Africa

France hopes to diversify its trade with Africa and also to hold on to its traditional influence in its former African empire. This tricky balance is reflected in...

Bouygues: Went to Africa in the 1960s; by 2008, Africa operations had a turnover of over 1.6 billion euros (US$2.3 bn.), led by infrastructure subsidiary Colas (E707 million)...

As in so many areas the expectations are that President Barack Obama's Africa policy will be a break with the past. In some respects, the President's decision to...

After years of marginalisation and under-staffing, the African Affairs bureau of the State Department is beginning to attract strong interest from the other regional bureaux. The first key...

The world of oil trading is as remarkable for its profits as for its opacity, some of its largest businesses having an annual turnover of several hundred billion...

Glencore: The company does not name its chief executive. The firm began in 1994 when the United States’ commodities trader Marc Rich (who secured a pardon for tax...

African governments sense a new toughness in Washington’s Africa policy, a month before President Barack Obama’s state visit to Ghana on 10-11 July, officials have told Africa...

Three important African allies of French President Nicolas Sarkozy could find their French assets under scrutiny after Juge d'Instruction Françoise Desset ruled on 6 May that an anti-corruption...

As the international financial crisis intensified last year, some African governments thought they could avoid the worst by strengthening their trade and investment ties with Asia. Denial has...

Amid the gloom lie some positives. African economies now have on average 5.7 months of reserves to cover imports, policy frameworks are sounder, government ministries are better staffed....