There was a buzz in the air as young spectators found their seats. Their excitement bubbled over at the sight of three African greats: former iconic Chelsea Football Club star and legendary captain of the Elephants of Côte d'Ivoire, Didier Drogba; eight-time NBA All-Star and Hall of Fame American basketball giant Dikembe Mutombo; and African Development Bank Group President, Akinwumi A....

Russian-African trade stood at about $14 billion in 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic was striking hard. In this relation, the African side remains minor with a trade deficit of more than $10 billion. TradeMap, the WTO's international trade database, estimated that Africa imports about seven times more goods from Russia than it exports to the country. In 2020, Russia exported $12.4...

Uganda-based Rocket Health, which offers telemedicine and home drug delivery services, announced it has raised $5 million in a Series A round to expand its digital health services. The company plans to expand across East Africa over the next two years. The deal, led by investment firm Creadev, brings to about $6.2 million, the total funding secured by the health tech, since its...

Faced with the growing price hike on its territory, the Ivorian government announced new measures to keep inflation under control. The state reported the new policies in an official statement issued last March 5. These include a $55 million price subsidy for petroleum products such as diesel; a price cap on refined palm oil, sugar, milk, rice, concentrated tomato, beef, and pasta for the...

South Korea has agreed to grant Senegal $500 million to help implement various development projects. The financing deal was signed last week on the sidelines of the 5th Korea-Africa forum held on March 3 in Seoul. This new South Korea-Senegal partnership mainly focuses on financing the agriculture, education, and transport sectors. It is expected to strengthen trade relations between the...

After two years on the Lagos Stock Exchange, MTN Nigeria has become one of the fastest-growing assets compared to Dangote Cement. The latter, however, has room for improvement and above all better fundamentals to attract more investors than its stock market rival. Between May 2019, when it entered the Nigerian Stock Exchange, and March 7, 2022, MTN Nigeria has seen its market value rise by 87.4%...

African experts met last March 3-5 in Kigali, Rwanda, to discuss climate impact on the continent. This was a part of the eighth session of the Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development (ARFSD-8). During their session, the experts expressed the need for increased financing to help the continent adapt to climate change and reach carbon neutrality. Vera Songwe, UN Under-Secretary-General and...

As 2030 -the first milestone for most national climate commitments- approaches, countries are multiplying efforts to deliver on their promises. Rwanda announced it will benefit from €56 million ($62 million) in funding from Germany to finance climate initiatives. According to initial reports, the KfW Development Bank will provide €30 million to the urban development project, Green...

Telco Vodacom DRC announced the deployment of its services in remote rural areas across the country. The company will be assisted in this project by satellite-based telecom services operator Intelsat. The cooperation deal between the two parties will see Vodacom use Intelsat's end-to-end managed CellBackhaul service in areas where fiber or microwave backhaul networks are not yet available or...

The African Development Bank (AfDB) announced this week the disbursement of $400,000 to digitize public tenders for savings on the regional financial market. The same amount was granted last December to the Dépositaire Central/Banque de Règlement of the West African Monetary Union (WAMU) for the project. AfDB says it wants to create a digital platform to automate the management of public...