Browsing: Africa Beyond Covid-19

VACCIN8

Economic power shifts in Africa caused by Russia-Ukraine crisis and pandemic

Industry and Trade

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 hand, rise/fall in price refers to persistent increase/decrease over a prolonged period. When this happens, we see sustained inflation or deflation, that is, the general increase or decrease in the price of goods and services over time.

WHEAT HARVESTING

Investment opportunities for Africa to feed the world

Investing

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.