In Mali, the temporary power generation equipment supplier Aggreko, has commissioned a 7.4MW diesel-fueled power plant, at the Yanfolila mine controlled by Hummingbird Resources. The infrastructure will power the mine’s processing factory. “Getting reliable, efficient and cost-effective power supply is critical when it comes to mining operations. Aggreko’s technologies provide a scalable...

Regrouped last Tuesday in Niamey, five Heads of States of the ECOWAS, and the president of the community’s commission, Marcel De Souza, have numbered the various challenges to tackle in order to for the region to have a single currency. According to De Souza, roadmaps were not respected and too much delay was registered in implementing convergence measures. According to the Commission’s...

In its October forecasts release, Dutch bank Rabobank said Côte d’Ivoire’s cocoa output should reach 1.83 million tons in 2017/18, slightly below 2016/17’s output (2 million tons). The expected decrease will result from above-normal rainfalls and a lower guaranteed minimum price to cocoa producers (CFA700 per Kg). According to the lender, this price which is 36% lower than that applied...

MTN Congo promised to improve the quality of its services. To this end, a trust agreement was signed on October 24, 2017, by the telecom operator and the consumer association, setting a legal framework for the obligations that the first must satisfy to please its users. Mermans Babounga, executive secretary of the Congolse observatory for consumers’ rights, said: “We have finally reached an...

In 2016, Togo has allocated $297.5 million of its budget to infrastructures, far above the amount allocated to the same sector by most of its neighbors, within the WAEMU, except Senegal. This was revealed in the 2016 report of the Infrastructure Consortium of Africa (ICA), released this month. While Senegal allocated $575.4 million, or less than 4% of its GDP, of its budget to...

In addition to clearly expressing its plans to clean up its industrial land sector, the Algerian government also plans to do the same in its agricultural land sector. This is as 69% of these lands, which were awarded to private investors to be used and made profitable, are unused. “853,000 hectares which were awarded to 19,000 concessionaires, in the framework of a scheme to develop new...

Pan-African infrastructure-focused investment fund, Africa50, plans to finance the Ouaga-East thermal power plant, in Burkina Faso. With a capacity of 100MW, the plant will be built near the Ouaga II University.  “Talks to appoint a contracting firm for the thermal plant were held last week. Once, this firm is known, the next issue to be discussed is that of financing. We believe we can...

Over the first nine months of 2017, Banque de Tunisie has recorded a net banking product of 192 million Tunisian dinars (TD), Ecofin learned from a statement of the lender. This represents a 13.7% increase compared to the performance recorded last year, over the same period, knowingly 168.8 million TD.   The improvement results from a surge in incomes from banking operations...

In Algeria, a newspaper providing news only in Tamazight, a Berber dialect added to national languages in 2016, will soon be available. This was disclosed on October 22 by Si Hachemi Assad, secretary general of the High Commission for Amazighity (HCA), on a public radio station. According to him, the project has already been elaborated and is ready to be launched in partnership with the ministry...

Since last October 22, 2017, a Belgian economic delegation is in Cote d’Ivoire, in the framework of a 5-day visit aiming to officially “strengthen cooperation” between the two countries. Led by Princess Astrid, this delegation comprises many officials but also a group of 134 Belgian heads of companies. The current mission should allow Belgian economic operators explore the various...