On October 23, GUILAB and Cabo Verde Telecom signed a memorandum of understanding to build a regional telecommunications submarine cable system. Aiming mainly at securing the international communications of several countries currently relying on a single submarine cable system, the system will also support the digital development of a region of more than 100 million inhabitants by improving...

The African Development Bank’s Affirmative Finance Action for Women in Africa (AFAWA) program has signed a financial procedures agreement with the World Bank-led Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi). “This agreement is an important milestone for the AFAWA program, and presents an opportunity to leverage substantial resources to unlock the transformational potential of women’s...

The commission of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) just launched a regional contest for a name and icon for the future single currency within the community. Open to "citizens of all the member states of the organization, regardless of their place of residence, and to moral entities legally established in a member state", this contest will end on November 20, 2018. The best...

The offices of the Internet access provider Surfline, holder of a broadband access license, were closed down on October 30, 2018, by Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) for non-payment of its taxes. The total of GHC37 million ($7,627,012) is required from Surfline as unpaid taxes and penalties for the 2015-2017 period. Kwasi Bobia-Ansah, Assistant Commissioner of Communications and Public Affairs of...

Last Wednesday, in Dubai, Claude Isaac Dé, the minister of digital economy of Côte d’Ivoire, officially announced his country’s candidacy for the council of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). Claude Isaac Dé explained that to transform Côte d’Ivoire into a country at the cutting edge of telecommunications, the government committed to the development and support of a...

In a release published November 1, 2018, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced that it reached a staff agreement with Egypt for disbursement of a new tranche of $2 billion to this North African country. "The staff-level agreement is subject to approval by the IMF’s Executive Board", the institution wrote indicating that this tranche would increase the loan already granted to...

The South African banking group Nedbank, extended its asset management activities to West Africa in partnership with the pan-African bank Ecobank Transnational, in which it is the major stakeholder, Bloomberg reported on November 1, 2018, citing one of the group's managers.   "Nedbank started offering wealth products to the pan-African company’s clients in Ivory Coast and wants...

The African Development Bank and Mozambique’s Lúrio University recently launched the UniLúrio Support to Skills Development for Agriculture and Industry Programme in Pemba, and, awarded 68 scholarships of which 39 (57%) were allocated to women. The Bank is investing UA 11.10 million (US$ 15.5 million), grant in the five-year project. UniLúrio, established in 2006, is a national public...

For the first nine months of 2018, the Ghanaian subsidiary of the British group Standard Chartered Bank declared a net benefit of GHC175 million ($36 million). This represents a drop by 24.4% compared to that realized during the same period in 2017 (GHC231.4 million). The bank made no direct comments about the performance but, it should be noted that it performed well in a rather complex banking...

The lower chamber of the parliament of Côte d’Ivoire adopted, on October 31, 2018, a draft law authorizing the government to ratify the agreement for the creation of an African Free Trade Zone (AFTZ).    For the Ivorian minister of trade, industry, and promotion of SMEs Souleymane Diarrassouba, "the African Free Trade Zone offers a mine of opportunities to our companies (…) It...