The Trump administration has invited the foreign ministers of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan to Washington to discuss a giant hydropower dam project on Ethiopia's Blue Nile, the focus of an escalating feud between Addis Ababa and Cairo over water resources. The invitation letter was extended by U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin Oct. 21 to the three countries and to David Malpass, president of the World Bank Group. A World Bank spokesperson said in a statement Malpass "plans to participate, assuming that all three countries (Ethiopia, Egypt, and Sudan) are fully involved and also participate." Egypt, which has long sought outside help to mediate the talks, has accepted the meeting, scheduled to be held at Mnuchin's office Nov. 6. A senior administration official confirmed that during the U.N. General Assembly in New York in September, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi asked President Donald Trump to mediate the conflict caused by the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. Cairo considers the issue a national security matter. Without a settlement with Ethiopia, the construction of the massive upstream Nile dam could threaten Egypt's source of freshwater.--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/newscast-africa/support

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The Trump administration has invited the foreign ministers of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan to Washington to discuss a giant hydropower dam project on Ethiopia's Blue Nile, the focus of an escalating feud between Addis Ababa and Cairo over water resources. The invitation letter was extended by U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin Oct. 21 to the three countries and to David Malpass, president of the World Bank Group. A World Bank spokesperson said in a statement Malpass "plans to participate, assuming that all three countries (Ethiopia, Egypt, and Sudan) are fully involved and also participate." Egypt, which has long sought outside help to mediate the talks, has accepted the meeting, scheduled to be held at Mnuchin's office Nov. 6. A senior administration official confirmed that during the U.N. General Assembly in New York in September, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi asked President Donald Trump to mediate the conflict caused by the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. Cairo considers the issue a national security matter. Without a settlement with Ethiopia, the construction of the massive upstream Nile dam could threaten Egypt's source of freshwater.

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President Paul Kagame has said the cooperation between Africa and Russia should focus on deriving practical results with clear mutual benefit and lead to building an equitable world order. Kagame was speaking while in Sochi, Russia at the just concluded Russia-Africa Summit, the first gathering of its kind. The summit brought together African Heads of State and Government, Russian government officials as well as business leaders from the two parties."Our focus should be on deriving practical results from our cooperation efforts, with clear mutual benefit. Doing so would indeed represent an important contribution to building an equitable international order and a brighter future for all our peoples," he said. Kagame said that the moment is favourable for cooperation and engagement as Africa is at a turning point in multiple ways including in regards to both trade and technology. For instance, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) will create a market and opportunities for Africans and partners from across the world with Russia among them.

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A Canadian company, Thor Explorations Limited has renewed interest in boosting Nigeria’s efforts to persuade investors that it could become a mining destination for metals in West Africa. While gold miners face the death of new discoveries across the globe, the Vancouver-based firm, which is listed on Toronto Stock Exchange, is interested in joining a rush for the commodity in Africa, seeing Nigeria as a new frontier. The most populous nation in Africa could be on the cusp of getting its first industrial-scale gold mine from Thor that is developing a project capable of producing 80,000 ounces per year in Osun State, Nigeria targeting to start operations early 2021. Also, Africa Finance Corporation, which is backed by the Central Bank of Nigeria and a group of local banks, is investing in the Thor project through a $78 million debt-equity financing package.

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One of Nigeria’s largest online travel companies, Wakanow, announced the appointment of Mr Adebayo Adedeji as its interim Chief Executive Officer. The appointment is with immediate effect. Before now, Adedeji was the Chief Commercial Officer of the company. The appointment of Mr Adedeji as interim CEO of Wakanow marks the end of an era for the company after being led by its founder Obinna Ekezie (its founder) since 2008. Ekezie invested millions of dollars in aggressive marketing scaling the company’s operations exponentially. He also introduced a large scale retail participation in the business offering huge discounts to travellers as well as credits. At some point, the company was making over $55 million in sales and was said to own about 10% of the market share. The company also explored listing on the NASDAQ as its operations grew bigger amidst financial constraints and shareholder impatience. Sources within the industry say that the exit of Ekezie was rather dramatic and involved security operatives. Reports suggest he may have had a feisty relationship with Mr Adedeji who at some point during the year left the company. His return, we understand is at the behest of the shareholders who have been frustrated with the progress of the company’s turnaround strategy under Ekezie.

