Africa is home to seven of the 10 fastest growing economies globally. This section of Biznews targets existing and potential investors into the African continent. Editors curate the most important news about African business, infrastructure development and investment, including emerging market essentials, trade and development, economic insights, SADC, ECOWAS and EAC region reports.
CAIRO (Reuters) – A senior Egyptian police officer was killed when a bomb exploded under his car outside his home near Cairo on Wednesday, state television and a security source said. Brigadier-General Ahmed Zaki was killed in the explosion in 6th of October City, 32 km (20 miles) from the capital, the state-run Nile news … Read more
By Haruna Umar and Michelle Faul A week after Islamic extremists stormed a remote boarding school in northeast Nigeria, more than 200 girls and young women remain missing despite a “hot pursuit” by security forces and an independent search by desperate fathers who headed into a dangerous forest to find their daughters. At Chibok, the … Read more
By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Rebels slaughtered hundreds of civilians when they seized the South Sudan oil hub of Bentiu, hunting down men, women and children who had sought refuge in a hospital, mosque and Catholic church, the United Nations said on Monday. Rebel troops overran Bentiu, the capital of the oil producing Unity State, on Tuesday. More than … Read more
LAGOS (Reuters) – Nigeria’s Sterling Bank said on Tuesday its first-quarter pretax profit rose to 3.54 billion naira ($21.8 million), up 17.3 percent from 3.02 billion Naira a year earlier. Gross earnings at the mid-tier bank climbed to 24.62 billion Naira during the three months to March 31, as against 19.84 billion Naira in the same period of … Read more
ALGIERS (Reuters) –Â Algeria’s trade surplus in the first quarter of this year fell to $2.6 billion from $3.36 billion a year earlier, with exports particularly hit by a 6.8 percent drop in energy earnings, the government customs office said. Algeria’s oil and gas export revenues, which account for 95 percent of total exports, were $15.7 … Read more
YAOUNDE (Reuters) – Cameroon has adopted a plan to galvanise its struggling private sector in an effort to raise the economic growth rate to 6 percent this year, the Central African nation’s economy minister said. Cameroon is an oil producer in the Gulf of Guinea and the world’s fifth largest cocoa producer. Its economy is one of the region’s largest but … Read more
By Crispin Dembassa-Kette BANGUI (Reuters) – At least 22 people, mainly civilians, were killed in clashes between mainly Muslim rebels and Christian militia in the Central African Republic earlier this week, the local Red Cross said on Wednesday. The clashes took place on Monday in Grimari, about 300 km (190 miles) northeast of Bangui, and coincide with a push into the interior by French and African forces … Read more
By Isaac Abrak and Camillus Eboh ABUJA (Reuters) – A bomb at a crowded bus station on the outskirts of Abuja killed at least 35 people during rush hour on Monday morning, witnesses said, the first such attack near the Nigerian capital for two years. Body parts and blood were strewn across the station and an unruly crowd … Read more
It’s been rumoured for a while, but now South Africa’s under-performing economy has been given its coldest possible shower with news that not only has Nigeria’s GDP surpassed SA’s, but there’s daylight between the two. Nigeria’s rebased GDP is a touch above $500bn, a full one third bigger than SA’s $370bn. With Nigeria’s GDP growing … Read more