The Buhari-led administration in keeping with its campaign promises during the 2015 presidential election, has commenced the payment of N5, 000 ($16) monthly stipends to unemployed and vulnerable Nigerians. This scheme which was reported to have started last week is part of the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) of the administration’s Social Investment Programmes (SIP) for which N500 billion was...

The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has urged private company owners to invest into the power sector so as to boost the country’s power supply this year. According to the LCCl Director General, Muda Yusuf (photo), the provision of a stable power supply could make Nigeria become self-reliant and attract foreign investors into the country. The Nigerian power sector lost an...

Mining giant Glencore, 6th largest mining company in the world according to PwC, announced last Friday it would increase its stake in the Mutanda copper and cobalt mine in DR Congo. The company, which already holds 69% of the project, is currently looking at its options, and may well buy all or part of the 31% stake held by its partner Fleurette Group. It said it will make an announcement in...

Investment group AfricInvest said it will inject €17.3 million in the capital of Azalaï Hotels, a hospitality group present in many West African countries, with a total of 1,000 rooms. The investment came through the AfricInvest III LLC fund. It aims to help the group in its expansion across the region, but also boost its capacities and improve its services. Azalaï Group wishes to...

In Tanzania, export revenues from clove exports amounted to $54 million at the end of October 2016, $34.3 million more than in the same period the year before. The surge in revenues results from an increase in the quantities of clove exported in 2016, knowingly 6,817 tons, thus 4 910 tons more than in 2015, according to data provided in the Economic Review of the Bank of Tanzania...

Ethiopia and Turkey signed five cooperation agreements to boost trade between the two countries and strengthen cooperation in several sectors such as industry, energy, telecommunications and banking. The agreements were initialed in Addis Ababa, the Capital city, by Nihat Zeybekci (photo), the Turkish Minister of Economy and various Ethiopian high officials. Regarding industry, “both sides...

In a statement relayed by the Agence de Presse Africaine, Ivorian Minister of Construction and Urbanization, Mamadou Sanogo (photo), announced that over the past four years, the number of single windows for land has passed from 1 to 73. This, as result of a strict implementation of the land reform by government. “Prefects are now effectively able to sign definitive acquisition permits (ACD)...

In Kenya, outlook for 2016-17 coffee output is extremely gloomy as a result of drought that has hit the country in recent months. The drought, which was induced by the La Niña weather phenomenon, delayed rains in the 2016-17 agricultural season and also led to a delay in the flowering of coffee trees, due to higher temperatures mostly. “Rainfall between November and January has been poor,”...

Public Prosecutor of Libreville Court of First Instance, Steve Ndong Essame Ndong, issued a statement dated January 5 which explains evictions from Angondje and Bikele, last December. On August 10, 2016, the official says, the government, through the Ministry of Urban Planning and Housing, addressed the Libreville Court a request to evict all illegal occupants of social housing of Angondje and...

Angolan firm Catoca Mining Society (CMS) produced in 2016, 7.2 million ct of diamonds, counting all its activities in the nation, its Managing Director, Sergei Amelin, said. He highlighted that the global slump in prices of diamonds did not allow the company to achieve its initial forecasts. The output achieved by the firm which mines 75% of Angola’s diamond includes Catoca kimberlite, as...