Mali’s government will invest FCFA316 billion (around $504 million) in the security and defense sectors next year. Under its plans, defense will get FCFA265 billion (about $422 million) and FCFA51 billion (about $82 million) for security. This is 13.9% of the country’s total budget for 2017, knowingly FCFA FCFA2,270.647 billion (around $3.88 billion). Expenditures, in...

Sana Wony Tieminta, Malian jurist and president of Femmes en Action (Women in Action) agricultural cooperative, told a conference recently organized by the Foundation for Agriculture and Rural environment in the world of challenges that women face to access agricultural land. A situation which gets more preoccupying as they do not have the law on their side. The new agricultural law allocates a...

AIM-listed gold miner Goldplat Plc, which operates the Anumso project in Ghana, got its operating licence for the project renewed for three years. The firm can thus continue processing mining residues at its operations to produce and export gold and concentrates. According to the renewal’s terms, Goldplat will pay the Ghanaian government a 5% royalty for all minerals it gets via its...

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Heritage Bank granted a N2 billion ($6.5 million) long-term loan to Triton Aqua Africa Limited (TAAL). This loan is part of a commercial loan system for agriculture that aims to boost Nigerian aquaculture so as to cut down frozen fish imports. The facility will first be invested in a fishery unit including a hatchery and in equipment to produce...

The Government of Uganda has announced plans to introduce a Bill aimed at addressing environmental concerns arising from oil and gas activities, as the country prepares for oil production. This National Environment Management Bill, seeks tighter measures on pollution and wastes in the oil sector which have not been specified in existing laws governing the industry. “The Bill will deal with...

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Total and Eni are planned to meet by early January concerning the $15 billion Brass Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project located on Brass Island, Bayelsa State. This shareholders who have invested about $1 billion on early works, without signing a Final Investment Decision (FID), are to meet in London between January 10 and 12, 2017 in...

Mining firm Nexus Gold has completed Rotary Air-Blast (RAB) drilling program at its Niangouela gold project in Burkina Faso.   During the program which aimed to test the orientation and extent of a preivously identified primary quartz vein, 30 holes were drilled totaling a depth of 802 m. Former analyses of samples from the vein revealed the following gold grading: 5.93g/t, 4.83g/t,...

At a press conference held last Monday in Libreville, Gabon’s Prime Minister in charge of Urbanism, Social Housing, Bruno Ben Moubamba, said he launched a housing audit to draw out and neutralize all land “gravediggers” (scavengers) in Gabon. The intiative will be be followed by law suits. “We confirm having launched a housing audit to identify the responsibilities of each and everyone...

Lebanon-based investment firm EuroMena, announced the close of its third fund at $150 billion. “In spite of a difficult macro-economic environment in the region, EuroMena has once again succeeded in finding investors, confirming the robustness of its performances,” said Romen Mathieu, Managing Partner at EuroMena. Besides already present investors like Proparco (French Public aid to...

Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) will sell 54.5% of its stake in Coca-Cola Beverages Africa (CCBA) to US giant Coca-Cola. We are pleased to have reached an agreement quickly that is in everyone’s best interests, said Mhutar Kent, Chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company. Through this acquisition, Coca-Cola which so far held 11.3% of CCBA increases its stake to 65.8%. It will thus become the...