The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group on 2 October 2023 approved a grant of $13.29 million to Somalia to help improve domestic revenue mobilization and public expenditure management under the Institutional Support for Economic Governance Project. The grant comprises $9.31 million from the resources of the African Development Fund, the Bank Group’s concessional...

An estimated 3.2 million children are hard hit by terrorism in Burkina Faso, according to Unicef data. Of the more than 2 million people forced to flee their homes because of the violence, 58% are children, the organization reported. The UN Children's Fund (Unicef) estimates that more than a million children cannot go back to school in Burkina Faso due to persistent violence and insecurity in...

The Cameroonian government is working on new regulations to combat the illegal export of cocoa beans in the country. Many observers believe the phenomenon has reached alarming levels because of the 10% exit tax recently imposed on exports. According to them, while the government only intended to promote local processing, the introduction of this additional levy may have encouraged dishonest...

Africa’s progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the African Union’s Agenda 2063 aspirations has been uneven, with significant differences among subregions, countries, and rural and urban areas. This calls for accelerated efforts to ensure that Africa achieves the global goals by the 2030 deadline, the latest Africa Sustainable Development report has stated. The 2023 report,...

Starlink’s commercial services are already available in five African countries, namely: Nigeria, Rwanda, Mozambique, Kenya, and Malawi. Before the year ends, the US firm plans to add 18 more countries on the continent. U.S.-based company SpaceX has teamed up with e-commerce company Jumia Technologies AG to accelerate the adoption of its Starlink satellite Internet network services in Africa....

Dr. Denis Mukwege, the Congolese gynecologist who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018, announced he is running for presidency in the upcoming elections. “The man who repairs women” made the decision public Monday during a press briefing in Kinshasa. "For the past ten years or so, the Congolese people have been asking me to get more involved with them by standing as a candidate for the...

Tunisia has, since mid-September, a new cybersecurity agency that strives to better protect the country’s cyberspace amidst the rapid technological development. The new agency replaced the former National Agency for IT Security which has been in existence for 20 years.  The Tunisian National Cybersecurity Agency (ANCS) and its Italian counterpart signed, last Friday, a memorandum of...

Following the tragedy that claimed the lives of more than 34 people in a smuggling oil depot in Seme-Krake on September 23, the government of Benin has announced several measures to ensure that such a thing never happens again. As part of this plan, government spokesman Wilfried Léandre Houngbédji has indicated that the State has ordered more than 5,000 mini-stations, which will be distributed...

Over the first eight months of this year, the number of tourists visiting Morocco peaked sharply, and, consequently, the country had its tourism revenues rise. Morocco earned 71.4 billion dirhams ($6.9 billion) from tourism in the first eight months of 2023, up 33% in the same period in 2022. This was disclosed by the Moroccan Ministry of Tourism, Handicrafts, and the Social and Solidarity...

When addressing the nation on Sunday, October 1, on the eve of his country's independence day, Colonel Mamadi Doumbouya (pictured) took stock of the situation since he came to power and announced his next steps. “Our country, Guinea, is on the path of reconciliation, development and prosperity. But many things still need to be done. Many challenges remain. And we have to address them all...