First Independent Mena Newspaper
Growth in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) is projected to increase from 1.8% in 2023 to 2,2% in 2024 and 4% in 2025, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Tuesday. This is a downward revision from the April projections, the IMF pointed out in its World Economic Outlook (WEO) report. In April, […]
The UAE will resume issuing visas to Nigerian nationals following a ban that was imposed in 2022, after Nigerian authorities prevented Fly Emirates from repatriating funds. The decision was announced by Nigeria’s information minister Mohammed Idris, who added that the two countries would resume direct flights. “I can tell you that the agreement has been […]
Ghana’s cocoa harvest was 55% less than an average year, standing at 429,323 tons, as climate change induced heat waves took a toll on local farmers. Special commodities monitors have predicted a catastrophic harvest in Ghana and other West African producers this year, following a heat wave and tree disease that damaged the harvest. Cocoa […]
Germany’s top diplomat has talked up the prospect of closer political ties with Senegal and the Ivory Coast, two of the last democracies in a region otherwise plagued by sectarian conflict, in the latest attempt by a senior EU politician to rebuild the bloc’s political influence in West Africa. Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is […]
The Moroccan government said it offered construction aid to 95% of the households whose homes were completely or partly destroyed in the violent earthquake that ravaged villages in the High Atlas Mountains in September 2023. So far, 56,000 families received financial aid to rebuild their houses for a total cost of 1.4 billion dirhams ($140 […]
the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) of the World Bank rejected most of the claims of Corral Morocco Holding, owned by Saudi billionaire Al Amoudi in a case filed against the Moroccan government over the shut-down of Samir refinery. The arbitration institution ordered Morocco to pay just 6% of the total 2.7 […]
Six consecutive years of drought left Morocco’s agricultural dams at a critical filling rate, prompting a halt of irrigation in key farming areas. This year’s cereals harvest is expected to drop 43% to 3.12 million tons only, due to a lack of rainfall that induced a reduction in the cultivated area. Rainfall was down 34% […]
Africa once accounted for more than a third of Chinese oil imports, but now major African oil suppliers are struggling with declining production and exports to China that has found other markets due to geopolitical considerations, infrastructure issues, and domestic political problems, according to a recent report by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. China […]
Three Moroccan hotels in the country’s main tourist hub Marrakech were voted in a ranking by Travel and Leisure magazine among the world’s best 100. Hotel Selman in Marrakech was ranked fifth, while Mammounia took the 18th position followed by Mansour Marrakech 55th, following a vote by the magazine’s readers for the World’s Best Awards. […]
Morocco has received 7.4 million tourists in the first six months this year, up 14%, a pace that let the tourism minister express optimism to attain the 17.5 million tourists ahead of the 2026 target. The performance of the tourism sector up to June this year was 38% higher compared with the same period in […]