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.
By Ed Cropley JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – When Nkululeko Simelane was born on April 27, 1994, her parents did not have to think twice about her name. Her birth coincided with South Africa’s first multi-racial elections, the momentous day that ended three centuries of white domination and 46 years of formalised oppression of the black majority … Read more
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Rhino horn stock piles worth over $5.2 million have been stolen from a South African game park office, the raided tourist agency said on Tuesday, in the first known theft of its kind. Thieves on Monday broke into the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency and cut into a strong box, making off … Read more
By Carl Odera and Michelle Nichols NAIROBI/UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – South Sudan peace talks were delayed again on Tuesday as United Nations peacekeepers battle to protect some 22,000 civilians at a base in Bentiu, where dead bodies lined the dusty streets after an ethnic massacre during rebels’ seizure of the oil town. The U.N. base, … Read more
By Richard Valdmanis BOSTON (Reuters) – Rwandan President Paul Kagame said on Tuesday it was too early to say whether he will seek a third term as head of the east African state, adding “whatever will happen, we’ll have an explanation.” Articles in pro-government newspapers in recent years have raised the prospect of him staying … Read more
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