North Africa
- Egypt’s request for a $2.77 billion loan from the IMF was approved. Egypt also requested an additional $5 billion from the IMF, World Bank Group, and Europe and $4 billion from various other financiers.
- Algeria started manufacturing COVID-19 test kits. These test kits will indicate a result within 15 minutes. Production will be ramped up to 200,000 kits per week.
West Africa
- Nigeria’s oil minister signed the LNG Train 7 EPC contract worth $4 billion with a joint venture led by Italy’s Saipem, Japan’s Chiyoda, and South Korea’s Daewoo.
Central Africa
- Angola announced that 17 bid proposals were received for 6 mining concessions. There were 3 phosphate concessions, 2 diamond concessions, and an iron ore concession out for tender. Bidders were from Angola, America, Australia & Europe
East Africa
- Somalia has announced it will open a bid round for 7 offshore blocks.
- Rwanda has received $100 million in funding from the IMF to fund its power program.
- Kenya received $1.2 billion in funding from the IMF towards fighting COVID-19. On Saturday, Kenya has shut its borders with Somalia & Tanzania as part of its fight against COVID-19.
- Uganda announced it will open its electricity transmission network to private investors. Lack of investment over the years resulted in an unstable transmission network and requires significant investment to improve its reach and reliability.
Southern Africa
- The tiny landlocked country of Lesotho will see its Prime Minister vacate its office before the end of May.
- Namibia has opened its domestic market. This comes after 11 people recovered from the COVID-19 infection and only 5 active cases remaining. There were no COVID-19 related deaths in the country.
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