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AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE A United States utility company is building the first solar power plant in electricity-starved Guinea-Bissau. In May 2013, Prime Minister Rui Duarte Barros laid the first stone of Suntrough Energy’s $30 million photovoltaic station on the outskirts of the West African nation’s capital. “This facility will help us to solve the energy issue and will also create 200 jobs,” Barros said at the ceremony. It was expected to take six months to complete, a Suntrough Energy official said. Power cuts are frequent in the capital Bissau due to the inability of its only power plant to meet demand.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Mahmud Zubairu scrutinizes the computer screen, watching the progress of health care workers as they fan out across Nigeria’s northern Kano state where polio is prevalent. The dozens of teams are going door to door to immunize every child under age 5 as part of an aggressive push to eradicate the debilitating disease. But this is a campaign with a difference: Zubairu, a doctor and coordinator of the vaccination project, can follow the workers remotely in real time, thanks to state-of-the-art technology. “It is now easy to monitor the immunization coverage of each vaccination team because the phone…

REUTERS Investors from Europe, Asia and the United States are not the only ones chasing growth opportunities in Africa these days. Africans themselves are waking up to the potential in their own back yard. The same trends that have lured foreign capital to the continent — rising wealth, sustained economic growth and a swelling young population — are attracting investors in countries such as South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and Namibia. Between 2003 and 2011, intra-African investment into new foreign direct investment (FDI) projects in Africa grew at a 23 percent rate. Since 2007, that rate has increased to 32.5 percent,…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE The World Bank has approved a $340 million financing package for a crucial hydroelectric power plant in Africa’s Great Lakes region, a project long delayed by ethnic conflict. In August 2013, the World Bank board of executive directors signed off on the financing for the Regional Rusumo Falls Hydroelectric Project, which will provide 80 megawatts of power to people in Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania. The run-of-the-river hydropower plant was supposed to be finished years ago, but it has been delayed by fighting in the region. The bank said the financing will be divided evenly among the three countries,…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE A bell rings, and the floor of Ethiopia’s Commodities Exchange (ECX) is flooded with traders dressed in colored coats, waving hands, and shouting bids for coffee, sesame seeds and haricot beans. After a feverish shouting match, prices are agreed upon, and the deal is sealed with a high five between buyer and seller. Established in 2008, the ground-breaking ECX has boosted exports in Ethiopia, improved conditions for producers, and is now inspiring other countries in resource-rich Africa to set up their own exchanges to ensure their people are the main beneficiaries of commodity exports. It has allowed “price…

REUTERS A railway that runs from Kenya to Uganda will be extended to Rwanda by March 2018 as part of efforts to deepen trade ties in the region. The countries, part of the East African Community trade bloc, plan to extend the line that starts at Kenya’s Mombasa seaport and upgrade the existing route. “The ministers responsible should put in place a monitoring and evaluation mechanism to ensure the [railway] project remains on course, within budgetary provisions,” according to the statement signed by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and Rwanda’s Paul Kagame in August 2013. Upgrading the…

Muhammad Ture was a politician, a ruler, a conqueror and a businessman. In the late 15th century, he used his considerable skills to expand the Songhai Empire, making it the largest country in West Africa’s history. At its peak, the empire stretched from the Atlantic Ocean east to what is now Niger. He led the way for Africa to expand trade with Europe and Asia, and made Islam a key component of his governing strategy. He became known as Askia — “forceful one” — and is remembered to this day as Askia the Great. He came to power through will,…

CLUES: Many tourist sources incorrectly describe this site as featuring natural geysers caused by volcanic activity. The spouts actually are cold and man-made. Water rich with carbon dioxide, lime and iron flows from this site as it reaches the end of pipes installed for nearby mines. The dissolved lime and iron forms mounds up to 4 meters tall around the mouths of these artificial geysers. Metal from the dissolving pipes adds a rusty orange color. There are at least four — and by some reports five — of these cold-water geysers  in this region, and they have become well-known tourist…