German insurer Allianz announced in a statement published on June 17 it has bought Moroccan subsidiary of Zurich Insurance for €244 million. Subject to necessary regulatory approvals, the deal should be sealed before the end of 2016, the same source reports. Zurich Assurances Maroc is 7th in Morocco’s Casualty & Accidents insurance market. It has a pool of 600,000 customers. In...

The government of Benin said it would no more subsidize the cotton industry. This was decided at the end of a council of ministers held on June 15. It should help the country save close to FCFA21 billion, authorities indicated. State Minister, Pascal Koupaki, said the measure was subsequent to the sector being regained by the private sector. “With private sector’s actors regaining the...

MTN Cote d’Ivoire said on 10 June 2016 that it has raised FCFA140 billion to finance its investments in the country and increase its footprint across it. The sum, proceeds of a loan arranged by Standard Chartered Bank and Ecobank Development Corporation (EDC) from 10 Ivorian banks and Ecobank’s Senegalese and Togolese subsidiaries, will be paid over 7 years, with a grace period of one year....

Kenya plans to generate 2,000 MW from geothermal source over the next 6 years. This capacity will be installed on the Baringo Silai block in the north with the support of German bank KfW. By achieving this, Kenya would become Africa’s top geothermal energy producer. It has been estimated that the block concerned holds a capacity of 3,000 MW. It will be exploited in two stages, the first...

In Togo, 200km of fiber optic planned under the government’s e-government project has been laid in Lomé, the capital. According to republicoftogo.com who revealed the news, the network should be operational by the end of the year and should connect 500 administrative sites (ministries, public agencies, airport, hospitals, universities, etc.). Togo’s e-government project was launched on...

The South African Automobile Association (AA) has said that the ongoing increase in the global oil prices with inadequate support from the exchange rate has resulted in a further increase in the prices of fuel. According to the Association, an unaudited mid-month data released by the Central Energy Fund foresees an increase of about 27 cents per litre for petrol, 61c per litre for diesel and...

Mauritania and Senegal have decided to work together and share the profits of gas production discovered by Kosmos off their coasts. This is coming after the American Energy company discovered a massive gas field at Saint Louis, off the Senegalese coast in January. The find initiated deep negotiations between the two countries which were in disagreement over the location of the production...

The Nigerian Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Emmanuel Kachikwu (photo), has said that the removal of subsidy from the pump price of petrol is currently allowing the Federal Government to save more than N1.4 trillion annually. According to Kachikwu, the deregulation policy had also revived the downstream sector and this will assist the nation in becoming a net exporter of petroleum...

The Niger Delta Avengers has blown a pipeline owned by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in Oruk Anam local government area of Akwa Ibom.This is coming after the militant group, which has claimed responsibility for several attacks on oil facilities in Nigeria's southern oil region, had said it would only dialogue with the government if independent foreign intermediaries were...

Vitol has won a tender for first cargo loaded at the Angola LNG facility which came on stream recently, after a two-year shutdown. According to trade sources, the cargo was loaded from the Chevron-led facility at the beginning of June on board the 161,000 cubic meters Sonangol Sambizanga LNG vessel, Reuters reports. Angola LNG has confirmed that the first cargo was loaded at Soyo, northern...