The Livelihoods Fund for Family Farming, together with multinational companies, is launching an initiative with smallholder farmers to restore vanilla quality while increasing farmers’ food security and preserving Madagascar’s unique landscape. The project aims to triple farmers’ revenues and provide companies with quality and fully traceable vanilla over a 10-year span. Vanilla is a vital...

The US Justice Department is looking to recover assets worth $144 million bought by Nigerian businessmen, Kolawole Aluko and Olajide Omokore. The assets include a $50 million Manhattan apartment and an $80 million yacht, the Galactica Star. In a lawsuit filed at the federal court in Houston on Friday, the department claimed that the two businessmen conspired with others to pay...

The African Development Bank (AfDB) will provide Morocco $200 million for the first stage of its programme to accelerate industrialization. Agreement for the financing was signed last Friday, July 14th, in Abidjan, by the Moroccan ambassador near Ivory Coast, Abdelmalek Kettani, and Célestin Monga, Chief Economist and Vice President, AfDB, in charge of economic governance and knowledge...

Uber has partnered with Nigeria-based auto service and maintenance company, Germaine Auto Centre, to provide maintenance services to its driver-partners across the country. Under the partnership, Uber driver-partners in Lagos will service and have their cars maintained at Germaine’s auto facility at stipulated prices. According to the Country Manager for Uber Nigeria, Maria Rotilu, the move...

Nigeria’s three refineries Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna, produce 60% of the kerosene consumed in the country, according to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Speaking at a 2-day Investigative Public Hearing of the House of Representative Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), the Chief Operating Officer, Downstream, NNPC, Henry Ikem Obih, explained that the...

Today, July 17th, begins in Accra a regional workshop relating to land tenure in Africa. The three-day event which will focus on Securing Community Land Rights on the Continent, is organized by the Land Policy Initiative, which is a joint programme of the tripartite consortium of the African Union Commission (AUC), the African Development Bank (AfDB) and Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), in...

Proparco has granted a USD 12 million loan to Peninsula Plaza, a project company set up to build and operate a mixed-use retail / office complex in Dar es Salam. This project is part of the current boom in infrastructure development in Dar es Salaam and will generate major benefits by enhancing urban infrastructure, structuring the local economy and creating jobs. This loan will finance the...

France has decided to provide Ivory Coast a financing of €2.125 billion (about FCFA1,394 billion) between this year and 2020. This was revealed by Ivoirian Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly, at the end of a visit by a French delegation, from July 12 to 13. According to the PM, the facility will be used to fund projects in “key sectors in line with the 2016-2020 National Development...

Africa’s agricultural sector is mainly driven by Ethiopia and Ivory Coast according to report recently released by Consulting firm Havas Horizons. The survey which assessed the opinions of 55 major financial and banking institutions based on the continent, lists the top five leading African nations in terms of agriculture. While 90% of the population surveyed believe the African agriculture is...

Car maker Faurecia just inaugurated a new car seats factory in Morocco. Located in Salé, the infrastructure which cost about €16 million will generate 1,300 jobs. According to L’usine Nouvelle, the plant will produce every day 10,000 leather and textile seat-coverings for 3008 Peugeot and Opel Grandland X models. With the new infrastructure, Faurecia now has two plants in Morocco,...