Browsing: African Union (AU)

The Ghananian government officially handed over the headquarters of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat to the African Union.

The ceremony which was held in Accra, Ghana was attended by Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo, Moussa Faki Mahamat, African Union Commission Chairman and AfCFTA Secretary-General Wamkele Mene.

Ghana was selected as the venue for the headquarters by African leaders during a Summit of AU heads of states in July 2019, to launch the implementation phase of the African Continental Free Trade Area.

“The economic integration of Africa will lay strong foundations for an Africa beyond aid. Africa’s new sense of urgency and aspiration of true self-reliance will be amply demonstrated by today’s ceremony,” Akufo-Addo said.

He also appealed to 28 member states that have not ratified to do so before the next AU summit in December so as to pave the way for the smooth commencement of trading from …

The World Bank gave $379 million to help balance and strengthen statistical systems in seven West African countries.

The seven countries include Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Cabo Verde, Togo and Liberia.

The project “Harmonizing and Improving Statistics in West Africa (HISWA)’ is funded by the International Development Association (IDA) credits and grants.

The project key objective is to strengthen the statistical systems of the participating countries, regional and sub-regional bodies, in order to help them balance, produce, distribute and enhance the use of core social and economic statistics.

With World Bank’s efforts to deepen regional integration in Africa, the funding will also support the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union (AU).

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“High-quality and harmonised statistics are essential to support economic activity and regional integration as a way to address …

Kenya has stepped up efforts to curb illicit financial flows (IFFs) through the signing of theYaoundé Declaration, with Africa losing $50 to $60 billion annually through illicit financial flows.

The National Treasury Acting Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani has provided the much needed shot in the arm for the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) efforts to tackle illicit financial flows through the Yaoundé Declaration.

While welcoming the commitment by the Government, KRA Commissioner General Githii Mburu said the instrument focuses on improving international tax cooperation through enhanced information sharing among the African Union (AU) member states to curb illicit financial flows.

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“KRA is encouraged by the Government’s swift moves to prioritize the signing of international treaties that will accelerate efforts to curb international tax evasion,” Githii said.

In a communique to the Chairperson of the Global Forum on …