Author: Giza Mdoe

• China commits to refurbishing TAZARA railway system during the just concluded FOCAC Summit in Beijing.
• China Civil Engineering and Construction Corporation (CCECC) has been awarded the tender.
• TAZARA capacity is now set to increase to two million metric tonnes.

TAZARA, a decades-old China-Tanzania railway that is vital in the East African country’s industry is set for modernization as a new pact to turn it into a fast train transportation system comes into force. Last week, a historic milestone was reached when Chinese President Xi Jinping, Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan, and Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to revitalize the Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA) railway.

The deal, which was reached at the 2024 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation Summit (FOCAC) in Beijing, will see China invest into developing the1,860-kilometer railway connecting landlocked Zambia to Tanzania’s port city of Dar es Salaam.

Work on this trans-Africa rail …

• The African pharmaceuticals market is projected to reach $34 billion by 2027.
• Egypt has been tipped to contribute most to Africa’s pharmaceutical industry’s growth.
• What implication does this change present to global pharmaceutical giants?

Africa pharmaceutical investment is well underway, and for the first time, the continent seeks to produce and distribute medicinal drugs but, what would be the impact on the global industry? “The failures of the global health systems during the COVID-19 pandemic—when export restrictions, lockdowns, and hoarding sent supply chains into frantic disarray—made local manufacturing of pharmaceutical supplies a top priority for African leaders,” notes global health writer Sara Jerving in her report titled New foundation is ready to help African pharmaceutical manufacturers.

Africa pharmaceuticals market reached $25 billion 2022 and is expected to grow at a 6 percent five-year CAGR to reach $34 billion by 2027 reports IQVIA, a global research institute. According to the …

• African nations commit to creating a soil health fund to support research, innovation, and capacity building on fertiliser usage.
• AfDB agrees to mobilise financing to ease fertilizer availability, de-risk farmer investments, and support policy reforms across the continent.
• In Nairobi, governments commit to formulating policies that will serve to create a conducive environment for fertilizer and soil health interventions.

Africa fertilizer supply is a multi-billion dollar industry that at the moment, is tapped by Western countries, particularly and ironically, Russia and Ukraine. Just as hard lessons were learnt in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, so was the need to invest in fertilizer production and distribution brought to light in the wake of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

The war led to a severe shortage of fertilizers in Africa and now, in an effort to mitigate the challenge African Heads of State have committed to support the full operationalization of the …

•  Globally, seaweed is increasingly becoming the go-to organic medicine option, and Zanzibar is betting big on this avenue.
•  Already, the East African Island’s government is investing in the commercial growth of seaweed.
• What’s more, Zanzibar and the EU are in talks to develop the Island’s aquaculture sector.

Zanzibar seaweed output is increasingly becoming a viable commercial project as the island is tapping as part of diversifying its economy. Increasingly, Zanzibar is putting emphasis on seaweed farming because the global industry of seaweed is growing very fast, especially due to the discovery of critical medicinal properties.

It is reported that diseases such as cancer, diabetes, inflammation, and chronic cardiovascular are major global health problems that can all be remedied by seaweed.

In a research paper titled “Global seaweed farming and processing in the past 20 years,” it is reported that “currently, the chemotherapy and synthetic drugs are widely used in the …

• Second Indonesia-Africa Forum (IAF) underway in Bali, Indonesia, almost clashing with the Forum on China–Africa Cooperation.
• Zanzibar President Mwinyi woos Indonesia investors to Zanzibar as he eyes a pie of the $3.5Bn in investment deals.
• The forum has, however, attracted far fewer participants from Africa compared to the 2018 meeting.

The Africa-Indonesia Investment Forum 2024 which is currently underway in Bali, Indonesia, is expected to generate a whopping $3.5 billion worth of investments. In attendance is the Zanzibar President and Chairman of the Revolutionary Council, Dr Hussein Mwinyi. President Mwinyi is representing the Tanzanian Union President Dr Samia Suluhu Hassan and is in the company of several other African Heads of State.

