Digital Marketing Deal: 365 Digital expanded its Google Ads partnership, becoming the authorised Google Ads sales representative across Côte d’Ivoire, Mauritius, Seychelles and Réunion, and set up an Africa Centre of Excellence to support advertisers with strategy, optimisation and training. Insurance & Climate Finance: African Risk Capacity (ARC) appointed David Maslo as CEO, highlighting its push to strengthen disaster risk insurance and expand flood coverage after record premium growth and relocation to Abidjan. Telecom Resilience: CSquared added capacity on the 2Africa West submarine cable to improve route diversity and connectivity resilience for West and Central Africa, citing past disruptions near Côte d’Ivoire. Mining & Investment: Predictive Discovery will invest about $10m for a ~12.3% stake in Awalé Resources, targeting large-scale gold in north-west Côte d’Ivoire at the Odienné project. Cocoa Value Addition: West African cocoa producers signed the Abuja Declaration to create a Cocoa Value Addition Alliance aimed at moving from raw bean exports to local processing, factories and jobs. Energy Policy Platform: The APPO NOC-CEO Forum in Cape Town (Oct 12) will focus on integrating Africa’s oil and gas value chain, including refining expansion and regional gas market harmonisation.