Madagascar

1. Africa's largest copper smelter officially commenced production. Ivanhoe Mining's Camora-Kakula smelter will produce 500,000 tons of 99.7% pure copper anodes annually. Ivanhoe Mining is a Canadian mining company whose main businesses are the Camora-Kakula copper complex and the Kipsi zinc-copper-germanium-silver mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as platinum-palladium-nickel-rhodium-gold-copper mines in South Africa. It also explores for new sedimentary copper deposits in Angola, Kazakhstan, and Zambia.

1. Cameroon will impose a 12.5% ​​ad valorem excise tax on imported empty gas cylinders starting in 2026 to encourage the absorption of local production capacity. Currently, local annual production capacity is approximately 600,000 cylinders, while domestic demand is estimated at 450,000 to 500,000.

1. Nigerian President Bolsonaro declared a nationwide security emergency and announced the recruitment of 20,000 additional police officers, bringing the total police force to 50,000.

2. Namibia's public utility company, NamPower, launched a tender for a 120 MW solar photovoltaic project, with a deadline of January 13, 2026. Namibia's current installed solar capacity is 377.8 MW.