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The Pan-African Economy in Brief: Monday, March 25, 2019

GHANA:
Africa World Airlines is considering ordering two twin-engine aircraft from Chinese aircraft manufacturer Comac:
Ghanaian airline Africa World Airlines plans to order Two Comac ARJ21 twin-engine aircraft from Chinese aircraft manufacturer Comac, Bloomberg reported on March 20, citing a senior executive of the carrier. "Africa World Airlines, in which the Chinese conglomerate HNA Group is one of the shareholders, could conclude an agreement by the end of March to purchase two Comac ARJ21 regional jets," said Ghana's CEO John Quan. "Our Chinese shareholders are very keen to introduce the aircraft into the fleet in order to strengthen trade relations between China and Africa," he added, indicating that Comac executives are expected to travel to Accra shortly to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Ghanaian company...


IVORY COAST:
MSC launches an integrated solution to facilitate the transport of cashew nuts from the production area to the final destination:
Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), one of the world's leading international container transport companies, and its logistics subsidiary MEDLOG, have just launched an integrated logistics solution for the transport of cashew nuts in Ivory Coast. Called ZERO STRESS SOLUTION, this solution allows the cashew nut to be transported from the production area, i.e. the field edge, to the final destination. This includes warehousing, transport to the two ports of Abidjan and San Pedro, and finally, maritime transport...


MADAGASCAR:
The Toliara mineral sands project could have a life span of 33 years (study):
According to the pre-feasibility study (PFS) published this week by Base Resources, its Malagasy Toliara project could produce about 37.1 million tonnes of heavy mineral concentrate over 33 years. The study considered a two-stage development. The first, at a cost of $439 million, is expected to produce 13 million tonnes of ore per year. This capacity can be increased to 19 million tonnes in the second phase with an additional investment of $67 million. In addition, the project is expected to produce an average of 806,000 tonnes/year of ilmenite, 54,000 tonnes/year of zircon and 8,000 tonnes/year of rutile...


ANGOLA:
The resources of the Lulo project have been increased:
Diamond resources at the Lulo Angolan mine increased by 90% to 80,400 carats. This was reported this week by Lucapa Diamond, which published an evaluation of the external consultant Z Star Mineral Resource Consultants. This resource estimate includes no more than 30,000 carats already recovered at Lulo during the last 19 months of mining operations, which have been sold for approximately $62 million. It also increased the average value per carat of Lulo's diamonds...


NIGERIA:
Nigeria spends $400 million each year on foreign software at the expense of premises with the same functions:
Nigerian actors in the finance and information and communication technology sector have called on the government to adopt an appropriate policy that would put an end to the huge expenses incurred for the acquisition of foreign software at the expense of local software with the same functions. At the round table meeting in Lagos from March 18 to 19, 2019 on the use of Nigerian software in the financial sector, Dan-Azumi Mohammed, Director General of the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), said that the government spends $400 million annually on foreign software...

The central bank expects economic growth to accelerate to 3% in 2019:
The Central Bank of Nigeria announced on Thursday, March 21, that it expects gross domestic product (GDP) growth to be 3% in 2019 compared to 1.9% in 2018. Speaking at a press conference, Central Bank Governor Godwin Emefiele also said that his institution intends to maintain its restrictive monetary policy in 2019 and expects inflation to reach 12% for the current year as a whole. According to data published last February by the National Statistics Bureau (NBS), Nigeria's GDP grew by 1.9% in 2018, up from 0.82% in 2017, reaching its fastest growth rate since the recession that hit the West African economy in 2016...

To overcome the lack of revenue, the State will sell several of its stakes in oil joint ventures:
Nigeria will sell its interests in several oil joint ventures to overcome its revenue shortfall. This was announced by Udoma Udo Udoma, Minister of Budget, in a press release relayed by Reuters. The new measure provides for a 40% reduction in the assets held by the State in joint ventures operating in the oil sector. While the names of the targeted companies were not disclosed, the manager indicated that the objective was to complete this operation before the end of 2019. With the new measure, the State hopes to close the financial gap between planned expenditure and revenue for this year. For 2019, President Buhari had adopted a budget of 8,830 billion naira ($24.4 billion)...