In Tunisia, the Fund for the Promotion of Conditioned Olive Oil (FOPRHOC) will initiate a scheme to increase exports of olive oil to Japan, to satisfy 5% of the Asian nation’s demand. This was announced by Abdessalem Loued, president of the Chambre syndicale nationale des exportateurs d'huile d’olive. This scheme should help boost export revenues which are currently estimated at 1...

Trade volume between Italy and Africa is valued at an average of €34 billion a year. This was disclosed on Monday, November 27, by the Italian Prime Minister, Paolo Gentiloni, while visiting Angola.  According to the official, last year, with more than €12 billion, Italy was the third largest investor worldwide and first European investor in the sub-Saharan African region. On...

Abraaj has acquired the 35% interest that Emirates International Telecommunications (EIT) held in Tunisie Telecom. This was disclosed by the Tunisian minister of communications and digital economy, Anouar Maarouf (picture), on November 2017, who highlighted that the acquisition should contribute to the development of the firm’s activities. The amount of the deal was not revealed...

ASX-listed Predictive Discovery has declared last week that it has closed the renounceable rights issue it announced last month. It was able to raise through the transaction $2.6 million to finance its exploration activities in West Africa, especially in Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire. Earlier this month, Predictive had announced the start of a 5,000 m reverse circulation drilling...

Investigative journalism is dying, according to press professionals. The topic was the main subject of the 46th meeting of the Francophone press held in Guinea.  “We have come to an era where information is free and most people have forgotten the importance of journalism,” says Romaine Jean, chief editor of the TV magazine at Radiotélévision Suisse (RTS). “Investigation promotes...

Sucden financial, UK brokerage arm of the French trading firm Sucres & Denrées (Sucden), expects a global coffee deficit of 3.6 million bags at the end of the 2017/2018 year, Reuters reports.  The world’s output should thus be slightly lower than the previous season standing at 154.4 million bags while demand will grow by 2 million bags to 158 million bags.  According to the...

During the celebrations of the 57th anniversary of Mauritania’s independence, its President, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz has inaugurated on Monday, November 27, the extension of an agricultural farm spanning over an area of 2,200 hectares, in the River Senegal valley.  “This project cost 7 billion ouguiyas ($19.5 million) and was backed by the Mauritanian treasury. It will benefit more than...

The African Development Bank (AfDB) will disburse $107 million to finance the construction and rehabilitation of a 218km-long road axis that will connect Burkina Faso and Niger. This was revealed in a statement released by the Pan African institution. The Abidjan-based bank’s contribution actually represents about 47% of funds needed for the project, which is $225 million....

Between 2015 and 2017, the ban imposed by the European Union (EU) on vegetable imports from Ghana, cost the nation’s horticultural industry about $36 million. This was disclosed last week by the Ghanaian minister of food and agriculture. The ban, put in place on October 2015, after the discovery of pests in cargoes destined to the EU and affecting among others, peppers, eggplants,...

Universal Coal has announced Monday that it has acquired Manyeka Coal Mines, the firm that holds a 51% stake in the Eloff coal project, in South Africa. These new interests added to the 29% obtained last July, enable the ASX-listed firm to now hold 80% of the mine which is adjacent to its Kangala project. The new transaction is valued at about R90 million (AU$8.46 million). It will be funded...