Ethiopia
Ethiopia Participates in Berlin International Tour and Travel Exhibition
A total of 30 exhibitors including Ministry of Tourism, Ethiopian Airlines, tour operators and Regional Bureau representatives are taking part in the 2023 Berlin International Tour and Travel Exhibition. Read More

Public Enterprises' Collective Asset Surpass ETB 1 Trillion, Public Enterprises Holdings and Administration Agency
Public Enterprises Holdings and Administration Agency announced that the asset of Ethiopian public enterprises surpassed ETB 1 trillion (approx. USD 18.6 billion). Read More

Fuel Prices at the Pump Remain Unchanged for March
Retail prices for all petroleum products except jet fuel will remain the same for the month of March, the Ministry of Trade & Industry announced. Read More

Ethiopia, Kuwait Agree to Strengthen Cooperation in Their Respective Police Institutions
Ethiopia and Kuwait have agreed to strengthen cooperation in their respective police institutions. according to the Federal Police Commission. Read More

Kenya
KRA Enlists Big Companies to Arrest Wealthy Tax Cheats
Bigger companies will be penalised for doing business with suppliers not listed on the electronic tax invoice registry in fresh efforts to weed out tax cheats and boost revenue. Read More

Global Firms Go for Jobs Reserved for Kenyan Youth
Some companies registered abroad are now applying for tenders reserved for Kenyan youth and women, triggering a parliamentary inquiry. Read More

Nairobi Own Source Revenue Falls to Record Low After KRA Kick-Out
Nairobi City County’s internal revenues for the six months to December hit a record low after it shrunk by 28 percent to KES 2.7 billion (approx. USD 21 million), shining the spotlight on a decision to claw back revenue collection duties from the Kenya Revenue Authority. Read More

Auditors Skip Senate Sitting Due to Lack of Air Tickets
Public auditors from Kisumu County failed to attend a Senate meeting due to a lack of airfare attributed to a cash crunch facing the office of the Auditor General. Read More

Rwanda
Kagame, UK Premier Discuss Migration Plan
President Paul Kagame and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak discussed the Rwanda-UK migration deal, in a move both leaders described as a way to ensure this important partnership is delivered successfully. Read More

Akamanzi Pledges Efficiency as Business Licensing Goes to RDB
Rwanda Development Board (RDB) CEO, Clare Akamanzi, says the board is committed to ensuring that all services under one-stop-center are delivered efficiently and in the quickest time possible. Read More

Musanze-Kigali Highway to Get 32 Kilometre Alternative Road
The government is building a 32 kilometres road that could be used in case of a landslide emergency that usually blocks movement on Kigali-Musanze highway at a place called Buranga. Read More

Tanzania
Local Firm Ink TZS 1 Billion Deal as Local Content Gains Pace
Tanzania’s local content policy has started paying dividends to Tanzanians as a local firm signed over TZS 1 billion (approx. USD 427,000) deal to inspect and clean natural gas pipeline at Mnazi Bay field wells in Mtwara. Read More

EAC Appeals for SMEs Development
East African Community (EAC) has appealed for the development of a Small and Medium Entreprises (SMEs) engagement framework with the EAC Council of Ministers and green fiscal policy for the EAC bloc. Read More

Tanzanians Urged to Capitalise on Global Economic Challenges
Tanzanians have been advised to take advantage of the global economic challenges by diversifying and increasing the productivity of products that are highly needed in international markets. Read More

CRDB Fresh Policy Supports Smallholder Farmers
CRDB Bank has designed special financing models that suit smallholder farmers through their farmer groups, AMCOS. Read More

Uganda
Survey Records Reduced Activity in Agriculture, Construction
Decline in agriculture, construction and industry activities weakened economic performance during February, according to a survey by Stanbic Bank. Read More

COVID-19 Rescue Facility for MSMEs Performing Miserably
The Bank of Uganda (BOU) has admitted that a package introduced to rescue small and micro enterprises from the effects of COVID-19, has hardly worked, almost one and a half years later. Read More

Sierra Leone Commissions New Freetown International Airport as Air Links Across Africa Improve
Sierra Leone has officially opened its new USD 270 million passenger terminal at Freetown International Airport in Lungi, some 12 km north of Freetown. Read More

