Over the first quarter this year, international tourist arrivals dropped by 22% due to the coronavirus pandemic, the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) reported. This resulted in a decrease of 67 million in international arrivals and about $80 billion in revenue. The most impacted regions are Asia and the Pacific with a drop of 33 million arrivals, and Europe with a drop of 22 million...

Egypt's Qatar National Bank (QNB) Alahli will receive a senior loan of $100 million that will be used to provide short-term financing to companies that are experiencing a decline in business and profitability. Details regarding the maturity and interest rate associated with this credit line have not been disclosed. Moreover, the eligibility criteria for companies, to this financing, are...

The Egyptian Minister of Finance, Mohamed Ma'it, announced on Monday 11 May that the government is going to issue EGP3 billion (about $190 million) in guarantees to the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), in favor of national banks. The aim is to facilitate loans to Egyptian tourist and hotel establishments to pay the salaries of tourism workers. According to the Minister, the loans will be repaid...

Ethiopian authorities admitted this week that they mistakenly shot down the Kenyan aid plane that crashed a few days ago in Berdale, in Somalia. According to information relayed by Kenyan media, the incident was allegedly due to a lack of communication. The aircraft transporting medical equipment reportedly showed “suspicious behavior” while flying over the Ethiopian troop base. “When an...

Egypt will benefit from $2.7billion emergency funds from the International Monetary Fund to meet the urgent balance of payments needs generated by the coronavirus pandemic, limit the decline in international reserves and curb the disease’s economic impacts. The investment is part of the Rapid Credit Facility initiated by the Fund to support vulnerable countries during the crisis. “Egypt...

Convergence Partners has acquired, through its pan-African digital service provider platform -inq. Holdings Limited- the operations of Vodacom Business Africa in Nigeria, Zambia, and Côte d’Ivoire. Convergence has also taken steps to acquire Vodacom's assets in Cameroon and completion is pending regulatory approvals. Via its platform, Convergence Partners aims to position itself as a unified...

Last year, the Algiers Stock Exchange attracted a very poor number of investors, the market regulator said in its annual report. In terms of value and volume of transactions, the market was very dynamic but globally, operations only concerned one stock (Biopharm), the Commission for the Organization, and Supervision of Stock Exchange Operations in Algeria (Cosob) said. The pharmaceutical group...

The Kenyan government plans to release up to KSh1.5 billion (about $14.1 million) to support the Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC) over three years. Local media reports the strategy is part of a program initiated by the Ministry of Finance to inject the same amount in each of its strategic public entities. The first tranche of KSh500 million will be disbursed during the FY2020-21, the...

The US government, through its Center for Disease Control, approved $37 million in aid for Ethiopia to fight the coronavirus pandemic. The information was reported on May 8 by the US ambassador to the country, Michael Raynor (pictured). According to US authorities, the money will primarily be used to strengthen health care and equip laboratories for large scale testing. “As we have done...

Over the first quarter this year, the MAD6 billion consolidated net banking income achieved by Attijariwafa Bank was only 1.5% higher than that in Q1 2019, the weakest Q1 increase since 2018. The net income group share was MAD1.1 billion, down 23.8% from Q1 2019. This shows that the Moroccan bank was in a very weak position even before the coronavirus. For FY2019, Attijariwafa Bank...