It was on 22nd July 2015 that the mobile assembly plant of the Congolese tech entrepreneur Vérone Mankou (pictured), owner of the VMK brand, located in Mpila, Brazzaville will be officially commissioned. While waiting for this moment, the facility started operating. It already produced the first “feature phones”, basic telephones, since 13th July. These telephones are the results of the work...

The Rwandan parliament gave, on 14th July, its green light to keep in power president Paul Kagame after 2017, supporting a petition signed by about 4 million citizens demanding the removal of the restriction in presidential term limits set out by the Constitution. The two chambers making up the parliament, both dominated by the Front Patriotique Rwandais (FPR), Mr Kagame’s party,...

Already 215 accreditation requests for journalists to the trial of Hissène Habré which starts on 20th July 2015 in Dakar, Senegal. The last count was done this 14th July by the Extraordinary African Courts (CAE), jurisdiction set up for the trial of the previous Chadian head of state for crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture acts. The Radiodiffusion télévision sénégalaise (RTS...

According to the 2014-2015 edition of the Global Competitive Report, the Rwandan government is 7th for the efficiency of its public management. The country comes out ahead of Switzerland (9th) or Luxemburg (10th). According to the World Economic Forum (WEF) who published this report, Rwanda’s ranking is explained in large part by the very low level of waste in terms of government...

The Bourse de Tunis (Tunis Stock Exchange) and Paris Europlace, the association defending the interests of the Paris financial marketplace, announced in a statement published on 8 July the signing of a memorandum of understanding to in particular, strengthen the sharing of expertise and the support to stock listing of Tunisian SME. The memorandum, signed during the Paris Europlace International...

The bilateral Algerian-Indian relations could be strengthened thanks to the meeting ministers Abdelkader Kadi and Sanjeev Kumar Balyan (pictured), both in charge of Agriculture, respectively for Algeria and India. The two leaders indeed indicated that the possibility of both countries establishing joint companies for agriculture has been mentioned. Poultry farming and veterinary medicine are the...

On 9 July 2015, the minister of Post and Telecommunications, Thierry Lézin Moungalla, went on ground to check on the progress of fitting fiber optic to link Congo to Gabon in the second phase of the Central Africa Backbone (CAB) project. It appears that 76 km have been deployed in a month. The works started on 18 June from Pointe-Noire. The minister finds the speed of work satisfactory. “We...

The Cameroonian government has invited bids for the inspection and monitoring of construction works of some markets at its borders. These are the markets of Fotokol, in the extreme North bordering Nigeria, Ekok, in the South-West also bordering Nigeria and Garoua Boulaï, located in the Eastern region and sharing a border with the Central Africa Republic. The three markets come in addition to...

The foreign currency reserves of Algeria lost US$ 19.02 billion between 31 December 2014 and 31 March 2015, going from US$ 178.93 billion to US$ 159.918, announced the Algerian Central Bank on 14 July. “The balance of payments deficit resulted from the external shock and the rise in the capital account deficit, and the negative impact against the appreciating US dollar led to the official...

Savannah Petroleum Ltd, oil and gas company listed in London, will soon sign a new production sharing agreement (PSA) on the oil of the Agadem Rift basin, a region located in the South-East of Niger. The new agreement covers an area of 5249 km2 and extends to the permit zone R3/R4, located in the vicinity of the previous production sharing agreement R1/R2 of 8406 km2 in the Agadem...