URSB Starts Integrating Intellectual Property Rights Aspects in Institutions
The copyright owners are bound to benefit from their products following Uganda Registration Services Bureaus' (URSB) decision to begin integrating the intellectual property rights aspects in all government institutions and private institutions. Read More

Egypt
Environment Minister Reviews COP27 Results During African Judicial Meeting
Egypt’s Minister of Environment Yasmine Fouad has said that COP27 was a global platform for Africa to express its legitimate concerns regarding climate change. Read More

Africa Has 71 Percent of World’s Least Developed Countries
On behalf of President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, Minister of International Cooperation Rania Al-Mashat delivered the speech of Egypt at the fifth UN Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC5) in Qatari capital, Doha, on 5 March. Read More

Bidaya Home Finance Issues Securitization Bonds Worth EGP 958 Million
Bidaya Home Finance, one of the companies of the Financial Group Hermes, is preparing to complete the second issuance of securitization bonds, with a value close to EGP 1 billion (approx. USD 32 million). Read More

HDB Attracts 280 New Clients in SME Sector Offering EGP 1 Billion Finance in 2022
The Housing and Development Bank (HDB) has revealed that it attracted about 280 new clients in the small and medium enterprises sector in 2022, with finance amounting to about EGP 1 billion (approx. USD 32 million). Read More

Morocco
State Funding for Political Parties’ Election Campaigns Reaches USD 34 Million in 2021
Moroccan political parties benefited from nearly MAD 356 million (approx. USD 34 million) in state funding in 2021 to support their campaigns for the November 8 legislative elections, a new report from the country’s Court of Accounts shows. Read More

Morocco Requests USD 5 Billion Credit Line from IMF
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced that its executive board has received from Morocco a USD 5 billion credit line request. Read More

Casablanca’s Mohammed V International Airport Wins 3 Airports Council International Awards
Casablanca’s Mohammed V International Airport has been commended for its services, winning a total of three awards at the World’s annual Airport Service Quality Awards, by the Airports Council International. Read More

Morocco Launches Construction Work of First Lab for Legal Cannabis Industry
Bio Cannat, the first Moroccan cooperative authorized to market and export cannabis and its products for industrial and medical use, launched last week the construction work for its first laboratory. Read More

Malawi Wants Opec Fund Triple Portfolio
President Lazarus Chakwera has requested the Opec Fund for International Development to consider increasing its resource envelope to Malawi to enable the country to meet its development agenda, the 2063 vision. Read More

Off-Budget Support on Downward Trend
Treasury figures show that off-budget support in the 2023/24 fiscal year is projected to decline to about MWK 40.4 billion (approx. USD 40 million) from the MWK 217 billion (approx. USD 213 million) in the 2022/23 financial year. Read More

Forex Shortages Hit Export Trade—Report
Foreign exchange challenges the country is experiencing helped to narrow the trade balance by 68 percent from USD 2.07 billion in 2021 to USD 564.41 million in 2022. Read More

Unpaid Arrears, Poor Liquidity Choke SOEs
Unpaid bills by public and private sector creditors continue to undermine the performance of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs), with most of them operating at a loss. Read More

Mozambique
Mozambican Government to Send Technical Team to Saudi Arabia
The Mozambican government will, within the next two weeks, send a mission from the Investment and Export Promotion Agency to Riyadh to begin implementation of the understandings reached during the working visit to Saudi Arabia of President Filipe Nyusi. Read More

Mozambique Prime Minsiter Calls for More Support for Business
Mozambican Prime Minister Adriano Maleiane believes that aid for development and trade should serve as a mechanism to increase the involvement of the business sector of the Least Developed Countries in the global value chain. Read More

South Africa
SARS Says Politicians and Leaders Should Open Up Their Tax Affairs
The South African Revenue Service (SARS) says President Cyril Ramaphosa and his Phala Phala farm are tax compliant – for the first time in South Africa’s history exposing the tax affairs of a president. Read More

Nedbank Announces ZAR 5 Billion Share Buyback and Record Dividend
Nedbank has announced a record-high final dividend and a planned share buyback programme of up to ZAR 5 billion (approx. USD 270 million) thanks to excess capital on its balance sheet helped by double-digit earnings growth across all its business clusters in 2022. Read More

