The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank on 19 November 2021 approved a $35 million unfunded risk-sharing facility to support the trade finance activities in Africa of Ecobank International affiliates, EBI SA. Stefan Nalletamby, Director for Financial Sector Development at the African Development Bank, said the renewal of the partnership with Ecobank comes at a time when most...

African heads of state and government together with senior policymakers will share their perspectives on how to reshape Africa’s development financing models at the 2021 African Economic Conference, which takes place on Thursday, 2 December. Cabo Verde Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Olavo Correia said the conference offered “an extraordinarily important moment” to chart...

The African Development Bank and IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, on Wednesday signed a partnership agreement admitting IFC as the first institutional partner to the Development Finance Compact for Portuguese-Speaking Countries of Africa, or the Lusophone Compact. The agreement was signed by African Development Bank Vice President for Corporate Services and Human Resources and Chair of the...

The media industry in many African countries has long suffered from a lack of support from authorities. To break this trend, the Ivorian government has invested more than CFA10 billion ($17.3 million) over the past decade to support private media. Amadou Coulibaly, Ivorian Minister of Communication, Media and Francophonie, announced last November 29 the introduction of a parafiscal tax on...

The USAID announced an investment to assist the about six million children and their families who lack clean water in Ghana (World Vision International’s data). The organization has pledged $45.5 million over the next five years to improve water and sanitation access in the country. The investment will mainly focus on the Upper East, Upper West, North-East, Northern, Savannah and Oti...

Investment fund manager Zebu Investment Partners (ZIP) has announced an undisclosed investment in poultry company Elgin Free Range Chickens Holdings (EFRCH). This first deal of the year is made through ZIP's second fund -Africa Food Security LP (AFS). Although the amount of the transaction was not disclosed, it is known that Africa Food Security Fund makes equity investments of between $2...

China will waive $10 billion of its special drawing rights (SDRs) to support African countries. The announcement was made on Monday by Chinese President Xi Jinping (pictured). This was during the opening ceremony of the 8th Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). The decision represents a new step forward in the implementation of the international solidarity...

The African Development Bank’s African Natural Resources Centre and the Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa have hosted the first in a series of webinars discussing the potential of Africa’s blue economy. The webinar, held on November 23, centered around a study on the potential of offshore renewable energy in Africa commissioned by the African Natural Resources Centre as part of a series to...

After a controversial tax reform in the telecom sector, the Zimbabwean government announced the introduction of a new levy on imported mobile phones. The government will apply a $50 levy on imported mobile phones, according to the 2022 national budget presented last November 25 by the finance minister Mthuli Ncube (pictured). Speaking to MPs, the minister explained that although...

This competition honors the top 50 startups promoting financial inclusion in the world. FLASH is a financial and value-added services provider serving unbanked population in emerging markets and has been selected as the winner of the Inclusive FinTech 50 competition. The Center for Financial Inclusion (CFI) recently announced the 2021 cohort of the Inclusive FinTech 50 (IF50) competition,...