The US firms, whose deal had been blocked for months by the Ghanaian authorities, had to turn to US diplomats to get it over the line.
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Energy 
Biometric identification is booming across African countries where governments have issued licences for identification document and electoral card production. For the moment this high-growth market is dominated by French, German and Belgian firms - Thales, Idemia, Veridos, Zetes and Semlex - but dynamic outsiders, such as Augentic, are beginning to nudge their way in.
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Business 
Since the beginning of the year, the International Monetary Fund has signed support programmes with four of the six countries in the oil-dependent and Covid-weakened Central African monetary zone. But its talks with Chad and the Central African Republic have stalled.
Despite a number of informal meetings, the issue of the debt that Marshal Mobutu Sese Seko's regime ran up with Taiwan in 1991 continues to haunt the presidency of Félix Tshisekedi.
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Business 
The government of Burkina Faso has begun an audit of the country's mining assets to determine whether some mining contracts need renegotiated and if others are preventing exploitation of resources.
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Mining 
The French prime minister Jean Castex, who was in Chad last Christmas, will spend this year's celebration in Djibouti with France's 1500 troops based there.
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Politics Following the 16 November bombings in Kampala that left six people dead and 33 injured Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni is forcing his defence and interior ministers to work together and share information, even though there is animosity between the two bodies.
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Politics 
Almost a third of Angola's combat helicopters are currently out of action. The Russian arms export agency Rosoboronexport and South African group Paramount are jockeying for the contract to repair or replace them.
Australian company Scout Aerial Media and Surveying was awarded a contract worth nearly $3m by the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) on 5 November to provide an anti-smuggling surveillance drone system.
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Mining 
The mandate of the current UN special envoy to Libya expires in February and may not be renewed.
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Diplomacy Launched with the support of Algiers, the sole Algeria-Mauritania maritime link has been suspended following a dispute between its owners, Global Maritime Algeria (GMA) and Anisfer Line.
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Business The resumption of negotiations between Tunisia and the IMF saw the Secretary of State in charge of international cooperation, Aida Hamdi, sidelined in favour of the Minister of Economy, Samir Saied, who has now taken over this project.
Breaking news published on 19/11/21 at 14:30 - Morocco's UNESCO representative Samir Addahre has unexpectedly not been re-elected to the organisation's executive arm. The news is a blow to the diplomatic efforts of Mohammed VI, who is on excellent terms with director general Audrey Azoulay.
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Diplomacy 
