The Ivorian parliament has just passed the bill on agricultural orientation of Côte d’Ivoire (LOACI). Otherwise referred to as “Loi Sangafowa”, from the name of the Ivorian minister for Agriculture, this law deals with the issues relating to the development policy of the agricultural world, Abidjan.net reports. Taking into account the different fields such as animal farming, forestry,...

Mauritania and the European Union (UE) signed a new agreement on industrial fishing. The new document comes in replacement to the previous one which expired in December last year. According to the terms, Mauritania will receive €100 million yearly from the UE to allow them to catch 225,000 metric tons of fish in its waters. If the royalties are €13 million less than the previous...

Azonto Petroleum Holdings Ltd, faced with exploration obligations on the CI-202 block in Cote d’Ivoire, decided to sell to Vitol E&P Ltd, for a total amount of US$7.1 million its shares in Vioco Petroleum Ltd as well as some of its drilling equipment in Cote d’Ivoire. A conditional sales agreement was reached and is pending the review from the shareholders, explained on 7 July Azonto...

Tantalus Rare Earths AG, mining company listed on the Düsseldorf Stock Exchange, will raise €6 million, by issuing 750,000 new shares, to support its rare earths project in North-East Madagascar. On 8th July, the company disclosed having appointed Doonberg Capital Ltd as financial advisor who will also assist them in financial packaging for this project where Tantalus has signed a...

The Norwegian company Scatec Solar and its partners have signed with the Malian ministry for Energy and Water and the National Electricity Company of Mali (EDM), an agreement for the construction, financing and operation of a 33MW solar plant. Located near the historical city of Segou in the South-East of Mali, 240 km from Bamako, this project has been developed in partnership with IFC...

The tension is at its highest at Moov Togo, a mobile operator and subsidiary of Maroc Telecom. According to the employees, the new CEO, Kitri Houchem, who took over from Djibril Ouattara in February 2015, persists since March 2015, in “not honouring the commitments made when taking office”. He was however meant to have promised to the Union of Atlantique Telecom Togo Workers (STATT) that...

Marc Rennard, executive vice-president of the French telecommunications group Orange for Middle-East and Africa (MEA) declared that the company wished to manage its African operations from Dakar in Senegal and Abidjan in Côte d’Ivoire. This will be done through virtual technologies. A contract will be signed in the next two weeks and the project will move into its installation stage by the end...

The banking group Caixa Geral de Depositos (CGD) controlled by the Portuguese state has become the sole majority shareholder of Banco Totta Caixa de Angola, we learned on 9th July from local media sources. CGD has, in fact, become the sole shareholder of Partang SGPS, the financial holding company controlling 51% of the Angolan bank. In 2009, CGD and the Spanish group Banco Santander Totta,...

In Morocco, the Haute Autorité de la Communication Audiovisuelle (HACA) announced that it would not press charges against television channel 2M following the broadcast of the concert of American artist Jennifer Lopez, on 29 May during the opening of the Mawazine festival. HACA thus replied to the letter sent by the head of government, Abdelilah Benkirane, who asked for sanctions against the...

For a long time reserved by companies holding telecom licenses – Maroc Telecom, Meditel and Inwi – the directory enquiries market segment may see an upheaval in the coming days and become the new battlefield for telecoms. The state is studying opening the market to new companies, not holding a telecom licence. The bill n˚121-12 relating to this matter, modifying and completing the law on...