Browsing: Africa

While its Standard Gauge Railway project is commencing at the speed of light to give Tanzania its first electric powered train, the country is also making efforts to revive its once closed internal railway line for locomotives.

Last year, Tanzanians joy rode the reopened passenger and cargo train from the commercial port city of Dar es Salaam to Moshi, home of Africa’s highest mountain, the Kilimanjaro.

New locomotives were bought and engines imported, the train quickly became a national hit and immediately eased the pressure that was on road transport. Government officials led the excited public in trying out the train that has first, second and third class levels offering all te amenities that a traveler would need.

The revival of freight operations on the 438 km rail stretch was marked by a ceremony that was attended by Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa at the destination of the train in Moshi.…

The initiative intends, therefore, to bring the prices and exchange rates of all African countries into one platform…

Ethiopia wants to join the World Trade Organization (WTO), the historically technocrat country now wants to open its doors and become a market economy.

This means privatizing its industries, a move that the country was previously reluctant to take. However, over the last eight years, Ethiopia has been making major economic reforms and the world has begun to notice.

Under the new liberalization policy, Ethiopia will now privatize some key sectors like its telecom industry and its national pride, the airlines led by Air Ethiopia as well as its banking and logistics sectors.

The world has taken notice and to urge and nudge the country on, the international community has allowed it to resume negotiations with the WTO.

A bid 8 yrs in making

Ethiopia started to make moves towards joining the WTO some 8 years ago when it first filed its application and a Working Party was formed in …

RwandAir announced that it will resume flights to Africa with flights to Cotonou, Dar es Salaam, Nairobi, Lusaka, Libreville and Kilimanjaro as it gradually picks pace to shake off the challenges endured during the coronavirus pandemic.

Currently, Dubai is RwandAir’s only destination outside Africa but the airline has plans to resume flights to Tel Aviv, London and Guangzhou.

Kigali International Airport also receives flights departing for Brussels, Johannesburg, Dakar and to Addis Ababa, with connections to the United States via Ethiopian Airlines.

Since rebranding in 2009, the airline has not turned profitable despite consuming over $2 billion in public funds and loans.

Although it has expressed confidence that an increase in economic activity and tourism will spur it to profitability.

As other regional airlines begin to resume flights and many on the same route, RwandAir will have to brace itself for competition

Measures have been put in place for those …

The CEO Dialogue Forum which hosted more than 500 CEOs from Africa and beyond met virtually to discuss issues affecting Africa’s growth.

Strathmore University Business School partnered with Shared Value Initiative Africa to host the first session of the CEO Dialogue on 6 August 2020, themed ‘The Future of Work and the Impact of the Digital Economy on Africa’s Growth.’

Persistent gaps in education, health and skills have tampered the many opportunities in Africa leading to the continent to only reach forty percent of its estimated potential according to the World Bank. In addition, conflict, food insecurity, population growth and the disruptive forces of climate change threaten to curtail or even reverse the progress made over the past decades.

The discussion was spearheaded by a team of expert panelists drawn from different sectors such as  Vincent Ogutu, Vice-Chancellor Designate Strathmore University,  Cezanne Maherali, Head of Policy, Uber-sub-Saharan Africa,  Alan Stoga, …

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi will later this month take over the Chairmanship of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

The 40th Heads of State summit will be held virtually as Mozambique takes helm of the regional organization to speak on peace, security and regional co-operation.

Up to this year, the Chairman of the 16-member regional bloc was under the leadership of Tanzania’s fifth President, Dr. John Magufuli.

President Magufuli, the seating chairperson, assumed the leadership of the trade bloc last year in August. Arguably, President Magufuli had to deal with one of the worst crisis that the SADC trade bloc has ever had to face, Covid-19.

As it did for the European Union and other World trade areas, the Covid-19 global pandemic rendered business asunder across all 16 member states. Most all SADC member states were forced to close their borders effectively disrupting business flow across Africa’s largest trade bloc.…

After much back and forth that caused enormous delay, the East African Community (EAC) has passed a 97.6m US dollars budget for the next financial year.

Of the total amount, 55.6m US dollars will come from EAC partner states, while development partners will contribute 41.9m US dollars.

The budget reflects the region’s top priority areas which can be shortlisted to about seven areas. During the next financial year, the community will focus on Consolidation of the Single Customs Territory (SCT) to cover all imports and intra-EAC traded goods, including agricultural and other widely consumed products.

It will also cover infrastructure development including the enhancement of free movement of all factors of production as declared under the Common Market and Monetary Union Protocols.

Another focus area is the enhancement of regional industrial development through investment in key priority sectors like skills development, technological advancement and innovation to stimulate economic development.…

A man is dying of thirst yet he is surrounded by fresh water. That is the irony of the African farmer. The African farmer is surrounded by fertile land and two rainfall seasons yet he is poor and has very little yield.

By all accounts Africa should be feeding the world. Most of the continent is miles and miles of fertile land. Since most of Africa is on the equator or just a few degrees above, it experiences tropical weather that is characterized by two high rainfall peaks.

So why does Africa not produce enough food to feed itself and the rest of the world? Simple, Africa’s productivity is in the hands of the smallholder farmer. The smallholder farmer is a poor peasant who uses rudimentary tools to farm.

Faced with the adverse effects of climate change, the farmer no longer has predictable rain seasons. Instead, as is characteristic of …

It is crucial for Africa to integrate its financial systems to create a mutualized system of financial stability that works for the continent or regional monetary cooperation as in East Asia.…

With the effects of Covid-19 taking a toll on businesses across the globe, those operating in low income countries and specifically those in Africa have sought for more than finance to pull through. 

Invest in Africa (IIA), a private sector-led initiative focused on growing local businesses and local content in Sub-Saharan Africa, has created a Covid-19 SME survival toolkit programme that helps SMEs overcome the potential damage to businesses caused by lockdowns and the ensuing economic shock. 

The survival toolkit includes practical guides, solutions and recommendations to help African SMEs get through the many challenges the pandemic represents. It is also organizing a series of webinars under which SMEs can benefit from several industry advisors.  

The entity has a curated list of online resources relevant to your business during this pandemic. 

“Because the vast majority of businesses in Sub-Saharan Africa are SMEs, they also provide nearly all …