African trade Archives - AfricaBusiness.com

How Africa Trades by Professor David Luke wins BCA African Business Book of the Year

4Jul

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

African News, Business

How Africa Trades by Professor David Luke wins BCA African Business Book of the Year

David Luke, Professor in Practice and Strategic Director at the Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa at the LSE, wins the prestigious award for his book How Africa Trades at the BCA African Business Book of the Year Awards. Dipo Faloyin is the first runner up for his book Africa is not a country. Ethiopian Airlines: the African Aviation Powerhouse by Jozef Mols is the second runner up. Organisers encouraged more storytelling of businesses in Africa, and congratulated all those who entered. $17,500 of prize money distributed to the winners and runners up. The Business Council for Africa (BCA) held its highly-anticipated BCA African Business Book of the Year Awards ceremony last night, honouring exceptional contributions to business literature in Africa. The even...

12Apr

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Business, Events, South Africa News

Africa-focused Banking & Finance team from Baker McKenzie advised on one of Global Trade Review’s Best Deals 2022

Baker McKenzie's Africa-focused Banking & Finance team advised on one of Global Trade Review's (GTR) Best Deals 2022 . The team advised Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Limited and certain of its subsidiaries (Aspen Group) on this winning deal, which comprised a joint financing package for the amount of €600 million (around ZAR 10 billion) that was finalised by the IFC, the French Development institution PROPARCO, the German development finance institution DEG and the United States (US) international Development Finance Corporation (DFC). The transaction was finalised in 2021. Baker McKenzie's Financial Institutions team in South Africa, led by Partner and Head of Banking & Finance in Johannesburg, Lodewyk Meyer, advised the Aspen Group in relation to a common terms agreement, a term lo...

21Mar

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Main

Trade finance and the efforts to boost intra-African trade

By Lodewyk Meyer, Partner and Head of the Banking & Finance Practice, and Lucy Stratton, Associate Designate, Baker McKenzie, Johannesburg As stated by President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwumi A. Adesina, "trade finance is an important instrument for influencing Africa's long-term economic development and structural transformation". According to a report by the AfBB and the African Export-Import Bank (Afrexim), Trade Finance in Africa: Trends Over the Past Decade and Opportunities Ahead, the region was one of the most integrated with the rest of the world in 2011. However, in the last decade, Africa’s trade growth has been one of the worst among the major regions of the world. This is as a result of a number of factors including falling commodity prices, competition,...

18Nov

By Baker McKenzieNo Comments

Main

Ten reasons to consider African trade and investment opportunities in 2022

By Lerisha Naidu, Partner, Competition & Antitrust; Lodewyk Meyer, Partner, Banking and Finance; Mike van Rensburg, Partner, M&A; and Virusha Subban, Partner, Customs and Trade, Baker McKenzie Johannesburg 1. Visible green shoots – rising commodity prices The pandemic closed borders and stopped trade, other than for essentials, across the continent and was the principal reason for a decline in investment in 2020. A lack of available capital and acquisition finance, as well as difficulties pricing deals in an uncertain market, also affected investment. Other reasons for declining investment, included that the levels of economic activity have slowed in the major African economies, such as Nigeria and South Africa. However, green shoots are visible and market fundamentals are sig...

16Nov

By Virusha SubbanNo Comments

Ethiopia News, Guinea News, Main, Mali News

African Growth and Opportunity Act eligibility requirements under review in three African countries

By Virusha Subban, Partner and Head of Indirect Tax, Baker McKenzie Johannesburg On 2 November 2021, US President Joe Biden announced that three African countries would be terminated from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) trade preference program, unless they took urgent action to meet statutory eligibility criteria by 1 January 2022. The three countries listed were Guinea, Mali and Ethiopia. The US administration cited unconstitutional changes in governments in Guinea and Mali and human rights violations in Ethiopia, due to conflict in the country, as reasons for the termination. The statement announced the intention to provide all three countries with a clear benchmark and pathway towards reinstatement so that valued trading partnerships could be resumed. AGOA eligibility c...

