Author: Padili Mikomangwa

The giant hydropower dam on the Blue Nile (Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam-GERD) agreement is set to be finalized later this month in Washington-USA by ministers from Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan, who came to an agreement on Wednesday, Reuters reveals.

The hydropower project caused a rather serious diplomatic crisis between Cairo (of which relies on the river for its freshwater supply) and Addis Ababa.

According to Reuters, the ministers agreed to fill the $4 billion project in stages during the wet season, taking into account the impact on downstream reservoirs, the U.S. Treasury Department, which hosted the meeting, said in a joint statement with the countries and the World Bank.

Further, the statement highlighted that the initial filling of the dam set to commence in July will aim for a level of 595 meters above sea level and early electricity generation while providing appropriate mitigation measures for Egypt and Sudan during …

A new law has been signed by Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari which goes after boosting government revenue via a raising value-added tax (VAT) rate and simultaneously supporting small businesses, Reuters revealed.

The finance bill which was signed into law on Monday will raise the VAT rates from 5 per cent to 7.5 per cent, which is arguably still the lowest in the world.

READ:Nigeria retains top spot as Africa’s largest economy

According to a 2019 BBC report, Nigeria was highlighted to face a fiscal crisis if it failed to improve its ability to collect taxes. Africa’s populous nation and biggest economy expenditure doubled and debt servicing cost grew substantially, while revenues missed their targets by 45 per cent a year since 2015.

Reuters cited that, Nigeria has been struggling with the diversification of its economy to reduce dependence on sales of crude oil, which also sustained changes in revenue, …

Players in South Africa’s mining sector have called upon the government to fix the power crisis being experienced in the country subsequently devastating business operations in the country.

According to Reuters, the Mineral Council South Africa took the decision on Monday to settle the nation’s power crisis, which saw record-high power cuts crippling business operations, including OR Tambo Airport operating in darkness after transformer shutdown.

The state-owned utility Eskom which supplies 95 per cent of the nation’s power was forced to implement power cuts across the country in 2019.

The Mineral Council South Africa was noted by Reuters that, the insecurity in power supplies plus rapidly increasing costs were at the forefront of the constraints on the economy and mining industry.

Also, the body commented on government intervention towards facilitation of additional power that could be brought on stream to bridge the gap

“The government and Eskom should be contracting …

African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a grant worth $8 million aimed at supporting the preparation of the Ruzizi IV Hydropower Project.

A statement from the Bank shows that the grant was drawn from the European Union’s Africa Investment Platform (EU-AIP).

According to the bank, the plant will be situated on the Ruzizi River between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and is expected to supply electricity to the DRC, Burundi, and Rwanda.

About half of Rwandans have access to electricity, and the project comes to strengthen the fast-growing economy energy sector ambition, set on increasing access, stimulating demand and strengthening transmission network.

The project also stands to improve electricity supply status to one the least electrified nation’s in the world, Burundi with access rate standing at 7 per cent. More importantly, the project will impact one of the largest countries in the region, DRC which also has …

In realization of Tanzania’s fifth government strategy to enhance the institution’s efficiency, the government received over $2million as dividends and contributions from various higher learning institutions in the country.

This comes after President John Magufuli provided a strict ultimatum to 187 state-owned companies and institution (45 days ago) to deliver dividends and revenue shares or face immediate sacking.

According to The Citizen, the Tanzanian Registrar of the Treasury gave a strict directive to institutions on their dividend packages, citing $13,00 as the minimum amount to be submitted.

On the same note, the registrar expects to receive another set of dividends within this week from other institutions, making the total contribution reach over $3.4 million.

On November 24 2019, President Magufuli received over $455 million the government’s dividend and revenue share from 79 entities that the government holds a stake in.

Magufuli stressed on the role of internal revenue collection …

Nigeria which has one of the largest and vibrant telecom markets in Africa, is now embarking on a new broadband infrastructure investment project worth $ 732 million to boost its economy which is currently recovering from its 2016 economic contraction, Bloomberg news reveals.

As the pace of the Nigeria economy remained soft in 2019 soon after the general elections, economy outlook of the populous nation in Africa shown by African Development Bank (AfDB) indicates that, the GDP growth is expected to sustain a gradual growth in 2020, anticipated to grow above 2.3 per cent, which is quicker than 2019 and below 3 per cent.

According to Bloomberg, the project will be executed within four years as the Nigeria government trains its focus on enhancing the nationwide coverage.

According to the chief executive officer of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Umar Danbatta, the government of Nigeria will offer over $ 179 …

South Africa which is currently under serious economic situations has also sustained a rather historic slump in the business confidence index in 34 years according to last year’s data.

According to a report by Bloomberg, the statistics compiled by the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SACCI), showed that the business confidence declined to an average of 92.6 from a two-year high record of 95.5 in 2018, that being the lowest record since 1985.

Delays in policy implementation, deteriorating public finances and power cuts which escalated in December 2019 have been associated are crucial factors that define the fate of investment in South Africa and why the index matters.

South Africa’s treasury 2019 budget review shows that real GDP growth in 2019 was expected to grow slowly to 1.5 per cent, and expected to improve moderately to 2.1 per cent in 2021.

On the other mark, Bloomberg highlighted that …

The Bank of Tanzania (BoT) released its monthly economic report for the November edition, which encompasses the export and import sector performance, of which the report indicates a decent growth and a substantial fall in cashew nuts exports.

Export

Per the report, the value of goods and services exports grew by 10.3 per cent which is over $9.4 billion in the year ending October 2019, this is higher compared to the previous report which showed a 5.2 per cent rise.

The rise is attributed to the performance of the services receipts and non-traditional goods exports. The exports of the non-traditional goods amounted to over $4.1 billion from $3 billion in the corresponding period of 2018.

Just like in the performance of the year ending September 2019, the report argues that all major categories of non-traditional goods exports grew except re-exports and fish products,

Following that period, the value of gold …

Climate change is affecting Africa greatly and it is only contributing 4 per cent of the greenhouses emissions, hence United Nations Economic Commission Agency for Africa (UNECA) highlights that just by early 2030 Africa will start experiencing macroeconomics losses.

On the same mark, the African Development Bank (AfDB) is in assisting the continent’s efforts towards mitigating and adapting climate risks, particularly extreme weather events, and gaining resilience on drought via mobilization of crucial funding for such adaptation and mitigation projects.

AfDB (which is accredited by the international implementing agency since March 2016 by Green Climate Fund- GCF) together with GCF have successfully mobilized over $12 billion of climate finance to support climate resilience and low-carbon emission in the continent.

Despite the efforts are taken by Africa in that manner have not yielded significant results compared to other regions, still—AfDB eyes another opportunity to fuel more resources to African countries via …

Bank of Tanzania (BoT) monthly (November 2019) economic report has analyzed the economic development of Zanzibar, a semi-autonomous region of Tanzania, (an archipelago in the Indian oceans composed of several islands), highlighting various keys issues and developments particularly in managing inflation.

READ: Sector review: a glance at Zanzibar’s agricultural sector

Inflation

The report indicated that the headline inflation remained below the medium target of 5 per cent, same as the previous month of October, while Annual headline inflation was 2.4 percent in October 2019 compared with 3.7 percent recorded in October 2018 largely due to easing in non-food inflation.

On the same mark, the report indicated that twelve-month non-food inflation eased to 2.7 percent in October 2019 from 4.5 percent in the corresponding month of 2018 mainly due to a decline in prices of kerosene, diesel and petrol, while in October the inflation was moderated by prices of fish, rice, …