The 54th Meeting of the Boards of Governors of the African Development Bank and the 45th Annual Meeting of the African Development Fund, the concessional arm of the Bank Group, will be held in Malabo, Republic of Equatorial Guinea from 11 to 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...

Ivorian Minister of Tourism Siandou Fofana on 25 April 2019 presented a strategy document aimed at making Côte d’Ivoire Africa’s fifth biggest tourism destination from 2025 to the African Development Bank, and sought its support to implement the plan. The document entitled "Sublime Côte d’Ivoire", was presented to the Bank’s Vice-President responsible for Private sector, Infrastructure...

World Bank will provide $250 million to improve access to affordable housing in Kenya. This was announced by the Bretton Woods institution in a release published on May 1, 2019. The new funding will be administrated by Kenya Mortgage Refinance Corporation (KMRC). KMRC, 80% owned by the private sector, will provide long-term financing to banks. These banks will then grant cheap housing...

Leader of Zimbabwean telecom market Econet Wireless signed a service agreement with Subex, one of the telecommunications analytics solution providers in the world. With the adoption of Subex’s Analytics Center of Trust (ACT) offer, Econet Wireless Zimbabwe wants to become an independent institution improving its operational efficiency thanks to data. Relying on the predictive analysis of ACT,...

Despite austerity measures adopted in June 2018, Zambia’s 2018 budget deficit was 7.5% of GDP, above the 7% forecasted, finance minister Margaret Mwanakatwe (photo) announced on May 1, 2019.   The finance minister also indicated that new measures would be initiated to reduce the 2019 budget deficit to 6.5% of GDP. Weeks ago, the country’s debt was said to have risen by about 15% to...

On April 30, 2019, 37.8 million of Dangote Flour Mills’ shares changed ownership.   This is a record level for the firm since December 14, 2015, when 63.4 million shares were negotiated. It is also the first time since 2014 that the share is recording 11 straight days up with an average of 8.4% increase daily. In those eleven days, the firm’s market capitalisation went 124% up to NGN94...

On April 27, 2019, Telecom Egypt (TE) signed three technology agreements with Chinese firms  PEACE Cable International Network Co. Ltd, PCCW Global and Huawei. These agreements were signed during the digital economy initiative of the second Belt and Road forum held in Beijing, on 25-27 April 2019.  The first agreement signed by Adel Hamed, CEO of TE,  with PEACE Cable...

In 2019, Nigeria’s FDI net inflows may be negative at -3.2 billion US dollars, recent figures published by the Institute of International Finance reveal. This is a positive development compared with the -4.1 billion US dollars recorded in 2018 but, it is alarming. Nigeria is one of the most important economies in Sub-Sahara Africa apart from South Africa. It is also a good indicator of the...

In 2018, African countries’ military expenses reached $40.6 billion, a report published on April 29, 2019, by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) reveals. Year to year, this represents an 8.4% decrease. According to the SIPRI, this is the most important decrease since 2014, when military expenses were at a record high. For the second year in a row, the military...

Tunisia wants to invest about $22 billion in its transportation sector in the next ten years. According to Xinhua that announced the plan on May 1, 2019, citing the country’s transport minister Hichem Ben Ahmed (photo), this is to reform the sector. Presenting the study for a national master plan for the transport sector by 2040, the official indicated that the railway sub-sector would...