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Infrastructure
- The World Bank data shows remittances by Africans in the diaspora hit over $95.6 billion in 2021 with Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya among the highest recipients of the inflows.
- Africa has a housing deficit of about 56 million units driven largely by urbanization and population growth, which has left governments struggling to meet the demand for affordable units.
- Many of the 40,000 people moving to African cities every day cannot afford basic formal housing or access loans to acquire homes.
Pan African housing development financier, Shelter Afrique, is targeting Africans living and working abroad to enhance the delivery of affordable housing agenda across the continent.
Shelter Afrique managing director Thierno-Habib Hann said over 170 million people of African descent that live and work in various countries across the world present a formidable resource pool for the continent’s infrastructure development, including housing.
“African diaspora populations are growing, as are their savings …
Africa has been hailed as the next frontier in the provision of global oil and natural gas resources, especially now in the wake of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
This crisis has not only altered the global energy landscape, but also instigated an inflation in gas prices, given the former’s position in the hierarchy of major global producers. As sanctions continue to soar, Europe has embarked on a quest to find contingency energy supplies, as it seeks to minimize its dependency on Russia; which has already cut off gas supplies to countries like Finland, Poland and Bulgaria, over energy payment disputes.
Consequently, Africa’s gas resources have gained a newly found prominence, pertinently by the European Union (EU); owing to the continent’s rich endowment of oil and deep gas reserves. The mounting global demand for gas, has been pushing international energy companies to reconsider African projects. The numerous ongoing and upcoming oil …
At the start of the year, state governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu was photographed inspecting two high-speed trains purchased from the United States of America for the Red Line, which is expected to form the second spoke of the LRMT. The line runs from Marina to Agbado, 30 kilometres from Lagos.
The Blue and Red lines, when complete, are expected to move more than a million people across the expansive metropolis daily, addressing the heavy congestion that has become common within the city.
The light rail project was first contemplated a few decades ago, the initial projections indicating that the Blue Line would be completed in 2011. However, the project was weighed down by a myriad of challenges, including bureaucracy, corruption, mismanagement, and funding.
The light rail project is one of the numerous long-delayed plans to connect Nigeria by rail that has been invigorated by President Muhammadu Buhari’s government.…
Kenya and Jamaica enjoy close relations as shown by President Uhuru Kenyatta’s recent visit to Jamaica and a growing number of Jamaican musicians thronging into East Africa. However, distance and connecting flights have always been a problem.
However, after the successful test of Kenya Airways flight from Nairobi to New York, Kenya is looking to expand into this market with an idea of trans Atlantic flight to Caribean. Kenya Airways already has well-established routes to West African countries of Senegal, Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia and Ivory Coast which could be used as stop-overs to the Caribean.
This can also open up other destination in Africa for the Jamaican route including to Ethiopia, South Africa, and North Africa. The flight time from East Africa to Senegal, Liberia and Ivory Coast is 8 hours, the same period it takes to make the trans- Atlantic flight.
In their talks, President Kenyatta and PM Holness …
Kenya has unveiled a mortgage refining facility-Kenya Mortgage Refinance Company (KMRC), a short in the arm in President Uhuru Kenyatta’s affordable housing scheme under the Big Four Agenda.
KMRC is a non- deposit taking financial institution under the supervision of the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK).
The company was incorporated on April 19, 2018 with the single purpose of providing long-term funds to primary mortgage lenders (banks, micro finance banks and saccos) in order to increase the availability and affordability of mortgage loans to Kenyans.
READ:Mortgages more unaffordable as Kenya house prices increase in 2018
KMRC shareholders and funding
The company was established as a private public investment with majority ownership by the private sector at 80 per cent and government 20 per cent. Its current shareholders comprise: the national treasury and planning; eight (8) commercial banks; eleven (11) deposit taking Savings and Credit Co-operatives (Saccos) and one (1) …
South Africa’s Tourism Minister Derek Hanekom met with representatives of global online accommodation booking platform Airbnb to discuss various policy issues, in particular, the regulation of short-term home rentals, the department said on Friday.
The meeting took place in the context of the current call for public comment on the Tourism Amendment Bill, published on April 15, to provide stakeholders an opportunity to make submissions.
The Tourism Amended Draft Bill aims, amongst others, to address the regulatory vacuum on short-term rentals by defining short-term home rentals as “the renting or leasing on a temporary basis, for reward, of a dwelling or a part thereof, to a visitor”.
It also seeks to enable the minister of tourism to determine thresholds regarding short-term home rentals, through a notice in the Government Gazette, according to the department.
“The Amendment Draft Bill in its current form proposes that the minister of tourism be empowered …
Tanzania is set to test its first, maiden, cheaper and very superior own funded electric train. The train is tipped to be one of Africa`s high speed trains with projected speeds of up to 160 mph.
Speaking at a historic event to launch the flash butt welding of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) exercise that took place at Soga in Coastal region outside Dar es Salaam, the Minister for Works, Transport and Communications, Eng. Isaac Kamwele said first trials for speedy electric train will be conducted in July this year to cover a section of the SGR.
The first 300 kilometers phase running from Dar es Salaam to Morogoro with 6 stations in between will commence its operations in December this year. This will be three passenger trains in phase one at the starting point that will be taking daily round trips between the two cities. Each passenger train is …
It has been by AviaDev event, in conjunction with partners, MIDAS Aviation and Futureneers Advisors, that the estimated potential revenue from new African aviation routes could yield $29 billion in direct revenue.
This revenue, which is more than the individual GDP’s of 70% of the countries in Africa, could be realized if the largest airports in each African country are connected with one another. Currently, only 33.7% of this huge market is served, meaning that there is over $19 billion in untapped annual revenue.
Now in its fourth year, AviaDev, brings together airports, airlines, tourism bodies, and suppliers and customizes one-to-one meetings so that new partnerships and routes can be created. AviaDev’s managing director, Jon Howell, unveiled the event’s mission: to connect the largest airports in each African country with one another. He stated: “AviaDev aims to challenge the status quo through encouraging disruptive thinking. We believe our new mission …
Nigeria’s Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika, and other Africa transport ministers have rallied other countries on the continent behind the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM).
Sirika, at the ongoing Second Ordinary Session of the African Union Specialised Technical Committee in Transport, Transcontinental and Inter-regional Infrastructure, Energy and Tourism in Cairo Egypt, made the resolution of the ministers known via his twitter handle.
The ministers, in the resolution concerning transport in Africa, “urge all remaining member states to join the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM), ratify the African Road Safety Charter, the Revised Maritime Transport Charter and the Africa Civil Aviation Commission (AFCAC) Constitution.” Presently, only 28 African countries have so far shown interest in the SAATM, even as the African Union awaits the decision of others to join the train.
According to African Union, SAATM is “Promoting intra-regional connectivity between the capital cities of Africa …
