Although Lesotho legalized cannabis exports in 2018, Africa has been a slow starter in joining the ranks of those countries pushing for reform and regulated markets. Although fewer than a quarter of the continent’s countries have partially legalized cannabis, primarily medical cannabis for export and industrial hemp, Africa has the potential to be a future powerhouse on the international cannabis stage. Stay in the loop with all the news, policy, legislative, regulatory and market developments with Cannabiz Africa, your reliable content guide to the African cannabis environment.
About 60 agricultural co-ops in Malawi that invested in hemp are facing financial hardship as promised offtakes to the US vanish and government support is nowhere to be found. For many farmers the promise of ‘green gold’ has become a costly illusion.
Kenya’s Rastafarians want the legal right to consume cannabis for religious and cultural purposes. The state argues that any relaxation of drug-laws will lead to more crime and social harm. Now it’s up to the High Court to make that call and a ruling is expected next week.
Ghanaian cannabis stakeholders recently visited the US state of Vermont for a tour around cannabis and hemp facilities with a view to collaborate in developing a low-potency cannabis marketplace in the West African country.
The Namibia Revenue Agency (NamRA) has come up with its own definitions of the kinds of cannabis it seized during the course of last year – ‘pure’ cannabis, ‘skunk’ and ‘majat’. All in all it reported confiscations amounting to almost 377 tons during 2024/5.
Gareth Prince is headline speaker at the Cheeba Cannabis and Hemp Summit 2026 which runs alongside the Cannabis Expo in Gauteng at the end of the month. The one-day event features over 30 speakers in what’s being billed as a powerful platform for deal-making, policy dialogue and investment alignment.
Cannabis links Africans across the world, and this should translate into collective mutual empowerment. That’s the vision behind Hemptech 2026 which takes place in Ghana next month to connect the African diaspora in the US with the opportunities ‘back home’.
Dr Siabula ‘Prosper’ Sievu is one of the main policy architects behind Zambia’s shift to embrace medical cannabis for the good of its people. In this exclusive Q&A with Africa Editor John Makoni, Dr Sievu, outlines Zambia’s new medical cannabis direction, how the Zambian army fits in and the cost of new licenses.
Zambia’s Treasury has called for urgent action to stop the country’s finances spiralling as a result of the financial fall-out from hostilities in the Middle East. Green Party leader Peter Sinkamba (pictured here) says one of the remedial measures should be the rapid enablement of existing cannabis legislation to open up the economy.
Africa has been largely left behind by the international cannabis boom and that’s the fault of the continent’s policy-makers. Africa Editor John Makoni writes that there will be no change as long as government’s persevere with hodgepodge regulations that exclude local citizens from participating in a domestic cannabis economies.
Lesotho has completely revamped its cannabis oversight structures in the past year and is soon to publish new licensing and inspection guidelines. A new regulatory body, Lesotho Medicines Regulatory Authority (LeMeRA), is now in charge of the sector along with the newly formed Lesotho Narcotics Bureau (LNB).
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