Kenya’s economic growth rate next year should be slightly below earlier forecasts, an official from the ministry of Finance said. Initially, the figure was forecast at 6.5% but was finally scaled down to 6%, Reuters reported citing the official. The scale down was spurred by a less important lending activity. In a statement released in September 216, the Central Bank of Kenya said loans to the...

The head of IMF’s delegation to Gabon, Alex Segura Ubiergo, was received on November 23, 2016 by the head of government, Emmanuel Issoze Ngondet and the minister of economy, Régis Immongault Tatangani. After meeting with the authorities, IMF’s representative said he was optimistic about the growth of the Gabonese economy and the measures implemented by the government. It appears that...

Zambia’s chamber of mines announced on November 24, 2016, that the country’s copper output should increase by 4% to 740,000 tons this year. While government forecast an output of 700,000 t for 2016 and 1 million tons for 2017, CEO of Chamber of Mines, Talent Ng’andwe said these forecasts had been scaled up due to operations at a new mine owned by Canadian firm First Quantum...

With Nubian and Wadi pulling out from Egypt’s project to build renewable energy plants, a total of 19 developers have abandoned the initiative. The two firms were awarded contracts to build a 50 MW and 20 MW solar power plants, respectively, Daily News Egypt reports. Egypt’s renewable energy purchase progam was launched in 2014 and its goal was the development of 4,300 MW of solar and wind...

Leapfrog, a private equity firm focused on Africa and Asia, has acquired majority stake in Kenyan firm Goodlife Pharmacy. The deal is to date the most important ever sealed in the East African drug sales sector. The company will pay Catalyst Principal Parters $22 million for the stake. The latter seals here its first capital exit from its Catalyst Fund I East African focused private equity...

Tunisia aims to increase renewable share in its energy mix to 30% by 2030, from 3% currently, thus reducing its dependency on gas from which it gets most of its power at the moment. To this end, the Société Tunisienne de l’Electrcitité et du Gaz (STEG) will build many renewable power plants. The projects include a 10 MW photovoltaic power plant which will be established in Tozeur, by 2017....

In Q3 2016, unemployment is South Africa soared 1.6% compared to the same period in 2015, standing at 27.1% of active population, the country’s highest level since 2003, data released on Nov 22 by the national statistics office (StatsSA) shows. At the end of September 2016, out of the 8.1 million jobless South Africans, 5.9 million were actively seeking jobs while 2.2 million of them...

 Mauritius expects lychee output this year to be twice more than what it recorded last year. Kreepallo Sunghoon, secretary of the small farmers association of Mauritius, expects an output of 13,000-15,000 metric tons, against 6,000 tons in 2015. According to the official, between 6,000 and 7,000 tons of lychees will be directed to the local market while 800 to 1,000 tons are to be exported...

From €8.4 billion this year, France should provide 9.4 billion in 2016 to Africa via the Public Development Aid (APD). Despite the slight increase, the sum is lower than at the beginning of the five-year term of current president, François Hollande, Coordination du Sud said. According to the organization, France injected last year “only 0.37% of its wealth into APD, down from 0.7% it...

Morocco ordered American tech firm Harris Corporation which also operates in the defense sector for advanced electronic warfare suites This was revealed by defense-focused website, FAR-Maroc.  The cost of the system was however not disclosed. AIDEWS as the system is called helps detect, jam radar signals of anti-air defense land-air missiles and of air-air missiles of air fighters. It will...