On May 20, 2019, Société Générale Côte d’Ivoire concluded a XOF350 billion ($594.3 million) loan agreement with the state secretary to the ministry of trade and industry. The credit line will help support the growth of SMEs that represent close to 80% of the overall companies in Côte d’Ivoire. The bank initiated a funding strategy for local SMEs in growth sectors. The 2019-2023...

Safaricom wants to acquire full intellectual property rights on its mobile payment service M-Pesa. Bob Collymore (photo), CEO of Safaricom, who revealed the information on May 23, 2019, during an interview with  Reuters, indicated that to realise this operation evaluated at €12 million, his group would partner with co-shareholder  Vodacom Group.  The project has been...

South African artificial intelligence firm Cortex Group announces the launch of Cortex Ventures dedicated to the financing of African artificial intelligence start-ups in search of seed or growth funding.   Apart from financial support, those startups will also receive technical support from the group. According to  Jacques Ludik (photo), CEO of Cortex Group, artificial...

Orange Services Group (GOS) entrusted the exploitation and maintenance of its Côte d’Ivoire based data centre to energy company Engie. The 5-year agreement, which should come into effect in June 2019, includes preventive maintenance of multi-technique lots, the management of the centre and security.   Orange’s data centre was built in Grand-Bassam free zone, 40 kilometres away...

The $2.1 billion Eurobond recently issued by Kenya has been listed on the Euronext Dublin on May 22, 2019, according to a notice published by the stock exchange. Mid-May, Kenya raised $2.1 billion during a Eurobond issuance divided into two lots maturing in 7 and 12 years respectively. The interest rates are 7% and 8% respectively for the 7-year and 12-year bonds.   The...

On May 17, 2019, in Mali, Banque Nationale de développement Agricole (BNDA) confirmed its status of the leading financial partner in the agriculture sector.   Indeed, out of the XOF459 billion loans it granted to the economy, 53% or XOF245 billion were dedicated to the agriculture sector. The largest part of these loans was granted to agribusinesses and input suppliers. During the 2018...

For the first time since 2015, Zambia central bank has raised its benchmark rate by 50 basis points to 10.25%. This was revealed by the bank’s governor Denny Kalyalya (photo) during a press conference on  May 22, 2019. The new measure is aimed at supporting macroeconomic stability and controlling the inflation caused by the decrease in corn production, a rise of budget deficit (7.5% of...

The Tunisian chamber of deputies has finally approved the issuance of an $800 million Eurobond. This was announced by the deputy Rim Mahjoub on May 22, 2019. On May 2, 2019, the said institution’s finance committee rejected this Eurobond, asking the government to avoid a significant rise of foreign debt by limiting the size of the operation to $500 million. The issuance is aimed at...

Nigeria will ratify the Continental free trade zone agreement once the report of its impact on the national economy is approved by president Muhammadu Buhari. This was announced by the minister of trade and industry Okechukwu Enelamah (photo) on May 21, 2019. “I think the president has a sense of urgency about this because when he asked us to conduct an impact assessment study, we were given...

Bamboo Capital Partners signed a partnership agreement with Smart Africa Alliance for the mobilization of €100 million to support digital startups. The agreement was signed on May 16, 2019, during the Transform Africa Summit by the director general of Smart Africa Alliance Lacina Koné, and the managing partners of Bamboo, Jean-Philippe de Schrevel and Florian Kemmerich. According to...