World News

The Director-General of the OPEC Fund for International Development (the OPEC Fund) Dr Abdulhamid Alkhalifa has signed a US$20 million development loan to help finance Burkina Faso’s Agricultural Value Chain Support Project (PAPFA). Dr Alkhalifa signed the loan in Ouagadougou with Burkina Faso’s Minister of Economy, Finance and Development, LassanéKabore. PAPFA aims to contribute to poverty alleviation and to enhance ...

The challenges faced by landlocked developing countries (LLDCs), some of the poorest in the world, can be overcome through more effective partnerships, UN Secretary-General António Guterres declared on Thursday, at a conference held at UN Headquarters in New York. The Midterm Review of the 10-year Vienna Programme of Action For Landlocked Countries, is an opportunity for the international community to renew ...

Tanzania’s government is planning to stop individuals and groups of people directly filing complaints against it at the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), according to Amnesty International. The East African country’s government has the highest number of cases brought by individuals and NGOs as well as judgments issued against it by the human rights court, according to Amnesty. ...

Nigerians usage of bitcoin has continued to rise despite warnings by the Central Bank of Nigeria that digital currencies are not legal tender. The Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria disclosed this in its release on ‘The Nigerian Banker’, in its December 2019 edition. Part of its report on digital currencies read, “The CBN has also declared that digital currencies ...

More African female agripreneurs must be supported to grow and progressively transition into the business segments of agricultural value chains which are most profitable. Monica Musonda, CEO of Zambian food processing company certainly faced hurdles in her rise to the top, but she overcame them. “Although the barriers to entry for women can be frustrating, they are often basic and ...

IMPACT’s new report reveals India to be one of the largest gold smuggling hubs in the world. As a result, gold that is tied to conflict, human rights abuses, and corruption in Africa and South America is entering legal international markets through India. In its latest report, A Golden Web: How India Became One of the World’s Largest Gold Smuggling Hubs , ...

A convicted internet fraudster has been placed under investigation in Nigeria for allegedly masterminding a “mega scam” from a maximum-security prison worth at least $1m (£773,000). Anti-corruption officials said Hope Olusegun Aroke used a “network of accomplices” for the fraud. He was arrested in 2012 and has been serving a 24-year sentence at the Kirikiri Maximum Security Prison. But a ...

Overly expensive insulin could be a thing of the past – and life-changing news – for millions of diabetics under a plan launched by the World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday to diversify production globally, just ahead of World Diabetes Day. Announcing the initiative in Geneva, the UN agency said that it had already had informal expressions of interest from pharmaceutical ...

Most of the West African migrants who fail to reach Europe eventually return to their own countries, but it can be a bitter homecoming. In Sierra Leone, returnees are often rejected by relatives and friends. They’re seen as failures, and many stole from their families to pay for their journey. Some readers will find this story disturbing Fatmata breaks into ...

A public inquiry into rising cases of sexual and gender-based violence in Nigeria has started in the capital, Abuja. It will gather victims’ accounts and suspected violators’ defenses. This is following a documentary by the BBC’s Africa Eye investigative unit, exposing sexual harassment and misconduct by lecturers at prestigious institutions in West Africa. The BBC sent undercover journalists posing as ...