Top development banks from the world’s richest countries made a landmark joint pledge on Monday to pump $80 billion into African companies and projects over the next five years.

The International Monetary Fund has estimated sub-Saharan Africa will need an additional $425 billion between now and 2025 to fight COVID-19 and reduce poverty levels now being exacerbated by the pandemic.

The region is also being hit hard by climate change and Monday’s $80 billion pledge was the first time the Development Finance Institutions (DFI) from the United States, Europe and other Group of Seven wealthy nations have made a collective commitment to the African continent. David Marchick, chief operating officer of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) said investing more in Africa was now “a top priority” under the Biden administration, while the head of the European Investment Bank, Werner Hoyer, which injected over 5 billion Euros ($6 billion) into Africa last year, said it was ready to co-operate further with African and multilateral partners.

The step comes as Western nations fight to counter rapidly expanding Chinese and Russian economic and political influence in Africa with its fast-growing populations and vast mineral resources.

Monday’s pledge followed the G7’s weekend promise to provide 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to poorer countries over the next year and news that they were also looking at reallocating another $100 billion from the IMF’s war chest to help with the economic fallout.

The scheme has faced setbacks though: production glitches, a lack of support from wealthy nations and a recent move by India, the biggest vaccine manufacturer, to curb its exports following its own massive spike in cases.

Britain’s competition watchdog is planning a formal competition investigation into e-commerce company Amazon.com, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.

Britain’s competition watchdog is planning a formal investigation into e-commerce giant Amazon.

That’s according to the Financial Times on Thursday (June 10), citing three people familiar with the situation.

The newspaper said the Competition and Markets Authority had been analysing Amazon’s business for months.

Focusing on how the online retailer uses the data it collects on its platform.

The report added that the regulator is scrutinising how Amazon decides which merchants appear in the crucial ‘buy box’.

That’s the white panel to the right-hand side of a product where buyers click to add the item to their cart.

And whether they favour sellers who use Amazon’s logistics and delivery services.

Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

The probe follows similar investigations into Amazon being conducted by the European Union.

British Telecoms group Vodafone has chosen Samsung Electronics to supply its 5G network equipment in Britain, the pair said on Monday.

British telecoms group Vodafone has chosen Samsung Electronics to supply its 5G network equipment in Britain.

It’s something of a breakthrough for the South Korean company in Europe’s telecoms gear market.

Mobile operators are increasingly considering Samsung to replace China’s Huawei as a supplier.

Executives from Spain’s Telefonica and France’s Orange have previously told Reuters that they’ve held talks with the firm.

Britain has already ordered all Huawei equipment to be removed from its 5G network by the end of 2027, citing national security risks.

Samsung is thought to be banking on Europe to maintain growth in its network equipment business as 5G rollouts widen.

The European telecoms equipment market is dominated by Nokia, Ericsson and Huawei.

But Samsung has entered the picture after it unexpectedly landed a $6 billion deal with U.S. giant Verizon in September.