Author: Padili Mikomangwa

 The Tanzanian Ministry of Health has announced the presence of the first case of the coronavirus on Monday, March 16.

The case was found in Northern part of Tanzania, on a female Tanzanian patient, 46-year-old, who arrived in the country on March from Belgium onboard RwandAir plane and landed at Kilimanjaro International Airport (KIA) on March 15.

The patient also visited Sweden and Denmark between March 3 and 13, before her return to Tanzania.

Despite Tanzania being prepared with thermal scanners installed in all airports, the patient passed the health checks undetected, as her body temperature was at the normal level, hence—the condition was not detected

According to the minister of health Ummy Mwalimu, the patient was sceptical of her health even after being cleared.

“From what she told me on the phone, while in Belgium, she lived in a home where the owner had suffered from the coronavirus,” the …

South Africa, Africa’s second-largest economy is still experiencing power cuts off as the national power utility stated today on Thursday that, nation-wide power cuts across South Africa of up to 4,000 megawatts will last throughout the weekend and power kicking back on Sunday

According to information from a South African financial publication Moneyweb, the power cuts are due to the wait of regulatory approval to reconnect a unit at a nuclear power station in Cape Town (Koeberg).

Eskom, which produces more than 90 per cent of the electricity in Africa‘s most industrialized economy, ramped up power cuts to 4 000 MW on Tuesday after a fault with a pump at Koeberg, the country’s only nuclear station.

“Due to a shortage of generation capacity resulting from unplanned breakdowns, Eskom will continue implementing Stage 4 load-shedding until further notice. We expect that load-shedding, at various stages, may continue into the weekend,” Eskom …

It is now a fact that the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak is a pandemic according to World Health Organization (WHO), and just from that stand-point, the tourism sector is not safe from the pandemic pinch.

The world is on its heels, nations are now rolling a series of aviation restrictions to curb the virus outbreak, limiting numerous economic and societal operations over space and time—which also have ripple effects on the continent’s tourism sphere.

Currently, more than 4,900 people have died and over 132,000 have been infected globally, according to the WHO.

In Africa—the virus has recently brought two death (in Egypt and Algeria) and serious cases in several nations, including Ethiopia, Morocco, Senegal, Nigeria, Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), South Africa, Togo, and Kenya.

According to WHO, there are now more than 100 cases recorded in 11 countries in Africa, Egypt having more than half of the …

Tanzania’s ministry of finance revealed on Wednesday, that it was exploring various techniques, including fostering supervision of the use of Electronic Tax Stamps (ETS).

This is part of the government’s plans to raise revenue collections and speed up the process of creating an enabling environment for Tanzania’s industrialization journey, according to information from The Citizen.

It is another step taken by the Tanzanian government to enhance revenue collection to fund various development projects, as frequently rallied by the Tanzanian President John Magufuli.

Just last year, Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) collected over $ 735 million in taxes in September 2019, the highest amount ever collected since the entity inception in 1996.

Tanzania’s Finance and Planning minister, Dr.Philip Mpango, presentation on the government’s development plan and budget framework estimates for 2020/21 financial year, revealed that Tanzania has experienced a significant rise in revenues during the first seven months of the 2019/2020, but …

The deadly coronavirus (COVID-19) which has now spread over 60, with 93,000 cases and more than 3,000 deaths in China, is projected to hurt the African airline landscape, taking away $40 million in revenue.

At the moment, Africa has witnessed confirmed cases in Senegal, Nigeria, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.

The outbreak has made big-industrial players such as British Airlines, United Airlines, Cathay Pacific to trim their routes to various destination, including northern Italy, South East Asia, to evade further trouble with the virus.

On that line, African airlines have taken their own path to curb the scenario, as Tanzania’s emerging airline halted its scheduled flights to China, Kenya’s court order made Kenya Airways postpone flights to China, and Rwanda did the same.

