NIGERIA :

The Ecobank Group subsidiary is launching a platform to facilitate access to banking services for SMEs: "Ecobank Nigeria recently launched its Emerald Business Club platform to facilitate access to banking services for small and medium-sized enterprises and local businesses in the country.  Patrick Akinwuntan, new Managing Director of the banking group's Nigeria subsidiary, explained that this platform will allow supporting its clients in the SME sub-sector.  In addition to banking solutions, Emerald Business Club will provide SMEs with information on business opportunities in Africa, access to markets and credit in partnership with the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN)..."

 KENYA :

OPIC is injecting $5 million into a Kenyan start-up specializing in agri-food deliveries:  "Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), the American public institution that supports US investment in the private sector in developing countries, announced $5 million in financial support to Twinga Food, a Kenyan company that facilitates delivery between suppliers and buyers of agricultural products.  This resource represents half of the $10 million the company needs to increase its fleet of distribution equipment and build new Conservation warehouses, in order to expand its market and, consequently, its turnover..."

BURKINA FASO:

Agricultural economics: the Alibaba group's lesson to Burkinabe experts: "As part of a training seminar in Beijing, agricultural experts from Burkina Faso examined the possibilities of intensifying greenhouse crop production, in partnership with the Kingpeng International Agricultural Company, visited on Saturday, September 1, 2018.  The rural financial services promoted by the firm Ant Financial of the Alibaba group, also caught the attention of the Burkinabe delegation..."

 Renewable energies: AECF launches its regional REACT SSA programme: "Initiated by Sweden with a total cost of around 42 million dollars, the regional REACT SSA programme aims to support renewable energies in sub-Saharan Africa. It is a $68 million program that covers 9 countries, including Burkina Faso. According to AECF Director Steve Tawia "For Burkina Faso specifically, the program will allocate $6.5 million in grants only for an amount between $100,000 and $1.5 million.  We are launching this program to that market players in Burkina Faso can go to the site to send their applications until the end of September. "…”

 CAMEROON :

Nearly 1000 billion FCFA in arrears of paid public debts, of which there are no related documents (IMF): "An audit, part of the content of which was published by the International Monetary Fund, found that 1000 billion CFA francs in arrears due by the Cameroonian government were cleared, without the documents that served as the basis for these regulations being found.  The audit report classified this as an existing weakness in public accounting.  In addition to this misunderstanding, the IMF also reveals that nearly 1.6 billion FCFA of domestic debt, including existing documents, have not been taken into account in the accounting system.  The Cameroonian government's settlement of domestic debt is at the heart of concerns, particularly for the private sector and banks.  In its conclusions, the audit retained the equivalent of 182.7 billion FCFA for arrears for the period 2000 to 2017, of which only 176.4 billion were validated at the end of 2017..."

GABON :

 The Strategic Investment Fund and a Chinese firm are partnering in a hydroelectric power plant project: "The Gabonese Strategic Investment Fund (FGIS) and Tebian Electric Apparatus Stock Ltd (TBEA), a Chinese company specializing in wind and solar energy, will jointly invest in the construction of a hydroelectric power plant in Gabon.  The amounts to be contributed by each of the two parties have not been disclosed. Unlike several Chinese commitments in Africa, It’ll be foreign direct investment, and not China's financing of infrastructure built in Gabon, through debt..."