Isabel dos Santos (pictured), daughter of former Angolan President Eduardo dos Santos, has just suffered another financial blow. She loses control of Vidatel, a telecom operator registered in the British Virgin Islands. Through Vidatel, the Angolan businesswoman held a 25% stake in the Angolan mobile operator Unitel. These shares had been placed under judicial supervision by Angola after...

Kenya has reached a new trade deal with the UK. The document was initialed on Dec 8 in London between Betty Maina, Kenyan trade minister, and her British counterpart Ranil Jayawardena. The new agreement seeks to guarantee free access to the British market for all companies operating in Kenya, including those from the UK. It will also benefit many of the 2,500 British companies that export goods...

Côte d'Ivoire will begin a vaccination campaign of its population against covid-19, from April 2021. This was announced by the government on Wednesday, December 9, 2020, in a communiqué issued at the end of the Council of Ministers. This measure is one of the actions undertaken by the Ivorian authorities since the beginning of the pandemic. After the massive screening campaign, prevention, and...

Since January 2020, the international investment banks posted a total of $84.8 billion in revenues, up 14% compared with that of 2019. They achieved this figure despite the coronavirus pandemic, which is affecting global activities in virtually all sectors. Data published by Dealogic and the Wall Street Journal showed a sharp improvement in banking activity this year. Over the same period...

Zambia has just begun negotiations for financial support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF announced this in an official statement. “The Zambian authorities have formally requested a financing arrangement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to support their reform efforts,” IMF said. This announcement comes at a time when the Zambian economy has been declining due...

The "Smart Village Project for Rural Growth and Digital Inclusion (PVI)" was officially launched on Thursday, December 3 in Niamey, Niger. Led by the National Agency for the Information Society (ANSI), it aims to connect 2,111 target villages to mobile and broadband Internet services. CFA58 billion ($107 million) will be disbursed by the government for this project, set to cover over six years,...

While the South African economic data announced an unexpected growth of the gross domestic product during the third quarter of 2020, the main stock market index of the local financial market experienced its first decline in 6 sessions, we noted. The FTSE South Africa, which includes all companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, was down 0.5% on Tuesday, December 8, 2020. However, GDP...

Tanzania will benefit from $300 million in funding from South Korea to finance several development projects, Xinhua reported citing official sources. The agreement was signed on Tuesday, December 8, 2020 in Dar es Salaam between the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance and Planning, Doto James, and Cho Tae-Ick, South Korea's ambassador to Tanzania. The new financing will be...

Burundi says it will resume cooperation with the European Union, after a nearly five-year suspension. President Evariste Ndayishimiye met last Dec 7 with EU Ambassador to Bujumbura Claude Bochu to discuss the deal. They agreed to “break free from the past and look to the future by rebuilding their relationship,” an official Presidency statement said. Following the very controversial...

Mobile operator Telecel Faso launched 4G+ on Monday, December 7. The company comes on this segment behind Orange and the Office National des Télécommunications (Onatel) of Burkina Faso, a subsidiary of Maroc Telecom Group, which launched this mobile technology in January and March 2019 respectively. According to Dimitri Ouédraogo, the CEO of Telecel Faso, the company has taken the time...