Les Afriques, a new financial paper

Against this background, a group of African, French and Swiss investors have launched Les Afriques, a new francophone financial journal that aims to fill the gap in financial news on Africa.

Les Afriques, a weekly newspaper put on page in Geneva and printed in Paris, addresses all the actors of the African economy as well as some of the 10 million Europeans originating from Africa, of which more than 20% are university educated.

Distributed in Africa and Europe to a francophone public by Nouvelles Messageries de la Presse Parisienne (NMPP), the first issue of Les Afriques was supported by BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse, Osmose Finance, Dunavant, SGI Consulting SA, Cotecna, and Salon International Multisectoriel d'Abomey (SMA).

"Les Afriques aims to inform investors, executives and all those interested in Africa, about the efforts of development currently taking place there," Adama Wade, Director of Finance at Les Afriques in Casablanca told RAP 21. "The traditional media approach to covering Africa is based on the stereotypes and images of war, famine and coups d'etat. Les Afriques offers an alternative to these perceptions of a continent with uninterrupted growth and aspires to facilitate further development."

The first edition of the newspaper, which is available through August in kiosks, is printed in a Berliner format and on salmon coloured paper. As of September 2007, issues will appear every Wednesday.

"The need for financial information in French is obvious. Africa is experiencing not only full economic change but also political change. The private sector plays an increasing role in this process and information is necessary and essential not only to political circles in Africa but also to all Africans. It is thus logical to collect relevant information and to place it at the disposal of all actors in Africa today," Wade said.

The direction of Les Afriques is coordinated between three offices in Africa, each overseeing its own specialized topic. An office in Casablanca, where African derived products first appear on the stock exchange, directs Finance, while the office in Algiers oversees Economics and Politics, leaving Public Management and Cooperation to be directed in Dakar.

Additional offices in other African countries will be set up in September. The direction of Les Afriques says that such a structure offers a solid network of correspondents and experts in finance and economics both in Africa and abroad.

"Being produced in three offices in Africa guarantees both the topicality and the anchoring of the African information which we disseminate. Africans on the continent, the African Diaspora, friends of Africa and all those interested in Africa will be able to find answers to the financial questions they raise concerning Africa as well as background information necessary to form their own opinion," Chérif Elvalide Seye, Director of Public Management and Cooperation in Dakar, told RAP 21.

"We intend to be successful by being the most professional and to inform fairly and truthfully on the economy and finances of the continent. We want to offer our readers information relevant to them," he added.

The launch of Les Afriques follows a recent trend to bring pertinent business and financial news to a continent traditionally seen as unstable. Just months prior to the launch of Les Afriques, CNBC Africa debuted in May, becoming sub-Saharan Africa's first international business news channel.

In an interview appearing online at LesAfriques.com, Philippe Séchaud, one of the founders of the paper and administrator in Geneva commented on the role of such news in African development.

"Africa is not only rich in immense human capital and natural resources, but also with massive dormant savings, a financially powerful Diaspora and a potential of growth and development which one can begin to see," he said. "To make the most of all these resources and mobilize this capital, the African continent must close the deficit of information, and moreover, its abyssal deficit of confidence."

Source: Arab Press Network