Every year, Nigeria loses about $29.3 billion (close to 7% of its GDP) due to power outages and poor quality of energy distribution. This was announced this weekend by the electricity generation company GenCos, according to local media The Nation. Despite the current government’s efforts and important generation capacity, the Nigerian energy sector is hardly able to address its various...

HapsMobile, a subsidiary of Japanese holding SoftBank Corp, announced on April 24, 2019, the signature of a long-term partnership with Loon, Alphabet Inc’s unit that uses floating balloons to bring connectivity to remote areas around the world. Via this partnership, HapsMobile will invest 125 million in Loon, which should later invest the same amount in HapsMobile later. HapsMobile’s...

South African investment firm African Rainbow Capital (ARC) has acquired majority stake in Qed Actuaries & Consultants Ltd, a consulting firm present in 17 African countries.   The volume of this transaction has not been disclosed but, it was conducted via ARC Financial Services, the financial service branch of ARC. According to Craig Falconer, managing director of Qed, this acquisition...

In 2018, Kenya’s growth reached 6.23% thanks notably to the agriculture sector favored by good rainfall, the Office for National Statistics indicated on April 25, 2019. In 2019, the growth was slowed down to 4.9% due to drought and tensions created by a long electoral process. Zachary Mwangi, director of the national office for statistics, explained the agriculture sector (which represents...

Angola’s GDP contracted by 1.7% in 2018, according to figures published by the National Office for Statistics. During the period under review, most of the economic activities declined except water and energy (+22.3%), construction (+0.4%), posts and telecommunications (+1.8%) and financial (+11.7%). In the fourth quarter of 2018, Angola’s economy grew by 2.2% year-on-year, according to the...

Kenyan businessman Jimnah Mbaru (photo) has sold the 50 million shares he had in Britam Holdings, one of the largest insurers in Kenya, to Swiss Reinsurance Company (Swiss Re), Forbes revealed on April 20, 2019.   The financial details of this transaction have not been disclosed but the 50 million shares are worth at least $4.4 million based on the average price of Britam...

Orange is launching the “Orange Digital Centre” today in Tunis, a place built around a completely new concept and entirely dedicated to innovation. Attending the launch are Anouar Maarouf, Tunisian Minister of Communication Technologies and the Digital Economy, Abdelkoddous Saadaoui, Tunisian Secretary of State for Youth, Alioune Ndiaye, Chief Executive Officer of Orange Middle East and...

The African Development Bank will on Tuesday, 30 April 2019, host an investment forum on its Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZ) initiative in Abuja, Nigeria. SAPZs are designed to concentrate agro-processing activities within areas of high agricultural potential in order to increase productivity and competitiveness. The forum will update stakeholders on the progress of establishing...

The African Development Bank on Wednesday April 24, 2019 signed a US$50 million risk participation agreement (APR) with investment and corporate bank Natixis. The 50/50 risk-sharing agreement covers a portfolio of commercial transactions totaling US$100 million, which will support commercial operations worth US$600 million in Africa over the next three years. "This historic agreement allows us...

The SMB-Winning Consortium has entered into a high-level partnership with the 2019 edition of the Guinea Mines Symposium (SMG 2019), the main mining industry event in the country held annually for the past 6 years. Each year, the SMG takes on a new dimension and succeeds in attracting the best professionals and experts from the mining sector, from all over the world, to debate and exchange on the...