Tunisia’s food trade balance falls

The deficit of the food balance reached 1,276.9 million dinars (MD) over the last ten months of 2017, (against 884 MD in the same period of 2016), which accounts for 9.6% of the trade deficit, according to the latest data published by the Ministry of Agriculture, Water Resources and Fisheries. The coverage rate of the food trade balance fell to 65.8% From January 1 to October 31, 2017, compared with 71.1% in the same period of 2016. This fall is the result of a significant increase in the value of…

Algeria’s East-West Highway project finally drawing to a close

Construction work on Algeria’s East-West Highway project is finally drawing to a close. The highway project has been beset by delays and technical problems that in some instances have required whole sections to be rebuilt. A Chinese contractor, CITIC-CRCC, will complete the last 84km stretch of the East-West Highway, which runs to the border with Morocco. The East-West Highway itself forms part of the new North African route, running from Dakar to Cairo, Trans-Africa Highway 1. The 8,636km route joins Senegal in the west with Mauritania, Western Sahara, Morocco, Algeria,…

Attijari bank finances Tunisia’s solar rebate program with $73 million

The funds will be used by local state-owned utility STEG to support the deployment of 85 MW of new residential PV capacity across the Northern African country. Attijari bank, a Tunisia-based unit of Moroccan financial services provider Attijariwafa Bank, which is itself part of Morocco’s king Mohammed VI’s holding company the SNI, has agreed to provide Tunisia’s state-owned power and gas provider Société tunisienne de l’électricité et du gaz (STEG) with 182 million TND ($72.9 million) for its rebate solar energy program Prosol 2017-2021. Under the program, the STEG hopes…

Tunisia to get $100M from World Bank to develop forest areas

By January 2018, the World Bank will provide Tunisia $100 million (about 250 million Tunisian dinars) for a project that aims to develop forest areas and landscapes in the internal regions of the country. This was told Agence Tunis presse (TAP) by Jade Salhab, senior expert in private sector’s development at the World Bank. Among the main concerned regions are the North-West and the Central-West. According to him, beside this initiative, another project to develop irrigated farming in the Northern farming areas, is actually being prepared and should be initialed in 2018. Let’s…

Europe, Africa ministers agree to help migrants held in Libya

European and African ministers agreed on Monday to try to improve conditions for migrants in Libya and seek paths such as scholarships for Africans to reach Europe legally, to cut the death toll from smuggling across the Sahara and Mediterranean.  The deadly trek across the desert from sub-Saharan Africa through Libya and over sea to Italy is now the main route used by refugees and other vulnerable migrants heading to Europe, after Turkey closed the other main route via Greece that brought in nearly a million people in 2015.  Almost…