Year: 2017

How Avionav is switching on the lights in Tunisia

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Tunisia is growing its own indigenous aircraft manufacturing business and is now looking for wider market reach, as Vincent Chappard discovers. Developing light aircraft in Tunisia has been a challenge met by Sousse-based Avionav, despite being in a segment of the market where it is competing with well-established manufacturers. However, the company has bigger ambitions, according to its founder, Ferid Kamel. Avionav was set-up in 2007 by two Italian manufacturers in Mateur. It was later bought by a group of Tunisian engineers and shifted to Sousse. “Since then, we have…

Tunisia to impose new customs, taxes on tech products

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The Tunisian government is preparing to impose new customs duties on imported computers and smartphones increasing the current tax rate on them.  The measures, set to come into effect next year, are in an effort to boost the domestic financial incomes.  An official in the Tunisian Union of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts (UTICA) expressed concern about increase in prices.  He said the Ministry of Finance has informed the professionals about its intention to impose customs taxes of 20 per cent on products, in addition to increasing the value added tax from six per…

High Level Meeting on Accelerating Progress on Ending Child Marriage in Africa

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In the context of the 72nd United Nations General Assembly, President Edgar Lungu of Zambia, along with the Government of Canada, UNICEF, UNFPA, and UN Women, will host a High Level Meeting at which African Heads of State, development partners and donor countries will agree to speed up progress to end child marriage in Africa. Facts: Child Marriage in Africa • Across Africa, 125 million girls and women alive today were married or in a union before their 18th birthday o 1 in 3 young women in Africa were married before age…

Why should investors consider funding Tunisian startups?

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Intilaq, a Tunisian incubator and fund officially started in 2014 in a partnership between Microsoft, Ooredoo, and other funding partners. Few years later, Intilaq became a leading Tunisian startup investor, and invested 12 millions Tunisian dinars (US$ 5 millions) in 26 startups that operate in various sectors such as education, health, agriculture, and ecommerce. Bassem Bouguerra, an ex-Yahoo and a Tunisian entrepreneur took the lead of Intilaq’s Tunis office in April 2017. He spoke to Wamda about the impact of the investments Intilaq made and shared his opinion about the Tunisian…

Wyplay opens office in Tunisia

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French-based TV software company Wyplay has opened an office in Tunisia, its first in Africa, strengthening its expansion strategy. In constant growth, Wyplay says it has chosen to open a competence center in Tunisia, encouraged by the quality of education, the qualification of engineers, the reliability and quality of local infrastructures. It hopes to provide some fifty jobs in Tunisia. Tunisia’s Wyplay office will include engineering, support and quality control teams whose mission will be to contribute to the realization of on-going projects and to develop new opportunities in the…

Self-made icon Ahmed Mhiri sets example for Tunisian youth

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“Dream big and work hard! My motto is “it always seems impossible until it is done!” See how far you can go but do what you really want to do!” said TravelCar Founder and CEO Ahmed Mhiri. For him, the key to accomplishment is to be motivated, determined, and positive. He believes that it is not going to be easy, there will be many bumps and bruises along the way and that he will never get through them if he goes into the project half-heartedly. Ahmed Mhiri knows that he…

EBRD gives US$10mn boost to Tunisian trade

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The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is expanding its activities under its Trade Facilitation Programme in Tunisia with a US$10mn trade finance line to Union Internationale de Banques (UIB), a subsidiary of Société Générale. With the aim of boosting international and intra-regional trade in Tunisia, the credit line will allow UIB to issue guarantees in favour of confirming banks and provide cash financing for pre-export and post-import financing as well as for local distribution. The facility also involves so-called technical co-operation projects, which focus on the sharing of…

Migrant deaths far higher than reported – IOM

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The International Organisation for Migration, IOM, said on Monday the real number of migrant deaths were far higher than the numbers reported. The UN Migration Agency in a new report on migrant deaths and disappearances worldwide through its Berlin-based Global Migration Data Analysis Centre said many migrant deaths were never recorded. “Since 2014, more than 23,000 migrant deaths and disappearances have been recorded globally by the IOM. The real number is likely to be much higher as many deaths are never recorded,” IOM said. The report is the third volume…

Algeria turns to Islamic finance, bourse to rescue ‘worrying’ economy

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Algeria’s new government will introduce Islamic finance and develop its stock marketto draw more investment into the economy as it struggles to cope with a sharp fall in energy earnings, according to an official document. The measures are part of wider reforms by Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia’s government, which also said it plans to start fracking for shale hydrocarbons to boost oil and gas revenue, the main source of state income.  “The situation remains extremely tense for the budget,” the government said in its economic action plan, using unusually blunt…

Tunisia cabinet reshuffle strengthens president

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Tunisia’s president Beji Caid Essebsi strengthened his grip on power late on Monday when parliament approved a cabinet reshuffle ahead of key elections. Observers say the new cabinet, which places Essebsi allies in key positions, consolidates the 90-year-old president’s hold on the executive, months ahead of Tunisia’s first post-revolution municipal polls. “It is the president who pulls the strings,” French language daily Le Quotidien said. Prime Minister Youssef Chahed easily won a confidence vote for his new line-up, backed by lawmakers from his own Nidaa Tounes party and its Islamist…