Zimbabwe will rebase its GDP following the adoption of a new currency (in February 2019), finance minister Mthuli Ncube (photo) indicated on May 15, 2019. In February 2019, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe removed its bond note peg to the US dollar and adopted an electronic transitory currency called the Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS). The country had already adopted a new GDP formula in October...

In July 2019, Rwanda may launch another satellite into low orbit. At least, the country is ready to take this step that will confirm its progress in space development. The satellite, CubeSat, destined for space research, will collect data on water resources, natural disasters, agriculture and meteorology and transmit them to a control centre. CubeSat, a 10X10 cm satellite weighing 1.2 kg, was...

Kaspersky opens an office in Rwanda. In Kigali, on May 11, 2019, in preparation for the Transform Africa Summit 2019, Eugène Kaspersky, the cybersecurity firm’s founder, met with President Paul Kagame to discuss cybersecurity protection. The office will help Kaspersky reach neighbouring countries. According to the founder, the decision to open the office in Rwanda is strategic in view of the...

The 54th Meeting of the Boards of Governors of the African Development Bank and the 45th Annual Meeting of the African Development Fund will be held at the Sipopo Conference Centre (photo), Malabo, Equatorial Guinea from 11 - 14 June 2019. The Annual Meetings are the Bank’s largest event and will bring together about 3000 delegates and participants. The Meetings provide a unique forum for...

89% of Sub Sahara African economies depend on commodities, the UNCTAD indicates in a report published this week. According to the institution, 60% of the exports of about 9 out of 10 Sub Sahara African countries is made of commodities. With this proportion, it is the region whose economy is most dependent on commodities, followed by the MENA where 65% of the countries have commodity-dependent...

Close to 230 million jobs will require digital competence in Sub Sahara Africa by 2030, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) indicates in a report published last week. According to the institution, the demand for digital competence will grow quicker in Sub Sahara than in other regions. It should be fuelled by rapid economic growth, digitalisation and automatisation in the agriculture,...

Standard Chartered Bank Kenya, signed a Ksh3.5 billion ($35 million) funding agreement with Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA), a private institution that encourages local tea production. Signed on May 14, 2019, the loan whose yearly interest rate is 3.6% will help close to 65,000 tea producers as well as owners of processing plants under KTDA’s wing acquire 95,000 tons of inputs. They will...

Today May 16, 2019, MTN Nigeria is getting listed on the Nigerian stock exchange with a market capitalisation of $6 billion. The operator has chosen a listing without prior IPO. It simply listed its existing shareholders’ equity. With such market capitalisation, MTN Nigeria may be the second largest firm by market capitalisation on this exchange. It is just behind Dangote Cement that is...

The African Development Bank will this week welcome a new African Leaders for Nutrition (ALN) champion. A Bank mission is visiting Burkina Faso from 14 to 17 May 2019 to induct President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré into the ALN. The mission will use the occasion to present ALN’s progress and agree on a common nutrition roadmap for 2019-2020. The mission will be led by Oley Dibba-Wadda,...

Moroccan credit institution Caisse Centrale de Garantie (CCG), announces that in Q1, 2019, it granted MAD5.46 billion ($571 million) in credit guarantees to local SMEs. On a year to year basis, this represents a 33% rise.   The institution explains that this is due to the enhancement of the micro company’s financing mechanisms. For instance, the Damane Atassyir mechanism helped grant...