DEVELOPMENT: Nigeria Woos Foreign Firms to Invest in Farming

The government of President Olusegun Obasanjo has promised tax relief and a 2.5-percent tariff reduction to local and foreign firms willing to engage in large-scale farming of maize, wheat and rice in Nigeria.

POLITICS-BENIN: Women Eye Mayor’s Office

In Benin's first municipal and council elections scheduled for Dec 15, eight percent of the candidates vying for the 1,119 council seats will be women. These elections are part of the government's decentralisation plan.

DEVELOPMENT-BENIN: UN Funds GM Food Project

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has granted 170,000 U.S. dollars for a Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) project in Benin.

EDUCATION-DR CONGO: School-Age Children Engage in Cross-Border Trade

Jean Kalunga, 12, wakes up at dawn from his parents' home in Sodimico, a township in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Katanga Province, near Zambia. With his brother Kadzadi, aged nine, the two carry bundles of brooms, on their shoulders, to sell in Zambia.