Month: July 2020

The elephant population in Tanzania has increased from 43,330 in 2014 to over 60,000 this year. The government attributes the increase to crackdown on poaching syndicates.

A key figure in the poaching and black market trade of ivory, was arrested denting the industry greatly. Christened, the “Ivory Queen” Yang Fenglan, a prominent Chinese businesswoman was last year sentenced to at least 15 years in prison.

However, by time of her arrest, it is estimated she alone was responsible for the smuggling numerous tones of ivory to China. Yang was tried and found guilty of operating one of Africa’s biggest ivory-smuggling rings. By the of her arrest, she is said to have been responsible for smuggling ivory worth over USD2.5m. That value is estimated to have been derived from the slaughter of almost 400 elephants.

Following her arrest, activists suffered a great lose with the murder of Roger Gower in 2016. …

Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), an investment multilateral finance institution has issued a CHF bond that matures in 2023 and which has already oversubscribed.

AFC invests in high-quality infrastructure assets that provide essential services in the core infrastructure sectors of power, natural resources, heavy industry, transport, and telecommunications.

To date, the Corporation has invested over USD6.6 billion in projects within 30 countries across Africa.

This latest bond issue has attracted great investment across Europe with AFC saying ‘it received strong investor interest from private banks and asset managers, and the bond has experienced an over subscription.’

“The response to our second Swiss Franc bond issue has been overwhelmingly positive with order-books three-times oversubscribed,” said Samaila Zubairu, President& CEO of AFC.

ALSO READ: Your money rots when you keep it in the bank

The CEO also pointed out that ‘the strong appetite for AFC bonds is further testimony of investor confidence in …

Mozambique has already set an example of sound policy and governance…

Egypt sees a 3.2 per cent increase in its total exports to the world trade organisations member countries in 2019.

The export increased to $29.8  billion in 2019 compared to the $28.9 billion recorded in 2018. The statistics came in the Annual Bulletin of Intraregional Trade Groups 2019 by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS).

CAPMAS report covers intraregional trade organisations in which Egypt is a member state. These include the Community of Sahel-Saharan States, COMESA, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), the Arab Free Trade Area, the Group of 15 and the Developing Eight Islamic Countries Group (D-8).

According to the report, in 2019, Egypt recorded the largest amount of export to the Arab Free Trade Area with $10.1billion compared to $9.5 billion in 2018, an increase of 5.9 per cent. It was followed by Egypt’s export to United Nations Economic …

Tanzania has lost a vibrant development champion, energetic politician and a great diplomat, Benjamin William Mkapa—the third President of Tanzania. The tragic news of his passing came to the public via the Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation (TBC) where the current President John Magufuli told the nation Mkapa died at a Dar es Salaam hospital, on the night of July 23.

“Our beloved Benjamin William Mkapa, the third president has passed away at a Dar es Salaam hospital where he was admitted,” President Magufuli said.

The late president was in office from 1995 to 2005, whereby during his tenure, Mkapa became an important figure in Tanzania politics and development horizon, by rolling in rather vital and strategic policies and initiatives to streamline Tanzania’s economic vision.

As a journalist, diplomat and a well-groomed politician under the late Julius Nyerere, Mkapa came to office with a clear-cut goal to eliminate corruption—leading to the creation …

The European Union commission is giving €64.7 million in its humanitarian aid for countries in the southern Africa region.

The funds are to help support people in need dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, extreme weather conditions such as persistent drought and other crises in the region.

“The EU is helping to provide life-saving assistance to impoverished households suffering from crop and livestock losses due to drought. The aid package will also strengthen the preparation and response to the coronavirus pandemic for countries in the region. In parallel, the EU is helping communities better prepare for natural hazards and reduce their impact.”  Said Janez Lenarčič, Commissioner for Crisis Management.

Funds from this package will go towards humanitarian projects with Botswana getting €1.95 million, Comoros €500,000, Angola €3 million, Eswatini €2.4 million, Mozambique €14.6 million, Namibia €2 million,  Lesotho €4.8 million, Madagascar €7.3 million, Malawi €7.1 million, Mauritius €250,000, Zambia €5 million …

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) Executive Board approved $7.6 million debt relief for Burundi due over the next three months.

The debt relief which is under the Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust are due from July 21, 2020, to October 13, 2020. The International Monetary Fund will grant an additional debt relief covering the period from October 14, 2020, to April 13, 2022, which will be subject to availability of resources in the CCRT potentially bringing total relief to an equivalent of $24.97 million.

The debt relief will help free up resources for the needs of the public sector as well as other emergency spending and help ease the balance of payments shock posed by the pandemic.

Also Read: IMF boosts Kenya, Uganda virus fight with $1.23 billion

Burundi’s effects from the pandemic are through the evolving domestic outbreak and economic spillovers from the global and regional environment.

The 2020 …

The African Development Bank signed a senior loan of $400 million to co-finance the construction of Mozambique’s integrated Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG).

The Mozambique LNG Area 1 Project is ranked Africa’s single largest foreign direct investment to date estimated to cost over $20 billion. The project comprises of a global team of energy operators and developers led by ONGC Videsh Limited, Total alongside Mitsui, Bharat Petroleum, PTT Exploration, Oil India and ENH, Mozambique’s national oil and gas company.

The project includes both offshore and onshore components which will be covered by a combination of over $14 billion in senior debt facilities, equity and pre-completion cashflows. The senior debt facility consists of a mix of commercial bank loans, African development bank loan and Export Credit Agency (ECA) direct loans

LNG benefits from one of the world’s largest natural gas reserves off the coast of northern Mozambique. Its financial close is expected …

Modern technologies increase skill premiums and thus can worsen income inequality by replacing low-skilled manual jobs…

Partners of the  Africa Investment Forum said the increased and decisive investment will be the channel for Africa’s economic recovery post-COVID-19.

The partners expressed their confidence in Africa’s potential to recover from the ongoing crises in the economy and health.

“Africa will come out of this pandemic, tough as it is, and will build better and stronger economies. As partners of the Africa Investment Forum, the premier investment platform for Africa, our gaze must be clear; help Africa reboot its economy,” said African Development Bank President Dr Akinwumi Adesina, during a two-day virtual meeting for Africa Investment Forum founding, institutional and knowledge partners.

During the virtual meeting, the Africa Investment Forum revealed 15 projects under its Unified COVID-19 Response identified across five sectors for priority funding consideration. The five sectors include energy, agriculture and agro-processing, health, ICT and telecoms and industrial and trade.

The 15 deals are from the forum’s …