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AfDB

AfDB transformed 515M lives, including 231M women, over the past decade

Africa
  • Through various AfDB financing programmes across Africa, a total of 61M people have gained access to clean water since 2015.
  • Another 33M people have benefited from improved sanitation while 46M Africans have gained access to ICT services, even as 25M people gained access to electricity.
  • Next up for AfDB is the push to connect 300M Africans to electricity by 2030, and measure Africa’s vast green wealth as part of the continent’s GDP.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) positively impacted over 515 million lives over the past 10 years, the lender’s President Dr. Akinwumi Adesina has revealed. While addressing Heads of State and Government at the just concluded 38th session of the African Union Summit, Dr. Adesina said the bank has positively impacted 231 million women during the decade under review.

While sharing his scorecard before the august gathering, Dr. Adesina noted that AfDB‘s initiatives have led to 127 million …

AFRICA RISING

Africa’s time is now. The case for investment

Business

The case for investment in Africa is compelling. At no time before in history has the continent formerly and perhaps harshly referred to as the dark continent been so promising in terms of its economic potential.

The continent has been home to some of the fastest growing economies in the world. The continent according to research conducted by Standard Bank Group published in a report titled “Infrastructure Financing in Sub Saharan Africa for Institutional Investors”, states that in the last decade there have been 4 notable trends in Africa:
1. A larger, younger, and more affluent population
2. Africa’s transformational urban swell
3. Technological advances that have caused the continent to leapfrog
4. A deepening financial sector
These four trends have acted as structural drivers of Africa’s renewed economic promise. Over the last 10 year, specifically between 2010 and 2019 the collective economy of Africa grew by 55%. In monetary…

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Alternative investing into our planet?

Business

Because outside of the governments, politicians, civil servants, lobbyists and pressure groups that thronged the Conference there is a cohort of entrepreneurs that are passionate about reversing climate change, that have fantastic commercially viable and innovative ideas, but who require funding and strategic support to make these ideas a reality.  

And so I want to suggest that as well as taking personal responsibility for our carbon footprint and doing all that we can to minimise our negative impact on Planet Earth, we should also be investing in line with environmental, social and governance principles at all times – and ensuring that 20% of our investments in 2021/22 should be directly targeted at investments that will have a positive environmental impact. …

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Egypt maintains 3.6% GDP growth in FY20 despite pandemic

Egypt maintains 3.6% GDP growth in FY20 despite pandemic

Countries

Egypt maintained its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate at 3.6 per cent during the last fiscal year (FY) 2019/20, despite the economic challenges presented by the pandemic, according to Egypt’s Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait.

The minister’s remarks came during his participation in virtual meetings organised by Bank of America during the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) fall meetings.

Minister Maait said that Egypt was able to reduce its deficit–to-GDP ratio to 7.9 per cent in FY 2019/20, compared to the 8.2 per cent recorded in FY 2018/19.

At the end of June 2020, Egypt also achieved a primary surplus of 1.8 per cent despite the negative repercussions caused by Covid-19.

He also added that in the same period, the country was also able to reduce its debt-to-GDP ratio to 87 per cent compared to the 90.4 per cent recorded in the same period in 2019 and 108 per cent …