12Nov

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Angola News

Angola’s Special Economic Zone, provides new services to national and foreign investors with the inauguration of the GAI – Investor Support Office

The Luanda-Bengo Special Economic Zone (ZEE) launched a useful new tool for investors, the GAI (Guiché de Apoio ao Investidor), or Investor Support Office, which in addition to supporting the presidential directive to facilitate access for national and foreign investors, will eliminate bureaucratic obstacles that can hinder the actions of those who want to access Angola’s privatized assets or those businesses already established within the ZEE. The GAI will: - reduce the time needed to access and resolve matters relating to the Angolan public administration - contribute to a significant increase in the number of companies based in the ZEE - expand domestic production and the export of goods generated by the Angolan economy - increase foreign direct investment in the Republic of Ango...

18Oct

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Business, South Africa News

Creating a disruption-proof supply chain in Africa

The impact of the pandemic on global supply chains has prompted governments around the world to look at ways to fix the broken links. In Africa, the launch of African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), has provided the continent with new opportunities to strengthen its regional supply chain. Virusha Subban, Head of Indirect Tax at Baker McKenzie in South Africa, explains that there were massive breakages in key links in global supply chains during and after the pandemic, with issues including, among many other things, route congestion and blockages, manufacturing shutdowns, a deficit of skilled labour, a global shortage of key logistics components including shipping containers, a lack of space in warehouses, a spike in transportation costs and substantially increased demand for goods a...

10Oct

By Jana BothaNo Comments

Kenya News, Main, South Africa News, Startups

Africa: tax implications of digital transformation in the consumer goods and retail sector

By Jana Botha, Tax Consultant, and Prenisha Govender, Associate, Tax Practice, Baker McKenzie Johannesburg The pandemic-fuelled growth of the digital economy and unabated demand for online retail products across Africa have led to extensive disruption in the Consumer Goods and Retail Sector (CG&R) sector. Due to a growth in demand for online retail, CG&R companies in Africa have been rapidly adapting their digital operating models, and multinational e-commerce platforms operating in the region have attracted a record number of new customers. This digital transition, and resultant growth in the e-commerce sector, has tax implications for digital CG&R businesses operating in Africa. The OECD’s Pillar One and Two Multilateral international tax changes currently being implemente...

28Apr

By Shahina ParvinNo Comments

archaeology, Ethiopia News, South Africa News, Sudan News, Tanzania News

Some Archaeology Discoveries In Africa

2-Million-Year-Old Stone Tools Discovered: How Were Humans Back Then? Ancient Artifacts and findings in Kalahari. Archaeologists discover new site in East Africa. Medieval Beads: The Truth behind the African Trade Routes. The Oldest Bedding Found in South Africa. South African 'lost city' found using laser technology. The 2021 year. 2-Million-Year-Old Stone Tools Discovered: How Were Humans Back Then? The Olduvai Gorge / Oldupai Gorge in Tanzania has always been one of the most important paleoanthropological sites all around the world. It has given such proofs that paves the understanding of early human evolution. It is because many groups of scientists have been finding hundreds of fossilized bones and stone tools in this area which are from millions of years ago. Ewass Oldupa, the w...

Piracy in the Gulf of Guinea: Vulnerable Trade Routes

2Mar

By Katarzyna RybarczykNo Comments

African News, Main

Piracy in the Gulf of Guinea: Vulnerable Trade Routes

In 2020, 95% of all kidnappings at seas took place in the Gulf of Guinea. There, pirates, equipped with firearms, frequently enter ships, capture the crew, and steal cargo. Pirates are becoming more and more advanced in their tactics and the majority of attacks are carried out in hopes of getting ransom. Piracy creates problems for ships that on a daily basis travel through the Gulf to transport oil and other petroleum products. How the attacks are organised Most kidnappings happen within 60 nautical miles from the shore. Oil tankers are particularly at risk of being attacked as they carry petroleum products that many pirates hope to steal and later resell. Pirates approach a large ship, and, after taking control over it, move cargo from it onto multiple smaller vessels. They also take the...