It is official, On February 14, 2018, Jacob Zuma resigned as President of South Africa. This comes after his party,ANC had successfully persuaded him to do so. Earlier in the day,he refused to resign claiming he was unfairly treated. “I did nothing wrong” Zuma claimed.Meanwhile,Parliament is preparing to vote a motion of no confidence whose outcome is already known. Jacob Zuma made his...

The debt of Ivorian finance sector rose again to 1.23% of GDP, during the third quarter of 2017, according to figures from a report by the Institute of International Finance. This is a new record since Q3, 2012 when the debt stood at 0.2% of GDP. The components of this debt were not detailed but according to data on the banking sector’s performance during 2014-16, the securitized debt of the...

Yesterday, Botswana Diamonds led by James Campbell, announced that it had raised £500,000 to finance the ongoing exploration activities in South Africa and Botswana. The fund was raised through the issuance of 50 million new common bonds, worth 1p each. The company, which is listed in London and Botswana, also said it has started exploration work on Sunland Minerals project in...

According to Business Daily Africa Reports,coffee exports revenue have decreased by 13% which translates to Ksh4.7billion($47million) between October2017 to January 2018. Daniel Mbithi, Managing director of Nairobi Coffee Exchange (NCE) alluded the poor performance to decrease in beans price in the international markets which is 120 cents per pound, the lowest in 2 years. He added that...

China will disburse $62 million (TZS138.8 billion) to finance the construction of a university that will cater for the transport needs of the country, thecitizen.co.tz reports. This information was disclosed after an audience granted to Ms Wang Ke, the new Chinese ambassador to Tanzania by President John Magufuli. According to the diplomat, the fund falls in the...

Congo has just signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in the civil nuclear sector with Russia. The agreement was signed by Congo’s ministry of scientific research and technical innovation and Rosatom, the Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation. It is the first agreement of this sort between both countries and lays the foundation for collaboration which will take into account...

World Bank will lend $482 million to Benin to help it finance the government action plan (PAG). This was revealed yesterday by Pierre Laporte, World Bank’s Country Director for Côte d'Ivoire, Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinea, and Togo. The loan which will be granted for 2018-2023 is part of a new cooperation agreement between the two parties. Thanks to it, World Bank expects to foster...

The Ugandan Central Bank has just lowered its benchmark lending rates to 9% from 9.5%, to facilitate credit access to small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), in the country.This was revealed during a conference by the governor of the bank,Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile  “Growth of private sector credit remained below historic levels and the cost of credit for micro- and small loans was...

At the end of January 2018, Tunisia had a positive agricultural trade balance of TND76 million ($31.7). During the same period in 2017, it registered a TND232.9 million ($97 million) deficit. This was disclosed by the ministry of agriculture, hydraulic resources and fishery. Such performance is due to a surge by 102.3% in foodstuff exports (TND481.9 million) and decline by 13.4% in imports...

In 2017, Acacia Mining recorded a $707 million net loss including a post-tax impairment of $644 million, the company revealed via an annual financial report posted yesterday. According to the report, the company was negatively affected by the crude ores embargo imposed on Tanzania, in March 2017. Another sign of the company’s poor performance is its revenue which was $752...