Author: Albert Savana

Arrested by the national gendarmerie for “insulting remarks” made against Prime Minister Choguel Kokalla Maiga, the Malian opponent Oumar Mariko was taken into police custody on Monday, December 6 in Bamako. These are the aftermath of the social media post, two private chats that have gone viral in recent days. In the first recording that circulated last week, and attributed to the current Prime Minister, we hear the latter talking about Amadou Sanogo, the author of the March 2012 coup d’état against former President Amadou Toumani Touré. He explains that the soldier had escaped a real judgment on the merits…

Faced with a latent shortage of basic products for several weeks, the Malian government suspended, on December 6, 20201, the export of agricultural products. Included in this list are cottonseed, cottonseed cakes, millet, maize, sorghum and local rice. This initiative of the National Transitional Council (CNT) joins that taken last November to reduce by 50%...

It was a decisive week which began on Monday, December 6 for Joël Aïvo and Reckya Madougou, two Beninese opponents arrested since last April. The first, a famous constitutional expert, has just been set on his fate, while the second awaits his trial hearing next Friday. Indeed, the famous constitutional expert was found guilty of money laundering and conspiracy against the authority of the State by the Court for the repression of economic offenses and terrorism (Criet), a special court created in 2018 and considered by its detractors as an instrument for silencing the opposition. He receives ten years in…

From our special correspondent, Dominique Mabika The Dakar International Forum on Peace and Security, the 7th in its history, opened on December 6 in Diamniadio, 30 km from Dakar, the Senegalese capital. Placed under the theme of the issues of stability and emergence in Africa in a post-Covid-19 world, the forum saw African heads of state and senior officials of African and European institutions succeed one another in the courtroom on themes of peace and security, on the Covid-19 pandemic. Since 2014, the Dakar Forum has been held to diagnose the situation in Africa in order to help find solutions…

Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), the leading provider of infrastructure solutions in Africa, approved on December 2, 2021, a corporate facility of USD 200 million for BUA Industries Limited, a member of the BUA Group (BUA), in order to complete its sugar plant in Lafiagi, located in Kwara State in Nigeria. According to a note made public on December 3, the proceeds will be used for the development, construction, commissioning and operation of a 20,000 hectare plantation, a 2,200,000 ton sugar factory and a 200,000-tonne-per-year sugar refinery that will process and refine white sugar. “The facility will also have an ethanol…

The restructuring of the Union bank of Cameroon (UBC) continues with the choice of corporate officers, in this case, the appointment of Charlotte Kouetcheu (photo) as Chief Executive Officer replacing Félix Landry Njoume, whose mandate ended with “the official exit of Ecobank Transnational Incorpored (ETI) as the majority shareholder of the bank”. The new director is an experienced manager who has accumulated around thirty years of experience having held numerous positions of responsibility in the banking sector, among others, managing director of Crédit communautaire d’Afrique (CCA Bank) and director of human resources at Commercial Bank Cameroon (CBC). The new boss…

South African operator MTN has announced its decision to make compulsory vaccination of its staff against Covid-19 as part of the fight against the fourth wave marked in the country by the variant Omicron. “The science is clear. Vaccination against Covid-19 reduces rates of serious infections, hospitalizations and deaths, ”Group CEO Ralph Mupita said in a statement released on Monday. The measure should take effect from next January. In its press release, MTN said, however, that it recognizes the right of employees to refuse vaccination for certain “clearly defined reasons”. And to add that he “will not be obliged to…

Lomé hosted from November 30 to December 2, 2021, the 2021 edition of Rencontres Africa. The event was held under the theme “Is Africa’s Economic Recovery Business Business?” “. Opened through a conference focused on the theme and discussed, among others, by the Togolese Prime Minister Victoire Tomegah Dogbé, the Beninese banker Lionnel Zinsou and the Togolese Minister Rose Kayi Mivedor in charge of investment promotion, the sixth edition of the Rencontres Africa took place in a hybrid format. It brought together a few hundred African and French companies and investors with the objective of generating lasting partnerships and profitable…

Nine bilateral cooperation agreements were signed on December 2, 2021 between Côte d’Ivoire and South Africa on the sidelines of a visit by President Cyril Ramaphosa to Abidjan. The aim is to increase trade between the two countries, which also often want to speak with one voice on the international stage. According to Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara, these agreements – which concern the fields of defense, agriculture and hydrocarbons – will make it possible to intensify and boost the “strategic partnership” between Côte d’Ivoire and South Africa . “With President Cyril Ramaphosa, we have the ambition to raise the relations…

The new Managing Director of the Banque de Développement du Mali (BDM) is no stranger. Appointed on November 27 to replace Bréhima Amadou HAIDARA, the one who was until then Deputy Managing Director has a 25-year career with the bank. First in what was the Malian Bank of Credits and Deposits (BMCD), which became the Development Bank of Mali (BDM) through a merger and then privatization. Major of promotion of the National School of Administration (ENA) in 1995, Ibrahima Ndiaye first worked in an accounting firm the time to sharpen the theory in the field before joining the BMCD in…

