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• Shell Nigeria is selling off major stakes in the west African country.
• Critics blame the government of Nigeria for allowing the sell at a time the oil giant is facing suits on oil spills.
• Activists want Shell Nigeria to be held responsible for alleged decades of oil spills.

Shell Nigeria has sold off major stakes in the Western African country, sparking chatter that the move could be just a ploy to escape oil spill charges in the country. On the other hand, there is an argument that the Shell move is just a numbers game, a move to cut losses in troubled onshore Nigeria stakes in favor of its offshore investments.

Which of the two is true? Is Shell shedding off investments in on-land fossil fuels to redirect its resources to less-hassle offshore exploration, or is the British oil giant simply running away from oil spill charges?

Media has reported…

• Tanzania's coffee industry enjoyed a bumper harvest of beans in the 2022/23 season, earning the economy an impressive $238 million.
• Coffee is the East African country’s largest cash crop and the sector provides income to over 400,000 households.
• To further boost production, the government is increasing the supply of seedlings to more farmers across the country.

Tanzania may be famous for its expansive tourism offerings, iconic Mount Kilimanjaro, awe-inspiring wildlife wonders in the Serengeti, and the white sandy beaches of Zanzibar, but it is quickly gaining fame on a new frontier: the production of world-class coffee beans.

"Some of the finest single-estate and Peaberry coffee beans in the world come from here," notes international coffee tester and analyst Arne Preuss in his recent review of the development of Tanzania’s coffee industry.

Tanzania's coffee production

Tanzania's coffee production averages between 30,000 and 40,000 metric tonnes annually. It is mainly gaining fame…

• A staggering $8 trillion would be invested in installing renewables to achieve COP28 renewable targets. 
• The report finds that COP28 renewable targets must continue growing enormously beyond the decade's end.
• Without this, the pledge to triple COP28 renewable targets will ring increasingly hollow.

The investments channelled towards the development of renewables will need to grow fivefold if the Sub-Saharan African countries are to achieve COP28 Renewable Targets.

A new think tank Climate Analytics report shows that $8 trillion of investment is needed for new renewables and $4 trillion for grid and storage infrastructure to deliver the 2030 tripling goal agreed at COP28 – or combined, $2 trillion a year on average.

This is twice as fast as the current global average. 2023 global investment reached $1 trillion, around half of the annual investment needed between 2024 and 2030.

The insights show that using climate finance to mobilise $100 billion a…

• Analysts observe numerous loopholes in global climate talks, with a failure to address glaring food security concerns.
• Financial commitments for food systems remain low, affecting implementation, and leaving millions of people hungry.
• Agriculture accounts for a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions.

For the very first time, food systems were finally discussed at the just-ended COP28 in Dubai late last year, but analysts are up in arms, asking if it's a 'too little, too late' scenario.

“Given the profound impact of agricultural practices and food consumption patterns on our planet's health, this attention is long overdue,” notes the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) in its review of the COP28 outcome.

Better late than never, so “though the talks' long overdue focus on food and agriculture ultimately disappointed, it provides a starting point for future action and advocacy.”

COP28 was held in Dubai late last year, and while there…

• Tanzania sugar shortage is sparking unrelenting hike in prices.
• The government of Tanzania has approved the import of over 100,000 tonnes of sugar.
• President Samia has pledged to increase sugar production by 2025.

A biting sugar shortage in Tanzania is causing the price of the commodity to skyrocket over the last few months. On the one hand, the sugar shortage is blamed on heavy rains at the end of last year while on the other hand, there are allegations of hoarding and price setting by industry cartels.

With little to no evidence of the latter, the speculations remain just that, mere allegations. However, what is undisputed is sugar shortage and the attendant surge in prices for the sweetener.

Sugar shortage in Tanzania has persisted for almost an entire year now. So profound is the problem that President Dr Samia Suluhu Hassan was forced to issue a public statement explaining the…

• Sports industry in Africa is expected to grow by 8 percent in 3 to 5 years according to advisory giant PwC
• Currently, milions of Africans, including businesses based in the continent that have pumped millions into the tournament, are following the TotalEnergies CAF AFCON 2023 finals in Ivory Coast.
• In 2021, Cameroon invested over $800 million in preparations for that year's AFCON finals.

The 2021 African football continental showpiece—Cup of Nations (AFCON)—saw Cameroon attract millions of spectators both physically and virtually, a scenario that is music to the ears of sponsors. This further fortifies the fact that sports in Africa have the potential to generate billions of dollars.

Fast forward to 2030, Morocco is poised to become the second African country to ever stage a World Cup after South Africa in 2010, marking a historic step in African football and the business value chain that comes with the sport.

In…

• Kenya-DRC and Tanzania-DRC Corridors have been identified as the key links that will drive East Africa trade.
• Within the Southern Africa region, higher integration will drive its share of total intra-Africa exports to a third by 2035.
• The MENA Region and the Middle East-East Africa corridors will also be substantial, with combined trade volume expected to reach almost USD200 billion by 2035.

Increased infrastructure interconnectivity by the African states has been identified as the key driver that will lead to success of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Kenya-DRC and Tanzania-DRC Corridors have been identified as the key links that will drive East Africa trade.

This comes after members after some member states expressed concern that the African trade system has failed to grow beyond the estimated 14–15 per cent over the last three to four years.

However, prospects are now positive that intra-Africa trade will grow 3.9 per…

• The ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip, Palestine, is threatening to impose a new burden on food security systems in Africa.
• African economies find themselves compelled to choose sides between Israel and Palestine carefully.
• However, our analysis indicates that Africa faces a no-win situation when dealing with instability and the worsening conflict in the Gaza Strip.

The aftermath of the Israel-Hamas war is having devastating effects on Africa's economic and political spheres, with food inflation being the first tangible negative impact.

As African economies are still recovering from the effects of the global COVID-19 lockdown and grappling with the consequences of the Russia-Ukraine war, the Israel-Hamas war is further destabilizing fragile food security systems in the continent.

The disruption in trade is attributed to new security challenges and what economists describe as investors opting for a "flight to safety." These investor actions are strengthening the US dollar and causing…

• Ongoing China’s real estate crash is causing a ripple effect in the steel industry.
• Market prices for steel have fallen sharply in Asia amid the flood of Chinese exports.
• At the same time, Sub-Saharan Africa metal exports are relying on anti-dumping laws to stay afloat.

China's real estate bubble has busted and with it caused a global ripple in the metal markets and especially the Asian economic giant's steel exports business.

Stanislav Zinchenko the CEO of GMK Center notes that China’s investments in the real estate and construction sector in general, which are the largest consumers of steel, fell by 7.2 per cent between January and May of last year.

The first effect of the real estate crash has been the drop in demand for steel products. With the fall in domestic demand for steel, China has turned to the new frontiers to drive steel exports.

The result of…