Main Archives - Page 15 of 19 - AfricaBusiness.com

10Apr

By Johan BurgerNo Comments

Energy, Kenya News, Main, Namibia News, Rwanda News, Zambia News

Friday@Noon on Infrastructure in Africa: 2018

by Johan Burger The NTU-SBF Centre for African Studies publishes a weekly newsletter on issues relevant to Africa. This paper is based on issues addressed in the newsletter. General Africa has vast infrastructure needs. According to the AfDB, Africa's infrastructure requirements are estimated to be between US$130 billion and US$170 billion, far higher than the previous estimation of US$93 billion a year. The AfDB’s 2018 Annual Report said the new estimates left a financing gap of US$108 billion. Given this, and urgent needs in health, education, administrative capacity, and security, Africa has to attract private capital to accelerate the building of critical infrastructure needed to unleash its potential. African countries do not need to wait until all financing gaps are filled before the...

3Apr

By Johan BurgerNo Comments

Botswana News, Ethiopia News, Kenya News, Main, Mozambique News, Nigeria News, South Africa News

Friday@Noon on Regional Integration in Africa: 2018

by Johan Burger The NTU-SBF Centre for African Studies publishes a weekly newsletter on issues relevant to Africa. This paper is based on issues addressed in the newsletter. Regional integration has become a high profile intervention and is seen as the route to economic integration and increasing intra-African trade. Some commentators are of the opinion that Africa must secure its own share of global economic growth and sustain the economic growth of Africa itself. The greatest opportunity for doing this, is Africa’s ability to trade and do business with itself. Improvements to fiscal policies, governance and regulatory frameworks, along with a move to diversify economies away from Africa’s traditional commodities-biased economies, present great opportunities to foreign investors. Africa’s...

Investing in Africa: An Outlook on Nigeria and Ethiopia

2Apr

By Itumeleng MukhovhaNo Comments

African News, Ethiopia News, Main, Nigeria News

Investing in Africa: An Outlook on Nigeria and Ethiopia

Itumeleng Mukhovha, an associate in the Corporate/M&A practice at Baker McKenzie in Johannesburg One can easily assume that international investors are deterred from investing in Africa given the growing need to weather a global financial crisis, which has been distorted by Brexit, rising geopolitical tensions, tightened global liquidity conditions, leveraged loans and sketchy debts that continue to riddle bank systems, idiosyncratic governments and the bond yield curve that is trending toward inversion. However, this is not the case. Conversely, the global financial crisis and the desperate search for growth, yield and solvency has led investors to pay more attention to emerging markets in Africa, and in particular frontier markets with favourable growth paths, moderate debt levels an...

1Apr

By Johnstone OltetiaNo Comments

Kenya News, Main, Real Estate

OpEd: Affordable housing requires a new shape for the mortgage industry

By Johnstone Oltetia, Interim CEO Kenya Mortgage Refinance Company (KMRC) There are two essential parts to achieving affordable housing: building decent, low-cost homes, and developing a housing finance market that enables low-income earners to buy those homes. For, without finance, almost no home price is low enough to be affordable on an average salary. For this reason, the mortgage market has been growing. Housing loans have risen more than ten-fold since 2006, from 1,278 loans valued at Sh19m 12 years ago to 24,458 loans valued at Sh203.3bn by 2015, according to the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK). But the market still remains tiny when compared with other nations. In Tanzania and Uganda, the mortgage loan value is under 2.5 per cent GDP while in Kenya stands at 3.15 per cent of GDP by 201...

1Apr

By Jacques VermeulenNo Comments

African News, Ghana News, Kenya News, Main, South Africa News, Uganda News

Towards a world without waste

The invention of plastic has changed the world in so many ways – for both better and worse - that it’s hard to picture modern life without it. Instinctively, we might think a plastic-free world could only be an improvement, but that would be to ignore the extent to which plastic is interwoven in almost every aspect of our lives, including its role in the food economy. It has reduced food waste and packaging costs – contributing to food security - while enabling the convenience lifestyle of the modern working family. You only have to consider how the absence of plastic packaging would increase the risks of food product contamination and the spread of disease to understand the vital part it plays. Yet it’s also clear that the sheer volume of plastic pollution has become unsustainable. A 2017...

