Russia’s fertilizer manufacturer Uralchem is pursuing its expansion across Africa, and after Zimbabwe and Zambia, the company is eyeing the Angolan market. A memorandum of understanding was signed in that regard by Uralchem and the Angolan Grupo Opaia SA on the sidelines of the Africa-Russia forum held October 22-24 in Sochi. Under this agreement, the Russian side will build a urea production...

The African Development Bank has appointed a group of renowned experts to the board of a continental initiative to mobilize financing for resilience to the negative impacts of climate change. The Bank established the interim executive board of the Adaptation Benefits Mechanism (ABM) on 4 October 2019. The ABM board is being assisted by an interim secretariat, which is placed in the Bank’s...

Russia will launch a $5 billion platform to improve its trade relations with Africa, the Russian news agency TASS reports.On the sidelines of the Sochi Summit, some African Heads of State and their Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin signed an agreement to set up a mechanism to finance trade agreements between their countries. The operation, which involves the Russian Export Center, Sberbank,...

Côte d'Ivoire's merchandise trade balance recorded a surplus of 724.3 billion CFA Francs ($1.22 billion) at the end of August this year, almost double (+91.1%) that of end August 2018, which was 379.048 billion CFA Francs ($643 million). Data was provided by the Ivorian Ministry of Economy and Finance. Over the period reviewed, exports totaled 4,994.480 billion CFA Francs ($8.4 billion), up...

The government of Burkina Faso announced it will dedicate a total of $144 million, or about 84.7 billion CFA Francs, for its water and sanitation sector over the period 2020 to 2022. The announcement was made this week by the water minister, Niouga Ambroise Ouédraogo (pictured), during the 2020-22 ministerial budget presentation. According to him, about 19.2 billion CFA Francs ($32.5...

“When the water was first released, we filled up our water containers, large and small, for the days ahead when the taps would go dry again. Surprisingly, the next day the taps were still flowing; they haven’t stopped since then” - Hauwa Sani, Housewife, Zaria City. For the first time in over 30 years, taps in 20,000 households in Zaria City in northern Nigeria are flowing with potable...

The Angolan Government has launched a study funded by the Bank through the KOAFEC trust fund to support the improvement of export diversification and the business environment. The launch event was attended by the Bank’s director for regional development and regional integration, Moono Mupotola, the Bank’s country manager for Angola, Joseph Ribeiro; the Angolan minister of commerce, Joffre...

Economic reforms, a burgeoning middle class and regional diversity against the background of the new African Continental Free Trade Area - are making Africa’s Portuguese-speaking countries a hotspot for investor interest. Additionally, new tools – such as the Development Finance Compact for Lusophone Africa – give investors and lenders more comfort to enter into these markets. The six...

Over the second quarter this year, the Ivorian telecoms sector generated a turnover of 220,075,665,644 CFA Francs (about $373 million), down 1.94% compared to revenues in Q2 2018, the sector regulator -ARTCI- announced. Investments made during this second quarter totaled 22,116,475,588 CFA Francs ($37.3 million), 33.25% less than the volume in the second quarter last year. Fixed...

Benin will receive 40.76 billion CFA francs ($69 million) from the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), local sources announced this week. The agreement was signed on 17 October, on the sidelines of the World Bank/IMF annual meetings held in Washington. The agreement includes a direct loan of $9.9 million and an installment sale financing of $59.2 million. It targets the construction of...