Browsing: Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA)

• Over 180 works of fashion from 40 designers drawn from across 20 countries in Africa are currently exhibiting in Brooklyn, New York.
• The Africa Fashion is celebrating works by iconic designers and artists from Nigerian Shade Thomas-Fahn, Ghana’s Kofi Ansah, South African Thebe Magugu and Djibouti’s Gouled Ahmed.
• South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Morocco and Kenya boast of a dynamic local fashion scene setting trends in African fashion.

Africa’s dynamic and lucrative fashion industry has taken center stage at the Brooklyn Museum in New York in the ongoing ‘Africa Fashion’ display that ends on Sunday, 22^nd October 2023.

The landmark event has been hailed as the largest presentation of African fashion. It involves more than 180 works from over 40 designers drawn from 20 countries in the continent. Africa Fashion celebrates works by iconic designers and artists. Some of the industry’s icons are Nigerian Shade Thomas-Fahn, Ghana’s Kofi Ansah to …

On the 1st of June 2023, African ministers for trade and industries adopted a protocol that prevents trading second-hand clothes across the continent under the preferences of the AfCFTA. This was during the high-level African Union – East African Community and the private sector forum, the second Ministerial Retreat of the Council of Ministers on the AfCFTA, held in Nairobi, Kenya, to assess the progress and address critical aspects of the agreement’s implementation.…

• Ongoing wars in Africa are bleeding billions from poor economies as investors flee the region.
• Sudan army is spending about $1.5 million per day fighting the Rapid Support Forces.
• IMF says Ethiopia’s GDP contracted from 9 percent in 2019 to 6.1 percent in 2020 as Tigray war intensified.

Wars in Africa are costing an arm and a leg, and throwing an awful wrench on poor economies that are hardly providing the bare minimum to their citizens. Take for instance the latest ongoing war in Sudan. Sudan Tribune notes that it is costing roughly $1.5 million every day for the Sudanese army to fight the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

For Sudan, a country whose poverty rate rose from 64.6 percent in 2021 to 66.1 percent last year, $1.5 million is a huge sum of money to be wasted on senseless fighting.

Wars in Africa yielding economic crisis

Sudan is one of …

• AGOA has been a cornerstone of the U.S trade policy in Sub-Saharan Africa since the year 2000.
• The non-reciprocal trade preference programme that provides duty-free access to the U.S market.
• A range of manufactured goods and processed mineral products account for the bulk of exports.

African countries are pulling together to lobby the U.S Congress to approve the renewal of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) this year.

Kenya and South Africa are leading the push to have a 10-year extension on the pact that allows a select number of African countries to export finished products to the US.

AGOA has been a cornerstone of the U.S trade policy in Sub-Saharan Africa since the year 2000.

The non-reciprocal trade preference programme that provides duty-free access to the U.S market, for about 40 eligible African countries, is set to expire in 2025.

Initially, it was intended to last 15 years …