ABiQ presents a weekly recap of major activities that took place in Africa in the last 7 days. You can watch the video here

Central Africa 

• Diamantino Azevedo, Angola’s Minister of Mineral Resources and Petroleum, launched a challenge to the diamond sector companies operating in the country to set up the first Diamond Exchange in Angola by the end of 2021. 
• Maersk Drilling will deploy Maersk Voyager to drill three wells for Total E&P Angola.  The $30 million contracts includes integrated drilling services in Block 17. 

Eastern Africa 

• Over the last 20 years, Chinese companies have invested more than $1.1 billion through 1,564 projects in Ethiopia. 
• Nairobi Hospitals in Kenya added four COVID-19 wards to cope with the surge in infections. 
• The Kenya government plans to borrow $5.5 billion from the domestic market.  This is to fund the fiscal gap due to lower revenues and increased spending as a result of the pandemic. 
• The World Bank has approved grants for Mozambique to the value of $100 million to support the government’s response to COVID-19. 
• The Tanzanian Army will develop 5 thousand hectares of agricultural land to ensure food security for the military and develop resources to support the country’s vision of an industrial economy by 2025.  
• The Tanzania Railway Corporation placed a $300 million order for rolling stock with a South Korean firm.  The order is part of the phase 1 development of a 300-kilometer line between Dar Es Salaam and Morogoro. 
• Uganda’s ministry of energy received no further interest in the 5 blocks on offer in Albertine Graben. The ministry will move forward with the evaluation process on the 6 bids it received from domestic and international companies. 
• Mineral Exports in Zimbabwe earned close to US$2 billion over the first nine months of the year which was above expectations. 
• The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) accumulated US$2,23 billion of debt over the previous financial year which was not recorded by the ministry of finance.  The RBZ had to find alternative foreign currency to sustain the currency auction system in order to project a stable economy. 

Northern Africa 

• Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation (EGPC) and Tharwa Petroleum Company have entered into an agreement with the Ministry of Minerals for exploration work in the western desert east of Abu Snan. 

Southern Africa 

• The Botswana government expects the economy to grow by 7.7 percent in 2021 on a forecast rebound in the diamond industry. Botswana saw an 8.9 percent contraction during 2020. 

Western Africa 

• On October 20th at a doners conference in Copenhagen, The United Nations received preliminary pledges of about $1.7 billion for the central Sahel countries of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger.  
• The government of The Gambia has opened it’s land and sea borders with flights resuming on October 31st. 
• Guinea’s President Conde has won his re-election with 59 percent majority. It is the third term for the 82-year-old president. 
• The Nigerian government has cleared most of its arrears by paying $3 billion for joint venture operating expenses to ExxonMobil and Shell.  The government still owes road contractors more than $1 billion. 
• Trustco Group Holdings are raising $86 million to develop and expand its subsidiary Meya Mining’s diamond mine in Sierra Leone by adding 360,000 carats per year. 

Interested in knowing more, get in touch