Cabo Verde, Morocco and South Africa should soon be connected to a new fibre optic cable. Indeed, the Spanish firm Hemisphere Cable Company, S.L. (HCC) is planning to deploy a new broadband telecom infrastructure that will directly connect Europe and Latin America. Baptised WASACE 1, the cable will link Fortaleza in Brazil, Canary Islands and Seixal in Spain with additional subsidiaries in Cabo...

Consolidated Bank, Kenyan bank 85.8% owned by the government, announced on December 10, 2018, that it was seeking an investor, local or foreign, to invest Ksh3.5 billion ($34.2 million at the current exchange rate).   In a release published on local media, the bank invited interested investors to submit offers by January 9, 2019. This announcement is just the continuation of a process...

While the international controversy over the purchase price of banana boxes by supermarkets in 2019 is growing for several weeks, we, African fruit producers, want to express our solidarity with the approach of our Latin American colleagues and competitors and, in our desire to move towards a fairer world and trade, draw attention to the continued deterioration in the conditions under which our...

The South African subsidiary of audit firm KPMG is actually wooing its public after scandal-marred months, an op-ed published by many South African media on December 10, 2018, reveals. The publication signed by Wiseman Nkuhlu, managing director of the institution, indicates that nowadays, KPMG is really different from what it was eighteen months ago. "I would like to make an appeal to South...

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a $3.7 billion extended credit facility for Angola, a release published by the institution informed last week. The new agreement, which spans over three years, is aimed at helping the government lay the foundations of a diversified economy with a growth mainly spurred by investments in the private sector. The reduction of the country’s debt,...

Benin will be provided $22 million by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), a release published by the institution last week indicated. This tranche which is part of the $154.2 million extended credit facility granted to the country in 2017 should help support the economic and financial reforms initiated by the government to preserve the macroeconomic stability and raise the...

During the workshop baptized "Start-up Friday", organised on December 5, 2018, Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, general director of National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) of Nigeria, revealed that IT startups generated $101 million for the country’s economy from January to September 2018.   According to this official, these innovative firms generated $9 million for...

Morocco’s telecommunications regulator (ANRT) is currently elaborating actions that will develop its national telecommunication sector in the coming four years in its 2019-2022 general guidance paper. The new guidance paper should take into account technology evolution, the coming 5G network, the evolving big data, blockchain, virtual reality, Internet of Things, that are shaking the bases and...

On December 7, 2018, the share of Kenyan bank NIC Bank rose by 32.45% on Nairobi stock exchange, to reach Ksh30 ($0.2930) a day after the announcement of discussions about a merger with Commercial Bank of Africa (CBA). NIC Bank and Commercial Bank of Africa announced, in a joint statement published on December 6, 2018, that they would initiate discussions on an eventual merger.   NIC Bank...

In a statement published December 6, 2018, Bank Windhoek announced that it issued NAD66.60 million ($4.74 million) of green bonds, thus becoming the first credit institution in Namibia and in southern Africa to issue such bond aimed at funding eco-friendly projects. The bonds, which will be listed on the Namibia Stock Exchange, have a coupon equivalent to the three-month Johannesburg Interbank...