Ghana’s case specifically plays out with the dramatic effect consistent with a Shakespearean tragedy. The west African nation ironically is a darling of the West in terms of foreign direct investment. Yet, its debt levels have breached what multilateral institutions consider to be sustainable. A painful irony in the case of Ghana is that it was offered the opportunity to renegotiate the terms of its debts through the World Bank’s Debt Service Suspension Initiative. However, Ghana did not elect to participate.

A second painful irony is that Ghana, this time around, does not owe most of its debts to multilateral institutions like the International Monetary Fund or the World Bank. It owes the bulk of its debt to private lenders like the world’s largest asset manager Black Rock, and its has expressed that it has no interest in renegotiating the terms of Ghana’s sovereign debt.

If Ghana had borrowed from …

Kenya is one of the six nations chosen to participate in the AfCFTA Initiative on Guided Trade’s pilot phase after it was realised that no trading had occurred one and a half years after the start of the preferential trading system on January 1, 2021.

The ninth meeting of the AfCFTA Council of Ministers charged for trade occurred on July 25 and 26, 2022, in Accra, Ghana, and announced the Start of Trade during the Pilot Phase.

Seven nations were chosen to test out commerce in the continental free trade zone for Africa during the summit, including Ghana, Kenya, Tunisia, Cameroon, Egypt, and Mauritius.

Despite being in different economic blocs than nations like Ghana and Tunisia, Kenya will now be able to access markets in Central Africa and West Africa at preferential prices thanks to the trial phase.…

A currency crisis is defined as a quick and abrupt depreciation of a country’s currency. Currency depreciation goes in tandem with turbulent markets and a loss of confidence in the country’s economy. Historically, crises have arisen when market expectations induce significant movements in the value of currencies.

The global economy is now in turmoil. As the world economy enters another era of a currency crisis, the value of the US dollar keeps rising. Over half of all international trade is billed in dollars. A stronger dollar thus hurts consumers globally, particularly in Africa, who rely on dollars to pay for imports.

The US Federal Reserve’s hawkish approach to increasing interest rates more aggressively than central banks in other major countries has contributed to the dollar’s appreciation. The fact that investors generally see the dollar as a “safe haven” asset during times of economic turmoil has added to its resilience.…

According to Njoroge, it may be harder to borrow even as inflation increases due to advanced economies’ practices, such as rate hikes, which have shut us out of the financial system.

He mentioned that he had a discussion with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to urge the US Fed to give the impact of its policies on developing nations more consideration.

In order to ensure that emerging economies are not left on their own, he stated, “we need support from mature economies.”

Njoroge pointed out that despite this, emerging markets like Kenya have exhibited exceptional resilience in the face of global shocks, continuing to thrive.…

NSE market update: On Wednesday, Sep 7, investors proved their confidence in Kenya’s new president William Ruto as the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) shot through the roof to record the highest single day raise in over four and a half years.

Local media confirmed the NSE market gained Sh102.6 billion describing the leap as ‘the biggest single-day jump in four-and-a-half years.’ This jump comes in the wake of settling election dust that saw the NSE stumble, fall and now, rise up again.

Sector pundits and political analysts agree that this huge gain is a clear signal of investor’s confidence in the fifth president of Kenya.

In fact, the last time the NSE scored a similar single-day gain was way back in 2018 when there was an almost mirror effect of the political situation. Back then, the NSE market had all but collapsed during the election turmoil but as soon as …

Among other things, through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Japan has supported the Enhancement of the Private Sector Assistance (EPSA) for Africa initiative, which has been successfully implemented over three phases since 2007.

According to the AfDB media report, Japan has contributed approximately $5.2 billion to investments in sovereign and non-sovereign operations through this initiative.

The report also points out that Japan subsequently invested another $86.9 million in technical assistance and capacity building. Further still, at the just ended TICAD 8, Japan reiterated its funding commitment for the fifth phase of EPSA.…