Obinna Chima The AFEX Commodities Exchange Limited has stressed the need for an improvement in infrastructure as well as product-handling efficiencies at the sea ports across the country. This, it stated, would lower overall costs of input imports and improve competitive advantage of exports. The commodity exchange stated this in its 2021 Annual Commodities Outlook. It also pointed out that lack of access to loans and fertilizers remained largely the biggest challenge to most farmers in 2020. Furthermore, it pointed out that the high interest rate environment in the country, coupled with the risk involved in agro- financing, could impede the capacity of farmers to pay back loans. These, it also stated had also been major impediments to loan access and disbursement over the years. “This explains the low exposure of banks to the agriculture space despite policy makers’ objective to enhance food security in the country,” it added. According to the National Bureau of Statistics data, credit to the Agriculture sector in Q2 2020 accounted for a meagre five per cent. Fertilizer on the other hand remains a core agriculture input which affects negatively or positively crop yield dependent on the usage per hectare. “At about 20kg fertilizer usage per hectare on the average, Nigeria lags Sub-Saharan peers like South Africa and Egypt that use over 100kg/ha and other developed economies that use above 200kg/ha. “This is despite measures to enhance the procurement and distribution of fertilizers to farmers during the farming season. While farmers according to the survey...

Sub-Saharan Africa will see moderate but positive growth of 2.7% this year, a welcome rebound from the region’s first recession of 25 years in 2020 when the region shrank by an estimated -3.7%. But 2021 is probably going to be just as tough for African economies as it was in 2020. Last year, there was a 6.1% decline in per capita income in the region, the “deepest contraction on record,” says the World Bank in its latest global outlook. There’ll be a further 0.2% decline this year. Like many observers, the bank is worried that despite the commendable early efforts of African governments to lock down their economies from Covid-19 the pandemic has not really let off. Several countries are going through a second wave that is more severe than the first. These persistent outbreaks and the uncertainty they create will inhibit economic growth and ultimately set living standards back by a decade, says the bank, reiterating its early pandemic warnings. One of the many reasons, African economies have struggled has been the unprecedented capital outflows needed to help manage their economic lockdowns even as foreign direct investment all but disappeared. In 2020, FDI to Africa collapsed by 30%-40% and remittances fell by 9% leaving little room to maneuver for African finance ministers. This is likely why despite ongoing concerns about mounting debt levels, government debt in the region jumped another 8 percentage points to around 70% of GDP, says the IMF. The fear now is that rising interest payment...

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,...

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...

Rwanda Development Board (RDB) and Rwanda Chamber of Tourism (RCT) have inked an agreement with the Kenya Association of Travel Agents (KATA) and the East African Tourism Platform (EATP) to develop business and leisure travel in the East African Community. Signed this week in Nairobi Kenya, the deal will see RDB, RCT and KATA work together to implement tourism marketing and promotional programs of both countries (Rwanda and Kenya) by conducting joint-marketing activities that will drive visitors to the countries’ attractions and experiences. Under the deal, the signatory parties will also organise familiarization trips and educational webinars to promote regional travel, aimed at creating increased opportunities for private sector actors in the travel industry. “As part of the agreement, the partners will collaborate on addressing challenges faced in the region’s travel industry and explore a range of solutions and initiatives that can help transform businesses in the sector; market the region’s tourism offerings to new audiences and promote regional travel,” read a statement from RDB, concerning the deal. Among other activities agreed upon, RDB, RCT and KATA will work to provide opportunities for exchanging knowledge, expertise and best practices on travel; promote the exchange of familiarisation visits between Kenya and Rwanda; encourage tourists flows between Kenya and Rwanda and share the countries’ respective calendars of events for stakeholders information and attendance. “We are very excited about this cooperation and look forward to working more closely across the board with all the players in the travel and tourism industry as we...