Month: August 2020

Rwanda is moving to cement its position as the financial capital of Africa by drawing in different investments and partnerships.  Such partnerships include developing Kigali as a financial hub through the Kigali International Finance Centre, a hub supported by government-owned Rwanda Finance.

CDC Group, the UK’s development finance institution and impact investor, in June signed a partnership agreement with Rwanda Finance to support the development of a new international financial capital for Africa.

The Kigali International Financial Center (KIFC) is intended to be a world-class financial hub, designed to promote inward investment and the creation of thousands of highly skilled financial sector jobs for the benefit of Rwanda and the African continent.

This partnership will see CDC provide the expertise that will help shape a strong legal and regulatory framework that is designed to attract institutional investors seeking to finance African businesses through a world-class financial center.

Rwanda Finance was …

Many investors are targeting the sector which has helped expand financial inclusion in Sub Saharan Africa.…

Rwanda is the first country in Africa to fully comply with ICAO’s biosecurity recommendations.…

While bitcoin is oft-touted as “digital-gold,” it sold off the hardest when the pandemic hit.…

Five years ago in 2015, Tanzania voted in a new president, Dr. John Magufuli. One of his very first moves was to stop the country’s annual Independence Day celebrations and instead the millions that would otherwise go into the traditional parade were directed to infrastructure—the congested New Bagamoyo Road expansion. 

That year, to celebrate Independence Day, Tanzania held a national cleanup campaign. The President and his deputy, Vice President Honourable Samia Suluhu led the country in cleaning the environment. 

I do not mean they signed some environment pollution documents; the president in person walked out of the State House and collected trash, not in his backyard, no, but all the way down to the filth–piled fish market, several meters from the State House. 

If anything, the cleanup was symbolic of what was to come under his presidency. Little …

The quarterly economic bulletin published by Bank of Tanzania (BoT) has provided promising prospects for Tanzania’s fast-growing economy.  

The Q2 report for the period ending June 2020 recorded satisfactory performance in a few sectors despite the coronavirus grip. 

In the reporting period, real gross domestic product grew by 5.7 per cent which is slower than 6.3 per cent in the corresponding quarter in 2019.  In the same period, Tanzania attained a lower-middle–income status as categorized by the World Bank. 

According to the central bank’s bulletin, construction, agriculture, transport and storage, mining and quarrying sectors all together were accountable for the 60 per cent mark on growth. 

As Tanzania keeps its mast strong amid fears of the virus, the BoT bulletin depicts inflation was sustained, while monetary policies and enhanced liquidity were responsible for cushioning the financial sector from COVID-19 …

By mid this year, a lot was going on in Africa especially with the covid-19 pandemic which was eclipsing many other issues on the continent no matter the importance.…

Africa’s aviation could lose up to $35 billion according to data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) compared to its previous estimates of a $28 billion decline.

This is due to the worsening of the impact of Covid-19 on Africa’s aviation industry and economies since IATA’s previous assessment in April.

According to IATA, job losses in aviation and related industries could increase by up to 3.5 million. This is more than half of Africa’s 6.2 million aviation-related employment and 400,000 more than the previous estimate.

The whole of 2020 traffic is expected to plummet by 54 per cent which is more than 80 million passenger journeys compared to last year’s estimated fall of 51 per cent.

”Covid-19 has devastated African economies and brought air connectivity across the continent to a virtual standstill. And the situation is getting worse. The economic consequences resulting from a disconnected continent are severe. Millions …

The government of Burkina Faso and the US government’s Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) signed a $450 million compact agreement to address low access to electricity in the country.

The compact deal will invest in the power sector to broaden and sustain the country’s economic growth.

“We are marking a new chapter in the partnership between the United States and the people of Burkina Faso with the signing of this second MCC-Burkina Faso Compact,” said Sean Cairncross MCC CEO.

“This compact will address the high cost, poor quality, and low access to electricity in Burkina Faso and will also support the country’s increased participation in regional power markets and the development of a potential MCC regional investment.” He added

In addition to the $450 million pledged by the MCC for the second compact, Burkina Faso’s government pledged to invest $50 million toward the compact’s projects.

An estimate of 8 million people …

South Africa’s declining GDP is expected to set back efforts to address unemployment, poverty and inequality according to a new United Nations Development Programme study on the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 in South Africa by at least five years.

The gross domestic product (GDP) of South Africa is expected to  5.1 per cent and 7.9 per cent in 2020 and recover slowly for at least the next four years.

The study was launched by  Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma South Africa’s Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs.

The study focused on how COVID-19 will drive temporary and long-term changes in poverty levels in the country. According to the study, the number of households below the poverty line will increase as households fall from the lower middle class.

As South Africa’s  6-month stimulus packages come to an end, 54 per cent of households that have been pushed out of the permanent job …