Author: Mustapha Juma

Technology giant Huawei has entered a deal with the African Telecommunications Union (ATU) that will see ICT transformation capacity in Africa boosted.

According to the penned Memorandum of Understanding (MoU),  Huawei will provide training on skills development, including reskilling and upskilling for ATU members.

Under the terms agreed in the MoU, the two organizations will also collaborate to support local innovation, share information on latest trends, challenges and solutions in Africa and globally.

The collaboration will also help in expanding the digital economy as well as rural connectivity, in the continent, through furthering research.

World’s data centers

Africa and Latin America together account for less than 5 per cent of the world’s data centers. This is according to a 2019 report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) on digital economies.

According to the report, divides will worsen existing income inequalities if the matter is left unaddressed. …

Ghana is committed to ending product fraud and piracy and ensure that only wholesome products were allowed into the market space to ensure public health and safety.

According to relevant authorities, the plan will be achieved through affixing of stamp duties. Latest statistics show that affixing of tax stamps grew exponentially from an initial 28.5 million tax stamps affixed in 2018,  to 38.5 million the following year and 70.2 million in 2020, with managers of the project projecting to affix some 90 million stamps in 2021.

Local manufacturers

According to the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), the Food and Beverages Association of Ghana (FABAG) and local manufacturers are being engaged to pay for the affixing of the stamps on their beverage products at the stamping facilities.

The Ghanaian printing company, Buck Press, and its partner, DelaRue, a British security printing company, are responsible for printing the tax stamps on behalf of …

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is set to launch a single currency for its member states.

While making the announcement on Saturday June 19,  the union revealed the plans to launch the currency by 2027.

According to the president of the ECOWAS Commission Jean-Claude Kassi Brou, the new road map and a new convergence pact would cover the period between 2022-2026, and 2027 being the launch of the ECO.

Jean-Claude spoke to the media on Saturday in Accra at the end of a summit of the union’s leaders. He noted that the member countries are banking on the single currency to go a long way in boosting  trade and economic growth.

Also Read: KAM launches organization  to address post-consumer waste in Kenya

Initially, Anglophone countries such as Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya had pulled out on the ground that the Francophone countries have breached the Economic Community’s Currency …

Shelter Afrique has signed an US$11 million housing deal with Harare-based African Banking Corporation (BancABC).

The Pan-African housing development financier which was established by African governments to address the need for sustainable housing delivery system and related infrastructure projects in Africa announced on Tuesday, June 8, 2021, that the facility will be used for the construction of 2,500 residential housing units.

Through a press statement sent to newsrooms, the institution said the deal will also facilitate mortgage origination, home extension & improvement; onward lending to affordable housing projects; and financing small-scale commercial projects such as small shopping malls.

African Banking Corporation of Zimbabwe Limited (“BancABC”) is part of ABC Holdings Limited (ABCH), a Botswana-incorporated company. ABCH was created by the amalgamation of regional and international businesses that had been active in the sub-Sahara financial markets for 50 years.

Housing backlog in Zimbabwe

According to shelter Afrique Group Managing Director and …

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has started transporting oil to Europe via an Israeli pipeline.

According to multiple reports, the deal was sealed months after the energy deal prompted Egyptian worries over a ‘rival’ to the Suez Canal for shipping fuel.

Reports further indicate that an Emirati vessel that arrived at the Port of Eilat in southern Israel last week was in fact an oil tanker.

Details show that the tanker hooked to the Eilat-Ashkelon pipeline has so far seen six tonnes of crude (6,000 liters) fed through per hour.

Memorandum of Understanding

Israeli state-owned Europe-Asia Pipeline Company (EAPC) in October last year signed a memorandum of understanding with MED-RED Land Bridge, a company with both Israeli and Emirati owners, to transport oil through the pipeline.

It was signed in Abu Dhabi with US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and other US and UAE officials present.

The MoU came amid a …

Nigeria has kicked off plans implementation of efforts to prepare its economy for a post-oil world.

According to the Africa’s largest oil producer’s minister of Science and Technology Ogbonnaya Onu, Nigeria looks to introduce methanol into the economy.

The minister who spoke at a forum this week said the move will reduce gas flaring by using the natural gas as a feedstock for methanol production.

The oil and gas sector in Nigeria accounts for about 10 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), according to OPEC estimates.

Nigeria’s revenue from petroleum exports represents around 86 percent of the country’s total exports revenue.

Investments

Nigeria has no plans to drop oil and gas exploration or to stop trying to attract investments in its most important revenue stream, despite the shocking report from the International Energy Agency (IEA), which suggested last week that no new investments in oil and gas are necessary if …

Tracking and management of COVID-19 and other epidemic-prone diseases in West and East Africa has been made easier.

This follows the upcoming launch of the first ever daily public COVID dashboard for countries in the Horn of Africa next month.

The cross-border data collaboration project involving 23 African countries above the Equator is a USAID-funded Regional Action Through Data (RAD) programme, which is tackling COVID-19 in West and East Africa through two initiatives.

The initiatives involve the sharing of real-time regional disease data online and tech-enabled cross-border immunisations.

These initiatives are enabling governments to better collaborate to protect their roving pastoral populations from epidemics and to overcome the data issues of the Ebola era.

Monthly graphs

According to a press statement that was sent to newsrooms early this week, the tracker shows monthly graphs currently , but soon new daily regional information will be available as well. The dashboard allows …

Nigeria is working on a plan that will foster economic growth.

The National Road Transport Master Plan that is being developed is aimed at coming up with a comprehensive long-term Blueprint for road transportation in the country.

This, according to the West African Country will help guide future developments.

Senator Gbemisola Saraki who is in charge of the State Transport ministry made this known during the Transportation commissioners forum anual retreat 2021, themed “Developing and Fostering Synergy in the Management of Sustainable Transport Policies”.

Transportation infrastructure

According to Saraki, the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari was committed to improving transportation infrastructure and services, in order to meet the needs of Nigerians and the economy.

She noted that improving Transportation Infrastructure and services was one of the priorities of this administration as part of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP).

“Nigeria’s transportation sector has for long been under significant …

After spending the night outdoors following eruption of Mount Nyiragongo earlier Saturday, thousands of residents in Goma, a major city in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have finally managed to get refuge in Rwanda.

After the eruption, the fleeing residents are said to have walked towards Rwanda but the boarders were closed at the time.

Initially, they are believed to have gone back to Goma and headed to an area north of the city, but Rwanda has now opened its borders to accommodate them.

According to Vincent Karega, the Rwandan ambassador to DRC who is stationed in Kinshasa, Rwanda had welcomed those fleeing the volcanic eruption.

He denied reports that the evacuees had been initially blocked from entering the Country.

“The Rwandan borders are open and the reception of our neighbours is taking place peacefully. There was no blockage whatsoever but rather the organisation of coordinated entries,” he said.…