Author: Nephthali Messanh Ledy

Three agreements were reached by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) on the sidelines of the ECOWAS Investment Forum (EIF 2024), held on April 4th and 5th, 2024 in Lomé, Togo, in the presence of Victoire Tomegah-Dogbé, Prime Minister of Togo, George Agyekum Donkor, President of EBID, and representatives from Exim Bank India. The first agreement (worth $114 million) concerns a healthcare infrastructure project between EBID and the State of Niger, in Northwest Nigeria. The second agreement (worth $80 million) is signed between EBID and the Grand Trains of Senegal, while the…

The proceedings of the inaugural edition of the ECOWAS Investment Forum were launched on Thursday, April 4th, in Lomé, with the presence of Victoire Tomegah-Dogbé, the Prime Minister of Togo. Initiated by ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development – EBID, in partnership with the government of the Republic of Togo and the government of India through Exim Bank India, this meeting is held under the theme “Transforming ECOWAS Communities in a Challenging Environment.” This theme “underscores the importance of collective action and innovation in overcoming the myriad challenges facing our region. From infrastructure development to food security, from climate change…

Announced for several months by the Togolese economist Kako Nubukpo, one of the defenders of the CFA franc, the general states of the Eco, the future single currency of the ECOWAS, are becoming clearer. The event organized by the University of Lomé – of which he was the short-lived dean of the Faculty of Economics – is being held from May 26 to 28, 2021 on the theme: “which currency for which development in West Africa? “. “The general objective of this conference is to make a forward-looking reflection on the future monetary union of ECOWAS in connection with the…

Under arrest since the end of April 2021, the former Togolese Minister of Communication, Djimon Oré, was sentenced on Tuesday, May 18 to 2 years in prison by the courts for insulting the authorities and disseminating false news. Arrested since April 29 and kept at the Central Service for Research and Criminal Investigations (SCRIC), he was presented to the public prosecutor and to the examining magistrate before being charged with breach of honor, attempted aggravated disturbances to public order and insults towards representatives of public authority. Djimon Oré was then deposited on May 14 in Lomé civil prison. His arrest…

African airlines have suspended flights to and from India, currently overwhelmed by the Covid-19 tsunami and its new variant causing a deadlier third wave. These are Kenya Airways, EgyptAir and RwandAir. If the Egyptian company plans a takeover on May 31, 2021, the two other carriers whose decision was announced earlier this month prefer the formula “until further notice”. In Kigali for example, in a statement released on May 1, Rwandair explains this suspension of flights by “the increase in Covid-19 cases across India”. For their part, Ethiopian Airlines, Air Tanzania and Air Mauritius are maintaining their flights to Indian…

The Gabonese president pleaded for Africa during his speech on April 22, 2021 at the Leaders Climate Summit organized by his American counterpart Joe Biden. According to a press release from the presidency, Ali Bongo Ondimba renewed his commitment to the environmental cause, by inviting his peers to support the acceleration of adaptation in Africa, by providing capital to the Green Climate Fund, including financing. of the climate debt of African countries. “On this subject, he noted the capital role played by the forests of the Congo Basin in capturing several billion CO2, thus helping to avoid a worsening of…

The “Kékéli Efficient Power” thermal power plant, developed in Lomé by the French group Eranove, will be inaugurated on April 23, 2021 in the port area of ​​the Togolese capital. The infrastructure has an installed capacity of 65 MW, and uses combined cycle technology, which produces more electricity without additional gas consumption and limiting CO2 emissions. According to information communicated in 2019 by Eranove, the Togolese State is a co-shareholder of the plant through the acquisition of a stake by Kifema Capital, an investment company whose shareholders are the sovereign fund Togo Invest, and other national institutions. . Kifema’s participation…

The official launch of the think tank “A new Road”, the first dedicated to African public debts, initially scheduled for April 21, 2021, will take place between May 5 and 6. Ivorian Prime Minister Patrick Achi, announced to chair the ceremony from Abidjan, having convened a government seminar from April 21 to 23, we learn. On the new date, the event will still take place in the Ivorian capital and will be broadcast by videoconference, sources close to the organization indicate. As a reminder, the new think tank was created at the initiative of Nicolas Jean, partner and member of…

It is a real earthquake that has been operating in recent hours in the world of European and world football. Between the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and the big European football clubs, war is declared. Despite repeated warnings from UEFA and warnings from Gianni Infantino, president of FIFA, the supreme body of world football, the elite of the big teams of European club football have decided to disregard and split for create a dissident league called the European Super League to compete with the traditional and historic Champions League (C1) organized each year by UEFA. The big financial…

The European Union (EU) and the Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OEACP, formerly the ACP Group of States) concluded this Friday, April 15, a new partnership agreement which marks the official conclusion of negotiations. the post-Cotonou agreement, which sets the framework for political, economic and sectoral cooperation for the next twenty years. This is the culmination of a process that will have lasted nearly 3 years between the two parties. An “arduous” negotiation process, notes the Togolese minister, representing the OEACP countries, in an official statement. “But I am delighted with the end result”, he added, adding that…