PetroSA Doubles Revenue on Diesel Sales
Top office-bearers of state-owned gas-to-liquid company PetroSA, which has been the main provider of diesel to Eskom, have expressed confidence in the turnaround of the enterprise. Read More

Consumers in Distress Says Shoprite CEO
Shoprite CEO Pieter Engelbrecht says SA consumers are in serious distress and are changing their food shopping behaviour, accordingly, based on data from its 26-million member reward programme. Read More

Zambia
NAPSA’s Investment Returns on Lusaka-Ndola Road Project Attractive
Infrastructure, Housing and Urban Development Minister Charles Milupi says NAPSA’s returns on the money it will lend to Macro Ocean Investment Consortium will be quite attractive. Read More

Transporters Urge Government to Revise Fees at Kasumbalesa Border Post
SADC Truck Drivers Association president Stanley Muluka says the government should consider revising various fees at Kasumbalesa Border Post following the take-over of the border by the Zambia Revenue Authority. Read More

Pharmanova, Medlab Have Signed MoU to Build USD 100 Million Pharmaceutical Hub
Government says the recently held Zambia–European Union Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Forum has seen the signing of an MOU between Pharmanova and a Spanish company to set up a pharmaceutical hub that will cost over USD 100 million. Read More

Cost of Living for February Rises by MWK 230.75
The cost of living for a family of five in Lusaka has increased by MWK 230.75, according to JCTR’s Basic Needs and Nutrition Basket. Read More

Cote d'Ivoire
Côte d’Ivoire Runs Seven-Day Campaign to Distribute Over 50,000 Biometric ID Cards
The ID card issuing authority in Côte d’Ivoire, the National Civil Status Registration and Identification Office has for the past week been running a campaign intended to distribute 50,000 biometric national ID cards to their owners. Read More

Seamfix, MTN Group to Provide SIM Registration in Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Three Others
Seamfix, a provider of identity management and digital solutions in Africa, has partnered with MTN Group, a mobile telecommunications company, to extend SIM registration services into five African countries. Read More

Ghana
Cedi Recovery Continues; USD 1 Equals GHS 12.50
The recovery of the Ghana cedi continued today March 7, 2023 as the local currency gained some 30 pesewas from last Friday March 3, 2023 pricing to lower its year-to-date loss. Read More

Investors demand insurance payment on Ghana’s Eurobond after default
A panel of investors and banks has ruled Ghana’s missed coupon payments on its foreign denominated bonds counts as a failure-to-pay event, paving the way for a payout of the default-insurance contracts tied to the country’s debt. Read More

Ghana Engineering Students’ Association launches 360 Engineer Project
Lack of funds remains a bane for potential student entrepreneurs and innovators. The situation has caused many to abandon their projects. Read More

CSOs Save Ghana Millions of Dollars as AGM Relinquishes Oil Project
The African Center for Energy Policy says Aker’s AGM decision to relinquish 80 percent interest in the South Deepwater Tano project shows how Ghanaian Civil Society Organisations fought to protect the country’s interest in the oil industry. Read More

Nigeria
FG Rallies Local, International Support for NGN 869 Billion National Census
The federal government galvanised local and international support for the projected NGN 869 billion (approx. USD 1.8 billion) 2023 Population and Housing Census, with an appeal for technical and financial assistance in key activities yet to be implemented preparatory to the exercise. Read More

Buhari Canvasses Duty Free Access Market for Least Developed Nations
President Muhammadu Buhari has called on developed and developing nations to grant duty-free and quota-free market access for products originating from the world’s 46 least-developed countries to ensure their integration in regional and global value chains. Read More

DMO Raises NGN 1.2 Billion As March Savings Bond Offer Opens
The Debt Management Office realised NGN 1.2 billion (approx. USD 2.6 million) from the February Savings Bond offer even as it has opened the March offer of the Federal Government Savings bond. Read More

NNPCL Sacks Eroton, Appoints Eighteen Operating as Operator
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company and its partners have appointed NNPC Eighteen Operating as operator of OML 18 to replace EROTON Exploration and Production. Read More