June 01, 2003
Africa: IMF Under Attack by African Finance Ministers
South African finance minister Trevor Manuel slammed the International Monetary Fund today for secretly planning to divide its Africa Department along "colonial" lines into… Read more »
May 27, 2003
Ghana: US Firm Opens Talks to End Dispute with Ghana's Government
Negotiations are taking place this week in Ghana to resolve an ongoing dispute between the government and an American mining company that is complicating an otherwise cooperative… Read more »
May 22, 2003
Africa: Iraq Not Taking Money From Africa, Insists USAID Chief
USAID Administrator Andrew S. Natsios has flatly denied that U.S. assistance money for Africa is being diverted to Iraq. "The reality is that all of the money we're spending in… Read more »
May 19, 2003
Africa: Fair Trade, Not Hand-outs, Say Ghanaian Ministers
If, in the past, African nations relied on hand-outs and talked about the rich world's 'obligations' to the continent, they are sounding a different note these days - seeking… Read more »
May 09, 2003
Nigeria: U.S. Firm Halliburton Acknowledges Bribe To Nigerian Official
Halliburton, the giant Texas based energy company once directed by Vice President Dick Cheney, acknowledged this week it paid a $2.4 million bribe to a Nigerian government official… Read more »
April 30, 2003
Africa: African Stock Markets Have Scope to Expand
"Something very exciting is happening" on Africa's stock exchanges, says Mark Malloch Brown, the head of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). "Returns in Africa are… Read more »
Africa: Talks Aimed At Stopping 'Blood Diamonds' Flow Underway
A three-day meeting of some 70 nations in Johannesburg, South Africa to discuss implementation of a plan to eradicate the trade in "blood" or "conflict" diamonds winds up… Read more »
April 28, 2003
Africa: Dismal Numbers Don't Tell Whole Story, Says World Bank Africa Economist
Africa's defenders feel exasperated at the way words like 'chronic poverty' and 'disease' have become so strongly associated with the continent. They will find little comfort in… Read more »
April 19, 2003
Africa: US Nuclear Agency Still Has Suspicions On Iraq-Niger Nuclear Link
The thought of nuclear weaponry getting into the hands of terrorists or "rogue states" is a worry that has intensified in recent years. It's the same concern that fuels the… Read more »
April 14, 2003
Africa: 'The Other War' Struggles for Attention at IMF/World Bank
One of the great ironies of the Development Committee meetings that took place at the just-ended spring meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, was that though… Read more »
Africa: Greater Voice For Poor Nations At World Bank/IMF Still Far Off
Efforts to give developing nations, and Africa in particular, a larger voice in World Bank and International Monetary Fund decision-making received a chilly reception at this… Read more »
April 11, 2003
Africa: Brace Up And 'Press On' Say African Finance Ministers
"Outstanding problems" and "very slow progress" confront Africa today, said Uganda's Minister of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Gerald Ssendaula, speaking to reporters… Read more »
Nigeria: Views of the Grassroots Voter
In the first of a number of profiles of voters in Nigeria, Ofeibea Quist-Arcton talks to Fidelis Okoro, a resident of the northern city of Kaduna. Himself an Igbo from the mainly… Read more »
April 10, 2003
Africa: Iraq War Adds to Gloom for Africa at World Bank/IMF Meetings
Although most regions in the world will achieve or come close to the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving income poverty by 2015, "Africa will fall far short," according to… Read more »
March 31, 2003
Ghana: American Firms Form U.S. - Ghana Business Body
A group of American companies with major investments in Ghana have joined forces to launch an organization to promote improved bilateral ties. Charter members of the U.S. Ghana… Read more »
March 26, 2003
Nigeria: Ethnic Clashes Disrupt Nigeria Oil Production, World Markets Hit
More than a week after an outbreak of ethnic violence in the oil-rich Delta region of Nigeria, the army sent by the government to quell the disturbances claims to have tightened… Read more »
March 22, 2003
South Africa: Secret Contracts Row Puts Spotlight on Water Management
As national leaders, corporations, and non-governmental organizations gathered in Japan for the Kyoto World Water Forum, a South African row about secrecy was focusing attention on… Read more »
March 13, 2003
Africa: Follow the Master Plan and Re-elect Obasanjo, says Nigerias Transport Minister
After 3 days of deliberations in the Nigerian federal capital, Abuja, the first African Ministerial Forum on Integrated Transportation (Amfit) ended a three-day conference on… Read more »
February 12, 2003
South Africa: Iraq Dispute Puts Focus on South Africa's Nuclear Disarmament
The debate over weapons of mass destruction and inspection protocols in Iraq has focused attention on South Africa's decision to dismantle its secret nuclear weapons programs more… Read more »
Africa: African Development Bank Pulls Staff Out of Ivory Coast
Continuing insecurity, tension and confusion in Cote dIvoire over the fate of the peace process and failure to end the five-month civil war, have triggered a decision by the… Read more »
February 11, 2003
Cote d'Ivoire: New Prime Minister Ponders Consensus Cabinet as Fighting Worsens
There were reports of renewed fighting in Cote dIvoire Tuesday, less than 24 hours after Seydou Diarra was installed as the country's new consensus prime minister - with the… Read more »
February 03, 2003
Nigeria: Between 20 and 30 Killed in Lagos Blast, Bank Looted
At least 20 and as many as 30 people were reported dead, Sunday, in Nigerias main city, Lagos, after an explosion ripped through an apartment and shopping complex and destroyed… Read more »
February 01, 2003
Africa: Balancing Trade Rules, the Environment and Sustainable Development
Some parts of the international business community are beginning to sound like development agencies. At the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland in late January and… Read more »
January 31, 2003
Africa: Trusting the Private Sector with the People's Water
More than half the population in African cities lives without access to pipe-borne water and depends on buying water from standpipe owners, water tankers or street vendors. Far… Read more »
January 26, 2003
Congo-Kinshasa: Accusations 'Ridiculous' Says Rwanda's US Envoy
Charges made last week by Vital Kamerhe, the Democratic Republic of Congo's commissioner-general in charge of negotiations in the Great Lakes region, that a Rwandan-created "new… Read more »