Bloomfield Investment Corporation has confirmed the long-term BBB + rating with a stable outlook previously awarded to Société Africaine de Crédit Automobile (SAFCA), officials of the Abidjan-based rating agency announced. Bloomfield also confirmed the short term A1 rating with a stable outlook. The rating is valid from September 2021 to August 2022. To justify the rating and the outlook attached to it, Bloomfield officials note that over the long term, the protective factors are appropriate and considered sufficient for prudent investments. “However, they argue, there is considerable variability in risks over business cycles.” In the short term, it is the…

Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum has just sacked his interior minister, Alkache Alhada, in office since April. He was replaced by Hamadou Adamou Souley, until then Minister of Equipment, and himself became Minister of Commerce. This reshuffle comes after the events in Téra (west) where demonstrators opposed the passage of a French military convoy. Two deaths were recorded, according to Niger public radio. But this reshuffle was announced before the events of Téra, according to the Nigerien authorities. In addition, two ministers from Mpr Jamhuriya, from the presidential movement, in particular that of Justice, Dr Boubacar Hassan, and that of the…

The eighth session of the Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (Focac) was held from November 29 to 30, 2021 at the Abdou Diouf International Conference Center (Cicas), in Diamniadio (Senegal). Organized in hybrid mode, this meeting was attended by African and Chinese heads of state, government officials concerned, representatives of institutions, chambers of commerce and industry, eminent entrepreneurs from the business community, representatives of SMEs. And resulted in the adoption of a document on Vision 2035 of China-Africa Cooperation. Placed under the theme “Deepening the Sino-African partnership and promoting sustainable development to build a shared future community…

The largest dairy farmers’ cooperative in the world, FrieslandCampina, and the Ivorian Ministry of Animal and Fisheries Resources signed a partnership this Tuesday, November 30, to boost local milk production in Côte d’Ivoire through the endowment of technology. and the necessary knowledge. The goal, according to both parties, is to gradually reduce the country’s dependence on imports and improve the incomes of pastoralists “by integrating them into the value chain.” The Minister of Animal and Fishery Resources, Sidi Tiémoko Touré, praised his Trade and Industry counterpart, Souleymane Diarrassouba, for having started the first negotiations in order to allow the group…

The ruling junta has decided to proceed overnight between Sunday 28 and Monday 29 November 2021, with the transfer of Alpha Condé from the imposing Palais des Nations, seat of power of the National Committee of the Rally for Development (CNRD) to the residence of his wife Hadja Djene Kaba in Landreah, in the commune of Dixinn on the outskirts of the capital. In a statement read on Monday evening on national television, the CNRD and its president “reassure the national and international community of their desire to guarantee respect for individual and collective freedoms for all the people of…

The Togolese authorities announced on November 27, 2021, the establishment of a fund for universal access to electricity. Referred to as “Tinga”, this instrument is defined as “a mechanism to facilitate access to electricity for low-income populations”. This fund provides repayable grants for universal access to electricity grids in addition to other ongoing initiatives, according to a government statement. The draft decree on its creation, its attributions, its organization and its functioning was adopted by the Council of Ministers meeting over the weekend. In its vision for universal electrification contained in its national electrification strategy, the government notes that access…

The Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF 2021) in Durban (South Africa) has succeeded in exceeding the targets of signed trade agreements. This event, which was initially supposed to generate 40 billion dollars, went beyond (42.1 billion dollars), according to the latest statistics published on Monday, November 29 by the advisory council. These data, it is said, took into account additional data submitted by trade promotion agencies in Algeria, Nigeria and South Africa. For Benedict Oramah, president of Afreximbank, these figures reflect “a well thought out platform, the diversity and depth of the goods and services presented and a rich program”. Organized…

The Bank of Central African States (BEAC) supports the promotion of transparency in the insurance sector through the launch of a process of recruiting a consultant for the establishment of a base data for the Inter-African Conference on Insurance Markets (CIMA). The missions assigned to the consultant are mainly to develop a digital platform to facilitate data collection by monitoring control and scoring reports (a risk coverage and pricing decision tool) from insurance companies. The said project supports an experimental version developed internally by CIMA, a complementary module to the digital platform for collecting market data (PFN) intended for monitoring,…

During a lively press briefing on Sunday, November 28 following his Koran reading ceremony, Imam Mahmoud Dicko called for the union and the coming together of Malians in order to save the “sick nation”. So he pleaded for the indulgence of the international community towards Mali. Very political as usual, Imam Mahmoud Dicko, who is visibly seeking to reposition himself on the stage, this time evokes in French his country’s relations with foreign countries, in particular with other ECOWAS member countries. And there, locally, he clearly chooses the camp of the doves against that of the hawks. Imam Mahmoud Dicko…

