Author: Editor

Gates Foundation and Global Partners Announce Commitments ta Advance Commercialization of Disruptive, Off-Grid Toilet Technologies The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, with the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) and the China Chamber of International Commerce (CCOIC), today joined global innovators, development banks, private-sector players, and governrnents at the Reinvented Toilet Expo in Beijing. Together, they committed to accelerate the commercialization and adoption of disruptive sanitation technologies world-vide over the next decade. Rapid expansion of new, off-grid sanitation products and systems could dramatically reduce the global human and economic tell of unsafe sanitation, including the deaths of…

Africa50, the pan-African infrastructure investment platform, has signed an agreement with the Republic of Rwanda to develop and finance a “Digital Innovation Precinct”, including commercial and retail complexes, as part of Kigali Innovation City (KIC). The announcement was made at a signing ceremony organized by Africa50 during the Africa Investment Forum in Johannesburg on Wednesday. Under the terms of the agreement Africa50 was appointed co-sponsor and partner of the project. It will apply its project development, financial structuring, and infrastructure development expertise, working alongside the Rwanda Development Board and other partners during the development phase. It will also help select…

Centurion Law Group (Centurion), a pan-African law conglomerate, now offers the cost savings and efficiency of flexible legal services through its acquisition of IMANI-African Lawyers On Demand. http://imanilod.com/. Through Centurion Plus, a division of Centurion, corporate clients throughout Africa can select from a pool of approximately 190 carefully vetted, on-demand attorneys for temporary and project-based legal services. “Flexible legal services have transformed the legal industry in the United States, Canada, Europe and regions of Asia,” says NJ Ayuk, CEO of Centurion Law Group. “We’re confident that with our massive capital investment in technology and human resources, it will…

The Al Ormane Group is opening the way for socially responsible investment to the various players in the Moroccan financial market through the first public bond issue in the form of “Social & Green Bonds” bonds in Morocco. This issue inaugurates the Group’s entry into the national financial market through a raise of 1 billion MAD (100 million euros) for a 10-year maturity, repayable annually and with a risk premium included between 100 and 120 bp for sustainable bond tranches and 110 and 120 bp for regular tranches. The subscription period is from 12 to 14 November 2018. In keeping…

The 11th edition of the MEDays Forum, which will be held from 7 to 10 November in Tangiers, will be marked by the participation of President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré of Burkina Faso. “It is a great honor for us to welcome to Tangier the President of Faso, an African Head of State who embodies a new democratic page for his country with a desire to work for regional and continental integration, a Inclusive growth model for youth, women, and the rural world, not to mention its commitment to innovation and renewable energy. Said Brahim Fassi Fihri, President of the…

In its Doing Business annual report, published on October 31, 2018, the World Bank ranked Djibouti the second year in a row among the 10 economies in the world that have made the most progress. It is all the more remarkable that Djibouti is, with India, the only country to have obtained such a result. Djibouti is now ranked 99th in the world for the business climate. Djibouti was commended for implementing key reforms in six core areas that have significantly improved the business climate. The reforms made it easier to start businesses, register a property, obtain credit, protect minority…

Solid leader of insurance IARDT in Cameroon for decades, Chanas Assurances SA is no longer in charge. In the last note published on October 25 by the Insurance Department of the Cameroon Ministry of Finance, the brick-and-mortar company founded by pioneer Jacqueline Casalegno is paying the price of the decisions of the National Hydrocarbons Company (SNH), both its shareholder and customer references. What is happening within Chanas? What about BGFI International’s actions? Is there a planned demolition? According to the note from the Ministry of Finance, Axa Assurances is the leader in insurance IARDT with a volume of premiums of…

The Pan African Employability Assistance Network (YJN) signed an agreement with IFG Executive Education on Wednesday (October 17th) on two agreements relating to the training and capacity building of young graduates in Côte d’Ivoire and the organization of the second edition of the Young Job Network FORUM (#YJNFORUM). Announced in recent months, this agreement will enable young graduates from Côte d’Ivoire to increase their chances of finding a job and to facilitate their conversion to the disciplines of the future that meet the current needs of companies, all of which is sanctioned by a certificate. On the other hand, it…

