Browsing: Africa

The Paris Club (Club de Paris), a group of officials from major creditor countries has approved Kenya’s request for more debt relief to help it ease Covid-19 related financial weight.

Formed in 1956, the Paris Club, which works to find sustainable solutions to payment difficulties experienced by debtor countries, announced earlier this month that it had accepted Kenya’s request for debt-servicing suspension and gave the East African country a six-month leeway (January to June) before it resumes to pay its national debt.

“Kenya is committed to devoting the resources freed by this initiative to increase spending in order to mitigate the health, economic and social impact of the COVID19-crisis,” said the Paris Club.

Maybe the rest of East Africa can learn from Kenya and take advantage of the G20 bilateral creditors that offer what is called the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI). Launched last year, the DSSI serves to suspend …

Africa making huge moves to advance rapidly within the realms of social impact entrepreneurship and innovation.

From smart environmental solution based in Dar es Salaam Tanzania to e-learning innovations in Cape Town, South Africa are filled with rather interesting operations that will levitate the region in the coming decades.

The continent has rather made some great strides over the past years, having platforms such as The Next African Start-Ups program launched in 2018, connecting entrepreneurs with potential investors, financial institutions and policymakers—catering all necessary items for their growth and introduction of fresh services and technologies that will improve lives of people across the region.

Despite the year 2020 being a record market for investment into the African tech startup ecosystem. Whereby more money was raised from a large pool of investors compared to other years before, 2021 came with a dark cloud.

According to information from Bloomberg News which cited …

Africa’s top economy and oil exporter, Nigeria is battling yet another economic hurdle, as the government disagrees with the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF)recommendations of lowering its currency that’s more than 18 per cent overvalued to ease external imbalances, according to Bloomberg News.

According to IMF February 8, 2021, press release, Nigeria has been hit quite hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, following a sharp decrease in oil prices and capital outflows, real GDP is estimated to have contracted by 3.2 per cent I 2020 amidst the pandemic-related lockdown.

Bloomberg News reported on February 8, 2021, that, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari administration sees currency pressures stemming from global outflows caused by the coronavirus pandemic and believes another depreciation would add to double-digit inflation.

The devaluation pressure from IMF is not new to Nigeria. In 2014 the Nigerian central bank devalued the naira by nearly 8 per cent and then fixed the official …

Africa’s private equity landscape continues to attract investment. The operating environment, albeit still turbulent, continues to improve. Granted, the pace of improvement is higher in some countries than others, but overall there is promise of a conducive climate for business. 

The enabling environment, coupled with the accelerated digital infrastructure growth, inspires momentum in the private sector contributing to the growing middle class. This will, in turn, lead to improved employment opportunities.…

The African continent is wealthy with vast mineral resources, which are 30% of the world’s total mineral reserves. Ninety percent of the world’s platinum and chromium reserves are found in Africa.

Sixty percent of the world’s arable land is located in Africa, which spells much potential for agriculture. Africa also boasts of many tourist attractions, including the majestic Victoria Falls, World Heritage Sites such as the Egyptian pyramids, as well as the numerous game reserves, to mention a few. This is in addition to the rich African culture as well as the diverse ethnic groups with over 1500 languages. It is the world’s second-largest and second most-populous continent. 

Despite lying on a rich bed of resources, both natural and human, the narrative about Africa remains that of the poorest of the poor. 

Changing the narrative

For a long time, the narrative of Africa as an impoverished continent has …

The African Union (AU) has been conducting an initiative subbed ‘Silencing the Guns’ that is meant to fight illicit financial flows (IFFs).

Just so we are on the same page, illicit financial flows refer to the illegal movement of money from one country to other various channels including but not limited to tax fraud, money laundering, and other criminal activities.

Now, here is who, what, and how of the matter, but not in any particular order.

How grave is this IFF problem? Every year, Africa is robbed of a shocking $50 billion to IFF. Describing the annual illicit outflow as staggering losses to the continent, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said;

“These flows pose a threat to stability and security in African countries, undermine institutions and democracy, and jeopardize sustainable development and the rule of law.”

The United Nations Conference of Trade and Development 2020 report placed the IFFs losses …