A MINING joint-venture deal which turned sour has exposed how the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has been involved in the extraction and processing of diamonds and gold in the Midlands, the Zimbabwe Independent can reveal.

Gas maker, BOC Kenya, has reported a 32 per cent dip in profit after tax for the first half of 2010, amid sluggish sales and high cost of production.

Forty Barclays Bank business club members will fly out to China next week on a two-week business trip organised in conjunction with Brand Kenya.

Kenya Power and Lighting Company has launched a countrywide project to instal prepaid meters.

With consumption of petroleum products expected to triple in the next two decades, there is need for government and private sector partnerships to build infrastructure to meet this demand and ensure the country is energy secure.

The celebratory glee over the discovery of oil off the shore of Liberia has received a dent from one of Liberia's geologists and once Minister of Lands and Mines, now President Pro Tempore of the Senate Cletus Wortorson.

Workers in Medeber here in the capital who are engaged in the manufacturing and modification of various housing utensils and construction materials say that they are striving to upgrade their innovative and creative skills.

Notwithstanding the current infrastructurally cramped conditions of Roberts International Airport (RIA), Liberia in the days of old was the epic center of international air traffic in West Africa, with the likes of KLM, Pan Am, etc., plying daily schedules. But the golden days suddenly eclipsed; courtesy of long years of civil conflict which left the heretofore first class airport of RIA in total ruins and triggered the exodus of international aviation giants.

The Government of Liberia (“GoL”) and Golden VerOleum (Liberia) Inc. (“GVL”) Thursday, September 2, announced a partnership for the cultivation of sustainable palm oil by the company and by Liberian smallholders and farmers, mill processing and value-added manufacturing. The investment is expected to total US$1.6 billion, creating more than 35,000 direct jobs and building a whole new economic sector in Liberia’s southeastern counties.

In a small garden at the Entebbe Botanical garden, about 40 kilometres from Kampala, a few yellowish plants are trying to adapt to their new environment.

African heads of state, private sector leaders and agricultural experts are meeting in Accra, Ghana today to inaugurate the African Green Revolution Forum.

Over a million teachers, nurses and other government workers have downed tools across South Africa, suspending public education and healthcare while their demands for better pay go head-to-head with government's reluctance to accede.

This week's riots in Maputo will not prevent Portuguese businesses from investing in Mozambique, according to Telmo Fernandes, managing partner of Market Access, a consultancy firm based in the northern Portuguese city of Oporto.

The fisheries and aquaculture sectors are central to the survival of millions in Africa, but the resource is under threat, yet the region should exploit market possibilities.

Public sector strikes in South Africa have become so common in recent years that people are asking if plans should not be put in place to prevent the disruption of HIV and tuberculosis [TB] treatment, and prepare health workers.

PETROLEUM retailer Engen is on the verge of buying Chevron's downstream assets in seven sub-Saharan Africa and Indian Ocean Island countries, the company said yesterday.

New varieties of drought-tolerant maize could deliver a US$1.5 billion gain in food and income in Sub-Saharan Africa as well as helping smallholders cope with the effects of climate change, according to a study carried out in 13 countries in the region.

Kenya Commercial Bank has launched an on-line payment solution targeting the tourism sector as e-commerce takes root in the country.

FINANCE minister Tendai Biti has officially intervened in the "vicious corporate war" between Meikles Africa Ltd and Kingdom Financial Holdings Ltd (KFHL), which has drawn into its vortex President Robert Mugabe and other high-profile politicians.

South Africa is confident that it could become the newest member of BRIC, a powerful economic coalition of the four largest developing nations in the world - Brazil, Russia, India and China.

All-time politician, Dr. Togba-Nah Tipoteh, sharing his thoughts on the much revered BHP Billiton Agreement which the government says stands to benefit the country, said the concession , as it is, is out-of-date,  and that  it is  not promotive of Liberalization.

Tanzania has introduced a new technology which experts tout as the effective solution to the problem of fuel adulteration.

Cadbury Cocoa Partnership has intensified its effort at boosting cocoa production in Ghana, in order to sustain its business. In effect, it has expanded its grassroots initiative to bring more communities onboard, towards realizing its dream.

By vetoing the proposed price control laws, President Kibaki has taken a decision that must be viewed in its proper context rather than as providing the platform for a showdown between Parliament and the Executive.

More than 80 per cent of the country will be hit by drought before December, the Meteorological Department has warned.

As one major meeting on agriculture ends, another begins: farming is truly back on Africa's agenda.

It was a somewhat tense atmosphere at Emin Pasha Hotel. Journalists had to be frisked by private bodyguards and asked which media house they represented before making their way to the hotel in the upscale Kololo neighbourhood of Kampala.

THE Sishen Iron Ore mineral rights case is set to become an angry, drawn-out affair, with Imperial Crown Trading yesterday countering allegations that it had fraudulently copied Kumba 's applications.

BEHIND-the-scenes negotiations yesterday failed to end the public service strike as trade unions conferred with each other in an effort to work on a unified position against the government.

THERE has been a large positive shift in global investment perceptions towards agriculture in Africa, driven by the global race for resources and food.