To ease the strain on Burkina Faso, officials recently urged its food producers to take advantage of the World Bank's Agricultural Productivity and Food Security Project, a matching grant program. The match from farmers can be made through land preparation and other community services. The World Bank is encouraging women in particular to make use of the program. Read More »

During a recent visit to the NNPC, Nigeria's Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and NNPC Managing Director Ibe Kachikwu announced the corporation's plans to partner with Nigeria's National Assembly on modernizing and streamlining Nigeria's petroleum industry. This joint venture will help NNPC launch additional retail outlets so petroleum products are more readily available. Read More »

Gryphon Minerals Ltd. has extended the option on several permits granted last October to Algold Resources Ltd., including two projects in Mauritania. For the extension, Algold transferred 300,000 common shares of Algold stock to Gryphon. The option will allow for Kanosak Barbados Inc. to acquire exploration licenses for the Tijirit and Akjoujt gold projects in Mauritania. Read More »

In an effort to collect and maintain better statistical information on labor statistics, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by officials from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) Wednesday. An MoU is a non-legal document outlining plans for a collaboration or partnership. Read More »

The Port of Houston Authority in Texas achieved a milestone Friday, with its inaugural regular direct container service to West Africa from the authority's Barnours Cut Container Terminal. The Port of Houston Authority is the largest container port in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico; its workers handle approximately two-thirds of all the gulf's container traffic. The carrier used for the historic launch was Grimaldi Lines. Read More »

The Bamako Forum in Mali, set for Thursday through Saturday, will focus on the theme "Africa: Between Chaos and Emergence." The Bamako Forum brings together leaders for the opportunity to discuss new and innovative ways to make Africa a stronger player in the global marketplace. Topics to be covered include migration, security and religion between Africa's nations and its citizens. Read More »

Farmers in West Africa's developing countries can make their farms even more productive and sustainable if they have access to agricultural biotechnologies. To educate farmers about those technologies and ways to obtain and use them, representatives from FAO hosted a symposium dubbed "The Role of Agricultural Biotechnologies in Sustainable Food Systems and Nutrition." Read More »

To help educate government officials on best practices for implementing universal health care in Africa, a five-day workshop kicked off Monday in Accra, Ghana. Dubbed the Africa Regional Peer-Learning Workshop on Country Approaches to Risk-Pooling for Attaining Universal Health Coverage, the event, is bringing together representatives from a number of African nations. Read More »

Digital banking platform TagPay recently received the Kalahari Award for Best Technology Enabler Platform during the Remittance and Mobile Money Expo in Lagos, Nigeria. The Kalahari Awards honor organizations that have made a positive impact on Africa's remittance services and mobile financial services sector. Winners are chosen by an independent panel of expert judges. Read More »

Huawei G-Power is now available through online shopping site Jumia Nigeria. Huawei, an android smartphone and accessories provider, developed the Huawei G-Power device to help Nigerian smartphone users charge their devices as well as extend battery life. The device also includes memory for document and file saving and a high-quality camera that comes with a free Bluetooth Swan speak. Read More »

GTBank Gambia was honored by Global Banking & Finance Review as Best Commercial Bank and Best Internet Bank. According to Kingsley Mobolaji Ayodele, the awards were the result of a staff that delivers high-quality financial services to the people of Gambia. He also thanked GTBank's customers for "their unflinching loyalty to the bank" and the bank's board of directors and management. Read More »

Resource estimates are in for a deposit that is part of a joint venture gold mining project in the West African nation of Mali. Canadian company IAMGOLD Corp. owns the Siribaya project, a joint venture with Merrex Gold Inc. Each company owns 50 percent interest in the project. The estimate reports are a requirement of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM). Read More »

Fatma Samoura officially began her tenure as United Nation resident coordinator and UNDP resident representative in Nigeria Friday. In this role, Samoura will oversee the coordination and implementation of UN programs in Nigeria. Samoura hopes to work on poverty eradication and humanitarian pursuits. Samoura will work closely with the Nigerian government to achieve SDGs. Read More »

IOM recently provided business assistance to fishermen. Typically, fishermen in this region use trafficked children to help them fish. Consequently, in addition to providing funding, IOM representatives showed 12 fishermen, who agreed to release trafficked children, how they could earn additional income producing cash crops or working in animal husbandry instead. Read More »

The Ivory Coast became the 23rd nation added to the amended Convention on the Limitation Period on the International Sale of Goods as well as the 30th participant in the unamended Convention. The Convention has been in place since June 12, 1974, and puts in place rules about the time period in which any legal proceedings connected to an international sales contract must begin. Read More »

In an effort to introduce more businesses to its products and services, CaseWare Africa will host forums in February in Nigeria and Kenya. Company officials hope leaders and associates of businesses looking to upgrade their software solutions will attend the forums, which will include sessions geared toward accounting and auditing practitioners and business financial professionals. Read More »

Foreign Office Minister for Africa James Duddridge visited the West African nation of Senegal Monday and Tuesday. During his visit, Duddridge met with Senegalese President Macky Sall to discuss a number of issues, including border and interior security and economic growth in the region and opportunities for business partnerships between entities in the United Kingdom and Senegal. Read More »

Resource Improvement and Manufacturing Company Limited (RIMCO), under the umbrella of Nigerian-based Chicason Group, awarded Florida-based NV5 Global Inc. a contract to handle its technical services. The contract signed by the two companies was worth more than $3 million. NV5 was paid in advance for all sub-phases, along with a 30 percent pre-payment for program initiation. Read More »

MTN Nigeria has chosen global digital security corporation Gemalto's LinqUs Mobile ID platform to provide its customers with SIM-based services. This partnership marks the first-ever commercial offering of SIM-based services, dubbed "MTN Token," for MTN customers. MTN Nigeria serves 70 million subscribers. With MTN Token, customers will enjoy more secure web access. Read More »

To give new entrepreneurs access to important information, Orange has developed the online site the Entrepreneur Club. Information on the site is available in both English and French and is geared toward new business owners in Africa and the Middle East to provide advice and resources for new companies. It also offers information germane to specific areas of business. Read More »