Browsing: United Nations Conference on Trade and Development

African-Ports

A spotlight on Africa’s port industry and its challenges

Industry and Trade
  • As we mark Africa Day today, our writer, Ken Mutuku, takes a deep dive into the port industry across the continent. He highlights it vast potential and the big challenges holding it back.
  • Every year, May 25th, serves as an opportunity to acknowledge the remarkable progress Africa has made, while reflecting on the challenges it continues to face.
  • Key ports offer entry into several resource-rich regions and countries such as Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and South Africa.

Africa's port industry continues to play an integral role in the continent's supply chain cycle, and has been powering import and export trade of developing economies since colonial times. Despite this, it is still an underutilized and underdeveloped resource that requires significant financing and upgrade to power accelerated growth in resource-rich African economies.

Africa, a continent of vibrant colors, diverse landscapes, and rich cultural heritage, is a true testament to the human spirit's…

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Time for African creatives as digital economy picks

Investing

Africa’s creative digital economy, which includes music, film, art, fashion, cultural artefacts, apps and games is not only creating wealth for the creators but also contributes to the gross domestic product, exports and boosting development outcomes according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

“The creative economy is recognized now as a tool of sustainable development,” says Marisa Henderson, Chief of the Creative Economy Program at UNCTAD. UNCTAD defines this “creative economy” aka “orange economy” as the sum of all the parts of the creative industries, including trade, labour, and production.

They have tracked trade in creative goods and services for close to twenty years and consistently found that the growth rate of creative economy exports outpaces that of other industries[11]. Africa’s cultural goods sector is estimated to employ about half a million people and generate US$4.2 billion in revenue[12].…