The World Bank earmarked $1.32 billion for three development projects in Angola, Macauhub reported this week. Monies will be used for a social protection program, a budget support, and a water & energy scheme. The welfare protection project will get about $320 million. It is the government’s strategy to cushion the impact of short-term price adjustments for goods and services such as...

Switzerland-based asset manager, ResponsAbility Investments AG, is disbursing $175 million to support about 30,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as well as entrepreneurs (mainly women) in emerging markets. The sum was raised through the issuance of U.S. Dollar dominated-debt securities maturing in 3 years to institutional investors such as Overseas Private Investment...

Gambia’s government has just launched a program to deploy clean water and sanitation facilities in rural and semi-urban areas. Funds for the project, estimated at $1.8 billion, will be raised with development partners including the African Development Bank, the Green Climate Fund and the Global Environment Facility. The program intends to provide 40 solar off-grids, to produce domestic...

The South African unit of car manufacturer Ford announced Wednesday it will hire an additional 1200 employees at one of its local assembly plants, increasing its workforce in the country by more than 25%. The measure, which will bring production to 720 cars per day (from the current 506), is linked to the $215 million investment announced in 2017 to increase annual production to 168,000...

Nigerian banking group United Bank for Africa (UBA) has entered into a $125 million financing agreement with Export Trading Group (ETG), which manages an agricultural supply chain and carries out food import and export activities with nearly 35 countries around the world.This facility is backed by additional aid from international financial institutions and local African banks. These...

The controversial social media tax imposed in Uganda in July last year is failing to meet expectations. Government says it collected only $13.511 million out of an expectation of $77.519 billion because Ugandans continue to avoid paying it.According to Doris Akol, the Commissioner General of the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA), the people who can afford to pay OTT are the ones avoiding...

Christine Lagarde (photo) is officially stepping down as the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund IMF next September 12, the Executive Board said on July 16.This announcement comes when Ms. Largarde, 63, was nominated early this month as the head of the European Central Bank (ECB) and is expected to take office in November. For the time being, David Lipton, the Fund’s First...

Ethiopia will benefit from $100 million from the United Arab Emirates to finance technological innovation, the PM Office informed this week.The new funding consists of a grant to be provided to the East African country through the Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development. It will be used to strengthen the capacities of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, more specifically those...

Stanbic Bank Zambia, local branch of South Africa’s Standard Bank, secured a credit line worth $15 million from World Bank’s International Finance Corporation IFC to support SMEs growth. The bank says at least 25 percent of the loan is dedicated to women-led businesses. “By 2022, we plan to quadruple the number of women-owned SME borrowers from 50 to about 200, representing an...

Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications says between January and June this year it recorded acts of vandalism that highly disrupted activity and affected the quality of service it provides customers. Overall, GCT reported a total of 2,000 cuts of optical fiber and 600 thefts of equipment, including 240 batteries. This made the company spend around $5.7 million (over GH¢30 million) in repairs;...