Browsing: Africa

fraud

A Zimbabwean public service officer, the former Chief Executive Officer of the Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) is allegedly involved in a graft cases that has cost the agency losses in excess of USD40 million.

Mr Frank Chitukutuku, the accused official, is facing  a list of economic sabotage cases all surrounding what local media is calling ‘dubious payments’ for supposed public works.  The list of irregularities is long, from payments for substandard work to over payment for projects without the agency’s board ever approving.

There are also issues of flouting tender procedures, hand-picking firms, payment for incomplete work and the bias awarding of projects in favour of companies that he has interest in or belonging to individuals in his favour.

Zimbabwe’s Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Transport and Infrastructural Development deliberated the matter in detail earlier this month and resolved to fire the CEO while legal proceedings are underway.

Among the …

court

Tanzania is in the processes of constructing mega court buildings that are large enough to house all levels of judicial services from the Primary Court all the way to the Court of Appeal. The actual value of the project has not been made public but due to the size and scope, it is estimated to cost onward of multi-million dollars.

The initiative is undertaken by the Judiciary of Tanzania and the resulting six High Court buildings are christened the Integrated Justice Centres (IJC) of Tanzania. The project is already underway across five regions of the country.

The court buildings will be in all major cities including the country’s administrative capital of Dodoma, the tourist hub of Arusha, the lake city of Mwanza and the fast developing agricultural town of Morogoro where ongoing work on the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) have seen tremendous growth urban to rural migration in search of …

ECON

Based in Ethiopia’s capital of Addis Ababa, Coop Bank is growing by leaps and bounds, with profits up 29 percent in the 2018/19 financial year closing the year with USD 20.4 million under lock and key.

More than profit, the Bank also enjoyed huge growth if it’s total assets which shot up by 40 percent, a sector high for Ethiopia’s banking industry. Likewise, its loans and advances also went up an impressive 56 percent representing more than double its performance in the previous year.

The bank has credited the asset growth to deposit mobilisation which pushed up loans and advances. The bank had yet an impressive growth this time in deposits which increased 40 percent.

Coop Bank mustered its investment in NBE bonds which it increased to more than double (53%) of what it had in the previous financial year. Further still, this immense investment represents 20 percent of its …

A graphic showing the different countries and their status in regard to the AfCFTA. Gambia has become the 22nd nation to approve the AfCFTA giving the AU the minimum threshold for the agreement to come into force. www.theexchange.africa

With the covid-19 coronavirus pandemic slowing down the global economy’s growth, Africa could just be in time for a revolution that could help it recover faster than the rest of the world.

For starters, the continent is advantaged by having fewer infections which could make it possible for Africa to successfully curtail the spread of the coronavirus if strict measures are taken. While this move may not be uniformly undertaken continent-wide, the ravages of the Ebola virus have prepared many to deal with the pandemic. From years of suffering from viral infections, the continent is well placed to stop the virus in its tracks.

But this comes at a cost since governments should be willing to spend on their people to ensure that the majority who live on daily casual wages are provided for to help them stay in during lockdowns.

Coronavirus: African leaders stuck with neglected, outdated healthcare systems

A scene from Lagos, Nigeria www.theexchange.africa

On March 13, 2020, the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) warned that the covid-19 coronavirus crisis could seriously dent Africa’s already stagnant growth.

Oil-exporting nations could lose up to US$ 65 billion in revenues as crude oil prices continue to tumble. Having already strongly hit Africa’s major trading partner, China, covid-19 was inevitably impacting Africa’s trade.

ECA Executive Secretary, Vera Songwe, said: “Africa may lose half of its GDP with growth falling from 3.2 per cent to about 2 per cent due to a number of reasons which include the disruption of global supply chains.”

She added that the continent’s interconnectedness to affected economies of the European Union, China and the United States was causing ripple effects.

