Author: Adama WADE

“ATIDI has become an essential institution for mobilizing investments in Africa” What is your assessment of the ATIDI General Assemblies in Nairobi, which also mark the 25th anniversary of the institution? Professor Kelly Mua Kingsly: I come out of these General Assemblies with a real sense of satisfaction. When we look at the progress made in twenty-five years, we can see the extent of the transformation. We started with an idea supported by a few visionaries. Today, ATIDI has become an almost indispensable institution for the economic development of the continent. Why indispensable? Because the world is going through a…

The former Monaco Resources Group, now renamed Sonel Investments S.A.M., seems to be experiencing its final struggles. According to Financial Afrik, United Bank for Africa (UBA) has instructed bailiffs to seize the equipment of the Société des Bauxites de Guinée (SBG) as part of a recovery procedure. While this banking initiative illustrates the immediate difficulties...

The CEO of ATIDI, Manuel Moses, took advantage of the 26th General Assembly of the institution, held in Nairobi, to open a new chapter in its history. Beyond the assessment of the first twenty-five years, he presented the outlines of ATIDI 2.0, a strategy aimed at making the agency a central player in the new African financial architecture. His message is clear: African solutions are now mature enough to meet the financing needs of the continent. Founded in 2001 by seven member states, ATIDI now brings together 24 member states and 14 institutional shareholders, with the arrival this year of…

The silver jubilee celebrations of the ATIDI Agency began on July 1, 2026 in Nairobi, with around 500 delegates from Africa and beyond in attendance. The theme is clear: “a stronger Africa: managed risk, deployed growth.” As highlighted by its CEO, Manuel Moses, the institution has a total exposure of $9.2 billion, up 20% in 2025. Its equity stands at $883 million. Given the stated development ambitions, the goal now is to increase equity to $2 billion. In this regard, Kenya announced a contribution of $25 million, to be increased to $65 million, in line with President William Ruto’s statements…

Heirs, Captains of Industry, and Networks of Influence: Who are the Real Winners of the New Employer Governance? The General Confederation of Moroccan Enterprises (CGEM) appointed the 20 leaders of commissions at the end of its board meeting on June 22, 2026, focusing on its orientations between 2026 and 2029. By renewing nearly 80% of...

“The Blue Fund must transform announced commitments into concrete projects by 2026” As the financial agent of the Blue Fund for the Congo Basin since 2021, the Central African Development Bank (BDEAC) played a central role in preparing the roundtable organized on the sidelines of the 2026 Annual Meetings of the African Development Bank in Brazzaville. In this interview with Financial Afrik, its Vice-President, Jean Paterne Megne Ekoga, discusses the progress made, details the priority portfolio of 63 projects representing $5.32 billion in investments, and outlines the next steps in implementing the Blue Fund. The BDEAC is heavily involved in…

“Ships of the world, start your engines and let the oil flow freely.” Rarely has a message from Donald Trump summed up the essence of a diplomatic agreement with such frankness. Behind the speeches about regional stability, international security, and nuclear non-proliferation, it is energy that remains the beating heart of Middle Eastern geopolitics. The...

The second edition of the BOAD Development Days has come to an end. For two days, on June 11th and 12th, Lomé welcomed bankers, investors, insurers, guarantee specialists, real estate developers, architects, and public decision-makers around a question that goes beyond just the housing sector: how to finance the growth of a Union expected to have over 300 million inhabitants by the middle of the century? On the eve of the event, the President of the West African Development Bank (BOAD), Serge Ekué, granted an exclusive interview to Jeune Afrique, Sika Finance, Agence Ecofin, and Financial Afrik. A conversation that,…

In a West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) facing a deficit of an estimated 3.5 million housing units and an annual demand for 800,000 additional units, financing housing emerges as one of the main development challenges. It is around this conviction that the second edition of the BOAD Development Days opens in Lomé this year, focusing on sustainable housing. On the eve of the event, the President of the West African Development Bank (BOAD), Serge Ekué, defended an ambitious vision of housing, considering it not just as a banking product but as a true instrument of macroeconomic policy. “Housing…

Following the Annual Meetings of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group, held in Brazzaville from May 25 to 29, 2026 and marked by the governors’ endorsement of its strategic vision, President Sidi Ould Tah announced a thorough overhaul of the institution’s organizational structure. In a message to the staff, he unveils a series of reforms...

