Africa50, in partnership with US based Foreign Policy magazine, has launched an exciting new podcast series called Africa Forward. Africa Forward tells the largely untold story of how infrastructure is transforming the lives of people in Africa. The four-part series, which begun on Tuesday 26 January 2021, brings major African infrastructure projects to life. It highlights the Benban Solar Park in Egypt, a solar park so massive that it can be seen from outer space and showcases how cross-border projects such as the Senegambia Bridge can support the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which was officially launched on 1 January 2021. The series also shares inspiring stories on the way Africans are leveraging ICT infrastructure and technology to shape the future, such as 21-year-old Betelhem Dessie in Ethiopia, who taught herself to code at nine, and has now trained more than 20,000 African youth to code. The program features visionary leaders, entrepreneurs, CEOs and heads of institutions, who will share their views and insights on the continent’s challenges and investment opportunities, and above all, on the way forward. A trailer for the show, which is hosted by journalist Carol Pineau and former CNN anchor and correspondent Isha Sesay, can be found here, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other podcast platforms, as well as the Foreign Policy Playlist’s website: https://foreignpolicy.com/podcasts/africa-forward/ The first episode, focusing on trade and transport infrastructure is now available and a new episode will be released every week until 16 February 2021. The other three episodes will be broadcast as...

Sixty years since most African States attained independence, the Covid-19 pandemic has shone a fresh spotlight on the folly of the haphazard colonial boundaries. Long traffic jams at border posts across the continent, especially at the beginning of the pandemic, were the poster child of the non-tariff barriers that continue to hamper trade in Africa. These boundaries are the primary reason for the high cost of doing business in Africa and are the cause of low intra-African trade, investment, economic integration, and poverty. Covid-19 has also introduced a new economic paradigm, with digital technology taking the lead to ease the safe flow of goods across borders. If the pandemic persists late into 2021, some of the new digital technologies introduced to facilitate safe cross-border movement could become permanent fixtures across the continent and indeed other parts of the world. The concept of intra-African trade dates before the 15th century. Despite war and competitiveness among African empires, they traded among themselves, sometimes travelling long distances to do so. The Songhai Empire practically controlled the trans-Saharan trade whereby an array of goods and services including gold, slaves, ivory, silk, horses, and sugar were exchanged. As is the case today, trade was a mutual exchange of goods and services and it had two dimensions to it; commercial and societal. With increased trading activities came a well-developed system of trading. The barter trade system was eventually replaced by currencies such as coins used in northern Africa, brass rods used by the Tiv of Nigeria,...

The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) and the Government of Malawi have signed a Euro 3.54 million agreement that delegates the implementation of coordinated border management activities under the broader Trade Facilitation programme with Comesa at Mchinji border post between Zambia and Malawi on the Malawian side. The principal secretary in the ministry of trade, Malawi, Christina Zakeyo, and Comesa secretary general, Chileshe Kapwepwe, separately signed the agreement in Lilongwe and Lusaka this week. The project will support the implementation of key pillars of One Stop Border Post (OSBP) operations. The agreement will see the upgrade of the customs e-management system and bandwidth and improvement of inter-agency connectivity. It will also involve implementation of the Trade and Transport Corridor Management System and capacity building and training among a range of other initiatives It follows the recent signing of a similar agreement with the Zambian government to upgrade its side of the border post at Mwami. According to a spokesperson, this new development is part of the Euro 48 million Trade Facilitation Programme (TFP) with Comesa financed under the 11th European Development Fund (11 EDF) whose objective is to deepen regional integration, improving inclusive regional economic growth and enhancing the competitiveness of the Comesa region. “The signing of the agreement came after an assessment of existing challenges conducted at Mchinji border post in early 2020,” said Zayeko. The interventions at Mchinji are expected to enhance efficiency and ultimately reduce the cost of doing business. “It is a major...

