In Algeria, the Council of the Ministers, have approved the amendment of a hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation contract between Sonatrach and Italy’s Eni for the Zemoul El Khbar perimeter. The council under the Chairmanship of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, met on Wednesday to approve the amendment. “The Council of the Ministers continued the deliberations by the examination and the...

Nigeria’s Bank of Industry (BoI) just announced the creation of a $3 billion fund directed towards the promotion of the entire value-chain of sugarcane production and processing in the country. According to the institution, the funding should allow for the provision of single-digit interest rate loans to farmers and investors. Representing the bank’s director Rasheed Olaluwa, Raymond...

On December 28, 2015, during the signing of agreement for digitalization of inter-ministerial mails, Noomane Fehri, Minister of technologies, communication and digital economy, announced that the 4G licence would be awarded for 155 million dinars (nearly $77 million). Process for selection of technical proposal from those submitted by Tunisise Telecom, Ooredoo and Orange should occur in...

The Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Product Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), Farouk Ahmed, has announced that from January 1st, 2016, all fuel stations owned by the National Nigerian Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) will start selling petrol at N86 per litre while independently owned stations is to sell at N86.5 per litre. Mr. Farouk declared this during a news conference in Abuja, on...

Sound Energy has revealed that under a field management agreement (FMA), a subsidiary of Schlumberger Oilfield Holdings Ltd. is to provide integrated technical services, equipment and personnel for its operation on the Tendrara license onshore Morocco. This agreement, allows for Schlumberger to fund a substantial portion of the capex for the first three appraisal wells, and the development of...

The International Monetary fund (IMF) in a release dated December 29 said Djibouti’s economy should record a 6.5% growth in 2016 due to the increasing investments in infrastructure projects. This rate is the same as 2015’s but slightly higher than that of 2014 (6%). IMF however warned the country’s authorities about the continuous rise of its public debt and budget deficit. “Expenses...

Zallé Alimissi Salame, a cocoa farmer from the Tiokorodougou village in Côte d’Ivoire, is the 10, 000th farmer to subscribe to the mobile banking scheme launched by the Swiss chocolate maker Barry Callebaut. This scheme aims to boost professionalization in the sector. Clearly put, the scheme allows any producer who registers with Biopartenaire, Callebaut’s Ivorian subsidiary, to safely...

During the recent meeting between telecom operators and Congo’s telecom regulatory authority (ARPTC), the vice-Prime Minister, Minister of posts, telecommunications and NICTs, Thomas Luhaka Losendjol, demanded the deactivation of all non-identified SIM cards starting from December 28, 2015. Before allowing users to access the various telecom services, the government demanded all these users...

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Emmanuel Kachikwu, on Tuesday revealed that there are strong signs that the United States will soon continue the purchase of Nigeria’s crude oil, Leadership News reports. He stated that although the country had been diversifying into the Asian market and other parts of the world, the federal government is currently in negotiation with the...

Israel’s partners in the Leviathan Gas Field, are on the point of signing a $30b deal with BG for the export of gas to Egypt. According to sources, the deal is to be entered into before the purchase of Shell by BG in late January. The companies had in June 2014 signed a letter of intent to export 105 billion cubic meters of gas for 15 years from the Leviathan field to BG’s LNG facility...