Author: Francis Mwema

South Africa remains one of the most important trading partners for Zimbabwe; with Zimbabwe importing 40% of its total imports and exporting 75% of its total exports to South Africa.

Since 2007, South Africa has always maintained a trade surplus with Zimbabwe with the surplus widening over the review period mainly attributed to the economic instability experienced in Zimbabwe and the volatility of the South African Rand to the US dollar.

But with the violent events that unfolded in South Africa this past week continually present renewed purpose for some serious soul searching by Zimbabwe’s economic decision makers on how to model the economy out of the dependency on its neighbor to the south for raw materials and other essentials, according to the economic experts.

South Africa’s KwaZulu Natal and Gauteng provinces the two strategic economic areas broke into mayhem last week as looters ransacked major retail shops, banks and …

The construction of the Lagos-Abidjan Highway has the capacity to unlock 85 per cent of trade within the ECOWAS sub-region according to the African Development Bank (AfDB).

The Highway which is 1,028-km project will span across different countries which includes Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria -and traverse the economic capitals of the five coastal countries, starting from Abidjan and ending in Lagos, while equally straddling eight border crossings.

Lamin Barrow the Director-General of AfDB who represented Akinwumi Adesina the AfDB President appearing on Tuesday as a panelist at a one-day webinar to showcase the investment opportunities from the Federal Government of Nigeria’s reforms and privatization activities, said that while the Federal Government had spearheaded various reforms in the banking sector that enhanced the resilience of the financial system, there was a need to stay the course in completing the bold reforms initiated to restructure the energy sector.

Nigeria’s …

These days, technology has changed our life, how we respond to everything including how we buy and sell products and services. Fewer clicks on our smartphones or computers now and we can book a cab, a hotel room, a cinema ticket, buy salt, pizza, groceries and a lot of other products and services.

To do so, we often download apps or go to certain web platforms, create accounts by providing personal information and agree to the terms and conditions. We are then able to buy the products and services we are looking for.

When on the platform, done selecting the products or services we wanted, right before paying, we are most of the time requested to confirm that we agree to the “terms and conditions” or “terms of use” or “terms of service” of the platform. By clicking that we agree, we thus enter into a binding sale contract.

I …

A small oil and gas exploration company that has offices in Africa, North America and United Kingdom is drilling into what it believes could be a massive onshore oil deposit under and alongside an ecologically and culturally important swath of the Kalahari Desert in northeast Namibia and northwest Botswana.

The firm known as Reconnaissance Energy Africa {ReconAfrica} says its Continued research findings present a picture of generating 100 billion barrels of oil and gas, a quantity roughly equal in volume to the proven oil reserves of Kuwait or the United Arab Emirates.

This Timely and good news however are facing a probable opposition from two United bodies and other independent entities who are arguing that in an event of this it will threaten local water supplies as well as the livelihoods of Indigenous people as the  exploration site is found in a region also home to two United Nations Educational, …

The Rural Electrification Authority of Zambia and the Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency Partnership have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to monitor and support the country’s electrification efforts through data collection and analysis.

In particular, the MoU outlines a joint effort to leverage the Edison data platform. The platform was originally developed to monitor and support Zambia’s broader electrification efforts with advanced data collection and analysis on behalf of the Rural Electrification Authority (REA). This underscores both organizations’ commitment to promoting and engendering access to modern, clean energy for rural and underserved Zambians.

The REA has the mandate to provide electricity infrastructure to Zambia’s rural areas using appropriate technologies and they aim to increase the country’s electrification rate to 51% by 2030. Over the next few years the Authority is the focal point of a number of initiatives including capital subsidy support, solar, mini-grid and hydro projects meant to …

SEACOM a submarine cable that connects South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Djibouti, France and India is expanding to bring its software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) services to Kenyan businesses with reduced connectivity costs, increased security, agility, and local support to customers.

SEACOM’s experience with ICT infrastructure in Africa has been extensive having launched Africa’s first broadband submarine cable system in 2009 and provides continent-wide secure Internet. It also offers a full suite of communications and cloud solutions that enable the growth of Africa’s digital economy. Their new SD-WAN services are now available to Kenyan businesses.

SD-WAN solves modern network problems for businesses

The addition of managed SD-WAN to SEACOM’s services is great news for Kenyan businesses. With the increased global adoption of cloud applications, mobile workforces, and voice and video communications becoming the new norm, traditional networks have been placed under significant pressure to meet increasing demands. Using a legacy …

As Agricultural activities intensifies to provide sufficient food for a growing population in south Africa climate change and its manifestations, which includes extreme weather events, have been featured as prominent risks on the radar of investors, banks and commercial farmers bearing in mind that South Africa has a market-oriented agricultural economy that is highly diversified and includes the production of all the major grains (except rice), oilseeds, deciduous and subtropical fruits, sugar, citrus, wine and most vegetables.

In Illustration, the World Economic Forum ranks environmental risks among the top five global risks in its ‘2020 Global Risk Report’.

The 2020 Global risk report discusses the prominence of extreme weather, failure to adapt to climate change, environmental damage caused by humans, major biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and major natural disasters.

Financial institution Nedbank believes that, while agriculture is a key contributor to environmental impacts, it finds itself on the receiving end …

With peace and stability returning to Somalia, the country is beginning to enjoy international banking and financial services that can link the country to global financial networks for ease of doing business, and also support the growth of local industries.

On Wednesday July 7, The American digital financial payments service Visa announced its partnership with the International Bank of Somalia (IBS Bank), which will see the introduction of Somalia’s first Visa financial card payment service. This partnership opens up Somalia to the cashless payment services for international and local transactions.

Mahat Mohamed Ahmed,the IBS Bank Chief Executive Officer Speaking at the launch of this mega event he said that the introduction of Visa in Somalia was a great Milestone and that Somalia was on track to the right path of growth and progress.

“We’ll continue to make partnerships, and bring convenient and innovative financial solutions to the people.”

The Visa …

Greater African unity amongst the 1.3 billion people, spread across 54 countries with diverse cultures, languages, and sizes, has been an aim for decades to facilitate economic, social, and political progress.

Ironically, the desire to strengthen bonds between Africans doesn’t stop at the continent’s shores. Instead, it extends to those who are part of the African diaspora -people of African origin living outside the continent who are willing to contribute to Africa’s development.

In the past, contributing to the development of Africa in a meaningful way required members of the diaspora to return home. A difficult transition that many were reluctant to make. However, today, technology presents new opportunities for the African diaspora to impact the continent without moving. And the Sweden-based startup, Bantaba hopes to lead the charge.

The Community-centered platform that will foster innovation in Africa by enabling start-ups to access diaspora’s resources was launched in an online …