Malawi and the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (Comesa) secretariat have signed a 3.54 million Euro agreement for modernisation of Mchinji Border Post, with a corresponding project being implemented in Mwami on Zambia’s side of the border. The agreement has been signed under the Broader Trade Facilitation Programme. Malawi’s Principal Secretary for Trade Christina Zakeyo and Comesa Secretary General Chileshe Kapwepwe signed the agreement separately in Malawi and Zambia last week.According to a statement on the European Union in Malawi official twitter page, the initiative would enhance regional integration efforts in the two countries. “The project will support the implementation of key pillars. Some of the major activities to be implemented under the agreement include upgrading customs e-management system and bandwidth, improving interagency connectivity, implementation of the Trade and Transport Management System and capacity building among others,” the statement reads. The 3.54 Euro (roughly K3.4 billion) agreement is part of the 48 million Euros Trade Facilitation Programme which Comesa financed under the 11th European Development Fund with the aim of deepening regional integration, improving inclusive regional economic growth and enhancing competitiveness of the Comesa region. The statement quotes Zakeyo as thanking the European Union for supporting the programme. “The government of Malawi desires to build on current trade facilitation efforts through programmes such as the Comesa Trade Facilitation Project. The interventions at Mchinji Border Post are expected to enhance efficiency and ultimately reduce costs of doing business and the support is, therefore, timely as Malawi grapples with the...

The SADC Industrialisation Strategy and Roadmap foresees an increase in manufactured exports to at least 50 percent of total exports in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) by 2030. This is an increase from the present manufactured export output of less than 20 percent. The Industrialisation Strategy and Roadmap (2015-2063) also seeks to build market share in the global market for the export of intermediate products to East Asian levels of around 60 percent of total manufactured exports. The strategy and roadmap, adopted by SADC leaders in 2015, is anchored on industrialisation, competitiveness and regional integration, and seeks to ensure the region fully benefits from its vast natural resources. The strategy was developed as an inclusive long-term modernisation and economic transformation scheme that enables substantive and sustained raising of living standards across the region. The Industrialisation Strategy and Roadmap foresees lifting of the regional real GDP growth rate from four percent annually (since 2000) to a minimum of seven percent a year. It also seeks to double the share of manufacturing value added (MVA) in GDP to 30 percent by 2030 and to 40 percent by 2050. This also includes the share of industry-related services, and to increase the share of medium-and-high-technology production in total MVA from less than 15 percent at present to 30 percent by 2030 and 50 percent by 2050. With the aim of improving the policy environment for industrial development and support implementation of the Industrialisation Strategy and Roadmap, the SADC Protocol on Industry was approved...

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic has brought profound social, political, economic, and environmental challenges to the world. The virus may have emerged from wildlife reservoirs linked to environmental disruption, was transmitted to humans via the wildlife trade, and its spread was facilitated by economic globalization. The pandemic arrived at a time when wildfires, high temperatures, floods, and storms amplified human suffering. These challenges call for a powerful response to COVID-19 that addresses social and economic development, climate change, and biodiversity together, offering an opportunity to bring transformational change to the structure and functioning of the global economy. This biodefense can include a “One Health” approach in all relevant sectors; a greener approach to agriculture that minimizes greenhouse gas emissions and leads to healthier diets; sustainable forms of energy; more effective international environmental agreements; post-COVID development that is equitable and sustainable; and nature-compatible international trade. Restoring and enhancing protected areas as part of devoting 50% of the planet’s land to environmentally sound management that conserves biodiversity would also support adaptation to climate change and limit human contact with zoonotic pathogens. The essential links between human health and well-being, biodiversity, and climate change could inspire a new generation of innovators to provide green solutions to enable humans to live in a healthy balance with nature leading to a long-term resilient future. Introduction In the mid-fourteenth century the bubonic plague was carried by the flea-borne bacterium Yersinia pestis on great gerbils (Rhombomys opimus) that were flourishing in the grasslands of Central Asia during a high productivity rainy...

Visiting Kenya, Sudan and Ethiopia the Foreign Secretary signed new agreements on healthcare and climate change, saw how UK aid is helping those most in need and pressed for humanitarian access to help those affected by the Tigray crisis. On a three-country tour of East Africa, one year on from the UK’s Africa Investment Summit, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab met with political leaders, NGO’s and civil society in Kenya, Sudan and Ethiopia for important talks on tackling shared challenges including COVID-19, security and climate change. Starting in Kenya on Wednesday (20 January) the Foreign Secretary and President Uhuru Kenyatta met to discuss further opportunities to boost the UK-Kenya trade partnership – worth £1.4 billion annually - following the signing of one of the UK’s first trade agreements in Africa in December. The Foreign Secretary had meetings with senior politicians including Foreign Minister Raychelle Omamo and announced £48 million of new UK climate initiatives for Kenya as we build momentum ahead of COP26 in Glasgow in November. On a visit to KEMRI Laboratory in Nairobi the Foreign Secretary heard how Kenyan and British scientists have been working together to develop the Oxford Astra-Zeneca vaccine. Here he signed a new health partnership with Health Minister Mutahi Kagwe, to help maximise knowledge sharing between medical professionals in both the UK and Kenya. Alongside Defence Cabinet Secretary Monica Juma, the Foreign Secretary met soldiers at the UK-backed Counter-IED centre at the Humanitarian Peace Support School in Embakasi, and heard how joint Kenya-UK efforts are...