However, Ethiopia faced criticism for not realizing the flights’ cancellation to China, like its fellow players.

According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the global aviation …

Nigeria has just become the leading nation with the largest economy in Africa, after South Africa recent economic slump, when its economy contracted and sliding into a second recession in two years.

South Africa and Nigeria make up almost half of sub-Saharan Africa’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

While South Africa statistics office highlighted bad news for the nation, suffering from power crisis, Nigeria statistician showed a rather positive performance of the economy, which grew at about 2.55 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2019.

This growth was the highest quarterly performance since the 2016 recession. It is argued that Nigeria’s economic growth was anchored on its oil exports with production levels remaining stable throughout 2019.

The South African economy shrank by 1.4 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2019, this followed a contraction of 0.8 per cent, which points to the fact that—the second-largest economy in Africa floated …

The world is on its heels as the coronavirus (COVID-19) has taken superpowers and developing nations hostage, limiting aerial movements, limiting large congregations, and drawing billions into containment plans. With all that in the fold, what has Tanzania installed to contain the virus outbreak ripples?

It is crucial to say China and Tanzania relations are historic, dating back to the 1960s. Prior to the virus outbreak, China and Tanzania had vibrant trading interactions, with bilateral trade volume reaching $3.976 billion according to the Chinese Embassy in Tanzania.

Both China and Tanzania (Ministry of Industries and Trade) have confessed to a serious downturn in trade following the coronavirus outbreak.

Meanwhile, Tanzania’s Ministry of Health Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, assured the nation that, Tanzania has no case of coronavirus and it is taking serious measures to keep the situation that way.

However, taking the health landscape into account, still—Tanzania lags …

South Africa’s economy has reduced by 1.4 per cent in the fourth quarter, this is according to information from the South African statistician on Tuesday.

This scenario followed a contraction of 0.8 per cent in the third quarter, which means that the economy was in recession for the last half of 2019.

South Africa last entered a recession – when the GDP falls for two consecutive quarters – in the second quarter of 2018. This is South Africa’s third recession since 1994.

Further, the stats office highlighted that, for the whole of 2019, the South African economy grew by only 0.2 per cent (in real terms). In 2018, it saw growth of only 0.8 per cent, and yet it is the lowest reading since 2009 when the economy contracted by 1.5 per cent.

GDP shrank 0.5 per cent year-on-year in the fourth quarter after a 0.1 per cent expansion in …

African Green Resources (AGR) in Zambia launched an $81 million financing programme on Sunday, whereby the company and its partner are slated to provide farm supplies and technology to farmers in exchange for grain

According to information from Reuters, the company chairperson Zuneid Yousuf said in a statement that, AGR plans to invest $150 million in the country, for projects including a 50-megawatt solar farm and irrigation dam, AGR will target 120 commercial farmers and 250,000 small and middle farmers with the new programme to boost food security in Zambia and the surrounding region.

However, the scheme—will cover 60,000 tonnes of fertiliser for wheat and soya farming worth $55 million and $26 million for projects such as the expansion of grain storage silos.

Hence, the scheme will be financed through regional and global banks, with the money repaid from the produce the programme yields

This scheme could be one of …

1. The United States, one of Africa’s strongest development partners—will provide Zambia with a $389 million grant (one-year bilateral grant) aimed towards AIDS relief.

According to information revealed by Reuters, Zambia ministry of health revealed, the grant will be starting from October after Congressional approval.

Further, the grant under the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) follows a meeting on Zambia which was held last week in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Zambia and U.S relations towards eliminating HIV/AIDS kick-started in 2004, whereby since the U.S. government through PEPFAR has partnered with the government of Zambia via the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the National HIV/AIDS council in coordinating a national HIV response.

The ministry statement revealed that “The meeting reviewed key policies, strategies and activities to be undertaken towards the goal of achieving epidemic control of HIV,”

However, Zambia’s Health Minister Chitalu Chilufya said the meeting marked a milestone in …