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Ivory Coast
Basketball Africa League and Wave Côte d’Ivoire unveil newly renovated basketball court in Abidjan
The Basketball Africa League (BAL) (https://BAL.NBA.com) and Wave Côte d'Ivoire (Wave), Africa's fastest-growing mobile money platform, today unveiled a newly renovated basketball court at 4 Paniers (Four Baskets) in the Yopougon district of Abidjan. The renovated court is part of the BAL and Wave's collaboration to bring communities in Côte d'Ivoire and Senegal closer to the game and supports NBA Africa's commitment to build or renovate 1,000 basketball courts on the continent over the next decade.
The court was unveiled by Wave Côte d'Ivoire General Manager Katier Bamba and BAL Head of League Operations Ruben Boumtje-Boumtje at a ceremony at Yopougon 4 Paniers, which was followed by a basketball clinic for 50 boys and girls ages 16 and under from local schools and a U-23 3-on-3 tournament for male and female players.
“The renovation of this court reflects our commitment to working with partners like Wave to empower the youth of Africa,” said Boumtje-Boumtje. “Over the past year, our joint efforts with Wave, including hosting tournaments and creating safe spaces for young boys and girls to learn and play the game, will leave a lasting and meaningful impact in communities across Côte d'Ivoire and Senegal.”
“Taking part in the project of renovation of this basketball court alongside the BAL reflects Wave's mission to support and invest in the communities we serve,” said Bamba. Basketball is a powerful force for connecting communities, and we are proud to contribute to the creation of modern, accessible spaces where young people can learn, play, and thrive. This project is not just about renovating a court, but also about building confidence and inspiring the next generation for an even stronger Côte d'Ivoire tomorrow.”
Since their collaboration launched in March 2025, the BAL and Wave held “Tournoi des Quartiers” basketball tournaments in Abidjan and Dakar, Senegal featuring a 1,000,000 CAF prize for each winning team and provided an all-expenses paid trip for Reine Esther Yao from the U-18 Côte d'Ivoire Women's National Team to attend the 2025 BAL Finals in Pretoria, South Africa, in June.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Basketball Africa League (BAL).Contacts:
Marie-Pierre Anamba Onana
BAL
+221 78 637 70 62
manamba@thebal.com
Armel Assohou
Wave Côte d'Ivoire
+225 0595 7966 87
armel.assohou@wave.com
About the BAL:
The Basketball Africa League (BAL), a partnership between the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) and NBA Africa, is a professional league featuring 12 club teams from across Africa that concluded its fifth season in June 2025. Headquartered in Dakar, Senegal, the BAL builds on the foundation of club competitions FIBA Africa has organized across the continent and marks the NBA's first collaboration to operate a league outside North America. Fans can follow the BAL (@ theBAL) on Facebook (https://apo-opa.co/3K1ENWH), Instagram (https://apo-opa.co/3K2In2R), Threads (https://apo-opa.co/49NgtCe), X (https://apo-opa.co/49NyK2s), and YouTube (https://apo-opa.co/4rpAhC0) and register their interest in receiving more information at https://BAL.NBA.com.
About Wave:
Wave Mobile Money is Africa's fastest-growing mobile money product. Wave is using technology to build a radically inclusive and extremely affordable financial network. Our ambition is to make Africa the first cashless continent in the world. Wave is operating in nine countries (Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Uganda, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Mali, Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Niger). You can learn more at https://www.Wave.com.
African Development Fund commits $14 million grant to scaling up climate resilience across the Sahel
The Board of Directors of the African Development Fund has approved a grant of $14.64 million to support Project 2 of the Programme to Strengthen Resilience to Food and Nutrition Insecurity in the Sahel (P2-P2RS) in Abidjan on 21 November 2025.
The additional financing is provided through the Climate Action Window (http://apo-opa.co/43MyWLA), a climate-focused funding mechanism of the African Development Fund, the concessional lending window of the African Development Bank Group.
The grant aims to strengthen the adaptation and resilience capacities of communities across the Sahel as they face increasingly severe climate extremes. The project adopts a dual approach: scaling up the "climate-smart villages" model around hydro-agricultural infrastructure, and improving access to and use of climate information for decision-making.
The new funding will support the regional seed system by disseminating resilient, high-yielding improved seed varieties. Planned activities include updating the Regional Catalogue of Species and Varieties; creating a business-to-business networking portal; and strengthening seed multiplication capacities of national agricultural research systems and seed companies to ensure availability in climate-smart villages. The project will also support women's and youth empowerment through targeted capacity-building.
In addition, the project will reinforce climate data collection and impact monitoring systems, enhancing real-time data availability from observation networks. It will establish an integrated digital platform for data collection, management, and real-time dissemination, as well as a regional system for monitoring and managing loss and damage data. This includes standardising loss and damage reporting across countries and developing a multi-scale digital platform for the centralised data management.
The Climate Action Window grant will cover 30 municipalities and support the creation of 60 climate-smart villages across Sahelian countries, helping to strengthen community resilience to climate shocks.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Development Bank Group (AfDB).Media contact:
Alexis Adélé
Communication and External Relations Department
media@afdb.org
About the African Development Bank Group:
The African Development Bank Group is Africa's leading development finance institution. It comprises three distinct entities: the African Development Bank (AfDB), the African Development Fund (ADF) and the Nigeria Trust Fund (NTF). Represented in 41 African countries, with a field office in Japan, the Bank contributes to the economic development and social progress of its 54 regional member states. For further information: www.AfDB.org
Aberdeen Capabilities Underpin Altera’s Offshore Success in Ivory Coast
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Aberdeen's role as a strategic base for companies operating beyond the North Sea was highlighted yesterday as Altera Infrastructure detailed how its UK capabilities are supporting major offshore developments in Africa.
Speaking at the Wider African Energy Summit – hosted in partnership with the African Energy Chamber – this week, Stig Bøtker, Director of Business Development at Altera Infrastructure, said the company increasingly relies on Aberdeen as a center of expertise that directly underpins its work on fast-growing African projects. “Aberdeen is a strategic base for Altera's operations,” he said, noting that the city's technical depth and offshore heritage have been instrumental in driving recent successes.
Bøtker pointed to the FPSO Petrojarl Kong, currently operating at the Baleine Field offshore Ivory Coast, as a leading example of how these competencies are being leveraged abroad. The project was completed on a fast-track schedule, with redevelopment beginning in late 2022 and first oil achieved in December 2024 – an overall timeline of just 24 months. The FPSO is producing 40,000 barrels of oil per day along with 44 million standard cubic feet per day of gas, which is supplied to an onshore power plant to deliver affordable and stable energy to the region.
Altera also secured $464 million in post-delivery financing for the Petrojarl Kong FPSO through a U.S. private placement, marking one of the first transactions of this kind for a West African offshore project. The company hopes this success will pave the way for continued activity in Ivory Coast, with Bøtker saying, “We hope to get more projects in Ivory Coast.”
Local content has been a core focus for the company, which has achieved 85% Ivorian employment onshore and 46% offshore. This has been driven by training programs in the shipyard, partnerships with educational institutions and hands-on development on existing FPSOs. “It's about strengthening local suppliers, promoting transparency, getting local suppliers to understand how we operate and our core values,” Bøtker said, adding that building Ivorian-led capabilities remains a priority. “It's important for us to continue developing people.”
Bøtker also noted that Altera is transferring emissions-reduction technologies to the region, several of which are already deployed on the Petrojarl Kong. He said the company aims to supply as much as possible locally, linking technical delivery with long-term capacity building.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Energy Chamber.