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The low adoption of CBDCs in Africa, which would hinder the policy objectives central banks hope to achieve, remains a…

One of the few spoken regional trade blocs of Africa is the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS). Despite…

Economies the world over have made significant recoveries from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, Russia-Ukraine conflict and disruptive supply…

Should a common currency in the EAC come to fruition, the trade will be fueled by a reduction, albeit limited,…

Nearly 90 per cent of the world’s trade is carried by the global shipping industry. Without shipping, global cargo trade…

African countries have been at a crossroads of whether to continue adopting the green energy transition in full throttle, or…

Africa continues to grapple with what has been described by the UN, as the ’perfect storm of horrors’, due to…

Uganda Bureau of Statistics has indicated that the country’s inflation has for the first time since 2012 hit double digits, rising to 10 per cent in September 2022 from 2.7 per cent in January 2022 and 4.9 per cent in April 2022.

It is said that inflation above an annual average of 5 per cent retards economic growth and derails economic development.

According to an article titled Uganda grapples with soaring inflation amid persistent global uncertainties, the rise in inflation has been brought about by issues such as tightening of global financial conditions, which triggered investors’ exit from the domestic debt market, thus stoking depreciation pressures on the Uganda Shilling; the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which disrupted global production and supply chains; extended drought in some regions of the country; and increased global commodity prices.

Zimbabwe’s decades old inflation has been worsened by the Russia-Ukraine war. Inflation in Zimbabwe remains one of the highest globally and the only country in Southern Africa with headline inflation above 50 per cent.

Prior to the war, rising inflation in Zimbabwe, low foreign direct investments, unsustainable foreign debt levels and corruption were among a plethora of problems plaguing Zimbabwe’s economy.

Zimbabwe’s economic problems started surfacing in 1997 when the regime of the late Robert Mugabe paid unbudgeted pensions to veterans of the country’s 1970s liberation war, leading to a currency collapse. The situation got worse in 1999 when Zimbabwe sent its troops to fight in Democratic Republic of Congo civil war that also drew armies from Uganda, Rwanda and Angola. A violent land reform programme that displaced nearly 5,000 commercial farmers, precipitating the crisis. Disputed elections and human rights violations led to the country’s economic isolation, which has taken a serious toll on the economy.

Textiles and clothing are an essential part of everyday life and an important sector in the global economy, and more so Textile in Africa.

According to a report titled Circular economy in Africa: Fashion and textiles, in sub-Saharan Africa, the combined apparel and footwear market is estimated at $31 billion. The textile industry in Africa is estimated to grow at a compound annual growth rate of approximately 5 percent between 2019 and 2024. In addition, the production of cotton accounts for almost 7 percent of all employment in some low-income countries.

African countries boasted thriving textile industries in the 1970s and early 1980s. That was until the African market was flooded by what Kenyans call Mitumba (second-hand clothes), also called chagua in Rwanda, and salaula in Zambia, dealing the textile industry a blow leading to its deterioration.