Dangote Rice, a subsidiary of Dangote Group, is to launch 25,000 hectares of rice outgrower scheme in Sokoto State, with the aim of creating hundreds of employment opportunities for the rural communities. The President of the Group, Aliko Dangote (photo), who disclosed this during the weekend said the company will on Wednesday, kick-start the scheme with a pilot project of 500ha by Goronyo...

The Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN) has reported that the resurgence of Bird flu in Plateau state killed over 11,000 birds, last week. According to PAN’s chairman in the state, John Dasar, six farms had so far been affected and no fewer than 11,000 birds were gotten rid of. Dasar attributed the fast spread of the disease to failure by farmers to report the outbreak of the...

The Nigerian Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Emmanuel Kachikwu (photo), has said that the excessive vandalism of oil facilities by militant groups in the Niger Delta oil region has resulted in a loss of at least $80 billion annually. According to the Minister, over 10,000 of such incidents were recorded at oil fields across the region which covers about 8% of the oil-rich...

Tea exports in Rwanda in 2016 stood at $63.4 million thus 12.9% less than in 2015. The fall in exports revenues is tied to lower volumes of the crop sent outside. This volume was at 24.4 million kg in 2016, or 370,000 kg less than in 2015. Moreover, the decrease of export revenues is also explained by a slump in the price of the commodity which traded at $2.94 at the end of 2015,...

Benin plans to borrow from regional capital markets about 1 trillion CFA, by issuing public securities. The decree corresponding to the move was adopted during a council of ministers held last February 1. It will help the country fund part of its CFA2 trillion budget for 2017. The issuance of securities by the Benin government this year was decided jointly with the UMOA-Titres agency (UAT) and...

The Bank of Solidarity of Mali (BMS-SA) secured from the Investment and Development Bank of the ECOWAS (BIDC) a FCFA10 billion credit line last Tuesday. The financing agreement was signed by BIDC’s president, Bashir Mamman Ifo, and Babaly Ba, managing director of BMS-SA, the same day at the ministry of economy and finances. “The FCFA10 billion credit line repayable over nine years (with a...

British firm Azuri Technologies announced has received from Standard Chartered Bank a credit facility of $5 million. The money will be used for manufacturing-purpose in addition to acquiring solar home systems which the firm distributes across Africa. “As the PayGo industry matures, access to innovative debt finance mechanisms becomes an increasingly important part of being able to...

A report presented during a roundtable themed “Land tenure : a risk for investors and political stability”, last Thursday in Dakar, denounces various policies related to the management and monitoring of investors’ activities in African countries. The document which was presented by TMP Systems and the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) states that these policies allow multinationals...

On Feb 8, on the sidelines of the International fair on real estate and urban development held in Algiers, the head of the national organization of real estate developers (ONPI), Maâmar Boumdal mentioned heavy land procedures which are detrimental to real estate investors. The official shared concerns over the “various constraints that real estate developers face, such as difficulty to obtain...

Recession-hit Nigeria plans to borrow at least $1 billion from the World Bank and also plans to present this month the financial institution the economic reform proposals it required, officials and diplomats told Reuters. For a year now, the West African nation has been negotiating with the bank to secure a loan to plug the budget deficit of $7 billion for 2016 and fund essential...