Browsing: African Development Bank (AfDB)

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 …

Tanzania has shutdown all activities at one of its largest open air livestock market, the Meserani Livestock Auction Market in Monduli, Arusha.

To enforce the ban, the government sent down armed police officers to stop any trading from taking place; a daunting task when you take into consideration the fact that the market handles well over 1,000 traders every single day.

The move is in line with the national ban on mass gatherings in the face of the ongoing Covid-19 threat.

Safety first, but the close to 200 000 pastoralists who exclusively rely on cattle trade now have to find alternative income generating solutions. As to be expected, the pastoralists are up in arms over the decision to shut down their sole source of daily bread, or meat in this case.

Many are of the view, that the market should be allowed to continue to trade but to take precautionary …

As the rest of the country shuts down all entry ports, heavily reliant on tourism, the spice Isles of Zanzibar are allowing charter flights to land but with strict conditions.

Isles authorities have permitted charter flights bringing tourists to the island to land but on condition that all persons on board enter a 14 days quarantine stay, at their own expense.

This surprising turn of events happens in the backdrop of ongoing global threat of the spread of coronavirus. Even leading sports leagues have been cancelled and regional high profile meetings are been held on conference calls.

Across Africa, the tourism industry has come to an almost complete shutdown. It is time immemorial since a disease stopped people from touring and going for holidays, at least not since the deadly World War I and II power viruses.

With most all African countries eventually succumbing to the threat and finally closing …

There are now more than 100,000 mini-grid stations across Africa, these little power generation stations are serving to bridge Africa’s rural power gap and Tanzania is no exception.

While the country leads Africa in rural electrification efforts, there is still huge gap between demand and supply and the solution to cover it lays in mini-grids, small power stations that generate power at localized remote points.

To date, Tanzania has well over 100 mini-grids that provide electrical power to over 250,000 people in remote corners of the country. These mini-grids provide close to 200 MW using biomass, fossil fuel and solar systems as well as hybrids of these energy sources.

Tanzania’s national policies also support adoption of renewable energy technologies. Off-grid electrification using renewable energy technologies can offer a power solution to rural and remote areas. These efforts are inline with the global Sustainable Development Goals.

SDG number 7 calls for …

More than ever before, Tanzania and the rest of Africa need to employ rain harvesting technology. Global climate changing is drastically affecting weather patterns, rains are heavier or missing completely, droughts in otherwise tropical areas, cyclones and tornadoes ravaging through coastlines. Weather is now less predictable than ever before.

For both economic and social reasons, Tanzania needs to make the best of the rains when they come, Tanzania needs to harvest rain water.

While at national or even city levels, there are some sophisticated equations involved in rain harvesting, like building reservoirs and purification sites, but all in all, the science of rain harvesting technology is not all that complicated at all. It’s a simple three step investment, collect, store and purify.

Since economies rely on water for production and households depend on clean and safe water for daily survivor, harvesting rain water should not even be optional, it should …

When it comes to extractive industries, Tanzania is one of Africa’s richest countries. From minerals to marine resources, Tanzania has it all. It is the World’s only source of Tanzanite, a blue gem said to be 1000 times rarer than diamond. It is home to the highest mountain on the continent and Lake Tanganyika, the World’s deepest lake.

How to manage the extractive industries is an insurmountable task that has seen many countries plunge into endless civil wars. At the center of this strife is a matter of much deliberation but one word can describe the complex mechanisms that are required to efficiently manage the extractive industries, transparency.

Transparency in this case is a very touchy subject after all, who wants to let the world know the details of the 100 years renewable contract that they have signed with a multi-national corporation?

However, that is exactly what transparency demands, stifle …

Coffee production in South America is on a sharp increase and the resulting market flood is severely hurting East African coffee growers.

As supply increases, the market price is steadily falling. For trading blocs like the East African Community (EAC) where coffee is traditionally among the leading export commodities, the lower market prices spell a gloomy period up ahead.

In fact, for most of the East African countries, coffee accounts for 76 percent of the value of all agricultural exports put together. So losing the coffee market is a severe blow to economic development in East Africa and across the continent too.

Sector pundits say South America is using improved hybrids that are growing fast, producing better yields and they also have better after harvest storage and transportation facilities which are important to maintain the quality of the grain.

For example, statistics show that Brazil is now the world’s leading …

The African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Botswana Development Corporation (BDC) signed a Line of Credit (LOC) totalling $80 million to help scale up key investments in Botswana.

The AFDB said in a statement that the Botswana Development Corporation will only lend to specific target groups, focusing on industrialisation including transport,  manufacturing and service sectors that have important development impact.

The repayment period will be over 10 years, including a two-year grace period.

Also Read:  IMF urges Botswana to start consolidating in 2020

“The African Development Bank is excited to collaborate with BDC to promote private sector development, as well as support broad-based economic growth in Botswana,” said  Mohamed Kalif, Manager, Financial Intermediation and Inclusion Division signing on behalf of the Bank.

Kalif said that the facility is the largest to be extended to a financial institution in Botswana and that the Bank is very proud of its partnership with …

Africa’s economic growth remained stable in 2019 at 3.4% and is on course to pick up to 3.9% in 2020, and 4.1% in 2021 as revealed in the African Development Bank’s 2020 African Economic Outlook.

The bank said that the slower than expected growth is partly due to the moderate expansion Africa’s Big five such as Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa – whose joint growth rate compared with the average of 4.0% for the rest of the continent was at an average rate of 3.1%.

In 2019, investment expenditure for the first time in a decade accounted for over 50% of GDP growth compared to consumption.

The bank noted that the shift can aid in sustaining and potentially speeding the future growth in Africa, increase current and future productive base in Africa while improving the productivity of the workforce.

Also Read: Africa can no longer be ignored- AfDB

African Development Bank (AfDB) approved a $22 million Senior Loan to help corporate leasing company (Corplease) expand its lending to SMEs in Egypt.

The decision signalled confidence in the growing local market and in Egypt’s economy as a whole.
Out of the $22 million, African Development Bank will mobilize $7 million from the Africa Growing Together Fund (AGTF), a co-financing fund, established with the People’s Bank of China.

Corplease is a leading non-bank financial institution that provides diverse leasing products and services to SMEs and larger corporates, through sale, direct leasing and leaseback, as well as structured finance products. to address funding constraints in the private sector in Egypt, corp lease seeks to provide alternative financing through leases.

Also Read: African Development Bank $1m grant to Burundi

“The need for leasing products in Egypt is growing consistently on an annual basis to meet the acute demand by small, medium and …