Present at this Second Indonesia-Africa Forum (IAF), include presidents from Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Ghana and Liberia among others. This High-Level Forum on Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships (HLF MSP) is been held concurrently with the IAF and has attracted well over 855 …

• The 1,300Km of railway from Zambia to Tanzania will be completed by 2029.
• The US, UK, and others sign MoU to develop the Lobito railway project.
• Top nickel producer Lifezone Metals secures project tender.

Nickel prospects in Tanzania have spurred the US to extend the Washington-backed Zambia-DRC railway project to the East African nation, creating a strategic link between West and East Africa. Helaina Matza, the US acting special coordinator for the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment has announced US plans to expand its West and Central Africa railway project to the shores of the Indian Ocean through Tanzania.

Known as the Lobito Corridor, this US-funded railway project that originally ran from Angola to Zambia through the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) envisions adding 1,300 kilometers of railway from Zambia to Tanzania and is slated to be completed in just five years, by 2029.

Former Deputy Chairperson of …

• Across Africa, mega-stores and wholesalers are increasingly selling directly to consumers.
• As a result, last-mile retailers find it difficult to remain relevant and competitive.
• However, digital tech systems such as the End-to-End (E2E) approach offer sales and growth solutions to these retailers caught between a rock and a hard place.

End-to-End (e2e) approach to doing business may be the only lifeline to save African retailers in this digital, mega-business age, as an increasing number of wholesalers deploy systems to reach out to customers directly. With a spirited push from wholesalers, many retailers have found themselves pushed to the margins of the production and consumption equation.

Across economies in the continent, big supermarkets are opening stores in towns and even neighborhoods, bringing closer to the final consumer a wide range of product options at much lower prices than the retailer next door.

Research shows that while in the beginning it was …

• Tanzania sets up first Fairtrade-certified cashew nuts processing plant in Mtwara region.
• The country’s cashew nuts market is poised to reach $860.25 million by 2029.
• Cashew nut exports generate $227 million in 2023/2024.

Tanzania’s cashew nuts industry is getting a big boost with the construction of the first Fairtrade plant to add value to the produce within Mtwara region. The industrial park in Mtwara is poised to tap into the region’s massive production to boost the income of millions of farmers.

According to the Cashew Board of Tanzania (CBT), exports of the crop generated a total of $227 million in the 2023/2024 season, a significant increase from the $162 million realized during 2022/2023 period.

With the Tanzania cashew nuts market expected to reach $690.97 million this year and grow at an annual rate of 4.48 per cent to $860.25 million by 2029, this industrial park comes at an opportune time …

• Under a 1929 agreement, Egypt refused to acknowledge the rights of the other River Nile riparian countries.
• Almost a century later, Ethiopia is setting up the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, an initiative that is considered a security threat by Egypt.
• Currently, Ethiopia is undertaking the scheduled filling of the dam from the Nile waters.

River Nile, the longest river in the world continues to be at the center of a long and winding conflict looping together eleven countries that bank on its waters to sustain their economies.

For nearly a century, the Nile waters have remained at the heart of a resource dispute, pitting the countries at the rivers source against those further downstream on its journey to the shores of Egypt. In the latest development, Ethiopian authorities, have announced that the fifth filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is on track for successful completion by December 2024.…

• Tanzania increases construction of CNG filling stations.
• Chinese companies tendered for vehicle conversion for CNG use.
• Investors invited into the CNG sub-sector.

Tanzania CNG sector is growing, with Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) now the go-to clean energy that the country is investing in for public vehicle use as the government moves to significantly reduce the use of fossil fuels. To fast-track this development, the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC) is currently completing the construction of a Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) mother station in Dar es Salaam that is touted as a significant advancement in the country’s energy infrastructure.

The development has been a long time coming, it is now more than half a century since Tanzania first discovered natural gas in 1974 on the Songo Songo Island in Lindi Region. A second discovery was made in 1982 this time at the Mnazi Bay in Mtwara …