The Sierra Leonean microfinance institution A Call to Business Savings and Loans (ACTB) will receive $1.5 million from the Dutch Development Finance Fund (FMO) as the Fund’s first commitment to the West African country’s financial sector. The 3-year credit line will be used to finance micro-entrepreneurs and small businesses in Sierra Leone. It will be provided via Massif Fund, an...

The investment fund dedicated to renewable energies in Africa, Empower New Energy, announced it has mobilized a Series A financing of $8 million to fund small renewable energy projects on the continent. Targeted projects are plants of 1 to 10 MW that struggle to get financing through traditional mechanisms. Under this strategy, Empower has already spotted a number of solar, hydroelectric...

“Energy, passion and a lot of young people who care about nutrition” will underpin the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement’s newest phase, alongside stronger private sector engagement, members of the Lead Group heard on Tuesday. The meeting of the group’s leaders took place at the UNICEF headquarters in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. The participants met to decide...

Côte d’Ivoire is expecting between 1.65 million and 1.7 million tons of cocoa during the 2019/20 cocoa main season. While this volume is roughly the same as the 1.66 million yielded during the previous campaign, it is way higher than expectations. In July, farmers said production could significantly decline due to spread of tree diseases. “Our first forecast was not so good but it gradually...

Senegal is expected to achieve a 6% growth this year, the International Monetary Fund announced this week stressing that the figure should accelerate from 2022 thanks to the start of commercial production of hydrocarbons. Between 2020 and 2021, the West African country’s GDP is expected to grow by 7% driven by private investment, and inflation is forecasted to remain low in the mid-term....

Côte d’Ivoire gets World Bank’s approval to join the Donor Funded Staffing Program, becoming the first African country to join the program. The membership allows Ivorian public officials to benefit from professional training sessions in various development areas either at World Bank headquarters or in their country offices. Participation fee for this 2-year training is a bit more than one...

Niger's President Mahamadou Issoufou called on Sunday for a "global response" to the problems of land degradation that threaten the arid Sahel belt. Addressing a meeting of the Climate Commission for the Sahel Region at the United Nations, Mahamadou said the region's 250 million people are struggling with drought, desertification and other impacts of climate change. "The situation in the Sahel...

The Bank of Tanzania (BoT) announced it is fining five banks for not complying with the anti-money laundering procedures. BoT said the banks did not report suspicious transactions to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). The total amount of fines is 1.8 billion Tanzanian shillings ($818,314) with the heaviest fine (655 million Tanzanian shillings) imposed on I&M Bank Tanzania Limited, the local...

Air Senegal will soon open a direct line to the US. This was promised on September 19 by Alioune Sarr, the Senegalese minister of tourism and air transport, upon a meeting with the local development committee on the Island of Gorée. “I have the honor and pleasure, on behalf of the Head of State Macky Sall, to announce to you, Mr. Mayor, and to you, the people of Gorée, that Air Sénégal...

South Africa made in this week its biggest-ever Eurobond issue raising $5 billion on the international debt market, authorities announced. The operation is split into two tranches with different interest rates and maturities. The first tranche is $2 billion maturing in 10 years with a 4.85% interest rate while the second tranche is $3 billion with a 30-year maturity period and...