• Tanzania sets up first Fairtrade-certified cashew nuts processing plant in Mtwara region.
• The country’s cashew nuts market is poised to reach $860.25 million by 2029.
• Cashew nut exports generate $227 million in 2023/2024.

Tanzania’s cashew nuts industry is getting a big boost with the construction of the first Fairtrade plant to add value to the produce within Mtwara region. The industrial park in Mtwara is poised to tap into the region’s massive production to boost the income of millions of farmers.

According to the Cashew Board of Tanzania (CBT), exports of the crop generated a total of $227 million in the 2023/2024 season, a significant increase from the $162 million realized during 2022/2023 period.

With the Tanzania cashew nuts market expected to reach $690.97 million this year and grow at an annual rate of 4.48 per cent to $860.25 million by 2029, this industrial park comes at an opportune time …

• Under a 1929 agreement, Egypt refused to acknowledge the rights of the other River Nile riparian countries.
• Almost a century later, Ethiopia is setting up the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, an initiative that is considered a security threat by Egypt.
• Currently, Ethiopia is undertaking the scheduled filling of the dam from the Nile waters.

River Nile, the longest river in the world continues to be at the center of a long and winding conflict looping together eleven countries that bank on its waters to sustain their economies.

For nearly a century, the Nile waters have remained at the heart of a resource dispute, pitting the countries at the rivers source against those further downstream on its journey to the shores of Egypt. In the latest development, Ethiopian authorities, have announced that the fifth filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is on track for successful completion by December 2024.…

• Historically, efforts to combat malnutrition have often been siloed, with different sectors working in isolation.
• Despite the clear benefits of improving nutrition—both in terms of individual well-being and broader economic development—funding for nutrition initiatives has often been insufficient.
• A new approach seeks to break down these silos by promoting cross-sector collaboration and integrating nutrition into broader development strategies.

Malnutrition in Africa remains a persistent challenge, affecting millions of people and hindering the continent’s development. The African Union Commission (AUC) and the African Development Bank Group’s African Leaders for Nutrition (ALN) initiative, in collaboration with the government of Senegal, have launched a new effort to address this issue head-on.

This initiative, which has brought together key stakeholders from various sectors, aims to develop Africa’s first-ever Multisectoral Nutrition Policy Framework (MNPF) and an ambitious investment target to combat malnutrition across the continent. The recent regional consultation held in Dakar, Senegal, marks the …

• Across Africa, there is still very limited access to education.
• Even when accessible, there is a huge discrepancy in the quality of education offered.
• In a forum held in Tanzania, policymakers have urged governments to increase investment in education.

Education in Africa is poorly funded. In one too many countries, poor funding of education systems is an understatement. The African Union, designated this year, 2024, as its ‘Year of Education,’ and as we enter the last quarter of the year, stakeholders are asking, what have we learned about education in Africa?

The pros and cons of Africa’s education system were most recently highlighted at an education conference, held by the East African Community (EAC) member countries in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, East Africa. Themed “Educate an African Fit for the 21st Century: Collective Action for Quality, Inclusive, and Life-long Learning in East Africa,” the conference sought to assess progress …

• The EAC’s distribution sector is marred by systemic challenges, despite claims of a working free trade zone in the bloc.
• Stakeholders say that persistent bottlenecks hamper the flow of goods and services across the eight-member area.
• A recent EU-led EAC Peer-to-Peer Learning Conference sought to formulate a strategic action plan to address barriers limiting the industry’s growth and development.

The East African Community (EAC) is an eight-country strong regional free trade bloc in East Africa, by definition, it should mean easier movement or distribution of goods and services, but that’s only true on paper, the reality on the ground is quite on the contrary.

EAC maintains that it is “dedicated to enhancing economic efficiency and fostering regional integration through strategic investments and the utilization of established industries. The goal is to position the Community as a single investment area, harmonizing trade policies, investment incentives, and product standards.”

Protocols demand that …

• Almost half of world’s population in 2050 will be African youth.
• However, unemployment, food insecurity remain a challenge to African youth.
• Political will and financing are the keys to African youth agribusiness development.

As projections continue to show that the youth in Africa will make up half of the entire world in the two and a half decades (25yrs) alone, one wonders what will be the economic health of this half of the world? According to an Oxford Business Group report on agriculture as a business, experts review African youth as both a problem and a solution to global development, now and the not so distant future as well.

Already, youth in Africa suffer from under education or a total lack thereof, they are unemployed, malnourished and they are dependent; if the trend continues, then by 2050, then this distraught condition of today’s African youth will be the sad and …