On July 5, 2017, the ANC ended a conference at Nasrec, south of Johannesburg, to discuss the issue of land expropriation without compensation which divides them and create tensions in their mist. More than 3,700 delegates were gathered at the conference. Delegates of the land reform commission, which has been established to reflect on amendment to article 25 of the constitution to facilitate...

The Republic of Congo will enter its second year of recession as the government said it expects a 1.9% contraction of its gross domestic product this year, against a 1% growth expected earlier on. According to Reuters which cites a statement from the minister of finance, Calixte Nganongo, the lower forecast is explained by low oil output, which results from fields getting...

The Federal Government of Nigeria plans to invest N9 billion ($27.5million) to upgrade hospitals in the country, in a bid to put an end to foreign medical trips by locals. This was revealed by the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma, last Tuesday in Abuja. The official who was addressing civil society organizations added: What the ministry of health is doing is going into...

Nigeria will raise between $1.18billion and $1.48 bln from the sale of a 5 and 20-year sovereign bond in the third quarter of 2017, according to the Debt Management Office (DMO). The debt office on Wednesday said it will auction a N90-120 billion in five-year note and a N135-165 billion in 10 and 20-year debt between July and September. The issuing of bond is part of the...

As part of strategies to revive Nigeria’s power sector, the Federal Government says it has provided N40billion ($115.6million) to settle outstanding electricity bills owed by ministries and agencies. According to the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma (photo), the gesture was imperative as the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) predicted in the 2017 budget would...

Cote d’Ivoire said it has sold in advance a million tons of cocoa from the 2017-18 season, a source close to the matter told Bloomberg. This is 5% up from estimates on last May 27, which stood at 950,000 tons. According to the same source who asked not to be named, the Coffee and Cocoa Council plans to increase cocoa forward sales bringing them to 1.3 million tons before the beginning of the...

In Cameroon, a local civic society coalition launched last Monday, a petition to boost transparency in the provisioning of land and mining deeds, in addition to taking into account communities’ opinions. “The goal is to initiate a participative approach in the management of natural resources, in a country where lands are highly sought after by companies operating in the forest, mining and...

After reporting a pretax loss of $6.7 million last year, its first annual loss in 30 years, Guinness Nigeria is looking towards share sale to raise $126 million from existing shareholders. “Our expectation is that funds raised will help mitigate the impact of increasing finance costs, optimize our balance sheet and improve the company's financial flexibility,” Peter Ndegwa, Chief...

In a bid to reduce its spending and fight corruption, the Nigerian government has increased by 50% its budget for information and communication technology, bringing it to N41 billion ($118million). Moreover, it has started working with US tech giants, Oracle and Microsoft, in the same framework. Oracle has actually helped Nigerian authorities remove 50,000 ghost workers or fake entries from...

How can companies help limit the impacts of the sharp increase in fragile situations and crises encountered throughout the world? How can we ensure that they do not have the opposite effect and actually help to sustain such fragile situations? These questions are currently a key concern for companies doing business in the regions in question as well as for development bodies. Therefore, it was...