Weeks after the deadline of December 31, 2018, given to Ghanaian commercial banks to increase their social capital, the government has elaborated a special investment vehicle for banks that were unable to comply with the new regulation. "The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, concerned about the difficulties such well-run, solvent Ghanaian-owned banks were likely to face in...

2019 looks promising for Islamic finance. Indeed, this finance deemed ethical should weigh $2,500 billion in the world by the end of 2019 against $2,440 billion in 2018, Muhammad Zubair Mughal (photo), CEO of AlHuda Center of Islamic Banking and Economics (CIBE), announced on January 8, 2019. According to the manager, 81% of the total assets of the Islamic financial system would...

Angola plans to cut expenditures in its 2019 state budget, Valor Economico informed citing a release by the country’s finance ministry. The media indicates that though the exact extent of the reduction has not been announced, it should be around 30%. These budget cuts were motivated by the change in the oil sector, notably, the current price of oil barrel ($68) that is higher than...

The International Criminal Court has just acquited the former Ivorian president Laurent Gbagbo (photo) and his then youth minister, Charles Blé Goudé. For the former president who was jailed in the Netherlands since 2011, after seven months in a prison in his country after his downfall in April 2011, this is the end of a chapter of his life. He was indicted for war crimes and crimes against...

Egypt plans to issue $2 billion of samourai bonds, Reuters reported on January 13, 2019, citing official sources. Samourai bonds are yen-denominated bonds issued by foreign countries to big Japanese investors. Sources cited by Reuters indicated that the Samourai bonds are part of a large euro-bond issuance programme ($7 billion). Egypt’s finance minister, Mohamed Maait,...

Some of Rwanda’s officials have just completed the 4-day training organized by the Chinese e-commerce giant, on the economic issues related to the international e-commerce platform (eWTP) their country has been connected to since October 2018.   During the training, they were also informed of the impact of the digital sector on the economy, finance, logistics and trade notably. It was...

The African Development Bank will launch the 2019 edition of its flagship African Economic Outlook (AEO) report on Thursday, January 17, 2019, at its headquarters in Abidjan. This year's flagship publication theme is “Regional Integration for Africa’s Economic Prosperity.” The annual African Economic Outlook highlights economic prospects and projections for the continent as a whole and for...

Chad’s minister of posts, ICT and communication, Ndolénodji Alixe Naimbaye (photo), nominated by a presidential decree on June 18, 2018, has been removed from her position via a decree signed by the country’s president Idriss Deby. Her eviction comes about two months after the government reshuffle of November 9, 2018. According to sources cited by the AFP, the president’s action is the...

Raouda Finance, an Ivorian microfinance institution specialized in Islamic financial services, launched a mutual fund named "Al Baraka", which is constituted of securities, debt obligations and liquidities hold by, in which investors hold shares. While presenting the product, Mamina Dosso, one of the institution’s managers, indicated that it is one of the first mutual funds within WAEMU...

On January 12, 2019, the German insurance group Allianz and the industrial group Imperium Holding launched Emob, a sustainable development solution firm in Morocco. In the coming years, this joint-venture will build an electric and less polluting cars and bikes’ production unit. With this new company, the German insurer wants to position itself in the cars and bikes insurance niche that it...