Browsing: Ivory coast

• Across Ghana and Ivory Coast, climate change, illegal mining, cocoa industry woes, and a devastating disease known as swollen shoot have conspired to end West Africa’s cocoa supremacy.
• In Ivory Coast, 30% of cocoa plantations are infected by swollen shoot disease. Upto 600,000 hectares under Cocoa in Ghana are infected, too.
• The crisis in West Africa is offering opportunity to Ecuador, Brazil and Peru to become global cocoa production titans.

A double whammy of a devastating disease coupled with unchecked gold mining activities has set up a storm that is fast threatening to kill West Africa’s Cocoa supremacy.

For decades, Ghana and the Ivory Coast have held the mantle of titans in the cocoa world, jointly supplying over 60 per cent of the beans’ global demand. However, this year’s poor harvest as noted by an exclusive piece by Reuters, could spark a seismic shift in the cocoa production industry, …

Africa will be the second fastest-growing regional economy in 2024. Over 10 African countries will experience substantial GDP growth. In October 2024, the International Monetary Fund emphasized Africa’s pivotal role in global economic development and resilience.

Africa could face economic headwinds this year. However, some of the continent’s brightest spots are lighting up the economic prospects. According to the International Monetary Fund, six of the top 10 performing nations globally are projected to come from Africa in 2024.…

• Uganda has issued first Islamic Banking License after a 20-year wait. On its part, Kenya has issued the first Islamic Bond to finance affordable housing agenda.
• The performance of Sukuk bonds in the continent is revealing untapped demand that could finance development projects.
• Estimates show global Islamic finance assets could reach $3.8 trillion by 2024.

Islamic Finance is on an exponential growth trajectory across Africa, garnering momentum by the day broadening the continent’s financial landscape. African countries are making significant steps towards bolstering access to shariah-compliant financial instruments and services, to cater to the largely financially, excluded Muslim population. This comes as figures from the Islamic Development Finance Corporation (IDFC), forecast that global Islamic Finance assets could reach $3.8 trillion by 2024.

Large swathes of African populace still remains unbanked, pertinently those shifting stance from the conventional system driven by their religious beliefs, thereby unlocking an untapped pool of investments.…

Most Kenyans, 83 per cent, indicated a willingness to increase the amount of money they allocate to savings and investments, but the inability to save due to insufficient funds after fulfilling their obligations that require regular funding and the availability of quick digital loans.

Among their obligations which contribute to Kenyans’ financial strain is supporting their extended family which considerably bites into their savings. 84 per cent of people indicated that they regularly provide some income to their extended family, mostly in case of emergencies, because they feel a sense of obligation to send their extended families money and because their extended family members treat them better when they are sent money.

On their part, the extended family members mostly use the money to cater to recurring expenses like food & transport, school fees and medical expenses at 23 per cent, 19 per cent and 18 per cent respectively. Farm-related …

• Cocoa is a signature cash-crop for Ivory Coast
• US Department of Agriculture slated to invest $61 million in Ivory Coast cashew nut
• Ivory Coast economy is forecasted to expand by 6.7 percent in 2022

Ivory Coast is one of Africa’s largest farms.  More than 60 per cent of the national territory is dedicated as arable agricultural land. Ivory Coast is one of the largest economies in the West African Economic and Monetary Union, and agriculture is its backbone.  Cocoa production is the blood pumping through the economic veins of the Ivory Coast. The West African nation is not only the largest producer of Cocoa in the region but globally (contributing around 30 per cent).  

In 2020/2021, Ivory Coast produced 2.15 million metric tonnes of cocoa beans. In Ivory Coast, the share of agriculture to the economy stood at 21.39 per cent in 2020.     

The West African nation of more …

Based on a report by Disrupt Africa, funding for health tech startups in Africa jumped 257.7% from US$28.8m in 2019 to US$103m in 2020. These startups provide a wide range of services from scheduling medical consultations to telemedicine and digitalized imagery.

MaiSoin from Cote d’Ivoire uses a decentralized, gig-economy model, to facilitate the relationship between healthcare professionals and patients needing care at home or via telemedicine. In their first year of operations, they have had an average of 50% growth month over month and are already looking at potential expansions in the region.…

Mergers and acquisitions worth US$52B were completed in South Africa during the first half of 2021, with the value of deals growing by 958% from 2020 with the tech sector in the lead according to Refinitiv Data that provides financial markets and infrastructure data . According to Digest Africa, the value of mergers and acquisitions in the African tech ecosystem in 2018 was US$504M with 24 out of the 39 deals taking place in South Africa making it the country with the most mergers, acquisitions and exits among the KINGS countries. …

A Fair trade research study has revealed that over the past four years cocoa farmers household increased income in Ivory Coast has received a boosted earnings and lower incidences of extreme poverty as reported by Neill Barston.

This latest research comes amid key ongoing challenges within the region’s communities, which are facing significant downward pressures on crop prices impacting on communities earning capability.

Côte d’Ivoire is the world’s largest producer and exporter of cocoa beans. The Ivorian economy is largely dependent on the agricultural sector and about two-thirds of the population is engaged in this area. However, this dependency causes the Ivorian economy to be highly sensitive to changes in the international prices of these products.

According to the Fairtrade’s research key analysis, the average annual Ivorian cocoa farmer household income grew from $2,670 in 2016/17 to $4,937 in 2020/21, an increase of 85% driven, in part, by an upturn …

With over billion mobile money accounts Africa continues to lead the way in transaction value and volume thanks to M-pesa a Kenyan based mobile money service, that is largely used in East Africa. Other regions all-round the Continent are also registering massive growth.

In 2019, West Africa reported the most live mobile money services in any region, with 56 million active accounts. In Ivory Coast, one of Francophone Africa’s largest mobile money markets, 75% of the population own a mobile money account, compared to 20% who own bank accounts. The difference is staggering and clearly shows the region’s huge appetite for the service.

While telecom operators have largely dominated mobile money services across most of sub-Saharan Africa, a few startups are trying to change the mobile money experience for customers. Ivory Coast-based fintech startup Julaya a digital account for African small and Medium businesses is one such company, that has …

The construction of the Lagos-Abidjan Highway has the capacity to unlock 85 per cent of trade within the ECOWAS sub-region according to the African Development Bank (AfDB).

The Highway which is 1,028-km project will span across different countries which includes Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria -and traverse the economic capitals of the five coastal countries, starting from Abidjan and ending in Lagos, while equally straddling eight border crossings.

Lamin Barrow the Director-General of AfDB who represented Akinwumi Adesina the AfDB President appearing on Tuesday as a panelist at a one-day webinar to showcase the investment opportunities from the Federal Government of Nigeria’s reforms and privatization activities, said that while the Federal Government had spearheaded various reforms in the banking sector that enhanced the resilience of the financial system, there was a need to stay the course in completing the bold reforms initiated to restructure the energy sector.

Nigeria’s …