According to an audit led by the Court of Auditors on the Telecommunications and Post Regulation Authority (ARTP), it appears that the telecom regulator gave away the sum of FCfa 8,012,003,232 to the telecom operator Expresso, subsidiary of Sudatel. The money covers invoices on radio frequency fees that Expresso was meant to pay to ARTP in 2009, 2010 and 2011. Furthermore, we learn that the...

The Angolan public broadcaster has started emitting in France since 2nd July 2015. The French public was spared nothing of president Francois Hollande’s visit, who will leave Angola this 3rd July for Cameroon. TPA International is the international version of the Télévision Publique d’Angola (TPA). It broadcast in France for the first time thanks to Free. The partnership includes the...

The American bank Goldman Sachs will have its first foray in the Ivory Coast before the end of the current year by financing of a project of 20,000 social housing for civil servants, per a report published on 2nd July in the French magazine Jeune Afrique. The repayment of this funding will be done through the creation of mortgages, the same source added. This will be implemented by drawing off...

The Cameroonian government and the Moroccan company Platinum Power entered into a framework-agreement on 1st July 2015 in Yaoundé for the development, funding, construction and operation of the Makay hydroelectric complex, as well as the associated electricity transfer facilities. The agreement, signed by Omar Belmamoun, Platinum Power's CEO and Basile Atangana Kouna, Cameroonian minister for...

The investments made in the energy sector in Algeria have reached US$ 3.6 billion during the first quarter 2015, 19% higher compared to the same period in 2014, APS relates. This increase in investments was recorded despite the oil revenue shrinking, due to the fall in crude oil prices, based on the information obtained from the ministry of Energy. According to the same source, the refinery...

We could call it the Algerian paradox. While the North African country is facing an annual shortage of 1.5 billion litres of milk, which is driving it to massively invest in powder milk imports, half of the dairy herd is destined for the slaughterhouse. Walid Bouabdellah, vice-president of the National Organisation for Agricultural Development (ONDA), who shared these surprising statistics with...

The world leader in digital security Gemalto won the contract for the production of biometric identidy cards in Algeria, the minister of Interior announced on 29 June. "Gemalto was selected for the acquisition of the body of the pre-personalized card and application of national biometric and electronic identity card (CNIBE)", explained the minister, indicating that the contract value...

Helios Investment Partners, the private investment firm focused on Africa, has formed a joint venture (HV Investment) with the Swiss trading group Vitol to acquire the downstream operations of the energetic Nigerian group Oando Plc, we learn from the stakeholders press releases. The operation for an overall value of US$461.3 million will be done partly with cash (US$ 276.8 million) with the...

Tantalus Rare Earths AG, operating a rare earths project in North-East Madagascar raised funds to the tune of €2.304 million through its fund raising plan which was subscribed to by fifteen investors for 178,819 new shares issued at a value of €1.430 million. This takes place at the stage of its transition, from prospecting to mining and production company, on its rare earths...

The minister of Post, Telecommunications and ICT, Oyé Guilavogui, officially announced the enforcement of a tax on telecommunications in a press release. The communiqué explains that "this law is applicable to all telephone service users, at a rate of GF1 per second per call and concerns all types of telephone calls, landline and mobile, local and international, interconnections and...