Browsing: Coronavirus

A Covid-19 vaccine. The private sector in Africa is positioned to make millions from Covid-19 vaccines imports. www.theexchange.africa

The US has administered close to 300 million Covid-19 vaccine doses in comparison to the less than 50 million doses administered in the entire African continent. 

Data from the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) shows that the US which is used as a benchmark by many African nations is doing far better but there are many factors favouring this including but not limited to manufacturing and transport logistics. …

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Covid Vaccine- Freepik

 Economic prospects are predicting that 2021 will be a happier year for Pension Schemes. The devasting impact of Covid-19 had far reaching implications on the pension sector, especially in 2020 caused by several factors.

Also Read: Covid Economics: Kenya’s navigation of debt relief

  • We had massive payouts, especially in the hospitality sector as companies closed down and retrenched. Pension scheme members made early access to pension benefits to cushion their financial well-being.
  • A number of employers could not afford contributions funding to pension scheme and So they adapted to this challenge by obtaining a reprieve from the Retirement Benefits Authority to have temporal suspension of contributions deduction and remittance.
  • The stock market also had a significant dip in valuations occasioned decline in earnings from a number of counters especially banking sector.
  • In 2020 the GDP growth dropped to 1% growth compared to the projected growth of about 5%.

Despite the …

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You have a debtor, it is time for them to pay, you pick up your mobile phone dial the number and the most annoying automatic response comes on; ‘Sorry, the number you are calling is not available.’ 

Upset you hang up and redial, same message, now you are really getting mad, you hang up redial and voilà! You are connected. You exchange a barrage of why are you switching off your phone, they reply no, my phone was on, you finally settle on, it must be bad network! 

Sound familiar? 

Well here is some good news, finally the telecomm services watchdog, the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA) has taken note of this poor service ordeal and taken action. 

Six telecoms fined for poor service delivery

Six major mobile phone operators have been slapped fines reaching a grand total of USD16.4 million for what authorities describe as ‘violation

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th?id=OIPThe Central Bank of Nigeria has banned all cryptocurrency transactions as of February 5th 2021 citing terrorism concerns. The central bank is of the view that cryptocurrency transactions are been used to fund terror groups.

As a result, it has ordered all banks as well as non-bank financial institutions and all other financial institutions that deal in cryptocurrencies or facilitate payment for cryptocurrencies to stop with immediate effect.

The development comes after the Central Bank issued a warning back in January cautioning against the use of cryptocurrency.

Cryptocurrencies are volatile and risky since unlike in regular banking transactions, these are transactions that are irreversible. Further still, transactions are anonymous so you do not know who you are dealing with and also, there are no regulators for cryptocurrency dealings, it is all just you and a host of other people that you do not know trading online, to call it …

zimbabwe coronavirus

da630ffe3c228bff150aeb8033971504Businesses in  Zimbabwe are feeling the covid sting has the government moves to reinforce a strict countrywide lockdown in response to renewed breakout of Covid-19 infections.

The lockdown came to effect at the end of the week and involves restriction of movement as well as business operations. With borders closed, businessmen in the country fear worse losses than they are already suffering.

As of January 15, 2021 Zimbabwe had 25,365 confirmed coronavirus (COVID-19) cases and 636 deaths prompting more restrictions.

The lockdown means effective closure of what the country says are non-essential businesses and with it comes also the prohibition of large gatherings like weddings, parties and even religious events.

Issuing the announcement, Zimbabwe’s Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga said the government admits that there is a new Covid-19 outbreak and overwhelmed the country’s health institutions.

Chiwenga, who is also the Health Minister, said the lockdown also means a dusk-to-dawn curfew will …

President Uhuru Kenyatta has urged the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) to prepare harmonised COVID-19 protocols that will ensure participants are safe during the African Union meetings scheduled for February next year.

President Kenyatta emphasized that the protocols will determine whether the African Union (AU) meetings will be virtual or physical given the challenges occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention should give protocols that they think will ensure participants are safe and that will determine whether we will have virtual or physical meetings,” the President said.

President Kenyatta spoke Thursday evening during a virtual meeting of the Bureau of the Assembly of the AU Heads of State and Government and chairpersons of the Regional Economic Communities (RECs).

Also read: Housing and construction sector key in post pandemic recoveries -Uhuru Kenyatta

The meeting was convened by President Cyril Ramaphosa of …

Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has partnered with the PanaBIOS Consortium, represented by AfroChampions, to support the safe re-opening of Africa to travel and trade in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The “PanaBIOS-UNDP” Initiative involves a bridge to an international system called Global Haven at the base of which is a standardized and harmonized testing platform that enables international cross-border travel and trade, as well as business continuity in the face of health and similar catastrophes, thereby creating resilience into the future.

Since travel is highly international with intercontinental hubs tightly connected around the globe, the initiative anticipates the participation of many global actors within the Global Haven compact.

PanaBIOS and its promotion of trusted testing will play an important role in promoting the safe reopening of Africa to advance some of the objectives of enhanced intra African trade through the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) – …

south africa allows travel from international visitors

The South African government last week announced a resumption in international visitors to the country amid a COVID- 19 infection reality. 

Earlier this year, South Africa, like many other countries, shut itself out from the world to control the spread of COVID within its borders. It immediately implemented local lockdowns which have been gradually lifted in different phases. 

Authorities had initially indicated that international borders were billed to be opened in February 2021. The country has, however, given the green light to international visitors in order to stimulate a faltering tourism sector.

Initially, borders were opened on October 1 but excluded visitors from many countries that were classified as high risk. 

Last week, the government updated its travel restrictions alert, opening up entry to all countries.

The opening up of borders is aimed at arousing the tourism sector in South Africa which contributes significantly to GDP. It has been

In a 2019 Human Development Index1 (HDI) issued by the UNDP, countries with low human development include Liberia, Guinea Bissau, Sudan, Niger, Nigeria, Mauritania, Lesotho, Senegal, Togo etc. The Human Development Index is measured through three dimensions: long and healthy life, access to knowledge and decent standard of living. The major importance of the HDI is to enable countries to calculate the overall level of development and what sectors in the economy need more funding and attention. What this means is that countries with low HDI tend to suffer with high rate of unemployment, low Foreign Direct Investments (FDI), high mortality rate, poor infrastructures and so on. The key importance of the HDI is to drive economic diversification and economic growth. Beyond economic growth, it is also important to adopt development strategies that would solve the issue of social needs and increase inflow of investments.  

A major reason 

FOOD

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…