Six months ahead of the Mauritanian presidential elections, President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who is due to leave power according to the constitution, cuts his last cards. Indeed, the “dream team” was formed Tuesday, October 30 by the new Prime Minister Mohamed Salem O. Bechir, called to be equipped with a magic wand to solve the problems of Mauritanians and to coordinate the next electoral contest, that of Presidential elections of 2019. First remark on the new machinery of government: all the former ministers are kept in their posts, except for some strategic changes. The appointment of General Mohamed Ahmed…

On the sidelines of the Africa Investment Forum, the African Development Bank and Africa50 have signed yesterday an agreement with the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Congo to develop and finance the first road-rail bridge project linking their capitals – Kinshasa and Brazzaville. Under the terms of the framework agreement, the two governments have mandated Africa50 and the African Development Bank to develop the project as a public private partnership, the bank will act as the debt provider under the aegis of the Economic Community of Central African States. As the main developer, Africa50 will lead the project…

The Doing Business Report of the World Bank has just been released on October 31, 2018. The ranking, which was criticized last year by Paul Romer, Nobel Prize for Economics, continues to enjoy strong credibility with investors. For the third consecutive year, “Sub-Saharan Africa is setting its own record for the number of regulatory reforms facilitating business,” says the Bank. . Last year, the countries concerned by this name (the World Bank, by the way, continues to separate North Africa from the mother continent) conducted 107 reforms aimed at improving the ease of doing business for small and medium-sized businesses.…

Equator Capital Partners LLC announced, on October 30, 2018, an investment from its new fund, ShoreCap III LP, into fintech MFS Africa, a pan-African leader operating the continent’s largest digital payments hub. MFS Africa is a pan-African company specializing in financial technologies. The MFS hub is connected to more than 170 million mobile wallets in sub-Saharan Africa. The development of financial technology applications by microfinance and microinsurance companies, SME banks, leasing companies and housing finance companies is attracting many new investments and opportunities across the continent. “MFS Africa is well positioned to evolve and deliver Mobile Financial Services, vital to…

On 29 October 2018, the Republic of Seychelles launched the world’s first sovereign bond, an innovative financial instrument designed to support sustainable projects in the sea and fisheries sector. The bond, which raised US $ 15 million from international investors, demonstrates the potential of countries to tap capital markets to finance the sustainable use of marine resources. The World Bank helped develop the blue bond and join the three investors: Calvert Impact Capital, Nuveen and Prudential. We are honored to be the first country to be the first to launch such an innovative financing instrument. The Blue Bond, part of…

JEDDAH: The Joint Technical Group of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Group, Islamic Solidarity Fund for Development (ISFD) and Sulaiman Al-Rajhi Finance and Development Foundation held a meeting on 31st October at THIQAH Office in Jeddah to explore opportunities for collaboration, to discover possible areas of partnership and to share experiences. Dr. Waleed Alwaheeb, the Director General of ISFD, said “This cooperation brings complementarity between our organizations to realize a common vision, a vision of providing demonstrable development impact to achieve sustainable results. Through this collaboration, we agreed on concrete initiatives and work jointly in supporting the community.” The partnership…

The African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) has huge potential to move Africa to dizzy heights of development on the platform of the African Union’s Agenda 2063, says Nigeria’s Industry, Trade and Investment Minister, Mr. Okechukwu E. Enelamah. Speaking at the 2018 Africa Trade Forum in Lagos, Mr. Enelamah said both the AfCFTA and Agenda 2063 provide the legal and policy framework for addressing the challenges before the African Union and seizing its opportunities. “But, speed is now of the essence.  This time it must be different,” he told delegates from across the continent and beyond who are attending the…

