Month: June 2020

The U.S. has announced that at least two of Zimbabwe’s national banks are now allowed to operate without sanctions.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control which operates under the US Treasury Department said Zimbabwe’s Infrastructure Development Bank of Zimbabwe and the Agricultural Development Bank of Zimbabwe are now removed from its black list.

It is now almost 20 years of sanctions for Zimbabwe so this development comes as a breath of fresh air for the otherwise economically suffocating country. The U.S., backed by the European Union imposed the sanctions back in 2002.

Ever since then, several state organs like the said banks and a host of several government officials were black listed for sanctions and restriction of movement following allegations of widespread human rights abuse.

Zimbabwe’s economy has ever since been on murky ground, inflation rate has been overboard hitting the highs of 600 percent. Only in May this year …

The IMF executive board approved a 12-month Stand by Arrangement (SBA) with the access of about $5.2 billion to help Egypt address balance of payment to finance COVID-19 needs.

The  Fund-supported program aims at helping Egypt cope with challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic by providing Fund resources to meet the country’s balance of payments needs and to finance the budget deficit.

The approval of the SBA enables the immediate disbursement of about $2 billion while the remainder will be phased over two reviews.

The SBA will also help support the government’s efforts to preserve the macroeconomic achievements made over the past four years and advance key structural reforms.

The advanced structural reforms will help improve governance and transparency, strengthen the frameworks for public finances, reduce hindrance to competition to move towards sustainable and inclusive private sector growth and support health and social spending to protect vulnerable groups.

In 2016 …

The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank board of directors approved €88 million in loans to Cameroon to finance COVID-19 crisis response. 

The loan to Cameroon’s COVID-19 Crisis Response Budget Support Programme (PABRC) is under the bank’s COVID-19 Rapid Response Facility (CRF) of up to $10 billion which is meant to cushion the impact of the pandemic on health and economy of African Countries. 

For instance, the pandemic has shown the structural weakness of Cameroon’s health system and economy and mostly the limited human and financial resources allocated to the health sector. 

Also Read: AfDB president woos UK investors to take advantage of AfCFTA

The COVID-19 Crisis Response Budget Support Programme (PABRC) aims at checking the spread of the virus, save lives and control the impact on the socio-economy of the country. 

The programme will ensure the reduction of case fatality and improving the …

President Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel once said “you never want a serious crisis to go to waste. It provides the opportunity to do things that were not possible to do before”.^[1] When the COVID-19 crisis hit the global north the fear was that it would be most devastating in Africa with Bill Gates predicting that ten million lives would be wiped out by the virus.^[2] But he was wrong because African leaders did what was not possible before – they locked down their countries and instituted adherence to the protocols of social distancing and washing of hands. These preventive measures and the sudden change of behavior slowed down the virus’s serious impact in Africa. According to Harvard Health preventing the spread of the virus is rooted in behavioral change.^[3] Starting up new behavior in the new normal was what the US and Europe could not …

Mozambique, Angola, Namibia, Ethiopia, Zambia, Rwanda, Uganda, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco.

These are the African countries set to be allowed to enter the EU territory as the borders reopen in July, according to a draft list of the countries obtained and reported by euronews.

As the European Union gets ready to reopen its borders, officials in Brussels are debating behind closed doors, the draft of two lists; one with those countries that will be accepted, and one for those which will not, as the territory struggle to meet their previously announced July 1st goal.

The euronews sources also reported that officials “could not reach an agreement”, that talks would continue and that the deadline to open the borders may very well be extended beyond July 1st, suggesting agreements will not be forthcoming in time.

Also read: Air passengers travel confidence key to salvaging African airlines

Notably, Brazil, Qatar, …

Since Bloomberg Philanthropies launched its $40 million COVID-19 Global Response Initiative three months ago, 31 African countries have been able to expand their public health efforts to minimize the impact of the pandemic.

The Bloomberg Philanthropies initiative which is in partnership with Resolve to Save Lives is also supporting the 31 countries in building public health systems to help them better respond to epidemics that might occur in the future.

“While many of the countries that were hit earliest by COVID-19 have seen their cases peak, many countries in Africa are just beginning to see a rapid increase in infections. That’s why Bloomberg Philanthropies is supporting efforts to strengthen the response across the continent, including training health care workers, expanding lab capacity, and bolstering public health systems. This urgently important work will reduce the burden on already overwhelmed health systems and save lives, especially in the most vulnerable communities,” said …

With Africa’s population expected to double by 2050, the continent must embrace modern technology to increase productivity.

More than 70 per cent of Africa’s food is grown on smallholder farms with the backbreaking physical labour majorly undertaken by women. The continent’s food production involves the hoe more than it does mechanised labour leading to decreased output.

One thing to note is that mechanisation is not limited to tractors but it also includes irrigation systems, food processing and related technologies and equipment in the agricultural production chain.

Read: COVID-19: Millions of smallholder farmers facing tough times ahead

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), agricultural mechanisation is the application of mechanical technology and increased power to agriculture to enhance the productivity of human labour and often to achieve results well beyond the capacity of human labour.

This includes the use of tractors of various types as well as animal-powered and …

The DRC’s untapped deposits of copper, gold, diamonds, cobalt, uranium and coltan are some of the raw minerals estimated to be worth more than US$ 24 trillion.…

Local IXPs are a critical piece of technical infrastructure that improves internet access.…

Following recent announcements from the government, Mozambique’s BNI (Banco Nacional de Investimentos) is about to launch two credit lines to assist the country’s SMEs to mitigate the effects of the COVID19 pandemic.

Small and medium companies represent the core of the country’s formal/ informal economy and have been heavily affected by the pandemic. The new credit lines are due to be officially announced by BNI this week and will address specifically SMEs, hospitality and education with an expected interest rate below the market rates.

Also Read: Legal pointers for Mozambique SMEs

The credit lines are meant to assist companies affected by COVID-19 in the entire country and are being financed by the government and the INSS. BNI expect the credit lines to address such issues as maintenance, restitution and the increase of jobs and household income as well as to provide some much breathing room cashflow in affected companies.

Although …