President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the Ghanaian president, commissioned on July 9, Ghana’s four-tier interchange. The infrastructure, a first of its kind in West Africa and second in Africa, opened in Accra with the hopes to reduce road fatalities, ease mobility, and boost trade within Ghana as well as extend to other regional countries. The interchange was jointly funded by the African...

The government of Burkina Faso unveiled a plan to make ICT a tool for the security of its population. To handle the growing criminality in the country, it has called on China to help in this task. “SMART Burkina” - launched last July 8 by Prime Minister Christophe Joseph Marie Dabiré- is the name of the project designed to interconnect all Burkinabe cities via an 800 km optical fiber...

The flow of Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in Mali dropped by more than 50% to $308 million (CFA170 billion) in 2020. These figures were unveiled in a recent report by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). According to the document, this decline took place in a gloomy global environment, marked by the Covid-19 pandemic which led to a 35% drop in global foreign investment,...

Mobile operator Hormuud Telecom plans to increase its 4G telecom coverage to 100% by 2023. Ahmed Mohamud Yuusuf, the company's chief executive officer, announced the program last July 8. According to the manager, the company's ambition is to further improve people's access to broadband, which offers more opportunities than the 2G that many Somalis are still connected to. "Increasing access to 4G...

Between the covid-19 pandemic and the Ever Given accident, the global economic environment was not conducive to increased revenues for the Suez Canal. However, the waterway generated a historic annual revenue in 2020-21. Osama Rabie, chairman of the Suez Canal Authority (SCA), announced last July 11 the Suez Canal has generated record revenues for 2020-21. According to him, between 2019-20 and...

An Arbitral Tribunal of the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) has ruled against Djibouti’s port company, Port de Djibouti S.A. (PDSA), in its dispute with DP World, confirming the unlawfulness of its effort to terminate its Joint Venture Agreement and transfer its shares to the State. PDSA is 23.5% owned by China Merchants Port Holdings Company Ltd of Hong Kong (China...

The Government of the Republic of Djibouti has approved, during the Council of Ministers convened on July 11, a draft law defining the terms and conditions for the total or partial transfers of shares in state-owned capital in public enterprises. In this context, the government announces the share capital opening of the historical national operator Djibouti Telecom to private investors. The...

Vantage Capital, a South African black-owned and managed private equity fund manager, announced the first close for its fourth mezzanine fund - Vantage Mezzanine Fund IV. The fund which aims to raise $350 million at the final close, has now raised $207 million to provide mid-sized African businesses with capital that will enhance job creation, facilitate economic opportunities and...

The trade agreement that could be the most significant development in U.S-Africa trade relations, since the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) passed in Congress in 2000, faces another hurdle. This is attributable to the expiration of the key legislative tool (TPA) needed to accelerate Congress’s approval of the agreement. Consequently, the prospects for the deal to conclude becomes...

Seychelles has reached a staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a $107 million Extended Fund Facility (EFF). The announcement was made by the institution in a July 7 statement. Set to be deployed over 28 months between 2021 and 2023, the economic program consists of reinforcing the Seychellois economy by addressing debt and fiscal consolidation issues. “The...