Browsing: EU

Coffee beans. The EAC should invest in SMEs since they are critical contributors to GDP growth of the region which mainly exports agricultural commodities in raw form. www.theexchange.africa

The EU presents a huge opportunity for the EAC region SMEs making it a great platform for those in the sector to market their products in Europe.…

Subscribe to unlock this article

Login to read this article for free and get 3 free premium articles. Subscribe today for unlimited premium articles and more.

Digital Subscription – Monthly

Monthly renewing
You can cancel anytime.

$5 /Monthly

Digital Subscription – Annually

Monthly renewing
You can cancel anytime.

$40 /Annually

900eu africa mask

p

Mozambique, Angola, Namibia, Ethiopia, Zambia, Rwanda, Uganda, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco.

These are the African countries set to be allowed to enter the EU territory as the borders reopen in July, according to a draft list of the countries obtained and reported by euronews.

As the European Union gets ready to reopen its borders, officials in Brussels are debating behind closed doors, the draft of two lists; one with those countries that will be accepted, and one for those which will not, as the territory struggle to meet their previously announced July 1st goal.

The euronews sources also reported that officials “could not reach an agreement”, that talks would continue and that the deadline to open the borders may very well be extended beyond July 1st, suggesting agreements will not be forthcoming in time.

Also read: Air passengers travel confidence key to salvaging African airlines

Notably, Brazil, Qatar, …

Debt Crisis in Africa

African nations (via their ministers) have agreed to call a debt relief support from bilateral, multilateral and commercial partners with the support of the multilateral and bilateral financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank Group, and European Union (EU), amid coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19) United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) revealed in a statement.

The agreement was germinated from the second virtual meeting on Tuesday, hosted by Vera Songwe, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, and co-chaired by Ministers Tito Mboweni of South Africa and Ken Ofori-Atta of Ghana.

The meeting stressed the need to take possible actions to downplay and bring the spread of COVID-19 under control in the short term.

“The call for debt relief, it was emphasized, should be for all of Africa and should be undertaken in a coordinated and collaborative way. They called for a special purpose vehicle …

The European Union is a big market for Africa’s cut flowers and other products. www.theexchange.africa

The UK left the European Union (EU) in January after a long and tedious process which saw Prime Minister Theresa May quit as the Conservative leader on June 7, 2019.

Following the divorce, the EU and the UK will determine their future trade relations during the transition period which goes on until the end of this year.

With this reorganisation, developing countries could see their exports to the UK increase. The EU could also offer a slightly bigger market for goods coming from these economies. However, this is dependent on whether the UK increases tariffs for third world countries.

Trading with Britain under preferential terms

With this, it is time for Africa as Brexit could create new opportunities for the continent which just became one the largest free trade area in the world with the AfCFTA which will be operational starting in June 2020.

The UNCTAD notes that a no-deal

The state of data privacy is a widely discussed topic of conversation. The new EU data protection law is setting Kenya up for the next step towards foreign investment opportunities. In short, these new legal standards will place restrictions on the handling, storing and shareability of personal user data.

Following the announcement on 8 November 2019 that Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta signed the European Union General Data Protection Regulation, aligning Kenyan legislation with the EU, great interest was ignited as the new legislation offers more regulated safeguards against the misuse of personal information. Furthermore, it comes with a substantial fine of 3 million Shillings or a two-year jail sentence, should the terms be violated.

Digital-lending apps, in particular, have come under scrutiny for malicious attacks that gain access to smartphone data without consent to determine creditworthiness. With mobile technology and digital apps on the rise, we’ve already started to see …

European Union and Tanzania

The European Union (EU) is set to provide over $57 million as development aid to Tanzania, marking a return of EU in the Tanzanian development landscape after the partner’s relations were married two years ago over human rights and rule of law concerns.

According to The Citizen, the EU Head of Delegation to Tanzania Manfredo Fanti revealed the release of the funds yesterday at State House, in Dar es Salaam, during a meeting with the Tanzanian President John Magufuli.

It was the first major funding announcement by the EU bloc which in December 2018 withheld 96 million in annual financial support to Tanzania amid a diplomatic fallout.

The EU is Tanzania’s biggest development partner, receiving over $100 million every year.

Also, the EU Deputy Head of Delegation, Emilio Rossetti revealed to The Citizen that the planned disbursements were assessed and finally approved in December 2019 after technical discussions.

“The implementation …

African Development Bank (AfDB) has approved a grant worth $8 million aimed at supporting the preparation of the Ruzizi IV Hydropower Project.

A statement from the Bank shows that the grant was drawn from the European Union’s Africa Investment Platform (EU-AIP).

According to the bank, the plant will be situated on the Ruzizi River between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and is expected to supply electricity to the DRC, Burundi, and Rwanda.

About half of Rwandans have access to electricity, and the project comes to strengthen the fast-growing economy energy sector ambition, set on increasing access, stimulating demand and strengthening transmission network.

The project also stands to improve electricity supply status to one the least electrified nation’s in the world, Burundi with access rate standing at 7 per cent. More importantly, the project will impact one of the largest countries in the region, DRC which also has …

The United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference COP 25, has levitated the climate action landscape in Africa

This has led to the African Development Bank (AfDB) to join forces with 11 other international organizations to assist developing countries to build resilience against the impact of natural disasters caused by extreme weather.

The initiative comes at a rather perfect moment, especially when the region is faced with unprecedented catastrophic weather events affecting the continent’s economy.

According to AfDB, the institutions came together at the COP 25 climate change conference in Madrid on Tuesday to launch the Alliance for Hydromet Development.

Alliance for Hydromet Development

According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the Alliance for Hydromet (hydrological and climate services) Development brings together major international development, humanitarian and climate finance institutions, collectively committed to scale up and unite efforts to close the hydromet capacity gap by 2030. It aims to increase …

The African Development Bank (AfDB) has just breathed life into Burkina Faso—the lease electrified country in the continent and globally, with € 48.42 million ($53 million) fund for the government of the country to implement the Yeleen Solar energy Plant, which is anticipated to boost national power supply, AfDB press release reads.

According to AfDB, the current project is part of Burkina Faso’s broader 2025 Solar Programme, known as “Yeleen” with three components: Development of photovoltaic plants (PV) connected to the interconnected national grid, Increase in the electricity distribution network, and Rural electrification by mini-grids (isolated) and individual solar systems.

Further, the rural electrification “ Yeleen rural electrification project” which aims to increase electricity access in Burkina Faso by connecting 150,000 households to solar mini-grids (50,000 household) and through stand-alone solar kits systems (100,000 households) was approved by AfDB in December 2018 with joint financing with European Union (EU) …