New technology and blended finance will help to bridge the “last mile” of the infrastructure gap by getting goods and services to end users, and connecting underserved populations to business value chains, said the African Development Bank during a session at the Global Infrastructure Forum 2018 on Saturday. This year’s forum themed “Unlocking Inclusive, Resilient, and Sustainable...

Last week, the telecommunications operators MTN, Airtel, Glo, 9Mobile and Ntel inaugurated the financial inclusion committee created in Nigeria to improve financial inclusion in the country. This executive body is, in fact, an answer to low adoption of mobile money in the country for five years now. Indeed, the market share of this service is below 10% and, during their meeting on September 4,...

Last weekend, in Kisumu, Kenya, Jerome Ochieng (photo), Principal Secretary for ICT and Innovation, launched the project initiated to connect Kenyan districts to the national optical fiber network. For this project, the government invested Ksh10 billion ($99,124,012) and, it plans to connect public administration, hospitals and schools etc … to the internet. According to Jerome Ochieng, Kenya...

Algeria’s posts and electronic communications regulatory body (Autorité de régulation de la poste et des communications électroniques-ARPCE) and Sudan telecommunications regulatory agency (Autorité de régulation de la poste et des télécommunications -ARPT) signed a partnership agreement during the sixteenth annual session of Arab Regulators Network held on October 1-4, 2018 in...

South Africa has already successfully mobilized 35% of the $100 billion it was planning to raise in the five coming years, Trudi Makhaya (photo), economic advisor at the South African Presidency indicated during an interview with Reuters. According to the official's statements reported by the American media, for the time being, the $35 billion are just pledges. Saudi Arabia and the...

Egypt plans to invest LE508 million (about $28.3 million) for implementation of the phase of a cultural services development plan during the 2018/2019 fiscal year, representing a 14% increase compared to the volume set for the previous fiscal year (2017/2018).   Hala el Saeed, Egypt’s minister of planning, indicated in a release that this development plan that will be implemented...

Sonangol, the Angolan public oil company, is once again on the international debt market after two years of absence, which coincided with a period of lowest oil prices. This will be a test operation for the company which enters the market in a context marked by an increase of the oil barrel price and a tougher macroeconomic situation in Angola. In April 2018, Moody's decreased the country’s...

Africa Finance Corporation reached an agreement with Exim Bank China, for a $300 million loan. $200 million of that amount will be granted as a closed loan and $100 million as Precautionary Credit Line (PCL).   The terms of the transaction have not been revealed but, according to Samala Zubairu (photo), president of AFC, the funds raised will help fund industrialization...

Intercel, the mobile telecommunications operator, has been asked to end its activities in Guinea since October 9, according to the decision N° D/009/MPTEN/CAB/2018 of the country’s ministry of posts, telecommunication, and digital economy. Guinea’s telecommunications regulatory agency (ARPT) reveals that this decision taken by the ministry is the result of the recurring difficulties...

Samsung Electronics has started supplying the 708,000 tablets ordered by Egypt for the 2018/2019 academic year. Indeed, the country issued a call to tender for these tablets and the South Korean company won the bid. These tablets will be freely distributed to pupils and teachers at public primary schools. Last may, Tarek Shawki, the education minister indicated that these tablets would be...