Financial group, Standard Bank which owns 51% of the capital of its Angolan subsidiary, plans to increase its share in the company. The South African group wants to acquire the share of Angolan businessman, Carlos São Vicente who has been deprived of its assets (49% interest in Standard Bank Angola) in a fraud affair. “Over the last two years, we have increased our stake in our subsidiaries...

The Co-operative Bank of Kenya (Co-op Bank), which is the fourth-largest bank in the country by assets, will benefit from a long-term syndicated loan of $15 million from the Swedish development bank -Swedfund. The Kenyan bank will use the resources to increase its support to SMEs and finance green projects. “We have an important role in supporting strong and healthy financial institutions...

Nigeria’s ex-finance minister Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala became the new Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The lady becomes the first woman and the first African to hold this position. She received support from David Walker, the WTO Board Chairman, who reassured of the intention of all WTO members to help her accomplish her mission. “We look forward to collaborating closely...

The Sahel Alliance will hold its second general assembly in N'Djamena, Chad on Monday, 15 February 2021. The meeting will take place on the side-lines of a summit for the G5 Sahel countries— Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Chad—as well as France. The African Development Bank played an active role in the formation in July 2017 of the Alliance, an international cooperation platform to...

The Madagascar government reached a staff-level agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for the disbursement of $320 million. In an official statement, the Fund said the new deal is an Extended Credit Facility set up to assist the country in the implementation of its economic reforms. The goal is to support the post-Covid recovery, improve and sustain inclusive growth and...

Initially, the COVID-19 pandemic did not threaten food availability in sub- Saharan Africa due to adequate reserves for most staple crops in 2019. Access to food was instead the focus as borders closed and global supply chains weakened. Almost a year after the pandemic outbreak, it is now evident that agriculture production and its allied industries are struggling. Prices increased for most...

Rwanda plans to increase its 2020/2021 budget by 6.7%. This was announced on Thursday, February 11, by Uzziel Ndagijimana (pictured), during a virtual session with the Parliament. The move will see the budget increase from 3,245 billion Rwandan francs ($3.2 billion) to 3,464 billion Rwandan francs ($3.4 billion). The objective is to strengthen public spending in different sectors of the economy,...

Mobile operator Airtel Tanzania announced the successful upgrade of its 4G telecom network across the country. This investment, which allowed the company to initiate the "Supa 4G" project, now enables it to offer the population much better quality services on the 700 MHz and 2100 MHz frequency bands. Consumers now have access to Internet speeds above 40 Mbps. On Tuesday, February 9 in Dar es...

Zimbabwean Information Minister, Monica Mutsvangwa announced this week the country will take delivery of 800,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine by March 2021. She revealed the government has purchased 600,000 doses of the vaccine and the remaining 200,000 doses offered by China. “The donation of 200,000 doses and an initial batch of 600,000 doses which the Zimbabwe government has purchased are...

Last week, the Ivorian government launched a project to improve clean water supply in Abidjan, the country’s most populous city. Laurent Tchagba, the Minister of Hydraulics, said the $200 million initiative (CFA108 billion) will improve both the quantity and quality of drinking water for nearly 1.5 million inhabitants of the city by 2038. Under this plan, the Ivorian authorities want to...