Improved housing doubles in Sub-Saharan Africa

1Apr

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

African News, Botswana News, Gabon News, Main, Real Estate, Tanzania News, Zimbabwe News

Improved housing doubles in Sub-Saharan Africa

A new study led by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Imperial College London and Malaria Atlas Project, University of Oxford has revealed that improved housing had doubled on the African continent between 2000 and 2015. The study published in the “Nature International Journal of Science” is the first accurate estimate of urban and rural housing quality in sub-Saharan Africa and was done using state-of-the-art mapping. While highlighting the positive transformation in the region, the prevalence of improved housing doubling from 11% in 2000 to 23% in 2015, the study also estimates that 53 million urban Africans (in the countries analyzed) still lived in slum conditions in 2015. Lead author Dr. Lucy Tusting, from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine who co...

Africa needs policies to protect its economies from vulnerabilities

21Mar

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Main

Africa needs policies to protect its economies from vulnerabilities

Mr. Elhiraika said Africa’s growth is projected to remain strong, moderating around 3.2% in 2018, but expected to recover to 3.4% in 2019 and 3.8% in 2020 African countries need policies that can help build resilience, raise potential growth and inclusiveness if the continent is to achieve the sustainable development goals and aspirations of Africa’s Agenda 2063. This was said Wednesday by Adam Elhiraika, Director of the Macroeconomics and Governance Division of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) in his presentation to the 38th meeting of the Committee of Experts of the Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development in Marrakesh. Mr. Elhiraika, who gave an overview of Africa’s recent economic and social development performance, said the continent also b...

18Mar

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Business, Main

Why Invest In Chicken Production in Africa

Living in a Sub-Saharan can be a lot harsh. In a country full of barren lands it can be hard to relocate a source of protein, making a product like chicken hard to come by as the people of general cannot afford it, making it available to only a specific line of affluent people. Why is it difficult As mostly unexplored the Sub-Saharan hold potential opportunities for development that is if operated properly. Maybe we will see Africa fully independent and fully developed in the days to come. But life in the Sub-Saharan does not favor its occupants. The majority of the people live under the poverty line making it difficult for them to purchase a product like chicken. Poultry is a necessary source of protein in a place like Sub-Sahara. So living under the poverty line does not help when protei...

Health (in)security and migration: African lessons for a world in transition

20Feb

By Annamarie Bindenagel SehovicNo Comments

Main, South Africa News

Health (in)security and migration: African lessons for a world in transition

By Annamarie Bindenagel Šehović Analysis in Brief: Global health security lies at the intersection of Europe and Africa, between inherited state-based intervention and a new regional, global approach. Given this, it is vital to redefine health security and it is imperative that this new definition include cross-border populations. Likewise, knowledge exchange in both definitional scope and political and experimental approaches across Africa and beyond is an important contributor to health security in a globalised world. Global health security agenda Image courtesy: Homeland Preparedness News, 2018 Introduction Health insecurities know no borders. In Africa, these include not only infectious diseases, but also non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and a context marked by deficits in treatment p...

Angola: The grace period is over for João Lourenço; It is now time for effective action

15Jan

By Miguel SanzNo Comments

Angola News, Main

Angola: The grace period is over for João Lourenço; It is now time for effective action

Angola’s economic troubles began in 2014 when global crude oil prices dipped and severely hampered the government’s ability to generate revenue João Lourenço has been president of Angola since 26 September 2017. About one year later, he cemented his hold on power by taking over the chairmanship of the ruling Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (MPLA). Although he reshuffled the government, for instance by replacing the transport minister, and the vice-president, Manuel Vicente, most other ministerial posts had not changed from the previous administration. Despite promises to diversify the economy and fight corruption, which he has described as a scourge on society, his actions so far appear contradictory to his publicly-voiced intentions and declarations past and present. Loure...