Angola is planning a financing agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to fund its reform plans. This was revealed by Tao Zhang (photo), Deputy Managing Director at the IMF, in a statement published today August 22, 2018, by the institution.   According to the director’s statements, the Angolan government sent a request which should allow it to benefit from the Extended Fund...

The Ethiopian manufacturing sector met only 50% of its 2017/2018 exports target, Ambachew Mekonnen, Ethiopia’s minister of industry indicated last week. Indeed, according to figures by Ethiopian news website The Reporter, the manufacturing sector exported $487.5 million worth of goods against a $997.9 million target set by the government. This was due to currency and industrial...

Development Partners International (DPI), an equity investor which mainly invests in shares in Africa, has disbursed $45 million to acquire MNT Investments, the investment holding based in Egypt which is the main shareholder of Mashroey (a consumer credit company) and Tasaheel (a microfinance institution). This investment is the ninth the financial institution realized via its...

Helios Towers, the telecommunication tower management company whose main shareholder is the private equity Helios Investment, announced that it would invest tens of million dollars in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), Bloomberg announced quoting the high management.   This investment is to support the expansion of Vodacom (South African group) and Orange (French) who want to gain...

Despite the controversy around the cybercrime law, it was promulgated on Saturday, August 19, 2018, by Egypt’s president Abdel Fatah al-Sissi. This new text should, according to the authorities, boost the fight against terrorism. Such an explanation is not convincing for experts who believe that this is another trick to reinforce the president’s control over the media, online...

This year, the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) owned by Zambia is planning to invest $4 million for the construction of a pineapple processing company in Mwinilunga, in the Northwest, Freshplaza reports. The infrastructure will have a daily processing capacity of 3 tons of fruits. For its raw material supply, it will rely on a network of more than 3,000 independent producers in...

The mobile telecommunications operator Inwi, owned by the Moroccan group Al Mada, has just hit a big milestone by launching 4.5G network, a premise to the forthcoming 5G. Thanks to this new configuration, the operator can offer its subscribers high speed network up to 1 Gbps download speed. Inwi explains that with this speed, a subscriber can for instance download a 26 gigabyte 4K UHD. To...

Member countries of the East African Community (EAC) are devising a strategy to stop aflatoxin contamination in foods and feeds, Newtimes reports. The toxin, which infects corn, groundnut, rice, and sorghum, can aggravate malnutrition, stunt children’s growth, weaken the immune system or cause liver cancer. “The EAC partner states will therefore develop policies to aid in the formulation...

Liquid Telecom Kenya struck a partnership agreement with Sigfox, specialized in Internet of Things network services, for the construction of Internet of Things (IoT) networks in Kenya. The agreement was signed in Nairobi on August 16, 2018, the first day of the East African Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence summit.   Under that agreement, base stations supporting IoT...

World Bank will grant a $15 million loan to Guinea-Bissau, Amadou Oumar Ba, the bank’s resident representative, announced on Wednesday 15, August 2018.   According to information published by Macauhub, this loan would help pave many rural roads in a country where most of the roads date back to colonial times. The North and the East should be the main beneficiaries of this...