Olufemi Elias of Nigeria, executive secretary of the World Bank Administrative Tribunal since July, recently was appointed registrar of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals. Read More »

A recently released report titled “Africa Human Development Report 2016: Accelerating Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Africa" was the focus of a Parliament committee meeting held recently in Juba, South Sudan. Read More »

Modibo Touré was appointed Friday to be the new United Nations Special Representative to Guinea-Bissau. Read More »

Director General of the Nigeria Securities and Exchange Commission Mounir Gwazo gave the keynote address Tuesday at the Commodity Trading and Risk Management Seminar in Abuja. Read More »

The Sierra Leone Ministry of Energy, with the support of the UNDP, has started a project to cut charcoal use in the country due to the dangers it causes to the environment and human health. In many places in Sierra Leone, charcoal is the main source of energy for households. Even in urban areas with access to electricity, many women prefer to cook using charcoal. Read More »

The Bank of Sierra Leone, the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Capital Development Fund IGC recently wrapped up a three-day workshop on mobile financial services. The goal of the workshop was to find ways to integrate mobile banking into the lives of poor people throughout West Africa. The region is behind its African peers in mobile financial services. Read More »

The IAEA will continue to support Nigeria in the introduction of nuclear power. IAEA Director Yukiya Amano spoke with Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari recently to discuss plans to open Nigeria’s first nuclear power plant by 2035. Amano encouraged Nigeria to begin preparations on the nuclear front by developing comprehensive nuclear laws and strengthening the regulatory framework.  Read More »

Catchpoint Systems Inc. has expanded in the last quarter, adding more than 50 monitoring nodes. The new African nodes were installed in Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Botswana. With that expansion, the company operates more than 500 nodes all over the world. The new node coverage was necessitated by customer demand for better digital user features and usability. Read More »

Officials from CFL will be at the CG-LA Infrastructure Conference, set for March 11 in Washington, D.C., to unveil an update on the high-speed rail project currently being developed in Ghana. The project commenced in 2015 at the behest of Rashid Pelpuo of the ministry of Public Private Partnerships. After a feasibility study, CFL began construction of the high-speed railway. Read More »

In an effort to increase its presence in West Africa, Sony Music Entertainment has launched operations in Lagos, Nigeria. The new office will be the central location for Sony's planned expansion in West Africa. The company has also signed Nigerian artist Davido to a worldwide record deal. West African listeners can also hear musical offerings via MTN Nigeria's IMI. 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 »

Officials at the American stock exchange Nasdaq recently provided its SMARTS Marketing Surveillance platform to the NSE to improve NSE's compliance program. Putting SMARTS into place will allow NSE to better track possible incidents of market manipulation, spoofing and layering. Tony Sio, head of SMARTS, said Nasdaq was optimistic about its new partnership at NSE Read More »

African capital markets experienced some hard times in 2015, according to PwC "2015 Africa Capital Markets Watch" released Monday. The report includes studies of equity and debt capital market transactions that took place between 2011 and 2015 on exchanges across Africa; it also looks at transactions completed by African corporations using international exchanges. Read More »

New York-based Transpay, a B2B/B2P cross-border payments platform, was honored Wednesday during Nigeria's Kalahari Awards. Transpay was named "Best e-Commerce Payment Solution" and was recognized for its services that allow business and individual customers to send mass payouts via its independent direct-to-bank network. Transpay is used by customers in Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya. Read More »

Executives from Transfast will address conference-goers at the 6th Annual Remittance and Mobile Money Expo in Lagos, Nigeria, Tuesday and Wednesday. Transfast specializes in facilitating cross-border, multi-currency payments using a network of nearly 600 banks in 23 countries across Africa. African customers can receive direct transfers from America or Canada. Read More »

Ban Ki-moon, secretary general of the United Nations, met with Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari Jan. 18. Read More »

A diverse group of individuals have been appointed to raise awareness about the newly adopted SDGs. Known as the SDG Advocates, the group will be responsible for promoting the sustainable development agenda. Among the 17 SDGs are ending hunger, reducing inequalities, advocating for responsible consumption and production and promoting health and well-being for all. 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 »

Following peaceful campaigns and a smooth election, Roch Marc Christian Kaboré was inaugurated as Burkina Faso's new president this week in Ouagadougou, the nation's capital. Read More »

The Cap des Biches power plant in Senegal recently received the first disbursement of $91 million in financing from U.S.-based international power company ContourGlobal and its partners, Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and International Finance Corporation (IFC). Read More »