Experienced banker Lorato Boakgomo-Ntakhwana (photo) has been appointed as new Chairman of the Botswana Telecommunications Corporation Ltd (BTCL), one of the major local companies listed on the Botswana Stock Exchange. Local media suggest that the appointment should restore investor confidence, and pull up the firm’s market capitalization. BTCL’s listing on the Botswana Stock Exchange last...

Kenyan Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) in its latest price review which will take effect from November 15 to December 14, 2016 increased the maximum retail prices of petrol, diesel and kerosene in the country. According to the Agency, in Nairobi, super petrol will retail at Sh94.94 per litre, diesel at Sh82.17 per litre while kerosene will increase to Sh62.16 per litre. In Mombasa, a litre of...

Azerbaijan’s state oil company, SOCAR, has announced that it is currently thinking of the possibility of constructing an oil terminal in Cotonou, Benin. This was declared during a visit by the Azerbaijani delegation led by the country’s Energy Minister Natig Aliyev to Burkina Faso and Benin in response to the call of the countries’ governments. During the meetings, the sides discussed...

In Nigeria, militant group Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) has claimed responsibility for an attack on the Nembe Creek Trunk Line pipeline in the southern Niger Delta. According to the group, its strike team attacked the Nembe 1, 2 and 3 branches of the pipeline. The group, which is demanding for a greater share of energy wealth to go to the swampland region, had said in August that it would stop...

Exxon Mobil Corp has announced that it is in talks with Chad concerning a $74 billion fine it was told to pay by the court over alleged underpayment of royalties relating to the Doba basin oilfields. The U.S supermajor appealed the October 5 Chad court ruling, but the hearing has been postponed because of the talks, according to Bloomberg. The court had also asked the company to...

Kuwait’s cabinet has approved an extension of its oil exports to Egypt beginning from January, with an extra time of nine months, according to ministerial sources. The oil-rich country is to provide Egypt with about 2 million barrels of crude oil per month at the global price, the sources said, not giving more details. Egypt in 2014, entered into a long-term agreement with Kuwait to import two...

The Friedrich Naumann Foundation has decided to get involved in the battle led by Ivorian authorities to secure their lands. It has in this framework organized last Nov. 10 its “Jeudis libéraux” meeting which was a conference on the theme “Private property, rural land tenure and development”. According to Fraternité Matin, the conference falls in line with the “How to establish rural...

Tunisia, Botswana and South Africa are the three African countries with the best entrepreneurship environment, according to the “Global Entrepreneurship Index 2017” published on Nov. 13 by the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Institute (GEDI, London). Worldwide, Tunisia comes 42nd in the rankings ahead of Italy, India, China and Russia. Botswana and South Africa are respectively...

From November 23 to 25, 2016, Brazzaville, Congo’s capital, will host the national conference on digital technology. The event which will be under the theme “Digital Economy: A lever for economic diversification, competitiveness, employment and modernization of public administration in Congo” will allow private and public actors of the ICT and telecom sectors to discuss the various ways to...

The Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD) and the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) will grant $50 million in concessional loans to developing countries for renewable energy projects. Deadline for applications to the funding programme is February, 15, 2017, IRENA revealed. It added that results for selected projects will be announced in January 2018. The loans are part of the...