Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets of the Algerian capital, Algiers, in protest at the results of Thursday’s presidential election. They chanted slogans against the winner, ex-PM Abdelmadjid Tebboune, a former loyalist of ousted leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika. Protesters are demanding that the whole political establishment be swept away. Polling day itself was marred by protests and ...
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Here is why WhatsApp may stop working on your smartphones in 2020
WhatsApp will stop working on millions of phones in the next couple of months as the company withdraws support for some older mobile platforms. From February 1, 2020, any iPhone running iOS 8 or older will no longer be supported, along with any Android device running version 2.3.7 or older. Users of these operating systems are already unable to create ...
Read More »Nigeria’s Muhammadu Buhari promises Africans visas on arrival
Nigeria says it will give all African travellers visas on arrival from January, dropping the requirement that they apply in advance. President Muhammadu Buhari said it showed Nigeria’s commitment to “free movement of Africans within Africa”. The announcement comes five months after Nigeria signed a deal aimed at promoting free trade on the continent. But Mr Buhari’s critics accuse him ...
Read More »Burkina Faso gets US$20m loan to support Agricultural value Chain Project
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 ...
Read More »Partnerships key to taking landlocked countries out of poverty: UN Chief
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 ...
Read More »Africa’s rights court suffers setback as Tanzania blocks cases
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. ...
Read More »Nigeria named among highest new users of bitcoin
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 ...
Read More »Getting women in the driver’s seat of Africa’s agribusiness revolution
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 ...
Read More »India Turning a Blind Eye to Smuggled Gold
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 , ...
Read More »Nigerian scammer ‘pulls off $1m heist’ from prison
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 ...
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