The Week That Was, 25th September 2020

28 Sep 2020

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

  • Angola’s ministry of finance announced that the country’s largest creditor is China with Angola owning more than $20 billion.
  • The IMF has announced that Angola has successfully negotiated $6.2 billion in debt relief from its creditors for a period of 3 years.

Eastern Africa

  • Floods in Ethiopia have displaced 144,000 people and caused more than $130 million in damages. The floods demolished more than 100 schools, 6 crossings, and killed thousands of domestic animals.
  • Kenya Airways announced that it started talks on returning some of its leased aircraft in an effort to reduce its overheads and limit its losses.
  • Kenya’s Safaricom is reinventing itself as a technology company.  It is one of the largest companies in East Africa and delivers financial services.  Safaricom wants to expand its financial services offering and expand to Ethiopia.
  • Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta has announced the construction of a $38 million road which will connect the Kilifi, Mombasa, and Kwale counties.
  • Kenya Power will spend more than $9 million to relocate power lines and transformers to make way for a new Nairobi Expressway.  The Kenya National Highways Authority will foot the bill.
  • Mohamed Hussein Roble has been appointed as Somalia’s new Prime Minister.  He is a qualified engineer and concluded his studies in Sweden.
  • Uganda’s Entebbe Airport will open on October 1st for international flights.
  • Uganda has been ranked as the country in Africa with the best performance in its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • The African Export-Import Bank as approved a $500 million syndicated loan to develop Zimbabwe’s largest platinum mine at a total investment of $2 billion.  Great Dyke Investments, which is owned by Russia’s Vi Holdings and Zimbabwean investor, expect the funding to be in place by the end of 2021.
  • The Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution company increased the consumer price for electricity by 50 percent to 3.4 US cents per kilowatt-hour.

Northern Africa

  • Egypt’s Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources has announced that it produced more than 650,000 barrels of oil per day for the first time in almost 70 years.
  • Libya’s National Oil Company reopened the Zueitina port to resume oil export operations and ended its force majeure.
  • The Central Bank of Morocco announced that it will hold key interest rates at an all-time low of 1.5 percent in light of signs that the economy is worsening.

Southern Africa

  • The ministry of Energy in South Africa has announced that Eskom, the state-run utility, will purchase 6,800 MW of solar and wind power from the private sector from 2022 to 2024.

Western Africa

  • PetroNor, a subsidiary of Norway listed PetroNor E&P, has signed a 30-year oil exploration agreement for block A4 in The Gambia.
  • The Gambia’s Lands ministry requested that the southern border with Senegal be de-mined as it is restricting development activities in the region.
  • Ghana’s Agyapa Royalties, the government-backed fund that holds the equity interested of the government in the state’s gold assets, plan to list on the London Stock Exchange in Q4 this year. The fund is estimated to be worth in excess of $500 million.
  • President Akufo-Addo from Ghana presented the ministry of health with 10,000 hospital beds as part of the Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Programme.
  • Bah Ndaw has been sworn in as Mali’s interim president as part of a plan to hand over power from the military junta after the August coup.  This is in compliance with the ECOWAS conditions to lift sanctions.
  • A 5,000 barrel per day refinery developed by Waltersmith Petroman Oil limited will be commissioned in October.  Ground-breaking for phase 2 of the refinery, which will have a 25,000 barrel per day nameplate capacity is expected at the same time.
  • 78 companies submitted bids for the critical downstream pipeline rehabilitation projects in Nigeria. The bids are going through a tender evaluation process with the successful tender announced in Q1 2021.
  • Nigeria’s minister of agriculture and rural development said that the country requires 7 million tonnes per annum of fertiliser.  Nigeria already has the capacity to produce 5 million tonnes per annum and plants with a combined 3 million tonnes are currently under construction.  Nigeria will therefore stop importing fertiliser by 2022.
  • The Federal Executive Council of Nigeria approved $1.96 billion to award a contract for the construction of a rail line from Kano to Maradi in the Niger Republic. The contract will cover the construction activity in Nigeria up to the Niger border.  Construction of the remaining stretch to Maradi in Niger will be funded and managed by the Niger government.
  • Construction work on the $1.7bn Lagos to Ibadan rail line is nearing completion according to China Civil Engineering and Construction Corporation who is laying the tracks.
  • Trade unions in Nigeria are threatening to shut down the country on September 28th if the Federal government doesn’t reverse price increases in petrol and electricity tariffs.

Interested in knowing more, get in touch

Still have questions?

Our team is ready to help.

Get access to trusted and valuable data to inform your business decisions and open opportunities for growth.