The Ivorian economy should grow 9.8% in 2016 against 9.5% in 2015, Minister of budget, Abdourahmane Cissé, announced during a conference held on January 21. This projection exceeds the 8.4% forecast by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) at the end of 2015.   Mr. Cissé also said Côte d’Ivoire recorded an annual average growth of 9% since the end of the 2011 civil war. To maintain...

Tullow Oil on Thursday revealed that it is sending one of the world’s leading floating deep-water oil production platforms to West Africa to produce crude for at most 20 years. According to Tullow’s COO, Paul McDade (photo), the 340-m long production vessel which was named after late Ghanaian president Prof John Evans Atta Mills, was rehabilitated in Singapore from a very large crude carrier...

The Egyptian Refining Company (ERC), has announced that production will commence at its $3.7 billion oil refinery in Q1 of 2017. According to the company’s managing director, Mohammed Saad, the refinery which is the biggest in Egypt with a capacity to produce 4.2 million tonnes of refined products yearly, is to commence trial production by the end of 2016. "We have completed so far 80...

Tunisia will present a development plan which requires $63 billion of investments, from which $23 billion of foreign investment, during the Davos World Economic Forum which began yesterday and will end on January 23. “Tunisia plans during the Davos Forum to mobilize a third of the amount representing its financial needs for developing national economy over a period of 5 years. These...

In Libya, Islamic State militants on Thursday claimed responsibility for another attack on an oil installation close to the country's Ras Lanuf terminal. According to an engineer at the port and an energy official not less than two storage tanks from the Harouge Oil Operations Company had been set ablaze near Ras Lanuf. The militants in a video released not long after the attack, threatened to...

Telecom firm Gabon Telecom just purchased 44 power generators to keep its telecommunication network active as the country currently experiences repeated power outages. Acquiring this equipment is the second step in the group’s strategy to reinforce its network. Gabon Telecom’s director general, via Gabon Television, revealed that the firm had already invested about FCFA7 billion in the...

Islamic Corporation for the development of the Private Sector (ICD) will disburse $30 million as part of its contribution in the funding scheme to support SMEs and SMIs in WAEMU. This commitment is a product of memorandum of understanding signed last January 18 in Jeddah by Islamic Development Bank (IDB) and the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO). ICD also committed to raising its...

As part of efforts to boost the country’s oil income, Sudan on Wednesday offered three oil and gas blocks for exploration and development to India's ONGC Videsh. Oil minister, Mohamed Zayed Awad, declared this after a meeting with the Indian counterpart Dharmendra Pradhan ahead of a two-day India-Africa Hydrocarbon summit. He noted that the three areas offered to the Indian company, includes...

Towards diversifying its sources of supplies, Indian Oil Corp (IOC) on Thursday revealed that it is doubling the crude oil it purchases from Nigeria on a term contract. “Nigeria has now agreed to increase the term contract from 1.7 million tons per annum to 3 million tons in 2016,” Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan (photo) told Financial Express. The term contract grants not just guaranteed...

Last Tuesday, a report titled “this is what we die for” from Amnesty International and Afrewatch revealed that the cobalt mined in DR Congo in actual facts is sourced by children who risk their lives daylily. The report also denounces actors of the supply chain associated to the mines and their role in sustaining this cruel practice. The defenders of human rights say in their report that...