US trader Cargill announces it plans an investment of $120.5million in the agribusiness sector in Côte d’Ivoire. Specifically, the company wants to finance the expansion of its cocoa grinding plant Micao. Works will be carried out in two phases, the first phase will be completed in April 2020 and the second in April 2021. After it is done, the plant’s annual capacity will increase from...

Exchange between Africa and Russia last year reached a total of $20 billion, we learnt. While the black continent imported $17.4 billion worth of goods, it sold only $3 billion to Russia, making a $14.5 billion for Vladimir Putin’s country.By comparison, over the same year, for a trade volume of about $200 billion between Africa and China, the latter achieved a trade...

The government of Djibouti plans to update its law on cybersecurity to better match its vision of making Information and Communication Technologies -ICT- a mainstay of the country’s economic growth.Under this strategy, the government wants to get a number of instruments to strengthen the protection of IT systems and people’s personal data. A roadmap of the process was established on August 29...

The United Nations has extended by one year its sanction period against armed groups that are undermining the implementation of the peace deal signed between the Malian government and the Coordination des mouvements de l'Azawad in 2015. This was announced last week by Anne Gueguen (picture), France's Deputy Ambassador to the international organization. The measure comes after the UN added last...

The Africa portfolio of Dutch development bank FMO increased by €80.3 million during the first half this year, we learnt. The figure was €2.84 billion at the end of June 2019 against €2.75 billion at the end of Dec 2018. According to data, the financial sector captured the lion’s share of the investments over the period. Indeed the Dutch bank is a shareholder of the...

Japan and the African Development Bank on Friday announced a joint target of $3.5 billion under the Enhanced Private Sector Assistance for Africa initiative (EPSA4), during the 7th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD 7). Both Japan and the Bank have set a target of $1.75 billion each, from 2020-2022, to enhance the fourth phase of EPSA to spur...

The United Nations releases $465 million to address drought issues in the provinces of Huila, Namibe and Cunene in Angola. The financing will be disbursed over 4 years and will mainly focus on mitigating the effects of this problem on the affected populations. “With this project, we intend, through a multi-sector work, to improve the capacities of the population in regard to the drought...

Japan’s car company Toyota will soon set up a car assembly plant in Côte d’Ivoire. This is the purpose of an agreement the company signed yesterday August 29 in Yokohama, Japan, with the Ivorian government. The document was signed by the Ivorian transport minister, Amadou Koné, and the CEO of Toyota, Ichiro Kashitani, on the sidelines of the 7th edition of the Tokyo International...

Morocco’s banking groups Attijariwafa Bank and Banque centrale populaire (BCP) which are very active in sub-Saharan Africa, have signed partnership agreements with some key financial institutions in Japan to explore more opportunities in the sub-region. Agreements were signed on the sidelines of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD). For Attijariwafa Bank, the...

Global Voice Group (GVG), an ICT and telecoms solutions provider, won its case against the State of Guinea for wrongful termination of contract. The International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce of Paris has ordered the country to pay $20 million to the company as compensation for the damage suffered. The decision follows the complaint filed by GVG since...