisis.

This is not even a uniquely African problem. From Kenya Airways and Uganda Airlines to Air Tanzania and Ethiopian Airlines, airlines across the continent have felt the consequences of global supply chain fragility. Beyond Africa, reliability challenges involving Rolls-Royce and Pratt & Whitney powerplants have shown how quickly propulsion bottlenecks can ripple across global fleets.

That a carrier with the scale and technical depth of Ethiopian Airlines can feel that pressure should reinforce the need for greater margin within fleet strategy.

The propulsion systems market itself has also become dangerously concentrated. The growing Airbus A350 fleet, for example, depends heavily on a narrow engine supply ecosystem, effectively reducing competition and leaving operators exposed to the vulnerabilities of a single supplier chain. If a major technical issue were to arise beyond routine advisories, the implications for operators would be severe.

This is precisely why Africa should resist the temptation to simply “buy more Boeing.”

The issue is not that Boeing is the problem. The issue is that dependence is.

When too much strategic capacity sits inside one OEM ecosystem, a certification issue, labour strike, production bottleneck, regulatory crisis, or safety event at that manufacturer can trigger cascading disruption across the continent.

One catastrophic event should not have the power to paralyse African aviation at scale. Yet that is exactly the risk concentration creates.

There is another danger too—one that receives less attention, but may be even more costly over time. When dependence grows, competition dies.

The assumption that Boeing scale automatically creates efficiency ignores how monopolistic dominance shifts bargaining power. Airlines become price takers rather than strategic customers. Pricing hardens. Support responsiveness weakens. Localisation promises become optional rather than necessary.

Africa already sits low in the global priority queue behind North America, Europe, the Gulf, and Asia. If the continent voluntarily narrows its options further, it surrenders competition, one of the few negotiating tools it has.

A strong Airbus presence matters. So does stronger support for ATR, Embraer, and other aircraft types suited to African markets. Diversity at scale is not fragmentation. It is leverage.

Without it, Africa becomes a customer to be sold to, not a market to be built with.

There is often resistance to this argument because fleet diversification appears inefficient. Multiple aircraft types mean more training requirements, more maintenance complexity, and less standardisation. For airlines already operating on thin margins, simplicity is understandably attractive.

But over the long term, diversification is not inefficiency. It is strategic insurance.

No serious energy system depends on one fuel source. No financial system depends on one lender. Aviation should not depend on one manufacturer.

A diversified fleet spreads operational risk. It protects airlines from grounding shocks. It reduces vulnerability to OEM bottlenecks. It creates competitive pressure among manufacturers. It gives airlines options when the global supply chain breaks.

The objective should not be fleet simplicity at all costs. It should be survivability.

And this is where the conversation must move beyond aircraft choice itself.

Airspace Africa, in a recent article, correctly argued that Africa is not buying aircraft it cannot afford. It is buying aircraft it cannot sustain. That diagnosis is right.

But the answer is not choosing the biggest OEM. It is forcing every OEM to localise support.

Fleet acquisition should no longer be treated as a procurement exercise. It should be treated as industrial policy.

Small narrow bodies such as the Embraer’s E190 series are key to increase intra-African connectivity

Every major aircraft order should come tied to enforceable commitments: regional MRO facilities, local spare parts inventory, certified technical training academies, engine maintenance partnerships, engineering support, and real transfer of technical capability.

Aircraft should not arrive alone. They should arrive with systems.

If manufacturers want African scale, they must build African roots—not just sales offices.

Airbus opening a customer support centre in Johannesburg is a step in the right direction. Boeing should be expected to do the same at greater depth. Engine makers should be held to the same standard. Lessors and financiers too.

Governments must also stop treating aircraft deliveries as political trophies and start seeing aviation as industrial infrastructure.

China’s aviation strategy offers an important lesson here. Fleet planning was never treated simply as airline procurement—it was embedded within a broader national industrial strategy that included MRO capability, technical training, supply chains, financing structures, and eventually indigenous manufacturing ambition.

Africa must think in similarly strategic terms. Tax incentives, financing guarantees, bilateral agreements, and public-private partnerships should all be used to ensure that aircraft procurement leaves behind maintenance ecosystems, engineering jobs, and technical sovereignty.

Ethiopian did not become Africa’s strongest carrier because it flies Boeing aircraft. It succeeded because it built training depth, MRO capability, technical redundancy, and institutional discipline.

Africa’s next aviation mistake would be choosing convenience over resilience. Buying more Boeing may feel like the easiest answer. It may even work in the short term.

But the continent has already seen what happens when supply chains fail, engines disappear, and grounded aircraft become balance-sheet disasters.

The answer is not to concentrate more risk. It is to distribute it intelligently.

Fleet diversification—paired with aggressive localisation of maintenance, technical support, and industrial capability—is the only serious long-term strategy.

But fleet diversification without labour mobility and geopolitical awareness would still leave Africa exposed.

Diversification cannot simply mean buying different aircraft from different manufacturers. It must also mean distributing operational capacity intelligently across the continent, with a clear understanding of geopolitical risk, technical concentration, and labour realities.

Africa’s aviation support system today is unevenly distributed. A handful of countries—most notably Ethiopia, South Africa, Kenya, Morocco, and to a growing extent Rwanda—carry a disproportionate share of the continent’s MRO capability, technical training infrastructure, and certified engineering talent. Large parts of the continent still depend heavily on external maintenance support or on ferrying aircraft long distances for technical work.

That concentration creates another form of vulnerability.

If geopolitical instability, regulatory disruptions, currency crises, or bilateral tensions affect one of these hubs, the impact can spread far beyond national borders. Fleet diversification therefore must also be geographic diversification.

Africa needs multiple centres of technical excellence, not a single dominant node. This requires intentional policy support. Governments cannot leave this entirely to market forces because aviation infrastructure is too strategic and too capital-intensive to emerge organically at the speed the continent requires.

The uneven distribution and scarcity of technical talent make labour mobility just as important as aircraft choice. Engineers, technicians, instructors, inspectors, and licensed maintenance personnel must be able to move across borders with far less friction than they currently face. Visa barriers, licensing incompatibilities, slow work permit systems, and fragmented regulatory frameworks all weaken the continent’s ability to build a truly integrated aviation ecosystem.

An aircraft grounded in West Africa should not wait unnecessarily because the right certified engineer is trapped behind administrative barriers in East or Southern Africa.

This is precisely why the conversation must be embedded within the broader pursuit of the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM).

Too often, SAATM is discussed mainly through the lens of passenger rights, market access, and airline competition. But its real long-term success depends just as much on the invisible infrastructure behind the flights: maintenance, certification, training, technical labour, and cross-border operational cooperation.

A single market for aircraft movement without a single framework for technical support is incomplete. SAATM should therefore evolve beyond traffic rights and become a platform for aviation industrial integration.

That means harmonising licensing standards, accelerating mutual recognition of technical qualifications, supporting regional MRO hubs, and enabling free movement of aviation professionals across the continent.

Aircraft diversity without talent mobility creates fragmentation. Talent mobility without technical infrastructure creates dependency. Both must move together. Africa’s aviation future will be secured by building a continent where aircraft, skills, and support systems can move with equal efficiency.

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