The Chinese car manufacturer SAIC Motor plans to open a car assembly plant in Egypt. The information was revealed last March 26 by Tarek Kabil (photo), the Egyptian trade minister. “The plant aims to meet the needs of the local market and position Egypt as a hub for car export to neighboring Arab and African countries with which Egypt has free trade agreements,” the...

France will grant CFA19.65 billion ($36 million) to Burkina Faso to help develop socio-economic projects. This was agreed via the signing of four agreements on March 28, in Ouagadougou.  According to information relayed by Xinhua, two-thirds of the amount (about $24 million) will be provided as a subsidy to fund projects in agriculture, natural resources management and food...

One more time! After a first protest march organized last March 15 by the coalition of housing rights associations (CADDL), the coordination in Ouagadougou of national coalition against high cost of living (CCVC Ouaga) announces a new march on April 5 to denounce the “complicit silence” of the Burkinabe authorities on what it describes as “land grabbing” by real estate companies and...

Sony Pictures and the Nigerian entertainment company Ebony Life, have signed a partnership agreement to co-develop new TV series, including one on the life of Agodjie, the women warriors of Dahomey, a former kingdom of Benin Republic. The partnership will cover 3 series of African stories, which will be distributed internationally. “Ever since our launch in June 2013, our vision has...

Battery Minerals announced today March 29, it has reassessed the mineral resource estimate of its Balama graphite project in Mozambique. According to the new assessment, following a 1, 600 m diamond drilling campaign, the mine hosts 32.9 million tons at 10.2% total graphitic carbon (TGC) and 26.6 million tons at 10.3% total graphitic carbon. “With the mining licence now secured for our...

In Egypt, date sector realized a good trade balance at the beginning of 2018. Indeed, FreshPlaza reports that shipments increased by 127% to $20.5 million in value and by 80% to 21,600 tons in volume. This upward trend was clear in February, with a record $12.3 million revenue in foreign currency earnings. The highest level ever reached within a month in the...

 Ethiopia’s investment commission revealed that the country attracted $2.2 billion in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) during the first half of the current fiscal year (July 2017-June 2018). The information was given last March 27 by the Investment Commissioner, Fitsum Arega, who indicated that this performance is up 22% from that of the same period last year. Manufacturing...

Egyptian Agricultural Bank (EAB), a financial institution that provides farmers with banking services, intends to expand activities out of Egypt. For the time being, the bank eyes Côte d’Ivoire and Kenya. “We are targeting two countries, Côte d’Ivoire and Kenya. Both countries offer significant opportunities and we are currently thinking of how we can get the most of them by settling and...

Yesterday March 28, at the end of a ministerial council, the Benin government announced that it would subsidize agricultural inputs for the 2018-19 campaign which will begin on April 19. This financial aid will target producers active in palm oil, pineapple, citrus fruits and garden products sectors. Those producers will receive 12, 596 tons of potassium fertilizer (potassium chloride and...

Morocco’s customs and indirect taxes administration (ADII) announced that the country’s customs earnings reached MAD95 billion (about $10.3 billion) in 2017.  Compared to the MAD90.5 billion (about $9.8 billion) collected the previous year, it represents an increase by 5.1% and it is also a record in the country’s history. The administration further indicated that the...