Browsing: West Africa

CDC Group, the UK’s publicly owned impact investor, has announced a commitment of US$39.2 million to support SMEs in West Africa. CDC is backing Verod Fund III and Adiwale Fund I, West-African based private equity funds targeting SMEs in the region, with commitments of US$19.2m and US$20m respectively.

In West Africa, banks and low levels of private equity activity are currently struggling to meet the financing needs of SMEs, hampering their potential as engines of economic growth in the region. Access to finance is cited as the top barrier for doing business in Nigeria and Ghana. Increasing access to capital to this market is a core element of the CDC’s Africa strategy by backing well-networked, experienced local teams.

This should, in turn, support private sector development, economic growth, and long-term sustainable employment, particularly for the semi-skilled and low-skilled workforce in the region, therefore contributing to Sustainable Development Goal 8: decent …

Smile Train, the world’s leading cleft organization, announced their partnership with the West African College of Surgeons (WACS) to launch the Smile Train-WACS Cleft Surgical Certification. The Certification will grant 6 surgeons per year over the next five years the opportunity to specialize in cleft care across West Africa.

The one- year Post-Graduate Program will commence in February 2020. WACS will identify accredited centers to serve as training sites in Nigeria, Ghana and French West Africa. The Certification is open to applicants in all West African and CEMAC zone countries with priority being given to trainees from countries without significant Smile Train presence.

Smile Train empowers local medical professionals with training, funding, and resources to provide free cleft surgery and comprehensive cleft care to children globally.

Speaking during the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), Smile Train Program Director of West and Central Africa, Mrs. Nkeiruka Obi noted …

Tullow Oil PLC (TLW.LN) recorded a strong performance in the first half of 2019 reporting a 91.5 per cent jump in profit, as it continued with its investments in Africa’s oil space.

Profit after tax for the period ended June 30, closed at US$103.2 million up from US$53.9 million in a corresponding period last year.

This is despite a drop in sales revenue which closed the period under review at US$872.3 million; compared with US$905.1 million it recorded a year-earlier.

Operating profit however went up to US$388 million compared to US$300 million in H1 of 2018 with the British oil firm reducing its net debt to US$2.9 billion from US$3.1 billion in June last year.

“Tullow has delivered a good set of financial results in the first half of 2019, with further reductions in net debt and gearing underpinned by strong cash flow generation from our assets despite the lower …

Kenya

As the East Africa Community (EAC) member states gear towards becoming net oil and gas exporters, a latest industry report has sent mixed signals on how the region is performing in the development of its oil projects.

It has emerged that Kenya has made major development in the first half of this year compared to her neighbour Uganda which is still lagging behind in its oil projects, mainly exploration and the planned construction of a pipeline linking its oil fields to the Tanga Port in Tanzania.

Tullow Oil plc (Tullow) which has operations in both countries, through Joint Ventures, has noted that significant progress has been made over the first six months of the year in Kenya on both the Early Oil Production Scheme (EOPS) and the Foundation Stage of “Project Oil Kenya.”

“In May 2019, EOPS production was increased from 600 bopd (barrels of oil per day) to …

French electric  utility multinational—ENGIE (www.Engie-Africa.com) has been selected for the operation and maintenance of the Orange Services Group’s data center in Abidjan, for a five-year contract that will start early June 2019.

This data center of the latest generation, built by the Orange Service Group (GOS), is one of the few data centers existing in West Africa complying with the Level IV classification.

READ:How Dimension Data and SAP will roll out Intelligent enterprise solutions in East Africa

According to the classification, it has the required redundancies to ensure continuity of service in all circumstances. It received the award of Best Data Center from Africa at the 2017 “Data cloud Congress” in Monaco.

The perimeter of the contract includes preventive maintenance of the multi-technical lots of the data center buildings, including the electrical substations, high voltage, cooling and air conditioning, Central Management Technology, fire alarm systems, security and …