Browsing: Africa

The Republic of Burundi has a new president, it has taken steps to rebuild regional and international relations and its economy is starting to pull up, as such, leaders of the East African Community (EAC) are vouching in favor of the country and imploring the European Union, it is time to lift sanctions.d

The European Union (EU) imposed sanctions against the Republic of Burundi back in 2015 when the late President Pierre Nkurunziza extended his tenure in office seeking a third term. At that time, army officials in the country are reported to have attempted a coupe that did not succeed.

Speaking to the press mid this week, the Secretary-General of the East African Community (EAC), Hon. Dr. Peter Mathuki appealed to the European Union (EU) member states to lift sanctions against Burundi saying, ‘the country has opened a new page and was ready to move forward.’

“I appeal to …

Chinese lending to Africa has declined drastically after nearly two decades of bilateral lending which has led to the development of infrastructure in the region.

Chinese lending to the public sector in Africa was $28 billion in 2016 according to research from the China Africa Research Initiative. In 2018 it also declined to $9.9 billion and sunk further to $7 billion in 2019.

The decline is due to changes in the Chinese economy, Chinese investment losses and the uncertainty of the Chinese trade with the United States. The fact that Chinese lending has been receiving negative criticism as the cause of debt distress in some poor country’s in the world could also be a reason for the slowdown in funding.

With over 1,140 projects in Africa worth 153 billion, China has emerged as Africa’s largest bilateral lender over the last two decades. With $148 billion worth of loans, Angola is …

February 14, 2020 was the day that the first case of Covid-19 was reported in the Africa Continent, and this was in Egypt, today almost every country in the continent has registered Covid-19 cases with the WHO. With Africans nations embracing the new normal and reportage indicating declining trend in new cases across much of the region, seven countries, including Benin, Eritrea, Eswatini, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and South Africa are showing
an increase of more than 20% in cases.

A slight increase in deaths was also reported. South Africa has seen an increase in weekly cases for the second consecutive week. Even with a declining trend across the African region, the high number of cases reported globally still pose a risk for the region. Additionally, three countries have very high rates of community transmission and are of serious concern.

Testing in most of the African countries has seen Multidimensional …

The support of more than 800 tons of critical food supplies comes at a critical time for Madagascar, which is suffering its worst drought in 40 years. Severe hunger has hit southern Madagascar as communities witness an almost total disappearance of food sources, creating a full-blown nutrition emergency. People have had to resort to desperate survival measures such as eating locusts, raw red cactus fruits or wild leaves. For the first time ever, pockets of IPC phase 5 or Catastrophe have been recorded signaling deepening hunger.

With each day that passes, more lives are at stake as hunger tightens its grip in southern Madagascar. This is the stark warning from two United Nations agencies, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP), as they seek to draw international attention to a humanitarian crisis that risks being invisible.

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At least 1.14 …

The South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa is actively pushing for African countries to receive substantial funding from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) to aid recovery after the Covid-19 pandemic affected most Africa Countries economies.

In his weekly, open letter to the public on Monday Ramaphosa said that this should include a greater allocation of the IMF’s ‘special drawing rights’.

Special drawing rights (SDR) are an international reserve asset that can be converted into five currencies: the dollar, euro, yen, British pound and yuan.

he said $162.5bn should be made available instead of the $33bn which has been proposed from the “special drawing rights” which will be released to increase reserves of African countries.

Ramaphosa’s sentiments comes days after the Paris Summit that drew together African leaders and European leaders to discuss health and finances to aid in economic recovery ended with France President promising to Vaccinate 40% …

Africa Nations bagged goodies from the just concluded Paris summit held in France on May 18. The Summit brought together African leaders and global financial institutions, where a new deal was launched for Africa and by Africa, in host of the French President Emmanuel Macron.

For several decades in Africa, debates have taken place around economic relations between France and its former colonies in the continent.

But from Economic and political statements of Commentators of whether few element of exploitation exist or not in France’s way of Trading In Africa it is not a matter of Concern from French President Emmanuel Macron who is in mood to continue trading and offering Goodies to Africa, even though some of the unfair and unequal ethics are left unsaid. his country continues to control the trade and currency of these former colonies. The maintenance of economic domination allows the prolongation of political domination.…

Airtel records a massive rise in profit of $1.03 billion in Q1 2021 due to an increase in data and mobile money subscribers between January and March 2021.

In its latest financial report for Q1 2021, Airtel saw a significant rise in revenue by 21.7 per cent from  Q1 of 2020 which recorded $899 million in revenue. However, due to constant currency change, the revenue growth is at 15.4 per cent.

In Q1 2021, Airtel recorded a $215 million increase in profit before tax from $97 million recorded in Q1 2020 despite recording a 6.9 growth in its total subscribers.

In Q1 2021 Airtel recorded profits of $154 million in profits after tax compared to $77 million recorded in 2020.

Data service saw an increase of 31.7 per cent to record $315 million in revenue compared to $253 million in Q1 2020 while mobile money recorded a 38.7 per cent …

Having been officially opened for traffic on May 10, This year the bridge is expected to ease traffic and enhance trade between the two nations. The bridge was built by the two countries after agreeing to replace the existing ferry with a road transport in 2007.

But what are the economic impact of this bridge between the two nations and the continent?

The bridge is expected to significantly improve trade infrastructure of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the African continent as a whole as well as provide vital transport infrastructure on that corridor as it would facilitate easy access to intra-regional trade and international market through connectivity with major sea ports.

The Kazungula Bridge Project was officially commissioned by the Presidents of Botswana and Zambia, who applauded the African Development Bank for its work on this transformative project.

The 923-meter bridge with two border facilities on either side, …

It is not yet another good year for the Cocoa farmers in Ivory Coast the world’s biggest producer of the key ingredient for chocolate, as the prices of their commodity went down for the second year running.

This is contrary to M’Brimbo, a village in central Ivory Coast which 11 years ago became a testing ground for organic cocoa farming and today is prospering.

The local farmers’ collective, the Fair Cooperative Society of Bandama (SCEB), sell their high-quality produce at twice the market rate for non-organic cocoa.

“When producers are trained and well-paid, they can make very good cocoa in Ivory Coast,” said Arthur Gautier, an agronomist who works for Ethiquable, a French company that specializes in marketing fair-trade products and buys SCEB’s harvest.

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The chocolate made from their cocoa is sold in French supermarkets under the brand “Grand Cru M’Brimbo,” a name that …

Today May 18 2021, African heads of state, European leaders, and representatives of international institutions will gather in Paris for a summit on financing African economies.

The President of the Republic of France Emmanuel Macron hopes that new and ambitious solutions will be found so that Africa can face up to this unprecedented shock and return to growth, like other continents that have been able to implement massive recovery plans.

All the signatories of the April 15, 2020 letter have been invited to the Summit, as well as several other African heads of state, members of the G7 and G20, and leaders of international organizations.

Well someone would ask, Is it not the right time that African nations believes in themselves and drums up a campaign of mobilizing its national resources and using them to attract additional foreign capital? This could be the only way of ensuring our economies’ financial …