At about two weeks to the deadline, the Ghanaian subsidiary of the French banking group Société Générale announced that it has reached the minimum capital requirement of GH₵400 million (about $82 million) required by the central bank. Société Générale Ghana explained that its shareholders authorised the increase of its capital by adding GH₵97 million from the bank’s revenues...

In regard to the development of the 5G, such licenses could be available in Tunisia by 2021, Anouar Maarouf (photo), the country’s minister of ICT and digital economy announced December 20, 2018, in Tunis during the launch of the 2nd workshop on the 5G and innovation organised by the national spectrum agency (Agence nationale des fréquences-ANF). He explained that once available, the...

On December 19, 2018, Chipo Mtasa (photo), managing director of TelOne, appealled to the parliamentary committee in charge of ICTs to help avoid the interruption of Zimbabwe’s incumbent operator’s network.   At the end of the parliamentarians’ visit at Mazowe earth satellite station, the head of the telecom company explained that the public company, pressed by its 22 creditors for...

Senegal and Tunisia signed a memorandum of understanding in the posts, telecommunications and digital economy sector. The agreement was signed by the respective ministers of foreign affairs Khemaies Jhinaoui, for Tunisia, and Sidiki Kaba for Senegal, on December 18, 2018, the first day of the official 48-hour visit of Senegal’s president in Tunisia, following the invitation of Tunisian...

Frankfurt-based GreenTec Capital Partners invested in Afrilife, a Tanzanian company that produces honey and organic apiculture products. Thanks to this investment, the East African company will buy modern hives whose production is three times higher than traditional hives. Afrilife will improve the production capacity as well as the revenues of its network of beekeepers with training. It will...

By end September 2018, the volume of public procurement markets approved in Côte d’Ivoire was XOF1,038.72 billion (about $1.8 billion) against XOF600.02 billion ($1 billion) in 2017 ; representing a 73.1% increase on a year on year basis. This was announced by the government during the ministerial council held on December 18, 2018. According to the authorities, 3,288 contracts were...

The carmaker Nissan received the approval of Algerian investment council for the construction of an assembly plant at Relizane (300 km West of Algiers), Motors Magazine reported on December 16, quoting one of the Japanese group’s local partners. "We have received the government’s approval to launch the assembly of Nissan cars. Nissan will thus be the only Japanese brand to be authorized, for...

In Nigeria, the unemployment rate rose to 23.1% in the third quarter of 2018, against 18.1% a year earlier, representing a 5% rise within a year, according to figures published on December 19, 2018, by the national bureau of statistics. "As of Q3 2018, the calculated unemployment rate was 23.1 percent, the underemployment rate was 20.1 percent, and the combined unemployment and...

Sudan expects the economy to grow by 5.1% in 2019 against 4% in 2018, according to the government's draft bill adopted on December 19, 2018. The draft bill also expects the budget deficit to drop from 3.7% in 2018 to 3.3% in 2019. Exports should rise by 30% in 2019 while the government’s revenues will increase by 39% to SDG162.3 billion ($3.43 billion) according to the forecasts. "The 2019...

On December 18, 2018, the Kenyan communications authority revealed that the mobile money segment recorded 730.2 million operations in the third quarter of 2018, amounting to Ksh2 trillion ($19.6 billion). This represents a 19.45% rise on a year on year basis. Indeed, in Q3, 2017, the mobile money segment recorded 611.3 million transactions for about $18.6 million in value. According to the...