Subsequent to a major failure this morning at OVH, one the world’s biggest server hosts, thousands of websites in Europe and Africa, including many media, were inaccessible. At the origin of the incident, a simple electric failure at Roubaix, Northern France, paired with the malfunction of emergency generators, and link breakages on the optical fiber laid between the group’s various data...

In Côte d’Ivoire, forecasts for cotton production in 2017/2018 have improved compared to preliminary projections. According to Mamadou Bamba, director of the Ivorian Cotton and Cashew Council (CCA), the country now expects an output of 400,000 tons of cotton at the end of the season ; this is 60,000 tons more than during the previous season and equals the annual average recorded before...

Gulf African Bank (GAB), Islamic bank operating in Kenya, and the leading local telecoms operator Safaricom, will launch by March 2018, M-sharia, a platform that will offer sharia-compliant services via mobile. According to Abdullahi Adan, director of banking services at GAB, M-sharia lies on sharia rules and targets both Muslims and non-Muslims, who are financially excluded because of the law...

In an interview with La Tribune Afrique, Jacques Diouf, former managing director of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) from 1994 to 2011, reacts to agricultural land grabs. He believes governments should prioritize, in order to achieve a sustainable agricultural development, land leasing more than sales. “States are sovereign. When I was director at the FAO, I always recommended...

Last Tuesday, the mining firm SEMAFO has announced that the construction of its Boungou gold mine in Burkina Faso was 63% complete and that it should start production in Q1 2018. Once online, the mine should produce an average of 226,000 ounces of gold per year over its first three years of activity. This would de-facto boost the country’s total output. In a statement released Wednesday,...

On November 7, 2017, mobile telecom operator Telma has launched a new financial service backed to its MVola Mobile Money service, “Mvola Avance”, which includes savings and loan offers. Regarding loans, all procedures are mobile based. The user can get from 1,000 Ariary ($0.32) to 500,000 Ariary ($157.85). He or she has 30 days to reimburse the loan with a single interest rate of...

To secure Malagasy populations’ access to land, the Projet de promotion d’une politique foncière responsable (Responsible Land Management Promotion Policy Project), ProPFR, was just launched. This occurred in Boeny, in the North West of Madagascar, on the sidelines of a workshop organized by the ministry in charge of president projects, land development and equipment and the German...

Since last November 2, Guinea’s High Communication Authority has suspended the Espace FM radio station. The regulator blames the station for having diffused information likely to endanger national security and public order, and hurt the moral of armed forces. Hosts of Espace FM’s show “Grandes Gueules” (lousy mouths), however claim they were just citing a source that pointed out some...

South Korea has provided Ghana $9 million to boost rice farming in the Central Region. This was announced by Ghana’s minister of agriculture, Owusu Afriyie Akoto (picture).  The official explained the choice of the region by its potentials for the large scale production of the cereal, not only for local consumption but for export as well.   Let’s recall that 70% of...

The Togolese government has decided to release 42 people, arrested, judged and condemned by various courts during the recent protests that occurred in the country. It also ordered the restitution of bikes ceased in Lomé during the Sept 7 protest and also the lifting of the supervision measure targeting opposition leader, Jean Pierre Fabre. Measures will also be taken to start talks, in the...