Mozambique plans to build more than 1,500 affordable housing units for its population by 2024. This was announced on Thursday, December 3, 2020, by Cecilia Chamutota, Vice Minister of Housing of Mozambique. This program is part of the "Renascer" plan launched last March to reduce the housing deficit in the country. It targets mainly the populations aged between 22 and 45, with average incomes,...

French telecom group Orange, through its subsidiary Orange Marine, has decided to invest 50 million euros in the construction of a new vessel for the maintenance of submarine cables. According to Jean-Luc Vuillemin (pictured), Orange's director of international networks and services, "the construction of a cable ship is rare. And this is the first time that a building dedicated to maintenance is...

Although advantageous, local currency financing for off-grid renewables projects and businesses in Africa is still limited, according to a new report released by the African Development Bank. The report, Exploring the Role of Guarantee Products in Supporting Local Currency Financing of Sustainable Off-Grid Energy Projects in Africa, summarized findings of an in-depth study of documents on the...

For its third investment fund, African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM) completed a capital increase by mid-November 2020. The operation open to the shareholders of this fund was made public at the beginning of December. The African Infrastructure Investment Fund 3 (AIIF3) received $80 million at the end of this process. AIIM3, which made its last closing in May 2019, targets...

Japan’s car manufacturer Nissan says it wants to strengthen its footprint in Africa with the opening of a new regional business unit for the continent. The announcement was made yesterday in an official statement. The strategy is designed to centralize the company’s African operations through a single unit, which is set to be headed by Mike Whitfield, the former director for Nissan’s units...

Nigeria plans in its 2021 draft budget to invest N38 billion (about $100 million) for the maintenance of federal roads. This is only 9.5% of the budget needed for such a project according to the Chairman of the senate committee for road maintenance, Senator Gershom Bassey (pictured). The official believes that to make the country's 35,000 kilometers of federal roads passable at all times,...

In Kenya, defaults on loans taken out by students to finance their university education increased again in the first 10 months of the year. According to local media, which quote document presented by the Parliament, 38,314 former students who benefited from such loans did not repay them over the period reviewed.   By the end of October 2020, 116,642 people had defaulted on their student...

In Côte d’Ivoire, between 200,000 and 250,000 tons of the cocoa harvest for the main 2020-21 campaign (12.5-15% of total volume) is still unsold. This is the worst marketing performance since 1988-89. According to Reuters, which quotes sources close to the Coffee-Cocoa Council (CCC), this record weak result is due to the lack of enthusiasm by traders and grinders for the payment of the decent...

The African Development Bank is organizing the 4th edition of the Africa Energy Market Place (AEMP), dedicated to the G5 Sahel countries (Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger) in the context of the Desert-to-Power Initiative. The virtual event will take place from 8 to 10 December 2020 under the theme: Unlocking the solar potential of the G5 Sahel countries. The AEMP G5 Sahel 2020...

Hosted by Informa Tech and co-hosted by Huawei, the Africa Green ICT Forum was successfully held. The theme of this online forum is “Leading Power Digitalization for a Smart and Sustainable world”. Experts from all over the world share their experiences and explore how to use technological innovations to help save energy and reduce emissions in various industries and realize the coexistence...