The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group on Wednesday approved a $8 million-targeted financing to Kenya’s Credit Bank for lending exclusively to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in construction, agriculture, renewable energy and manufacturing. The loan, which has a five-year maturity with a two-year grace period, marks the first proposal under the Bank’s new...

The Egyptian Minister of Information and communications Technology, Amr Talaat, met with Myron Brilliant, the Executive Vice President and Head of International Affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, on July 16 in Washington. Talks focused on the implementation of a bilateral partnership between the two nations’ ICT private sectors. According to Amr Talaat, this will help Egypt leverage the...

South African asset manager, Investec Asset Management, makes its first private equity investment in Egypt, acquiring controlling stake in supermarket chain Spinneys Egypt. This operation is the eighth investment by Investec’s second pan-African private equity fund. “This investment offers us the opportunity to support the accelerated expansion of the business (Spinneys Egypt) across...

The ‘Strengthening Climate Resilience in Mali’ Project has just received another support from the World Bank. This time, the institution approved a total of $248.25 million of which $31 million will be directed to the program to improve hydrological and meteorological (Hydromet) services in the country. This World Bank-supported program is also being implemented in other countries...

The World Bank earmarked $1.32 billion for three development projects in Angola, Macauhub reported this week. Monies will be used for a social protection program, a budget support, and a water & energy scheme. The welfare protection project will get about $320 million. It is the government’s strategy to cushion the impact of short-term price adjustments for goods and services such as...

Switzerland-based asset manager, ResponsAbility Investments AG, is disbursing $175 million to support about 30,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), as well as entrepreneurs (mainly women) in emerging markets. The sum was raised through the issuance of U.S. Dollar dominated-debt securities maturing in 3 years to institutional investors such as Overseas Private Investment...

Gambia’s government has just launched a program to deploy clean water and sanitation facilities in rural and semi-urban areas. Funds for the project, estimated at $1.8 billion, will be raised with development partners including the African Development Bank, the Green Climate Fund and the Global Environment Facility. The program intends to provide 40 solar off-grids, to produce domestic...

The South African unit of car manufacturer Ford announced Wednesday it will hire an additional 1200 employees at one of its local assembly plants, increasing its workforce in the country by more than 25%. The measure, which will bring production to 720 cars per day (from the current 506), is linked to the $215 million investment announced in 2017 to increase annual production to 168,000...

Nigerian banking group United Bank for Africa (UBA) has entered into a $125 million financing agreement with Export Trading Group (ETG), which manages an agricultural supply chain and carries out food import and export activities with nearly 35 countries around the world.This facility is backed by additional aid from international financial institutions and local African banks. These...

The controversial social media tax imposed in Uganda in July last year is failing to meet expectations. Government says it collected only $13.511 million out of an expectation of $77.519 billion because Ugandans continue to avoid paying it.According to Doris Akol, the Commissioner General of the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA), the people who can afford to pay OTT are the ones avoiding...