Browsing: africa news

The private sector in the African continent is set to receive US480 billion in investments over the next five years.

The investments will be made by a consortium of organizations under the G7 Development Finance Institutions (G7 DFI) which includes the European Investment Bank and the private sector arm of the African Development to support sustainable economic recovery and growth in Africa.

The proposed investments come at a time when the Covid-19 pandemic has caused a severe global economic and health crisis, including in the African continent.

The IMF estimates that sub-Saharan Africa needs additional financing of around $425 billion between now and 2025 to help strengthen the pandemic response spending and reduce poverty in the region.

This marks the first time the G7 DFIs have come together to make a collective partnership commitment to the African continent.

The G7 DFI group consists of CDC, Proparco (France), JICA and JBIC …

In February, Nigeria dominated most tech news outlets following the ban on the trading of cryptocurrencies which triggered anger among Nigerians seeing cryptos as a safe haven in the populous economy.

The West African nation is the world’s second-largest Bitcoin market after the United States and despite this, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is cracking down on the trade of cryptocurrencies. 

Cryptocurrency technology is decentralized and no government, company, or person controls it.

Read: Is Bitcoin poor Africans’ alternative reserve currency?

In the crackdown directive on February 5, CBN ordered commercial banks and other financial institutions to close accounts transacting with cryptocurrency exchanges.  A week later, Bitcoin’s value doubled. 

While the CBN has not clearly stated its reasons for the crackdown, the reality on the ground is that Africa’s giant economy is facing dollar shortages following the sharp decline in …