Microsoft is teaming up with online education marketplace Udemy to increase youth employment in MENA. Under the agreement, young individuals in the MENA region will have access to Udemy's skills-based courses offered through a network of youth employability portals known as YouthWorks (or Ta3mal in the Arab world) led by Microsoft and regional social initiative Silatech. Read More »

Zoetic Global entered into a 20-year power purchase agreement with ECG to provide 100 megawatts of additive power generation at the nation's Akosombo Dam on Lake Volta. Zoetic Global deploys life-sustaining technology solutions in energy, water and food security worldwide. Its new project with ECG involves the deployment of several modular hydrokinetic turbines in Akosombo Dam. Read More »

Toga Gayewea McIntosh, vice president of ECOWAS Commission, declared ECOWAS the most dynamic regional economic community in Africa on Jan. 8. At the 35th meeting of the West Africa Monetary Zone (WAMZ) Convergence Council in Accra, McIntosh said the sub-region is a good reference point on economic growth, despite political, security, health and economic challenges. Read More »

The IFRC recently credited local volunteers in helping to bring about the end of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. The World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared the end of Ebola virus transmission in Liberia Thursday. The other two countries, Sierra Leone and Guinea, affected by the virus from 2014 were declared free of the disease toward the end of last year. Read More »

Oluseyi Soremekun, national information officer for the UNIC in Lagos, recently asked Nigerian media outlets to back Africa's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Soremekun made an appearance this week on "Civil Society Weekly," a program on Radio One 103.5 FM, where he spoke on the subject. Soremekun pointed out that UNIC Lagos planned to translate the SDGs into four languages. Read More »

An American company recently purchased World Pension Summit and World Pension Summit Africa Special from Netherlands-based company Global Platform BV. The summits were acquired by Pensions & Investments, a Crain Communications publication and global media source for institutional investors. The events are geared toward retirement industry professionals from around the world. Read More »

COPL President and CEO Arthur Millholland purchased more than 1.1 million common shares of the company on Monday. Interests of COPL, an international oil and gas exploration and development company, are focused in West Africa. One of its major projects is Block LB-13, where it has a partnership with ExxonMobil in offshore Liberia and holds a 17 percent working interest. Read More »

A 31-hole drilling project was completed at the end of 2015 at the Siribaya gold mine in the West African nation of Mali. The mine is owned by Merrex. The completion of the Siribaya project was announced by Merrex President and CEO Greg Isenor. The Siribaya Gold Project is in West Mali and is comprised of approximately 700 square kilometers of exploration permits. Read More »

L'Occitane, a France-based beauty company that has backed women's leadership programs in West Africa for the last two decades, recently donated $120,000 to the Dress for Success initiative. Dress for Success assists women in attaining professional goals. L'Occitane Director Maddie Smith traveled to New York to present the Dress for Success donation to the program's CEO, Joi Gordon. Read More »

With backing from the nation's government, Ghana will have 35,000 trained teachers make their way into its classrooms through the T-TEL program. Over the next four years, the initiative will transform Ghana's 38 colleges of education into T-TEL Centers of Excellence. Funding for the program is also coming from the United Kingdom's Department for International Development (DFID). Read More »

With support from the ICD, Ivory Coast's Ministry of Economy and Finance recently closed on a $244 million sukuk, a Sharia-compliant bond used as an alternative financing tool. The sukuk carries a five-year maturity and was subscribed by regional and international investors as well as retail investors from all eight West African Economic and Monetary Union member nations. Read More »

Five African nations are set to benefit from $15 million in funds from Rotary International aimed at ending polio. The funds are part of a $35 million grant by the organization to keep both the continent and world free from the highly infectious and potentially fatal disease of polio that destroys nerve cells in the spinal cord and could cause irreversible paralysis. Read More »

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) completed its second review of Ghana’s economic status Thursday, distributing approximately $114.6 million to the West African nation. The country currently has a three-year arrangement with the IMF under the ECF, totaling approximately $918 million, to enable Ghana to achieve national economic stability and facilitate growth. Read More »

The Ingenico Group recently provided approximately 50,000 payment terminals to African countries. Its first smart terminal in Africa was installed in 2008, and it has expanded its reach across Malawi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia and Tanzania. Financial institutions are able to carry out numerous transactions that do not involve plastic cards. Read More »

Bharti Airtel International recently agreed to sell the company’s operations in Sierra Leone and Burkina Faso to Orange. For Orange, the acquisition serves its international development strategy since it is focused on locations that have a large potential for growth and emerging economies. By adding these two countries, it adds approximately 5.5 million mobile customers. Read More »

Thomas Svanikier, executive chairman of Ghana-based Svani Group, recently donated GH¢ 50,000 to an endowment fund for the Winneba Youth Choir (WYC) in Accra, Ghana. Read More »

Mass AxiGye is the new ambassador of the Islamic republic of the Gambia to Ethiopia and the permanent representative to the African Union. The Gambia's main economic activities are farming, fishing and tourism. About a third of the population lives below the international poverty line. AxiGye said his focus as ambassador will be on historical events coming this year. Read More »

AUC Chair Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma welcomed Koffi Evariste Yapi Monday as the Ivory Coast's new ambassador to Ethiopia and permanent representative to the African Union. Zuma said she welcomed Yapi's input on AUC projects and hoped it would be a valuable learning experience for him. She will be watching to see what Yapi will bring to the table at the 26th African Union Summit. Read More »

The AIDF has released the agenda for its upcoming Africa Summit to be held at the United Nations Conference Centre in Addis Ababa. More than 250 representatives from government, non-government organizations and private sector companies are expected to come together to discuss how technological innovations and best practices could help enhance development strategy in East Africa. Read More »

Several West African institutions were included in the list of Global Trade Review's (GTR) 2015 Africa Leaders in Trade Awards. GTR is a major provider of news and analysis of events related to global trade, commodity and export and supply chain finance markets. The GTR 2015 Africa list was compiled using data from a poll of stakeholders in the African trade finance market. Read More »