South Korean car maker Kia Motors signed on Thursday, Sept 23, a contract with Ethiopian firm Beyalab Motors Plc, to establish a car assembly plant in Ethiopia. The firm plans to do the same in other African nations. “It is important to penetrate the African market. We are also looking at the prospects of opening similar plants in Algeria and other countries,” Soon Nam Lee, President of Kia's...

Nigeria needs about $15 billion in loans and through sales of assets to restart its economy which has plunged into recession, and to boost foreign exchange reserves, Africa’s richest Aliko Dangote said. “Through sales of assets, through loans from Bank of China or wherever, we need something like $15 billion, We’re having a problem as the reserves are low. The banks,...

At the end of the 2016-17 cotton season, Cote d’Ivoire should produce 360,000 metric tons of the crop. Thout this output is 16% above the last season’s where production was hampered by a poor weather, it still remains below the 2014-15 season’s 450,000 tons. Christophe N’dry, executive secretary of Ivorian cotton ginners association, who revealed the statistics in a statement said:...

On the first day of the Aitex 2016 event held in Morocco this week, Cote d’Ivoire has signed with Morocco a deal for a techno-centre similar to the kingdom’s Technopark. The contract was signed by important figures and representatives of both governments. “The objective here is to build a duplicate in Cote d’Ivoire and have techno-centres in Abidjan’s major settlements. This in order...

After proceeding to the verification of minutes and recounting votes, the Constitutional Court of Gabon has officially recognized Ali Bongo as the president with 50.66% of votes. With 47.27%, Jean Ping’s appeal was rejected. “After assessing the electoral dispute with respect to the law and with observers from the African Union, the Constitutional Court has confirmed the victory of our...

World leader in terms of audit, verification, tests and certification, SGS (Société Générale de Surveillance) is launching a new service “SGS Land Management” to support local, national and regional African organisations for more land tenure security. Global urbanization is an unprecedented challenge. From 37.9% of the world population living in urban areas in 1976, that proportion has...

Australian mining firm Lucapa Diamond has discovered a 104 ct diamond at the Lulo mine in Angola. Testing of at Yehuda colorimeter revealed that it was a type IIa diamond. The D-Colour (colorless) stone is one of the four diamonds exceeding 100 ct recovered since the beginning of the year, and the fifth since mining operations at the project started. In February 2016, a 404 ct diamond was...

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) reportedly plans to grant Morocco’s ministry of agriculture a €120 million sovereign loan to finance part of a hydro-agricultural project in the Saïss plain. The loan will be used to build the first portion of the 66-km water transmission canal connecting the upcoming M’dez dam which is also to be built under the project,...

Anadarko Petroleum on Friday announced that the planned extraction of natural gas in Mozambique may commence in 2022 or 2023 while the final investment decision will be made in 2017. According to the Chief Executive of the oil company, Al Walker, a final investment decision of no less than US$15 billion, intends to make the most of the next phase of increase in the prices of commodities.“Our...

Sound Energy said it has renegotiated its agreement with PetroMaroc for the procurement of a 50% stake in three onshore gas permits in Morocco. According to the company, both parties have entered into a reviewed agreement in a bid to ensure that their interests are protected in a sensible and fair manner.This signifies that profits generated from the sale of the 21,258,008 new shares to be...