Author: Giza Mdoe

A balanced meal, three times a day, a basic need few in Africa can afford. A three-course meal, a luxury most of the rest of the world enjoys, on a regular basis. Did you know, Africa has a 50 year plan of what the continent will become half a century from now? It’s called Agenda 2063. The Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union To achieve this vision, the AU Assembly recognizes that its true power is in its people, the 1.4 plus billion people. The AU central focus on this Africa Day is how best…

Among other things, through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Japan has supported the Enhancement of the Private Sector Assistance (EPSA) for Africa initiative, which has been successfully implemented over three phases since 2007.

According to the AfDB media report, Japan has contributed approximately $5.2 billion to investments in sovereign and non-sovereign operations through this initiative.

The report also points out that Japan subsequently invested another $86.9 million in technical assistance and capacity building. Further still, at the just ended TICAD 8, Japan reiterated its funding commitment for the fifth phase of EPSA.

As of 8th April, 2022, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) officially joined the East African Community (EAC) opening a slew of opportunities for both sides. The Treaty of Accession was inked in Nairobi, Kenya overseeing by the then EAC Chairperson former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta alongside several other Heads of State of the EAC and of course the President of DRC, H.E. Félix-Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo. The East African Community has agreed to speed up Congo-Kinshasa’s ascension into the bloc DR Congo will open a new 90 million strong market to the EAC With input from the DR Congo, the East…

There are increasingly more and more ‘outbreaks’ of non-communicable diseases in Africa and more so in sub-Saharan Africa. These lifestyle ailments are ironically a symbol of increasing income among the population. As more and more African countries rise from low-income to middle-income status, statistics show a correlation with the rising number of people suffering from non-communicable diseases. The reason is simple; when you rise in income, people do not increase their eating of the vitamin-rich greens they used to eat when they could not afford unhealthy but yet prestigious red meat; no, they change their diet to gabble up the…

On the backdrop of increasing global demand for cashew nuts, the government of Tanzania is now subsidizing agro-inputs for farmers of the crop. According to global market trends, demand for edible cashews is on a drastic rise riding on the back of increased consumer consciousness of the nut’s high nutrient value. Cashews are consumed whole as a snack but due to the increased market response to its high nutrient value, producers are now increasing their value chain through various products. Tanzania issues free agro-inputs to cashew nut farmers The world cashew market growing rapidly China government launches national campaign for…

Fuel price rise across EAC National Assembly hears public outcry on the rising cost of living Governments working on solutions to lower fuel prices Prices of essentials are increasing rapidly across the East Africa Community (EAC) from basic home needs like food and water to fuel and transportation, inflation has hit the region hard. According to the Tanzania National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the cost of food in Tanzania increased 6.60 percent in April of 2022 over the same month in the previous year. NBS also contends that the country’s Annual Headline Inflation Rate for the month of April, 2022…

AfCFTA testing new tool to measure ease of trade among African countries Early test results indicate major gender parity issues AfCFTA secretariat to seek national policy change to ease cross border trade   So you wish to invest in Africa, with 51 countries to choose from, what factors are going to guide your decision? Once you have overcome that huddle, comes another matter to address and that is ‘how easy is it to do businesses between said African countries?’ The second part of the question is what we will focus on here, how easy is it to do business between…

Tanzania is also party to the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) agreement that requires countries not only to take all necessary actions to prevent and even end illegal fishing activities in the Indian Ocean but to also report all such activities.

Similarly, Tanzania is also a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the FAO’s Code of Conducts for Responsible Fisheries as well as the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC).

However, even with all these goodwill memberships, the country still underperforms in the fishing sphere and even with environmental concerns in mind, the country needs to increase foreign (and domestic) investment in the sector.

Generally speaking, the proliferation of mobile phone technology has increased access to mobile money services (MMS) and is the backbone of mobile money deployment in both rural and urban areas of Africa.

“Despite its enormous benefits, embracing the usage and acceptance of mobile money has mostly been low due to security issues and challenges associated with the system,” warns professor Guma Ali from the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology.

In a paper titled ‘Evaluation of Key Security Issues Associated with Mobile Money Systems in Uganda,’ the pundit suggests the need to carry out a survey to evaluate the key security issues associated with mobile money systems in Uganda (and Africa).

In the study that followed, which employed a descriptive research design, and stratified random sampling technique to group the population, some 741 registered mobile money (MM) users and 447 registered MM agents along with 52 mobile network operators (MNOs) IT officers participated.

Tanzania’s Energy Minister Hon. January Makamba invites participants to TEC Patrons to review opportunities in Tanzania’s $30bn LNG investment Despite huge natural gas deposits, majority of Tanzania relies on firewood, charcoal With an abundance of a diverse collection of natural energy resources, Tanzania is now poised to make the most of this enormous wealth that largely remains untapped. To this end, Tanzania is this August hosting its fourth edition of the Tanzania Energy Congress (TEC). The highly anticipated executive summit will be hosted in the country’s commercial port city of Dar es Salaam 3 – 4 August 2022. Two day…