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An employee at the Stellantis engines factory in Tremery, France. The company hopes to employ 2,000 people in Algeria by the end of 2026

Stellantis puts Algerian car industry on road to recovery

Multinational car maker Stellantis has announced the start of production at its factory in Algeria, with a commitment to expand further to help the ailing local market. Four Fiat models will be built, including the Fiat 500 and Fiat Doblo, as part of an initial €200 million ($216 million) investment in the plant in Tafraoui, […]

42 deals to secure funding for startups were agreed in November

Mena startup funding bounces back in November

Startup funding rose sharply in November, reflecting regional and global investors’ renewed confidence in the Middle East and North Africa.  Investment totalled $764 million from 42 deals, according to Dubai-based venture capital company Wamda. It was the highest monthly figure in 2023, an increase of 390 percent from October’s figure and a year-on-year rise of […]

President of Djibouti Mr Ismail Omar Guelleh speaking at Cop28 in Dubai. AMEA Power is planning a 1GW electrolyser project in the East African country

AMEA Power plans $15bn hydrogen investment in Africa

UAE renewable energy company AMEA Power is ready to develop projects worth $15 billion in Africa as it ramps up production of green hydrogen. The company, which has a clean energy pipeline of over 6 gigawatt (GW) across 20 countries, plans to develop three 1GW-scale electrolyser projects in Mauritania, Djibouti and Egypt. “We believe they […]

King Mohamed VI of Morocco (left) met with UAE president Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, during a state visit last week to discuss trade

UAE and Morocco train sights on further trade with rail deal

Leaders from the UAE and Morocco have signed a declaration aimed at boosting bilateral trade, including a commitment to invest in high-speed trains in the North African country. President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and King Mohammed VI met during a state visit to Abu Dhabi last week. No specifics were disclosed about the […]

Weak global growth in 2024 could prompt further Opec+ cuts if the oil market shifts decisively into surplus, said Fitch Ratings

Fitch predicts strong growth for Mena oil producers in 2024

Oil exporting countries in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region will register stronger growth in 2024, supported by the momentum in non-oil real GDP and stabilising oil production following output cuts in 2023, Fitch Ratings said. Brent crude oil is expected to average $80 per barrel with robust oil prices likely to support […]

Morocco energy transition minister Leila Benali

Morocco reveals strategy to speed up energy transition

Morocco is accelerating plans to add 9 gigawatts to its electricity generation capacity – enough power for nearly 8 million homes – with 7GW coming from renewables.  But the country will need to discover or import more gas as it bets on creating a new hydrogen economy, according to Leila Benali, its minister of energy […]

Metito Utilities and Tahliya Group executives sign the agreement to develop an irrigation project in Morocco

UAE companies to develop irrigation project in Morocco

Dubai-based Metito Utilities and Tahliya Group, a UAE-based infrastructure company in Africa, have signed an agreement to develop an irrigation project using desalinated water in Morocco. The desalination projects will be powered by renewable energy, the companies said in a statement released during the Cop28 climate summit taking place in Dubai. No financial details on […]

The Arab Energy Fund says it wants to help the oil-producing countries and the Mena region reach a net-zero future

Arab Energy Fund pledges $1bn for energy transition

The Arab Energy Fund, formerly known as Apicorp, is planning to invest up to $1 billion over the next five years in energy transition, including decarbonisation technologies. Based in Saudi Arabia, Apicorp – the Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation – was founded in 1975 by the ten Arab oil-exporting states. The latest investment announcement is part […]

The Kaombo Norte floating oil platform in Angola.

