West Africa News Desk — October 2, 2026 AM

Zach Martin

KMKT IR Hub Radio. West Africa News Desk. Good morning. Zach Martin with Emily Martin, Friday, October 2, 2026. On the desk: Nigeria's public-service warning strike after the Independence Day address, Ghana's exploratory Gulf talks on rail and energy, and business and tech from Abuja, Dubai, and Dakar.

Emily Martin

KMKT IR Hub Radio. West Africa News Desk. Nigeria marks sixty-six years of independence as public servants begin a three-day nationwide warning strike. The Will News reports the Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council, trade-union side, scheduled the action from Friday, October 2, through Sunday, October 4, after a September 30 deadline. The paper says the unions are demanding petrol at 500 naira a litre, an immediate wage award, and a tripartite committee to negotiate a new national minimum wage ahead of 2027. Business Tech Africa also reported that public servants were directed to begin that warning strike from today through Sunday.

Zach Martin

The notice followed President Bola Tinubu's October 1 address. The Nation published the text, titled From Reform to Prosperity. In it, Tinubu said the economy has grown by over 4 percent this year, with both oil and non-oil sectors contributing, and that salaries and pensions have been paid on time and in full since 2023. BBC Pidgin reported he said inflation has fallen substantially from its peak, foreign reserves have been rebuilt, the foreign-exchange market has stabilised, and that in 2025 Nigeria recorded its highest non-oil export revenue, which he put above 6 billion dollars. He rejected a return to fuel subsidies.

Emily Martin

Legit.ng published a statement from ADC presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar saying Nigerians can barely afford to live. Those are the claims as reported. We are not offering a verdict, and this is not investment advice.

Zach Martin

KMKT IR Hub Radio. West Africa News Desk. Gulf capital and Ghana. FurtherAfrica reports this morning that Saudi Arabia has opened exploratory talks with Ghana on railway and energy infrastructure. The talks were confirmed after Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa met Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan in New York. Ghana's Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed the discussions cover railway development and energy infrastructure.

Emily Martin

FurtherAfrica also reports Ghana is courting Qatar and Bahrain on similar terms. No specific corridors, timetables, financing figures, or signed funding commitments have been announced. The engagement sits within President John Dramani Mahama's Reset Agenda. Treat it as dialogue, not a deal. That distinction matters for anyone reading the headline as a signed mandate. It is not.

Zach Martin

KMKT IR Hub Radio. West Africa News Desk. Business and tech. Business Tech Africa, citing a company press release, says PromiseLand Innovation launched its ProTaxi electric-vehicle e-hailing service in Abuja yesterday. The firm says it plans to onboard 1,000 drivers with electric vehicles and to scale beyond Abuja. Prince Adetokunbo Ade-John, senior special assistant to the president on transportation and mobility, attended and said the project aligned with the administration's transport agenda.

Emily Martin

Same outlet: pan-African payments firm Kora has launched One Rail, announced in Dubai. It lets merchants collect, hold, convert and settle in stablecoins alongside fiat. Initial assets named are USDT and USDC, on Kora's existing APIs and dashboard. Also reported: Heirs Holdings chairman Tony Elumelu purchased another 6 million Seplat Energy shares, lifting his combined stake in the Nigerian oil producer to 21.07 percent. Business Tech Africa says the new shares cost about three times the original entry price when Heirs Energies and Heirs Holdings bought the original block in December 2025. That is a reported transaction, not a recommendation.

Zach Martin

From Dakar's corporate map to Congo: Sedima, the Senegalese poultry group founded by Babacar Ngom, plans to invest 20.47 billion CFA francs, around 35 million dollars, in an integrated farming and poultry complex at Nkouo in the Republic of Congo. Once fully running, it is designed to produce 10,800 tonnes of corn, 6,600 tonnes of soybeans and 2,200 tonnes of broiler chicken a year. FurtherAfrica also reports a Starlink backhaul test in Nigeria looking at rural tower economics.

Emily Martin

KMKT IR Hub Radio. West Africa News Desk. That is the Friday, October 2 morning edition. Zach Martin and Emily Martin. Figures are as reported by The Will News, The Nation, BBC Pidgin, Legit.ng, FurtherAfrica and Business Tech Africa. This is a news desk, not investment advice. Good morning.