Sekou Oumar Barry (photo), Director General of Guinea’s Regulatory Authority for Posts and Telecommunications (ARPT), is the new director of the West Africa Telecommunications Regulators Assembly (WATRA). He was elected at the 19th Annual General Assembly of the institution held in Conakry, Republic of Guinea, from March 29 to 31.  The newly elected director succeeds Nigerian Umar...

In Morrocco, the central bank Bank Al-Maghrib, the Ministry of Finance, the Foreign Exchange Office, and the Financial Markets Regulator recently prohibited the use of cryptocurrencies in the country. According to a joint release published on March 5, 2022, the ban is decided to protect citizens against legal problems and financial losses. According to regulatory authorities, cryptocurrencies...

In Nigeria,  Mele Kyari (Photo), MD of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is calling for the creation of a special court for oil thefts The official made the plea on Thursday, during his address before the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources to explain why the country’s oil production dropped by over 500,000 barrels to 1.2 million barrels...

In Rwanda, real GDP grew by 10.9% in 2021. This is the estimate presented by an IMF team in an end-of-mission release issued on April 5, 2022, in the framework of an economic program supported by the IMF Policy Coordination Instrument (PCI). According to the release, the rebound comes after a 3.4% contraction recorded by the country in 2020. It is due to a “swift policy response to the...

Impact investment firm WIC Capital specialized in financing women-led businesses in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire granted XOF120 million (about US$200,000) of repayable advance to 13 SMEs in Senegal.  The resource provided is unsecured, interest-free, and repayable if the project funded is successful. The loans, ranging between  XOF3 million and 15 million, targetted SMEs active in...

U.S.-based technology company Equinix announced on Tuesday (April 5) that it has completed the acquisition of MainOne, a connectivity and data center solutions provider operating in West Africa. The transaction, valued at US$320 million, marks the beginning of Equinix's expansion in Africa.    With the acquisition of MainOne, Equinix adds four operational data centers to its...

Blaise Compaoré, former Burkinabe president, was since late 2021, prosecuted with several of his relatives for “complicity”, “corpse concealment” and “threat to state security” in the 1987 coup that led to the death of iconic president Thomas Sankara. A life sentence for Blaise Compaoré. This is the final verdict passed today, April 6,  by the judges of the Ouagadougou...

Buoyed by higher oil prices and IMF disbursements, Angola’s currency, the Kwanza, rose 22.2% since January 2022, topping the most performing African currencies.  Kwanza, Angola’s currency has appreciated by 22.21% against the US dollar since January 2022. According to a Bloomberg index analyzing twenty African currencies, this is the highest performance in Africa.  The performance...

Nigerian telecom operators partially blocked 73 million sim cards not linked to digital IDs. Sim cards thus blocked will no longer be able to make phone calls until further notice. The move, ordered by the federal government, aims to curb insecurity, extortion, and kidnapping.  Subscribers whose lines have been partially blocked will first have to be identified before mobile operators will...

The Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia (CRAN) announced on Friday, April 1, that it would not award new telecom licenses between  October 1, 2022, and September 30, 2023. According to the regulator, during that period, it will carry out a market survey to assess the competition and saturation of the national mobile market. According to CRAN CEO Emilia Nghikembua (photo), the...