Côte d'Ivoire, local subsidiary of the French-Swiss group LafargeHolcim, recently signed an agreement with Nouvelle Société Interafricaine d'Assurance (NSIA) to set up a health insurance service called “Môgôbaya”. It was designed for the companies’ products marketers to insure health coverage on both small risk services (consultations, dental care, biological examinations, etc.) and...

In 2017, Acacia Mining paid a total of $202.175 million in taxes and royalties to countries where it operates, 10% higher than the previous year. However, excluding indirect taxes, this reflects a decline by 12% compared to 2016 mainly due to a drop in gold concentrate sales over disputes with Tanzania which hosts the company’s largest assets. In a new report released today June 25, the...

The Managing Director of Kenyan Bureau of Standards, alongside other officials have been arrested last week over importation of non-compliant fertilizers. Noordin Haji (photo), the Attorney General, indicated that investigations showed that the products, imported from Morocco, did not meet standards but have been dropped on the national market instead of being destroyed or sent back. “We have...

The Ivorian government aims to process by 2022, 50% of the national cocoa output, thus 1 million tons of the beans. This was reported to Reuters by Yao N’goran, Deputy MD at the Coffee-Cocoa Council (CCC). The manager indicated that various tax incentives have been taken in favor of processors including Cargill, Olam and Barry Callebaut. The latter signed last year an agreement to increase...

Apparently, the secessionist claims, born from simple corporate claims issued in October 2016, and plunged Cameroon’s South and North Western regions in crisis since 2017 have their roots outside the country. Truly, years before the Anglophone crisis started, the “Government of the Southern Cameroons”, a minor group composed of Cameroonians from the English-speaking regions and which gets...

The Burkinabe government passed a decree extending the geographical scope of Karma gold mine’s industrial mining permit. This was during a Ministers’ council held June 20. The strategy will add 4 years to the mine life and help maintain 750 jobs. In addition, it is expected to generate a profit of CFA38.3 billion. Let’s note that Karma mine was acquired by Endeavour Mining in 2016 and...

West African Resources announced it has completed an updated feasibility study for its Sanbrado gold project in Burkina Faso. Results showed that the mine’s per annum output increased to 211,000 ounces over the first five years of operation. Under this updated study, the probable ore reserve is now estimated at 1.6 million oz, 76% more than the previous estimate. In addition, capital costs...

Last June 19, World Bank approved $14.6 million in financing for Zambian smallholder farmers affected by climate change to improve their market access. This support aligns with Phase II of the Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR) aiming at integrating financial and technical services such as savings, index insurance and microcredit into the existing approaches on climate resilience,...

The collaboration between Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire amid global cocoa price decline will face a first test next October, Edward George, head of group research at Ecobank, told Bloomberg. According to the manager, although both countries want to coordinate farm gate price announcements for the 2019-20 season, they should get farmers approval. “If they get it right, it proves that cooperation...

Zimbabwe will benefit from a $21 million Japan support to renovate the Makuti-Chirundu road section, The Herald reports. Through this project, authorities hope to improve the performance of the North-South corridor, the country’s largest road and an important trade conduit into neighboring countries such as DR Congo and Zambia. The project whose completion is scheduled for 2021, will...