Jim Dando, Nissan’s director of operations, announced that the Asian company plans to set a car assembly plant in Kenya. According to information relayed by Bloomberg, the company will gradually start by assembling half-finished vehicles in the existing plants with an investment of about $20 million. By 2019, the Japanese company would have set an operational assembly line and thus be...

  In Kenya, revenues from coffee exports dropped by 11% to KSH10.4 billion ($103 million), in the first half of the 2017-18 season (September to March). This was revealed by Nairobi Coffee Exchange (NCE). According to Daniel Mbithi, NCE’s MD, this decline is attributable to a drop to 120 cents (its lowest level in the last two years) on the international market.  This...

This week, 297 officials of Madagascar’s land and domains office from all regions in the country gathered to review the law on registration and land ownership’s legal regime, enacted in December 2017. This meeting is a continuation of the process started late 2017 by Antananarivo to improve land management. The officials should re-examine 19 articles of the law (voted by the...

Kenya’s macadamia exports increased by 19% to KSh5.1 billion ($50.1 million) in 2017. This was revealed by Business Daily Africa which reports data from the country’s Directorate of nuts and oilseeds. According to the institution, this increase in value was pulled up by higher price per kilogram on the export market and a growth in exported volume, as planted areas grew and...

The African Development Bank (AfDB) granted Malagasy government $7.23 million, broken into a $6.23 million donation and a $1 million loan, to support agricultural entrepreneurship. This financing will be used to fund and organize a training program to help 410 young people (50% of women) become entrepreneurs in the agriculture and agro-industry. The initiative falls in line with...

Nigeria’s energy sector lost NGN108 billion (over $300 million) during the first quarter of 2018, due to irregular electricity supply in the country. According to the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI), which revealed the information, the country lost around NGN1.5 billion monthly due to water and gas supply issues as well as the bad condition of existing power transmission...

The Mining company Cradle Arc, active on Mowana copper project in Botswana, announced it has secured a $10 million loan as additional working capital to fund the project’s accelerated development plan, and repay part of its outstanding loan. The AIM-listed company reported in an operational update that it realized an untapped mineral resource’s estimate at the mine, under the JORC...

Egypt is once again authorized to export strawberry and pepper to Saudi Arabia. This resumption follows the lifting of the export ban put on these two products since last July due to health concerns related to pesticide residues, Reuters reports.  The Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture reports that this decision came after a number of meetings and negotiations with Saudi health...

International Finance Cooperation (IFC) plans to grant KSh9.7 billion ($97 million) as debt and equity to the National Cement Company Ltd, a Kenyan company in which the financial institution holds 15% of the shares.  “This project involves the construction of two grinding plants in Uganda and Kenya, and one clinker line and eight megawatts power plant in Merrueshi,...

The Ivorian government announced it launched a large-scale project to reduce land conflicts in rural areas, by facilitating land title access to landowners and updating the existing rural land law. The $116 million project, funded jointly by European Union (€41 million) and World Bank ($50 million), will include social and institutional components, with the goal to achieve a land...