At the end of 2015, South Africa counted 38,500 wealthy individuals (High Net Worth Individuals/HNWI) who cumulated a wealth of $159 billion, a recent report published by Research and Markets. The cumulated wealth of these individuals who hold assets equaling at least a million dollar, excluding house and consumption goods, dropped by 18% compared to 2014, mainly as a result of Rand’s...

Ghana is considering the establishment of regulatory organ for its cashew sector, said Dr. Yakubu Alhassan from Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA). The official revealed this at the launch of an international meeting that gathered 70 experts of the sector in the Ghana. Dr Alhassan added that the institution would help develop an environment that will promote growth of cashew output and...

Egypt signed with the World Bank, a $3 billion loan agreement with a 1.2% interest rate and a five-year grace period. The loan is to be paid over 35 years. According to Mohamed Meid, Egypt’s Deputy Minister of Finance in charge of public treasury, out of the loan secured from World Bank, $1 billion will be used to plug the country’s budget deficit which has been estimated to 9.8%...

Fighting food insecurity, Niger’s authorities announced they were in talks with Saudi firm Al Horaish for Trading & Industry regarding the sale of 120,000 hectares of agricultural lands situated in the Diffa region, in the eastern part of Niger. Disapproving the project, the civic society said it equals to grabbing agro-pastoral lands which happen to be vital to local communities. The...

On August 18, 2016, various non-government organizations for human rights defense, gathered for a press conference, accused the mining firm AngloGold Ashanti Goldfields Guinea (SAG in French) of land expropriation from the Siguiri prefecture, Upper Guinea. This was reported by news website Guinee58.com. The NGOs which include Same Right for All (Mêmes Droits pour Tous, MDT) blame the local...

The President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama (photo) has revealed that the Jubilee field together with the achievement of first oil at the Tweneboa, Enyenra, Ntomme (TEN) field, have made Ghana become the Petroleum and Energy hub in the West African sub-region. According to him, the TEN field will produce around 76,000 barrels of oil per day and 15 million standard cubic feet of gas. He added...

Sonangol has announced that it has postponed construction works at the Lobito Refinery and the Ocean Terminal at Barra do Dande in order to reexamine the project. According to the company, these projects are of great importance to the country but the suspension is necessary because of the problem facing Angola’s oil sector, which needs a full assessment of its development, phasing and...

Sterling Energy has announced that the operator of the Odewayne Production Sharing Agreement (PSA), Genel Energy, has been awarded 2 years extension to the current periods of the PSA by the Government of the Republic of Somaliland. Under the PSA, the third exploration period will now expire by November 2, 2018, fourth period (which is optional) will expire by May 2, 2020, fifth period (optional)...

BP plans to commence the Phase 1 of development on the northern Alexandria concession and West Mediterranean deep water by Q3 of 2017, with a production capacity of 450 million cubic feet of gas per day. According to a source from the Egyptian Natural Gas Holding Co (EGAS), the development project has an estimated $11.3b in investments and has been predicted to hold total reserves of 5,000...

In Egypt, Apache Corp., has revealed plans to invest more and sign new contracts for exploration in the country in the coming period. This the company revealed during a meeting with Egyptian Prime Minister, Sherif Ismail and the Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Tarek El-Molla. Apache’s CEO, John Christmann (photo), said the company had been operating in Egypt’s research and...