The Ivorian government launched July 2, the support project for cassava and vegetable sectors’ development (PRO2M), estimated at CFA11.5 billion. This fully EU-financed initiative will focus on 21 regions in the country and will run until 2021. It is expected to generate 7,500 direct jobs and 20,000 indirect jobs, and allow the production of additional 300,000 tons of cuttings. The project has...

French operator Orange clinched a partnership agreement with the Ivorian group Nouvelle Société Interafricaine d’Assurance (NSIA) to offer banking services in West Africa, through a joint-venture 75%-held by Orange and the remaining 25% owned by NSIA, Bloomberg reports. The partnership targets retail, micro credit and insurance services. Under the agreed terms, the joint-venture will use...

Senegal and Mauritania officially signed a fisheries protocol previously agreed at the end of March this year. This was during the 31st summit of the African Union (AU) held in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott. Under the agreement, Senegalese fishers are allowed to catch 50,000 tons of small pelagic fish per year and use a maximum of 400 boats. In return, they will pay €10 euros per ton...

Guinea-Bissau’s government expects to export 150,000 tons of cashew by the end of the season, next September. This was announced by Vicente Fernandes, Minister of Trade and Handicrafts, who reported that 50,000 tons of nuts have already been shipped. This volume is down 25,000 tons from the 175,000 tons exported last year. The poor performance is attributable to a decline in shipments toward...

The French Development Agency (AFD) granted a €110 million (CFA72, 131, 147, 540) loan to Côte d'Ivoire to complete the construction of a 7,000 km fiber optic network. The project agreement was signed June 29 in Abidjan between Bruno Leclerc, Côte d'Ivoire’s AFD country manager, and Euloge Kipeya, Director General of the national agency for universal telecoms services “Agence...

The Kenyan government plans to leverage mini-renewable-energy-grids to electrify up to 14,000 households by the end of the year under the national Green Mini Grid (GMG) Facility Kenya program. The program designed by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) will be implemented by three companies including RVE.SOL, PowerGen Renewable Energy and Powerhive. To this end, the firms...

In South Africa, trade surplus reached R3.52 billion ($255.7 million) in May this year, against R1.17 billion a month earlier, data from the S.A Revenue Service (SARS) showed. The country recorded a 16% month-on-month increase in exports which stood at R102.61 billion over the period under review. Meanwhile, imports grew 13.5% to R99.09 billion. This trade surplus growth is attributable to...

At the end of 2018, Rwanda expects to export 24,500 tons of coffee, up from the 23,000 tons last year. This was revealed yesterday July 2 by Celestin Gatarayiha, head of coffee division at the National Agricultural Export Development Board (NAEB). According to him, this increase in coffee shipment is motivated by various strategies aimed at boosting both output and quality. “In 2015, we...

The Ivorian government plans to build a power plant running under cocoa biomass. The facility, set to have a 60-70 MW capacity, will be the first project of the sort in the country. It is designed to add 424 MW to the national grid thanks to the cocoa biomass. Côte d’Ivoire, which is the world’s leading cocoa producer, produces up to 2 million tons of the beans per annum. In turn, thousands...

The Ethiopian government plans to build 16,173 resident houses in Addis Ababa at a total cost of $1.2 billion, The Reporter announced last week. The project piloted by the Federal Housing Corporation (FHC), will be funded through subsidies, loans as well as the national budget. “The planned houses comprise of villas and various high-rise apartments ranging from 9 to 21-storeys,”...