The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) recently published the 2019 edition of its democracy index. Taking into account 50 African countries except for Seychelles, South Sudan, Somalia, and Sao Tome and Principe, the index gives a picture of the state of democracy on the African continent. It shows that in 2019, democracy declined globally, on the African continent and more particularly in...

During a meeting between the Nigerian and Ghanaian presidents on January 20, on the sidelines of the UK-Africa 2020 summit, Muhammadu Buhari (photo) brought new arguments to justify extending the duration of the closure of the Nigerian borders. According to the Nigerian president, the partial closure was motivated not only by the fight against rice smuggling but also the fight against drugs....

Credit Suisse wants Mozambique to pay $622 million, representing the sovereign and partial guarantee it owes as part of a $2 billion loan granted to state-owned enterprises. This is a new twist in a case that began as a debt concealment and became a corruption scandal. Last year, Mozambique launched legal proceedings against the bank and other co-defendants, with the aim of canceling...

Morocco will soon upgrade to the 5G network. Philippe Wang, Vice President of Huawei North Africa, announced on January 21 that the company is ready to collaborate with Moroccan operators in deploying the technology. Huawei says this will be a step forward for Morocco in achieving its digital transformation ambition including becoming a technological hub on the continent. The Chinese company is...

The United Kingdom approves £40 million to support the agriculture sector in Mozambique over the next five years, the British High Commission in the country informed. “The funding will improve the involvement of the private sector in selected areas of agriculture to promote greater climate resistance, in addition to stimulating growth in this sector and the transformation of the economy of...

The subsea cable Djibouti Africa Regional Express 1DARE1 will be completed by March 2020. The four companies that are developing the infrastructure, Djibouti Telecom, Somtel, Telkom Kenya and SubCom, said it has already landed at La Siesta Beach, in Djibouti and marine operations is underway. Installation of landing stations in Bosaso (Somali Puntland), Mogadishu (Somalia) and Mombasa (Kenya)...

Private equity firm Janngo, based in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, announces the launch of a $66.5 million fund dedicated to financing startups in Africa. The fund, Janngo Capital Startup Fund, will target at least 50% of technology companies founded or co-founded by women entrepreneurs. Janngo's investment strategy is to provide capital support to early-stage and growth companies with proven...

The Ivorian minister of transport, Amadou Koné, announced plans to strengthen the partnership between Air Côte d'Ivoire and Ethiopian Airlines. In an interview with Afrikipresse on January 19, the official said discussions were held on promoting Ethiopia’s Addis Ababa-Abidjan-New York JFK service and establishing connections to other destinations such as Montréal and Washington via...

The government of Egypt is seeking to increase the capital of its social wealth fund to EGP1,000 billion ($63.3 billion) from the current EGP200 billion ($12.6 billion). The announcement was made yesterday by the Minister of Planning and Economic Development, Hala el-Saeed, in London, on the sidelines of the Africa-UK Summit. The terms of this capital increase were not however specified. The...

Solomon Belay, Head of the Ethiopian Space Science and Technology Institute (ESSTI), announced last week that China will help Ethiopia establish a continental satellite data receiver station. The facility is the fruit of a partnership that also implies that Ethiopia benefits from China’s expertise in training space engineers and launching satellites. The project will be implemented in Addis...