Author: Amadjiguéne Ndoye

Access Bank Plc has completed the acquisition of Mozambican bank, African Banking Corporation, nine months after negotiations began. The amount of the transaction was not disclosed. The group plans to merge the acquired bank with its subsidiary Access Bank Mozambique SA, which is expected to become the seventh largest bank in the country. By the end of 2021, the bank also plans to expand to other African countries such as Angola, Cameroon and Guinea-Conakry. “Access Bank wants its operations outside Nigeria to provide 30% of the group’s profits this year and earning in the southern end of the continent seems…

AngloGold Ashanti Ltd reported net profit of $ 203 million in the first quarter of 2021, up from $ 134 million a year earlier, an increase of 51%. This performance was driven by the rise in the price of gold, as the company continued its reinvestment program aimed at completing the redevelopment of the Obuasi gold mine and adding new gold reserves to its portfolio. The results published on Monday, May 10 indicate that adjusted net debt fell 43% in one year to stand at $ 908 million in the first quarter of 2021, against 1,606 million in the first…

The African Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (AVCA), which brings together private equity players in Africa, has announced the appointment of Kofo Sanusi as Chief Operating Officer (COO). Prior to joining AVCA, she was COO and Director of Accelerators at Founders Factory Africa (FFA), a venture capital development firm investing in start-ups in sub-Saharan Africa. “Kofo Sanusi brings exceptional strategic, operational and financial management experience to various companies across Africa. His in-depth knowledge and experience in the emerging ecosystem in Africa will be an asset as we seek to broaden the Association’s reach in the private investment sector in…

Kenyan start-up Lami raises $ 1.8 million to boost digital insurance Kenyan insurtech startup Lami Technologies has successfully raised $ 1.8 million in seed funding, as part of a round led by Accion Venture Lab with participation from AAIC, Consonance, P1 Ventures, Acuity Ventures, The Continent Venture Partners and Future Africa. The capital will be used to improve the capabilities of its offering and finance the expansion of its API insurance platform across Africa. A platform that provides users with quotes for auto, medical and other insurance products in seconds, and allows you to customize benefits, adjust premiums as needed,…

After President Macky Sall’s announcement of an investment of 60 billion CFA francs ($ 110 million) in the 2021/2022 agricultural campaign, the Senegalese Minister of Agriculture and Rural Equipment, Pr Moussa Baldé, announced Thursday, April 29 in Dakar, the country’s ambition to achieve a production of 4 million tonnes of cereals and 2 million tonnes of industrial crops. At a press conference in Dakar, the minister indicated that Senegal achieved a production of 3,640,445 tonnes of cereals this year. “Our goal is to reach 4 million tonnes. Regarding industrial crops (cotton, peanuts, sesame), we are at around 1.9 million tonnes.…

The sanction of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was not long in coming. The authority on Thursday (April 29) dismissed the entire board of directors of the First Bank of Nigeria for appointing a new managing director without regulatory approval. It all started with the appointment of Gbenga Shobo to the post of general manager / chief executive officer (CEO) of the group on Wednesday April 28, which the CBN was opposed to. The regulator has therefore reinstated the former director, Adesola Adeduntan. A decision that aims to protect minority shareholders and customers, according to the central bank. During…

Saham Angola Seguros insurance company has completed its transformation to operate under the South African group Sanlam brand. The transaction comes nearly two years after the acquisition of Moroccan Saham Finances, until then a majority shareholder in Angola, by Sanlam. The insurer is now renamed Sanlam Angola Seguros. “SAHAM Angola Seguros changes its brand to SANLAM Angola Seguros. This name change follows the acquisition of the SANLAM Group in the entire capital of SAHAM Finances, completed in October 2018, “the Angolan insurance company said in a statement. The new name of the Angolan insurance company is part of this unification…

