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David Pilling

Africa Editor

David Pilling is the Africa editor and a columnist at the Financial Times. He covers business, politics and development on the continent and writes a regular column on topics from Africa. Before that he was the Asia editor and assistant editor. Previous roles include Tokyo bureau chief, pharmaceuticals correspondent, deputy features editor and correspondent in Buenos Aires and Santiago.

He is the author of two books - The Growth Delusion (2018), shortlisted for the Orwell Prize, and the highly acclaimed Bending Adversity: Japan and the Art of Survival (2016).

He is a regular moderator and speaker both for the FT and for organisations including the World Bank, OECD and ADB. In 2023 he briefed a G7 meeting in Kamakura, Japan on the ideas behind his book, The Growth Delusion.

Email David Pilling @davidpilling  on Twitter (link opens in a new browser window)
  • Monday, 2 December, 2024
    News in-depthUS foreign policy
    Biden embarks on first and final Africa trip as US president with Angola visit

    African allies concerned incoming Trump administration will take stronger line on trade and security ‘reciprocity’

    João Lourenço shakes hands with Joe Biden
  • Saturday, 23 November, 2024
    Music
    Do they know it’s Africa, at all?

    Ed Sheeran is right — the Christmas classic is painfully out of step with reality, much to the detriment of the continent

    Montage of images with a black and white image of Ed Sheeran playing guitar against a background of a red map of Africa
  • Sunday, 17 November, 2024
    Oil & Gas industry
    Dangote seeks billions to boost crude supplies at new Nigerian refinery

    Africa’s richest man in talks with international banks for funds as he sets sights on ending country’s reliance on imports

    Aliko Dangote
  • Saturday, 16 November, 2024
    HTSI
    Journey to Kenya, and the cradle of man

    A safari in the country’s far north tracks back 1.6 million years to the roots of humanity

    Samburu warriors perform a traditional dance in Samburuland in northern Kenya
  • Monday, 11 November, 2024
    Special ReportManaging Climate Change
    Smaller nations fear delays in climate loss and damage funding

    Fragile states worry they may have to wait years before receiving assistance

    People and vehicles in front of a collapsed warehouse
  • Sunday, 10 November, 2024
    News in-depthSudan
    Sudan’s lone caretaker protecting ancient treasures from looting

    Civil war creeps closer to an archaeological site with more pyramids than the whole of Egypt

    The pyramids lie in desert sands
  • Tuesday, 5 November, 2024
    News in-depthBotswana
    Botswana must mend ties with ‘golden egg’ De Beers, new president says

    Relations between African nation and diamond group frayed before Duma Boko’s election

    Duma Boko, left, walks alongside Mokgweetsi Masisi at the Office of the President in Gaborone, Botswana on November 4 2024
  • Friday, 1 November, 2024
    Botswana
    Diamond-rich Botswana’s ruling party loses power after 6 decades

    Growing competition from synthetic stones hits southern African country’s economy

    Duma Boko waves to the crowd during a final rally in Botswana
  • Tuesday, 29 October, 2024
    Aliko Dangote
    Nigeria’s president summons Aliko Dangote over supplies to new oil refinery

    Meeting on Tuesday is needed to release more crude for refinery, says industrialist

    A view of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals complex in Lagos, showcasing large industrial pipes and structures.
  • Sunday, 27 October, 2024
    News in-depthSenegal
    Senegal energy contracts review leaves investors uncertain

    Audit threatens African nation’s hard-won reputation as reliable place to do business, critics warn

    A man walks on the beach past an offshore gas terminal
  • Monday, 21 October, 2024
    Commonwealth of Nations
    Starmer flies to Samoa to answer tricky questions from Commonwealth allies

    Slavery reparations and Britain’s shrinking aid budget up for debate at annual summit this week

    Painted portraits of King Charles III and Queen Camilla are displayed at a school in Apia, Samoa
  • Sunday, 20 October, 2024
    Mozambique
    Mozambique opposition plans protests after killings

