• Over a decade since gaining independence, South Sudan continues to be affected by fragility, economic stagnation, and instability.
• South Sudan’s economy is clouded by production bottlenecks in the oil sector, with production dwindling in the face of limited new investment.
• The susceptibility of South Sudan to climate change and natural calamities exacerbates the nation’s economic challenges, threatening the progress of growth and development initiatives.

The Republic of South Sudan emerged as the world’s newest sovereign state and the 54^th country in Africa on July 9, 2011. However, the progress of development post-independence was significantly hampered by civil war outbreaks in 2013 and 2016, which also aggravated the humanitarian crisis.

Over a decade since gaining independence, South Sudan continues to be affected by fragility, economic stagnation, and instability. Pervasive poverty is further intensified by ongoing conflict, displacement, and external shocks.

Crisis facing the oil and energy sector

Oil production is …

• Tanzania’s population is expected to reach 140 million people by 2050.
• The World Bank estimates that Tanzania’s population will double every 23 years.
• Tanzania set to become one of Africa’s and the world’s most populated countries.

Tanzania’s population is expected to reach 140 million people by 2050 given the current high fertility rate of 3.0 per cent. At this rate, the World Bank estimates that Tanzania’s population will double every 23 years henceforth.

In its latest Tanzania Economic Update that was launched in the country’s port city of Dar es Salaam this March, the World Bank says when it comes to population control, the East African country is facing a delicate balance act.

On the one hand, Tanzania has managed to lower its mortality rates and raise its life expectancy but as a result, it is now facing the effects of high birth rates and, they are not all good.…

• Kenya has already enlisted over 107,831 community health workers through the Ministry of Health.
• The target cohort of 25,000 will be trained in the first phase, according to the Resilient and Empowered African Community Health (REACH) initiative.
• REACH will be implemented in phases, aiming to boost skills of the 107,831 community health workers employed by the Government.

Kenya has launched a community health initiative supported by the African Union geared to boosting primary health care at the grassroots, targeting under-served populations.

The programme, under the auspices of the African Union (AU) Member States, is known as Resilient and Empowered African Community Health (REACH) and is geared towards increasing Community Health Workers (CHWs) to over two million in the continent by  2029.

Under the first phase of the initiative, over 25,000 CHWs newly recruited in Kenya will be trained on community health and on the use of Community Health Promotion (CHP) …

• As national debts grow, many African countries find themselves spending more on debt than on health.
• IMF says the debt ratio in Sub-Saharan Africa surged to 60% from 30% of the countries’ GDP between 2013 and December 2022.
• Kenya is for instance using nearly 60% of its annual revenues on paying debt obligations.

As the Africa debt crisis roils, over half of the countries have found themselves spending more money in servicing their loan obligations than even the amount they have budgeted for health services to their citizens.

This unfolding scenario is further burdening millions of their citizens who have little choice but to shoulder heavy tax burdens to settle mountains of debt.

Prof Danny Bradlow, a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship in Pretoria, South Africa, captures the dire situation, stating: “over the  last three years (2019/22), more than 25 African governments allocated …

• The IMF has issued Uganda $120 million as part of its Extended Credit Facility (ECF) Arrangement to aid recovery.
• Total disbursement to Uganda under the ECF Arrangement now reaches $870 million.
• IMF urges Uganda to give its Central Bank independence 

Kampala is set to receive $120 million as part of its Extended Credit Facility (ECF) Arrangement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to aid Uganda’s economic recovery amidst various challenges, including backlash due to a harsh anti-LGBTQ law.

The IMF executive board has approved immediate disbursement of the said amount after the conclusion of its fifth review of Uganda’s ECF Arrangement. “This brings the aggregate disbursement under the ECF Arrangement to about $870 million,” the IMF note says in part.

Uganda qualified for about $1 billion under the ECF Arrangement as of June 2021, which is now distributed in part every other year.

IMF loan to aid Uganda’s economic recovery

• These businesses, along with their affiliates in Kenya, Uganda, Somalia, Cyprus and UAE form the backbone of a sophisticated network that launders millions of dollars for Al-Shabaab.
• US says firms such as Nairobi-based Crown Bus Services and other investment projects that masquerade as legit commercial ventures, empower Al-Shabaab’s lethal agenda.
• Al-Shabaab is estimated to siphon over $100 million per year from the regional and global financial system.

The US, through its Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), has cast a wide net across the UAE, Kenya, Uganda, and Somalia, targeting entities and individuals with wide-ranging sanctions for their complicity in financing Al-Shabaab terror network.

This designation, enveloping 16 entities and individuals, reveals the intricate web of financial operations spanning from the Horn of Africa to the opulent corridors of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the serene island nation of Cyprus.

This sprawling network, carefully pieced …