In 2017, the Democratic Republic of Congo will be the nation with the highest gross domestic product in Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), according to the latest report of the African Development Bank (AfDB). The pan-African institution indicates that the country, which is listed as the 12th richest African country in 2017, behind Libya ($47 billion), has tripled its GDP in 12 years,...

US firm Coca-Cola, the world’s leading beverage producer, said it plans to invest $90 million in Kenya between 2016 and 2018, Reuters reported.  The move should allow the company which actually faces rude competition from its rivals SABMiller and Pepsico, to boost its offer in the soft drinks sector, by next year. It falls under a broader strategy involving an investment...

Mining firm Robex Resources said it has launched a new drilling programme of 16,525m at its Nampala gold project, in Mali.  The campaign which will end in December 2017 will enable the firm test mineralization zones’ extensions and confirm the presence of additional mineral resources which could be directly integrated into the development plan to increase the project’s...

The President of Burkina Faso, Roch Christian Kaboré (picture), has last Saturday, launched the special rural electrification programme (PSER). The initiative will provide access to electricity to 22,000 households. Its cost is estimated at CFA25 bilion (about $44.7 million) which will be provided by the World Bank and the Power sector support project (PASEL). PSER’s overall objective is...

Akinwumi Adesina (picture), president of the African Development Bank (AfDB) has revealed last Oct. 19, on the sidelines of the 2017 World Food Prize in US, the new strategy of his institution to develop Africa’s agriculture. Entitled “Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation-TAAT”, the strategy aims to modernize Africa’s agriculture through the development and large-scale...

Over the first three quarters of 2017, Algeria’s trade deficit has contracted to $8.14 billion, the country’s national centre for statistics and IT (CNIS) revealed last Sunday, quoted by Xinhua. This is close to 38% down compared to 2016, when this gap stood at $13.11 billion. According to the institution which is attached to the Algerian customs office, this slump is mainly due to...

The Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) claims from mobile operator Vodafone, the payment of six years of arrears of tax profits. According to the entity, this amounts to Ghc160 million (US$36,125,213). Vodafone, however contests this bill, claiming it made no profits since taking over Ghana Telecom in 2009. In an affidavit that the GRA submitted to the High Court of Justice, subsequent to the...

Niger is quite annoyed by all the abusive repatriation of Sub-Saharan migrants trying to go to Europe via Algeria. The country’s authorities inform of the expulsion two weeks ago of 955 West African migrants to Agadez (Northern Niger at the Algeria-Niger border) where is located the migrants transit center. Over the past two months, nearly 8,000 migrants including 2,800 Niger citizens suffered...

Since last October 5, the news website Tout sur l’Algérie (TSA) no more works on the networks of Algerie Telecom nor his subsidiary’s Mobilis. So far, no explanation was provided by the public operator, or its subsidiary, in this regard. The government for its part, seems to have washed its hands in the case. “I, myself, also read TSA, but concerning the reasons for the site being...

In 2016, economic and financial operations between the WAEMU and the rest of the world recorded a wider balance payment deficit which stood at CFA951.2 billion; thus a significant rise compared to 2015 when this figure stood at CFA191.5 billion. This poor performance, in spite of improved current operations, is to be attributed, for the most part, to a pronounced deterioration of financial...