Browsing: Africa

In the first quarter of 2021, Egypt’s unemployment rate was at 7.4 per cent which marked a 0.1 decrease and a 2.3 per cent decrease during the same period in 2020.

According to CAPMAS, Egypt’s labour force in Q2 was estimated to be 29.115 million individuals in comparison to 29.284 million individuals in the first quarter which was a decrease of 0.6 per cent.

In urban areas, the labour force is estimated to be around 12.981 million persons while in rural areas it is estimated to be 16.134 million persons. The total number of females was recorded as 4.882 million individuals.…

The Crypto market in the world is looking ugly.

The bitcoin price fell to a three-month low on January 10, accelerating the slide that started when the Federal Reserve ignited a broad sell-off worth US$300 billion. The bank cautioned that it might move more quickly than previously expected to reverse policy meant to reinforce the economy during the Coronavirus pandemic.

Experts predict that the latest crypto fall will persist for weeks in the Federal Reserve measures continue to be more aggressive.…

Detailing on the source of the funding and its uses, the president said the US$100 million  (over TShs230 billion) is from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as a loan to Tanzania, and another US$100 million is for the Isles.

“The IMF fund will be directed to health, education, water and power sectors, as well as economically empowering wananchi (citizens/the public),” local media quoted President Mwinyi.

The president went ahead and gave a very detailed explanation of the planned use of the funding detailing each sector and the allocated amount and then he got to the part about funding to support businesses.…

In a report by GSMA released earlier this year, mobile money accounts grew to 1.2 billion with 43% of new users all from Africa.

Inferring from this growth rate in just one year, it’s clear that the market size for offline payments is significantly larger than online payments. In coming years, we’ll be focusing on this space even as we continue to grow in online payments.

In sub-Saharan Africa alone, there are 44 million micro, small and medium enterprises providing the majority of jobs effectively serving as the backbone of the economy in their countries. …

To discourage the use of firewood and charcoal, the European Union (EU) has committed to fund renewable energy solutions specifically designed to set up and support a sustainable cooking solution program.

EU Head of Delegation to Tanzania, Ambassador Manfredo Fanti announced the EU led program late last year in the capital, Dodoma. At the launch, the diplomat said the initiative is part of the EU’s efforts to mitigate climate change through the use of renewable energy solutions for cooking.

However, what is interesting here is that increase in the use of firewood and charcoal is not in rural Tanzania but in the urban centres.…

Toxic substances that are contained in e-waste contaminate the soil; however, they do not stop with the topsoil.

Heavy metals such as mercury, lithium, lead and barium leak through the earth all the way to the table water contaminating groundwater.

Now groundwater is the basic source of all water that we consume because groundwater is the water that eventually resurfaces as springs, ponds, streams, rivers and lakes.…

In Africa, South Africa has the biggest Airbnb market, accounting for half the listings in Africa.
In 2021, Airbnb registered 2.9 million hosts, with 100,000 of those coming from Africa. Approximately 14,000 hosts are now joining every month. It has reported 7 million listings and has spread to over 100,000 cities in 220 countries and regions.
South Africa boasts 43,400 listings and an income of above US$95 million; Morocco has 21,000 listings and an income of above US$22 million; Kenya has 5900 listings and a US$3.9 million income. …

When the Head of the African Continental Free Trade Area Secretariat told an executive panel in Washington, DC the fact that: ‘Africa is importing too excessively and manufacturing too little…’ what was the expected reaction from the orchestrators of so-called ‘Africa trade support programs’ the likes of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA)?

That maybe they will be enlightened to some new ‘fair trade’ concept that they are not aware of or maybe they will be moved to—maybe cut back on their exports to Africa?

Both sides would do well to recall what is buried in the shallow graves, engraved thus: ‘When East African countries suggested ending import of second-hand clothing to boost their own garment manufacturing industries, AGOA contracts forced them to abandon the idea and continue wearing used American apparel.’

When the high ranking African delegate, Wamkele Mene, suggested before top US economic diplomats that ‘…the continent …

African food imports have risen in the last few decades, reaching nearly US$35 billion a year, according to the World Bank. Most imported goods could be made in Africa, creating much-needed jobs in the process.

It is with this knowledge that a coalition of multilateral development banks and development partners has pledged more than US$17 billion in finance to combat rising hunger in Africa and improve food security. This funding was pledged on the final day of the Feeding Africa: Leadership to Scale Up Successful Innovations on April 29-30, 2021.

The two-day high-level debate was held in conjunction with the CGIAR System Organization and the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), the AfDB and the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). …

In 2020, total transaction values climbed by 22% to hit US$767 billion. or the first time, and in a pandemic, the industry is processing more over US$2 billion per day which has more than doubled since 2017. 
The GSMA predicts that by the end of 2022, this value will be in excess of US$3 billion every single day. Some of the innovations that will help propel this growth include APIs and regulation initiatives like tightening transaction and balance limitations which could bolster the industry’s transaction values growth.
Transaction costs remain a big concern for many with users calling for a review of this in countries like Kenya. When the pandemic was announced in Africa, Kenya and Ghana- which also happen to be the continent’s two biggest mobile money markets– were swift to scrap fees on small person-to-person transactions. …