Bharti Airtel Ltd announced this Thursday, April 29, the appointment of Olusegun Ogunsanya as Managing Director and CEO of its African subsidiary, effective October 1. The Nigerian is replacing Raghunath Mandava, who will assert his retirement rights on September 30. Electronics engineer and also Chartered Accountant, Olusegun Ogunsanya joined Airtel in 2012 as Managing Director and CEO of the Nigeria branch, its largest market in Africa. The newly promoted have held senior positions at beverage maker Coca-Cola in Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya. He was also the Managing Director of Nigerian Bottling Company Ltd owned by Coca-Cola Hellenic, and was the…

Moroccan banking group Bank of Africa has signed a partnership contract with financial software developer Finastra to digitize business processes. Conpend’s TRADE AI application will help the bank reduce risk and speed up trade finance transactions. According to the bank’s statement on Wednesday, April 28, the solution will reduce processing time by 30% and trade finance risk levels by 80%. “The solution will improve our trade finance operations by accelerating the approval of trade finance documents. Access to third-party applications was a clear differentiator for trade finance solutions, “said Leila Bahoum, board member in charge of trade finance operations at…

Ethiopia to receive funding of $ 907 million from the World Bank to fight Covid-19 and invest in electricity. The agreement was signed with Ethiopia’s finance minister on Friday April 23. Funding consists of $ 700 million in loan and $ 207 million in grant. According to a ministry statement, $ 200 million of the funding will go to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) impacted by the pandemic in an effort to alleviate their funding problems, $ 207 million will be used for the deployment of Covid-19 vaccines. The remaining $ 500 million will be invested in efforts to increase…

South African bank African Bank has just announced the appointment of Kennedy Bungane (46) as CEO and Executive Director of the Bank and its holding company, African Bank Holdings Limited (“ABH”). His appointment takes effect from April 14, 2021. He was a member of the executive committee of Standard Bank of SA and of the executive committee of the Absa Bank group. Kennedy joined Barclays Africa in 2012 as Managing Director of Barclays Africa Limited and Head of Strategy for the Absa Group where he led the sale of Barclays Africa Ltd to the Absa Group and the formulation of…

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), part of the World Bank, has signed partnership agreements with leading health technology company Philips and the Co-operative Bank of Kenya to help small businesses in the health sector. health in Africa to acquire essential medical equipment and strengthen their response to Covid-19. The partnerships, signed this Wednesday, April 14, are part of the IFC-led Africa Medical Equipment Facility, designed to provide risk-sharing facilities to help small businesses access up to to $ 300 million in loans and leases. The facility covers healthcare providers in Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda. The…

South Africa received a $ 1 billion loan from the China-based New Development Bank (NDB), according to an announcement by the South African presidency on April 11. The support will strengthen the South African economy hard hit by the recession and the coronavirus pandemic, through the funding of job creation programs currently underway as part of the country’s economic recovery plan. The loan is part of the $ 10 billion emergency aid mechanism set up to help BRICS countries during the pandemic. The funds will help finance job creation, especially under the presidential job boosting program that aims to create…

Nigerian Access Bank has acquired a majority stake in Grobank in South Africa. The transaction is valued at around $ 60 million and will allow the South African bank to consolidate its capital. With this acquisition, Access becomes the first Nigerian bank to enter the South African market and thus extends its presence in 9 African countries. The South African acquisition is the third in eight months, following the takeover of Transnational Bank of Kenya in July 2020, and Zambia-based Cavmont Bank in January 2021. “We have a full retail banking license in South Africa (…). We will be pursuing…

“Documents attesting to a large-scale plot orchestrated by relatives of Angolan President João Lourenço” against Isabel dos Santos, have been filed in the High Court of Justice in London by the private Israeli intelligence agency Black Cube, according to a press release on behalf of the Angolan businesswoman, published this Monday, March 29. This new evidence would concern audio and video recordings questioning the “Luanda Leaks” revelations published in January 2020. In defense of the daughter of former Angolan President José Eduardo Dos Santos, this case is based on a “targeted attack by the Angolan intelligence services, operating under the…

