The Tunisia parliament passed on 6 August, a law on the recapitalisation of two public banks, namely Société Tunisienne de Banque (STB) and Banque de l’Habitat (BH) for 867 million dinars (about USD 440 million). The recapitalisation plan was approved by 109 votes for, 10 against and 8 abstentions. The state should inject 757 million dinars in STB and 110 million dinars in BH. The Tunisian...

Following the request of the Ethics Council of the Stocks and Shares Market (CDVM), trading of shares in the Moroccan public limited liability oil and gas company (SAMIR) on the Casablanca Stock Exchange have been suspended this 6 August, «pending the publication of important information», we learn from an official source. The situation appears to be another notch in the difficulties detected...

Congo and Angola will produce the first oil barrels on their common project on the offshore Lianzi deposit starting from October, according to Les dépêches de Brazzaville. The Angolan minister of Oil Jose Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos and his Congolese counterpart André Raphaël Loemba confirmed, on 31 July, this timeline, following the 24th meeting of the interstate operational committee of...

The mobile operators Airtel Congo and MTN Congo have again been penalised for bad quality of service. This time, the term of their 2G and 3G telecom licence, set for 15 years, has been reduced by a year. This sanction, according to the Congo Posts and Electronic communications Regulatory Agency (ARPCE), stems from the failure of the two operators to supply a service of satisfactory quality...

Angola has formed a monetary agreement with China which makes the Yuan the second legal tender in the second top African producer of crude oil, announced the Angolan minister of Trade, Rosa Paca, on 3 August. The Kwanza will also be accepted in China, according to this agreement which will allow Angola to import more Chinese goods and to be less dependent on the dollar. The new agreement is...

Indian company Kirloskar Brothers Ltd will provide funds for agricultural development in Guinea Bissau. The group signed an agreement with the government of Guinea Bissau for US$ 10 million to support rice growing, horticulture and cattle breeding in the country. According to the terms and conditions of the agreement, KBL’s financing will be used to support the government's efforts to achieve...

Genel Energy plc, an oil and gas company headquartered in Jersey and listed in London, reiterated on 6 August, in its unaudited account for the six-month period ending 30 June, its intention of releasing its 37.5% shares in the Juby Maritime licence, in offshore Morocco. Negotiations are currently ongoing with the Moroccan authorities and follow the completion of the results’ analysis from the...

The first round of the presidential election in Côte d’Ivoire has been officially set for 25 October, the government announced on 5 August. “All will be done in order to meet this deadline”, declared Bruno Koné, spokesperson for the government, after a cabinet meeting in Abidjan. The 2015 election is a crucial date for Côte d’Ivoire, after a decade of politico-military crisis which...

The initiative Akon Lighting Africa will soon be producing educational tablets powered by solar energy. The three co-founders Akon, Thione Niang and Samba Bathily, announced this during the closing session of their summer tour which ended in Benin. “With the solar power that we are proposing, one can connect all sorts of appliances, telephones to communicate, refrigerators to conserve food...

The French bank group Société Générale has been summoned as a target witness in the case known as «ill-gotten gains», a dossier on alleged misappropriation of public funds implicating Teodorin Obiang, the son of the President of Equatorial Guinea, reports AFP on 3 August, citing a legal source. The status of a target witness is in between being indicted and being a simple witness. The...