    Legal adviser to opposition leader Venâncio Mondlane was one of two men assassinated after a contested election

    A protester holds an image of Podemos spokesperson Paulo Guambe and lawyer Elvino Dias during a vigil in Maputo on Sunday, a day after they were shot dead
  • Saturday, 19 October, 2024
    Travel
    The royal hotel creating a buzz on Morocco’s Mediterranean coast

    The country’s Atlantic resorts are better known — but now the king’s Royal Mansour Tamuda Bay is drawing eyes to the Med

    Overview of a white-walled Moroccan hotel, surrounded by palm trees, at sunset
  • Thursday, 17 October, 2024
    The Big Read
    Can AI help Africa close the development gap?

    Machine learning could have transformative effects on developing economies and societies. But some fear a deepening digital divide

    A man holding a mobile phone
  • Wednesday, 16 October, 2024
    South Africa
    Optimism builds on South Africa’s ‘second miracle’ coalition

    Unity government led by ANC and Democratic Alliance works to resolve tensions as it passes 100-day milestone

    From left, John Steenhuisen, Cyril Ramaphosa and Paul Mashatile
  • Sunday, 13 October, 2024
    South African politics
    South Africa’s first Black central bank governor dies aged 65

    Tito Mboweni served as labour minister in Nelson Mandela’s first cabinet

    South African Finance Minister Tito Mboweni
  • Tuesday, 8 October, 2024
    InterviewSouth Africa
    Privatisation not a ‘swear word’, says South Africa’s deputy president

    Coalition government is seeking more foreign investment in energy, water and infrastructure

    South Africa’s deputy president Paul Mashatile at the Financial Times on October 4 2024
  • Friday, 13 September, 2024
    Pravin Gordhan
    Pravin Gordhan dies after life fighting apartheid and corruption

    South African activist campaigned against failings of Jacob Zuma’s administration

    Pravin Gordhan is seen sitting and wearing a suit and tie at a judicial commission of inquiry into state capture.
  • Friday, 13 September, 2024
    Special ReportInnovative Lawyers: Europe
    How Gabon’s debt-for-nature swap survived a palace coup

    A $500mn blue loan is still in place despite upheaval, thanks to robust monitoring and a tight legal framework

    An aerial view of a beach with lush forests, clean waters and smooth sands
  • Thursday, 29 August, 2024
    The Big Read
    Could T-shirts be the way to industrialise an African nation?

    Benin is trying to achieve what few countries on the continent have managed: transform its raw materials into finished goods

  • Wednesday, 28 August, 2024
    Boston Consulting Group Inc
    BCG admits it paid bribes to win consulting business in Angola

    US firm will give back $14mn in profits after agreement with Department of Justice

    Boston skyline showing Tobin bridge
  • Saturday, 24 August, 2024
    InterviewLife & Arts
    The zoologist, the dictator and the fight for Gabon’s forests

    Lee White was a conservation visionary for the Gabonese Bongo dynasty — and then found himself forced into exile

  • Friday, 23 August, 2024
    FT SeriesClamour for Africa
    The foreign powers competing to win influence in Africa

    Continent finds itself wooed by many, but few countries have yet devised a strategy to take full advantage

    A montage of world leaders meeting and protests
  • Thursday, 8 August, 2024
    Middle East & North Africa
    War in Sudan is being fuelled by a web of external actors

    The conflict that has displaced 10mn people is made more intractable by proxy players and tangled objectives

    People line up to register for a potential food aid delivery at a camp for internally displaced persons (IDP) in Agari, South Kordofan, Sudan.
  • Thursday, 1 August, 2024
    Oil31 min
    Nigeria's struggle to break the 'oil curse' | FT Film

    Can the new $20bn Dangote refinery and ending fuel subsidies help to transform the economy?

    Can Nigeria end the 'oil curse'?
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