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North Africa

A worker at a Dana Gas facility in Egypt. The company aims to increase gas recovery at its Egyptian fields by 80 billion cubic feet

Dana Gas to spend $100m on Egypt and Iraq expansion

UAE company Dana Gas said it plans to invest $100 million in drilling for gas in Egypt and will add gas processing capacity at its joint venture field in Iraq’s Kurdistan province. Drilling 11 wells over the next two years, the company aims to increase gas recovery at its Egypt fields by 80 billion cubic […]

Jamiyya helps Egyptians borrow money from other people without charging interest

Egypt fintech Money Fellows to expand across North Africa

Money Fellows, a Cairo-based startup that digitises the so-called Middle East jamiyya savings model, has raised $13 million to expand across North Africa and beyond, the company has announced. Jamiyya, which is also known as sanduk, is part of the Rotating Savings and Credit Association (Rosca) technique whereby a group of people agrees to contribute […]

Shops in the souk in Aswan, Egypt. Bokra aims to help finance credit for the country's SMEs

Egyptian fintech Bokra arranges $60m sukuk

Egyptian financial technology startup Bokra and Aman Holding have arranged a near $60 million bond to help finance credit to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the country, Aman said. The Cairo-based startup arranged EGP 3 billion ($59 million) worth of shariah-compliant debt in partnership with Egypt’s Aman Project Finance, a unit of Aman Holding. […]

Business agreements were signed in the presence of Oman's Sultan Haitham bin Tarik and Algeria's President Abdelamdjid Tebboune

Omani fund to invest $300m in Algeria’s economy

Oman and Algeria have signed an agreement to create a joint venture oilfield services company in the North African country, according to local media. The agreement was signed on Monday.  Algeria’s state oil operator, Sonatrach, signed the agreement with Abraj Energy Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of Oman’s global integrated energy group OQ, during sultan of […]

An Egyptian farmer harvesting flax, which the country exports. Shifting trade patterns could result in more foreign direct investment

UAE and Egypt could benefit most from global trade shift

The UAE and Egypt may benefit the most among Mena countries from the US-led reordering of the global trade framework, Citigroup Mena CEO Ebru Pakcan has said. By contrast, oil producers from Iraq to Kuwait and Oman to Bahrain could struggle, Pakcan said, on the back of the lowest international prices in four years.  Resource-poor […]

Mena economic data

Mena economic data

The latest indicators for the largest Middle East and North Africa economies outside the GCC, including Egypt, Iran and Turkey

A supermarket owner in Cairo stocks a fridge. Egypt and Turkey helped power 11 percent revenue growth in PepsiCo’s international beverages business

Gains in Egypt and Turkey help PepsiCo profit

Revenue growth at PepsiCo Inc.’s Europe, Middle East and Africa (Emea) division outpaced all its other regional divisions in the first quarter, lifted by stronger demand in Egypt and Turkey.  However, the US snacks and drinks company trimmed its full-year profit outlook and warned of rising global trade costs. The maker of Pepsi, Gatorade and […]

Morocco’s energy minister Leila Benali said the pipeline project has "made considerable progress" and is in the execution stage

Morocco and Nigeria agree terms for $25bn gas pipeline

Morocco and Nigeria have agreed to create a joint venture to manage a long-planned $25 billion pipeline which will ship gas to Europe, a Moroccan minister has said. Leila Benali, minister of energy transition and sustainable development, told Morocco’s parliament that a floating gas storage terminal would also be installed at Nador on the Mediterranean […]

Trucks carrying containers at Jordan's port of Aqaba: the country is likely to be one of the worst hit by Donald Trump's tariffs

Trump tariffs threaten $22bn in Arab exports says UN

Bahrain and Jordan are the countries likely to be most affected by tariffs planned by President Donald Trump on non-oil exports by the Arab world to the US worth nearly $22 billion, a United Nations body has warned. Despite a sharp fall in the region’s sales of oil to the US over the past decade, […]

Dubai airport. The city hosts conferences that attract tens of thousands of business travellers, with most scheduled from October to April

Mena business travel surged before tariff storm hit

The number of business travel trips booked in the Mena region increased by more than 50 percent in the first quarter of 2025. However, the onset of a trade war and a projected slowdown in economic growth may temper performance for the foreseeable future, according to travel experts. Business travel company Tamodo said it expected […]

Algerian president Abdelmadjid Tebboune said he wants non-oil exports to increase to $10bn this year, from $7bn last year

