Year: 2020

The African Economic Outlook 2020 report prepared by the African Development Bank was praised at the 33rd African Union Summit in Addis Ababa for being an effective blueprint for addressing Africa’s human capacity gap.

The 2020 report, under the theme Developing Africa’s workforce of the future, was presented at a side event attended by civil society, policymakers, global and regional development organizations, the media and academia.

“The facts mentioned in the second part of this report are striking. It reminds us of the size of the investment that must be made in the development of human capital in Africa, an essential component for achieving productive transformation,” said Victor Harison, the African Union Commissioner for Economic Affairs.

Also Read: African Economic Outlook indicates steady growth through 2021

The African Economic Outlook has become the blueprint for planning and for sound economic research about Africa said the Secretary-General of the African Development …

Barclays Bank Kenya has successfully changed its name to Absa Bank Kenya marking an end to centuries of the domination of the banking sector by British banks. This follows the acquisition of Barclays Plc operations in Africa in 2017 by Absa Bank of South Africa in restructuring by the London-based lender.

These are some of the changes experienced in several countries across Africa as the Absa brand cements its presence in the continent, a market that was firmly held by Barclays brand for almost a century. Similar changes have happened in Ghana, Botswana, Seychelles and Tanzania.

With these changes, the bank is knocking doors in one of the biggest global lenders, the Multi Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) with an aim of creating a broader investment base for individual banks in several African countries.

Different Central Banks in the region require commercial banks to have a minimal investment base to enable …

MTN, South African multinational mobile telecommunications company is expecting to gather full-year headline profit up to 50 per cent, which is still a slow-down from the previous years attributed by interest on regulatory fines in Nigeria, Reuters reported.

According to Reuters, MTN, which is due to report 2019 results on March 11, 2020, said headline earnings per share (HEPS) would likely be within a range of 438 cents to 506 cents on the IFRS 16 accounting basis adopted at the start of the year.

That compares to 337 cents in the previous year. On a like-for-like IAS 17 accounting basis, MTN expects to report growth in HEPS – a key profit measure in South Africa that strips out one-off items – of between 55 per cent and 75 per cent.

However, that is still slower than the 85 per cent jump the company reported in 2018. It attributed the …

With more than 14 million people in Southern Africa facing acute hunger, non-governmental organisations are calling on the AU Heads of State to address the issue threatening lives in the region.

The NGOs comprising of Oxfam, CARE, Plan International and World Vision are also calling for the implementation of agricultural policies that will enable people to feed themselves in line with the AU’s Malabo Declaration’s commitment of investing 10 per cent of national budgets in agriculture.

In addition, Southern African leaders are being urged to increase investments in early warnings and early action systems on natural hazards and promote agroecological approaches to transition towards more just and sustainable food systems.

14.4 million people facing acute hunger

Severe food insecurity rates across 9 southern African countries are 140 per cent higher now than in 2018 primarily because people are being hit by weather extremes driven by climate change.

Across the Southern …

The state of data privacy is a widely discussed topic of conversation. The new EU data protection law is setting Kenya up for the next step towards foreign investment opportunities. In short, these new legal standards will place restrictions on the handling, storing and shareability of personal user data.

Following the announcement on 8 November 2019 that Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta signed the European Union General Data Protection Regulation, aligning Kenyan legislation with the EU, great interest was ignited as the new legislation offers more regulated safeguards against the misuse of personal information. Furthermore, it comes with a substantial fine of 3 million Shillings or a two-year jail sentence, should the terms be violated.

Digital-lending apps, in particular, have come under scrutiny for malicious attacks that gain access to smartphone data without consent to determine creditworthiness. With mobile technology and digital apps on the rise, we’ve already started to see …

Nigerian fintech start-up, Aella has raised a $10m debt financing round, from HQ Financial Group (HQF), Singapore-based private company specializing in new material science, semiconductor and blockchain financial investments.

This debt financing round is Aella’s second raise and will bolster the company’s commitment to serve the underbanked population in West Africa and other emerging markets. The FinTech is focused on improving financial inclusion for West Africa’s low-income segment.

Aella was founded in late 2015 by Akin Jones, CEO and Akanbi Wale, CTO in Lagos, Nigeria and has remained committed to building trustworthy credit for emerging markets with an initial focus on Nigeria and the Philippines, where the company is licensed to operate. Aella has made a visible impact on the lives of more than 300k borrowers across its Employer Backed and Direct to Consumer Verticals, who now have access to simple financial products.

For millions of poor and low-income households, …

South Africa has fallen to third place due to its constrained economic growth according to RMB’s “2020 Where to Invest in Africa” report.

But the country still holds its place as Africa’s bastion of a well-developed financial and capital market.
The report said the JSE remained Africa’s most liquid stock exchange with an excess of $1.4 billion traded daily. Which is much higher than Egypt’s Cairo Stock Exchange which trades $44 million a day.

According to RMB report, South Africa also ranked highly on other financial market depth measures such as private credit as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP), showing that consumers have access to a wider range of financial instruments compared to other African countries.

The report showed, however, South Africa’s ease of doing business ranking in the last few years has slipped but it remains one of the top ten easiest operating environments in Africa.

Also

The South African Airways (SAA) will stop all its flights to Entebbe International Airport effective end of this month. February flight schedule for remains unchanged though.

The move is part of the airline restructuring plan intended to support its transformation into a profitable and sustainable business.

“On 29th February, SAA will close the following regional and international services from Johannesburg to Abidjan via Accra, Entebbe, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Luanda, Munich, Ndola, and Sao Paulo,” the joint Business Rescue Practitioners (BRPs) of SAA announced yesterday in a press statement published on the company website.

Despite the airline ceasing some flights, it has retained some regional services including flights from Johannesburg to Blantyre, Dar es Salaam, Lusaka, Lagos, Harare, Kinshasa, Lilongwe, Maputo, Nairobi, Mauritius, Victoria Falls, Livingston and Windhoek.

“The initiatives we are taking now will strengthen SAA’s business. We believe that this should provide reassurance to our loyal customers that SAA …

Shanta Gold, the London Stock Exchange-listed gold miner with interests in southern Tanzania has announced plans to take over the gold prospecting activities in Kenya, formerly held by Barrick Gold.

The East Africa-focused gold producer announces that it has entered into a definitive agreement pursuant to which it will purchase 100% of the shares of Barrick’s subsidiary Acacia Exploration (Kenya) Ltd. from two subsidiaries of Barrick Gold Corporation.

The West Kenya license holds about 1.18 million ounces of gold with a grade of 12.6 grams per tonne (g/t believed to be one of the highest grading +1 Moz gold deposits in Africa. The project covers 1,161 sq km within the Lake Victoria greenstone gold field located in NW Tanzania and SW Kenya and home to Global Tier 1 assets including North Mara and Geita Gold Mine.

Eric Zurrin, Chief Executive Officer noted the acquisition of the Western Kenya project solidifies …

Last year, during the Dubai Africa Summit in Dubai, African leaders were entertained with various proposals on how to promote trade and commerce with the United Arab Emirates. The meeting sought to increase the influence of the Arabian country in Africa including private business ventures as well as intergovernmental relations.

During this event last year, UAE announced that it expects its non-oil trade to exceed AED 1 trillion for the period extending from 2011 until the end of 2019. Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry also announced that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs (GDRFA) and Dubai Free Zone Council to launch the “Be Part of Dubai” initiative which will see 200 prominent African investors receive UAE Golden Residency Visas.

This trend is catching up with Dubai 2020 commencing at the Africa Union summit. The UAE’S Consortium for Africa…