Panafrican banking group Ecobank announced, on April 1, 2019, the injection of $64 million in its Nigerian subsidiary. This injection follows the decision to adopt a Naira exchange rate different from the official rate. Ecobank revealed that in November 2018, its administrative board decided to adopt the market rate of NGN364 per dollars while the official rate is NGN306.   In January...

In Mali, the ICT agency (Agence des technologies de l’information et de la communication-AGETIC) will help the Bamako regional development agency (ADR) transform the capital into a smart city. In that regard, the two parties have decided to elaborate an action plan for the various projects. During the signature of their agreements last week, it was also decided that AGETIC will support ADR in...

Creating space for more women in the African procurement market was at the heart of a technical workshop organised last Thursday and Friday by the African Development Bank. The Bank is spearheading gender mainstreaming actions in procurement on the African continent. It held a technical workshop in Johannesburg, South Africa, which agreed an action plan on implementing targets for the...

Proparco recently granted a €10 million loan to Société nigérienne de banque (Sonibank) to help it develop its credit activities. This was revealed by Proparco in a release published on March 27, 2019. This loan "demonstrates Proparco’s commitment to the private sector, SMEs notably, in weak countries," the release indicated. It will notably help the bank develop its middle and...

In 2018, claim cost was still one of the factors that negatively affected the financial performances of Moroccan insurance companies listed on the Casablanca stock exchange. By the way, Wafa Assurance and Saham Assurance that are the two most important in this market were strongly affected. Their respective shares lost 20.8% and 23.3% on the market and they indicated that claim costs were the...

South Africa will receive $790 million from the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) for three projects, Kundapur Vaman Kamath (photo), president of the BRICS’ New Development Bank (NDB) announced. A source cited by Reuters explains that out of this funding, $480 million will help alleviate the funding problems of Medupi power station that belongs to the South...

Nigeria will need $36 to $40 billion to complete its rail interconnectivity project. This was revealed by Rotimi Amaechi, the transport minister last week. According to the official, this fund is required to connect the capital cities of all the states in Nigeria but, the country being unable to provide such resource, the project was delayed.   Last Friday, the said government...

In Morocco, the mobile telephony operator Inwi announces that it will soon proceed to the commercial launch of the fifth generation mobile network (5G). Before this launch, clients can test this technology. These tests will be carried out thanks to the collaboration between Huawei and Inwi. According to Eric Liu, Huawei’s vice-president for solution and marketing in North Africa, in the coming...

Mali has decided to make technical innovation and the digital one of the wealth and job creation tools in the coming years. In that regard, it is already laying the legal basis, necessary for the youth that will become the main added value service provider, with the “start-up Act.” This act encourages innovative project carriers.   During the Francophone Africa Investor Summit, which...

The Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN) will now interconnect internet exchange points of the various West African countries. By going regional, the IXPN “will help not only to localise Internet traffic within the region, but reduce cost and latency, at the same time unlocking the potentials for digital economy allowing Internet related businesses to thrive,” Muhammed Rudman (photo),...