Rebuilding Cameroon’s Export Market
The state-run Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC), is calling for thousands of plantation workers who fled the country’s separatist conflict to return to work. About half the company’s 20,000 workers left more than four years ago over unpaid wages and after deadly and brutal attacks. The company last week said it was safe to return, but […]
Africa’s Largest Wireless Carriers are Increasingly Caught Up in Tax Disputes on the Continent
MTN Group Ltd., Africa’s largest wireless carrier, said it’s received a $773 million back-tax bill, including penalties and interest charges, in Ghana that it plans to fight. The bill is for the period between 2014 and 2018 and implies that MTN under-declared its revenue in the country by 30%, the company said in a statement […]
There is Now a Significant Risk that Ethiopia Will Default on its Sovereign Debt
Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020, multiple factors have converged to weaken the East African economy. The pandemic weighed on Ethiopia’s exports and significantly reduced remittances – a World Bank report estimates that remittances to Sub-Sahara Africa fell by 9% in 2020 and 6% in 2021. Ethiopia’s civil war, which began […]
Zambian President has Shown Interest in Importing Angolan Refined Oil
In an attempt to lower fuel prices, Zambia has shown keen interest in importing fuel from its neighbor Angola. Zambia also disclosed plans to own stakes in Angola’s Lobito refinery in Benguela Province along the Atlantic Coast. This is based on President Hakainde Hichilema’s assertion to the people of Angola during his visit to the […]
The Pride of Africa, Kenya Airways, is Up for Sale
Three months after becoming president, President William Ruto made strategic moves to sell the government’s controlling 48.9 per cent stake in Kenya Airways to private investors. He made this move during the US-Africa Summit held last December in Washington. Ruto reportedly pitched a plan to Delta Air Lines to save the national carrier as his […]
The Main Reason for Sudan’s Political and Economic Trouble Is its Second Coup
Sudan’s economy, already in a tailspin, tipped into recession last year. Although this may have brought inflation down a bit, it remains in triple digits, among the highest rates in the world. Roughly one-third of Sudanese (some 15m of a population of 44m) need emergency aid such as clean water, shelter or food, according to […]
Uganda Looks to Turkey as Industrial Partner
Uganda has canceled all contractual work it signed with China Harbour Engineering Company to build a 273-kilometer standard gauge railway (SGR) from its border with Kenya to its capital in Kampala, after the project failed to kick off eight years later. The east African nation is now courting Yapi Merkezi, the Turkish firm building Tanzania’s […]
New Scheme to Deal with Harare’s Power Woes
As lingering droughts hit Southern Africa’s hydropower dams, Zimbabwe faces growing electricity shortages — but connecting individuals and businesses that have installed private solar panels to the national grid could help fill some of the gap. Zimbabwe’s net metering system, launched in 2020, allows people who produce private renewable energy to transfer their excess generation […]
A SaaS-enabled, Pan-African Talent Marketplace on a High
The Ethiopia-based Gebeya has announced an undisclosed pre-Series A investment from a Japanese VC firm to drive its ongoing expansion. Headquartered in Addis Ababa with offices in Kenya and Senegal, Gebeya connects startups, SMEs, and multinational corporations with vetted, skilled talent and professional services in more than 30 countries across Africa. The company has raised […]
Cheaper Chinese Products Take the Lion’s Share of Africa’s Infant or Domestic Industries
China is now the African continent’s largest trading partner, accounting for US$254 billion in 2021. It’s also the main country of origin for African manufacturing imports, providing 16% of Africa’s total in 2018. In most African countries the influx of Chinese products has become a major concern because of the implications for industrialisation. There are also […]
