Equatorial Guinea and Sao Tomé e Príncipe will finalise, in December, a partnership proposal for the operation, in joint venture, of the oil in their shared border. The topic was at the centre of the a 48-hour state visit, from Sunday to Monday in Sao Tomé, by the Equatorial Guinean president Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, leading an imposing delegation of 40 members. At the end of this...

Four projects have been identified as part of the creation of a phosphate processing industry in Algeria and will be undertaken in partnership with foreign companies. The projects are "currently under discussion with foreigners to produce phoshoric acid and different types of fertilisers", Mohamed Taher Bouarroudj, General Manager of Mines at the Ministry of Industry and Mines, confided in...

The West African Development Bank (WADB) has granted FCFA 35 billion to energy projects in Senegal. The projects concerned by this financing are the phase 2 of the construction of the Boucle 225 KV of the National Electricity Company of Senegal (SENELEC) and the electrification of 117 villages. 25 billion francs have been allocated to the construction of the 225 KV line. This infrastructure...

A new round has started in the trial of strength between the historical telecommunications operator Maroc Telecom and the National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (ANRT) on the unbundling of the optic fibre loop. The 15th October 2015 deadline given to Maroc Telecom by the telecom authority to publish its wholesale offer to the competition has come and gone. Maroc Telecom, once again,...

The government of Mali has signed a contract with Chinese telecom equipment manufacturer Huawei Technologies Co, Ltd for the construction of a national broadband network. The works estimated at FCfa 35,213,172,169 should be completed within 15 months and are entirely financed by Eximbank China. The market awarded to Huawei is part of the “Broadband project for Mali”, on the supply to Mali of...

70% of Tunisian hotels have expressed their intention to close their doors, due to the deadly terrorist attacks which have scared off foreign tourists, announced Houssem Ben Azouz, an official of the Confederation of Tunisian Corporate Citizens (CONECT), an employer’s organisation created in 2011. Mr. Ben Azouz, who presides over the group of professional tourism within CONECT, equally claimed...

The BICICI (Banque Internationale pour le Commerce et l'Industrie) of Côte d'Ivoire, local branch of the French group BNP Paribas, has recorded a rather mixed financial performance during the first semester 2015. In an increasingly competitive environment, its net banking income increased 1.1% to FCFA 18.5 billion compared to the first semester 2014. Interest Margin increased by 1.5% and...

Gabonese BGFI Bank and its Moroccan counterpart BMCE Bank are among the 10 candidates who have declared their intention to buyout Banque Franco-Tunisienne (BFT), the oldest credit establishment in Tunisia, the Tunisian stock market website Tustex reported on 18th October. The other 8 candidates to have shown interest in buying out this subsidiary of Société Tunisienne de Banque (STB, a public...

The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has sealed six independent marketers’ filling stations in Sokoto Northwest of Nigeria and its vicinity for various offences. This was disclosed by the Zonal Operations Controller of the Department in charge of Sokoto and Kebbi states, Alhaji Mohammed Makera. Five out of the six filling stations were sealed on the charge of selling petrol above the...

Morocco has commissioned an international tender in search of advisers for its LNG import plan worth $4.6billion. The plan includes the importation of about 7 billion cubic metres of gas by 2025, construction of a jetty, terminal, pipelines and gas-fired power plants. The country is currently assessing offers from Shell and other French, Spanish and American companies for its contracts to...