The Bank of Central African States turned down last week a license request by state-owned Cameroon Postal Services (Campost) to operate an e-payment clearing and settlement system in Cameroon. In an official April 15 letter signed by Governor Abbas Mahamat Tolli (pictured), Beac rejected the request because Campost wrote it in English instead of in French, which is the working language of the...

JSE-listed Ascendis Health, which specializes in the distribution of healthcare and pharmaceutical products, sold its subsidiary Scitec International at a lower price than the purchase price. Acquired in 2016 for €170 million ($184.6 million), this product distribution unit was sold four years later at €5 million ($5.4 million); this represents a capital loss of about $179.2...

Ethiopian Airlines has secured a World Food Program contract to transport essential supplies and medicines across Africa to fight the current coronavirus pandemic. This will mitigate the losses currently being suffered by Ethiopian Airlines. The UN agency has selected Addis Ababa as one of eight global centers set up to facilitate the supply chain in the fight against the pandemic. According to...

In a recent analysis, the Washington-based Institute of International Finance (IIF) indicated that countries such as Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, South Africa, and Algeria will not benefit from the debt moratorium granted by the G20 to poor countries. As a reminder, South Africa itself is a member of the G20 and could not benefit from the moratorium, despite the obvious strains on its economy. Also,...

The African Development Bank Group on 14 April 2020, announced the debarment of China Zhonghao Nigeria Limited, a civil engineering company registered in Nigeria, for 18 months, for fraudulent practices. An investigation conducted by the Bank’s Office of Integrity and Anti-Corruption established that China Zhonghao Nigeria Limited, as a member of a joint venture with Oceanic Construction and...

In a recent report, the International Monetary Fund said GDP in Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to fall at 1.6% this year, down 5.2 pts compared to the initial forecast. This will be the worst result ever, IMF said. This decline is largely due to the impact of the covid-19 and the sharp decline in commodity prices. Also, specific factors such as permanent structural constraints observed in some...

The Egyptian government plans to increase its public spending by $634 million to support the national economy. The announcement was made this week by finance minister Mohamed Maait (pictured). According to the official, these new investments will be allocated to “paying the debts of contractors and suppliers and improving the quality of services offered to the public.” The government...

The Czech telecommunications service provider GiTy announced on April 14 the signing of a multi-year contract with the Israeli company Spacecom, which operates the AMOS telecom satellite fleet. The contract covers GiTy's use of C-band capacity on the AMOS-17 communications satellite to provide quality connectivity to embassies across Africa. The AMOS-17 satellite was designed specifically to...

Alexander Forbes Namibia Holdings (AF Namibia Holdings), 75% owned by the South African financial services group Alexander Forbes, announced it is selling all the shares it holds in its subsidiary Alexander Forbes Insurance Company Namibia (AFI Namibia). The buyer is Momentum Short Term Insurance Namibia (MSTI Namibia), a short-term insurance company operating in the Namibian market and owned by...

The Casablanca Stock Exchange was quite dynamic during the first quarter of 2020, despite a context strongly marked by the effects of the covid-19 pandemic on the Moroccan economy. The MASI, the index that groups together all the companies listed on this financial market, ended on a level down by 11% compared to the same period in 2019. The overall market capitalization was MAD503 billion on...