Ivorian Guillaume Soro (pictured) said he is maintaining his presidential candidacy, despite the heavy judicial sentence of 20 years in prison he is now facing for “concealment of stolen assets” and “money laundering.” The sentence was decided on April 28 by the Criminal Court of Abidjan, after a trial of a few hours in which his lawyers did not take part. “I'm still running for...

Morocco is well-positioned to take advantage of the revival of the European automotive industry, once the coronavirus crisis is over, according to rating agency Fitch Ratings. The country tops the Risk/Return Index ranking developed by the institution, ahead of Egypt. “We believe that countries in North Africa, specifically Morocco and Egypt, will benefit from the restructuring efforts of...

The Federal government of Nigeria is negotiating a 5-year financing aid of $3.4 billion from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), we learned. The new financing is part of a support mechanism set up by the institution to assist 40 African countries in the fight against the current coronavirus pandemic. With an oil-dependent economy, Nigeria is suffering a sharp decline in its 2020 growth...

The National Bank of Angola (BNA) is seeking a partner for the implementation of a System of Mobile Transfers and Instant Messaging (STMI). The winning bidder will be announced by next September. The partner is required to have expertise in the management and operation of compensation and switching systems for mobile and instant payments. BNA wants the interoperable e-payment system to be...

Egyptian investment firm Alexandria Angels launched a seed fund called Alex Angels Fund aiming at mobilizing $6.3 million to back tech startups in Egypt. The company said the first investment is expected by the end of the third quarter of this year. It targets startups with promising development opportunities in big markets. Alexandria Angels was operational since December 2016 and has...

The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) is investing $3 million to support the fight against the coronavirus pandemic on the continent. According to the bank’s president Benedict Oramah, the amount will fund the Covid-19 Special Fund set up by the African Union (AU) as well as the African Center for Disease Control (Africa CDC). Still, as part of the fight against this pandemic,...

Satellite service provider Intelsat and Africa Mobile Networks (AMN), a consortium that develops mobile network base stations in sub-Saharan Africa’s rural areas, have announced they have successfully connected a thousand remote localities in the region. This makes a total of 3.5 million more individuals that now have access to telecom services. The deal for this project was signed in October...

Egyptian private bank Commercial International Bank (CIB) has finalized the acquisition of 51 stakes in the capital of Kenyan Mayfair Bank, following the approval from Kenya’s banking sector regulator, which will take effect on May 1. With this investment, the EGX- and LSE-listed company becomes the first from Egypt to enter the Kenyan market. Three years after Mayfair started operations in...

WAEMU Heads of State meet today April 27 by videoconference to pull efforts to fight the coronavirus pandemic. Since the beginning of the pandemic, many African countries, particularly those in the western region, have taken a series of health and economic measures. According to an official communiqué, the meeting aims essentially at analyzing and evaluating these control plans “to identify a...

The Board Chairman of Egyptian National Railways (ENR) has received an official loan authorization from the Hungarian ambassador to Egypt, Railway News reports. This is the final step in the approval process for the $1.13 billion financing for the purchase of 1,300 new railcars. Under the agreement signed in December 2019, the financing is backed by a joint loan from the Export-Import Banks...