As project sponsors, borrowers, lenders and investors gathered at the Africa Investment Forum to make deals on investment opportunities, leaders of the continent’s  top agribusiness companies shared their thoughts on the future of the industry. With its vast agricultural potential, Africa’s agribusiness sector is predicted to reach US$1 trillion by 2030. Agribusiness will become the...

Burundi plans to launch a security exchange market before the end of 2018 to help companies raise funds and thus compensate for the slowdown in bank lending in a context of economic decline, Reuters reported citing a high-ranking official of the country’s central bank. "What is needed now is to set up a capital market which will boost economic growth and create jobs", said Arsène Mutoni, head...

Lusophone countries have identified a pipeline of more than US$5 billion in private sector and private-public partnership (PPP) projects to accelerate growth in their economies. The projects form part of a development finance compact between the Bank, the government of Portugal, and the six Portuguese-speaking countries of Africa - Angola, Cabo Verde, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau,...

Panelists on the first day of the inaugural Africa Investment Forum have urged investors to ensure that women are placed  at the heart of financial systems, echoing President Akinwumi Adesina’s call for increased support to women. Adesina made the comments while addressing a session on “Investing in Women for Accelerated Growth,” as the Forum got underway in Johannesburg, South...

Econet Wireless revealed the first phase of its plan for digital transformation in Harare, Zimbabwe. According to the mobile telephony operator, this phase should start by the renovation 2.0 of  First Street, one of the main commercial thoroughfares in the town. Econet Wireless plans for the installation of a touch screen stall to let the municipal council and Zimbabweans exchange...

Tunisia-Kuwait bank, BPCE’s subsidiary owned at 60%, seeks TND10 million ($3.4 million) on the financial market via subordinated bonds. 100,000 bonds are thus issued to investors but it could be raised to 150,000 costing  TND100 each. These bonds can be bought from October 26 to December 31, 2018. The funds sought should help the TSX-listed bank fund investment projects presented by SMEs...

MTN group’s problems in Nigeria is a major challenge to South Africa’s financial stability, the rainbow nation’s central bank explained in its second semi-annual financial stability review published on November 7, 2018. Indeed, late September 2018, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) required $8 billion of illegally repatriated dividends from South African groups MTN and Standard Bank...

On November 6, 2018, in the framework of the fifth edition of Dakar international forum on peace and security in Africa (Forum international de Dakar sur la paix et la sécurité en Afrique-CICAD), Jean-Yves Le Drian, French minister of foreign affairs, and Sidiki Kaba, his Senegalese peer, inaugurated the Dakar Cybersecurity Regional oriented national school. The training school which is the...

Gautrain, a commuter rail system in South Africa, seeks ZAR4 billion ($290 million) to increase the number of its trains currently in use by 50% in preparation for an extension of its rail network, Bloomberg  reported November 7, 2018. "The Development Bank of Southern Africa Ltd. is leading the fundraising", a spokesperson of Bombela Concession Company, managing and maintaining the...

Commercial transactions between Egypt and Kuwait reached $1.74 billion in 2017, Amr Nassar (photo), the Egyptian minister of trade and industry said during the forum on Egypt-Kuwait cooperation held in Kuwait on November 7, 2018. Amr Nassar explained that Kuwait is one of Egypt’s important trade partner, being the third Arab partner after the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. The...