ECOWAS countries are forging ahead with agreements to implement common roaming initiatives, aiming to cut the costs of electronic communications within the region. Benin and Ghana have pledged to implement free roaming to reduce communication costs for their citizens traveling between the two countries. Last week in Cotonou, a memorandum of understanding was signed by Benin's Electronic...

Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), a financial institution focused on infrastructure projects across the continent, has been selected along with 21 other entities worldwide to receive new financing approved by the U.S. Development Finance Corporation (DFC) for the second quarter of 2024. “In February, the U.S. Development Finance Institution DFC announced its Board of Directors approved...

African startups have collectively raised $466 million in the first quarter of 2024, according to a report released yesterday by Africa the Big Deal. Compared to the same period in 2023, this marks a decline of 47%. The source specified that its analysis only includes transactions exceeding $100,000 and excludes investor exit operations when calculating the financing value. Of the...

Remittances from Tunisian migrants represent the second largest source of foreign currency after export earnings, since the 2011 Revolution.    The Money Tunisians living abroad send back home reached TND1.81 billion ($579.7 million) over the first three months of this year, marking a 4% increase year-on-year. The figures were reported yesterday April 3 by the Central Bank of...

Côte d'Ivoire benefits from two IMF-supported financial programs worth a total of $4.8 billion. The programs are designed to preserve the country's macroeconomic stability and support its ambition to become an upper-middle-income country by 2030, among other things. An IMF delegation, led by Mr. Olaf Unteroberdoerster, began an assessment mission of Côte d'Ivoire's active economic...

Despite being the world's largest producer of cobalt, the DRC processes very little of it, exporting a large portion of its production to Chinese refineries. To be less dependent on China, the Central African country has been striking deals with Western countries to refine its cobalt. In the DRC, Electra Battery Materials and Eurasian Resources Group (ERG) sealed a deal to source cobalt from the...

Niger is no more Africa’s top uranium producer since 2016. That year, it was taken over by Namibia. Both countries currently record new projects in this sector, a movement spurred by the global surge in uranium prices.  Namibia’s Langer Heinrich uranium mine has started production. The project’s owner, Paladin Energy, disclosed the news on April 2. The move should consolidate the...

Adenia Partners, a private equity firm, announced on Wednesday the successful closure of its largest fund dedicated to Africa, totaling $470 million. The company attracted new investors such as Findev Canada and the US International Development Finance Corporation. About 60% of the funds raised for Adenia Capital V come from long-standing investors, including the European Investment Bank...

The Nigerian government has announced plans to remove electricity subsidies for 15% of consumers, aiming to reduce the subsidy cost by 3.3 trillion naira ($2.6 billion). This move is part of a series of reforms designed to alleviate the strain on public finances, according to Bayo Onanuga, the presidency's spokesperson, on Tuesday, April 2, 2024. "The government was under pressure to allow a...

Bassirou Diomaye Faye was sworn in as the new President of Senegal on Tuesday, April 2, following his first-round election victory on March 24. Shortly after taking office, he appointed Ousmane Sonko as the Prime Minister, head of the government. The newly appointed Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye has appointed Ousmane Sonko, who was recently released from prison alongside the new...