Société Nationale des Télécommunications du Sénégal (SONATEL), a firm majorly owned by French group Orange, marked the West African Monetary Union’s stock market by announcing a record XOF1,022 billion (about $1,76 billion) turnover for 2018.    The firm which is also the largest on the Abidjan-based Bourse Régionale des Valeurs Mobilières by market capitalization with...

During the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2019, Egypt via its IT minister Amr Talaat signed 32 IT cooperation agreements. These agreements were not all for itself. Sometimes, they were for institutions under the ministry like the ITIDA - Information and Communication Technology Outsourcing (ITIDA). According to the minister who was laying the outcomes of his participation in this MWC 2019 on March...

Wim Vanhelleputte (photo), former MTN Uganda’s managing director expelled from the country on February 14, 2019, referred to Kampala high court requiring the rescission of that measure. He also asked for legal damages for illegal imprisonment and expulsion as well as any compensation he would deem appropriate. Wim Vanhelleputte, married to a Ugandan since 2000 with two kids,...

Chad will close its Kouri Bougoudi border with Libya, Mahamat Abali Salah (photo),  Chadian minister of territorial administration, local governance and public safety, announced last Sunday. The official also indicated that security around the zone would also be strengthened.  Any unauthorized person found around that zone would thus be considered as a terrorist. During his...

Equatorial Guinea will host the African Development Bank’s next Annual Meetings in June 2019, following the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the two parties. The Annual Meetings will take place from 11th to 14th June, 2019 in the country’s capital city, Malabo. “The Government and people of Equatorial Guinea are ready and look forward to hosting the African Development...

 An African Development Bank Group delegation, led by Dr. Khaled F. Sherif (photo), Vice-President, Regional Development, Integration and Business Delivery, has arrived in Cairo for a four-day dialogue mission with the Egyptian Government beginning Monday. The meetings, taking place from March 4-7, 2019 in Cairo, are to reinforce the Bank’s support for Egypt and its President, Abdel...

The Egyptian minister of communications and information technology Amr Talaat met his Saudi peer Abdullah bin Amer Alswaha during the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2019 held in Barcelona. During their meetings, they discussed the strengthening of the two countries’ partnerships in terms of IT, e-government and digital transformation. They agreed to set a team to monitor the implementation...

Central Bank of Kenya announced, last Friday, a 25- year Ksh50 billion ($500 million) bond issuance to fund energy, water and transport projects. The Central bank indicated that the operation should start this month and investors could invest between Ksh100,000 ($1,000) and Ksh20 million ($200,000). Only state-run firms, semi-autonomous government agencies and public universities can exceed the...

Wafa Assurance, the insurance branch of Morrocan bank  Attijariwafa Bank, issued a profit warning about its 2018 results on March 1, 2019. Its managers expect MAD600 million of net profit. This is the poorest performance ever recorded by the insurer since 2015. According to the Wafa Assurance, this is due to the rise of the claims ratio that rose to MAD350 million thus reducing the earned...

MTN group signed a 5-year agreement with Ericsson for the deployment of new products and Mobile Money services in 13 African and Middle Eastern countries via the Ericsson Wallet platform.  According to Ericsson, this platform lets mobile telephony operators reuse their existing assets and merge their telecom offers and financial services for a complete solution that meets...