Nigeria is Africa's largest telecommunications market with over 220 million mobile subscribers. Other countries on the continent want to emulate its success in a context marked by accelerated digital transformation.  On May 23, Nigerian Digital Minister Isa Ali Pantami (photo, left), and his Gambian counterpart, Ousman Bah (photo, right), signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen...

According to AfDB president Akinwumi Adesina, an ideal global financial architecture should be more responsive, inclusive, accountable, and redesigned to support the acceleration of global development, especially in Africa.  "The African Development Bank (AfDB) is positioning itself as a leader in implementing innovative approaches to optimize its balance sheet. The majority of the...

Adesina calls out developed nations for not honoring $100 billion-a-year pledge A lack of adequate financing for tackling climate change in Africa has become dire and is “choking” the continent, African Development Bank Group President Dr. Akinwumi Adesina said on Monday. He was addressing scores of journalists from Africa and around the world at a media lunch organized to kick off its...

Africa Investment Forum’s current pipeline, comprises 90 deals valued at $62.9 billion The curated projects, which are drawn from all of Africa’s regions, are sourced from the Africa Investment Forum’s pipeline.  They reflect gathering urgency in Africa, the world’s most vulnerable region to climate change, to accelerate climate action, including closing financing gaps by...

The banking group, which claims more than 6 million customers in South Africa and the Philippines, believes the Vietnamese market is a perfect fit for its all-digital banking business model. Tyme Group, the neo-bank majority-owned by South African billionaire Patrice Motsepe, plans to expand into Vietnam in 2024 after closing a $78 million fundraising round, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday,...

To meet the growing demand for high-speed connectivity on the continent, telecom operators are increasingly focusing their investments on 4G and 5G. Some are even planning to switch off inferior mobile technologies. Telecom operator MTN Nigeria has no plans to disable its 2G and 3G mobile networks "for now." This was revealed by Mohammed Rufai (photo), the operator’s CTO, last week at a press...

In partnership with the AfDB, Egypt is readying itself for the issuance of the first African Panda Bonds. This is the first step in the AfDB’s efforts to facilitate the mobilization of climate financing for African countries.   Thanks to the AfDB’s support, Egypt is about to become the first African country to issue Panda Bonds on the Chinese market. Last week, the AfDB validated...

Orange unveiled Djoliba, its West African backbone, in 2020. This backbone should help the telecom group to support the digital ecosystem and meet the growing connectivity needs in the region.  Fiber optic infrastructure operator Angola Cables will leverage Djoliba, Orange's backbone in West Africa, to strengthen its presence in Francophone markets in the sub-region. The two parties...

In March 2021, Madagascar secured a $312 million funding facility to support its economic reform program. In the framework of that agreement, an IMF team sojourned in the country from May 3 to 12, 2013, to review the progress of those reforms.  The IMF has approved a staff-level agreement for the disbursement of $32 million to Madagascar. The approval, announced on Friday, May 19,...

On May 16, 2023, the West African Development Bank (WADB)’s Press Club exchanged with journalists from WAEMU countries on climate finance in West Africa. UNECA’s Nassim Oulmane, the African Climate Foundation’s Faten Aggad, and Ibrahim Traore, a WADB climate finance expert addressed journalists during the press conference.   According to Nassim Oulmane, the current challenge for...