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Lekela Power’s takeover of the Taiba Ndiaye wind project and construction starts at two privately financed solar photovoltaic (PV) units point to a strong renewable energy element in Senegal’s ambitious plans to qualify as an emerging economy by 2035. Extra thermal capacity will also be added, while gas imports and/or offshore upstream development will be promoted as the government presses to get as many new generation projects going as possible. Several schemes are slated to start up in Q4 2017, coinciding with President Macky Sall’s quest for re-election, senior officials noted.

Norway’s Spectrum ASA has announced an agreement to acquire 28,000km of long offset 2D seismic data offshore southern Somalia. Spectrum’s survey will cover areas licensed to Pecten, a joint venture of Shell and ExxonMobil, which have been under force majeure since 1992. It will also manage and market 20,000km of 2D data gathered and processed by Soma Oil & Gas in 2014, which it says the survey is designed to complement. Soma – a UK company chaired by former Conservative party leader Lord (Michael) Howard – is giving the results of its survey to the federal government in return for the right to pre-emptively choose 12 blocks.

The governments of Tanzania and Uganda, the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) and Total E&P Uganda signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on 12 October creating a working framework for the potential development of a crude export pipeline from Hoima to Tanga port.

The US Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) has halted preparations for a second compact, planned to make $472.8m available for the power sector, citing concerns about elections in Zanzibar and about the country’s Cybercrimes Act.The government declared the October elections in the semi-autonomous archipelago invalid, saying there had been irregularities in the voting process.

The Liberian Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) in late May said that several government officials had refused to co-operate with its recent phase of the Assets Declaration Verification Exercise. LACC chairwoman Frances Johnson-Allison told a 21 May news conference on the release of its report into the first phase of the exercise that 18 government officials had failed to co-operate, despite receiving “multiple notices” from the commission.

With a month to go before elections, state power utility Zesco has reduced daily power cuts to households from eight or more hours to four hours, in a move expected to boost President Edgar Lungu’s chances of another five-year term. However, the reduced load-shedding does not apply to mining companies, which are still restricted to less than 30% of their peak power demand. Zesco spokesman Henry Kapata said the utility was importing 90MW from a power barge docked at Mozambique’s Nacala port, 48MW from Aggreko and 75MW from Electricidade de Mocambique.

Allegedly corrupt dealings with the former Libyan regime are continuing to cost implicated companies dear more than four years after the start of the February 2011 revolution. On 19 February, Canada’s SNC-Lavalin Group announced in a statement to investors that corruption and fraud charges levelled by the Public Prosecution Service of Canada were “without merit”. It said it would “vigorously defend itself and plead not guilty”. President and chief executive Robert Card said that “the charges stem from the same alleged activities of former employees from over three years ago in Libya, which are publicly known, and that the company has co-operated on with authorities since then”.

Angola’s new president João Lourenço has sacked José Filomeno dos Santos as head of Angola’s sovereign wealth fund and set up a committee to manage the body. The sacking of José Filomeno, known as Zenú, the son of former president José Eduardo dos Santos, follows Lourenço’s removal on 15 November of Isabel dos Santos as head of the all-powerful national oil company Sonangol. Isabel’s sacking startled commentators who had thought Lourenço would keep everything much as president dos Santos had left it.

A report from US-based advocacy group Global Financial Integrity (GFI) has highlighted how much money is siphoned out of African countries due to the practice of over or understating invoices. In its report, Hiding in Plain Sight, GFI analysed data on bilateral trade flows for 2002–11 from the United Nations’ Comtrade database to estimate misinvoicing for Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Uganda. It found that Tanzania experienced the greatest annual average gross illicit flows with $1.87bn. Kenya is second with $1.51bn/yr, and Ghana’s figure of $1.44bn is also significant. Uganda had illicit outflows of $884m/yr, and Mozambique’s figure is $585m.

President Denis Sassou Nguesso’s debt-stressed administration has finally obtained a new International Monetary Fund (IMF) facility, worth nearly $449m, despite criticism that Brazzaville has not provided sufficient detail of parallel rescheduling deals for arrears contracted in pre-financing arrangements with China and Swiss-based oil trading houses, nor implemented previous commitments to control borrowing, spending and other policy shortfalls.

Kinross Gold Corporation has said it is under investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Department of Justice (DoJ) over its West Africa mining operations. The company said it had received SEC and DoJ subpoenas related to possible internal control deficiencies and improper payments to government officials.Toronto-based Kinross, which has mining operations in Mauritania and Ghana, said it first learned of the allegations in 2013 and launched an internal investigation. It subsequently received subpoenas from the SEC in March and December 2014, and July 2015, and from the DoJ in December 2014.

The UK’s Serious Fraud Office said on 31 July that it had opened an investigation into Soma Oil & Gas in relation to allegations of corruption in Somalia. The investigation follows a report by the United Nations Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group to the Security Council which said that Soma had been making regular payments to the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources since mid-2014, some to senior civil servants who were instrumental in securing the company’s initial contract and negotiating subsequent agreements. Soma said it was confident that there was no basis to the allegations and it was co-operating fully with the SFO.

Bids were due by 15 May for a European Development Fund-financed programme to improve the corporate governance of power utility Zesco. Zesco has obtained European Investment Bank funding for two projects – upgrading the existing 220kV Kafue-Muzuma-Livingstone transmission line to 330 kV, and the Itezhi Tezhi hydro project and related transmission infrastructure. According to the tender notice: “Zesco has expressed its desire and commitment to strengthen good corporate governance and compliance procedures within the company.” The winning consultant will help the utility develop and implement a corporate governance framework.

Israeli diamond magnate Beny Steinmetz’s BSG Resources (BSGR) is preparing arbitration proceedings against the government of Guinea and President Alpha Condé, after Conakry revoked its licence for the Simandou iron ore deposit. BSGR said in a statement that it was initiating arbitration with the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes. Guinea stripped BSGR and its joint venture partner Vale of their rights to part of Simandou in April after a government committee concluded that BSGR had paid bribes. BSGR has denied any wrongdoing.

The government launched an anti-corruption initiative in late April backed by the country’s inspector general, Hassan Sultan. “From the public procurement process to electoral reform and international co-operation, corruption can have a negative impact on a wide range of important functions of the state, and it is our responsibility to eradicate it wherever it is found,” he said. The launch came a few days before Sultan travelled to London for the UK-Djibouti Trade and Investment Forum.