Author: Caroline Muriuki

Gambia’s economy is losing $83 million a year due to the effects of child undernutrition, according to a new study released in Banjul yesterday.

The loss is about 5.1 per cent of the country’s annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

According to a study by the multi-agency Cost of Hunger in Africa (COHA) increased healthcare costs, additional burdens to the education system and reduced workforce productivity are the ways through which losses incurred each year.

“It is alarming that we are losing 5.1 per cent of our National GDP annually because of the consequences of child undernutrition on school performance, health and productivity,” said H.E. Dr Isatou Touray, the Vice President of Gambia.

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“The Government of Gambia is committed to working with all partners through the NDP to build a prosperous nation with a healthy and well-developed human resource,” she said during the launch …

The European Investment Bank (EIB) and UNICEF announced a new partnership aimed at increasing access to quality education and protecting children from climate change.

Under a Memorandum of Understanding signed by EIB Group President Werner Hoyer and UNICEF Executive Director, Henrietta Fore signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that the two institutions are committed to jointly investing in quality education and skills training for the most vulnerable children. Community-based climate adaptation initiatives in schools and health facilities will be scaled up by both institutions.

“The social agenda of this European Commission aims for a more certain future for our children and young people. We want to protect them from poverty and make sure they have access to the skills and training they need to navigate the green and digital transitions. Nobody should be left behind. I welcome today’s agreement between the EIB and UNICEF which captures that very same ethos.” …

Ride the wave of the African Continental Free Trade Area, African Development Bank (ADB) president Adesina Urged United Kingdom investors.

Speaking at the UK Parliamentary Symposium, Mr Adesina said Africa is on the cusp of unmatched economic transformation and the United Kingdom must engage in a partnership of change.

“The Africa of the 21st century is very different. The Africa of the 21st century is new and more confident,” he said
The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Africa with the Royal African Society, Oxford Brookes University, and the Trade Justice Network organized the symposium under the theme UK-Africa Trade and Brexit.

Adesina said that Africa and the United Kingdom should be significant trading partners. “The reality, however, is that UK’s trade with Africa is trending downwards. From a $49 billion peak in 2012, trade decreased to $30.6 billion in 2018,” he noted.

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Equatorial Guinea has kicked off a year of long investment 2020 campaign aimed at driving capital investment into the country’s bankable projects.

In 2020, major United State firms have pledged to increase their investment in Equatorial Guinea along with Nigerian banking and financial institutions. The notable projects which are ready for investments include the construction of two modular oil refineries, a urea plant, an ammonia plant and a gold refinery.

The first investment event to be hosted in the country will be the Africa Oil & Investment Forum & Exhibition hosted in Malabo from April 1st to 2nd.

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The country’s Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons (MMH) officially launched its Year of Investment campaign, with commitments from a series of foreign investors to increasing planned investment in the country in 2020.
Equatorial Guinea’s objective is to engage with financial entities and engines …

Egypt is among the top ten emerging economies worldwide, Egypt’s Minister of Planning and Economic Development Hala Al-Saeed said on the sidelines of the UK-Africa Investment Summit 2020 in London.

Saeed claimed that now is the best time to invest in Egypt, adding that the economic reforms undertaken by the Egyptian government are what helped the country to make the list of the world’s top-ten emerging economies.

She explained that Egypt has a very large market, with 60 per cent being the youth and the whole world is looking at investment in human capital.

Saeed added that Egypt has embarked on a wide range of reforms to invest in infrastructure, such as the development of the road network and the energy and electricity sectors, as well as the development of Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone).

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“The Suez Canal economic zone …

President Yoweri Museveni got assurance on Uganda’s beef exports to Britain and a commitment of $19.6 million funding at the UK-Africa Investment Summit.

The funding pledge is part of a $419 million UK Aid package for the 21 countries invited to the investment Summit.

The funding is intended to start a new phase of financial sector development (FSD) across Africa, to increase the existing financial sector programmes, set up and scale up new FSDs in high priority markets, including Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Ghana and the West African Monetary Union.

The State House of Uganda said that President Museveni held a bilateral meeting at the sidelines of the summit with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

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President Museveni asked UK’s prime minister to encourage more British firms to invest in Uganda, saying that the country has vast investment opportunities in the …

Rwanda is eyeing an economic boost from its inaugural $40 million bond, which was issued at the UK-Africa Investment Summit 2020.

The  World Bank issued the Rwandan franc-denominated paper to finance government projects in the 2019-2020 financial year budget. The bond offers investors an annual coupon of 9.25 per cent which will mature on January 20, 2023.

“The World Bank has a big portfolio of investors, which the country will be banking on,” said Celestin Rwabukumba, the chief executive officer of Rwanda Stock Exchange.

The bond is the seventh in sub-Saharan African that the World Bank has issued. It is expected to increase confidence and help attract foreign private investment that the country needs to achieve sustainable long term economic growth.

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“Capacity building in local capital markets is a critical component of international development finance. This transaction highlights the potential to …

The Italian Development Cooperation contributed more than €4.55 million to two United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) projects in Egypt and Iraq.

A signing ceremony to launch the projects took place at the UNIDO headquarters.

The Egypt project was developed after an in-depth analysis of the Egyptian tomato value chain. Egypt is the world’s fifth-largest producer of tomatoes producing about eight million tonnes of fresh tomatoes per year. Suitable climate, dual seasonality and fertile lands attributed to the success of the crop. However, only three to four per cent of the tomato crop is processed, with the processing sector affected by lack of integration with the supply chain.

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The project will boost the linkages between supply and processing factories, improve the technical skills of workers and managers in the factories, improve the quality of production and processing of tomatoes and expand …

Israel began exporting natural gas to Egypt on Wednesday being one of the most important deals the countries have been signed since they made peace decades ago.

Dolphinus Holdings, a private firm in Egypt will purchase 85 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas, worth an estimated $19.5 billion, from Israel’s Leviathan and Tamar offshore fields over 15 years.

Yossi Abu, CEO of Israel’s Delek Drilling, one of the partners in Leviathan and Tamar, said the landmark arrangement “marks a new era in the Middle East energy sector.”

two Egyptian industry sources said that Israel will initially export 200 million cubic feet of gas per day to Egypt,
According to Delek, by the second half of 2022 gas from Leviathon will be supplied to Dolphinus at a rate of 2.1 billion cubic meters per year, increasing to 4.7 billion cubic meters per year.

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The United Kingdom and Egypt announced the establishment of an economic partnership to implement Egypt’s Vision 2030 initiative.

Egypt and the United Kingdom are seeking to improve education and health care as well as promote trade and investment.

According to the partnership, the UK announced it would provide Egypt with £13 million to help accomplish comprehensive economic growth, empower youth, social development, support the neediest groups and develop the business environment.

Also within the framework of this partnership, to support financial inclusion, the Uk will grant Egypt £3 million and about £8 million to increase employment opportunities for young people through developing capacity building programs and supporting the development of the higher education system.

Also Read: UK-Africa Investment Summit 2020

The statement also said that the two countries will work together to prepare technical studies and feasibility studies to implement a number of sustainable infrastructure projects to increase private sector …