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 »

Miners from Sama Resources Inc., a company focused on copper, nickel and gold mining, will seek base metals at a site in the West African nation of Ivory Coast after being approved for a new exploration license. The exploration site covers about 80 square kilometers and is situated next to the northeast boundary of the site covered by Sama's Samapleu Exploration Permit. Read More »

A delegation of 14 companies representing Scottish oil and gas interests will visit Ghana Jan. 21 and Jan. 22 to learn more about the Ghanaian energy market and look for local business partners. The Scotland government's SDI has kept an office in Accra since 2014 to monitor the country's interests in oil, gas and education. SDI will be in charge of leading the delegation. Read More »

Endeavour Mining Corporation removed itself from the Australian Securities Exchange Monday at the end of trading day. The company will also move its Investor Relations and Administrative offices from Vancouver to Paris, where the office will be lead by Executive Vice President of Strategy and Business Development Vincent Benoit, who joined the company in November. Read More »

Orange announced Tuesday its subsidiary Orange Côte d’Ivoire will acquire Liberia's largest mobile service provider, following a deal with Cellcom Telecommunications Limited. Orange officials said Cellcom Liberia's national mobile license and its large market share position it for current and future success. Liberia as a whole has approximately 66 percent mobile coverage. Read More »

With the recent opening of a branch in Sierra Leone, First Bank of Nigeria Limited has further cemented its position as sub-Saharan Africa's largest corporate and retail banking company. The branch is the result of First Bank of Nigeria's acquisition of ICB. The bank is now doing business as FBNBank Sierra Leone; staff is ready to serve clients in the public and private sectors. Read More »

Owners of small- and- medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) throughout Ghana are bracing for the struggles they may face after the nation's government announced a 27 percent tax that would be levied on all petroleum products. The announcement came as worldwide prices of crude oil plummeted. Some business owners aren't sure how - or if - their businesses will survive. Read More »