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Author: Mustapha Juma
The government of Benin’s imposition of a duty regime targeted at goods from Anglophone West Africa has forced Ghana to petition the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
Ghana in its petition argues that the duty regime has presented an unfair advantage to companies operating from Francophone West Africa that still benefited from duty and quota-free on exports in Benin.
The duty regime took effect seven months ago. The move has also forced Ghanaian manufacturers dealing with plastic pipes, paints, aluminium products, cooking oil, among other products to halt exports to the Benin market until further notice.
According to reports by a local daily, the affected manufacturers, led by the Ghana National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GNCCI) reported the situation to the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MoTI) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration (MoFARI).
Reports further indicate that Ghana petitioned the ECOWAS Commission for …
The presence of China in Africa has increased rapidly over the years, as measured by the number of Chinese living in Africa, or the quantity of trade, aid and investments.
However, the presence of the Chinese in Africa has caused an uproar, with some people claiming that they have been grabbing land in Africa.
This, according to reports, has been necessitated by the willing of African leaders to sell land to the Chinese, when Africans are not allowed to purchase the same in China.
A video posted on YouTube by one of the Africans has highlighted how the Chinese are easily owning property in Africa when Africans are prohibited from buying the same in China.
The video seen by this writer, on a YouTube channel dubbed United States of Africa, highlights some of the reasons why the Chinese own apartments in Africa, while Africans are not allowed to make a
… 
Economic activities in Ghana are expected to strengthen faster after the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines, experts have said.
Boost confidence
Speaking in an exclusive interview with one of the leading local dailies, economic analysts noted that vaccinating people would boost the confidence of businesses and consumers.
This, according to them, will enable people to carry out their activities as they explore new business avenues for a faster recovery of the economy.
Professor Peter Quartey and Dr Said Boakye while giving their insights argued that Covid-19 vaccines rollout would also boost the confidence of business partners abroad to open up or increase trade to the country.
The government, the experts say, should set economic growth for this year to between 4.5 and five per cent on the back of the positive impact of the vaccine rollout on gross domestic product (GDP) growth.
They were giving their insights on the impact of …
Delivery of COVID-19 vaccines to selected health facilities has kicked off in Ghana.
The exercise which began on Tuesday, March 2, is being conducted by Zipline, using drones.
Ghana is now the first country in the world to deploy drones on a national scale to deliver COVID-19 vaccines, which were shipped into the country on February 23, by the Covax facility.
Ghana received 600,000 doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine, from the Serum Institute of India (SII).
The arrival in Accra is the first batch delivered anywhere in the world by the COVAX Facility as part of an unprecedented effort to deliver at least 2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to low- and middle-income countries by the end of 2021.
How COVID-19 vaccines will be distributed
With about 12 million people in Ghana living outside cities, the country’s government will use Zipline’s network to deliver its COVID-19 vaccines to ensure rapid, …
The Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) on Thursday, February 25 launched an Ecommerce Booster Program targeting at least 2000 Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs).
The program will be realized through funding from the European Union and UK’s Foreign Commonwealth Development Office.
TradeMark East Africa, a leading aid for trade regional body in East Africa will support the program, while the technical support for this program is being provided by Amari Consulting Ltd.
Types of businesses targeted
Businesses with little or no digital presence are being targeted for training and on-boarding to e-commerce platforms to ensure MSMEs can increase and diversify their revenue streams during this period of COVID-19 pandemic.
As COVID-19 pandemic continues to cause disruptions in the global and regional value chains, it has become clear that e-commerce is an important tool and solution for businesses and
consumers.
E-commerce can support small businesses in reducing their costs and …
Digital news curation is one of the businesses that is doing well in Africa.
With most people in Africa having access to smartphones and other gadgets that can access the internet, there has been a growing urge for news and information.
However, despite the availability of certain information, getting the right content you want can sometimes be a hassle as they tend to be scattered all across the internet.
Digital content curation and players are killing it in Africa, by bringing people the latest and most popular news on different categories.
People are now able to get trending news as well as local and international happenings which they can manually personalize according to their preferences.
Currently, there are three digital news curation companies that are making a killing in Africa.
These are Opera News, Scooper News and Phoenix Browser.
Opera News
Opera News was basically a feature that was incorporated …
Iran’s development of economic and trade ties with Africa has been facing some problems.
The problems include lack of planning, lack of recognition and interest by the private sector organizations such as chambers of commerce and trade unions, lack of appropriate infrastructure and lack of government resources and facilities.
As part of its plan to gradually solve the above problems, Iran’s National Development Fund (NDF) has opened a €200 million credit line for the country’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO).
The credit line will be used for developing exports of commodities and services to African countries.
According to Farzad Piltan, the director-general of TPO’s Office of Arabian and African Countries, the fund has been allocated as part of a $2-billion support package which has been allocated by NDF for developing the country’s non-oil exports.
“The board of directors of the National Development Fund has approved this fund and it has scheduled …
Global data centre spend was expected to reach an impressive total of $208 billion by the end of 2020.
Demand, thanks to expanding business footprints and the move to the cloud and alternative infrastructure solutions, has pushed the market into overdrive with an estimated 628 hyper scalers expected to rise by 2021.
The edge, artificial intelligence, cloud IT infrastructure investment, machine learning, and the rise of emergent technologies are shifting the data centre into high gear, and centre stage.
But what if the data centre fails? What if demand overtakes infrastructure? Downtime can incur huge costs, put an organisation’s reputation on the line, and can have unexpected knock-on ripple effects throughout the company and its infrastructure.
Therefore, it is essential to tick two particularly important boxes when investing in a robust data centre strategy – reliable power and comprehensive loadbank testing.
As data centre usage continues to rise exponentially alongside …
Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was on Monday, February 15 confirmed as the World Trade Organization (WTO) director-general.
Her appointment came after the last remaining rival candidate, South Korean trade minister Yoo Myung-hee, withdrew from the race, allowing her to become the first woman and the first African to lead the global trade body.
She will take up her post on March 1, initially for a term that runs until August 2025.
The Geneva-based body has been without a permanent director-general since Roberto Azevêdo stepped down a year earlier than planned in August.
However, as she takes over, much is expected from her.
Trade spats
Despite WTO being established in 1995 with the aim of promoting open trade for the benefit of all, the organization has struggled to prevent trade spats among member states, most notably the United States and China.
The organization negotiates and administers rules for international trade and tries …
Kenya’s eCommerce revenue is projected to hit $1.5 billion in 2021.
This follows an increase in the number of people who buy goods online. According to the latest statistics, 526 million Internet users are opting to buy goods at the click of a button.
As a result, digital platforms have been investing heavily in improving their digital infrastructure.
Patrick Ndegwa, the SEACOM East Africa Business Sales Lead, through a press release, has given an insight on Africa’s leading eCommerce platform and what developments can be expected regarding key policies and trends in online commerce today and in the future.
2021’s new trends
Ecommerce companies are putting considerable efforts into improving their digital infrastructure to meet increasing demands.
Mr. Ndegwa notes that transaction-management capabilities remain a priority, as more customers are purchasing on mobile devices and looking for credit options.
According to him, giving customers personalized, omnichannel experiences that also enable …