Board of directors of West African Development Bank (BOAD) met for its 100th ordinary session at the headquarters of Central Bank of West African States in Dakar, Senegal. Christian ADOVELANDE, President of the Board and also BOAD’s, presided the meeting. During the meeting, the board approved the record of its 99th meeting held on December 14, 2015 in Niamey, Niger. It also approved the...

In Algeria, as part of efforts to boost output, Sonatrach has granted a $100 million contract to five foreign firms for the supply of oil and gas drilling tubes. The companies include German-based CCC Machinery, Dutch-based Van Leeuwen, France’s Vallourec Tubes, Kurvers Piping also in France and China’s High Sealed & Coupled. Algeria’s economy has been affected by the 70% drop in...

Board of Tunisian insurer Star Assurances met on March 22, 2016 and offered to share a dividend of 9.20 dinar per share against 3.4 dinar in 2014, thus hiking 171%. The new dividend could be issued by paying 40% of 2015’s results, excluding exceptional disposal of share, and bonus of 25% on this transaction’s plus-value. 2015 was a good year for Star Assurances. The company had its accepted...

Launched in 2015, TEEP is the largest African philanthropic initiative devoted to entrepreneurship and represents a 10-year, $100 million commitment, to identify and empower 10,000 African entrepreneurs, create a million jobs and add $10 billion in revenues to Africa’s economy. Over 45,000 entrepreneurs from 54 African countries applied, nearly doubling the number of applications...

Mobile operator Sotelma-Malitel signed last week a partnership agreement with the National Employment Agency (ANPE). Through this agreement, Sotelma-Malitel will create 2,000 jobs in Bamako, Mali, via its mobile money transfer service, MobiCash. Director General of Sotelma-Malitel, Mohamed Morchid, said the partnership will give a new dynamic to Mali’s strategy to fight youth unemployment and...

Madagascar will soon have a 30 MW- 40 MW solar power plant. The infrastructure will be constructed as part of of the Scaling Solar program from which Zambia and Senegal benefited. The government of Madagascar and International Finance Corporation (IFC) signed an agreement regarding the establishment and submission offer of a solar energy partnership. “The project relies on a clean and readily...

Richelle Bielle, chairman of CFAO’s board said the company decided to prioritize its Ivorian brewery project which should be completed next year. The executive made the announcement after meeting with Cote d’Ivoire’s Prime Minister, Daniel Kablan Duncan. “The CFAO group, besides the Marcory project with Carrefour, is also building various malls in Cote d’Ivoire. However, the most...

Nigeria has awarded 22 licences for modular refineries with a joint capacities of 1.429 million bpd to private individuals, Sweet Crude news reports. According to the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), the government is making moves to boost domestic refining capacity through other alternatives like modular refining, following the inability of the nation’s refineries, with combined...

French shipping company CMA CGM just deployed big container ships with a capacity of 10,000 TEU (Twenty Feet Equivalent Unit) between Asia and Africa to better respond to the rising trade between these continents. This was revealed by Le Marin on March 21. Among the new big neo-panamax vessels are some bareboat chartered-in container ships. The ships are named after the children of Jacques...

In a statement published on March 16, the African Development Bank (AfDB) announced it would grant Gabon $1.38 billion between 2016 and 2020 to support its development plan. The funding will be injected in projects under the Country Strategy Paper/CSP 2016-2020 approved by World Bank and Gabon. AfDB will mainly support the Strategic Plan for an Emerging Gabon (PSGE) and the Social Pact...