South African services, trading, and distribution company Bidvest Group announced it will no longer buy the fleet management and car rental company Eqstra Fleet Management and Logistics. The reason, Bidvest says, is that the two partners were waiting for the acquisition process to be finalized since the end of 2019 but until May 4, 2020, Prudential Authority, a financial services regulatory...

Niger’s Parliament adopted, during its plenary session of May 5, four draft laws including one that adjusts and revises the country’s criminal code. MPs have voted for the insertion of a section related to torture and other punishments into the criminal code. Niger wants to plug into the International Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment...

Over the first quarter of this year, 12 banks listed on the regional stock market BRVM posted a cumulative net income of CFA56.5 billion (about $93.14 million), 8% higher than the first quarter last year. The good performance was supported by a cumulative net banking income of CFA197.8 billion over the period. The result does not include Ecobank Transnational Incorporated, which has a...

Over the first quarter this year, the Ivorian arm of Societe Generale achieved a net profit after tax of CFA14.1 billion. The leader of the Ivorian banking sector and the WAEMU space has thus achieved its best Q1 profit since 2016, despite the coronavirus pandemic. Performance is also up 41.4% compared to the same period last year. The company said its result was spurred by the good progression...

Egypt’s economic growth is forecasted to fall to 2% in 2020/21 if the coronavirus crisis continues until December 2020, according to Hala el-Saeed (pictured), the minister of planning. “There are two scenarios for recovering from the coronavirus crisis, based on containing the pandemic by the end of June 2020 or the end of December 2020. And each of them would affect different sectors to...

The South African restaurant franchise group, Famous Brands, reported on May 4, 2020, it has generated negligible revenues due to the restrictive measures implemented in some of its operating markets in this covid-19 crisis. In South Africa, where the majority of Famous' restaurants have been closed, the government's announcement of easing measures has allowed the fast-food chain to begin...

The World Bank approved on April 30 under an accelerated financing mechanism, the additional disbursement of 20 million to help Tunisia strengthen its health system in this pandemic. Before this new support, Tunisia had obtained $15 million from the institution earlier in April, through the fund of an existing project, namely the Irrigation Agriculture Intensification Project in Tunisia.The...

The government of Burkina Faso officially launched on April 30 in Ouagadougou its “one student, one computer” program aiming at easing access to the internet for bachelor’s degree students in particular. According to the Minister of innovation, Alkassoum Maïga, the strategy falls within the government's ambition to digitalize and improve the education system per the international...

Somalia comes as the 7th country in the world where the cost of 1GB of internet is the cheapest. The cost in this country is $0.50, according to data collected on 238 nations worldwide by cable.co.uk in its “Worldwide mobile data pricing: The cost of 1GB of mobile data in 228 countries” study. Somalia comes first in Africa, making huge progress in the space of 12 months. Last year, the...

In its second covid-19 social bond issue on the WAEMU securities market on April 4, Côte d’Ivoire successfully raised a total of CFA180 billion (about $297mln). The 3-month treasury bills offer was oversubscribed at CFA611.751 billion (about $1 billion) per investor, making an exceptional coverage rate of 339.86%. The weighted average rate was 3.2176% and the marginal rate was...