Fred Dzakpata

US firm Black Star Holding Limited (BSHL), a wholly owned subsidiary of LeapFrog Strategic African Investment (LSAI), has acquired the minority shareholder in three subsidiaries of Enterprise Group in Ghana The three subsidiaries are Enterprise Life, Enterprise Insurance and Enterprise Trustees. BSHL takes over the ownership which hitherto belonged to Sanlam Emerging Market Proprietary Limited of South Africa (Sanlam).

The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) today approved emergency financial assistance under the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF) in the amount equivalent to SDR11,662,500 (about US$16.1 million) for The Gambia to enable the authorities to meet their urgent balance of payment needs. In addition, the Board was informed about the IMF Managing Director’s approval of a one-year staff-monitored program (SMP) to guide policy implementation.

Two years ago, world leaders convened in Addis Ababa for a remarkable first—the global community met to agree on ways to finance the ambitious Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with the objective of virtually eliminating extreme poverty. The development needs of today, and through the year 2030, are enormous. With that recognition, we are no longer talking about the billions of dollars needed to support our renewed development goals—we are talking about the trillions.

Barclays PLC and four former executives have been charged with conspiracy to commit fraud and the provision of unlawful financial assistance. The Serious Fraud Office charges come at the end of a five-year investigation and relate to the bank's fundraising at the height of 2008's financial crisis. Former chief executive John Varley is one of the four ex-staff who will face Westminster magistrates on 3 July.

Some of the world’s top policymakers and investors are currently in Berlin to discuss a new initiative that could help reshape Africa’s economic future. Millions of citizens could see tangible economic benefits from the recently launched Group of Twenty advanced and emerging economies' initiative, known as the “Compact with Africa.” The goal is to boost private investment by harnessing the expertise and resources of governments, investors, and international organizations.

ENGIE and eleQtra a developer of power and transportation projects in sub-Saharan Africa, signed a Joint Development Agreement that defines the terms and the schedule for the development and construction of the 50 MW Ada Wind power project in the Greater Accra Region in Ghana. The project is expected to require an investment of approximately $120 million and to start operations early 2019. ENGIE will enter as a 40% partner in the project.

Ghana has been named as one of the three countries in Africa to benefit from the Germany’s “Compact with Africa” Program. The  program  will assist...

A developer, owner and operator of renewable power projects in emerging markets in partnership with EREN Renewable Energy, a global independent power producer, are delighted to announce the three winners of the 2017 US$7 million Access Co-Development Facility (ACF) - an innovative funding and support platform for renewable energy projects in Africa. The three winning projects, hailing from Tanzania, Rwanda and Ghana, were selected from a technologically and geographically diverse pool of 82 entrants from 23 countries after having presented to a live panel of industry expert judges. The panel based their final selection on the commercial, technical and environmental merits of the projects presented, as well as the local regulatory environment and capability of the project teams. The winners will share the US$7 million pot provided by the Access Co-Development Facility as well as technical support and expertise

Efforts by the African Development Bank (AfDB) to upgrade Africa’s agriculture sector is yielding good results with about 5.6 million people benefiting from the Bank’s interventions in the past year. Among other things, AfDB plans scale up its focus on regional integration in 2017 as an important part of its development work with the planned launch of a Regional Integration Strategy. These were some of the details pulled from the Annual Development Effectiveness Review 2017 (ADER) released by the AfDB .

A new World Bank report released on Wednesday has called for increased private sector investment in Africa’s under-developed electricity transmission infrastructure, a vital ingredient for reaching Africa’s energy goals. Africa lags the rest of the world when it comes to electricity, with just 35 percent of the population with access to power and a generation capacity of only 100 GW. Those who do have power typically consume relatively little, face frequent outages and pay high prices.