For its fifth investment in Africa, private equity firm One Thousand One Voice (1K1V) targeted @Pay, a South Africa based fintech, which serves as a bridge between the unbanked and the sophisticated financial institutions in the continent. Thanks to "@Pay’s platform used by many firms, its clients can pay their bills at large retail centres using any payment method.   The financial...

Japan plans to boost its presence in Africa to counter the influence of Chinese and European countries, Nikkei Asian Review revealed yesterday citing official sources. According to the media, Japan will create a joint permanent council of the government and the Japanese private sector to promote the country’s investments in Africa. A new conference gathering officials and African business...

Omidyar Network announces the launch of a venture capital baptized Flourish Ventures.   The capital of this new venture is $300 million provided by Pierre Omidyar (photo), Omidyar Network’s founder and eBay co-founder.   The financial resources will be used to fund US and African fintechs in the coming five years. "At Flourish, we will continue to back bold ideas and new...

On March 6, 2019, Côte d’Ivoire adopted a draft bill requiring a minimum of 30% of women candidates for legislative, senatorial, regional and municipal elections.   According to the government, this draft bill was adopted in application of the constitution of the third republic adopted via a referendum on November 1, 2016. This is to boost women’s representativeness. In that regard,...

The Nigerian subsidiary of MTN group ended 2018 with growth in all its market segments. Yet, H2, 2018, which was full of clashes with the country’s authorities, augured a loss of confidence by investors. On the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, the group’s share lost about 20% after the announcement of a fine on August 30, 2018. In the group’s financial report, it appears that the crisis with...

MTN group has decided to sell its 53% stakes in Mascom Wireless Botswana (Pty) Limited to its partner Econet Wireless (Pty) Limited. The transaction is estimated at $300 million and should be concluded by June 2019. It is however subjected to approval. According to MTN Group, its withdrawal from the Botswanan market is due to the extraneous nature of that subsidiary (despite its 51.4%...

Despite the interest rate cap in Kenya, Kenya Commercial Bank Group recorded good performances in 2018, Ecofin Agency noticed from data published on the Nairobi Securities Exchange. The group’s net result during the period under review rose by 12% year on year to reach Ksh24.4 billion. Its tier 1 (social capital+reserves) rose from 17.1% to 20.5%, up by 12.5 percentage points compared with the...

The Africa Digital Media Institute (ADMI) and Microsoft partnered to boost the digital expertise of Kenyan youths. In that regard, the two partners opened an appfactory on ADMI’s campus in Nairobi. Considered as a unit of the mobile apps and games development course offered by ADMI, the appfactory will give students the required programming, cloud and data analysis skills to transform them...

In 2018, French exports to Gabon rose to 6.25% for the first time since 2011, according to French customs authority. This data demonstrates a revival of activities after years of poor demands, from 2015 notably. In this country of fewer than 2 million residents, French products hold a prominent place in every sector.   During the period under review, French exports reached €459...

Côte d’Ivoire has reduced procurement lead times in the framework of its social agenda programme social du gouvernement (PSGouv), Sidi Tiémoko Touré (photo), the government's spokesperson indicated yesterday.   The official indicated that the lead time for open call for tenders is now 51 days and 40 days for restricted call for tenders, instead of the legal standard which is 88 days....