The Global Fund has granted Kenya KSh42 billion (about $414.3 million) to scale up the fight against AIDS and TB. The money will finance the HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria prevention activities in the country and help strengthen the health system over 2021-2024. The institution, however, recommends that the government should ensure that additional efforts are made to care for vulnerable...

Cherith Norman Chalet (pictured), the US deputy ambassador to the UN Security Council, announced on Jan 15 the United States is calling for a reduction in the Blue Helmet troops in Mali, known as MINUSMA. “It is time for this Council to begin developing an alternative approach to address growing instability […] We must recognize that peacekeeping missions are not the answer to growing...

AfricInvest, a leading pan-African mid-cap-focused private equity firm, has entered into a partnership with Masria Digital Payment (MDP), a provider of payment solutions and smart cards in Egypt. The transaction was carried out via AfricInvest’s Maghreb Private Equity Fund IV, which targets North African companies that are well established in their local markets and have the potential to scale...

Mauritius-based company Cybernaptics, which specializes in providing ICT support services, Software Development, IT consulting and Data and Telecommunications Infrastructure support has become Cybernaptics Africa. This name change is part of the company’s Africa expansion plans which has already seen it enter the South African and Kenyan markets. The objective is to get closer to customers and...

U.S. rating agency Moody’s gave stable or positive outlook for the sovereign creditworthiness of six countries of the CFA zone. In the CEMAC zone, Cameroon's outlook is stable, while Gabon's is positive. Both countries have managed to stabilize their debts, thanks to the support of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).In WAEMU, one of the four countries rated for the first time in 2019 is...

As part of a collaboration between the Egyptian Space Agency (EgSA), the Academy for Scientific Research and Technology (ASR) and the Supreme Council of Universities, the Egyptian government is launching a program to train students in the construction of small satellites.The Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar (pictured), confirmed plans for the launch of...

Tanzania is seeking to attract more tourists from China, leveraging the digital sector. The country’s embassy in China has started developing an online platform that will promote Tanzania as a top tourism destination and enable visitors to book hotels online. The African nation also plans to create an access to the platform via the popular Chinese social network WeChat. “A WeChat account...

Japan’s ambassador to Côte d’Ivoire, Hideaki Kuramitsu, and the Ivorian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Marcel Amon-Tanoh, signed on Jan 13 in Abidjan, a deal for reciprocal promotion and protection of investment. “This agreement will pave the way for new prospects in the already excellent relations between Côte d'Ivoire and Japan, and will encourage Japanese economic operators to invest...

“What has been said recently is outrageous,” the French President, Emmanuel Macron, said speaking on the anti-French sentiment in the G5 Sahel region, during a joint press conference with G5 Sahel leaders at the summit in Pau. In response to accusations that France has a “hidden agenda” in the Sahel, he said, “our only interest is to help fight terrorism and restore the stability and...

The climate risks and the rising blows to globalization in recent years will be blocking factors for investments in emerging markets, as they are already causing a slowdown in economic growth in most of the emerging countries. According to the Institute of International Finance (IIF), another factor is the far going automation of production systems, which significantly drops job creation. While...