Author: Caroline Muriuki

South African Aerospace, Maritime, and Defence Export Council (SAAMDEC) CEO Sandile Ndlovu urged the South Africa defence industry to cultivate a healthy interest in the Egyptian market.

Speaking at the outward trade and investment mission (OTIM) in Egypt, Mr Ndlovu said the export council’s mission was spearheaded on a two-pronged approach.

“The first was to formally introduce the South African defence industry to the market and acknowledging the efforts of individual companies that have been interacting with the Egyptian defence. The second was to identify areas where South Africa and Egypt could cooperate in the defence space8,” he said.

He said that their first interactions with the Egyptian private sector occurred during a defence exhibition held in Egypt last year. Adding that with the interactions they have had during the event, they have found that there is a lot of interest to cooperate with them specifically on promotion and marketing …

The European Investment Bank (EIB) recently partnered with the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank (TDB) to open a $120 million credit line to finance renewable energy projects for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The agreement was signed between the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Trade and Development Bank of Eastern and Southern Africa (TDB), a commercial bank owned by the Member States of COMESA, the World Bank (AfDB) and China on the sidelines of the 9th Summit of Heads of State and Government of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Countries

The partnership agreement was signed by EIB Vice-President, Ambroise Fayolle and Admassu Tadesse, President and CEO of TDB. The agreement provides a line of credit to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) investing in renewable energy and energy efficiency.

Also Read: French Development Agency provides $30 million for African SMEs

Companies have the means to bypass …

The African Development Bank’s flagship initiative, Fashionomics Africa launched the pilot phase of a digital marketplace to help Africa’s fashion designers, textile and accessories professionals connect with global markets.

The launch took place at the Global Gender Summit, attended by more than 1,500 representatives from multilateral development banks, financial institutions, governments and private sector leaders in Kigali, Rwanda.

The Fashionomics Africa digital marketplace website and mobile app is sponsored by the Fund for African Private Sector Assistance. It is the latest innovation from Fashionomics Africa, a platform which enables African entrepreneurs from the textile, apparel and accessories industries to create and grow their businesses, with a focus on opportunities for women and young people.

“It is the first-ever B2B (Business-to-Business) and B2C (Business-to-Consumer) platform that has ever been created for, micro, small and medium-sized enterprises that are working along this value chain,” said Dr. Jennifer Blanke, the Bank’s …

Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) gave $81.30 to Mozambique’s national energy utility, Electricidade De Mocambique (EDM) for the rehabilitation and upgrading of the energy supply network.

This financing support is in line with Mozambique’s 2030 plan to upgrade its power network for it to provide universal electricity access.

Electricidade De Mocambique has launched several projects focusing on strengthening the transmission grid and improving distribution capacity in the country.

Phase one is ready for implementation. It comprises of two out of twelve projects located at Pemba City and Maputo City at an estimated cost of $81.30 million.

Also Read: African Development Banks and ABSA sign Risk Participation Agreement

The DBSA loan facility will be advanced directly to EDM as a 15-year senior debt facility.

Banco Nacional de Investimento (BNI), Mozambique’s development bank served as the project’s evaluation partner and providing capital raising and advisory services.

Development Bank of Southern Africa …

The French Development Agency (AFD) is to provide about $30 Million through its African Guarantee Fund (AGF) for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises.

The fund is meant to help improve access to credit to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) throughout Africa.

The sub-participation agreement of the $30 million funds was signed by Mr Rémy Rioux, AFD Chief Executive Officer and Mr Félix Bikpo, AGF Group Chief Executive.

The agreement signed between AFD and AGF broadens the existing cooperation between the two entities, by providing AGF with a counter-guarantee of $30 million, using the ARIZ risk-sharing mechanism which is a support for the risk of financing private investment.

The risk-sharing mechanism is in a final loss guarantee offered to financial institutions by AFD to cover 50 per cent to 75 per cent of an individual loan or a loan portfolio for microfinance institutions (MFIs) and SMEs.

The counter-guarantee will enable AGF to …

European Union (EU) financial aid for Morocco for the year 2014 to 2018, provided limited added value and ability to support reforms in the country, according to a new report from the European Court of Auditors (ECA).

The auditors said that the European Commission addressed the needs identified in national and EU strategies, but it spread the funding across too many areas, which may have weakened its impact.

The auditors also found the Commission’s management of budget support programmes for Morocco being affected by weaknesses in the way they were designed, implemented and monitored and also in the assessment of results.

Also Read: European Union out to get more Kenyans study abroad

The European Union is Morocco’s biggest donor of development aid. For the period between 2014-2020, the Commission programmed €1.4 billion of aid, mainly for the three priority sectors the rule of law, social services and sustainable growth.

By …

Africa’s water sectors and users are being forced into the innovation lane at a time when water quality infrastructure are falling.

A study by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2014, revealed that the annual funding gap for infrastructure in sub-Saharan Africa ranges close to $50 billion with water alone using $11 billion.

In 2018, the African Development Bank put Africa’s infrastructure funding gap between $130 and $170 billion per year.

Also Read: Tanzania’s lake zone waterways get $38 million financing

According to the OECD study, a quarter of the 1.2 billion population in sub-Saharan Africa have no close source of clean drinking water while another 700 million are without decent sanitation. This is despite falling investment in water infrastructure leading to limit access to safe water and ease of doing business.

International Consortium for Africa indicates that in 2016 without donor and other external financings, funding …

Finland to contribute €68.4 million to the restoration of the African Development Fund (AfDF). Finland’s pledge consists of a grant and a concessional loan to be presented next year

The fund is the concessional window of the African Development Bank Group. Finland is also preparing a loan of  €80 million for the African Development Fund . The fund grants concessional loans to Africa’s poorest countries. The fund is usually restored after every three years.

More than 30 donor countries and representatives of African countries reached an agreement on the restoration of the AfDF for 2019–2022. The donor countries’ development cooperation funding totalled to €5.5 billion of the total financing package of €6.8 billion.

Also Read: Finland Economic Affairs minister leads trade mission to Kenya

Finland’s pledge means a 45% increase on the €62.8 million contributed in the 2016–2019 replenishment round.
The objectives of the AfDF are in line with Finland’s …

Ghana hosts the 17th Meeting of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Negotiating Forum which began on Tuesday this week at the Accra International Conference Centre.

An official statement, issued by Ghana’s Public Relations Office of the Ministry of Trade said the three-day meeting would be followed by the 10th meeting of the Committee of Senior Trade Officials which will begin from December 12 to 13, 2019. While the African Ministers of Trade Meeting and the AfCFTA Council of Ministers Meeting will follow from December 14 to 15, 2019.

According to the statement, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Negotiating Forum will seek to finalise outstanding works on the first phase negotiations which deal with the trade in goods and services protocols and dispute settlement mechanisms.

The meeting will also see the establishment of technical Working Groups on investments, competition policy and intellectual property rights.

AfCFTA is a …

A special committee has been started to promote trade and investment and enhance the business relationship between Ghana and Japan.

The committee is made up of high-level Ghanaian government representatives selected from the ministries of Finance, Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Trade and Industry and Business Development and from the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC).

Japan is being represented by officials from the Japanese Embassy in Ghana, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the Japan External Trade Organisation (JATRO) and Japanese private sector participants.

The committee is known as the Ghana-Japan Business Promotion Committee (GJBPC) and will serve as a high-level partnership mechanism to facilitate mutual investment, trade and business interest between the Ghana and Japan.

It will also serve as a vehicle to drive a strategic economic partnership by promoting and supporting Ghanaian businesses in Japan and Japanese businesses in Ghana. It will also promote Ghana as an entry point …