With the passing of Professor Moustapha Kassé on June 1, 2206 at the age of 85, Senegal loses one of its greatest economists and Africa one of its last leading thinkers on development. Honorary dean of the Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences (FASEG) at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar (UCAD), the first Senegalese...

On Wednesday, May 13, 2026, in the plush lounges of the Palais de la Marina in Cotonou, Patrice Talon chaired his final Council of Ministers. A scene almost liturgical for a head of state who, over a decade, imposed on the Beninese apparatus a discipline of management rarely observed in these latitudes, combining a culture of results, an obsession with deadlines, and an assumed verticality of executive power. The time has now come for transmission. To the elected president, and even more so to the technocratic structure called upon to outlive men, falls the delicate responsibility of preserving this legacy,…

“In our participation in the Dakar Forum, it demonstrates the commitment of the United Arab Emirates to work with their African partners …” In the wake of the 10th edition of the Dakar International Forum on Peace and Security (April 20-21, 2026), Financial Afrik spoke with Shakhboot bin Nahyan Al Nahyan, State Minister at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the United Arab Emirates. An opportunity to assess the challenges and prospects of relations between the emirate and Africa. “The recent International Forum on Peace and Security in Africa brought together leaders to address the constantly evolving security challenges on…

Appointed on February 1, 2026 as Head of the Abidjan Regional Office of the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development, this internationally seasoned finance professional outlines the key levers he intends to activate to strengthen the institution’s impact across six West African countries  Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, The Gambia, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde and Guinea. From project structuring and scaling up public-private partnerships to mobilising private capital, he sets out a roadmap aligned with the Bank’s GRO strategy (Growth, Resilience, Optimisation), with a clear focus on driving sustainable and inclusive economic transformation across the sub-region. Can you outline your professional…

The presidential elections in Benin are taking place on April 12 in a tense Sahel region, where the proximity of the countries of the Sahel States Alliance (AES) offers a striking contrast between elective democracy and popular dirigisme. In the margins of Liptako, a discreet duel is playing out between regimes that, like Burkina Faso’s...

The new Gabonese nationality code, supported by the Constitution promulgated by presidential decree No. 0004/PR/2026, introduces a distinction between “Gabonese by birth”, “Gabonese by adoption” and “Gabonese by descent”. This text, adopted without passage through Parliament, consecrates a differentiation of citizenship statuses with immediate implications: in this framework, neither a profile like Bally Bagayoko, nor a profile comparable to that of Zohran Mamdani could claim to hold the position of mayor in Libreville. The case of Bally Bagayoko is illustrative. Elected mayor of Saint-Denis in France and of Malian descent, he embodies a system in which political citizenship takes precedence…

Yaoundé, March 30, 2026 — Gathered for four days in the Cameroonian political capital, the 166 members of the World Trade Organization concluded their 14th Ministerial Conference (MC14) in the night of March 29 to 30 with a minimalist but politically significant compromise. Originally scheduled for midday on March 29, the final agreement was only reached around midnight, after prolonged negotiations and last-minute dealings, illustrating the persistent fault lines within the multilateral trading system. In the absence of a comprehensive agreement, ministers validated several operational decisions and, most importantly, last-minute consolidation of momentum around the Investment Facilitation for Development (IFD)…

In the margins of the 14th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (MC14), currently taking place in Yaoundé (March 26-29, 2026), China, through Ambassador Li Yongjie, reaffirmed its commitment to a multilateral trade organization that is “operational, performative, and focused on development”. During a press briefing on March 27 in front of journalists from the least developed countries (LDCs) and developing economies, Beijing outlined a clear strategic line: defending the rules, accelerating reforms, and strengthening South-South cooperation. Ten years after the last ministerial conference held on the African continent, this MC14 comes at a time of high trade tensions…

In Cotonou, on March 21st, there was something almost counterintuitive in this packed Congress Palace. Presenting his society project for the upcoming presidential election on April 12th, Romuald Wadagni, the man of great balances, the minister who spent a decade talking about debt, sovereign signature, budget credibility, tax reforms, and fiscal discipline, chose not to focus on finance and debt. Or rather, to only talk about it indirectly. The finance minister, crowned for the first time as the best African Finance Minister by Financial Afrik in 2018, way before the IMF and the World Bank followed the trend, places health…

