Category Archives: African News

African Business News

Retailers Can Drive Commerce Experiences Via Mobile Messaging, New Clickatell Research Shows

Clickatell (www.Clickatell.com), the Chat Commerce and business messaging leader, announced the results of its latest Chat Commerce Trends Report: Retail Edition, which reveals new findings about how today’s consumers prefer to communicate and make purchases with retail companies through mobile and chat messaging conversations. The report, which fielded responses from over 1,000 participants, found that 95% of […]

Spring Impact Launches Programme to Help Empower Women in Southern Africa

The Scale Accelerator: Women’s Empowerment Programme is now open for applications from local NGOs in Malawi, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe addressing issues related to women’s empowerment. This is a fully-funded scaling consultancy program that will provide support to selected organizations as they work to increase their impact. The Scale Accelerator: Women’s Empowerment Programme provides […]

The Africa-Europe Foundation launches its 2022 High-Level Group of Personalities’ annual report assessing the state of play of the commitments of the Africa-Europe partnership

October 28, 2022, Brussels – The Africa-Europe Foundation (AEF) has launched its annual in-depth assessment of the state of relations between our two neighbouring continents. The Report’s launch comes eight months after February’s long-awaited summit between the African Union and European Union leaders, closely followed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine one week later.  The report has […]

Africa’s Untapped Export Potential Worth $31 Billion

United National Conference on Trade and Development says Africa’s untapped export of $31 billion[1] can be achieved if Africa implements partial tariff liberalisation under the African Continental Free Trade Area (ACFTA) Agreement over the next five years. Currently, trade between African countries comprises 61% of processed and semi-processed goods. Infrastructure and the harmonisation of logistics will make the […]

Challenges Of Access To Finance For MSMEs In Somalia

Access to finance for MSMEs in Somalia has become an issue since the state lacked an effective government to cater for the financial services. Therefore, the willingness to offer such exceptional services became paramount, leading to the emergence of private financial institutions in Somalia. A decade ago, a group of Somali businesspeople started financial institutions in Somalia to provide commercial financial services […]

World Trade Organization waives intellectual property rights to support vaccine production in Africa

By Virusha Subban, Partner and Head of Indirect Tax, Baker McKenzie Johannesburg The World Trade Organisation (WTO) announced in June an agreement to waive the intellectual property rights that usually apply in the manufacturing of vaccines, to assist the production of COVID-19 vaccines in developing countries. The measures were proposed to the WTO by the South African and […]

Kenya: Shared prosperity – the United States and Kenya sign Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership

By Virusha Subban, Partner specialising in Customs and Trade, Head of Tax, Baker McKenzie Johannesburg  The United States-Kenya Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership (STIP) was signed on 14 July 2022. The agreement outlines the enhanced engagement and high standard of commitment between the two countries, and focuses on increased investment and sustainable and inclusive growth that will […]

Smart minds look to smart solutions at Africa’s only dedicated Smart Cities Summit

Big industry players join forces to tackle urban decarbonization challenge   The world’s population is on a fast-track from rural to city living. With around 55% already residing in urban areas, this figure is expected to rise to 70% by mid-century. Cities may be the engines of growth and account for more than 80% of global […]

Public Private Collaboration is Key to a Sustainable Mining Sector in Africa

Leading event in Accra shines a spotlight on responsible change The town of Obuasi in the Ashanti region of Ghana, West Africa, has a long and rich mining history. In 1897, large scale commercial and industrial mining began at the Obuasi Gold Mine and continued for over a century until its closure in 2014 for […]

The road to recovery for Africa: The potential of DFIs to halt the spiraling unemployment rate

DFIs directly or indirectly support over 6 million African jobs in the private sector New report published today by the ONE Campaign and the African Centre for Economic Transformation (ACET) reveals that the 10 largest global bilateral development finance institutions (DFIs) could substantially reduce Africa’s spiraling unemployment rate by 2025. The report titled Shifting and Accelerating DFI […]

New Handling Record at Port of Maputo Points to a Positive Market Recovery

Leading transport event tackles the key challenges of inter-Africa trade expansion In 2021, the Port of Maputo achieved a new handling record of 22.2 million tons, representing 21% year-on-year growth compared to the previous year’s handling volume of 18.3 million tons. A reflection of a post-Covid market recovery, Mozambique’s Maputo Port Development Company (MPDC) CEO Osório […]

