Browsing: World Bank

Tanzania’s Social Action Fund (TASAF), a poverty-reduction base will get a $562 million loan to support its second phase.

According to information from The Citizen, over $800 will be spent during the five years of implementing the phase, officially launched earlier today by Tanzania’s President John Magufuli.

Also, the information revealed that the rest of the amount will be sourced from various other development partners including the Opec Fund for International Development set to issue $50 million.

However, TASAF director-general Ladislaus Mwamanga, highlighted that the programme goals are set to empower poor households with funds, known as ‘Productive Social Safety Net’ with which they can conduct their income-generating activities.

The safety net which was initiated in 2000, had over 1.1 households in Tanzania with over 5.2 people enrolled in the programme.

During the launch, it was revealed that TASAF spent over $692 million in poverty alleviation programmes national wide.

Also, …

Uganda’s economy grew by 6.5 per cent in the fiscal year 18/19, maintaining the rebound in economic activity over the last two years, according to the latest edition of the Uganda Economic Update released by the World Bank.

The 14th Uganda Economic Update report, “Strengthening Social Protection Investments to Reduce Vulnerability and Promote Inclusive Growth” shows that the country’s economy was boosted by strong consumer spending and sustained levels of public and private investment.

The World Bank advised that in order to control shocks and support more inclusive growth, Uganda’s government should expand social protection programs to areas with the highest levels of vulnerability and risk.

“Recent favourable weather and stronger agricultural growth has contributed to the recovery of household incomes and lowered the estimated poverty levels down to those observed in the 2012-2013 fiscal year. However, environmental shocks and climatic risks can quickly reverse this trend.” said the report.…

Chief executives of firms operating in Africa are concerned about weaker than expected growth in revenues in 2020, largely due to policy uncertainty, over-regulation, exchange rate volatility and instability in the global financial markets.

According to A global survey of chief executives released by consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, over 50 per cent of top company executives in Africa see uncertain global economic growth and policy uncertainty as key threats to their continental operations, followed by social instability, geopolitical uncertainty and exchange rate volatility.

The global annual survey seeks to understand the environment in which companies operate globally. Other issues facing Africa’s CEOs are inadequate basic infrastructure, protectionism, cyber threats and tax uncertainty.

According to the report, 3 per cent of African CEOs say to expect the global growth to remain the same while 53 per cent say it will decline this year and 20 per cent say global growth will improve.…

Barclays Bank Kenya has successfully changed its name to Absa Bank Kenya marking an end to centuries of the domination of the banking sector by British banks. This follows the acquisition of Barclays Plc operations in Africa in 2017 by Absa Bank of South Africa in restructuring by the London-based lender.

These are some of the changes experienced in several countries across Africa as the Absa brand cements its presence in the continent, a market that was firmly held by Barclays brand for almost a century. Similar changes have happened in Ghana, Botswana, Seychelles and Tanzania.

With these changes, the bank is knocking doors in one of the biggest global lenders, the Multi Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) with an aim of creating a broader investment base for individual banks in several African countries.

Different Central Banks in the region require commercial banks to have a minimal investment base to enable …

The European Union (EU) is set to provide over $57 million as development aid to Tanzania, marking a return of EU in the Tanzanian development landscape after the partner’s relations were married two years ago over human rights and rule of law concerns.

According to The Citizen, the EU Head of Delegation to Tanzania Manfredo Fanti revealed the release of the funds yesterday at State House, in Dar es Salaam, during a meeting with the Tanzanian President John Magufuli.

It was the first major funding announcement by the EU bloc which in December 2018 withheld 96 million in annual financial support to Tanzania amid a diplomatic fallout.

The EU is Tanzania’s biggest development partner, receiving over $100 million every year.

Also, the EU Deputy Head of Delegation, Emilio Rossetti revealed to The Citizen that the planned disbursements were assessed and finally approved in December 2019 after technical discussions.

“The implementation …

The Moroccan planning agency revealed on Wednesday that, the country’s unemployment rate slipped to 9.2 per cent in 2019 from 9.5 per cent in 2018. This was attributed by the offset labor gains in town and cities, after heavy job losses within the rural areas, Reuters revealed.

Morocco which is now run under a new coalition-government, its economy was spotted by World Bank (in October 2019) to be slowing down below its potential constrained by a volatile, rain-fed, agricultural sector and slow growth in the tertiary sector.

According to World Bank, real GDP slowed to 2.7 per cent in 2019, while non-agricultural growth improved by 3.4 per cent (compared to 3 per cent in 2018), driven by the better performance of phosphates, chemicals, and textiles.

READ U.S.-Africa Business Summit 2020 to be hosted in Morocco

In addition, the government is currently working to develop a new model of economic development …

Tanzania and World Bank have been close development partners for more than 54 years, and throughout the years—Tanzania has benefited from several funds that tap into the core of transforming the development landscape in one of the largest economies in East Africa.

According to World Bank, in the last 50 years, the cooperation between the Bank Group and the Government has grown in financing, grants, policy advice, and research; covering various areas from macroeconomic management to projects in transport, energy, education, health, and other key sectors for both Tanzania Mainland and Zanzibar’s development.

Recently the government of Tanzania has experienced a hard-time securing a $500 million education loan from World Bank, scheduled to revitalize the crucial sector in Tanzania.

The loan could be largest financial assistance provided to Tanzania within the past three years aimed at the education sector.

And yet—the loan has been delayed, in the wake of human …

FDI dropped by a third, to US$1.0 billion from US$1.5 billion in the three years between 2015 and 2018.…

Leading mobile payments company WorldRemit saw a 43% growth in remittances to Africa from higher-income nations in 2019.

The top five countries receiving remittances from the diaspora in 2019 included Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, with Nigeria receiving the most remittances. The top sending countries to the region included the United States, Australia, Canada, and Sweden, with the UK sending the most remittances.

The diaspora plays a key role in Africa’s development story, today the value of remittances is three times larger than official development assistance (ODA) and forecasted to become higher than foreign direct investment for a handful of African countries in 2019.

WorldRemit has disrupted an industry previously dominated by offline legacy players by taking international money transfers online – making them safer, faster and lower-cost. We currently send from 50 to 150 countries, operate in 6,500 money transfer corridors worldwide and employ over 800 people worldwide.

On the …

Zambia’s economy is expected to grow by 3 per cent, according to nation’s President Edgar Lungu who said on Thursday that, the nation’s economic growth will be slightly off the previous forecast of 3.2 per cent.

According to Reuters, President Lungu revealed the growth projection when he was meeting diplomats, and commented on the fiscal deficit which was expected to shrink from 6.5 per cent in 2019 to 5.5 per cent in 2020, while inflation would remain within the range of 6 to 8 per cent.

However, in October 2019, Bloomberg reported that Zambia’s inflation rate remained at a three year high in October and economic growth slowed, complicating the central bank’s task.

Further, annual consumer inflation accelerated to 10.7 per cent from 10.5 per cent in September 2019, whereby Zambia Statistics Agency noted to be the fastest rate of price growth since October 2016.

The economy of Africa’s second-biggest …