MTN and Zain are the main telecommunications operators in South Sudan. Under the country's laws, the operators must pay their taxes to the government of South Sudan, however, they are paying them to Sudan despite a split that happened more than ten years ago.   MTN and Zain South Sudan are still paying their frequency fees and taxes to Sudan although South Sudan became a sovereign...

The financial support is the fourth disbursement the World Bank is granting to Benin, this year, to support the implementation of its action plan.   The World Bank, through the International Development Association (IDA), has granted US$200 million in funding to the Beninese government to strengthen the resilience of some of the country's infrastructure. The support was announced on...

Most of Capitec Bank’s financial indicators have proved resilient in a post-covid context marked by stagflation, the consequences of the Ukraine war, unrest, and flooding in  KwaZulu-Natal. However, the bank must monitor its loan portfolio.  JSE-listed Capitec Bank, the third-largest bank by market valuation in South Africa, posted a pre-tax profit up by nearly ZAR5.9 billion (...

A USSD code is a quick code that allows access to some additional services via SMS messages. Banks and other financial service providers use USSD to facilitate access to their services in sub-Saharan Africa, where only 28 percent of the population has access to the Internet (according to the GSMA). Nigerian banks and financial institutions may soon be denied access to the unstructured...

In the last few months, Senegal has faced political tensions, which caused tense legislative elections and brawls at the parliament. The amnesty touted by the President aims to promote peace for appeased Presidential elections.  In Senegal, President Macky Sall (photo), has instructed Minister of Justice Ismaila Madior Fall, to implement an amnesty program that would allow his political...

In Africa, internet penetration is still low despite an acceleration of digital transformation. The issue is caused, among other things, by the lack of quality digital infrastructures on the continent. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) announced, Wednesday (September 28), a US$30 million investment in West Indian Ocean Cable Company (WIOCC). The funds will help the wholesale...

Amid rising urgency for  instruments to de-risk investment across Africa, the Africa Co-Guarantee Platform’s (CGP) six partners have affirmed commitments to better leverage guarantee and insurance products, resulting in more trade and investment across Africa.  The partners pledged to extend direct transaction support for specific projects, including infrastructure development and...

In a country bracing for the 2023 presidential election, the central bank’s decisions concerning the rising cost of living were much awaited. But, can the new tightening policy adopted by the CBN successfully avert the inflation ever-rising in Nigeria?  The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has decided to step up to counter inflation, which has reached record levels in recent months in...

Mobile phones are currently the tools most used to access the internet in Africa. However, because of the high cost of broadband-enabled phones, many people are still missing out on the digital dividend. This situation could hamper the development of the digital economy on the continent.   According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the United Nations Educational,...

Unclaimed assets include assets in bank accounts, life insurance policies, and salary accounts, which recorded no transactions for some time due to debilitating illnesses, relocations, deaths, and other life events affecting the owners.  The total value of unclaimed financial assets lodged by various South African financial institutions amounts to almost 90 billion rands (US$5 billion), the...