Peace and security in Africa must be an aim of investment decisions, the African Development Bank President told delegates at a forum aimed at exploring ways to strengthen the resilience of the continent's people and states. “The Africa Resilience Forum is a call to action to work together and make a transition from policy dialogue to investment, and then from investment to impact,” said Dr....

Digital payment services are growing rapidly in Zambia. In 2022, mobile money transactions reached a value of 170 billion kwachas in the country, compared with 95 billion kwachas in 2021. The Zambian government is considering introducing a tax on mobile money transactions. The proposal was made last week by Situmbeko Musokotwane, Minister of Finance and National Planning, during the presentation...

The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group on 2 October 2023 approved a grant of $13.29 million to Somalia to help improve domestic revenue mobilization and public expenditure management under the Institutional Support for Economic Governance Project. The grant comprises $9.31 million from the resources of the African Development Fund, the Bank Group’s concessional...

An estimated 3.2 million children are hard hit by terrorism in Burkina Faso, according to Unicef data. Of the more than 2 million people forced to flee their homes because of the violence, 58% are children, the organization reported. The UN Children's Fund (Unicef) estimates that more than a million children cannot go back to school in Burkina Faso due to persistent violence and insecurity in...

The Cameroonian government is working on new regulations to combat the illegal export of cocoa beans in the country. Many observers believe the phenomenon has reached alarming levels because of the 10% exit tax recently imposed on exports. According to them, while the government only intended to promote local processing, the introduction of this additional levy may have encouraged dishonest...

Africa’s progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the African Union’s Agenda 2063 aspirations has been uneven, with significant differences among subregions, countries, and rural and urban areas. This calls for accelerated efforts to ensure that Africa achieves the global goals by the 2030 deadline, the latest Africa Sustainable Development report has stated. The 2023 report,...

Starlink’s commercial services are already available in five African countries, namely: Nigeria, Rwanda, Mozambique, Kenya, and Malawi. Before the year ends, the US firm plans to add 18 more countries on the continent. U.S.-based company SpaceX has teamed up with e-commerce company Jumia Technologies AG to accelerate the adoption of its Starlink satellite Internet network services in Africa....

Dr. Denis Mukwege, the Congolese gynecologist who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018, announced he is running for presidency in the upcoming elections. “The man who repairs women” made the decision public Monday during a press briefing in Kinshasa. "For the past ten years or so, the Congolese people have been asking me to get more involved with them by standing as a candidate for the...

Tunisia has, since mid-September, a new cybersecurity agency that strives to better protect the country’s cyberspace amidst the rapid technological development. The new agency replaced the former National Agency for IT Security which has been in existence for 20 years.  The Tunisian National Cybersecurity Agency (ANCS) and its Italian counterpart signed, last Friday, a memorandum of...

Following the tragedy that claimed the lives of more than 34 people in a smuggling oil depot in Seme-Krake on September 23, the government of Benin has announced several measures to ensure that such a thing never happens again. As part of this plan, government spokesman Wilfried Léandre Houngbédji has indicated that the State has ordered more than 5,000 mini-stations, which will be distributed...