Browsing: Africa

The deadly coronavirus has brought the World to a standstill, spread through touch, African financial institutions are now going cashless to beat the virus.

The exchange of money, in cash, risky further spread of the virus, an obvious solution is to go cashless, use digital payments only. However is Africa ready?

In the face of this global tragedy, Africa’s fast digital penetration seems to have come in the nick of time. Led by the telecom companies, Africa leads the globe in use of mobile transactions.

Even in the most remotest corners of the continent, peasant farmers, pastoralists herding cows, all can be found with a mobile phone registered for mobile money transactions. Even the smallest shops accept mobile money payment for even the smallest purchases. The only limitation has always been the expensive cost of the service, however that cost is irrelevant if the money is not withdrawn to cash.…

In just one year, Tanzania’s Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) has recovered close to USD 36 million (82.2bn/-) of embezzled public funds.

The funds were misappropriated during the 2018/19 financial year and the amount is actually USD 6million  (12.5bn/-) more than what was recovered last year.

That begs the question, were there more cases of embezzlement last year compared to the previous year? The authorities do not make that clear but they credit the recovery to increased efficiency of the bureau which they say is operating at a high efficiency rate of 82 percent.

Evidence to support the increased efficiency includes the increased number of project inspections by almost double the number of inspections that were conducted last year. The number of evaluated projects reached 1,106 up from only 691 that were conducted last year.

A total of 911 case were reviewed including 266 on alleged bribe cases …

The Tanzania Cigarette Company (TCC), the country’s main tobacco producer, is looking to expand its sells to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The DRC is already TCC’s largest export destination that has seen the company grow its 2019 gross profit earnings by 56 percent, more than double compared to the previous year.

Nonetheless, the tobacco company enjoyed marginal growth when it came to annual revenue which inched up slightly by 5.2 percent to clock 309.8bn/- up from 294.3bn/- the year before that.

TCC is not the only company eyeing the DRC for business, increasingly, Tanzanian banks are reported to be making venture moves into the DRC. However, until now, it is small businesses that were enjoying the huge market of the central African state.

Many small businesses have been transporting goods to the DRC for years and enjoying lucrative returns. TCC is only the latest of manufacturing titans to …

Tanzania is looking to be the regional leader in production of sunflowers and with it to become the lead producer of edible oils.

To meet this target, Dodoma, the nation’s administrative capital has been selected to grow both sunflower and groundnuts too.

A 4.4bn/- investment is slated to kick start the project while at least one refinery plants valued at 1.5bn/- is expected to produce at least 30 tonnes. While the regional production capacity has not been made public, Dodoma and its vicinities already boasts of over 10 small and medium sized plants.

Experts say the region has the perfect climate for sunflower and groundnuts production. The semiarid climate has in the past worked for the production of groundnuts in large amounts and was the leader in export of the legumes.

Now years later, the region maybe revived to its glorious days. However to achieve this, public private partnership is …

Trade between Tanzania and China has been adversely affected by the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic.

The turn for the worst between Sino-Tanzanian trade is only to be expected as movement of both goods and people is restricted the world over.

In a press release that was issued recently by the respective authorities, Tanzania’s Minister of Industries and Trade, Mr Innocent Bashungwa, told local press that trade volumes to and from the two countries has taken a significant blow.

Cargo flow between the two countries is now limited if not completely stopped and the picture is grim across the region. While it is estimated to cost both parties huge sums of money, neither the Tanzanian authorities nor the counterparts from the Chinese embassy have released any specific figures.

The closed borders owing to the coronavirus outbreak, is the direct cause of the dropped trade between the two nations. Until the outbreak, …

China’s influence in Africa has reached historical proportions and the US, coming rather late into the game, is now attempting to ‘change Chinese narrative’ on the continent.

The US is looking to move Africa from training or rather petting the dragon to slaying it, metaphorically speaking.

The new US-Africa policy that was launched in 2018, is designed for this purpose. As a top US diplomat put it, the policy “…will continue to counter China’s influence in Africa in order to slay the dragon.”

The US would have Africa and the World at large know, the continent is now getting “the attention it deserves from senior US officials.”

With the new policy, that is meant to guide bilateral relations with Africa, the US is trying to improve its public diplomacy outreach.

As China continues to assert itself on the continent with ever more development pacts, the US is now trying to …