The Angolan Government has launched a study funded by the Bank through the KOAFEC trust fund to support the improvement of export diversification and the business environment. The launch event was attended by the Bank’s director for regional development and regional integration, Moono Mupotola, the Bank’s country manager for Angola, Joseph Ribeiro; the Angolan minister of commerce, Joffre...

Economic reforms, a burgeoning middle class and regional diversity against the background of the new African Continental Free Trade Area - are making Africa’s Portuguese-speaking countries a hotspot for investor interest. Additionally, new tools – such as the Development Finance Compact for Lusophone Africa – give investors and lenders more comfort to enter into these markets. The six...

Over the second quarter this year, the Ivorian telecoms sector generated a turnover of 220,075,665,644 CFA Francs (about $373 million), down 1.94% compared to revenues in Q2 2018, the sector regulator -ARTCI- announced. Investments made during this second quarter totaled 22,116,475,588 CFA Francs ($37.3 million), 33.25% less than the volume in the second quarter last year. Fixed...

Benin will receive 40.76 billion CFA francs ($69 million) from the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), local sources announced this week. The agreement was signed on 17 October, on the sidelines of the World Bank/IMF annual meetings held in Washington. The agreement includes a direct loan of $9.9 million and an installment sale financing of $59.2 million. It targets the construction of...

Egypt signed with Kuwait a deal worth $1.86 billion for the development of the Sinai region, MENA news agency reports citing official sources. During a visit by Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Gaber el-Sabah to his Egyptian counterpart Mostafa Madbouli, the two officials agreed on funding for the implementation of the second phase of the Sinai Development Program. This initiative aims to...

The government of Tanzania is planning to improve the performance of its national health insurance system by using information and communication technologies. On 16 October 2019, the country secured an investment of 20 billion Tanzanian shillings (€8 million) from Germany, for this purpose. The deal paper was signed between Dotto James, the Permanent Secretary of the Tanzanian Ministry of...

Speaking at a press briefing in Abidjan on the 2019 cashew marketing year, Gustave Kotchi, spokesman for the Group of Agricultural Exporters and Professionals (GIE-GEPPA), said Côte d’Ivoire sold its entire production during the campaign. “Prices, which were at their lowest level, immediately started to rise again with the sale of all national production,” he said. He explained that...

Dubai-based Dragon Oil, a subsidiary of Emirates national oil company (ENOC), said yesterday October 21, it is investing the equivalent of a billion-dollar in the Egyptian Gulf of Suez over the next five years. The announcement comes right after the company completed the acquisition of BP’s stake in the Gulf. The $1 bln investment will mainly go to the drilling of new pits to optimize...

The World Bank has just approved $3 billion to support the extension of Nigeria’s power transmission and distribution network. Hajiya Zainab Ahmed (pictured), the Nigerian Minister of Finance, said the money will be disbursed into four tranches of $750 million with the first disbursement scheduled for April 2020. With this funding, authorities want to implement reforms that will...

Plans elaborated by the South African government to rescue drowning public companies could significantly worsen the budget deficit forecasted for the FY 2020. According to a Bloomberg survey, budget deficit is expected to reach 6.1% next year, up the 4.5% the Treasury announced in February and more than the budget deficits recorded by the country since 2010. Indeed the South African government...