The Mozambique Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Area 1 Project and the African Development Bank have jointly received the prestigious Global Multilateral Deal of the Year 2020 award by the print and online publication Project Finance International (PFI). The project, the single largest foreign direct investment in Africa to date with a value of over $24 billion, will exploit Mozambique’s...

Telecel Group announced today that through its subsidiary Africa Startup Initiative Program “ASIP”, it has partnered with Startupbootcamp AfriTech to launch the Africa Startup Initiative Program Accelerator (ASIP Accelerator). The goal for ASIP is to discover Africa’s most talented entrepreneurs operating in the fields related to telecom and technology, and help them create successful...

Mauritius Commercial Bank (MCB) announced it has agreed to sell all the 80% shares it held in payments processor ICPS for an undisclosed amount. The buyer is Morocco's payment solution provider HPS, which already owned 20% stake in the company.   This acquisition is part of HPS's strategy for growth and development abroad. The company is committed to providing payment solutions and services...

Orange Business Services, an Orange Group branch specializing in providing telecommunications and IT services for businesses, announced on February 9 that it has been appointed by Administrative Capital for Urban Development (ACUD) - owner and developer of the new administrative capital, to design and build the data center for the new Egyptian administrative capital. The infrastructure is...

Last year in Tunisia, the largest declines in revenues was recorded in the consumer services sector (-29.2% yoy) and the telecom sector (-21.9% yoy). The figures were reported in a note published this month by the Tunis Stock Exchange. Most of the companies operating in these sectors and listed on the stock exchange achieved lower revenues at the end of 2020. Of the 3 listed companies in the...

MTN Group sold its 20% minority stake in Belgacom International Carrier Services (BICS), a company specialized in the provision of mobile data and voice services. The South African telecom operator sold the shares for R1.8 billion ($121 million) to Proximus Group, Belgium’s largest telecom company. “I am excited to conclude this agreement, allowing us to retain a growth engine within the...

The Sakneen real estate platform, established in 2019 in Egypt, raised $1.1 million from a consortium of foreign and local investors. The transaction was led by the Egyptian venture capital firm, Algebra Ventures. According to Sakneen's co-founder, Hussein El Kheshen (pictured right), the team "is actively working on several new features that will be launched in the coming weeks, in...

South Africa suspended the deployment of the Oxford/ AstraZeneca vaccine after the efficacy test showed it only provides limited protection against the mutated 501Y.V2 variant of SARS-coV-2, which was reported in the country. Announcement was made on February 7th by the health minister Zweli Mkhize (pictured). The official said this move will enable the government to conduct deeper tests until...

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has just unveiled its 2020 Democracy Index, a ranking of nations around the world based on their level of democracy. The document features 50 African countries, excluding Seychelles, South Sudan, Somalia, and Sao Tomé-et-Principe. Figures show that like 2019, 2020 also saw setbacks in democracy worldwide, but mainly in Africa and SSA, especially. The...

Tunisia will benefit from a $300 million syndicated loan (€250 million) from several local banks to finance its 2021 State budget. The information was reported by Reuters, which relayed the comments of a senior government official. The Finance department had called on banks to subscribe to the loan on Tuesday, February 9th, 2021. With a projected deficit of more than 6%, the Tunisian...