West Africa Desk | Naija-UK This Week
Five things that actually changed for West Africans in the UK this week, in the time it takes to drink one coffee. This desk's week-in-review runs every Friday.
1. Ghana's corruption-fighter survived, with an asterisk. The Supreme Court upheld the Office of the Special Prosecutor 7-0 on Wednesday, then confirmed the Attorney-General, who had argued the office was unconstitutional, can discontinue any case it brings. Every live prosecution, including the $28m NPA case, now runs under that shadow. Our full breakdown is on the desk.
2. The "diaspora health plan" is a job ad, not a health plan. Diaspora Day's big headline offered no coverage, no scheme and nothing to enrol in unless you hold a stethoscope: it is a recruitment drive aimed at the 15,000+ Nigerian-trained doctors in the UK. The receipts are on the desk.
3. What actually covers your parents: we priced every route. The desk's dated comparison found the age cliff that organises the whole market: £17 plans quietly end at 65, real cover for a parent with chronic conditions runs £110 to £800 a year, and only one provider has a verified pay-from-London flow. The full table is the desk's most useful page this week.
4. Mark 7 August: the diaspora mortgage roadshow lands in the UK. The Federal Mortgage Bank's diaspora scheme (N50m cap, 6.9%, ten years on paper) comes to a UK event next Thursday. This desk will be reading the small print so you don't have to.
5. Sending money home: the corridor stayed strange. Our checks found several apps still paying out above mid-market on the pound-to-naira route, LemFi beating Wise on delivered naira at every amount we tested, and zero fees remaining the norm rather than the discount. Dated tables for both are on the Naija-UK Money desk; the rate you see at the moment of sending is the only one that counts.
Every item links to fully sourced desk coverage. The weekly email edition of this digest is coming to the Naija-UK segment of our newsletter; sign up on any desk page.
