First Independent Mena Newspaper
Ethiopia’s parliament has enacted a sweeping tax reform targeting both private and public sector employees to fill the financial void created by USAID’s recent funding suspension. The newly established Ethiopian Disaster Risk Response Fund will channel these tax revenues toward critical projects previously sustained by USAID, which had been Ethiopia’s foremost development and humanitarian partner. […]
The World Bank has approved a $600 million financing package for the last and third phase of the “Strengthening Human Capital for a Resilient Morocco” program. The funding aims to enhance Morocco’s resilience to health risks, improve human capital during childhood, reduce poverty among the elderly, and bolster climate risk management, said the WB in […]
Experts at a recent 57th Conference of African Ministers of Finance emphasized the need for African governments to prioritize local currencies for trade and transactions. Hanan Morsy, chief economist of the UN Economic Commission for Africa, highlighted that reducing reliance on the U.S. dollar would protect Africa’s economies from external financial shocks. Africa’s use of […]
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has announced a loan of €110 million to support the development of an economic zone within the Nador West Med industrial port complex, located in Morocco’s Oriental region. This is the Bank’s third investment in the Nador West Med complex, following the provision of financing in 2015 and […]
Nigeria is preparing a new law that would make crypto assets legal in the country, ending years of ambiguity and legal void. Under the new law, a crypto asset is defined as “a digital representation of value that can be transferred, digitally traded and used for payment or investment purposes.” The new legislation will end […]
The International Monetary Fund greenlighted on Tuesday the release of $496 million for Morocco under a Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF) to help the north African country address climate challenges. The new funding brings the total disbursement of the IMF under the RSF to about $1.24 billion. The IMF had approved a $1.32 billion loan […]
Two key sources of Morocco’s inflow of hard currency, remittances from Moroccans abroad and tourism receipts are heading towards another record in 2026 at 123 billion dirhams ($12.8 bln) and 125 billion dirhams ($13 bln) respectively, the central bank said. This improvement would help offset the deepening trade deficit due to higher imports of equipment […]
Morocco’s central bank has decided to lower key rate by 25 bps to 2.25 % to ensure price stability and support the country’s economic activity with the anticipated inflation evolution. The decision was made by the Board of Bank Al-Maghrib during its meeting held Tuesday in Rabat of 2025. The Bank experts decided to cut […]
French prosecutors have launched a judicial investigation into TotalEnergies, accusing the oil giant of involuntary manslaughter and failing to assist people in danger during a brutal jihadist attack in Mozambique’s Palma region in March 2021. The attack, carried out by Islamist militants linked to ISIS, left over 1,400 people dead or missing, including 55 subcontractors […]
Border communities in northern Côte d’Ivoire find themselves increasingly vulnerable as counterterrorism funding crucial to preventing extremist expansion has been suspended. The $20 million US-funded initiative, which supported dozens of villages like Kimbirila-Nord, looking like a front line of the global fight against extremism, has ended amid sweeping foreign aid cuts, leaving residents concerned about […]