Algerian state-owned oil company Sonatrach has signed an agreement with Pertamina to strengthen cooperation in the upstream and downstream sector. The signing of agreement was witnessed by Algerian Energy Minister Noureddine Bouterfa, the Indonesian Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry’s oil and gas director general IGN Wiratmaja Puja as well as Indonesian Ambassador to Algeria Safira...

In the coming years, East Africa’s hospitality and tourism sectors will record a positive growth, said Wayne Troughton, CEO of specialist global hospitality and tourism consultancy, HTI Consulting. Over the past few years, key projects have been implemented in East Africa to raise year-to-year tourism revenues from $7 billion to $16 billion, by 2020. “This indicates a positive...

In a major milestone, the organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries has for the first time in eight years agreed to reduce output to 32.5 million barrels per day from the current 33.24 million bpd. “OPEC made an exceptional decision today. ... After two and a half years, OPEC reached consensus to manage the market,” Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said after the meeting in...

In 2015, Senegal’s agricultural output should be around 5 million tons, according to a provisional report of the joint review of agricultural sector (RCSA) issued by Senegal’s Office for Analysis, Prevention and Agricultural. The report highlights that fruits and vegetables were the most productive in 2015 with 1,133,430 tons, ahead of groundnut whose output was 1,050,042 tons. These are...

State-owned company Sacfol is in talks with the government of South Africa over the acquisition of new forestry land, its chairman Lungile Mabece, told Business day. The talks which are at an “advanced stage” fall in line with the firm’s 2016-2021 corporate strategy. While Sacfol intends to partner with Black-owned companies, it is still highly criticized by environment defense...

Czech investors have agreed to buy from South African giant Naspers its online auction website Aukro.cz, Reuters revealed. However, the price of the transaction was not disclosed. Aukro.cz has 3.8 million registered users. It is part of Polish Allegro group which Naspers has put up for sale this year. So far, media said Naspers received four offers for the Polish assets. Allegro is the leader...

The African agribusiness sector should generate a trillion dollars by 2030, International Finance Corporation estimates. The world bank institution indicated that an annual investment of a little above $10 billion should be poured into the sector to achieve this result. Taking for example Africa’s second largest economy, IFC’s director for processing, agribusiness and services in...

Mauritius remains Africa’s most competitive nation (45th worldwide), World Economic Forum (WEF) said in the 2016-2017 global competitiveness report it released on Sept 28, in Geneva. In Africa, the island is followed by South Africa (47th in the world), Rwanda (52nd), Botswana (64th), Morocco (70th), Namibia (84th) and Algeria (87th). Tunisia (95th), Kenya (96th), Cote d’Ivoire (99th) come...

The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Maikanti Baru, has commissioned four petrol storage tanks at Mosinmi Depot in Ogun State. According to Baru, the dismantling and reconstruction of tank 13 and renovation of tanks 11, 12 and 22 at the Mosimi Depot would ease product distribution and increase the storage capacity of the depot by 220,000 litres.The...

The President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari (photo), has announced that India plans to increase the amount of crude oil it imports from Nigeria. This is coming more than a month after India and the United States have reduced their imports of Nigerian crude oil by 43 per cent and 53 per cent, respectively. India reduced its imports from Nigeria in May 2016 as it bought 7.74 million barrels,...