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The Abidjan-based Bourse Régionale des Valeurs Mobilières (BRVM) stock exchange is ambitious but lacks liquidity. Questions persist about the CFA franc peg, underwritten by the French treasury since the West African currency was created in 1945. Destructive trends from climate change to jihadist insurgency can be acutely destabilising to under-resourced governments, while commodity shocks are a perennial headache in economies dependent on agri-business and oil imports.

The World Bank is considering a $25m loan to support the Sierra Leone Energy Access Project. The appraisal process is expected to be completed by 25 March in time to go before the World Bank’s board for approval on 16 May. The project has been designed to complement the work of the $16m Sierra Leone Infrastructure Development Fund, which was expected to be put to the board in December .

Personalised politics cloud deals and jeopardise development. In many African countries, highly personalised politics, weak leadership, lack of institutional capacity and outright graft all work to undermine progress towards building efficient, modern energy industries. Despite real progress made by governments, companies and other stakeholders in the past decade, many industries and deals lack transparency and political risks

International co-operation, air transport, infrastructure and energy minister Karim Wade was in Lisbon during the African Development Bank (AfDB) annual meeting to talk to donors, bankers and potential investors

Few countries in sub-Saharan Africa have impressed investors, donors and governments as much as President Paul Kagame’s Rwanda. With a development strategy crafted in co-ordination with advisers such as former UK prime minister Tony Blair’s Africa Governance Initiative, Kagame has rebuilt Rwanda, making Kigali one of Africa’s best-functioning capitals and attracting infrastructure and other commercial investments. As one long-time Central Africa-watcher expresses it: “Rwanda has taken the uniquely organised structures of the pre-colonial Tutsi kingdoms and transposed that to a modern state.”

Houston-based Endeavor Energy has pushed back financial close on the Songon gas-to-power project to the end of Q3 2016 from its previous target of December 2015. Songon is a multi-phase combined-cycle power project with purpose-built liquefied natural gas (LNG) import infrastructure and a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU), generating 375MW in its first phase. Endeavor entered into a joint development agreement with local partner Starenergie 2073 last year, for Endeavor to take a majority interest in Starenergie and lead the development of the project.

African Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM) on 29 January announced it has acquired a minority stake in the 192MW Amandi thermal power project. The investment is being made through its African Infrastructure Investment Fund 3 (AIIF3), which has purchased the entire shareholding of the Rontom Trust, one of the companies controlled by the project’s original founders.

The Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD) announced on 12 March that loan agreements had been signed for two energy projects in the Seychelles. An AED31.2m ($8.5m) loan was agreed to fund a 5MW solar photovoltaic project being developed by Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar) on the island of Romainville, while AED33m was allocated for a 33kV grid on the island of Mahé.

Japan’s Hitachi Ltd on 28 September agreed to pay $19m to settle charges by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) by inaccurately recording improper payments to South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) in relation to the award of the combined $5.6bn boiler contracts for the 4,764MW Medupi and 4,800MW Kusile coal power plants.The revelations included in the SEC complaint have led to calls for legal action to be taken against South African group of companies Chancellor House and the ANC, as well as increased scrutiny of the controversial nuclear tender and Chancellor House’s involvement in the upcoming coal baseload independent power producer (IPP) procurement programme.

Forty years of institutional arrangements and cross-border connections must be unravelled, whether the British exit from the European Union is smoothly negotiated or leads to the economic and social disaster forecast by naysayers including the European Commission (EC) and many of the 48.1% of British voters who voted Remain. The vote was an unpleasant surprise for many British and European establishment politicians and stunned many international partners, more used to the UK living up to its reputation for pragmatism and tolerance.

Beny Steinmetz has been placed under house arrest in Israel amid an investigation into his BSG Resources’ acquisition of rights to the Simandou iron ore mining project.Israeli police detained Steinmetz on suspicion of bribery and money laundering. A court on 19 December released him to house arrest for two weeks on bail of 100m shekels ($26m). His Israeli and French passports were confiscated and he was barred from leaving Israel for 180 days.

South Sudan’s oil income has been slashed by lower output, falling global prices, and an increasing production share taken by the government’s upstream joint venture partners. The treasury has fallen behind with payments due to Sudan for the use of its export infrastructure and is paying its debt by diverting greater quantities of oil to its neighbour. In 20 months the conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives, displaced 4.6m people, and reduced oil production by up to a third and the burden of the war effort is exerting further pressure on the treasury, which is consistently overspending its military budget.

London-based major businessman Jan Kulczyk is looking to increase his Africa interests through Canada’s Loon Energy in which he holds a 39% stake.

There was near consensus among African ministers and central bank governments at this year’s International Monetary Fund (IMF)/World Bank Group (WBG) annual meetings, held on 9-14 October in Tokyo, that relations between governments and multilaterals were much-improved from previous decades of conflict

Ghana Cocoa Board (Cocobod), Africa’s most consistent pre-export borrower and a benchmark for sub-Saharan trade finance terms, has tapped its largest annual pre-export finance facility.