Algeria creates agency to promote non-oil exports

Algeria is to create an export promotion agency to push non-oil international sales as the oil and gas producer faces plunging petroleum prices. Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune revealed the plan during a meeting with national business leaders in the capital Algiers last week. Tebboune said the export promotion agency would be set up next month […]

Leila Benali, Morocco's minister of energy transition, said last year that renewables accounted for about 44 percent of total power generation

Morocco steps up solar power drive to meet 2030 target

Morocco is intensifying investment in solar power in the hope of hitting a target to raise the use of renewables in its energy mix to more than half. The country has set a target of 52 percent renewables by 2030 after achieving previous targets, local media reported. Newspapers said on Friday that hydrocarbon-poor Morocco has […]

A swarm can contain 40 million locusts, each consuming their own weight every day

Farmers at risk from North Africa locust swarm

A locust outbreak in North Africa risks endangering the livelihoods of already hard-pressed farmers in the region. In recent weeks, the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a UN agency, has issued a succession of warnings over a growing locust threat spreading from North Africa and across central Africa. In Africa’s north, adult groups of […]

Algerian energy minister Mohamed Arkab. Renewable sources currently account for just 1 percent of Algeria’s energy mix

Chinese companies spearhead Algeria’s solar drive

Algeria has broken ground on two new solar power projects over the past week as part of a drive to build 15 plants with the help of Chinese companies. The drive aims to largely expand the use of renewable energy and release oil and gas for export by the Opec producer. Renewable sources currently account […]

A worker at Jordan's Aqaba container terminal. Jordan has had a free-trade agreement with the US since 2001 and pegs its currency to the US dollar

US levies render Middle East trade deals worthless, say analysts

US president Donald Trump’s global tariff policy has bulldozed through dozens of free-trade agreements, including a handful in the Middle East. The impact on the rules of international commerce could be severe, according to industry watchers. “To take such an abrupt and quick decision from one side, where you have more than 20 years of […]

A woman assembles mobile phone parts at a factory run by Egyptian brand Sico. Foreign manufacturers including Samsung and Nokia have set up in Egypt

Egypt to disable imported phones unless users pay tax

Owners of imported mobile phones in Egypt will have their devices disabled next week unless they pay tax as part of a drive by Cairo to protect international phone producers operating in Egypt. When the most populous Arab nation invited South Korea’s Samsung and other major smartphone manufacturers to produce their devices in Egypt four […]

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El Sisi met in Cairo in December 2024

EU clears €4bn funding to support Egypt’s economy

The European parliament has approved €4 billion ($4.3 billion) in funding to Egypt to bolster economic resilience in what is the most populous country in the Middle East. The parliament adopted Egypt’s macro-financial assistance with 452 votes in favour, 182 against, and 40 abstentions, it said in a statement.   In March 2024, the EU […]

ADVA has applied for Egypt’s first digital consumer finance license, which will reduce barriers to access for more than 50 million underbanked Egyptians

IHC unit enters Egypt’s consumer finance sector

2PointZero, a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi-listed International Holding Company (IHC), has acquired ADVA, an Egyptian consumer finance company. The buyout by Maseera Holding for Financial Investments (Maseera), a subsidiary of 2PointZero, is part of its parent company’s $1 billion investment plan, the state-run Wam news agency reported. ADVA will be Maseera’s technology and data analytics […]

A house in Amizmiz, Morocco, that was destroyed in an earthquake. The new IMF credit line will assist the country in rebuilding

IMF loans Morocco $4.5bn to support economy

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved a new credit facility for Morocco to help in crisis prevention and to support reform. The new two-year $4.5 billion flexible credit line (FCL) will assist the country in rebuilding buffers and accelerating structural reforms in an uncertain external environment, the IMF said in a statement. The facility […]

A family strolls in Dubai Marina, developed by Emaar. The company's shares are up 5.5% on the DFM this year

Emaar’s overseas units struggle to match home gains

Dubai real estate developer Emaar Properties is doing well at home but its international operations – notably in India – are more chequered. Last year, Emaar posted a near 50 percent increase in earnings to AED5 billion ($1.4 billion). Its shares on the Dubai Financial Market are up 5.5 percent so far this year. By […]

One solar panel in North Africa generates two to three times the amount of power that one does in Europe

Plans to bring African energy to Europe face big challenges

At least five multi-billion dollar projects to bring up to 24 gigawatts of solar and wind power energy from sunny North Africa to chilly Europe, assisted by Gulf investment money, are currently being planned. But these ambitious schemes to reduce Europe’s reliance on fossil fuels generally, and energy supplies from Russia specifically, all face major […]