The unemployment rate in Côte d’Ivoire would be 2% in 2018. The elephant would be in the rare situation of full employment. These affirmations made on October 25 by the Minister of Promotion of Youth and Youth Employment, Mamadou Toure, during a meeting with the National Union of Journalists of Côte d’Ivoire (UNJCI), have trouble convincing to see the many reactions through social networks. Supporting his remarks, the minister estimates that the unemployment rate has followed a downward trend since 2012, from 9 to 2%. At the time, the Ministry of Employment and the International Labor Office (ILO) carried out…

The Ivorian Bank Corporation (SIB) is ranked first specialist in Treasury Values ​​Ivorian market for the second year in a row according to the latest annual ranking conducted by the UMOA-Title agency and published this month of October. This new prize reinforces the leadership of the Attijariwafa Bank subsidiary, which was already voted on last year for its “activism” on the local public debt market. This evaluation focused on “all of the SVT’s missions, namely the participation in the auctions, the presence on the secondary market and the quality of the relations of the SVT with the National Treasures”. The…

Interviewed by Maria Nadolu, New Orleans Between two planes en route to the East-West encounters, we meet Mahmoud Chouki, just for an interview. The time to get carried away by musical and humanist waves, from Morocco to New Orleans. Mahmoud Chouki, or simply Mood, is known by many people as the guitarist and composer who ignited the concerts and clubs of Marrakech, Rabat and Casablanca. His compositions and achievements are a fusion of world music, a sound isthmus between East and West. If his love affair with the guitar begins very early, when he was 8 years old, his enthusiasm…

At the end of the two-day work, from 10 to 12 October 2018 in Douala (Cameroon), the interbank Banking Group of Central Africa (Gimac), has released its roadmap towards full interoperability. According to Valentin Mbozo’o, the director general of GIMAC, the work was aimed at discussing the applicability of the Beac governor’s instruction n ° 003 / GR / 2018 signed last August. The instruction in question concerns expanding the scope of interoperability to support the dematerialization of payments in the sub-region. “This instruction also addresses the transaction security, CFA clearing of transactions carried out in the Cemac zone, the…

After deploying its services in East Africa last April, the German shipping company Hapag-Lloyd starts a new regular containerized weekly line service at Dunkirk, in connection with Senegal (Dakar), Mauritania ( Nouakchott), Tangier’s trans-shipment hub in Morocco and Dunkerque. Dubbed DEX, for Dakar Express, with a fleet of four vessels with a nominal capacity of 1,700 TEUs, this new service will start at the Port of Dunkirk as of Monday, November 26th. This service will also offer customers serving the Portuguese ports of Leixoes in the North-South direction and Lisbon in the South-North direction. For Stéphane Raison, CEO, this new…

The two subsidiaries of the Attijariwafa bank Group in Ivory Coast and Senegal, respectively the Ivorian Bank Corporation and CBAO, have been appointed SVTs (Specialists in Treasury Securities) in their country of presence. The ranking is published by the UEMOA-Titres Agency, organ of the Central Regional Bank “BCEAO” in charge of issues and management of government securities. www.umoatitres.org The SVT activity consists in the animation of the primary and secondary market for sovereign issues and the support of governments in the optimization of fundraising, on the one hand, and on the other investors in choosing the best investment opportunities. On…

Mauritanian Prime Minister Yahya Ould Hademine has submitted the resignation of his government on Monday (October 29th) to the head of state Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, as required by law after the election of a new national assembly. President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz has appointed the Director General of the National Society of Mining Industry (SNIM), Mohamed Salem Ould Bashir, 56, to form a new government. This engineer in electro-mechanic, who heads the largest Mauritanian public company since August 2016, was also Minister of Hydraulics and Sanitation, between 2013 and 2015 and Minister of Oil, Energy and Mines. The new…

