In Sao Tome & Principe, 90% of the 2019 budget will be funded thanks to foreign aid, Jorge Bom Jesus (photo), the country’s prime minister informed yesterday.   According to information published by the country, its 2019 budget is $150 million but only 10% should be funded by public revenues. 76% of the needed funds should be provided as bilateral grants while 24% should be...

Kenya has initiated discussions with the IMF for a new loan agreement, Jan Mikkelsen (photo), IMF’s resident representative announced yesterday. In September 2018, the country decided not to renew a $989.8 million loan agreement with the Bretton Woods institution because of disagreements over an interest rate cap law for commercial loans.   These discussions could be all about...

At the end of the financial year ending on June 30, 2018, the 13 microfinance institutions operating in Kenya declared -935.1 million shilling (-9.1 million US dollar) of net earnings before tax representing a 447% rise in its year on year loss compared with the -171.4 million recorded in 2017.   In a recent report, Central Bank of Kenya explained that this is due to a 5% rise of credit...

South Sudan has achieved its highest ever receipt of US$14.2 million in non-oil tax revenues for the first time in the nation’s history, through the efforts of a revamped state revenue authority. The impressive result - recorded at the end of January 2019 - is evidence that the Non-Oil Revenue Mobilization and Accountability (NORMA) project in South Sudan, set up with a US$14.8 million...

"I can attest that migration enriches our lives while allowing us to learn and contribute." On Monday 4 March, the Bank’s Senior Vice-President Charles Boamah opened the third annual Africa Resilience Forum (ARF), by detailing the benefits that safe, controlled migration bring to countries of origin, transit and destination. In the presence of the Ivorian Minister of African Integration and...

Société Nationale des Télécommunications du Sénégal (SONATEL), a firm majorly owned by French group Orange, marked the West African Monetary Union’s stock market by announcing a record XOF1,022 billion (about $1,76 billion) turnover for 2018.    The firm which is also the largest on the Abidjan-based Bourse Régionale des Valeurs Mobilières by market capitalization with...

During the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2019, Egypt via its IT minister Amr Talaat signed 32 IT cooperation agreements. These agreements were not all for itself. Sometimes, they were for institutions under the ministry like the ITIDA - Information and Communication Technology Outsourcing (ITIDA). According to the minister who was laying the outcomes of his participation in this MWC 2019 on March...

Wim Vanhelleputte (photo), former MTN Uganda’s managing director expelled from the country on February 14, 2019, referred to Kampala high court requiring the rescission of that measure. He also asked for legal damages for illegal imprisonment and expulsion as well as any compensation he would deem appropriate. Wim Vanhelleputte, married to a Ugandan since 2000 with two kids,...

Chad will close its Kouri Bougoudi border with Libya, Mahamat Abali Salah (photo),  Chadian minister of territorial administration, local governance and public safety, announced last Sunday. The official also indicated that security around the zone would also be strengthened.  Any unauthorized person found around that zone would thus be considered as a terrorist. During his...

Equatorial Guinea will host the African Development Bank’s next Annual Meetings in June 2019, following the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the two parties. The Annual Meetings will take place from 11th to 14th June, 2019 in the country’s capital city, Malabo. “The Government and people of Equatorial Guinea are ready and look forward to hosting the African Development...