On October 18, 2018, Léon Juste Ibombo, Congo’s minister of posts and telecommunications, received Ma Fulin, China’s ambassador to Congo, in audience. At the end of this work visit, the ambassador declared that they discussed the finalization of the third phase of the "couveture nationale en telecommunications", a project that will help develop telecommunication infrastructures supported by...

JSE - listed (Johannesburg Stock Exchange) IT company Altron and Huawei partnered to offer Internet of Things (IoT) solutions to African companies, the two companies announced on October 17, 2018. According to Mteto Nyati (photo), Altron Group’s CEO, this partnership will help meet the growing demand for IoT solutions in the African market.   "We want to see smart waste bins that...

Bank of Kigali will issue new shares at CFA270 each, the bank announced in a communique published on October 19. The new issuance is aimed at boosting its equity with CFA60 billion ($67.81 million). As of October 29, the bank will offer three new shares for each old ones owned in by shareholders, making it a total of 222.22 million. These new shares will be listed on Rwanda and Nairobi stock...

South Africa remains the leader in the ranking of African financial markets elaborated by the South African bank Absa Group and Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF), a think tank specialized in the financial sector. The ranking "Absa Africa Financial Markets Index 2018" is based on six criteria: market depth; access to foreign exchange; market transparency, tax, and...

Kenya plans to attract about 2.5 million tourist arrivals per year by 2022, Najib Balala, cabinet secretary for tourism, indicated. According to the official’s statement relayed by Business Daily Africa, this should be due to an improvement of the tourist sector that resulted in increased tourist arrival and revenues. In a country where the travel and tourism industry already makes 15.3% of...

Tunisia is being watched by the Eurobond market following its announcements that it had chosen Citi Group, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan and Natixis to manage the Eurobond issuance which should start on October 22, 2018.  This would be the first sovereign bond issued by the north African country this year. In 2017, it came in the international debt market with two international issuances,...

The African Development Bank’s efforts to channel critical investment funding to Africa’s entrepreneurs received a big boost on Thursday in Abidjan, where the Bank’s executive directors approved €7 million equity investment in Partech Africa Fund. Partech is a Venture Capital Fund dedicated to investing in tech-enabled, innovative, high growth potential and talented entrepreneurs...

SUTHERLAND GLOBAL SERVICES, a process transformation company, signed a cooperation agreement with Egypt’s Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA). The agreement was signed on October 17, 2018, during the Gitex Dubai 2018 being held in Dubai from October 14 to 18. Thanks to this three-year agreement, Sutherland expects to strengthen its presence in Egypt and extend the...

The African Development Bank has approved a US$50 million line of credit to Nigeria’s Fidelity Bank Plc to support small and medium sized, and women-owned enterprises in selected transformative sectors, including close to a hundred SMEs in manufacturing, health and education. Approved by the Bank’s Board on 10 October 2018, the facility is fully dedicated to financing micro, small and...

Between 2014 and 2018, Subsaharan countries’ average public debt ratio to GDP increased from 32.4% to 45.9%, a report published last Wednesday by the World Economic Forum reveals. According to the authors of the report, this increase is due to the trend in public expenditures after the 2004-2014 period which saw a continued reduction of public debt in the region. "After the end of the...