Riby, a Nigerian Fintech that develops software allowing cooperatives and associations to better manage their members, savings and investments has recently raised funds from the investment firm Microtraction. The fintech company founded in 2016 will fund its growth and develop new banking software in the coming years. Riby "now has more strategic partnerships with banks, telecoms, and government...

On October 30, 2018, Burkina Faso officially launched the construction of Ouagadougou expressway. Inscribed on the country’s economic and social program (Programme national de développement économique et social-PNDES), this 125 kilometers expressway will cross three regions and link more than nine districts. Estimated to cost about XOF181 billion (about $313 million), the expressway...

South Africa remains the African country which attracted the most Foreign Direct Investments in 2017, according to the 2018 edition of the "Attractiveness Program Africa" report published on October 29 by the audit firm Ernst & Young. The rainbow nation attracted 96 projects or 13% of the overall projects recorded on a continental level. This figure, however, represents a 31% decrease...

One of Nigeria’s foremost traditional rulers has challenged Africans and development experts to rethink development financing to reach the poorest communities on the continent, to give them access to markets, education and healthcare.  “Development needs to impact those at the bottom of the pyramid,” Emir Sanusi II, the monarch of the northern Nigerian city of Kano said in a keynote...

Last October 28, the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) donated 55 cars valued at XOF920 million ($1.594 million) to facilitate the conveyance of drugs in the different first-contact health facilities in Côte d’Ivoire. These cars are now in the possession of the ministry of health, Eugène Aka Aouélé, who promised, along with her regional and departmental...

Russia plans to use other currencies other than the US dollars for its commercial transactions with African countries, RT France reported quoting Russian economic operators.   "I think, it is possible to use other currencies in Africa", said Dimitri Mazepine, co-owner of Uralchem, the largest agriculture inputs manufacturer in Russia, and Uralkali, another Russian agriculture inputs group,...

“The 2018 African Economic Conference (AEC) will feature practical solutions from regional integration experts and the private sector,” a senior African Development Bank staff has said, as preparations for the event move into top gear. The 13th conference of the EAC, will take place in Kigali, Rwanda from December 3–5, 2018, under the theme “Regional and Continental Integration for...

Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Mauritania and Chad which forms the G5 Sahel, a regional cooperation and development institution for countries which share the Sahel as a common border, have adopted the regulatory texts essential to the suppression of roaming fees among them. During the fourth ordinary session of the council of ministers of the G5 Sahel held on October 29, 2018, in Niamey, Niger, the...

Zoscale Partners, a private equity fund based in Ethiopia and which mobilized $75 million recently, announced it has made its first two investments in Ethiopian companies whose products are turned to exports. The first of the two transactions announced last week is in CGF Crown Cork Manufacturing, one of the main bottle cap manufacturer which supplies multinationals in the beverage...

On October 26, 2018, the collective voice of the South African automotive industry (NAAMSA) announced that its members would invest ZAR40 billion ($3 billion) in the country in the next five years.   The announcement was made by the association which counts on its groups like Nissan, Volkswagen, Isuzu, Ford, and BMW, during an investment summit in Johannesburg. The automotive industry...