Moody’s Investors Service, the credit rating subsidiary of Moody’s Corporation, announced in a recently released report that Sharia-compliant multilateral development banks (MDBs) will benefit from the growth of Islamic finance and the associated increase in application for highly rated sukuk. This further growth of the World Islamic Bank will strongly influence the demand for multilateral development banks, which will also benefit from the growth of the Islamic Bank in North and Sub-Saharan Africa through syndications and retrocessions, supporting the plans. expansion The lack of high-quality liquid assets has been a constraint for Sharia-compliant financial institutions, which suffered low or negative…

The Tunisian Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDC) and the French Development Agency (AFD) on Thursday (March 25) signed a partnership agreement of 4.6 million euros in favor of female entrepreneurship in Tunisia. The funding granted in the form of a grant is part of the JET (Youth, Entrepreneurship and Digital in Tunisia) initiative launched during the visit of French President Macron to the country in January 2018. Through the ENLIEN project, ADS has supported five entrepreneurial initiatives, in particular the Souk El Kahina project, initiated by EndaInter-Arabe, Start’Act de Carthage Business Angels and Wiki Startup, several cohorts of the…

The African Leaders’ Forum on Sovereign Wealth and Pension Funds announced the launch of its Pan African Green Infrastructure Investment Bank (AGIIB) initiative, during the fifty-third session of the Conference of African Ministers of Finance , planning and economic development, organized by ECA. The new investment initiative will focus on the green infrastructure market in Africa. AGIIB has mobilized around $ 20 billion from G7 and G20 investment partners and seeks to raise $ 3-5 billion from institutional investors and African governments. The initiative is emerging as a pan-African green infrastructure investment bank and will act as a world-class international…

South African insurer Old Mutual said Tuesday, March 23, a drop in its revenues for the year 2020 linked to Covid-19. The company restored its dividend even as the pandemic took its toll on the business, which resulted in a total annual loss of 5.7 billion rand ($ 385 million). The loss is driven by higher provisions for excess claims. The company has also seen its sales drop and its credit losses increase. But Old Mutual also had to increase its disruption and rescue reserves to $ 53.5 million in the second half – an increase that was more than…

Telecommunications company Airtel Africa has announced a $ 200 million investment from The Rise Fund, TPG’s global impact investing platform, in Airtel Mobile Commerce BV (AMC BV), a subsidiary of mobile money operations Airtel Africa, with potential for IPO within four years. The investment will see the AMC BV business valued at $ 2.65 billion and operate Airtel’s mobile money business across all of its 14 mainland markets once the inclusion of the remaining mobile money operations. under AMC will be terminated. The Rise Fund will hold a minority stake in AMC BV upon completion of the transaction, with Airtel…

The African Union announced this Thursday, March 18, that it had given the green light for the vaccine against the Covid-19 AstraZeneca and recommended the continuation of vaccinations on the continent. For the organization, the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks. John Nkengasong, director of the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told a press conference that “the benefits always outweigh the risks” and countries should “move forward” with the vaccination. He said “adverse reactions would be monitored and reported for future vaccine evaluations.” A positive opinion that comes after the World Health Organization (WHO) endorsed the vaccine.…

The French Development Agency (AFD) will allocate $ 6.95 million to finance digital financial inclusion in Africa, to promote gender equality in digital financial services. The funding will target, among other beneficiaries, 20 to 25 million women over five years. The project is part of the African Facility for Digital Financial Inclusion (FADI), supported by the French Development Agency (AFD) and hosted by the African Development Bank (AfDB). The goal of the facility is to ensure access to the formal economy for an additional 332 million Africans, 60% of whom are women, by 2030. Of the funding of $ 6.95…

The World Bank has announced the launch of funding projects to provide 30 African countries with vaccines against Covid-19, without disclosing the amount of support under discussion. The first countries concerned include the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Niger, Mozambique, Tunisia, Eswatini, Rwanda and Senegal. According to the institution, the funds are already available, and for most African countries. Funding will be in the form of grants or on so-called highly concessional conditions. Already in February, the World Bank financed its first operation to support the vaccination plan of African countries against Covid-19 and help with the purchase and…

