FAR has announced that after the successful drilling of the first two appraisal wells of the SNE oil field appraisal program offshore Senegal, the third well BEL-1 has been drilled by its partner, Cairn Energy.  The BEL-1 well is to be spud in about 1,100 metres of water and drilled to a total vertical depth subsea of about 2,757 metres prior to the commencement of an evaluation program...

According to ict4africa.net, Cote d’Ivoire’s telecom regulatory agency (ARTCI) requested that MTN stops exploiting 2.6 GHz frequency latest by March 21, 2016, midnight. The mobile telephony operator uses the frequency which it acquired in 2008 from Internet Services Provider, AFNET, and phone services provider, Arobase Telecom, for its Wimax and Wifi services. Concerned with market equity and...

Media24, South Africa’s leading website news, proceeded to a personnel reshuffling after News24’s chief editor, Andrew Trench, left. Adriaan Basson, the new super chief editor, will be, starting from April 1, 2016, will be at the head of the media’s journalists and content producers teams, in addition to news sector. Also, he is to coordinate News24’s financial platform, namely FIN24, as...

Junior gold developer, Gryphon Minerals, decided to exit Mauritania after Algold exercised an option over its interest in the Tijirit gold and Akjoujt and Saboussiri copper and gold projects. The firm holds 100% of Tijirit and Akjoujt mines and 60% of Saboussiri project. Gyphon, after signing the option agreement will receive A$4.5 million, including 8.7 million Algold shares which, added to...

Kenya’s Energy Regulatory Commission is about to update power grid code to integrate renewable energies. British consultant Nexant is in charge of undertaking the revision. “The grid code review will address historical challenges and aid tapping into regional power pools. What we have at the moment has been overtaken by events and it is not adequate to address challenges associated with...

The Porous Alpha is a system which aims at improving water management in Agriculture. The procedure, which was experimented in the Souss-Massa region on vegetables such as green beans helped increase by 22% yield, by saving 50% of water used. With these results, the Japanese firm Tottori Resource Recycling Inc who is behind Porous Alpha obtained approval from Morocco’s ministry of agriculture...

According to a report published by World Gold Council on March 11, ten African countries are listed in the Top 100 of countries with largest gold reserves. Algeria (25th worldwide) is first in Africa with a reserve of 173.6 tons. South Africa (29th worldwide) with 125.2 tons, Libya (31st worldwide with 116.6 tons), Egypt (41st with 75.6 tons), Morocco (59th with 22 tons), Nigeria (61st with...

Port operator China Merchants Holdings plans to invest in the development of new ports and in the modernization of existing terminals in West and East Africa, Maritime News reported on March 13, citing one of group’s executive. “We are looking for right partners in several regions, including Southeast Asia, East and West Africa and Baltic Sea region and Russia. Our partners must have vision...

Tunisia will issue a Eurobond that amounts to €750M-€1 billion in the second half of April 2016, Reuters reports on March 14, citing a government official. Procedure for the issuance, which includes examining potential demand, will be initiated by the end of March, the same source revealed. “We will go on the international market at the end of March and the issuance itself will...

Citing central bank’s estimates, Standard & Poor’s said Rwanda’s commercial banks’ net foreign exchange fell by 70% at the end of 2015, to $40 million. Meanwhile, foreign exchange reserves (amount of foreign currency central bank has) decreased by 12% only, to $900 million representing 4 months of import. Revenues from Rwanda’s mining sector which represent almost the...