The stimulus bond issuance program (OdR), launched on the UMOA regional market in February 2021 by the UMOA-Titres agency in collaboration with the Central Bank (BCEAO), resulted in an overall raising of 578,523 billion FCFA in two months, against a forecast volume of 535 billion FCFA, with an overall coverage rate of the amounts put out to auctions of 240.58%. Information given in a press release published on April 12, 2021. This coverage rate “reflects a strong investor interest in government securities issued by Union issuers and their commitment to contribute to the economic recovery efforts of States in the…

Does Niger want to continue with the old demons? 48 hours before the first democratic and peaceful transition of power, several sources announce an attack on Wednesday, March 31, against the presidential palace and an attempted coup. According to local media, heavy weapon fire did indeed sound early this morning (around 3:00 am local time) towards the Presidency and other downtown areas, before the situation came under control a few moments later. The presidential guard repelled the attack and the situation appears to have come under control, it is said. These events are reminiscent of the sad episode of coups…

Togo’s public debt would amount to CFAF 2,555.45 billion as of December 31, 2020, or 59.42% of GDP calculated after the GDP rebasing work completed in October. According to the data at the date considered, the public debt portfolio is less exposed to exchange rate risk. It is made up of 80.50% of debts denominated in non-fluctuating currencies (FCFA and Euro) and is influenced by the fluctuations of certain major currencies such as the US dollar (6.88%), the yuan renminbi CNY (6.35% ), Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), IDB and ADB units of account (5.11%). For the year 2020, it is…

The State of Benin has announced that it has retained the Sonatel group as a private partner to pilot the Beninese digital infrastructure company (SBIN), the third mobile telephone operator in the country to operate alongside MTN and Moov Africa, a subsidiary of Maroc Telecom. . This is one of the crucial stages in the restructuring of the Beninese public telecommunications sector started in 2017. “After the implementation of structural reforms in the telecommunications sector, the Council of Ministers decided, during its meeting of March 18, 2020, that the SBIN be authorized, in addition to its mission of managing digital…

Shelter-Afrique, a pan-African housing development finance organization, announced on March 3, 2021 that it had signed in Nairobi a memorandum of understanding with the Togolese government to co-develop 3,000 housing units in Lomé. The deal, he says, is expected to step up the development of large-scale affordable housing projects in the country. According to Togolese Minister of Town Planning, Housing and Land Reform, Koffi Tsolenyanu, quoted in a Shelter-Afrique press release, the housing deficit is a major problem in Togo as in many other African countries. Recalling that the government, to make up for this deficit, launched a large-scale social…

According to the latest estimates made from production data at the end of September 2020, the real GDP growth of the DR Congo should stand at 0.8% in 2020 according to the Central Bank (BCC) which expects an increase of 3.2% in 2021. After reaching 5.8% in 2018, economic activity has already slowed down in 2019 with a growth rate of 4.4%, due to the fall in the prices of raw materials, in particular of cobalt and copper which represent more 80% of the country’s exports. These effects, combined with the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, have further dragged growth…

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced on Monday March 1 to 3 years in prison, 2 of which were suspended. He was found guilty of corruption and influence peddling in the “wiretapping” case by the courts in his country. Long accused in this case also involving his lawyer Thierry Herzog and the former high magistrate Gilbert Azibert, the 66-year-old former French president thus becomes the second former president convicted under the Fifth French Republic after Jacques Chirac. In December 2020, the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) had requested 4 years of imprisonment, two of which were closed against him,…

Nigeria will receive 3.92 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine this Tuesday, March 2, according to an announcement made by the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) in charge of the vaccination campaign against Covid-19 in the country. “We are fully prepared to receive and deliver the vaccine to eligible Nigerians as we have started training health workers and making sure chain facilities are ready at all levels,” said Faisal Shuiab, the head of the Agency. “We have a powerful chain system that can store all types of Covid-19 vaccine at the required temperature. We are therefore confident that we…

Congo’s public debt reached 100% of GDP in 2020, according to a statement from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It “remains unsustainable,” comments the institution, which expects a decline in 2021, to around 87% of GDP. The country has received debt service relief from official creditors for 2020 and the first half of 2021 as part of the G20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative (ISSD), recalls the IMF in its statement released on February 26, 2021. “The authorities have made progress in discussing debt restructuring agreements with their external creditors. However, they need to step up their efforts and quickly complete…

Tunisia’s real GDP contracted by 8.2% in 2020 according to data announced on February 26, 2021 by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This is the most pronounced economic slowdown since the country became independent in 1956, the organization said. This unprecedented economic slowdown is the result of the Covid-19 pandemic which has “hit hard” the country. According to estimates announced by the IMF, the unemployment rate reached 16.2% at the end of September 2020, and inflation has slowed due to the contraction in domestic demand and the fall in international fuel prices. “The current account deficit narrowed to 6.8% of…