Top Trends Shaping Transport Infrastructure in Africa

Transport infrastructure is a fundamental enabler of sustainable economic growth in Africa and essential for global competitiveness and trade. As with many industries around the world, the transport industry is currently experiencing great change, which is being driven by several global trends, including technology and automation and Environment Social Governance (ESG). Tech-Driven Efficiency  From self-driving […]

Trends Toward A Circular Agriculture In Kenya

Circular agriculture is termed a food system that is in harmony with nature and meets social needs simultaneously. With the growing population in Kenya, the food supply has been in high demand and this has come at the expense of the environment. Farmers have shifted to using more intensive farm chemicals causing land erosion and […]

Finding a silver lining in offshore investments during unprecedented times

Finding a silver lining in offshore investments during unprecedented times

There isn’t a better time to equip offshore investors with the best product options available for their needs. Following President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement on the further opening of the South African economy, more people are looking for new investment opportunities. In 2020, South Africa’s share in the global gross domestic product (GDP) adjusted for Purchasing Power Parity […]

2022 is likely to be a good year for the Gulf economies

Dubai is flourishing due to Expo 2020 Oil prices are still on the rise in 2022, which bodes well for several Gulf countries whose budgets still rely heavily on revenues from oil. Those countries’ economies took a hit when the price of oil plunged in 2020 due to the pandemic and lockdown measures. This year […]

Jiji Kenya Wins as the Mobile App of the Year| Shopping and E-commerce in the Mobile App and Summit Awards, 2021

Jiji, one of the most popular e-commerce sites in Kenya and the largest online classifieds in Kenya, has scooped the Mobile App of the Year, Shopping and E-commerce category. The award was presented to Jiji Kenya during the Mobile App and Summit Awards, 2021, which was held at the  PrideInn, Westlands, on Friday, 10th December […]

Salaam Somali Bank to distribute $4million to Somalia’s best and brightest young entrepreneurs

Salaam Somali Bank has announced that $4 million has been earmarked for Somali entrepreneurs between 2022 and 2024 to ‘kick-start’ economic growth in the Somalia economy at this year’s Mogadishu Tech Summit The Salaam Entrepreneurs Fund (SEF) aims to cultivate young Somali business people and support existing Micro-, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) in the […]

Global Cities Report – Five strategic imperatives for city leaders

Last year’s edition of the Kearney Annual Global Cities report provided a revealing overview of urban centres amid the unprecedented public health catastrophe of the COVID-19 outbreak. A stark snapshot was painted of a volatile, increasingly fragmented environment characterized by fierce competition among cities for status, a situation acutely exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. “The […]

Discover the first speakers and themes of the 5th edition of EMERGING Valley

A major annual event for Afro-European Tech players, the EMERGING Valley International Summit will be held phygitally on December 14, at the Palais du Pharo in Marseille, with over 200 speakers and 2,500 digital and face-to-face participants expected. The event is open and free of charge to everyone, just sign up on the official website.    EMERGING Valley is delighted to […]

ANAPI and Dubai FDI sign a Memorandum of Understanding to promote the expansion of trade and investment between the DRC and the United Arab Emirates

DUBAI – On the sidelines of the participation of the Democratic Republic of Congo in the Expo 2020 Dubai, the National Investments Promotion Agency of the DRC (ANAPI), represented by its Director General, Mr. Anthony Nkinzo Kamole, and Dubai Investment Development Agency (Dubai FDI), represented by its Chief Executive Officer, His Excellency Mr. Fahad Al […]

African climate innovators dominate global climate prize at COP26

Four African climate innovators were named as winners at 2021’s presigious Ashden Awards held on November 4 at the global climate summit COP26 in Glasgow, UK. Three more of the continent’s low carbon pioneers were announced as runners up. The Ashden Awards honour pioneering organisations from the UK and low-income countries lowering carbon emissions and […]

Africa: COMESA Competition Commission publishes draft guidelines on penalty, settlement and hearing procedures

By Lerisha Naidu, Partner, Sphesihle Nxumalo, Associate, and Zareenah Rasool, Candidate Attorney, Competition & Antitrust Practice, Baker McKenzie Johannesburg The COMESA Competition Commission (Commission) published draft guidelines to the COMESA Competition Regulations, 2004 (Regulations) for public comment on 19 October 2021. The guidelines aim to provide clarity on the Commission’s policies and procedures, and to […]