Nigerian pension fund manager FCMB Pensions Limited engaged in talks with rival AIICO Pension Managers to acquire a 96% stake in the company for an undisclosed amount. The subsidiary of financial services group FCMB Group Plc first wants to acquire 70% of the shares of AIICO Pension Managers from its parent company, insurer AIICO Insurance, and a further 26% from minority shareholders of AIICO...

The battle for Ethiopia's two new telecommunications licenses is going to be tough. According to the Ministry of Finance and the Ethiopian Communications Authority (ECA), a total of 11 companies are in the running for the licenses. Bidders include Global Partnership for Ethiopia (a consortium of telecom operators consisting of Vodafone, Vodacom, and Safaricom), Etisalat, Axian, MTN, Orange,...

Since January 1, 2020, the cumulative market value of the world’s listed banks fell by $2,126.7 billion, according to data provided by Capital QI. In detail, a total of 1,601 banks experienced a decline in market value over the period under review while 192 saw an increase in their value and 50 others reported a stable value. The top 30 largest banks by market capitalization, with U.S. JP...

Hisham Tawfik (pictured), the Egyptian Minister of public business sector, announced during an interview with Bloomberg that the government has suspended the privatization of state-owned companies due to ‘unfavorable’ market conditions stemming from the coronavirus pandemic. Through its privatization program, the government wanted to reorganize an oversized and loss-making public sector to...

Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has set up a special unit to track income generated through digital businesses with particular focus on companies such as Google, which do not have a physical presence in the country but still generate money on the market. According to Caxton Masudi (pictured), the deputy commissioner in charge of policy and domestic taxes, the move is to “ensure that the digital...

Three leading international financial institutions, the African Development Bank, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), on Thursday pledged multi-pronged support to Sudan as it opens a new chapter to overcome political and economic challenges. At a high-level Sudan Partnership Conference held virtually and hosted in Berlin on 25 June, the three multilateral organizations and...

Ethiopia’s ‘One’ model, under which the government runs its Water, Sanitation and Hygiene ( WASH ) National Program, has steadily improved the well-being of the country’s rural and urban communities, top local officials say. “The ‘One’ here means we have one account, one budget and one report in one consolidated WASH Account,” says Tadesse Masresha, Coordinator for the Regional...

Pan-African telecom group Liquid Telecom announced on June 26 the extension of its partnership with satellite telecoms network operator Intelsat to connect more than 2,000 additional VSAT terminals across Africa. Liquid Telecom said the agreement will ensure that mobile operators, businesses, media, content companies, and retail customers will continue to have reliable, high-speed satellite...

Activities on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange have been suspended, according to a press release signed on 28 June 2020 by Justin Bgoni, the institution's chief executive officer. “While we await guidance from our regulators on the operational modalities going forward, we notify our stakeholders that trading has been suspended until further notice,” the document said. This situation stems from a...

U.S. IT consulting firm 1Rivet, which specializes in the development of digital platforms, will help the Republic of Congo build a digital platform for public services. This follows a meeting on June 25 between Léon Juste Ibombo (pictured), the Congolese minister of telecommunications and digital economy, and Charlie Clavelli, the company’s chief operating officer and managing partner. The...