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune announced on February 21, 2021, a cabinet reshuffle in which the strategic Ministry of Energy changed heads. After taking office in June 2020, Abdelmadjid Attar returns his portfolio to his predecessor Mohamed Arkab (57), who thus becomes Algeria’s Minister of Mines and Energy. The one who had already been Minister of Energy from April 2019 until his replacement by Attar therefore regains control of an energy industry which suffers from a lack of investment, the export volumes of oil and gas having fallen by around 30% in 2020. In addition, Ferhat Ait Ali is replaced at…

States in the UMOA zone will be able to issue FCFA 3.768 billion (about USD 7 billion) in stimulus bonds on the market in 2021, according to an announcement made on Monday, February 15 by the UMOA-Titres agency. Set up with the aim of allowing States to finance their massive economic recovery plans following the Covid-19 pandemic, these bonds are “eligible for refinancing with the BCEAO at the level of its traditional counters but also with a Special window known as the Relance window where investors can mobilize liquidity at the minimum bid rate at the BCEAO windows (currently 2%)…

In office for three weeks, US President Joe Biden telephoned his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping for the first time on Wednesday evening, according to an announcement made by The White House. On the menu, several topics including the business practices that divide their two countries, and the issue of human rights. According to The White House, Joe Biden has expressed his “deep concerns” about Beijing’s “unfair and coercive” economic practices. He also mentioned the repression in Hong Kong, the human rights violations of the Uighur minority in Xinjiang, and the increasingly imposing place taken by Beijing in the region, in…

The overall inflation rate stood at 4.3% in January 2021 against 5.4% in December 2020 in Egypt, according to data contained in a report published this Wednesday, February 10 by CAPMAS, the national agency for statistics. Inflation is therefore falling to its lowest level since September 2020. Food and beverages, the largest component of the inflation basket, fell 0.5% and 1.6% year-on-year, the same source said. As a reminder, the annual average of inflation stood at 5% in 2020, its best rate since 2006. This had been commented by the IMF as being a consequence of the investments made in…

Africa attracted a total of USD 38 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2020, down 18% from 2019, according to recent data from the United Nations Conference on Trade and development (UNCTAD). In the rankings, Egypt maintains its leading position with a total inflow of $ 5.5 billion, down 38% year on year. The leading investment destination in Africa is followed by Nigeria, the continent’s largest economy, with a total of USD 2.6 billion in FDI in 2020, compared to USD 3.3 billion attracted a year earlier. “Falling crude oil prices, coupled with the closure of petroleum development sites…

The Ecobank group announced in a statement released on the Nigerian Stock Exchange that its local subsidiary has obtained a bilateral subordinated loan of 50 billion naira (nearly 132 million USD) over 10 years. “Bilateral financing provides stable medium-term liquidity to Ecobank Nigeria’s balance sheet and has positively improved its balance sheet ratios, in particular the capital adequacy ratio of around 300 basis points. The proceeds of the transaction will be deployed to support micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and small businesses, ”said the statement from Lomé-based Ecobank Transnational Incorporated. When he took office in July 2020, the chairman…

The government of Togo aims to set up a digital bank to offer digital financial services. This, within the framework of its financial inclusion strategy which aims, among other things, to strengthen the framework for state intervention in favor of financial inclusion and to improve the geographical coverage of financial services. “Our ambition in Togo is to set up a digital bank. It’s not just to digitize financial services, but to set up a 100% digital banking structure to support our economy and allow us to cover our entire geographic territory because we have digital divides. despite the progress in…

The Sunu Assurance group has initiated a process to take over the subsidiary of the Allianz group in Congo-Brazzaville. The operation remains subject to regulatory approval, according to several sources. This acquisition will follow that of the German group’s subsidiaries in Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Togo and the Central African Republic, which has enabled Sunu to strengthen its presence in these different markets. As a reminder, Allianz had already announced its intention to separate from entities considered to be the least profitable in order to refocus on high added value markets. The insurer has also entered into an agreement with…

After the missed 2020 meeting, Togolese economist Kako Nubukpo, well known for his stance vis-à-vis the CFA franc, once again announces the Eco General Assembly. The event will be held in Lomé, the Togolese capital, from April 28 to 30, 2021. “African expertise must be present collectively at the rendezvous of history, because what unites us is more important than what divides us”, writes the dean of the Faculty of Economics of the University of Lomé on Twitter . In his analysis, the former Minister of Foresight of Togo recalls that “the current reforms (of the CFA franc) concern symbolic…

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced on December 24, 2020 that it had withdrawn the licenses of eight payment service providers for inability to meet capital requirements and non-compliance with specifications. Taken since November 30, 2020, the decision was published in the official journal of December 4, 2020, said the institution based in Lagos. The companies concerned are Easifuel Ltd, Transaction processing system, Grand Towers, Paymaster, E-Revenue Gateway, Eartholeum Network, Globasure Ltd and 3Line Card Management. In a press release issued in August 2020 announcing the granting of licenses to 3 payment service banks (PSBs), the regulator indicated that…