Space42, Microsoft, Esri team up to update Africa digital maps
Abu Dhabi’s Space42, Microsoft and Silicon Valley-based Esri have launched the “Map Africa Initiative,” a five-year effort to develop high-quality digital base maps across all 54 African nations.
The project, unveiled at the 2025 Esri User Conference in San Diego, aims to strengthen local mapping infrastructure and deliver geospatial data to support governments, businesses and communities.
The companies said this effort could benefit more than 1.4 billion people and boost institutional capacity across the continent.
By providing high‑precision base maps, the initiative is expected to enhance route planning for ports and logistics, optimize renewable energy deployment, improve security and disaster response, and underpin the development of smart cities and digital economies.
Saudi Arabia prepares to build second green hydrogen plant
Saudi Arabia has doubled down on its ambition to dominate the global green hydrogen market, with plans to build a second multi-billion dollar plant, even as it struggles to sell the output from its first large-scale hydrogen project.
ACWA Power, which is backed by the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund, has awarded a front-end engineering design contract for the 4 gigawatt Yanbu plant to Madrid-based engineering firm Tecnicas Reunidas and China’s Sinopec Guangzhou Engineering, Bloomberg reports.
The new plant, which is expected to go online in 2030, will generate 400,000 tons of green hydrogen per year using wind and solar power, almost double the 219,000 tons expected from its first $8.5 billion NEOM plant, which is estimated to be about 85% complete.
Green hydrogen, which is produced using renewable energy to split water molecules, is seen as a key to decarbonizing industries including steelmaking, shipping and fertilizer production. For export, it can be converted into more stable green ammonia and later reconstituted at its destination – a process known as “cracking.”
However the nascent industry has faced uncertainty and supply chain issues across multiple fronts, as it remains expensive compared to fossil fuels and industries have been slow to commit to building the infrastructure needed to use it.
Earlier this month, ACWA’s partner in the NEOM plant, U.S.-based Air Products & Chemicals, which has an exclusive off-take agreement, paused its $2.7 billion hydrogen cracking terminal in the English port town of Immingham over uncertainty related to obtaining U.K. subsidies.
The Saudi decision to press ahead with the Yanbu plant is a strong bet on the future of the green industry at a time when the kingdom needs to wean itself off fossil fuels. New analysis by Bloomberg Economics suggests Saudi’s dependence on oil revenue is largely unchanged from 2016 – and may have even grown deeper on some measures.
NEOM Port slashes cargo transit times in trade corridor trial
NEOM Port has managed to cut cargo transit times in half during a pilot run of a new trade corridor that links Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, while sidestepping the Houthi-threatened waters of the southern Red Sea.
The trial shipment began in Cairo, traveled by truck to Safaga Port on Egypt’s Red Sea coast, crossed the sea’s northern end to NEOM Port in Saudi Arabia, and then continued overland for more than 900 kilometers (560 miles) to Erbil in northern Iraq.
NEOM took over the modest regional Duba port and rebranded it in 2022, launching an expansion and automation program to turn it into a central logistics hub for the mega-project and a regional gateway connecting global trade routes between Asia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East.
With the addition of deepwater berths, a 900-meter (3,000-foot) quay wall and advanced cranes, which were delivered in June, the port is now capable of handling the world’s biggest container ships.
The trial run, carried out with the kingdom’s Logistics Partnership Council and multiple Saudi government agencies, demonstrated high operational efficiency at every stage, from customs processing to cargo transfer, according to the Saudi Press Agency.
“This pilot project is a pivotal step in implementing a long-term vision to enhance NEOM Port’s role as a major logistics and maritime hub in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” the SPA said.
The test comes as Yemen’s Houthis vowed on Sunday to escalate their attacks on vessels in the Red Sea. By crossing only the relatively-secure Gulf of Aqaba section of the sea, the new route could offer a faster alternative for some regional freight at a time when ship operators are avoiding the narrow Bab el‑Mandeb Strait at the southern end.
