North Africa’s Economy
Insurance firm Zurich exiting the Moroccan market
Swiss insurance firm Zurich Insurance is considering exiting the Moroccan and South African markets amid a deteriorating business environment. The company is reportedly unable to generate profits from these units, and a substantial erosion of its global business...
Tunisia’s Crises
Tunisia is facing a multi-faceted crisis, top of which is the ongoing unemployment protests that highlight the weakening of the Tunisian economic system and the eroding social safety nets. MEA Risk data for the period of February 01, 2016 to February 07, 2016, shows...
Oil prices & the impact on Sovereign Wealth Funds Libya as a case
By Omar Khattaly: The drop in oil prices in the last 12 months has taken markets and investors by surprise. State institutions such as Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWF) have been affected and state budgets have suffered. SWF will grow slowly and in many cases will see some...
As Terror Becomes Part of the “New Normal” in Tunisia, Business Learns to Cope with the Terror Risk
The recent terror attacks on two hotels in Sousse and in the Bardo Museum in Tunis had a direct negative impact on the critically important tourism industry. Bookings were canceled, so did the flights that linked Tunisia to Europe, affecting thousands of jobs amid...
Algeria Hard Currency Reserve Stood at $179 Bil in Dec 2014, Down 7.8% Year on Year
Algeria’s political and economic leaders have a big problem. The country’s foreign currency reserves stood at $178.9 billion at the end of December 2014. That’s not a bad number except that it fell 3.5% sequentially in just one month, which is compared to November...
Oil Companies Reassessing their Investments in Tunisia
For weeks now rumors of major oil companies preparing to leave Tunisia have circulated in the central administration and in the media. There is no concrete information about many of such exits, but rumors are swirling specifically about Shell and ENI, while the...
Morocco’s Billions Stashed in Private Swiss Accounts
It is not such a shocking news to learn that Africa’s political and business leaders have long been breaching the trust of their nations by moving money into confidential and untraceable offshore accounts. Corruption, a non-existent justice system, widespread fraud...
Governance in Tunisia: The Challenges of Restoring the Rule of Law
Now that Tunisia has managed to rebuild its government structures and a new constitution, how is it managing its transition to stability? The very existence of democratic institutions is indeed the first step, but such institutions alone do not guarantee a smooth path...
Lebanese CEO of Qatar Mobile Operator in Algeria Threatens Media
For a long time, many in the Algerian government have sought to curtail the power of the private and independent press. Using state-owned printing presses and the state advertisement agency, the government managed to put pressure on many private newspapers using such...
Death toll from Libya crises in 2014 exceeds 2,600 – 71% of the region’s casualties
The year 2014 ended with at least 3,771 fatalities from Critical Incidents in the Maghreb and Sahel zones, based on MEA Risk LLC’s tracking service CIncidents. With an intense political crisis affecting Libya, that country was home for nearly 71% of the casualties,...