The International Monetary Fund approved additional financing of $28.8 million for The Gambia under the Extended Credit Facility signed with the country in March 2020. In an official statement, the Fund said the money will help the country meet its urgent balance of payment and fiscal needs and boost its pandemic-affected economy. Covid-19 has hampered the implementation of reforms...

The security crisis currently hitting the Central African Republic has caused food prices to rise. Data provided by the Central African Institute for Statistics, Economic, and Social Studies (ICASEES) show that the prices of basic imported food products jumped from 15% up to 240% during the first week of January 2021. According to the “price monitoring bulletin,” the hike was observed in the...

The African Development Bank today announced the addition of two new countries - Mauritius and Morocco - to its Bloomberg African Bond Indices (ABABI), marking a steady progress in the Bank’s efforts to deepen the continent’s local currency bond market. The African Development Bank administers the ABABI, a family of African bond indices launched in February 2015 and calculated by the...

The Federal government of Nigeria plans to vaccinate more than 140 million people by the end of 2022, about 70% of the population. The announcement was made by Faisal Shuaib (photo), chief executive officer of Nigeria’s National Primary Health Care Development Agency. According to the official, the government plans to vaccinate 40% of its population by the end of this year and then vaccinate...

Moroccan tech group RMK Holding, which controls e-payment company M2M Group and payment operator Naps, sold for an untold amount a minority stake of 6.16% of its capital to Renate Investment Management. The agreement between the two partners comes a few weeks after the entry of Retail Holding and its subsidiary Label’Vie into the capital of the group founded by Rédouane Bayed. They each...

Member states of the West African Economic and Monetary Union mobilized a total of CFA9.2163 trillion ($17 billion) on the regional money market last year. This is a record mobilization since 2014, according to data compiled by Ecofin Agency. In total, WAEMU States issued CFA1.6127 trillion worth of securities, both for loans with maturities of one year or less and for longer repayment...

The African Union announced this week it has purchased 270 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine for the continent. At least 50 million doses will be available between April and June 2021, the body said. “As a result of our efforts, we have so far secured a commitment of a provisional amount of 270 million vaccines from three major suppliers: Pfizer, AstraZeneca (through Serum Institute of...

The Republic of Benin has just completed a €1 billion bond issue on the international debt market, an official statement revealed yesterday. This is the first operation of its kind conducted by an African country since the beginning of the year. For this operation, the government first issued €700 million at an interest rate of 4.8% with a maturity of 11 years. The...

Following the completion of a virtual review mission to Mali, the International Monetary Fund reached a preliminary agreement with the country’s authorities for the pursuit of reforms undertaken by the government under the IMF-led Extended Credit Facility. In a January 13 statement, the institution said the disbursement of $58 million will be approved for Mali once this staff-level deal...

The Ivorian government said it will pay CFA620.2 billion ($1.1 billion) to about twenty private international creditors which are either banks or private investment institutions, in 2021, we learned.  Of this amount, CFA409.5 billion will be earmarked for the payment of interest and CFA210.7 billion for the principal. The interest is inflated by the commitment to repay the sums due under...