Cyril Ramaphosa spoke out on November 28, 2021, on the travel restriction measures imposed on South Africans after the detection and announcement of the Omicron variant three days earlier. They represent, according to the South African president, a form of “discrimination against our country”. Indeed, Cyril Ramaphosa considers these measures “ineffective”, and adds that they have “no scientific justification”. “We are deeply disappointed. We call on all countries that restrict travel to urgently reverse their decisions before these measures cause further damage to our economies and the incomes of our people. ” Addressing his compatriots, the South African president was…

By ABASHI SHAMAMBA Driven by a contraction in demand for currencies on the foreign exchange market and an explosion in transfers of MRE ($ 9 billion expected at the end of December), the price of the Moroccan currency against the euro and the dollar is approaching the lower limit of its fluctuation band. Not at...

The short protective seizure of Air Côte d’Ivoire on November 22, 2021, on the tarmac at Bamako airport, suffered procedural consequences and chin strikes between Abidjan and Bamako. The eponymous company opened a statement saying that it is foreign to the BNI Gestion affair. The Ivorian government subsequently issued a press release by Amadou Coulibaly,...

More than two months after the fall of Alpha Condé, a corner of the veil is lifting over the barons of the fallen regime. The liabilities of the men who gravitated around the presidential galaxy of the former president, reputed to be a man of networks and close to the lobby of the political and business world, is revealed day after day since the takeover of the country by Colonel Mamadi Doumbouya. After the scandal which splashed the former Congolese Prime Minister under Joseph Kabila, Matata Ponyo, one of the closest ex-advisers of Alpha Condé, pinned by the justice of…

The net income of the Bank Of Africa (BOA) Mali, a subsidiary of the BMCE Bank group, experienced a sharp decline of 52% in the third quarter of 2021 compared to the same period of 2020, announced the managers of this Bamako-based banking establishment. This result fell from 5.787 billion FCFA as of September 30,...

After the economic recession caused by the unexpected oubreak of the health crisis linked to the coronavirus which continues to impact on activities, the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (Cemac) adopted, during an extraordinary summit of chiefs State on August 18, a regional economic recovery strategy. In this perspective, the Development Bank of Central African States (BDEAC), at the end of the board of directors on November 17, 2021, opened a line of credit of CFAF 185 billion, or $ 316 million with a view to to ensure the financing of new projects. Dedicated funds for eleven projects,…

Togo becomes the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to have a digital Covid-19 vaccination certificate recognized by the European Union, announced a press release from the organization’s delegation in Lomé. The measure, it is indicated, will be effective from this Thursday, November 25. The country thus joins some fifty countries around the world which are now connected to the EU’s Covid digital certificate system, which brings together 27 countries. Concretely, it is specified, Togolese travelers who are fully vaccinated and have the new certificate will now be able to access places subject to presentation of the Covid-19 vaccination certificate in…

The Burkinabè government is mobilizing its partners to finance the second National Economic and Social Development Plan (PNDES-II) 2021-2025. An international conference is planned for this purpose on December 2 and 3, 2021 in Brussels (Belgium), with the World Bank as the leader of the technical and financial partners. This meeting, said a press release, will bring together Burkina Faso’s multi and bilateral partners as well as private investors. The proceedings will be launched by President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré with an opening speech. Prime Minister Christophe Joseph Marie Dabiré will lead the rest of the work, accompanied by a…

This announcement was made on November 23, 2021 following a strategic summit meeting between the shareholders of the SMB / Simandou project and the Guinean Prime Minister, Mohamed Béavogui. The objective was to present the progress of the project and try to reassure the new authorities on the continuation and respect of the schedule of the project of exploitation of blocks 1 & 2 of the iron deposit of Simandou. The ruling junta having announced major reforms in Mines with local content, transparency and the withdrawal of dormant permits as a common thread, Sun Xhiushun and Fadi Wazni tried to…

Major changes have taken place in the shareholding structure of Union Bank of Cameroon (UBC) with a stake of 54% of assets by the State of Cameroon. This reconfiguration of the share capital comes at the end of a recapitalization process started a few months ago, particularly in March, when the public authorities injected 17.8 billion FCFA ($ 30 million) to save this financial institution then under the threat from the Central African Banking Commission (COBAC) which at best planned to place it under provisional administration, if not, to purely and simply proceed with its liquidation by withdrawing all approvals.…

Congolese Presidents Félix Tshisekedi and Zambian Hakainde Hichilema reaffirmed, during a tête-à-tête Tuesday, November 23 in Kinshasa, the need to settle the border dispute at the level of the province of Tanganyika and the pooling of energies and means for the construction of road infrastructures for the good of their respective peoples. In front of the press, the Congolese head of state announced that it will be launched shortly on the disputed places on a date to be agreed, the work of the joint commission bringing together experts from the two countries in order to boost the quest for a…