President Omar el-Béchir, who is at the head of Sudan since 1989, said in an interview broadcasted on April 7 by BBC he will withdraw at the end of his current term in 2020. “In 2020, there will be a new president and I will become the former president,” Bechir said. He became Head of State after a coup by Islamic movement. Formerly a general, Sudan’s president was re-elected in April...

Subsidiary of Emirati investment firm Abraaj Group, Cleopatra Holding, applied to be listed on the Egyptian Exchange with a capitalization of EGP80 million ($9 million), news agency MENA revealed citing Managing Director of the Egyptian stock exchange. The Egyptian stock market is currently studying the application and checking that all necessary documents for its examination are included....

In Eastern Libya, workers from three oil fields have been withdrawn due to threats of attacks by the Islamic State militants. Oil and security officials in the country have said that since the fields are shut, production has not been affected. Libyan oil fields and terminals in recent months, have been a scene of attacks by this militants. Facilities were damaged but so far they have not been...

African Development Bank (AfDB) just granted Cote d’Ivoire FCFA600 million to fight avian flu. Funding agreement was signed on April 6, 2016, at Sofitel Hotel Ivoire, between the representative of AfDB’s president and Cote d’voire’s minister for fishery resources, Kobenan Kouassi Adjoumani. “The grant will serve to reinforce veterinary services, in order to improve and efficiently...

Mining company Roxgold reported financial and operational results at its Yaramoko gold project in Burkina Faso. It completed 63% of construction works, and is on track for first gold pour in second quarter of 2016. To achieve this, the firm spent in 2015 about $57 million out of a total of $110 million. Indeed, to fund the project, Roxgold negotiated a $75 million credit line...

World Bank announced an electrification plan that aims to assist developing countries, to develop 30 GW of clean energies, which could provide energy to 150 million households. The group also plans to develop climate smart agricultural investment plans for 40 countries, at least, and early warning systems for natural disasters. “Following the Paris climate agreement, we must now take bold...

Chinese conglomerate Jiangsu Sunshine Group announced in a statement published on April 7 it will invest $359 million to build a textile factory in Ethiopia.  The factory should be established in the Adama industrial park (about 100 km South East of Addis Ababa) over an area of 4.5 hectares. It should in the long term produce 10 million m of combed wool fabrics and 1.5 million finished...

International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in its global financial stability report published on April 4, that insurers could present a systemic risk due to their tendency to invest risky assets in an environment characterized by weak interest rates. “Across advanced economies the contribution of life insurers to system risk has increased in recent years,” IMF said noting that insurers now...

The Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo) has said that the floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel Kwame Nkrumah, which stopped operation in March, will restart operation on April 9. The partners on the Jubilee Field had reported the two weeks shutdown of the FPSO on March 20, 2016, stating that it was for an intended maintenance work on key equipment of the FPSO. The FPSO Kwame Nkrumah...

The Angola LNG project is likely to ship a cargo of chilled gas soon as an LNG tanker is en route to the plant in Soyo, according to shipping data. The vessel, Sonangol Sambizanga is expected to be moored at the liquefaction and export plant in Soyo on April 15. This is going to be the first cargo of chilled gas to depart from the $10 billion Soyo LNG export plant ever since it was closed...