• The AfCFTA agreement will boost East Africa’s manufactured exports to the rest of Africa
• Textiles & clothing exports will increase by 100% under the agreement
• Experts have recommended the rolling out of private sector sensitization campaigns on the AfCFTA

East African Community (EAC) partner states have been urged to finalize and submit tariff offers under the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement (AfCFTA) to enable the bloc to tap into the 1.3 billion continental markets with a Gross Domestic Product of USD 3 trillion.

In a statement, the East African Business Council Vice Chairman Denis said the AfCFTA is set to boost East Africa’s manufactured exports to the rest of Africa.

In particular, textiles & clothing exports will increase by 100%, heavy manufacturing by 63%, light manufacturing by 61%, processed food by 54% while livestock & meat products by 39%.

Karera said that the political will to duly implement the …

• Carrefour only had two stores before the takeover
• Shoprite, the previous owner of the space, has exited Uganda after 21 years of operations
• Majid Al Futtaim is currently on an expansion spree in East Africa 

French retailer Carrefour has entered into an agreement with Shoprite Checkers Uganda Limited to take over its Shoprite franchise in the country.

Under the deal, Shoprite will transfer six of its Ugandan stores’ leases to Majid Al Futtaim, Carrefour’s parent company, by end of year.

Majid Al Futtaim currently operates two stores in Uganda, under the Carrefour banner.

Following the implementation of the agreement, Majid Al Futtaim will expand its footprint to eight Carrefour stores.

Commenting on the deal, Hani Weiss, CEO of Majid Al Futtaim Retail said: “We welcome the opportunity to bring our unique Carrefour offering of unbeatable value range, international standards to more customers across Uganda.

He added that the agreement represents …

The new data portal looks into the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and breaks them down into their 169 targets and 231 indicators, allowing everyone to track progress at the granular level.

It is open to all users, including policymakers, planners, programme managers, development partners, private sector organizations, civil society groups, academic institutions, researchers, students, media outlets and many others.

According to the statisticians at the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), among the 169 targets set out in the SDGs, only 30 per cent of them are quantifiable.…

The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) released the Economic Survey 2021, indicating that the economy contracted by 0.3% in 2020, from the restated 5.0% growth recorded in 2019.

The contraction is mainly attributable to the slowdown in economic activities due to emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic which resulted in sharp declines in demand and supply of goods and services.

The contraction was spread across all sectors of the economy but the sectors that were hard hit included the accommodation and food serving activities, education, and professional and administrative services.

Kenya’s unemployment rate doubles -KNBS

Here are some of the report’s observations:

The agriculture, forestry and fishing activities grew at a faster rate of 4.6% compared to the 2.3% growth recorded in 2019. This was despite a contraction in global demand in 2020 due to the prevailing economic situation brought about by the pandemic.

Growth in the manufacturing sector was …

Eramet Group’s subsidiary Grande Côte Opérations (GCO) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with CrossBoundary Energy for the construction of a 13 MW hybrid solar power station with 8 MW battery storage in Senegal.

This comes at a time when Senegal is emphasizing the role renewable will play in the country and has set up ambitious targets to reach universal access to electricity by 2025, achieve 200GWh of hydro power production, and have renewable make up 30 percent of the power mix by 2025.

In a statement, CrossBoundary said the solar power station is dedicated to the Diogo industrial site (north-western Senegal) for the production of mineral sands, and is scheduled to be commissioned in early 2023.

Its renewable energy is expected to help improve GCO’s carbon footprint and reinforce its ISO 50001 approach.

“This is a first that reinforces the company’s commitment to the climate, in line with that …

The Kenyan private sector has recorded improvement for a fourth straight month in August 2021, according to a new report.

Stanbic Bank’s Purchasing Managers’ Index report indicates that the rate of growth picked up in August as firms saw a faster expansion in new business compared to July.

During the period, job creation also strengthened, but output rose at the slowest rate in four months and business confidence fell to a near-record low.

After climbing sharply in July, the pace of input cost inflation eased in August, leading firms to increase their charges at the softest rate in 2021 so far.

As such, the country’s PMI picked up to 51.1 from 50.6 in July, to remain above the 50.0 neutral mark for the fourth month in a row.

According to the index, readings above 50.0 signal an improvement in business conditions on the previous month, while readings below 50.0 show …