Manganese is Gabon’s third-largest export after oil and timber. Most of the country’s production comes from Eramet, a French company. The firm, however, recently cut its forecast for 2024–a move that could offset Libreville’s plans to ramp up the national output this year. Production at Gabon’s Moanda mine, the world’s biggest manganese mine, is on pause. Eramet, the company that...

During its 357th board meeting, the Islamic Development Bank announced a $3 billion funding package for 17 of its member countries. On October 14, the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) approved more than $1.2 billion in funding for nine African member countries. The decision was made during a board meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. This initiative aims to boost resilience, sustainability,...

The Ivorian government attributes this outcome to effective resource mobilization and careful spending management, despite challenging global conditions. Côte d'Ivoire wrapped up its FY2023 with a surplus of CFA38.6 billion, which is about $63.7 million. This announcement came during the Cabinet meeting on October 16. The government attributed this surplus to effective resource...

In February 2023, the state-owned telecom operator Celtiis announced its network was ready for 5G. Now, more than a year and a half later, its rivals in Benin are making the same promise. MTN and Moov Africa, two of Benin’s top telecom companies, announced on October 16 that they will soon roll out commercial 5G services. However, they did not provide a launch date. Ce que vous pensiez...

Olumide Balogun, Google’s Director for West Africa, recently announced that artificial intelligence (AI) could contribute up to $1.5 trillion to Africa's GDP by 2030. He made this statement during the Nigerian Economic Summit held in Abuja. However, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) presents a more conservative estimate. In its "Africa Development Insights" report published in...

Last April, AMN, a telecom tower builder, began a similar project in Nigeria in partnership with Starlink. By September, the company had already connected 100 towers, boosting traffic on its network. On October 17, Intelsat, a Luxembourg-based satellite telecom provider, introduced a new solution to help Internet service providers and telecom operators improve coverage in West Africa. The...

Now sitting at 65th on the list of the world's richest people, the head of Dangote Group has reached a new peak in wealth, according to the index. This significant rise in his fortune primarily results from factoring in the value of his mega-refinery when assessing the Nigerian entrepreneur's assets. Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote (pictured) has seen his fortune soar by $15.1 billion,...

Senegal's first Islamic microfinance institution has signed a loan agreement with Fonsis. This funding will help expand the availability of Islamic financing for local SMEs. The Islamic microfinance institution Taysir Finance SA, active in Senegal, has secured CFA5 billion (around $8.2 million) from the Sovereign Fund for Strategic Investments (Fonsis). This funding, signed on October 15,...

While the EU is Africa’s largest trading partner, with trade reaching nearly €367 billion in 2023, stronger economic and trade integration within Africa will create a vast unified market of 1.3 billion consumers for European businesses. The European Union (EU) announced yesterday the disbursement of €1.1 billion (around $1.2 billion) to support the African Continental Free...

KINEDEN Commodities SA, one of the largest Ivorian sustainable cocoa traders, has secured nearly €60 million from a pool of international banks to cover part of its financing needs for the next three cocoa seasons. This structured financing will enable KINEDEN to optimise its funding costs, diversify into agricultural processing, and most importantly, secure its supply chain in a context...