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Author: James Ndwaru
I am a writer based in Kenya with over 10 years of experience in business, economics, technology, law, and environmental studies.
- An infusion of new investments and regulatory transformations is shaping financial interactions and digital payments in Africa.
- Africa’s digital payments operations produced around $24 billion in revenue in 2020, comprising domestic and cross-border payments.
- For Africa’s digital transition to run smoothly, a cohesive environment that ensures investment and funding remains necessary.
Human commerce constantly seeks more efficient exchange mediums, and this innovation is currently intensifying. Consequently, how individuals pay for products and services has changed dramatically in the 21st century. Digital payments in Africa are gradually replacing cash, and cryptocurrencies and virtual currencies have lately emerged as substitutes for conventional money concepts.
Africa has kept up with, and in some instances led, technological advancement. An infusion of new investments and regulatory transformations is shaping financial interactions and digital payments in Africa. Cash remains king in Africa. However, research indicates that its dominance may be challenged in the future years as …
The implications of fragmentation and polarization on Africa’s economic growth and whether these trends will continue are unknown. What is certain is that multilateral organizations will need to continue encouraging international dialogue to promote economic integration and collaboration. As a result, one problem that emerges is whether African nations would adopt a unified stance or take a non-aligned approach in the Sino-American dispute.…
Governments can play a crucial role in enhancing agricultural productivity in Africa for economic growth. Individual nations can accomplish this by establishing policy environments to promote agricultural investment, including providing tax incentives and subsidies to producers. Governments can also prioritize agricultural development in their national budgets by allocating a more significant proportion of their resources to the sector.…
China’s reduced lending to Africa has raised concerns about the future of Africa’s economic development and its relationship with China. The reduction in lending is due to a combination of factors, including the slowdown in the Chinese economy, the growing debt burden of African countries, and China’s increased selectivity in its lending.
The reduced lending has several implications for Africa’s economic future. African countries must find alternative sources of financing, a shift towards domestic resource mobilization, a change in the balance of power between China-African relations, and a potential slowdown in infrastructure development. African countries must navigate these changes carefully to ensure sustainable economic growth in the coming years.…
Among the various ways to strengthen the private sector and thus promote African trade, African governments must enable the private sector to play an active role in realising regional integration objectives.…
Given these large costs and the effect on Africa’s economic growth, it remains imperative to prevent the prevalence of conflicts. Several economic and structural factors, including low-income levels, poor growth outcomes, weak governance, state capacity, and inequality of opportunity—especially across ethnic, religious, and regional groups—increase the likelihood of conflict. Addressing these challenges would address political instability in Africa and prevent conflict.…
In the last 20 years, Africa’s external debt has grown fivefold to about $700 billion. According to Chatham House, a policy centre in London, Chinese lenders account for about 12 per cent of that amount. As of November 2022, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank considered 22 low-income African countries to either be in debt distress or facing potential external debt distress.…
According to SWIFT, African regions with strong integration saw increased use of local currencies and decreased use of hard currencies such as the US dollar. For instance, the use of the West African franc by the eight countries in the West African Economic and Monetary Union has overtaken the South African rand and the British West African pound.
This implies that boosting the use of regional currencies will shield the African trade market from adverse global conditions associated with the performance of US dollars. However, further regional coordination remains necessary to build a continental payment system that encourages the use of local correspondent banks and local currencies. These moves can help in managing currency depreciation to boost African trade finance. …
In recent months, the discourse about de-dollarisation has gained momentum. The sanctions against Russia have exposed the danger of over-dependence on the US dollar in international trade. The recent foreign exchange challenges have also recharged the growing efforts to bolster other currencies.
De-dollarisation could soon become a reality. A BRICS substitute to the dollar could enjoy high prospects for success, a former White House adviser, Joseph Sullivan, has noted. Sullivan served as a staff economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers during the Trump administration. According to him, a potential BRICS currency poses a unique threat to the dominance of the US dollar in international trade.…
In the past decade, nations around the world have sought to transition to an investment-focused strategy in Africa, recognizing the continent’s substantial $100 billion annual infrastructure financing gap. In this era of a global transition towards investment-focused strategies in Africa, Japan emerges as a proactive player, steering the trajectory toward sustainable growth with its substantial financial commitments and innovative initiatives.
Japan’s Active Position for Investing in Africa
While China’s Belt and Road Initiative dominated the global scene, Chinese lending to Africa has been on the decline since 2016. This has prompted a series of “Africa+1” summits in 2022, with countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, India, and Russia placing significant emphasis on investment and trade deals.
Among these nations, Japan has taken a proactive stance, particularly highlighted at the Eighth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) summit held in Tunisia last summer. Japan pledged an impressive $30 …