Browsing: infrastructure

• Beyond physical infrastructure, Africa’s integration requires modern software upgrades: the systems, policies, and institutional frameworks that power trade across borders.
• By positioning economic transformation at the heart of our integration agenda, Africa can advance up the value chain to generate wealth.
• By effectively mobilizing our own resources first, driving economic transformation, and building both the required software and hardware, we can successfully integrate Africa.

Ask any traveler about their experience moving across parts of Africa, and you will likely hear about familiar challenges: high costs, indirect routes, and unpredictable schedules that can make even the simplest journeys more complicated and costly. These travel hurdles highlight the immense opportunity to further strengthen Africa’s integration and unlock seamless connectivity across the continent.

The potential is undeniable. According to the World Bank, the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) stands to be the world’s largest free trade zone, encompassing 1.4 billion people and …

• 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 …

• There is a debt crisis in Africa as countries struggle to repay international loans. 
• According to the World Bank, nine African countries entered 2024 in debt distress, with another 15 at high risk of distress and 14 more categorised as moderate risk.
• According to the United Nations, Africa’s public debt will stay above pre-pandemic levels in 2024 and 2025.

At 4 per cent, Africa is projected to be the second fastest-growing economic region in the world in 2024,  according to a report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). However, behind the headline figure is a less optimistic reality.

Many African countries have suffered from slow post-COVID-19 recovery, climate change shocks, worsening food security situation, political instability, weak global growth, and high-interest rates. These economic shocks have pushed over 55 million people into poverty since 2020. The situation is increasingly alarming as more than half of the continent’s countries are in …

Kenya will host the second Canada-Africa Business Conference early next year, bringing together investors from the two regions to explore key investment opportunities. Some of the target industries that the 19-20 February 2024 conference will focus on are medical care, infrastructure, energy, financing for Canada-Africa projects, and FinTech.
The two-day meeting in Nairobi’s Muthaiga Country Club follows the two regions’ first-ever program at Botswana’s Gaborone International Convention Centre in 2019.
In partnership with the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA), the Canada-Africa Business Conference will bring together key players who will also visit select locations.…

East Africa has been at a crossroads in its quest to industrialize, grasping at diverse straws of foreign aid inflows towards the realization of this endeavour.

Countries in the region have been looking West and East to fulfil their respective national developmental goals and finally lift their nations out of poverty. However, partnerships with the latter have swiftly gained momentum, and in tandem Asian countries have been positively responding to this call, with most having been in the same position decades ago. These Asian countries have experienced a robust economic revolution fueled by rapid industrialization.

Ties between Asia and East Africa, were cemented during the 1955 Asian-African Bandung conference held in Indonesia, originating from a shared colonial past.

Just why have East African countries been looking more to the East for support?

There are numerous reasons such as the non-interference policy that comes with aid, the untapped market for African …

His fortune is estimated to be worth a staggering US$148 billion. He is second only to Tesla founder and eccentric billionaire Elon Musk. Very interesting to note is the fact that the rise of Adani into the high stakes of global wealth is also the first time that two of the wealthiest individuals in the world are from countries that comprise the BRICS nations.

Though now a US citizen, Elon Musk has South African heritage, and Adani is an Indian national.

That two of the richest men in the world are from BRICS countries is indicative of the emergence of the bloc. Adani is the first person of Indian descent to occupy the position. Adani is the chairman of the Adani Group, which operates a litany of businesses in coal mining, infrastructure, and thermal power generation. His companies also operate private airports and firms. According to media reports, Adani’s wealth …

A lot has been written about the case for investing in Africa. 

Many journalists and economists have eulogized about the merits of investing in Africa going as far as to describe it as the final frontier. Africa is indeed the so-called final frontier and it is that for very good reason. It has the largest share of any natural resources on the planet that are still untapped for the most part. It is not an exaggeration to describe the continent as a Utopian Eldorado as far as investment is concerned. It is home to the youngest population demographic who will comprise a large part of the middle class and will consume large quantities of services and goods. 

A typical example and an apt preface for this article would be the massive coal deposits in the Waterberg area in the north of South Africa. This resource is estimated to be in …

Pursuing economic empowerment through purely legalistic and regulatory means has fatal shortcomings which defeat the premise of black or native participation in the economy because history has taught that such a strategy creates a very skewed distribution of the wealth that must be sustainably shared.

Black Economic Empowerment and Indigenization pursued solely from this strategy is a sophisticated form of socialism especially where there is little in the way of economic growth. Its process and eventual outcome create a skewed wealth distribution and novel kind of class structure. 

A vibrant economy is the most potent instrument of empowerment, inclusion, and participation of the people of that country. Vibrant economies are not the result of chance but are the result of deliberate pursuit and action.

Read: Three things TMEA brings to Ethiopia in expansion plans

Creating an economy that is enabling and empowers all citizens requires the development of the following …

Chinese lending to Africa has declined drastically after nearly two decades of bilateral lending which has led to the development of infrastructure in the region.

Chinese lending to the public sector in Africa was $28 billion in 2016 according to research from the China Africa Research Initiative. In 2018 it also declined to $9.9 billion and sunk further to billion in 2019. (Valium)

The decline is due to changes in the Chinese economy, Chinese investment losses and the uncertainty of the Chinese trade with the United States. The fact that Chinese lending has been receiving negative criticism as the cause of debt distress in some poor country’s in the world could also be a reason for the slowdown in funding.

With over 1,140 projects in Africa worth 153 billion, China has emerged as Africa’s largest bilateral lender over the last two decades. With $148 billion worth of loans, …

GreenCo Power Services, a subsidiary of Africa GreenCo has received a total of USD 1.5 million through two deals. The Danish government’s Investment Fund for Developing Countries (IFU) has committed $1 million in funding. InfraCo Africa, the investment arm of the Private Infrastructure Development Group also put in $500 000 through a convertible loan. 

The deal will see GreenCo Power services come to life to strengthen power generation capacity. Renewable energy generation will provide an innovative approach to electricity production which is set to drive Zambia’s power infrastructure significantly. 

The Zambian government is on the path to scaling up energy which ties in with the country’s vision to be a prosperous middle-income country by 2030. As part of its vision, the country intends to shore up energy availability to drive productivity in the country. This deal will therefore see GreenCo acting as a complementary partner to the Zambian government’s vision. …