U.S. Department of Agriculture Deputy Secretary Krysta Harden, leaders from five states' departments of agriculture, and representatives from 26 U.S. agribusinesses and organizations are on a mission trip to sub-Saharan Africa this week to help expand export opportunities for U.S. food and agricultural products. Read More »

The Fourth African Economists Congress, titled “Industrial Policy and Economic Performance in Africa,” is underway this week in Accra, Ghana. Read More »

Nigeria's new minister of health, Dr. Issac Adewole, has voiced his support for the LuViva Advanced Cervical Scan, and he conducted Africa's first clinical trial of the product last year. Read More »

Kenya and Nigeria have been awarded grants from the Institute of Human Virology (IHV) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine to improve infectious-disease research, detection and response efforts. Read More »

To celebrate Western Union's 20 years of service in Africa, CEO Hikmet Ersek will take a regional tour of the continent and participate in an online press conference at 11 a.m. (GMT) on Friday. Read More »

Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) negotiations were front and center last week at the Conference of the African Private Sector, held in Victoria, Seychelles.The conference was organized by the African Union Commission (AUC) in partnership with the Pan African Chamber of Commerce (PACCI) and the Seychelles Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Read More »

Massey Ferguson said late last week that it will release a new line of lower-horsepower MF 300 Series tractors in several African and Middle Eastern markets.  The company also will market new Massey Ferguson-brand tractor implements for  planting, cultivation and transport in the same markets. New products will be introduced as demand dictates. Read More »

To bring awareness to the importance of transparency in Nigeria's business and government landscape, the Transparency Forum Initiative, targeted roundtable sessions aimed at putting in place legal and regulatory reforms with regard to transparency, will kick off with a press conference Nov. 17. Organizers hope the initiative will open a dialogue about transparency. Read More »

George Matharu said a business event his company sponsored Nov. 11 at the House of Lords in London was "hugely successful." The event was dubbed "Africa Business Safari" and focused on ways to protect and promote health, education, political stability, security and sustainability in the continent. The goal of the event was to bring awareness to business possibilities in Africa. Read More »

The inaugural Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Week at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa began Thursday. The theme for the event was "Science, Technology and Research for Development of a Nation" and was organized by the African Union (AU) and the Ministry of Science and Technology of the government of Ethiopia. Martial De-Paul Ikounga opened the event. Read More »

The United States Agency for International Development's (USAID) Ghana Local Governance Decentralization Program (LOGODEP) is conducting its closeout workshop that ends Nov. 12 in Busua, Ghana. USAID oversees a variety of programs aimed at stemming global poverty. The organization has been at work in Ghana since 1957, providing programs to enhance food security, improve healthcare. Read More »

The inaugural Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa week is underway, culminating on Nov. 18 with a media conference entitled “Accelerating Infrastructure Implementation for Africa’s Integration.” The goal of PIDA, a continent-wide initiative, is to take a deeper look at Africa's infrastructure shortcomings and how they are hindering the continent's efforts to compete. Read More »

Nigerian Export-Import Bank managing director Roberts Ungwaga Orya met with representatives from the World Bank to discuss ways to enhance and revitalize the mining sector in Nigeria. Orya said NEXIM Bank's services included a variety of trade and market information and export advisory services for customers in the agro-processing, solid minerals and services (MASS) sectors. Read More »

Grant Shapps is visiting Ghana this week, calling on the nation's citizens to become part of a "solar revolution." The people of Ghana have more access to electricity than other sub-Saharan African nations, but the nation still experiences frequent power cuts and outages. Less than 1 percent of households in Ghana use solar energy, despite the existence of solar technology. Read More »

In an effort to further enhance its remote mobile asset monitoring capabilities for its customers, Securis Africa has entered into a strategic partnership with driver risk management company AlertDriving. Securis has begun using the AlertDriving's FleetDefense app, which is available for use on any tablet, cell phone or computer. The app monitors drivers' decision-making processes. Read More »

The World Health Organization officially declared the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone over. The international response to Sierra Leone's Ebola crisis was led by volunteers and healthcare workers from the United Kingdom. Additionally, the U.K. deployed more than 1,500 military personnel to Sierra Leone to build treatment centers and train local and international healthcare workers. Read More »

As the first part of its "Coordinated Border Management in Mali, Niger, Mauritania and Burkina Faso" project, International Organization for Migration reps completed field visits in Kongokire, Niger; Sona, Mali; and Kantchari, Burkina Faso. The visits included architects and border police officers and were a first step as the IOM moves toward rehabilitating border posts. Read More »

African government officials gathered Nov. 3 for the three-day African Ministerial Conference 2015 in Dakar. During the event, entitled "Intellectual Property for an Emerging Africa," African Union Commissioner for Human Resources Science and Technology Martial De Paul Ikounga, spoke on behalf of Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, chairperson of the African Union Commission. Read More »

Benin's Ministry of Justice is hosting a two-day workshop in Cotonou based on “Promoting the Ratification of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families,” a study recently conducted by researchers from the International Organization of Migration and the Benin Ministry’s Directorate of Human Rights. Read More »

The 16th United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) General Conference will take place Nov. 30 to Dec. 4 at the Vienna International Centre in Austria. The main topic for the conference will be sustainable industrialization and its role in the new United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Attendees will include Austrian President Heinz Fischer. Read More »