The signing came ahead of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development, or TICAD, that opens in Nairobi on Saturday.

Under the agreement, the governments of Japan and the United States will promote investment in environmentally friendly energy sources in Africa. They will focus on jointly carrying out geothermal power generation development in East Africa.

In Africa, only 30 percent of the population has access to electricity. Securing new energy sources has become an urgent issue as the region's economy grows.

Ahead of the memorandum signing on Thursday, Japan International Cooperation Agency, or JICA, together with US aid organizations held a symposium in Nairobi on electric power development.

A JICA official pointed out that some areas in Africa have geological formations that make it easy to acquire high-temperature steam from underground.

The official said Japan can utilize the geothermal power generation technology it has developed as a result of its many volcanos.

The banks are working with London-based blockchain startup Clearmatics, and the official launch is expected in 2018, according to the media.

“Today trading between banks and institutions is difficult, time-consuming and costly, which is why we all have big back offices. This is about streamlining it and making it more efficient,” Julio Faura, head of R&D and innovation at Santander told the FT.

All four banks are members of the 50-strong R3 consortium of financial institutions exploring ways of blockchain usage in the financial system.

“You need a form of digital cash on the distributed ledger in order to get maximum benefit from these technologies. What that allows us to do is to take away the time these processes take, such as waiting for payment to arrive. That frees up capital trapped during the process,” said Hyder Jaffrey, head of financial technology innovation at UBS.

According to a report by a consulting firm Oliver Wyman, the world spends up to $80 billion every year to clear and settle trades.

If implemented, the new cryptocurrency would be the first to be used officially between major financial institutions. The concept resembles the IMF’s Special Drawing Right (SDR), introduced in 1964. Based on a basket of currencies (the US dollar, euro, the Japanese yen, pound sterling and the soon to be joined Chinese yuan this October), it is used to supplement the IMF’s member countries’ official reserve. As of March 2016, 204.1 billion SDRs equivalent to about $285 billion had been created and allocated to countries.

The company's first new model in Japan in about 10 years will hit the market in February. Prices start at around 240,000 dollars.

The vehicle is produced in the US state of Ohio. It has a hybrid system with a 581-horsepower engine and 3 electric motors to achieve powerful acceleration and high fuel economy.

After it debuted in 1990 in Japan, the NSX, with its powerful engine and aluminum body, became popular. But production was halted due to an economic slump and tighter environmental regulations.

Honda President Takahiro Hachigo says the automaker's principle is to continue making daily-use cars and those that focus on the joy of driving. He says reintroducing the NSX will help make the Honda brand more attractive.

Sports cars are becoming popular among young people and veteran drivers.

Competition in the market is heating up. Honda's domestic rivals Toyota and Nissan have also launched new models.

The group led by an astronomer at Queen Mary University of London used an observatory in Chile to study the fixed star, Proxima Centauri, first from 2000 through 2008 and again this year.

The team found that the planet 1.3 times the mass of Earth is orbiting the star. The group said the distance from Proxima Centauri allows liquid water to exist on the surface of the planet.

Numerous planets have been discovered beyond our solar system. But this is the first time that a planet similar to Earth has been found circling the star closest to Earth.

The team said currently available observation equipment is insufficient to establish whether the planet has water, an atmosphere, and other elements necessary for life.

Astronomers from the group hope a new space telescope, to be launched by the US space agency NASA next year or later, will help determine the existence of life on the planet.

China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) registered a nearly 97.9 percent decline in its net profit, making only 531 million yuan (almost 80 million U.S. dollars), while China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) saw a loss of 7.74 billion yuan.

However, the oil yields of CNPC and CNOOC rose 1.7 percent and 0.6 percent year on year, respectively.

Another oil giant, Sinopec Group has yet to release its half-year financial report.