US$3-billion facility

Songwe said that Africa would need up to US$ 10.6 billion in unanticipated increases in health spending to curtail the virus from spreading, while on the other hand revenue losses could …

LENDING

In the backdrop of Tanzania’s Central Bank announcing a stimulus package for commercial banks, loans advanced by banks have shot up significantly over the last year and the stimulus package is expected to sustain if not increase lending.

The Central Bank, the Bank of Tanzania (BoT) has this week released its Consolidated Zonal Economic Performance Report which shows lending by commercial banks have increased considerably in the last year.

The report shows that the highest amount of growth in bank loans was parallel to ongoing national infrastructure development works. The highest increase in loans was to companies operating in the central and south eastern zones owing to increased construction projects and to trading activities, respectively.

This would explain reduced lending in the commercial capital of Dar es Salaam. Lending in the bustling port city actually fell 1.6 percent compared to the same period last year.  However, despite the percentage decrease, …

CORRUPT

Tanzania’s Controller and Auditor General (CAG) has unveiled the country’s Local Government Authorities (LGA) have been involved in the embezzlement of millions of dollars issued to fund nonexistent projects.

Reporting to the country’s President John Magufuli, the CAG’s report indicated that LGA’s across the country have been corruptly siphoning tax payers money for individual gain. The 2018/19 report shows what can only be described as gross mismanagement of public funds.

In the report, Tanzania’s CAG Mr Charles Kichere also reported the gross misuse of funds in excess of USD 342.2 million by the country’s Local Government Authorities (LGA).

Worse still, while the LGAs collected more than USD 46.5 million in the said financial year, only 26.37bn/ was allocated to the rightfully designated development projects while the remaining 17.41bn/- was, according to the CAG report, misused.

Further still, another 10.39bn/- in local revenue that was collected by some 84 Local Government …

Josephine Abuba, a refugee in Kalobeyei settlement dries cowpeas leaves and tomatoes for her family's future use. Africa is prone to hunger and the covid-19 coronavirus pandemic may not bring anything different. www.theexchange.africa

Africa is prone to hunger crises every so often when disasters strike and with the covid-19 coronavirus pandemic, it may not be different.

In East Africa, for instance, the pandemic hit when farmers are preparing their lands for planting making it a challenge for the region that is also battling a desert locust outbreak.

So, what does this mean to the region which has suffered the brunt of inadequate food supplies which keep dwindling by the day?

For starters, the UN-FAO has warned that the locust outbreak in East Africa is the worst to strike Ethiopia and Somalia for 25 years — for Kenya, in 70 years. Djibouti, Eritrea and Uganda have also been affected.

Coronavirus: African leaders stuck with neglected, outdated healthcare systems

“The situation is especially extremely alarming in East Africa, where 20 million people are already considered acutely food insecure. There, the swarms have laid eggs and …

coro

In a bid to keep the sector going, the Tanzanian government has announced plans to significantly lower hunting permit fees.

The relief comes shrouded by coronavirus threat which is the push behind the announced review of annual hunting blocks license fees.

Local media quoted the Deputy Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Mr Constantine Kanyasu, announcing the fee slash plans. According to the high government official, the planned fee cut is in response to requests by hunting companies who are complaining of reduced bookings owing to the global coronavirus threat.

“The Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism will meet hunters again before the end of this month to inform them on the government’s action to rescue the subsector,” the Deputy Minister told media.

On behalf of the hunting companies, the Tanzania Hunting Operators Association (Tahoa) pointed out that there is still room to review the fees ahead of the hunting …

coro

Food security has always been a matter of much concern across Africa, the threat has only been extenuated by the worsening coronavirus outbreak.

With the rest of the World tied up with response to the coronavirus in their own countries, scientists in Africa have to step up to the food security threat on the continent.

Up to the task are Tanzanian scientists who early this week, in the nick of time, announced a breakthrough in maize research that may very well answer the impending food security threat.

The Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute, announced its scientists have developed two genetically modified maize varieties that to a great extent, stand to solve the food security issue in the country and region at large.

First is a maize variety that is much higher in protein concentration than the regular maize types now been grown across the country. This variety will serve to give …