Addis Ababa, January 22/2021(ENA) The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) can help drive the continent’s economic recovery from the deadly coronavirus pandemic and spur transformation, according to Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). ECA Regional Integration and Trade Division Director,Stephen Karingi said during the 6th Program for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) Week that given that Africa does not have the fiscal space for trillion-dollar stimulus packages as it attempts to build, the AfCFTA, driven by the private sector, is going to be key in unlocking Africa’s potential. He stressed that Africa will have to look for innovative alternatives to push its recovery efforts. Quality infrastructure development is crucial, too, if the AfCFTA is to spur economic growth on the continent. Results from the liberalization of trade in goods alone under the AfCFTA reform show that Africa’s global GDP and exports would increase, the director pointed out. According to him, Africa’s GDP is forecasted to increase between 28 and 44 billion USD after full implementation in 2040, as compared to a baseline without tariff liberalization. The bulk of the benefits of exports would be for intra-African trade, with intra-African exports foreseen to increase by around 50-70 billion USD. “It is worth emphasizing that two-thirds of the latter gains would be realized in the manufacturing sector, providing invaluable opportunities for industrialization,” Karingi elaborated. Furthermore, he emphasized that “integration policies should lead to convergence of incomes, and our findings are an important result.” The AfCFTA agreement instructs state parties to liberalize trade...

African Development Bank President Akinwumi A. Adesina said on Wednesday that Africa remains a fertile ground for investment, hinging on the continent’s ability to boost its healthcare sector. Adesina was speaking during the U.K Africa Investment Conference, a virtual one-day event organized by the UK Department for International Trade, which brought together UK and African business and government leaders to discuss investment and partnership opportunities. The conference highlighted four sectors; sustainable infrastructure, renewable energy, financial and professional services, and agriculture and agri-tech. As part of the conference, Emma Wade-Smith, Her Majesty’s UK Trade Commissioner for Africa, joined Adesina in a fireside chat on the theme “Building back better – utilizing UK private sector strengths and values, and business-to-business opportunities working with UK government and others going forward.” Africa, Adesina said, still possesses the same fundamentals that drove the continent’s phenomenal growth over the past decade. “The fundamentals in those phenomenal growth rates in Africa are still there. Africa still leads in terms of ease of doing business. It’s very exciting, the digital explosion that you see in Africa today,” Adesina said, listing among others the tide of mergers and acquisitions among African firms. Wade-Smith said she was heartened to learn that 10 of the fastest-growing economies were still in Africa, adding that there was not enough awareness of how much innovation was happening in the region. She said there was an opportunity to blend African and UK innovation. “I’ve been struck by how many opportunities there are,” Wade-Smith said. British...

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, January 14, 2021/APO Group/ -- On 1 January 2021, at the launch of the start of trading on the basis of the AfCFTA, the Pan-African Private Sector, under the umbrella body of the African Business Council (AfBC), issued a press statement in support of this initiative. In it, the AfBC acknowledged that the start of trading under the AfCFTA presents enormous business opportunities for the Pan-African Private Sector, SMEs, Women and Youths as the continent takes this bold move towards Boosting Intra-African Trade. The launch of start of trading on the basis of the AfCFTA on follows the African Union Assembly decision made on 5 December 2020 at the 13th Extra Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the Union on the AfCFTA. The African Business Council thus took the opportunity in its statement to reiterate its support to the political leaders in this endeavour. It also highlighted the AfCFTA as an opportunity for the Pan-African Private Sector to build Africa through manufacturing, distribution, transportation, health eco-systems, among others. “The AfCFTA gives us an opportunity to drive our agenda. For many years, the African business community has been individualistic in driving the continent’s agenda. It is an opportunity for us as the African Business Council to come together and support the implementation of the AfCFTA. We are a united voice, and we can do this together”, Dr. Amany Asfour, Interim Chair Person of the African Business Council. “It is a new year, and new opportunities are emerging. As...