In Morocco, Siemens’ wind turbines blades plant is already operational and is to be inaugurated on October 11, 2017. Investment agreement for the project was signed in March 2016 and the latter cost €100 million ($11,730,000). The plant can therefore supply the 200MW windfarm led by Nareva in Boujdour (85% of its production is to be exported). The blades manufactured at the factory are...

ASX-listed Universal Coal, mining firm active on the Kangala and New Clydesdale coal mines in South Africa, plans to produce during the 2018 fiscal year (which started last July) 1.5 million tons more coal than it did the previous year, knowingly 3 million tons.  According to a report published on the firm’s website, the increase will be driven by stable production of the New Clydesdale...

Morocco’s Central Bank, Bank Al-Maghrib forecast that the kingdom’s economic growth rate should rise to 4.3% in 2017, against 1.2% in 2016.  The Apex bank disclosed this in a statement released after the third quarterly meeting of its board for 2017. It however indicated that the figure should slump back to 3.1% in 2018. Regarding inflation, the Central Bank said it has significantly...

Even if it recently focused mainly on the consolidation of industrial lands, the Algerian government remains committed to the valorization of the country’s agricultural lands. This was said on September 25, 2017, by the Prime Minister, Ahmed Ouyahia (picture), during the presentation of the government’s action plan to the members of the Nation's Council. “We are reiterating our will to...

Grupo Planeta, the Spanish specialist in editing and communication decided to set foot in Morocco. The group which is also involved in media and audiovisual entertainment chose the Cherifian Kingdom as its starting point of its expansion in Africa. The Moroccan subsidiary of Grupo Planeta will start its activities on September 28 in Rabat and will be headed by Wissal Al Gharbaoui. According to...

Some armed men who are thought to be Central African rebels descended once again in Cameroonian territory on September 23, 2017. They kidnapped seven people in Koya, a village in the district of Kette in the eastern region, we learned from relevant sources. A military operation carried by Cameroonian security forces however helped retrieve four of the hostages. Unfortunately, the remaining three...

In partnership with the Mauritius-based holding Monnaie Africa, Milost Global, a Private Equity firm based in New York (US) which recently distinguished itself by acquiring various assets and investing in sub-Saharan Africa, has launched an investment fund for SMEs in the region.  The fund’s major shareholder is Milost Global itself with a 70% stake. The firm which was founded and is led...

In Cote d’Ivoire, total volume of cocoa transported to the main export sites reached two million tons on September 24, 2017, up nearly one third of the volume transported during the previous season (1.5 million tons). According to Reuters, 10,000 tons of the brown gold were conveyed to the ports of Abidjan and San Pedro, between September 18 and 24, which is a little less than half of the...

“Lesedi La Rona”, the second biggest diamond ever discovered was sold for $53 million (€44.7 million). This was announced Monday by Lucara Diamond Corp, the firm that found the stone in November 2015 at its Karowe mine, in Botswana. Regarding how it will be cut, Laurence Graff, founder of Graff Diamonds, company that bought the stone which is the size of a tennis ball, declared:...

In 2016-2017, tourism generated more than $3.32 billion of revenues for more than 886,800 tourists visiting Ethiopia.   This was disclosed by the Ethiopian minister of culture and tourism, on the sidelines of the World Tourism Day, Xinhua reported.  However, according to the press agency, the Ethiopian government has expressed, repeatedly, its concern over the stagnating number...