The share of renewables in the global energy mix should double, from the current 26% to 57%, by 2030 to meet climate goals, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) found in its recent “10 years: Progress to Action” report. This means the capacity of renewable energy plants should increase from the current 2.4 TW to 7.7 TW. Achieving this objective will require doubling investments...

Administrative Capital For Urban Development (ACUD), the company which owns and develops the new administrative capital project in Egypt, has selected mobile operator Orange to build a data center and a cloud computing platform in the smart city. The $135 million agreement was signed on January 12 between ACUD MD, Mohamed Abdel Latif, and Hisham Mahran who manages the business division at...

Ghanaian private airline Africa World Airlines (AWA) and Air Burkina announced on Jan 10 they have entered into a unilateral interline partnership to better connect passengers via the AWA hub in Accra.   Under this partnership, Air Burkina’s passengers can now join, with a single ticket, AWA networks between Accra and Lagos, Abuja and Abidjan, as well as domestic services in...

South Africa's telecom operator, MTN Group, which also has the largest presence in Africa, collected R14 billion ($986 million) in 2019 with the sale of non-core assets. “Realizing proceeds from simplifying the group remains a major strategic objective and we expect further progress in this program in 2020,” CEO Rob Shuter (pictured) said. MTN plans to mobilize up to R15 billion over the...

The Ivorian government has announced the creation of the Small and Medium Enterprises Guarantee Fund to facilitate access to bank financing for SMEs. This was highlighted in the communiqué of the Council of Ministers held on Wednesday, January 8, 2020. According to the Ivorian authorities, the creation of this fund is intended to guarantee credits granted by banking establishments to national...

British global citizenship and residence advisory firm Henley & Partners has just published the 2020 ranking of the world’s most powerful passports. Although Africa is still lagging compared to the rest of the world, some countries on the continent are making progress. Seychelles’ passport ranked 29th worldwide and 1st in Africa, gives visa-free entry to 151 destinations. The top 5 on the...

In sub-Saharan Africa, the number of pay-TV subscribers is expected to reach 47.26 million by 2025, from the current 30.7 million, according to a study by the American firm Digital TV Research. Major improvement will come from Nigeria which will have 10 million of the 47.26 million expected. According to experts at Digital TV Research, Nigeria will overtake South Africa, which so far has the...

While it initially forecasted Algeria’s economic growth at 0.2% for the current year, the World Bank now estimates it to be 1.9%. From an initial forecast of 0.8%, growth for 2021 was also revised upward to 2.2%. In the related report issued on January 8, 2020, the institution says the good news is spurred by a recovery in investment and a reduction in political uncertainty, in addition to the...

The number of people killed in terrorist attacks rose significantly over the past three years. In Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali, deaths rose from 770 in 2019 to more than 4,000 in 2019, according to figures reported by the head of the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS), Mohamed Ibn Chambas (photo).   The number of Internally Displaced Persons in these three...

The Ivorian government signed two financing deals totaling €43 million (about $47 million) with the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) for the sanitation of 12 cities including the capital Abidjan. This was announced following the Council of Ministers meeting held on Wednesday, January 8, 2020. The project covers the construction of an anaerobic digestion plant with a capacity of 500...