Kateb Yacine had found the right formula: the French language is our war booty. An inheritance born of the violence of history, certainly, but has become, whether we like it or not, a pillar of our cultural and intellectual reality. Pretending today to ignore it is less a surge of identity than a posture. Our two Francophone writers, Gaston Kelman and Mbarek Beyrouk, met in Nouakchott, each testify in their own way: Francophonie is neither a bloc nor a colonial nostalgia, but a living space, crossed by tensions, appropriations, and reinventions. Because finally, if we follow Amin Maalouf, for whom…

“Simplicity, Accessibility, and Trust: the three pillars of SUNU’s roadmap in Guinea” Heading the two subsidiaries of SUNU Assurances in Guinea since April 2025, Mariame Bah Barry, General Manager of SUNU Assurances in Guinea, is driving a transformative change in a still immature market. Between mass education through the “Assurance C’Simple” campaign and digital acceleration driven by the MySUNU application, she is redefining the standards of proximity and trust. With a sharp expertise in actuarial science and management, she aims to reconcile sustainable growth, financial inclusion, and technical rigor in a rapidly changing competitive environment. You took over the leadership…

“The difficulty for women often lies in guilt” Business lawyer at the Thiam & Associates firm, registered at the Paris Bar, Stephanie Manguele works on complex financing, infrastructure, and energy projects in Africa. In this interview, she talks about her career, analyzes the mechanisms that still hinder women’s access to decision-making positions in business law, and shares her vision of clear, demanding, and assumed leadership in a strategic sector for the continent’s development. Can you first talk about your career and what led you to business law in Africa? Today, I am a business lawyer at Thiam & Associates, focusing…

In an interview with Financial Afrik on March 5, 2026, university professor and international expert Abderrahmane MEBTOUL discusses the impacts of tensions in the Middle East based on conservative assumptions. What is the current state of energy in the Middle East and Africa? The energy landscape in the Middle East and Africa is dominated by significant hydrocarbon reserves, giving these regions major strategic importance in the global energy balance. According to Oil & Gas Journal, Middle Eastern countries hold some of the largest oil reserves on the planet. Saudi Arabia leads with 267.19 billion barrels, followed by Iran (200 billion),…

The Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) continues the operational deployment of its new instant payments infrastructure, called PI-SPI (Instant Payment – Instant Payment System). In an update published since February 24, 2026, the monetary institution has made public the list of establishments authorized to offer these services to the public in the WAEMU area. This list reflects a gradual increase in the device and the adherence of an increasing number of banking actors, fintechs, and mobile money operators to the new regional real-time payment system. A system already deployed throughout the Union According to data published by the…

The law firms ASAFO & CO. and Stork Avocats announced on February 19, 2026, the merger of their activities, marked by the integration of the Stork Avocats team within the Paris office of ASAFO & CO. This operation strengthens the position of the combined teams among the leading players in the field of major projects...

According to information obtained by Financial Afrik, Aline Yonta Kenge has been appointed Managing Director of BGFIBank Senegal, replacing Khady Boye Hanne, who has been the Managing Director since 2020. This appointment, subject to approval by supervisory authorities, comes at a time of significant restructuring in the Senegalese banking landscape and reflects the group’s desire...

The Ivorian insurance market confirms its strength and depth in 2025. The aggregated turnover of the sector reaches around 774 billion CFA francs, compared to nearly 720 billion CFA francs in 2024, representing an estimated annual growth of +7.5%. This clear and structural growth occurs in an environment marked by more demanding economic choices and...

Abidjan – The case between the financial institution FIDELIS Finance and the Ivorian SME SOGETRA has reached a decisive legal stage. According to official documents consulted by Financial Afrik, the investigating judge in charge of the case issued, on January 15, 2026, an order referring the case to the criminal court. This decision, confirming the...

At the end of a competitive process initiated since 2023, the Portuguese public bank Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD) has sold 100% of its 59.81% stake in Banco Comercial do Atlântico (BCA) to the Coris Group. The operation was approved by the Portuguese Council of Ministers as well as by the State of Cape Verde,...

Whatever the outcome of the DR Congo–Algeria match played on January 6 in Rabat, it can safely be said that it will be controversial. Not for strictly sporting reasons, but because it carries a heavy emotional, historical, and political charge specific to two peoples forged by struggle, rent, and disillusionment. Football and collective memory intertwine...