Today, November 15, 2018, Morocco is inaugurating the first ever high-speed train in Africa. With this train, passengers can travel from Casablanca to Tangier in just 2hours and 10 minutes while 5 hours were needed for the same trip previously. The new infrastructure which cost $2.3 billion is to be inaugurated by King Mohamed VI and the French president Emmanuel Macron. In the framework of...

Huawei technology partnered with the UNESCO, African Universities and various actors of the tech world to launch a training program for ICT talents in Sub Saharan Africa. Materialized on November 13, 2018, in Cape Town, South Africa, during the first day of AfricaCom 2018, the initiative plans for certification programs from Huawei. Michael Meng, services Director of the Huawei Enterprise...

On November 13, 2018, Mobilis, subsidiary of Algeria Telecom successfully tested 5G connection at Oran. The company reached a data transmission rate of 1.18 gigabytes per second. This test was conducted with the technical support of its partner Huawei during the Smart Algeria Forum. Samir Bouzekri, technical director at Mobilis, explained that Oran would not be the only town where the operator...

Gyro Group, the company founded in April 2017 by the South African group Telkom to manage its real estate assets could become a Real Estate Investment Trust, South African media reveal citing Sipho Maseko (photo), the group’s managing director.   "We’ve been looking at how we can unlock value because if you look at Telkom’s valuation, the property value is not reflected in our share...

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Omni Bridgeway, the Dutch specialist in the recovery of non-performing loans, jointly disbursed $100 million to set a new investment vehicle aimed at the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.   The new vehicle which will be managed by Dubai-based regional center of Omni Bridgeway will specifically help financial institutions in...

Last November 14, 2018, Nigeria raised $2.86 billion Eurobonds to fund the fiscal deficit. The fund was raised in three tranches: a $1.18 billion operation with seven years maturity date and 7.625% interest rate. Another one of $1 billion with twelve years maturity date and 8.75% interest. The last one is $750 million with 30 years maturity and 9.25% interest rate. A...

Initiated by Investisseurs & Partenaires (I&P), the Foundation for Studies and Research on International Development (Ferdi) and the African Club of Entrepreneurs, the blog Entreprenante Afrique is a direct and logical continuation of the eponymous book published in 2016 by Jean-Michel Severino and Jérémy Hajdenberg. Its objective: to witness and promote entrepreneurial momentum in Africa, by...

Heads of State, presidents of Development Finance Institutions (DFIs), global and regional investors, business moguls and other A-list attendees are lauding the recently concluded inaugural Africa Investment Forum as an unprecedented game changer for Africa. South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has described the Forum, convened by the African Development Bank, as “an innovative...

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the joy spurred by the adoption on November 11, 2018, in Geneva, Switzerland of a coalition agreement by the seven main opposition leaders for a common candidate for the upcoming presidential elections of December 23, 2018, quickly turned south. Indeed, on November 12, 2018, Félix Tshisekedi, president of Union for Democracy and Social Progress,...

The use of blended finance as a tool to address risk perceptions and crowd in private investment to develop Africa and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals is on the rise, delegates at the recently concluded inaugural Africa Investment Forum agreed. Many global investors are still reluctant to invest in the African continent, a major reason why the African Development Bank established the...