Browsing: Africa

The economic impact of fake and substandard oil on the global economy is valued in the billions of dollars. The business is tempting, it has cheap overhead and high profits and so the black market for fake goods is growing .

The counterfeits black market affects all types of good, from food products to toys, to cosmetics to jet fuels, you name it, it has a counterfeit.

In Kenya, millions of litres of crude oil has been barred from entering the country via an oil tanker on April Fools. News of the cargo ship, No. K07/2020 has just been released to local media saying was the oil tanker, MT Ocean Tiara belongs to a subsidiary company of a Nigerian oil giant and was seized after it berthed at Mombasa port waiting to moor and dump the fuel.

The tanker and its cargo have several discrepancies and the long arm of …

Sub-Saharan Africa governments funding needs may rise by almost $75 billion due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) downplaying their economies, according to information from Goldman Sachs Group.

This particular insight comes into the play as last month, African finance ministers called for a $100 billion stimulus package, including suspension of debt to help the youngest continent combat the coronavirus pandemic, which has already registered a $29 billion dent to the economy so far and still counting.

According to the global investment bank, economists in London, Dylan Smith and Andrew Matheny, the pandemic could have a serious toll on the continent’s fragile fiscal pillars.

“Possibly the most severe impact of the crisis will be on already stretched fiscal balances. Budget deficits would likely rise from an average of around 3.5 per cent to high single digits, even before any loosening to soften the economic effects of the corona-crisis,” said Smith and …

Sub-Saharan Africa is likely to face its first recession in 25 years as the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is cutting life from the continent’s economies, disrupts world trade, according to information from the World Bank.

According to information from Bloomberg, the lender said, the continent’s gross domestic product (GDP) will probably contract 2.1 per cent to 5.1 per cent in 2020, compared with 2.4 per cent growth a year earlier.

World Bank Vice President for Africa, Hafez Ghanem said in a statement following the Africa Pulse report, that “The COVID-19 pandemic is testing the limits of societies and economies across the world, and African countries are likely to be hit particularly hard,”

The global investment bank, Goldman Sachs Group gave their prediction on African governments funding needs, saying that sub-Saharan Africa funding may rise by $75 billion due to COVID-19 hammering their economies.

Further, the growth downgrade is based on …

The African Development Bank (AfDB) raised $3 billion in a three-year bond to help lift the economic and social impact that the COVID-19( Coronavirus) pandemic will have on Africa’s economies and people’s livelihood.

In a statement, the AFDB noted that the ‘Fight COVID-19’ Social bond has a three-year maturity and will amass interest from bank treasuries, central banks and official institutions and asset managers and investors who are socially responsible with bids exceeding $4.6 billion.

At 53 per cent, Fight COVID-19 social bond was allocated to central banks and official institutions and asset managers at 20 per cent bank treasuries at 27 per cent while in the Final bond distribution statistics Africa got 8 per cent.

The social bond that will pay an interest rate of 0.75% is the largest dollar-dominated bond ever launched in international capital markets to date as well as the largest US dollar bench bank the …

Trade among East African Community (EAC) member has suffered a catastrophic blow losing USD380 million in the span of just a single week.

There is not an economy that has not taken a hit from the coronavirus pandemic and the EAC trade bloc is no exception. While no official order has been issued to close their borders, each of the EAC member countries has limited all manner of movement, goods included.

Trucks are still going through to deliver goods but as Tanzania and Burundi agreed last week, the truck drivers would stay quarantined for 14 days. While for Kenya on the other hand, the country has chosen to escort the drivers and their tracks to their points of drop off and back, no detours allowed.

While cargo on transit has been forced to slow down to almost a snail pace, movement of people has come to a complete stop, if …