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Dangote Cement Plc has signed an agreement with General Electric to install Asset Performance Management (APM) solution at its plants in Obajana, Ibese, to Improve power supply efficiency and help extend the life span of the plants. It includes extending the current service agreement for an additional 50,000 operating hours for the seven GE LM6000PC aero-derivative gas turbines installed at the sites. GE’s total plant solutions will improve efficiency, reliability essential to continuous operations and the plants’ business strategy.

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Fears are growing over a looming cash crisis as Lebanon’s banks remain closed for their sixth day since mass protests began sweeping the country last week. No one seems to know when the country’s lenders will reopen, triggering warnings of a run on the banks when they eventually do. Lebanon could be headed for a cash crisis as banks remain shut a week into mass protests, the country’s largest in 14 years — is a manifestation of widespread anger at decades of corruption, dysfunctional government and the deterioration of basic public services. A reform package promised by Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Monday failed to satisfy the demonstrators, who want a full resignation of the Cabinet and an overhaul of the country’s sectarian political system. The reform plan aims to reduce the deficit in 2020 to 0.6% of GDP, but people are concerned that the measures have come too late and many are reliant on one-offs, like a one-off bank tax, that protesters say are unlikely to be implemented.

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Fears are growing over a looming cash crisis as Lebanon’s banks remain closed for their sixth day since mass protests began sweeping the country last week. No one seems to know when the country’s lenders will reopen, triggering warnings of a run on the banks when they eventually do. Lebanon could be headed for a cash crisis as banks remain shut a week into mass protests, the country’s largest in 14 years — is a manifestation of widespread anger at decades of corruption, dysfunctional government and the deterioration of basic public services. A reform package promised by Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri on Monday failed to satisfy the demonstrators, who want a full resignation of the Cabinet and an overhaul of the country’s sectarian political system. The reform plan aims to reduce the deficit in 2020 to 0.6% of GDP, but people are concerned that the measures have come too late and many are reliant on one-offs, like a one-off bank tax, that protesters say are unlikely to be implemented.

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Sierra Leone currently ranks as one of the least developed countries in the world, with a GDP per capita of less than $300 and high levels of poverty. But President Julius Maada Bio has charted an ambitious development plan for the small West African country. Since 2017, President Bio has overseen increased investment in advanced technologies in the hopes of spurring development. Much of Bio's inspiration comes from Estonia, the small Baltic state that has been dubbed a “digital republic.” The country has for years now been working to digitize government and society under the project e-Estonia. Citizens in Estonia can do things such as vote and pay taxes entirely online. Additionally, non-citizens are able to apply for e-Residency, a gambit to increase foreign investment and business in the country. In February, Sierra Leone announced a three-year partnership with the e-Governance Academy of Estonia "to establish technical collaboration on e-governance for public service delivery and administration in Sierra Leone." Bio hopes to make the country the “Estonia of Africa.” Sierra Leone has also courted support from top research institutions such as Yale University.

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Some 300 thousand retail traders in Tunisia should join the electronic payment system, especially as electronic payment terms and procedures, as well as laws, are available," said director of e-commerce development at the Trade Ministry Khabeb Hadhri. He added, during a workshop on cross-border e-commerce, organised Wednesday in Tunis by the Ministry in collaboration with the Commercial Law Development Program (U.S. Department of Commerce) that the number of traders adhering to the two electronic payment systems "click toPay" and e-dinar reached 1,900 in 2018. Hadhri pointed out that the turnover of e-commerce had reached 225 million dinars with 4 million electronic transactions in 2018. He affirmed on the occasion of this workshop aimed to examine the various laws related to cross-border e-commerce, that Tunisia has a great potential for institutions active in the traditional and agro-food industries that export their products via e-commerce networks. He asserted the Ministry's willingness to support this trend and to ensure the presence of Tunisian enterprises on e-commerce platforms, through the implementation of several projects, including the "Easy Export" project aimed to promote the exports of small and medium-sized enterprises through the postal network and to strengthen the positioning of Tunisian enterprises on the international market.--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/newscast-africa/support

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