The Ivorian government reached a deal with Russia for reinforced cooperation between the two nations. The document was signed during a visit of the Ivorian foreign affairs minister, Marcel Amon-Tanoh, to his Russian counterpart, Sergueï Lavrov (photo), last 17-19 July.The new deal focuses on trade, security, economic stability, energy, industry, fight against terrorism, and education. The...

The London Stock Exchange - listed Petra Diamonds, which mines diamonds in South Africa, faced a 29.15% drop on its share value, during the period of 30 days ending on July 23rd 2019 Diamond sales were $463 million for the financial year ending June 2019, down 6% from the same period last year. The company attributes the decline to the unfavorable environment due to the volatility of some...

The International Finance Corporation IFC is giving Zambia $9 million for a hotel construction project. Total project cost is $30 million. The money will be managed by Protea Hotels Zambia, a major hotel group in the country and the project’s developer. With this financial and advisory support, IFC wants to contribute to “help build new business infrastructure and conference...

The Government of Mali moves to clear part of its domestic debt that has been unpaid since last year. The government plans to pay XOF103 billion, to the great satisfaction of local suppliers. The debt clearance procedure started last week and government says once it is over, “all arrears and money orders of 2018 will be paid.” According to local media, clearing of this year’s debt is also...

State-controlled Banque du Caire (Bank of Cairo) is earmarking $180.5 million (EGP3 billion) to support 800 small and mid-sized businesses across the country. The information was revealed by Nader Saad, the head of SME banking services division. Under this project, Banque du Caire aims to increase its portfolio of loans for SMEs to EGP 6 billion by December 2019. Nader Saad says financing...

The 5 banks and 3 participating branches operating in Morocco recorded a negative net income of MAD377 million ($39.1 million) at the end of 2018. A year earlier, net loss was MAD175 million ($18.1 million). According to the 2018 annual banking monitoring report published by the Central Bank of Morocco on 22 July 2019, the situation is due to “the burden of investments induced by the start of...

Stock exchange companies operating in Morocco had a difficult year in 2018, according to data reported by the local newspaper L'Economiste. The cumulative net income of these companies resulted in an overall loss of MAD13 million ($1.3 million). Despite successive reforms, the Casablanca Stock Exchange is struggling to attract new stocks and daily transactions are quite low. This sluggishness on...

The African Development Bank re-affirmed its intention to boost economic and regional development on the African continent when its Board of Directors approved a $300 million support facility for the Eastern and Southern African Trade & Development Bank (TDB) on Wednesday, 17 July, 2019. The COMESA regional trade and project finance package consists of a composite funded trade finance and...

South Africa is planning to borrow more money to better deal with the weak tax revenues this year, the finance minister Tito Mboweni (photo) said.He said tax revenues for FY2019-20 could be way below what was expected. This situation, combined with the growing spending incurred by power utility Eskom, to which the State has just granted $4.2 billion in assistance, should considerably...

The Senegalese telecoms ministry announces the forthcoming construction of Digital Centers in each of the country's 45 departments. Minister Ndèye Tické Ndiaye Diop (photo) said this on July 19, 2019, at the opening of the Ministry’s National Validation Workshop for the Joint Annual Review. She believes the project will bring administrative services closer to people, thus making them save...