African telecommunications group Liquid Telecoms announces that it has successfully raised more than $ 840 million through a bond and term refinancing facility launched a few days ago. The deal of $ 600 million senior secured bonds and $ 220 million South African rand-denominated secured term loans has attracted more than 230 investor orders, including anchor orders the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund. “The order book, which totaled US $ 3.2 billion, was oversubscribed more than five times, which helped generate a coupon rate of 5.5% compared to the group’s starting coupon of 8, 5%…

The Cameroonian fintech start-up Diool continues its development and attracts new investors in this fundraising of 3.5 million USD intended to finance its operations. The funding brings its overall secure investment to 4.6 million USD. Founded by Serge and Phillipe Boupda, Diool specializes in the aggregation of financial services. The startup, launched in 2015, began operations as a mobile top-up project providing small retailers with a way to sell prepaid top-ups from a single app to their customers. Through its platform, Diool offers small merchants the means to accept payments from their customers and to reimburse their suppliers more easily,…

Allianz Nigeria plans to roll out a cyber insurance policy before the end of the first half of 2021, announces Adeolu Adewumi-Zer, the CEO of the company. The insurer, which awaits regulatory approvals, recently published a risk barometer based on a survey of 193 Nigerian companies questioned which shows that cyber incidents are the second perceived risk in 2021, just behind Covid-19, while ‘they were only considered the eighth most important risk. The new insurance will cover data loss and reputational risk as well as cybercrime. “As the Covid-19 pandemic significantly accelerates the need for work from home, cybersecurity is…

The rating agency Fitch Ratings has confirmed the default rating of the long-term issuer (IDR) of Mauritius’ largest bank, Mauritius Commercial Bank Limited (MCB) at “BBB-” with a negative outlook. The rating takes into account the significant impact of the pandemic on the Mauritian economy which suffered from a two-month nationwide lockdown at the start of the crisis and the country’s prolonged border closures. Measures that have heavily impacted the tourism sector and related industries, which together represent a significant percentage of the country’s GDP. For Fitch, the Mauritian economy is expected to grow slowly, with real GDP growth of…

Lebanese bank BLOM Bank announced on Sunday (January 17th) that it had sold its 99.4% stake in its Egyptian subsidiary BLOM BANK Egypt to Bahraini bank Bank ABC for an amount of $ 427 million. The transaction, subject to regulatory approvals in Bahrain, Egypt and Lebanon, is expected to close in the first half of 2021. The transaction includes all physical and non-physical assets of Blom Bank Egypt as well as accounts clients. The bank had started talks with ABC in December. Once validated, the acquisition will allow BLOM Bank to subscribe to Banque du Liban (BDL) capital increase requirements…

The initiative to create a Great Green Wall in the African Sahel region has succeeded in attracting new funding to the tune of $ 14.2 billion on the sidelines of the One Planet Summit for biodiversity jointly organized by France, the Nations United and the World Bank organized Monday January 11 in Paris. The amount allocated is for the period 2021-2025, a success given that the expected amount was around 10 billion dollars for the next five years. Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Cheikh El-Ghazouani, current President of the Conference of Heads of State and Government of the Pan-African Agency of…

After seeing their rating plummet to “BB-”, impacted by South Africa’s “BB” sovereign rating from “BB-” in November, five South African banks have just received the excellent rating “ AA + ”from the rating agency Fitch Ratings. They are Absa Bank Limited, FirstRand Bank Limited, Investec Bank Limited, Nedbank Limited and The Standard Bank of South Africa Limited. This long-term national rating, backed by a stable outlook, reflects an improvement in their creditworthiness compared to the best credits in the country, according to Fitch. Debt ratings were also upgraded a notch. Fitch has also taken similar rating action on the…