In Kenya, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), in its recent review, reduced fuel pump prices for the next one month. A litre of super petrol will reduce by 92 cents to Sh85.58 per litre in Nairobi, diesel by Sh2.18 to Sh65.70 while kerosene reduced by Sh2.53 to Sh42.15 per litre. The drop has been as a result of enhanced import costs in the month of February compared to January as well as...

According to mybroadband.co.za, Vodacom is exploring options to reinforce or shut down its M-Pesa service in South Africa as the service, unlike in other markets such as Kenya where it recorded an astounding success, stagnates. Interviewed by Fin24, Vodacom’s spokesperson, Byrin Kennedy, said “no final decision has been taken yet”. Though options are being explored to revive the service,...

In Uganda, data released ten days ago by Central Bank reveals that loans to the country by commercial banks grew 9.5% at end-January 2016, against 15.6% at end-September 2015. In the meantime, foreign currency loans also dropped. Many factors explain this trend. Among these, rates of loans in Shillings reaching 24.6% at the end of 2015, against the 20.7% the year before. Also, to adapt to...

International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced in statement dated March 14, 2016, that its board has approved a $1.5 billion loan to Kenya, under a two-year Stand-by Arrangement. “Kenya’s recent performances in terms of economic growth remain strong but despite positive policy steps taken by authorities in the framework of the IMF-backed aid program, the economy remains vulnerable to...

EGX 30, Egyptian bourse’s main benchmark index ended with a 6.7% growth on March 14, 2016. Other indexes knowingly EGX 70 and EGX 100, also increased by 1.5% and 3.5% respectively. Following that trend, market capitalization surged to EGP428 billion (local currency), thus its highest since May 2014. The performance is subsequent to Central Bank’s decision to devaluate currency, at an...

Accor Hotels and pan African hotel booking platform Jovago.com announced in a statement published March 14, the signing of a partnership agreement to incorporate all Accor hotels in Africa into the platform. According to the terms of the contract, 30 hotels located in 13 countries will be first incorporated into the platform. The remaining hotels of the group will later be incorporated....

Aminex PLC on Tuesday announced that it is preparing to commence production from its Kiliwani North-1 well, offshore Tanzania. According to the company, the final well testing of the Kiliwani North-1 well has been completed, wellhead control panel has been installed and all essential works on the well before the commencement of gas production will soon be complete. The company added that the...

OneSubsea on Tuesday announced that it has been granted a contract by BP Exploration and Deutsche Erdoel (DEA) for the supply of subsea production systems for the West Nile Delta Giza/Fayoum and Raven fields, offshore Egypt. The Giza/Fayoum field will be connected to an improved onshore Rosetta facilities and integrated with a new onshore plant for the Raven field. Under the contract, the...

Oil prices fell on Monday after Iranian Oil Minister, Bijan Zanganeh, destroyed hopes of joining other producers in freezing production. U.S. crude traded at $38.15 per barrel on Monday morning, down 35 cents from their last settlement. Zanganeh had said that Iran will only join the pact between other producers on a possible freeze after its own production reaches 4 million bpd, adding...

FAR has announced that after the successful drilling of the first two appraisal wells of the SNE oil field appraisal program offshore Senegal, the third well BEL-1 has been drilled by its partner, Cairn Energy.  The BEL-1 well is to be spud in about 1,100 metres of water and drilled to a total vertical depth subsea of about 2,757 metres prior to the commencement of an evaluation program...