Month: June 2017

German Development Bank finances 10 MW solar project in Tunisia

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The German Development Bank (KfW) has agreed to provide Tunisian power state-owned utility Société tunisienne de l’électricité et du gaz (STEG) with  €12.5 million financing for a 10 MW solar project that the company is developing in Tozeur, southern Tunisia. In a statement to pv magazine, the KfW said the funds consist of a €12 million low-interest rate loan for the plant construction and a further €0.5 million for additional services related to the project. The loan was awarded in partnership with the EU in the frame of the Neighbourhood…

DLA Piper continues Africa expansion as Senegal and Tunisia firms join network

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DLA Piper has expanded its Africa presence with the addition of law firms in Senegal and Tunisia to its network on the continent. The new additions mean the DLA Africa network now has member firms in 19 countries on the continent. The new additions are Tunisian firm El Ajeri Lawyers and Senegalese firm GENI & KEBE. El Ajeri is a full service firm based in Tunis. It has 10 lawyers and advises clients across sectors such as manufacturing, energy, transport, trade, banking and government contracts. Meanwhile, GENI & KEBE, which is based in Dakar,…

NATO can fight terrorism one sinking boat at a time

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The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has now formally enlisted in the fight against Islamic State. It can begin by helping to stem the flow of refugees trying to reach Europe from North Africa. This would be more than a humanitarian exercise; it would be a counterterrorism operation. Wherever refugees gather in hopelessness, violent extremists have a fertile recruiting ground. And the number of refugees is staggering. Nearly 200,000 people fleeing violence and poverty tried to cross the Mediterranean last year, and at least 5,000 died in the attempt. The U.N.…

Seychelles’ capital city 2nd most expensive in Africa for expats

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Seychelles has been ranked 2nd in Africa and 14th worldwide on a list of the world’s most expensive cities for expatriate workers to live in, a 2017 survey revealed. Angola, the capital of Luanda, was ranked 1st in Africa followed by Seychelles, a group of 115 islands in the western Indian Ocean, according to the survey. N’Djamena in Chad ranked 3rd, while Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo ranked 4th. The annual cost of living survey conducted by Mercer, the world’s largest human resources consultancy firm, found that African,…

Petrofac claims solid start to year as backlog shrinks

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Petrofac issued a pre-close trading update on Tuesday morning, ahead of the announcement of its half year results for the six months to 30 June on 30 August, claiming underlying net profit for the first half of 2017 was expected to be between $135m and $145m, with full year net profit expected to be weighted to the second half of the year. The FTSE 250 company reported a new order intake of $1.7bn in the year to date, with a backlog of $13.0bn at 31 May. Net debt was forecast…

US image plummets under Trump White House, Pew survey says

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Donald Trump has been US president for less than six months but it’s been enough time to send opinions of American leadership plunging. According to a Pew Research Center public survey of 37 countries, a median of just 22 per cent of respondents have confidence in Mr Trump to do the right thing in international matters, compared with 64 per cent at the end of Barack Obama’s presidency. As a country, the US’s favourable rating fell in the same period to 49 per cent from 64 per cent. Israel and…

Tunisia wants Nigeria to play pivotal role in development of Africa

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The Tunisian President, Béji Caied Essebsi has called on Nigeria to play a pivotal role in the development of African continent while stressing the importance of developing a comprehensive and unified strategy to develop cooperation between African countries in all fields. According to a statement, speaking at the weekend when he received a Nigerian delegation led by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Geoferry Onyeama, he said the cooperation between Africans should not be limited, but cut across according economic aspects, security aspects and ways to crack down the phenomenon…

Trump Ends 20-Year Tradition of Celebrating Ramadan at White House

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President Donald Trump has now officially become the first president in nearly two decades to not host an iftar dinner marking the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Instead of continuing with the tradition that began under President Bill Clinton, Trump and First Lady Melania Trump released a statement wishing “warm greetings to Muslims as they celebrate Eid al-Fitr.” Eid al-Fitr marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims around the world abstain from eating and drinking from dawn until dusk. The annual White House dinners were typically…

TUNISIAN TOURISM RECOVERY – REVENUES FAR BEHIND

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Although the Tunisian tourism recovery that started at the beginning of 2017 is real, the sector’s foreign currency earnings remain low to insignificant. “We are speaking about a recovery in tourism without seeing a similar increase in revenues,” said Chedly Ayari, Governor of the Central Bank of Tunisia (BCT). The Tunisian Hotel Federation (FTH) has just released the performance figures. The number of overnight stays has increased by 713 000 since the beginning of the year, but this increase is mainly due to the rise in overnight stays by Maghrebi…

Nigeria to strengthen economic ties with Tunisia

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The federal government has expressed readiness to expand economic cooperation with Tunisia, Foreign Affairs minister, Geoffrey Onyeama has said. The minister, who led top government officials to the Federal Republic of Tunisia, stated this weekend at the Carthage Palace, where they were received by the country’s president, Béji Caied Essebsi. Onyeama, in a statement by his media aide, Sarah Sanda, said expanding trade ties with the North African country was to explore and benefit from investment opportunities in both countries. He stressed the need to raise cooperation between all African…