International Finance Corporation, World Bank’s subsidiary dedicated to private sector funding, will inject $9 million (CFA4.7 billion) in housing sector’s development in WAEMU area. The institution indicated this in a statement released Jan. 26, 2018. The grant will be directed to the Union’s Regional Mortgage Refinancing Fund (HRRC) charged to facilitate access to housing loans for...

Help Africa to increase industrialization of its mining sector: that is the mission Frank Balestra and his company AB Minerals assign themselves. Based on an innovative and ecologic concept, the company wants to build first coltan processing unit in Africa. Indeed, so far, this ore is exported out of the continent as raw material. With Ecofin Agency, Frank Balestra discusses his company’s...

Federal Republic of Germany provided Mali with a €53 million (about CFA34.7 billion) donation to implement various projects for clean water supply and irrigation. These projects include improving clean water supply system in Tombouctou city and the program for clean water supply and sanitation measures in semi-urban and rural centers of Mopti, Koulikoro and Kayes (PAEPMA). The grant...

Ghana export promotion authority (GEPA) hopes to gain $250 million from cashew export in 2018, Ghanaweb reported. According to Adjei Yeboah, chief of GEPA’s cashew division, this is based on positive results expected from the cashew plantations’ mass spraying program. Recently launched in the central part of the country (Brong Ahafo), this program should increase cashew...

Paul Kagame, new chairman of African Union, convened an extraordinary meeting of the continent's Heads of State and Government, in Kigali, Rwanda, on March 21, 2018, for the official launch of the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA). This was told the press by Niger’s President Mahamadou Issoufou, on the sidelines of the African Union (AU) summit that ends today in Addis Ababa,...

Mining company Perseus Mining announced today the entry into production of its Sissingué gold mine, in Côte d’Ivoire. First gold was produced last Friday, a month earlier than initially planned. “The production of the first gold bullion at Sissingué is an important step forwards for Perseus at many levels. […] achieving this step gives Perseus a second cash flow and reduces the...

Centre Financier aux Entrepreneurs (CFE) Tunisie, a Tunisian microfinance institution, plans to fund 5300 entrepreneurs up toTND40 million ($16.7 million) in 2018.  The move is backed by an additional TND12 million provided by Tunisian American Enterprise Fund as part of its strategy to support microfinance institutions’ development and financing in Tunisia.  CFE obtained its...

At end-2017, foreign investments in Tunisia were up 12.8% compared to 2016, Foreign Investment Promotion Agency (FIPA), indicated in a statement relayed by Xinhua. From TND1, 989 million ($827.8 million) in 2016, they reached a total amount of around TND2, 244 million ($939 million) in 2017. This performance has mainly been spurred by a 32.3% surge in investments portfolio and 11.9% in...

Benin’s government has adopted a new implementation mechanism of the project to support agricultural mutual insurance in the country (PA-AMAB), at the end of the council of ministers last Jan. 24. This initiative, launched by the West African Development Bank (BOAD) after the 2008 global food crisis, was adopted by Benin in 2015. Its goal is to “reduce the vulnerability of cotton and...

In Côte d’Ivoire, property tax is part of taxes with returns “far below the estimated potential”. A statement made by Sanogo Moussa (photo), the Prime Minister’s Secretary of State in charge of State budget and portfolio, during a “2017 balance sheet-2018 targets” seminar initiated by the directorate general of taxes (DGI) in Yamoussoukro earlier this week. As...