Market confusion over Opec+ cuts hits oil prices

Oil prices fell further on Friday after tumbling sharply when Opec+ announced more production cuts amid suspicions that quotas will not be adhered to. Brent, the main international benchmark, traded at $80.66, down from $84.37 on Thursday, while West Texas intermediate was flat at $75.94.  Saudi Arabia, Russia and other members of Opec+ announced on […]

Harvesting wheat in Sharkia, Egypt. The Opec Fund is backing food security projects in Egypt and Jordan – both big importers of grain

Opec Fund piles up financing for wheat, wind and water

The Opec Fund for International Development is on track to meet its pledges to increase grants and loans to climate-related projects, its Middle East and North Africa head has told AGBI.  Musab Alomar, the fund’s director of public sector operations for Mena, said climate financing made up 33 percent of all Opec Fund approvals in […]

Drinking water from an outdoor tap in Egypt

AI to help drive Middle East water reuse 

The International Water Management Institute is developing an AI platform to improve wastewater reuse in the Middle East and North Africa region, backed by a $1 million grant from Google.  Water scarcity is a concern in the region. Almost three-quarters (73 percent) of the 1,000 UAE respondents to a recent survey listed access to clean […]

AAAID aims to support Egypt's efforts to increase agricultural productivity and achieve food security

Egypt’s agriculture sector gets $100m funding boost

UAE-based Arab Authority for Agricultural Investment and Development (AAAID) plans to invest $100 million into Egypt’s agricultural and livestock production sectors over the next three years, according to a local media report. The authority’s current investments in Egypt have reached $158 million, Egypt Today newspaper reported, citing chairman Mohamed Al Mazrooei. The significant investments include […]

Phosphate mining in Morocco

Future is rosy for Mena phosphate producers

With Morocco and Saudi Arabia now holding the bulk of the world’s high-quality, accessible phosphate rock reserves, the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region is a major centre for the phosphate mining industry’s future growth, analysts say. Morocco alone holds around 70 percent of the world’s total reserves of phosphate rock, the raw material […]

A trader at the Egyptian stock exchange in Cairo. Qatar has already invested over $5.5bn in Egypt's financial, real estate and energy sectors

Qatar to invest $1.5bn in Egypt’s industrial sector

Qatar will invest $1.5 billion in Egypt’s industrial sector in 2024, according to Egyptian commercial service chief Yahya Al-Wathiq Billah. This is the first investment by the Gulf nation in Egypt since signing a bilateral agreement in March 2022, Egypt Today newspaper reported. Billah said that trade volume between the countries increased by 47 percent […]

A stock investor centre at Arab National Bank in Riyadh. The Saudi exchange accounted for five of the six Mena IPOs in Q3

Mena IPOs drop but analysts still bullish for 2024

Listings on Middle East and North African stock markets slowed during the third quarter, but analysts remain upbeat for 2024 despite concerns over the Israel-Gaza conflict.  There were six initial public offerings (IPOs) in Q3, raising $523 million in total. This is a 14 percent drop in volume and a 66 percent slump in proceeds compared […]

A woman collects water from a well in Tunis. Tunisia is having to operate a quota system for tap water

Droughts could cost Tunisia $1bn annually

Water shortages in Tunisia could cost the North African country up to $1.3 billion annually by 2030, according to a report from the World Bank. For the sixth year in a row, below-average rainfall impacted the country’s agricultural production. The sector’s value fell 9 percent in real terms in the first half of this year […]

A vegetable market in Casablanca. The jobless rate among Moroccan women is almost double that of men

Moroccan graduates struggle as unemployment rate soars

Almost one-fifth of graduates in Morocco cannot find work in the country as the number of jobless continues to soar. The unemployment rate increased to 13.5 percent in the third quarter of the year compared to the same period last year, according to Morocco’s statistics office, HCP. The total number of unemployed stood at 1.625 […]

Workers harvest baby kale grown at the vertical nutrient film technique (NFT) system at Veggitech, a start-up farm, that produces all year-round crops using smart and sustainable farming technologies in the middle of UAE's Sharjah desert, in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates,

Investment in Mena climate tech hits record $270m in 2022

Venture capital funding into climate tech startups across the Middle East, North Africa (Mena) and Turkey reached a record $270 million in 2022, although investments have been lower in the year to date, a study shows.  Climate tech VC in the region was up 50 percent annually compared to 2021, said the report by CE […]