Author: Padili Mikomangwa

The United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference COP 25, has levitated the climate action landscape in Africa

This has led to the African Development Bank (AfDB) to join forces with 11 other international organizations to assist developing countries to build resilience against the impact of natural disasters caused by extreme weather.

The initiative comes at a rather perfect moment, especially when the region is faced with unprecedented catastrophic weather events affecting the continent’s economy.

According to AfDB, the institutions came together at the COP 25 climate change conference in Madrid on Tuesday to launch the Alliance for Hydromet Development.

Alliance for Hydromet Development

According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the Alliance for Hydromet (hydrological and climate services) Development brings together major international development, humanitarian and climate finance institutions, collectively committed to scale up and unite efforts to close the hydromet capacity gap by 2030. It aims to increase …

South Africa is projected to experience a long haul of power cuts, which have taking new stages over the past 14 years due to several operational failures under the nation’s electricity public utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd.

Eskom is a state-owned company, designated for generating, transmitting, and distributing electricity.

According to a Bloomberg report, South Africa’s economy hangs in the balance not only as country but as the beacon of the continent manufacturing industrial complex and diversified economy.  Eskom projects that there would be power outages expected to take away 6,000 megawatts from the grid, beginning this Monday.

This means that the current power cut off has doubled from the earlier announcement aired on 6 December 2019, which cited the deficit of 2,000 megawatts from its generating capacity.

As highlighted by Bloomberg, this is a result of the company losing its hold on additional generating units at its power stations.…

Rwanda—East Africa’s fastest-growing economy has paved the way for Qatar Airways—world’s best airline in 2019, to get 60 per cent stake in the new $1.3 billion international airports in Rwanda.

This is according to a Reuters report which says that the information was revealed by state-run development board on Monday 10 December 2019.

The international news outlet says the development board highlighted that the first phase of construction would provide facilities for 7 million passengers a year in the Bugesera district, about 25 km southeast of the nation’s capital Kigali.

Further, the second phase, which is expected to be completed by 2032, would double capacity to 14 million passengers a year.

Rwanda has been an active economic performer in the region, whereby—the African Development Bank report shows that the real GDP growth in Rwanda reached 6.1 per cent in 2017 and was estimated at 7.2 per cent in 2018 …

The African Development Fund (ADF) the concessional window of the African Development Bank (AfDB) has just got a boost from donor amounting to $7.6 billion which is a 32 per cent raise from the previous replenishment, AfDB press release reads.

The boost which came to fruition on Thursday 5 December 2019, comes as a good sign to the funding landscape in the bank, showing how AfDB commands trust and further the development funding sphere in Africa.

About the ADF

According to AfDB, the ADF which was established 1972 and became operation in 1974, contributes to poverty reduction and economic and social development in the least developed African countries by providing concessional funding for projects and programs, as well as technical assistance for studies and capacity-building activities. The Fund has cumulatively invested up to $45 billion over its 44 years of operationalization on the African continent.

On the same note, the …

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has just breathed life into Burkina Faso—the lease electrified country in the continent and globally, with € 48.42 million ($53 million) fund for the government of the country to implement the Yeleen Solar energy Plant, which is anticipated to boost national power supply, AfDB press release reads.

According to AfDB, the current project is part of Burkina Faso’s broader 2025 Solar Programme, known as “Yeleen” with three components: Development of photovoltaic plants (PV) connected to the interconnected national grid, Increase in the electricity distribution network, and Rural electrification by mini-grids (isolated) and individual solar systems.

Further, the rural electrification “ Yeleen rural electrification project” which aims to increase electricity access in Burkina Faso by connecting 150,000 households to solar mini-grids (50,000 household) and through stand-alone solar kits systems (100,000 households) was approved by AfDB in December 2018 with joint financing with European Union (EU) …

The world top-notch technology firm Microsoft and African Development Bank (AfDB) have launched the digital training platform for African youth, named –Coding for Employment.

The platform is expected to provide digital skills to youth.

According to the a statement from the AfDB, the platform was launched during the 2019 African Economic Conference in Sharm El Sheikh- Egypt, with the sole aim of promoting a continuous learning culture among young people and build their capacity to share the future of the continent.

Africa has nearly 420 million youth, which almost one-third of them are unemployed and 10 to 12 million youth enter the workforce every year to find only 3.1 million jobs created, hence—AfDB data show that, by 2050 youth in Africa will double to 830 million.

The African Development Bank Group is Africa’s premier development finance institution, with a rather strong foothold in supporting African nation’s development initiatives. It …

The fourteenth edition of the 2019 African Economic Conference (AEC) has commenced in Sharm El Sheikh—Egypt, raising serious ideas towards sending a crucial call to African policymakers to gain a rather strong hold in addressing unemployment among youth in Africa.

According to a statement from African Development Bank (AfDB), African governments are expected to eradicate setbacks and high startup costs that African youth face, in order to create decent well-paying jobs.

The AEC is jointly organized every year by the African Development Bank, the Economic Commission for Africa and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to discuss pertinent issues affecting the continent.

This year’s event is running on the theme: “Jobs, entrepreneurship, and capacity development for African youth”.

Egypt’s Minister of Investment and International Cooperation, Sahar Nasr, gave out a rather vital aspect on the matter during his opening plenary, highlighting that, the conference provided a critical platform to …

Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), has partnered with African Development Bank (AfDB), six strong African exchanges and the African Securities Exchange Association (ASEA), to strengthen investments into Africa.

The collaboration comes to foster cross-border trading and settlement of securities across African countries’ exchanges. Further—the initiatives go after unlocking the Pan-African investment potentials, which also leads to the diversification needs of investors and attending to various drawbacks such as the inadequate depth and liquidity in Africa financial markets.

According to a report by Quartz Africa, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is expected to have risen by 20 per cent in 2018 to $ 50 billion after tanking in 2017 by 21 per cent to $42 billion.

More importantly, the seven Stock Exchanges participating in the first phase of the AELP represent about 85% of Africa’s securities market capitalization.

READ: Afreximbank plans $3 billion IPO on London Stock Exchange

The JSE is based …

Africa’s largest e-commerce platform—Jumia has closed its operations in Tanzania.

According to Reuters, the company gave out the news of its exodus which noted: “We have to focus our resources on our other markets. It is more important now than ever to put our focus and resources where they can bring the best value and help us thrive,” the statement reads.

The company which as of today has its operations in twelve countries out of 54 in Africa, has been experiencing a rather stiff challenge which includes significant losses for the past two years.

According to Jumia’s financial report, the company’s operating loss increased from $ 46 million in the second quarter of 2018 to $ 73 million in the second quarter of 2019.

The company shut down in Tanzania comes after 10 days whereby the Cameroon market lost Jumia as well.

Jumia came in Tanzania five years ago …

The East African Community (EAC) has acquired an $11 million funding from European Union (EU) to combat insecurity within the regional and cross border spheres.

The funding came to light yesterday in Arusha-Tanzania, whereby it targets to fuel a 45-month programme on regional response to the growing security threats in the bloc with six nations—and with the fastest growing economies in the continent.

EAC secretary general Ambassador Liberat Mfumukeko launched the joint programme with the EU ambassador to Tanzania, Mr Manfredo Fanti. The Ambassador heralded the long-standing partnership between the EAC and EU in peace and security sector which is a key player to the integration process in East Africa.

The programme is rather vital to the bloc’s strategies to propel further their $193 billion combined Gross Domestic Products (GDP), which include importation and exportation of goods and services occurring via borders in the region.

According to The Citizen, the …