After plummeting from record to record, the Abidjan Stock Exchange (BRVM) is continuing a bearish phase that is causing debate among investors. For this reader, do not panic. It is, he says, the time to invest: The BRVM indices (BRVM Composite and BRVM 10) were initialized at 100 points in 1998 at the start of the stock market. Today, Oct. 29, 2018, the BRVM Composite is at 177.08 points, ie 77.08% of performance and the BRVM 10 is at 169.75 points, or 69.75% of performance. Thus, in the 20 years of existence of the BRVM, with 77.08% performance for the…

Against the backdrop of Afework Tekle’s stained glass mural and Sudanese oud-infused lyrics, sounds and poetry, ECA’s Deputy Executive Secretary and Chief Economist, Abdalla Hamdok received a warm and emotional sendoff at a standing room only gathering held in his honor in Africa Hall. Mr. Hamdok retires from the UN and is joining the private sector after dedicated service, intellectual leadership and numerous initiatives in the areas of governance, institutions and development challenges; Illicit Financial Flows from Africa; trade and regional integration; macroeconomic policy; Africa’s transformation challenges, including industrialization; migration; the green economy; and statistics and economic development planning. The…

Enko Capital Managers (“ECM”), managers of the Enko Africa Private Equity Fund (“EAPEF”), a private equity investor targeting mid-cap growth companies across Africa, has completed an investment to provide expansion capital to Imperial Homes Mortgage Bank Ltd, a Nigeria-headquartered mortgage lender. The deal marks the fifth investment for EAPEF and will support IHMB’s expansion strategy in Nigeria. The investment will be used to increase IHMB’s capital base for the purpose of growing its lending book as well as to improve IHMB’s operational performance and efficiency through EAPEF’s participation in the strategic direction of the company at board level. ECM’s director,…

The African Development Bank (AfDB) and African Trade Insurance Agency (ATI) announce the successful completion of a US$500 million credit insurance deal structured to cover a portion of the Bank’s portfolio of non-sovereign operations in Africa.

At the end of the meeting of heads of state of the Economic Community of Central Africa (CEMAC), held October 25 in N’Djamena (Chad), a smile, tense certainly, was the rule. Devaluation is not among the main measures taken on the sidelines of this crucial meeting. On the other hand, the coercive spirit of the extraordinary meeting of December 2016, marked, one remembers, by a kind of setting of the CEMAC Zone under provisional administration of the IMF, has not yet disappeared. Clearly, the watchword remains the continued stabilization of foreign exchange reserves. In this context, States insisted, inter alia,…

Always attached to the values ​​of entrepreneurship and creativity, the ISM Group launches two incubators in January 2019 to enable innovative projects to develop. Hosted within the ISM these structures that will provide aspiring entrepreneurs with benefit from a favorable environment and the necessary support to live and sustain their business creation project, with training at the key! > ISM Incub ‘and IESA Incub’, accelerator of entrepreneurs! ISM Incub ‘will allow young entrepreneurs from various but still innovative fields (digital, agriculture, management, services, Tech & IT, social …) to develop serenely. IESA Incub ‘is the accelerator of cultural entrepreneurship launched…

The Crédit Agricole Group of Morocco (CAM) has raised 500 million dirhams (50 million euros) subordinated issue with institutional investors, reports the daily L’Economiste. The operation was subscribed 6.7 times, which shows a high level of confidence in the quality of the management and the business plan. The quality of the fundamentals is important for this successful release. Indeed, the bank specializing in the financing of agriculture has achieved a 12% increase in its net profit (390 million dirhams or 39 million euros) at the end of the first half of 2018. In its strategic plan, the bank counts reach…

Airtel Africa announced Wednesday, October 24 a fund raising of $ 1.25 billion from six international investors. In its statement, released yesterday, the company said that the Japanese SoftBank Group, the US Warburg Pincus SingTel and Singapore and Temasek Holdings were part of the tour de table. Raghunath Mandava, Africa Managing Director of Bharti Airtel, quoted in the note above, “highlights the confidence of the world’s leading investors in Ateltel Africa’s successful business strategy and ability to support growth and profitability” . Specifically, the fundraising resulted in the subscription of a new issue of shares, which will result in a…