Browsing: Africa Beyond Covid-19

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A favourable balance of payment translates to good exchange rates for the shilling against the dollar. A strong shilling means more value per shilling, allowing the country to make even larger purchases or investments.

Another aspect is the fact that a decrease in the oil price should translate to similar, if not multiple decreases in the cost of doing business and even the cost of living. This is because the cost of transportation is expected to fall, and with it, the cost of the goods being delivered is another gain for Africa (where borders were not closed during that time).

Also, in economic terms, there is a difference between an increase or decrease and rise or fall in price. An increase or decrease in price means a short-term price hike or price drop, which is what we expected to see during the period of oil price increase/decrease.

On the other …

WHEAT HARVESTING

Dangote also plans to launch an oil refinery that would produce 650,000 barrels per day. Currently, the Dangote Group is the second-largest employer in Nigeria after the federal government, and a new plant is a tremendous opportunity to replace Russian fertilizer imports with African jobs that create warehousing, transport, and logistics infrastructure that help to reduce poverty.

Global wheat, sunflower, and oil crude prices have soared to unprecedented levels. Africa is heavily reliant on food imports from both countries, and the Continent is already experiencing price shocks and disruptions in the supply chain of these commodities.

Over the past decade, the Continent has seen growing demand for cereal crops, including wheat and sunflower, which has been mainly supported by imports than local production. Africa's wheat imports increased by 68 per cent between 2007 to 2019, surging to 47 million tonnes.…

KEPSA

The Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) has reaffirmed its commitment to the governments effort in combating the deadly COVID-19 pandemic.

In a statement to newsrooms, KEPSA noted that it has been at the forefront in coordinating the private sector response and complementing the government’s efforts towards combating the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the economy, general health, and social wellbeing of Kenyans.

“We would like to affirm the government’s position, reiterated by the Health Cabinet Secretary Mr Mutahi Kagwe on private sector’s partnership through KEPSA on the vaccine initiative. We have partnered with the government through the Ministry of Health (MOH) in a bid to support the government in shouldering the burden of vaccinating Kenyans,” KEPSA noted.

This will accelerate the pace of vaccinations and get the country closer to herd immunity by the end of the year and get the economy to rebuild back better.

Also Read: KEPSA’s

Covid-19 recovery in Africa

The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank Group (www.AfDB.org) has approved a $20 million flexible loan to finance Seychelles’ Governance and Economic Reforms Support Program, expected to help drive the island nation’s macroeconomic stability and recovery from Covid-19 in the medium-term.

The government program aims to deepen reforms introduced through the Bank’s Covid-19 Crisis Response Budget Support Program, approved in June 2020 for $10 million. These reforms are expected to advance fiscal sustainability, improve the business environment and Seychelles’ climate change and environmental resilience.

The Bank’s financing will complement funds from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in support of reforms that will benefit Seychelles’ private sector, dominated by small enterprises. By ensuring that such businesses stay afloat during these challenging times, the operation will positively impact women and the youth, while creating employment and equal opportunities.

Seychelles’ Minister of Finance, Trade, Investment and …

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The support of more than 800 tons of critical food supplies comes at a critical time for Madagascar, which is suffering its worst drought in 40 years. Severe hunger has hit southern Madagascar as communities witness an almost total disappearance of food sources, creating a full-blown nutrition emergency. People have had to resort to desperate survival measures such as eating locusts, raw red cactus fruits or wild leaves. For the first time ever, pockets of IPC phase 5 or Catastrophe have been recorded signaling deepening hunger.

With each day that passes, more lives are at stake as hunger tightens its grip in southern Madagascar. This is the stark warning from two United Nations agencies, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP), as they seek to draw international attention to a humanitarian crisis that risks being invisible.

ALSO READ: France Imperialism In Africa

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The impact of Covid-19 on Africa as a continent has been underestimated, a new report has revealed.

According to a research that was conducted by the Partnership for Evidence-Based Response to COVID-19 (PERC), burdens experienced by people in African Union Member States remain grave.

While carrying out the research, 81% of survey respondents reported challenges in accessing food, 77% reported experiencing income loss and 42% reported missing medical visits since the start of the pandemic.

The report calls for targeted public health measures for high-risk populations, increased surveillance in light of new variants, and scaled-up vaccine supply from the global community to control the pandemic in Africa.

While the fight against the new Covid-19 variants and the roll out of vaccines has remained low in Africa, Dr. John Nkengasong, Director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has said that it will be crucial for African Union Member …

2021 02 24 covax ghana

Economic activities in Ghana are expected to strengthen faster after the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines, experts have said.

Boost confidence

Speaking in an exclusive interview with one of the leading local dailies, economic analysts noted that vaccinating people would boost the confidence of businesses and consumers.

This, according to them, will enable people to carry out their activities as they explore new business avenues for a faster recovery of the economy.

Professor Peter Quartey and Dr Said Boakye while giving their insights argued that Covid-19 vaccines rollout would also boost the confidence of business partners abroad to open up or increase trade to the country.

The government, the experts say, should set economic growth for this year to between 4.5 and five per cent on the back of the positive impact of the vaccine rollout on gross domestic product (GDP) growth.

They were giving their insights on the impact of …

In a 2019 Human Development Index1 (HDI) issued by the UNDP, countries with low human development include Liberia, Guinea Bissau, Sudan, Niger, Nigeria, Mauritania, Lesotho, Senegal, Togo etc. The Human Development Index is measured through three dimensions: long and healthy life, access to knowledge and decent standard of living. The major importance of the HDI is to enable countries to calculate the overall level of development and what sectors in the economy need more funding and attention. What this means is that countries with low HDI tend to suffer with high rate of unemployment, low Foreign Direct Investments (FDI), high mortality rate, poor infrastructures and so on. The key importance of the HDI is to drive economic diversification and economic growth. Beyond economic growth, it is also important to adopt development strategies that would solve the issue of social needs and increase inflow of investments.  

A major reason 

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further africa

Any predictions regarding what economies are going to look like after this crisis, have to be taken at face value by the best buyer. In other words, I believe that any forecast carries a great deal of speculation, as we are sailing uncharted waters and the last few months have proven that, so to compare the current situation to any past crisis is not very efficient to say the least.

Nevertheless, speculation is what we have at hand, and much like everyone else locked up in quarantine, I have been observing the developments and formulating some theories. I’ve also had the privilege of speaking to some very insightful people as I moderated and shared my opinion in a number of webinars and other online platforms, particularly as to the key changes African economies may face in this new reality.

It goes without saying that with over 50 countries on the …

Tony Elumelu

Global leaders have called for African governments to collaborate with the private sector in order to save the economy post Covid-19 pandemic.

Speaking during the United Bank for Africa’s Africa Day 2020, the leaders emphasised the need for meaningful collaboration between governments and the private sector, as a requirement for the quick recovery of the economy of the African continent post Covid-19.

UBA Group Chairman Tony Elumelu collaboration will be effective in flattening the curve.

Elumelu spoke on the need to mobilise quickly and explained the necessity to identify a more fundamental solution to Africa’s challenges.

“This is the time for us to deal with the situation, this is not the time for finger pointing, but for collaborative efforts by governments and organisations, to fight the pandemic globally. There is need to flatten the curve, we need global co-operation to stem global depression. Africa requires a large stimulus package, and …