Author: Giza Mdoe

• There are two ways in which miners extract rare earths. Both methods are dangerous to the environment.
• They cause contamination of the topsoil and groundwater and they produce harmful dust.
• In April, residents of Myanmar stopped Chinese rare earth miners due to environmental concerns.

In April, China reportedly announced plans to stop rare earths mining in Myanmar’s Kachin state following mounting protests by the locals on environmental concerns.

Media sources state that the protests started in December after the Kachin Independence Organization, a significant ethnic group, authorized Chinese companies to mine in Kachin State close to the Yunnan Province border with China.

Rare earth minerals are a group of 17 elements, including cerium, neodymium, lanthanum, and others. They are vital for various high-tech industries, such as electronics, renewable energy, and defense. According to Investing News, Myanmar produced 12,000 metric tonne of rare earths in 2022, ranking the country fourth globally …

• From ports to railways, Tanzania’s investment in infrastructure is on the rise post-pandemic.
• Tanzania is constructing a $1.9 billion railway which is part of 1,219-kilometer railway network.
• Shelter Afrique reports that Tanzania’s housing needs is at an estimated 200,000 units per year.

With a market value estimated at over $27.1 billion and an estimated annual growth in excess of 6 per cent, a construction boom is taking shape in Tanzania.

Granted these figures have dropped since the Covid-19 global economic slump but nonetheless, recovery is well underway. During the Covid-19 slowdown, data from the Bank of Tanzania shows that credit to the construction sector declined by 11.9 per cent. In 2021 loans to businesses and agriculture declined by 10.3 per cent and 8.1 per cent, respectively.

However, given the fact that Tanzania has placed public works among its top priorities, the sector is recovering rapidly. Annual investment in building infrastructure …

• Africa’s gaming market is estimated at $1.9 billion this year and will hit $3.33 billion by 2028.
• With increased connectivity, Africa’s online gaming industry is firmly on a growth trajectory.
• The pandemic slashed global revenues from the casino industry 31 per cent in 2020 compared to 2019.

It may be late in joining the casino industry but Africa’s online gaming industry is certainly making up for lost time. And it is doing so online. Currently, Africa gaming market is estimated at $1.9 billion. It is expected to reach $3.33 billion by 2028, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 11.62 per cent.

The pandemic caused a 31 per cent decrease in global casino sector income in 2020 compared to the previous year. Projections show worldwide casino hotel market will rise by an average of 4 per cent starting in 2020. As it did with the hospitality and tourism industries, …

• Tanzania is laying the groundwork to launch its first satellite into space. 
• The launch, which will enhance Tanzania’s tech industry, follows similar move by Uganda and Kenya.
• Twitter Owner Elon Musk’s Starlink has also been seeking the node to launch services in Tanzania.

Plans are underway for Tanzania’s first satellite to take off into the lower space, an initiative that will serve to improve the country’s tech industry and digital communications.

Tanzania’s first satellite to enhance connectivity

Tanzania’s Deputy Minister for Information, Communication and Information Technology Engineer Kundo Mathew said the satellite will improve digital communications in the country. He spoke at the Annual Audit Risk and Cybersecurity Conference held in Arusha, Tanzania.

According to Engineer Kundo, Tanzania’s first satellite will improve connectivity in areas where the terrain is too rugged to set terrestrial connection towers or to lay fiber optic cable.

“There are areas dotted with big hills and …

• Dubai-based logistics giant DP World will be given berths five to seven in the Port of Dar es Salaam to manage. The move comes as rising number of ports in Africa go private as governments seek to boost import/export trade.
• Tanzania plans to increase the port’s revenue collection by 233.7 per cent over the next 10 years under the DP World deal.
• The port handles various types of cargo, including containers, bulk cargo, and petroleum products for Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, DRC, and Uganda.

The port of Dar es Salaam, which the World Bank has labelled East Africa’s busiest and most modern, could see its fortunes rise following a deal by Tanzania with DP World to manage and develop it even further.

The Dubai-based logistics multinational DP World has entered into an Intergovernmental Agreement with Tanzania for the development of one of the vital harbours in East Africa.

Private sector infusing

A recent meeting between the President of Zanzibar, Dr Hussein Ali Mwinyi and  Qatar’s First Vice-Chairman, Mohamed bin Twar Al Kuwari highlighted these figures. The two high-ranking officials met in Qatar. The Zanzibar president called on investors from the rich United Arab Emirates to invest in the island.…

• Climate Change-related flooding saw large swathes of farmlands and settlement areas in Nigeria’s coastal Niger Delta flooded by December 2022.
• Boko Haram terrorists, bandits, and armed herders have forced at least 78,000 farmers to abandon their farmland.
• Over the past eight years, an estimated 6,000 Benue people reported killed while two million farmers were displaced.

Nigeria is battling a perfect storm with a double whammy of climate change and conflict exacerbating the country’s food crisis. Currently an estimated 25.3 million people in Nigeria are facing food crisis partly worsened by the ongoing flooding throughout the country.

As of December 2022, large swathes of farmland and settlements in Nigeria’s coastal Niger Delta region flood. The flooding saw the closure of schools, leaving hundreds of children out of learning centres as the disaster took a toll.

Climate change worsening Nigeria’s food crisis

Nigeria, which with 222.2 million people is Africa’s most populous …

• As of 2021, the value of Brazil-Africa trade was $7.4 billion, being 56 percent drop from $17 billion in 2011.
• Brazil’s energy giant Petrobas left Africa in 2020, selling off its subsidiary, Petrobas and Gas BV.
• President Lula: “Brazil would not be what it is today without the participation of millions of Africans”.

The Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (ApexBrasil) has mapped out potential investment and trade opportunities across Africa, a pointer to a new era of economic relations between the two regions that literally sit on opposite sides of the south Atlantic Ocean.

The move is part of the organ’s broader efforts to promote Brazilian products and services abroad and attract foreign investments to strategic sectors.

Historically, it is only fair that Brazil increases its economic and bilateral relations with Africa, a continent where over half of her population trace their origin.

After a recent major drop in …

• World hunger is not the result of food shortage, and opposition to gene-edited crops, but due to political strife.
• Global food production is sufficient to feed all, but skewed distribution systems create a huge shortfall in countries.
• Analysis shows that even if GMOs were adopted globally, food shortage will persist.

Globally, Genetically Modified (GM) crops have been touted as the magic wand that could end world hunger. The ability of gene-edited crops to produce more over shorter periods of time and their resistance to diseases has been lauded. Further, GMO’s ability to resist poor weather conditions occasioned by climate crisis are earning them acceptance across nations.

These traits make Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) a solution to global food shortage. Increasingly, naturally maturing crops are yielding little, and their long gestation periods leave them vulnerable to climate crisis. Further their vulnerability to pests and diseases drastically cuts yields, exacerbating food shortages.…

• A rising number of informal women traders in border towns are resorting to corruption to survive.
• Corruption, harassment, and sexual bribes is threatening the success of enterprise between African economies.
• The World Bank estimates small-scale cross-border trade provides income to 43 percent people in Africa.

Small-scale trade remains vital in securing livelihoods in East Africa, but rampant cross-border corruption is posing a serious threat to a vital cog in this enterprise—thousands of informal women traders.

This is unlike during pre-colonial period when African communities used to travel long distances, crossing today’s “borders” to barter their goods with traders from a different ethnic group.

Why informal women traders resort to corruption

Today, enterprising communities—mostly informal women traders—at border towns resort to corruption to survive, the World Bank explains. Quite often, official border posts are marred with service delays and congestion, the perfect fodder for cross-border corruption.

With suppressed cross-border trade …